The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV – PC Review

Genre: Turn-based action RPG
Developer: Nihon Falcom, Engine Software BV, PH3 GmbH
Publisher: NIS America, INC
Release Date: April 9th, 2021
Edited by AlexKnight2005

It’s been a couple of weeks since Rean and Class VIII had their disastrous showdown at the end of Trails of Cold Steel III, and Juna’s dreams are getting a little… Strange. Everything looks almost normal, but somethings… missing. Just as she figures out what that might be, she wakes up in an unfamiliar place. When she and the rest of New Class VII have been out, everything’s gone off the rails—Mad Dog Rean has sinned “nice job breaking it, Hero,” Erebonia has gone mental, and the rest of Zemuria is getting ready for war. Oh, and they have no idea where Rean is. That’s a thing they’ll have to fix.

Thus begins the second half of the New Class VII section of Rean’s story. The overall story is his (and Erebonia’s) redemption arc, having been set up for a fall once again by a combination of decidedly unfriendly elements previously hidden away in the background. Boasting the largest cast of any Legends of Heroes games, a lot of our oldest friends are back—Joshua and Estelle, Olivier Lenham (Bardling of mysteries), Lloyd and the Special Support Section, Cassius Bright, and so many more. Enforcer IX (Phantom Thief B) is consistently missing, who is off doing his own thing someplace else. We get to talk to all of them and even control most of them as PCs for a time late in the game. More is revealed about some significant historical events from the lore, and most (but not quite all) of the hanging questions from the earlier games are neatly wrapped up in pretty unicorn-themed paper and a lovely green bow. Everything looks like milk, coffee, and tea cakes by the time it’s over.

Except that it’s not, they’ve bought some time, but if they’d really wrapped things up properly, we wouldn’t get the next two games, would we? We’re expecting those in the West soon. Pro tip: Watch until after the closing credits; you’ll see what I mean. As predicted (see the Trails of Cold Steel review for details), this game work like Cold Steel II in a great many ways—there’s significantly more freedom in the second half of the game, complete with side missions, flying around to various parts of Erebonia (and again revisiting all the places you been twice before), the occasional rescue, and so forth. Each time, you have a lot to do and mere days to do it in. Whereas Cold Steel II happened over a couple of months, we get an even tighter timetable in which to deal with things. Not that it matters so much, as actual time spent playing has no bearing on the calendar itself. For some of those, I wonder just how long their day is. My biggest pet peeve of the last game wanders off this time around. Rean and the gang no longer refer to themselves as “Class VII: Special Operations.” Instead, the two iterations of VII are a more or less unified whole. Not a bad thing overall, but maybe a tad contrived. Not that any of them really care, I suppose.

For those of you who played Cold Steel III, you’ll find nothing really new here in terms of the mechanics or UI. It’s the same now as then, so feel free to dive right in. For those who haven’t played it, go and do that first. Once again, I’ll wait. Is everybody all caught up now? Excellent. Time to get down to brass tacks. There’s nothing particularly new about the game itself, except the Brave Orders getting nerfed initially. There are Challenge Chests scattered across the Empire that you need to clear before you get those back to full strength. Like the ones in Cold Steel II, they will only open if you have specific people at your party. The only proper difference between Cold Steel II and IV chests is what you’re getting out of it. While you could theoretically opt out of the Overdrive system in CS II, trying to opt out of improving your Brave Orders will turn into a problem. Having those at full capacity will be required later in the game, especially in higher-difficulty modes. Nightmare is, well, a nightmare during the endgame, especially in the final dungeon, without having done at least the majority of them.

Now for the pain: The base game and all the DLC (purchased separately) will run you some two hundred dollars in the US, with the overwhelming majority of that ($140) being DLC. At least the costume sets aren’t too big a part of that, but if you want all the fun consumables, it’s going to hurt, A LOT. They’re nearly half of the total and still more than the game itself. Seriously. I’ve already commented some on the story, but some of it bears repeating: It’s solid—deeper than Cold Steel III, and with a much bigger payoff. There are two endings, a “Normal” version, and a “True” edition. There’s a quest hidden towards the end of the game—if you complete it, it grants you access to the True ending. You have to see the normal version first, go back to the final showdown, win again, and watch. Put the text box on auto mode, and watch all the fun. Oh, and the Final, Final boss. Don’t forget that bit. It’s a royal pain in the backside, that one. It’s more royal than Cedric and Alfin if you can believe that. There’s no setup for another game here either, as there was in Cold Steel III. They dropped hints for the next series scattered across both games in this arc, so they didn’t bother at the end. Everyone was expecting a Calvard arc regardless (as the last of the major nations on this side of Zemuria). Sadly, we’re not going to get to go to Jurai, North Ambria, and several other places of note, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose. It would have been nice, but what can you do?

Trails of Cold Steel IV is a good entry into the series, and the PC port of the original (and I’ve played both it and PS4), is better than I’d feared. Not much in terms of bugs (except text boxes getting overrun occasionally), and a stable 60FPS on my machine (users of super-potatoes beware) at max settings with all the bells and whistles. At minimum specs, it’s playable, but don’t expect miracles in the graphics department. Some folks complained about crashes here and there, but the launcher gives options for getting around most of those. I did check the port on an older laptop near the recommended spec, and it performed reasonably well—some frame rate issues, but nothing too horrifying on the lowest settings. If you’re a fan of the series (and the Legend of Heroes overall), then this one’s worth buying (I did. Twice). If not, and you have a couple of weeks to kill (and you might, given the circumstances), then get the whole pile and do a six hundred hour marathon of the entire series. You won’t be disappointed.

Pros:

• The familiar setting, UI, and mechanics.
• New ways to engage in returning mechanics.
• Well-done PC port with options for older machines.
• Huge cast, most of which is playable.

Cons:

• The cost of DLC exceeds that of the game
• Crashes for lower-spec machines with workarounds provided
• Occasional frame rate dips, also on lower-spec machines.

Lord Crocosquirrel gives The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV a Drastik Measure of 8.0 out of 10.0 (80)