The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
Genre: RPG, Adventure, Action
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PC and PS4)
Developer|Publisher: Falcom | NIS America
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US Teen
Price: US $59.99 | UK £53.99 | EU € 59,99
Release Date: 9^th April 2021

Review code provided with many thanks to NIS America

Let Us Begin

I have to say coming into this review I felt rather anxious. You see The Legend of Heroes is a RPG series with quite the dedicated fan base. Whereas I am just a dude who likes video games a little too much who played Trails of Cold Steel III for review last year and then dabbled in the second game on VITA for a bit. So I guess one could categorise me more as a casual fan. The equivalent Star Wars fan, films only, I haven’t read all the comics, novels, haven’t bought the t-shirts and haven’t named my first born after some Jedi character. But rather than hide what I am (a pillock who likes these games and often misspells their titles.) I’m just going to review this game from my heart because that’s all I know how to do. Enjoy.

The Final Chapter

The road has been long but the Cold Steel (part of The Legend of Heroes franchise) series has finally reached its fourth and final entry in the saga. A saga which has now run for almost a decade which is no small feat in gaming. 

Set just two weeks after the events of the third game this entry sees the continent heading into war. It’s up to the heroes of Class VII to pull themselves together after the events of the prior game, rescue their tutor, save the land and tie off all those gaming loose ends. Just like last time it’s anime as heck.

If this is your first foray into Cold Steel you’ll probably feel a little lost. In the main menu the game does allow you to catch up on all the events of the prior three games, but, this really feels like a experience best enjoyed if you have familiarity with the series. As someone who jumped in on the third game I felt like I had a pretty decent grasp of what’s going on, but then I’m also hoping the other two games one day work their way to the Switch so I can enjoy the series from the start.

Be aware this is a story heavy RPG. In fact when I started the game it took around 40 minutes before I actually took control of a character. The game regularly stops so that characters can tell you about their thoughts and feelings. Much of this feels like fluff at times and if it had been removed, it would have made little difference to the overall plot. But I imagine the dedicated fans will appreciate all the extra depth. As someone that often games in 30 minute bursts due to juggling a paid job and other commitments, I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable spending whole sessions listening to what seemed like pointless banter between characters. It feels like this would be better suited to the player optionally discovering this for themselves by exploring the world outside the main quest ark. Despite my issues Falcom have done an impressive job weaving this enormous story together and giving all the many, many characters, with almost every hair colour possible, their time to shine. 

Back to the Fight

The turn based battle system returns. Whether you’re new or old to the series, the game does a good job getting you up to speed piece by piece with how each of the battle mechanics work. If you miss anything you can consult the tutorials at any time and believe me, if you’re new to this series there’s quite a lot to digest. Mostly you can see enemies roaming around the maps so you can choose to engage or avoid them. Of course some encounters like boss fights can’t be evaded. 

You have four characters in the field with up to an additional two characters in reserve which you can swap in at any time if a character doesn’t fit a situation. You fight using general attacks, items or arts which are like special abilities for a specific character and crafts which are essentially magic spells. The key to victory is trying to break the enemy opponent by using a combination of the above or exploiting weakness which you can discover with a handy tap of the ‘y’ button.

It’s highly enjoyable experimenting with various combinations of attacks. My favourite moments are when you break an opponent one of your buddies can jump in and land an additional move. Battles constantly feel fresh and different and there was rarely a moment in this game where I didn’t want to hunt down every enemy on a map and experiment with the enormous amount of moves at my disposal. As well as fighting with a large assortment of characters, all of which are packing a wide range of melee and ranged weapons the mech battles also make a welcome return as well. 

Exploration

When you’re not fighting you’re exploring. There are plenty of villages with oodles of NPCs to talk to, shops to spend your hard earned cash and of course the odd side quest which often falls into the territory of your typical fetch quest. But by engaging in all this extra curricula activity you up your levels further and unlock handy items to use in the main quest.

Some of the environments are pretty massive but a handy map helps you keep track of where you need to go next, as well as showing you areas you are yet to explore and marking any chests you have found out in the field.

Graphics and Performance

In terms of graphics, not a lot has changed from the third game. The character models feel like anime characters brought to life and the world has this sort of military steam punk feel to it. You spend a lot of time early in the game just revisiting similar locations only with different NPCs and enemies. It’s not a bad thing and to be expected at this point with the series. But hey, your characters wear new outfits, that’s certainly new. There’s still a nice wide assortment of baddies to dispatch from various innocent monsters, who don’t feel like the massive threat to the local villagers your characters would make them out to be. But this a jRPG so we need to spend amble time murdering animals and not just humans. The soundtrack also remains top notch, nicely moving from calm relaxing melodies in the field to addictive tense beats when you head into a battle.

Performance wise the game performs pretty well in both TV and handheld modes. There were some moments where the game performed a little jerky when there was a lot of enemies on screen but it was never to a point that took me out of the experience. Strangely it felt that the game performed better in handheld.

A Long Semester

This is a long RPG, most of which is probably taken up by  story. With over 40 hours needed to finish the main campaign and that doesn’t include all the extra side quests you can do. Then there are all the other cool little extras like cooking, playing cards and my always favourite fishing. This is a game to keep you busy for quite some time so prepare to settle in for the long haul. If things get a little too hairy the game offers five difficulty settings to help you play at a pace that best suits you.

Schools out Forever

Let’s be honest, if you haven’t been sold on the Cold Steel series by this point it’s unlikely the forth game is going to change your mind. If you’re new and the Switch is your only option I would suggest picking up the third entry first (or waiting and pray that the first two games get localized for Switch in the West). 

While more of the same, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV really stands out as one of the best jRPGs I’ve played in a long time, even if the story got a little much at times.

Falcon have done a stella job as always and hopefully the fans will enjoy the experience as much as I did. Now I think I need to go lie down.

Final Verdict: I like it a lot