Trails of Cold Steel IV: End of Saga - Review (PS4) - Tarks Gauntlet
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- IMPORTANT CORRECTION LISTED IN PINNED COMMENT! PLEASE READ.
Turn-based JRPG series "Trails of Cold Steel," and its over-arching series "The Legend of Heroes" has been held up as one of the greatest ongoing continuities video-gaming has ever seen, but after going for so long and creating so many questions, how well can it pull all of its history together to create a proper "End of Saga?"
Today we look at Trails of Cold Steel IV: End of Saga and see how well it balances everything and if it provides a satisfying conclusion for the long-indebted fans.
**PRODUCT CODE RECEIVED FOR FREE FOR PURPOSE OF REVIEW**
TIME CODES
0:00 - Disclaimers
1:16 - Story
6:45 - Writing
12:07 - Combat
16:57 - Sidequests and Minigames
19:33 - Technical Aspects
23:43 - Closing thoughts
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*ADDITIONAL NOTES ON TRANSLATION QUALITY.*
As you are all no doubt well aware there is a ton of optional text, and I certainly can't check it all. In my playthrough as I was trying desperately to make sure I had this game finished in time for embargo, I didn't get to spend as much time talking to the NPCs as I would have liked, and apparently, in these NPC conversations there are a number of clerical and syntax errors that the 1.01 patch did not address.
This information primarily comes from James over at RPGsite, but also from JRPG Fanatic. For James, When 1.01 dropped he was able to double check some of these issues and ultimately found they had not yet been addressed.
From what I seen they're not things I'd say are egregious "Translation errors" or anything. They don't typically make it hard to understand. They're just ugly and unprofessional. Regardless, these "editing errors" are definitely a sign of the localization not yet being complete.
NISA has another patch in the pipeline but no ETA has been given on it. I have the utmost faith they're working very hard on getting it out as early as possible though, as the last thing they want is YsVIII being brought back up again. So apologies for my mistake there, I should have covered that section with more depth and focus and maybe delayed the video a few days to spend more time with the NPCS then I did.
For examples feel free to give James review on RPGsite a visit. Yes he was not a huge fan of the game and scored it pretty low, but his criticisms are genuine and valid. Or visit JRPG Fanatics youtube channel where he shows off a few in his review as well.
PS: Heed the warning at the start of the video!
both endings are canon this gets addressed in Hajimari no Kiseki but I'm not going to say more
@@Comrade_C 4 is still a bad game lol
Went straight to Tarks first for his review. Very few people on YT have as deep an appreciation and knowledge of the over arching storyline than this young Lord. Loved the honest, critical review of a series I know you love.
And DAMN Elie is stacked now
Man, there's people on here I feel have an encyclopedic brain for trails knowledge and honestly it intimidates the hell out of me, cause I know they're gonna pick up on slight deviations and inconsistencies and stuff that I just don't haha.
I just really like the games and try to give them all due respect, while not making a "job of it" you know? Glad you enjoyed the video. And thank you for the high praise, and for praising my future second wife Elie.
Hell yes. My personal favorite JRPG series.
And your Avi is one of my personal favorite albums. Spiral out dude!
@@TarksGauntlet You like Tool? OMG, Lateralus is also my my fav album, closely followed by Aenima. I had a pleasure to see them live in 2006 in Donington Park (UK). Great taste!
@@giliathandtio Been a tool fan for.... 15-16 years or so? Paid up to upgrade my Lateralus CD to Vinyl a couple years back. Must have learned every song on that album on guitar, and poured over the lyrics, drumbeats and bass lines a million times. Damn near as close as an album can be to perfect.
I find your videos entertaining and informative, thank you for making them.
Mate, your review had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I'm so stoked for this! Thanks for a detailed assessment that didn't shy away from pointing out some issues. Stay awesome!
Here I though the video maybe got a little boring around the combat section haha. But I'm happy to hear the sense of drama I tried to inject into certain parts really carried over!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Loved the honesty of the review and I appreciate the clarification on certain systems and the subtle humor 🙏 Can't wait for CSIV 🙌
Awesome video, much appreciated review 🙏🏾
As a big Elie fan I was lost for words lmao! She definitely got a nice upgrade!
The dynamic duo is back!
And stacked!
Amazing, super In-depth review!
This might just be the best game review i've ever watched. In-depth, tackling pretty much every aspect of the game, written by a fan of the series, proper spoiler warnings, and it seems to be an honest and fair take on the pros/cons of the game. Plus, I've never laughed at a game review, except for being hillariously bad, and you got multiple out of me. I'll come back here after CS4 if im having trouble trying to figure out what to play next.
Great review pretty much agree with everything you mentioned in the review can't wait for people to play it
I laughed I cried I flirted with a hot teacher- Tarks Gauntlet 2020
That sentence should be in your channel Banner
If it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t know about most of the games you review, I got some good recommendations out of them. Thank you kindly!
Glad I've been able to shine some light on some obscure titles for you! It's a pleasure to do it and explore niche games, but seeing it helping others find them too is really what makes it worth it!
Just started playing Trails in the Sky and so far really enjoying it!
Awesome review. Can't wait to play the game myself.
WOOP! I'm not very far into the Trails series yet, so I will be back to this video later!
Love your work, my dude, thanks for the early warning
I really wouldn't want to spoil cold steel 3 for ya! Its easily one of the best Kiseki titles. Hope you enjoy your journey through the series! It's long, but it's worth it!
@@TarksGauntlet Heck yeah man! That just makes me look forward to it even more!
Great review as always. I agree with your points and I think I have a similar feeling on the game overall. I loved it despite its tendency to stretch logic in areas in order to make characters interact. But because I've played all of the games up to this point, I didn't mind it because I just wanted to see my favorite characters be a part of the story. I'm looking forward to whenever we get Hajimari!
I really enjoyed this review. It was both positive but wasn't afraid to critique the game as well. I've honestly been a little worried about this game, but after hearing this review I feel a little better. I'm expecting this to be a flawed game ,but I'm also excited to spend time with a cast that I love and see the climax of this arc. I'm also really excited to see the hype moments!!! Once again thanks for the review!
Thank you for the review. I'm currently on Cold Steel 2, and I'm shocked at how much better this game looks. I'll definitely be picking this up on PC next year.
Cold steel 1 and 2 were initially made for the Vita. At cold steel 3 they switched focus and started developing the games from the ground up for the PS4, so they get a huge graphical leap there.
@@TarksGauntlet Yeah, that makes sense. I totally forgot about the Vita. I wonder what will Falcom make after the Cold Steel series (besides more Ys games). I can't wait to tell my friends about this game.
The best way to watch the trailer is only go for the audio! I finished 1 and 2 and only played the intro of TOCS3 but still didn't feel the review spoiled anything major for me!!
I hope the Legend of Heroes series moves to something totally new! New universe, new characters and a different combat system (but turn based)! It became too large for a new comers!
Thanks for the high quality review dude!
About fishing, if you repeatedly tap circle instead of releasing the button when the indicator turns red, you can keep the meter at a steady rate and keep your meter progress. Happy fishing!
Part of me wants to go back and play the cold steel series all over again in anticipation for the new one coming out but man... That's a task and cyberpunk is coming out. Having two rpgs to play can be daunting of a task . I might do it because I do love this series . I'm glad I gave this game a chance when I stumbled onto this game when the first came out. I believe i was looking for a personal itch and found this and man it's been a great ride
I remember when cold steel 1 was first coming out I tried to look it up and found a review about trails in the sky, and how it was one of the "greatest JRPGs of all time" so I was like, "I guess I can try out cold steel then."
Picked it up at ebgames when it released a few days later and man, I was not ready. Game entirely raised the bar for JRPGs for me. Going back and playing the others only took that to another level too haha.
I'm super exicted for this game gonna be waiting impatiently by my mailbox for my copy
I'm having a hard time ranking this game. To me it's the weakest end to an arc. Strongest being SC and Ao. The thing I definitely liked the most was the conversation with McBurn the party asked questions that I've had since starting the series. Honestly probably the most stand out moment for me in the arc. That Enforcer arrangement.
Same I was dissapointed with this game. 3 setup this game in a good way but it just had such shit writing
Agreed. Cold Steel 4 is by far my least favorite game in the series. It had some great moments, but overall just felt like it played it too safe for the sake of having a happy ending.
@@ForgoMem I'm Playing the crossbell games right now and they are much better than cold steel games
Its definitely the worst game in terms of pure story and character handling. Rean got screwed out of a proper finish to his own personal emotional conflict unlike Lloyd and Estelle.
Returning characters don't actually do anything besides being generic heroes. There is no continuation to anyone's story that isn't a part of CS maincast.
Dialogue quality is at an all time low and its kinda a combination of lazy translation and bad writing on the JP side. People talk so much but say almost nothing and it gets oddly formulaic and repetitive.
The game gives some nice lore tidbits like all the games generally do.
This is still the only game that I'd wish would just get scrapped entirely and then remade from the ground up by people who actually had balls to finish what CS3 set up.
This game cannot exist together with CS3 because they cause each other to suck. Its almost like the star wars sequels 8 and 9 which is a cursed comparison.
This game is definitely among the 3 games that I'd consider bad among trails which would be FC, CS2 and CS4.
FC is simply too old by now and it kinda gatekeeps zoomers from the series and while I played through it just fine it was a slow journey.
The game pretty much tries to sell you on the series with the least interesting aspects of these games: sidequests.
Yes everyone will be hooked if they get to the last 30mins of the game but try selling someone on a 40-60 hour game with that.
SC and 3rd hold up very well by comparison since the story is more exiting and the gameplay isn't as arts centric so you don't have to wait 2 turns to do anything.
CS2 is just too much bloat and it somehow feels less like war than azure did.
CS4 just puts too much of a damper on all previous games. It actively hurts a lot of characters and plot threads that were set up long ago but just not followed up or through on.
Like CS2 CS4 is also bloated to no end because its just the epilogue to the previous games cliffhanger.
The curse also just fucks over the credibility of everyones motivations.
Coldsteel as a whole does less than the other arcs with 2x the amount of games. None of the characters feel close to finished or fleshed out, some could be removed entirely and the story might be better(Machias and Elliot).
The bond system is a big offender of this since everyones character development got effectively de-canonized by being hidden in optional sidecontent.
My Maaaaaaaaaan! Why didn't I get a notification for this?! Got my popcorn ready lets goooooo!
Both ending are canon. Kondo himself said that. It was a really great review!
Just can't wait to hopefully get trails of the beginning in the next couple of yrs playing through it at the moment what a good game it is hopefully it won't be long before we can play that one aswell
We seem to be on a path to get these games once every year to year and a half, so unless something goes horribly wrong, I suspect we'll be hearing about it in the next 5-6 months!
@@TarksGauntlet On that note, do you think this next game will be more like 3rd in length or like a regular game?
It has issues but this game is my second favorite Trails right behind Azure
.
Another entry in the best videogame series.
I came to click a thumbs up and write a comment; staying away from spoilers at the moment :3
Sorry for the inconvenience
Can't wait for the PC version along with Ys Monstrum Nox.
My reasons for thinking cold steel 4 is awesome
1 plenty if characters
2 new places to explore
3 new elements to try
4 at least they explain the how of the true ending via the luna Shrine
5 its only exploitive if you do that intentionally
And finally 6
It offers a proper closure to things
Which I personally think is a completely believable situation
This is my stance you can't convince me otherwise
Great job man. This game divide the fanbase un either You love it or hate it the same as the 3rd. I'm glad the voice actor chance doesnt affect the experience. Your are one of the few that are in the middle point. This game has the highest moments as well as lowest. for the future of the saga i can only tell you that hajimari has the best pace in the series. Can't wait for your full opinion in the podcast with shadow and riku
Tbh this game is just like watching an anime, the way they mix up the magic and logic,guns and sword together so well. On top of that they have some really good plots. So If some one asked me which anime I’d like to pick for an adaptation this would be my first choice in fact I’m shock that it didn’t happen yet.
Finished my 2nd play through on CS3 for the switch just waiting for the 4th, still couldn't get my teaching rank to S!
Can't wait to start playing this.
Question (spoiler alert for those who haven't finished/started CS3) how does the case of 20+ characters in CS4 compare in to the mini army used in hamildar in CS3 (using scarecrow, purple lighting, rean and the prince) when I saw that line up I felt a bit overwhelmed and wth moment
Hey! Could you make a review of Labyrinth of Galleria: Coven Of Dusk for Playstation 4 and Vita Japan only once they release this this November?
Loved that you addressed the bad points of the game in the review, but still ended up enjoying the game overall. The writing issues in the game is legit, especially with the curse. But i find that the hype moments do make it an overall enjoyable experience and a good wrap up of the cold steel series.
Great Review. Although I was surprised about the writing, I didn't think there was that much of a mess in it, and I would argue that the true ending is not that far-fetched and goes into the theme of Rean needing to stop sacrificing himself all the time to save the situation, and give meaning to *******'s sacrifices.
It's difficult to see a problem when you don't think it is one, but I guess it can be seen as a bit "cheap"; though I agree that if you played all the game beforehand, that feeling would be more attenuated.
Edit : Be careful, the replies contain spoilers for the game.
Its not the theme of the true end I have an issue with. The true end brings Reans arc to a mostly-proper close. My issue is the absolute lunacy that is setting up the true ending. The "?????" quest you randomly get after completing the normal ending that allows you to change the course of fate.
@@TarksGauntlet Um, The ????? quest was brought normally in the story imo, it wasn't "random"; you don't need to finish the game once to do this quest (the true end, yes, but not this quest in particular), it's unlocked after getting all lost arts and completing all the sidequests of the finale (which all have something in common and the ??? quest talks about that), and gives you a power that, while not really useful on the moment, becamed a decisive factor in changing the fate of Rean.
To me, it makes sense; though I can understand the argument of placing important story elements in sidequests.
@@stratfor140 I don't know, for me it was too heavy a coincidence that Toval just suddenly happened to have found a way to help you re-orchestrate time and fate itself, and just another area where I think the game tried a little too hard to write itself out of a corner. A literal Deus Ex Machina. This is something I've had growing issues with over the course of the arc, but it mounted a little too much for me here.
Also kind of just wanted to see the rest of Class VII, new and old have to carry on without Rean. See them live healthy, full and successful lives because of the things he taught them before he "Had to leave." Each of them carrying on a piece of him in spirit each day. Just felt the more powerful ending, even if despite all Rean learned himself, he still had to make the sacrifice to over-come what is otherwise a near impossible situation.
But to each their own, still a fun game nonetheless.
@@TarksGauntlet Tbf, no one knew that the earth cage would become so important later on (even the holy beast thought it would do little against the twilight), and Toval was just investigating the abnormal occurences in Erebonia on behalf of the 1st Dominion at the time, so he didn't know either what to expect from that.
Yeah, It's a literal Deus Ex Machina (there's two of them in the true end), but I'm accepting the first one for the reason said above, and the second one because it's the sept-terrions, literal treasures of the goddess, and we heard over and over again in all the games how they were able to create miracles.
Yeah, it could be interesting to see them moving on with their life, but honestly, I think Rean has suffered long enough about now, 3 games of suffering and bad end along with the events of CS4 where he continues to feel guilty for everything, it's nice to finally see him happy again after all this time; not to mention the reasons I stated earlier about Rean needing to stay alive for everyone's sake and stop searching to die for a noble cause, though I agree, the normal ending was really great for that, just that the true ending was needed to end Rean's character arc, and the saga on a high note finally after 3 consecutive defeats.
But yeah, each their own, I'm excited to play it... when it will come out on PC :(
@@stratfor140 I think I'm just a sucker for the kind of bleak endings that have a powerful silver lining in them. Rean may have been gone in my desired end, but I don't quite consider it a defeat. That said, the true ending had a lot of power in it. The credits sequence slide-shows and stuff was a really nice treat.
Unrelated but I wanted to ask since I heard you were a Yakuza fan and also loved judgement, how do you feel about Yakuza 7's new RPG battle system change? I'm more open minded about it since playing all the Yakuza games but I wanted to know your thoughts since I assume you will get it.
Mmm maybe I am going to try this series for Xmas
Wouldnt suprice me if yhe voices was done remotely for those not living in the area they record. That can also explain why some didnt return to there role
It took me a minute to scrape the money together to buy it but now I'm basically barricading myself inside until I finish when I'm not at work.
The fight with [redacted] where the theme music plays is pretty epic, fighting the end of that section against [redacted] and [redacted] right now. I cant wait to see where it goes from here.
Great review as always, while I may not agree with everything I do love listening to you talking about games :D
For me, CS IV is the worst Kiseki games, the acumulation and expansion of everything I consider the series faults.
Wasted potential, plot convenience and plot contrivance, plot armor, chosen one BS, pandering of the highest order, destruction of set up themes, misshandling of villains, misscharacterization and nonsensical behaviour, no stakes or danger, everything boils down to battle of wills and in general a huge dip in the quality of writing (remember how they forgot to explain Milliums actions, Crows mask, the scene where a couple monsters "force" Rean to use Ogre again... awful). There are of course great moments, its still trails but the cast is bloated, the pacing awful, character arcs, if they exist, repetitive. And dear fucking lord, the Curse, what a colossal mountain of a ass dookie of a villain that is. And thats not even mentioning the horrible implications for the future of the series due to what happens here.
I cant wait to move on from this whole mess and start over in Calvard, I think that even people who like Rean and CS in general must agree that this is already too much of CS, considering that Hajimari is basically CS 5 its entirely too much for me. CS has managed to dampen my love for the series as a whole because it brings up its flaws to a fore with such force its impossible to ignore, while it used to have "old anime" tropes in the past here and there, now its all new anime chliché all over and we all know that many of the new popular anime's are pretty terrible.
Also, I genuinely cant believe that people like the new look of Rean... he looks exactly like Crow and the new outfit is so edgy its incredibly, laughably silly :D
I haven't played a game in the current continuity that I dislike, but honestly, after all this I kind of just want the continuity to end. They've established too many god-like powers in the universe at this point and for me that's just gonna create more questions than anything as we go forward. The things they've established are bells that can't be unrung and it doesn't give me faith for the future of the continuity at all.
@@TarksGauntlet Yea, this is something I wrote about quite a bit in my comments in the facebook group, discord and such. The implications of CS IV failure and more specifical Falcom's inability to actually write of a character will have lasting reprecussions. They essentially made sure that nothing will ever be taken seriously and literally anything is possible.
What was once a cool mix of magic, science and technology with fairly clear borders is now basically a fairy tale multiverse with unlimited options. And knowing that there are people so wildly overpowered in the world will make any future threat inconsequential.
I didnt enjoy the Erebonia arc very much, for various reasons, foremost of which are Rean, the fact that we just essentially use other countries to clear Erebonias dirty laundry and the dip in quality of writing but what I hate most is the prescedent it set up for the future of the series. I loved the review from rpgsite where the long time fan of Kiseki wrote that CS was a mistake. Even if you are a fan of CS as an arc, it only worsened future prospects of the Kiseki universe as a whole.
Oh well nothing to be done, when I replay it on PC next year ill do my very best to enjoy it but either I grew up or the values of the games have changed so that its too different from what I expect of it now, because instead of being excited everytime I play kiseki now, I am apprehensive and have to convince myself to not be annoyed at things I didnt even use to notice before.
@@TarksGauntlet Oh and a huge shout out to you for saying that the normal ending was better, its how I felt as well, SO MUCH. It would have made things so much clearer and easier, it begged to happen.
And god it only gets worse in Hajimari, the ultimate fanservice no Kiseki. They couldnt wrap it all up in CS IV (even tho they didnt really need to pull all the characters together, thats what they chose) and so they continued to wrap it up in Hajimari and man... Thank god for C route, thats been some of the most fun Iv had with Kiseki in years, its very different from what we are used to now, perhaps thats why I enjoyed it so much.
@@KaiSaeren I feel like it's less that the series changed over time and more that you grew tired of it. All of the games follow very similar formulas, but I don't think I'd consider any of what we have in CS4 bad tbh
Not gonna lie You, Shadow, and Riku making this wait unbearable haha.
Still deciding what to eat for lunch next week when I see my copy on the porch.
Fantastic detailed review!
Nooo awwww my evade to the max, wrath, counterattack combo is ruined!!
Oh last thing is there any blocked scene crap? Wanted to stream this when I get through 1-3.
Riku is the true mad scientist when it comes to these games. Shadow and I both like them, but Riku is on a crazy level. Dude knows these games inside and out.
And yes, there are blocked scenes but they don't show up until the very, very end.
@@TarksGauntlet Dat mad Falcom love haha. I know he must have put in some hours.
Thanks for the info!!
The game was awesome as usual with the saga for me, but not among the best in the saga for me (nor the worst).
For me, without having played Hajimari or Kuro but having played everything else, the whole Crossbell saga is the peak of Kiseki, and I still prefer Sky over Cold Steel.
That said, I'm in the group of people who prefer Cold Steel 3 and 4 over Cold Steel 1 and 2, all things considered. I do think Cold Steel as a whole went a bit overboard with the "not really dead" thing, to the point that probably even a Dragon Ball death could have more impact.
I still absolutely loved the game. I'm still a big fan of the combat system, tons of awesome characters, badass moments and Cold Steel IV is indeed the conclusion of what's still probably the biggest overarching plot ever created in videogames history (a lot of us have been here for 9 games now!).
The reason Elizabeth has a name is because she’s somewhat important in Zero (in the Schwarze Auction). Lechter used her as a distraction for something (to help Lloyd/Wazy) and nicknamed her “Noire”. So she’s like Antoine.
Yeah, I do remember Elizabeth from the crossbell games, I guess I just find it funny there's so much detail everywhere you look, even among non important NPCs that seeing ones with no names next to a named animal is a hilarious contrast to me.
Ty
The only game I havent played yet is Azure because I'm waiting for Geofronts patch. Are there many major spoilers or things I wont understand in this? I dont think I can hold myself back from playing this until Azure is finished...
They make some mention of a certain characters power changing since the closing events of Ao, and mention in small detail the actual closing events of the game. Not enough that I would say it would spoil your experience. They don't go into THAT much detail, but there is mention of it.
Well the you fight the final boss of Azure in the intro to CS4 so yes it will completely spoil your experience. Finding out who that person is is one of the best twists in the game. Though if you watched this review its probably already been spoiled for you.
I at least found they kept the details of their story "Off the table" enough that it would still make azure a great and unpredictable experience for the most part, but yeah, they are there.
Both CS3 and CS4 will spoil major plot details for Azure as minor callbacks just for fun. They tell you characters secret identities as throwaway lines.
Heh, 85 hours you say
Man the wait for Hajimari is gonna be soooo painful 😭😭😭
I still need to finish the 2nd game lmao
I keep saying it since CS3 they are giving the girls in this game more mass in the lower abdominal part of their bodies
Well time to wait for this game 2021 since I am a pc player.
Thanks for the review.
Now that the series is concluded how does it stack up against Trails in the Sky
That's tough to say. They both have really different strengths.
I feel cold steel has the better adventure with far more hype moments and jaw dropping twists, and the world deeper and more interconnected. But sky's writing and character arcs are quite an improvement over steels. Though it takes a while to feel like a proper adventure, I feel skys adventure and plot closed on a much stronger note as well.
Sky tells a simple story masterfully while fleshing out around half its main cast to a high degree.
Crossbell tells a complex story masterfully with very great characters and hardly leaves anyone out in terms of story relevance.
Coldsteel tells a complex story badly and takes 2x the amount of time for it while leaving its entire cast of characters out to dry for the most part.
There was something there but it just wasn't handled well at all.
Most of the issues start in CS1 where they are minor inconveniences but they grow over time and cannot be gotten rid of because some people like them.
Lakelord and lyllod approve of this video just because of the inclusion of fishing
So, I have to be honest here...
Cold Steel, is the only Kiseki games I've played. And I absolutely ADORED CS 1 and 2. I have "tried" to play Sky 1, and it's very difficult for me to get into. I hate to say it when my own opinion is that graphics don't matter, but I "really" dislike the 3D world, 2D sprites bit that a lot of JRPG's have done. And I have to be honest, the sky games are not pretty. I know, I know, I KNOW that's not the main point of these games... but I absolutely think that Cold Steel hit my preferred aesthetic right on the head. It reminds me of the PS2 era JRPG's I grew up with, and hit that semi-anime look "just" right.
My ultimate point here is, I expect to keep up with all new Kiseki games from here on out. I have looked up some info on the earlier games. But even me, someone who has only played Cold Steel, is loving it. I just finished act 1 of CS4. While I may not "get" all the huge emotional bits that long time fans will get... It's still 100% a worthwhile experience for any JRPG fan. And at some point, maybe when my backlog isn't so huge, I'll give sky another shot. (No idea how to get my hands on an English copy of Zero though.)
As someone who's played the game through with my wife who's never really played the previous games, she never really looked for character development for the returning cast from Sky and Crossbell. I feel like at some point, if you start with the first Cold Steel, you're going to be resigned to the fact that there have been games before and that you know the consequences of purposely skipping them. This is important to note given that the game's finale and conclusion wasn't lessened because of her decision to start with later games.
To the point about the writing, I agree with you that CS4 has been all about the fanservice, and I do agree that the comparison with Avengers is apt. That said - and this might sound absolutely incendiary - I've never felt that the Cold Steel series has had good writing, with story beats that are terribly predictable. Remember the part in CS4 where 30+ people had to get in their own slice of dialogue because, as you know, Falcom has to make sure everyone talks and has something to say? I seem to recall someone saying, "I suppose that's it for the insults!" or some such, only for the insults to continue for the next 15-20 minutes!
Ultimately, despite my criticisms, I've come to accept this kind of writing as a stylistic choice that's unique to the series as a whole. Trails is very, very anime, with people choosing to converse for minutes before engaging each other in combat. I felt that if I were to ding its writing, then to allow these sorts of ridiculous yet often entertaining back-and-forths would be inexcusable. It's silly, it's wacky, but there's a charm to it that I find fascinating and liberating.
What made CS4 so awful for me was how rigidly structured it was, it was exactly like CS2. Its like the director just had no creativity or was too scared to do something different. You have to lose all your characters, magically you lose all contact, start in a new town and find a fixed number of people every section of the game, then get an airship and find a fixed number each section until you have everyone, then go through the mystical trials etc. etc. in the exact same format as the previous game. There are no surprises just fighting the same bosses you have fought countless times before in the series. Then you find out about the main villains and its so disappointing....
I don't mind some predictability if I can enjoy just going along for the ride. Plus, I mean, the longer you spend around the genre the more predictable most of these games become, and the more the cosmogonic cycle becomes clear.
With CSIV though, it feels a little as if the driver left their headlights off and was taking only dark, bumpy back-wood roads and started missing a lot of peoples stops. It's just a considerably less smooth experience for me.
That thing about characters always having to get their line in, yeah... that's a problem I notice in a lot of japanese games and have noticed in JRPGs since I was a kid playing on the PS1, but due to the roster in CSIV it's massively exacerbated.
Speaking of weird writing quirks like that though, you ever look at the tally for how many times laughter is written into these scripts? Like, just simple "Haha's" and "Hehe's?"
The first couple games topped out at around 400-500 instances. It's somewhere closer to 4000 now. A painful sign of everybody having to vocalize something/anything.
Still enjoyed the game regardless though. It's just got some really fun, large scale, tension-filled segments that, as the kids would say "go hard." Any-who, great seeing you around Alex, I very much enjoyed your video!
@@TarksGauntlet If I got paid for every time localization editors leave in grunts, ellipses, and all manner of similar quips into their scripts, I would be a billionaire.
I've played it two years ago but it remains my favourite of the saga (better than the recent trails of the beginning even if the latter proposes many interesting features). ToCS4 is (maybe a little bit too) long , relatively easy (even in Nightmare mode by using the same tactic as in ToCS3: Musse's Command + Chrono Burst on every character), Lost Arts are back, many playable characters (including Rosine for a (too) short while). My GOTY, in competition with Yakuza 7 (I believe it comes to the west this year). More interesting than Persona 5 Royal (notwithstanding the additional content, we knew the game and the main plot) and 100 times better than FF7R.
Literally, the only problems i had was the initial release(which was frickin horrid) and some of the dialogue errors I would see. I didnt really mind the new voices.
Yeah, between NISA and Sony the launch got botched pretty hard.
>Sits waiting for the mispronunciations and grammar errors that I love to call you out on.
>Hears "pleroma grass" and think "I KNOW it's "plemora grass"
>google it and check wiki, Tarks is correct.
>face the corner in shame and return to the video humbled.
Oh I'm sure there's loads of mispronunciations and grammar errors to find haha. Half the time the grammar errors are intentional because I like to add a bit of a lax tone to these things, but god knows a lot of them are not.
So the voice actor changes were do to covid with people not able to make it into a studio & others not not having recordings equipment at home
That's such a bs excuse lol
legend of heroes series is truly big
I do love cold steel 4 but I kinda do think I put up with some of the games more terribly written bits because of the good will the other games built up with me, and I have no idea how ppl play this game without finishing the crossbell arc not gonna lie I would have been Hella confused and pissed If I didn't know the crossbell crew
I still love cold steel 4 but.. Ngl it was kinda disappointing, again I fucking love this game.. Buuuuuut from a critical and writing standpoint it does have some very very glaring flaws
Ps the combat is so fun and underrated, it's easily my second fav turned based battle system... The first obviously being shin megami Tensei 4 /persona 5
@@jimjam4627 same, I don't see myself playing it again tbh idk what Happened the writing just took a shit. Cs3 setup this war apocalyptic world but its like nothing happened
The english VAs are generally very good quality but Japanese VAs just seem a lot more natural in this game to me after playing through the JP versions of this and Hajimari
i play all japanese games in JP voices lol it feels more natural
*Expect many comments as I comment along with the video even though I told myself I'd watch front to back*
"a certain door in Sky 3rd"
(cough cough star door 15)
God I was not ready for that door
Ohhhh fuckkk yeaaah
I tried to play CS3 first and thought it was a mess. Then I went back and played everything in order and ended up really liking the series. The games are great, if we ignore the whole curse thing, which kinda robs the story of moral complexity.
What Falcom really needs though is a new engine. Their artist are amazing, but their games can't do the art justice.
They are already making a new engine after hajimari. From what we have seen it looks pretty good.
Yep loved the art style of the crossbell games, hated the style of the cold steel games. Hope they can do better in the future
@@apnwu369 I think cold steel 3 and 4 are fine. Its just cold steel 1 and 2 that look bad.
@@jonahscott3196 3 and 4 look mediocre at best as well. Nothing is impressive, especially the overworld environments. They're good games, but look pretty bad, especially for ps4 games.
@@biozelink6086 Yeah I can agree wtih you on that. The texture does look very basic at time and the water especially in crossbell look so bad. I like the character model tho. They definitely has improved it since Cs1 and 2. At least they upgrade the animation and facial expression more in hajimari. After that we will be getting the new engine in the calvard game which is probably next year.
I enjoyed this one a lot, played the JP version in early 2019. I only have 2, maybe 3 complaints with this one.
1. There were a lot of areas in the game that made the fan of my PS4 Pro go nuts. While the game has good graphics, they aren't impressive enough to justify that imo.
2. Like with the previous 3 games, Falcom completely fails at balancing enemies and especially bosses. They hit way too hard, and outspeed you by a ridiculous amount even on lower difficulties. Sure you can cheese fights, but there shouldn't be a need for you to consider that in the first place.
3. This is a personal nitpick but, the later opponents in the Pom minigame can go to hell, seriously. It's like they were programmed to do a TAS of that minigame.
Overall a very good review. Took a break from playing Hajimari to watch this one.
Yay... Fishings back... Haha
I haven't played it yet, but when talking about an emotional moment you mentioned a "hot teacher." Did you spoil/imply that Sara will die? Again, I don't know anything about the game yet, but if this was a spoiler I'm pretty p***ed right now.
If Sara died I probably would have died with her and this video wouldn't exist haha. They were separate points.
Or were they?
...They were.
Even though i beat cold steel 1 and 3 I still don’t know anything about the SSS group lol I wish those games could come to the west but oh well
There is at least a very high quality fan translation of the first part. The second is currently in development.
@@TarksGauntlet alright thanks I’ll check it out
man, I just finished it, and I would summarize this game the following: a good game with a terrible story. now, before you get your pitchforks, I think its important to separate worldbuilding and plot in trails games, because lets be honest, the worldbuilding itself is absolutely fantastic in all legend of heroes games and the reason why most of us enjoy this series to begin with. but the actual plot is in my opinion an absolute stinker. does that mean that there are no well written moments? of course not, there are, but the overrall direction the story takes (as said in the video, the curse thing... yeah) combined with a huge number of plot holes/conveniences, the constant useage of anime tropes and really bad pacing just makes the entire game a mixed bag for me.
Yep CS4 was one of the most disappointing games I've played in a long time but at least Hajimari is much better so far that I've played it. Its much more creative and interesting storywise so far, CS4 was so boring and predictable and the villains were so poorly written.
I disappointed that all characters that supposedly died in CS3 still alive. Falcom should keep only 1 or 2 character alive. All is bullshit. It destroy the intense and dark atmosphere of the story that has been build up in CS3 🤦♂️.
Writer act like old school shounen mangaka just like fairy tail and black clover. If these writers from start intended everyone alive then don't write them die just to revive them. Heck don't write action story about empire with a long history of blood and death bcs I just won't realisticly feel it at all
Is Rean still voiceless when everyone else is talking in the voiced parts in Japanese audio? That's so annoying.
Yup. Cause the English to have the same problem.
@@dzus123 Sucks to hear. Hopefully, the next title has everyone voiced.
God I can't wait to get out of act 1 because so far it's really boring.
Act 1 has some great high points but it was the most boring act for me. Others I've heard say similar things about act 2 but I enjoyed that one a lot more personally. Be warned though, act 1 is long, at around 35 hours.
It gets better in act 2 but by then the game is half over lol. I get they tried something different but c'mon having rean Mia for half the game is dumb af
@@buttertoast1146 Exactly. Act 2 is so much better but it was a big mistake to keep the main character out of half of the game.
@@jayDee92133 how far are you currently?
@@buttertoast1146 Just found towa last night.
There are three endings btw... Just reload the epilogue save you made after you've seen the true ending and watch the true ending again + a secret scene after it (let's just say it reveals the identity of a very enigmatic figure in the entire franchise XD)
Well, doesn't quite reveal their identity haha. Just gives some clues. But yes, I did manage to catch that prior to review. Literally only thanks to somebody having spoiled it for me many months prior, otherwise I'd have no way of even knowing it existed.
@@TarksGauntlet I've only accidentally seen the secret scene and would have missed it otherwise. I've beaten the game yesterday and somehow just HAD to watch the end cridits again because the CGs in the background were just beautiful. Thank Aidios I did that. But supposedly it wasn't meant to be a secret scene but it was rather a glitch and Falcom then decided to leave the glitch as is because it makes it more mysterious I guess to have it as a secret scene instead of letting it play out normally after the true ending.
Honestly this game's story is ass but you still gotta play it to see where the overall story(which is amazing) goes.
Its that one bad book in a massive fantasy epos.
If you haven't been following the story so far you have 0 reason to play this game over trails of coldsteel 1 or trails in the sky FC or any other decent JRPG because thats what this game is as a standalone title.
A decent JRPG with a plot that can only be appreciated/tolerated by those who have grown to love this world.
The combat feels neat but its more of a powertrip kind of neat since you can break pretty much every encounter by just actually using what the game provides you with even on the hardest difficulty.
You can build your characters however you want and still find fun and unique combinations to break the game with.
But you really shouldn't play this game as your first trails/kiseki game just because the combat is fun.
It ruins/spoils major plot points for 5 vastly superior games and 3 games that aren't too bad.
As long as this game stops hajimari and kuro from being infected by the same issues that caused coldsteels downfall then I'll take the one bad game in the series.
Yeah man I just finished the whole series and although cold steel has some high points, it has nothing on thr sky and crossbell storylines. This fourth and last entry for cold steel is by far the worse of the bunch I had a really hard time finishing it as I couldnt stand the aweful writing, constant side switching, lack of vilains (seriously there are none at the end of the day), the lack of high stakes as no one dies like at all with way too many fakeoute and finally I hate how all of the girls are heads over heels in love with that empty shell of a character Rean. This game made me lose all of the goodwill I had left soldiering through the series halfway through. Hopefully the next games will be better
@@WowlxX Hajimari is good.
Kuro looks cool so far and has a protagonist that is very far from Rean and Lloyd anime protagonist trope.
why do you keep using footage of dubs. Is that really how you play these japanese games?
Depends on the game. I'm not a purist in either direction.
To bad nisa screw people who pre order digitally, cant downlod the game, than the game says 80 dollars in the psn store when we pay for it, this is the worst launch in their history so many got screw over by pre ordering digitally
It's been like... A handful of hours. Slow down lol. I know it sucks having to wait while Sony or NISA figure out what happened to their launch but like... As a trails fan, patience is definitely a virtue that'll serve you well. If the "worst launch in their history" means "digital downloads are delayed a few hours" that really ain't that bad. I seem to recall them launching outright broken games on consoles that couldn't get patches back in the day...
@@TarksGauntlet fair enough they knew about the preload problems 4 pm eastern yesterday say they were looking at it, next day still no fix and no update just radio silence is what frustrating, but hopfully they can fix it today or tomorrow or at least gives us some time of update
This is a curious problem and it's not too helpful their PR person apparently hasn't started work for the day and hit up twitter yet, but hopefully it would take too long. I saw Playstation UK is at least starting to look into it, but I have no clue where the issue is or how much either company can do on their own. Fingers crossed. Hell, maybe they'll push that 1.02 patch out and fix the NPC dialogue editing errors with the game haha.
@@TarksGauntlet if only xseed were still incharge of publishing this series
The writing was awful in this game. Which is a shame
Kinda sad this is the last of the Cold Steel T_T
If it's any consolation, Hajimari no Kiseki is kind of simultaneously Cold Steel 5 and Crossbell 3.
@@TarksGauntlet yep its all the same characters as CS4, same gameplay, and pretty much the same type of story