It's finally time, we're taking a look at trails at cold steel 4 on the nintendo switch the third entry just completely won me over last year. It was my game of 2020 and it even drove me to go back and visit the first two entries in this saga. But does this conclusion pay off and is it the epic conclusion that we deserve?
So a big old spoiler warning, first of all seriously arguing with myself how to present this one to you. I'm very worry of spoilers, i'm worry of the most likely 300 plus hours. Many of you would have been putting into the first through third entry that's not even then touching on the other entries in the legend of heroes series.
So with that in mind naturally like this is the fourth entry. So yes the footage and the story breakdown will no doubt contain spoilers of what occurred in one through three. But it won't contain spoilers for this particular fourth entry i have 50 hours of gameplay. I'm going to be restricting myself today to just the first 10, meaning the epilogue basically and very little rain outside of what we find in the trailer.
So story and things kick off just a few weeks following the offensive trail as a cold steel freering is missing captive and in trouble kicking things off. We find ourselves passing teams quickly and investigating not only war and conflict. But also those which is many who are basically concerned whereabouts and you know whether he is okay.
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Also then there's whispers of things like betrayal and his abuse of power the opening 15 hours. They can be considered basically an epilogue for this final chapter in the lead up to reuniting with them facing the continent's fate. If the third for me was a great place to start or at least somewhat manageable.
But that jumping in at this fourth entry, i feel like would be near impossible. Because the sheer size of this cast the number of characters introduced in the first few hours alone is incredible. By the end game, you're going to be facing characters from all entries.
The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel 4 been designed very much as an absolute payoff for those of us that have invested our time in the entire cold steel run now. If you are bold enough to start with this fourth entry though just know on the main menu, you will find free text breakdowns of one through three these alone.
I actually read through them. Because i kind of wanted a refresher, before i jumped into things and it probably took me an hour. So overall though look what i will say the pacing isn't quite as good as the third entry. It kind of gets sometimes a little bit lost in itself with so many different characters and competing arcs. It was still absolutely worth the journey and cold steel fans this ending, you are in for an absolute treat.
So i'm going to be keeping this one relatively high level that was like
a 20 minute review nearly. I want to kind of make this one a little bit more
concise. It just wouldn't bedifficult here to talk about systems and different
menus for an hour and then keep on going. Basically the close-up to the series
and it displays a game that. Basically takes all the best pieces of one through
free and then fine-tunes them maybe a tiny bit.
But yeah, it's basically more of what you love by this point though that is understandable if you've stuck with it this far. You're coming for the characters, you're coming for that story alongside then of course the returning incredible combat system that just still feels fresh to this day. The combat here though, it is turn-based as with every entry in the series.
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But it takes cues almost from the action genre. You almost find yourself in these arenas and movement is an option on the menu attack distance as well is a very real thing now. While it is relatively simple to understand. You know just a couple of battles and i will say mastering. It is an art in itself not only choosing the right attacks and styles against certain enemies.
But building and choosing a squad that's gonna be capable of facing the current enemies that are gonna be ahead of you. It took me about two hours to even get to the first fight. But it was absolutely worth the wait and one thing this game does so well.
Is it's consistently introducing new enemies and epic moments that require you to kind of grind level up, and explore the world. They actually come with a pretty consistent flow, you know every few hours it would quickly push me forward from location to location.
I would kind of get excited for that next epic moments on top of that then of course mech's return as well. While he doesn't really change up the combat all that much. It still provides a nice little escalation for the story for the events taking place.
I was always a fan of watching these mechs go
to battle. There's definitely some unique mechanics alongside them the
gameplay, then like free has some minor almost school days almost like days off
where you just kind of chill mostly optional.
But these are still nice touches and i really appreciated them in this entry. Because they broke up the near consistent battles world and dungeon exploration. These are moments i could just take kind of a step back take a breather, try to kind of digest the huge amount of information the game had thrown at me.
But also do things like level up my equipment, you know my augments, my master chords. These are all elements within the game that kind of give you buffs that raise your ability or potentially even impact things like elemental attacks.
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This version is all the best parts of the previous entries not huge steps forward as such. The most noticeable difference here just the sheer size of the cast. As i mentioned in story, this team means i spent more time than ever in menus understanding stats working through that inventory and setting up kind of that optimal team.
Because when you got 20 to choose from, it definitely takes a little bit of time. It's not a bad thing, but it feels like four puts more kind of weight than ever on your shoulders. You need to be prepared for a lot of kind of menu management, style of gameplay. One of the best features here then for me at least returns and that is the ability to speed up time.
I know that sounds a little bit weird. But you tap that right stick and you can double the speed of movement come back all that good stuff even the cutscenes themselves. There's a whole lot of them, you can even put auto combat on here.
If you want to it wasn't really for me personally. But i did think it
was interesting just a couple of times to kind of understand the strategy the
game would take in approach to some of these battles.
Also i like this, because it tells me the game isn't simply you know sending us an afternoon long journeys from location to location just to kind of pad out that run time like so many games before it.
They actually give you an option alongside actually unlikable first travel to overcome moments very quickly. It's very much been designed very purposely as it is. But the game's okay with you kind of like you know saying. I want to kind of skip this bit just a tiny bit quicker outside of the exploration though the leveling up the combat and of course the huge amount of story the huge amount of cutscenes.
It's really then all about side quests and activities there are all optional. But that could be anything from helping out the locals to fishing playing a new almost copy of puyo puyo to the return of the card that game that i could never honestly get my head around.
What i know this article today has been kind of high level. I couldn't just do another deep dive on the mechanics of the combat or the controls. Because it's not moved on from free at all. I totally get that and i expected that just know as jrpgs go this really is an epic conclusion.
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It picks and chooses the fan favorite elements and then returns with one of the best and most exciting jrpg combat systems out there. It's pretty the best one i've used in a long time, then on top of all of that. It's got a story that just absolutely does this cast justice all in.
I'd say 70 to 80 hours for the main story and well over 100 if you want to do everything. But with such a large diverse and likable cast, it was an absolute pleasure to explore this world and i cannot wait now to see where the legend of heroes goes next.
I even invested in the collector's edition of this game. Because it just really captured that jrpg fan in me and perhaps it's probably the biggest compliment i could. Honestly give it graphically then this is the same engine as the third entry meaning, yes texture wise character model wise can almost look a little bit dated at times that's more than understandable given the scale of this world.
There's very few games on the switch that are going to be even close to the size of some of these locations the game again, then returns with a combination of 3d alongside kind of flat 2d images. For combat like specials.
The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel 4 look incredible the comeback is just flashy fast and the attacks
they genuinely carry some weight then the cutscenes and like i said there's a
whole lot of them.
I promise you that. But they use the in-game engine and they absolutely do their job. In fact i have to kind of commend them here a little bit on the effort that went into them.
Because they could have lazily relied on still almost you know postures. But instead they actually are so often action-packed. There's something always happening on screen and it kind of reflects the passion that was clearly put in now.
I will say occasionally the animations can be a little jittery at times a little unnatural and i do wish the animations for these heavier texts had a few alternatives just to kind of keep things fresh. Because i would be lying if i didn't say some of these flashier texts. They get a little bit old after like the thousand time you've seen them and that's not even halfway through the game even if you are leveling up and getting new ones.
Finally for complaints like the third entry a lot of load screens. I wouldn't say too many, but you will be greeted with them pretty often whether that's you know moving from location to location or maybe entering buildings. So do get used to them. So audio finally and one big complaint i had with the third entry was the first couple of hours were fully voice acted and then it just randomly disappeared in the air entirely except for the occasional line here.
For this one they don't try to like deceive you so much from the outset and instead they face key actors throughout relying on text for kind of random npcs and support characters the voice acting as well it isn't going to win any awards. I'll tell you that now and you definitely feel that in high-stakes moments where they can't quite you know deliver the intensity they need.
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But overall look, it's at that level that fans will no doubt expect and there's still something comforting about hearing this cast return when it comes to the music then incredible. I hope this gets some sort of standalone release. Because i think it's under appreciated with this series, just how good the music is attacks, then an environmental design the attacks, sound heavy and that's exactly what i wanted.
But the locations they are still lacking and if i had one big ask it would be this bring these huge locations to life with more sounds. So the final verdict and trail was a cold steel four for me was the conclusion i wanted. The story is epic, the gameplay takes the best parts of the series. It adds a few minor things.
But honestly nothing major, The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel 4 not going to convert you to the series if you didn't like it this far. But this was all about just joining green for one last ride, while saying farewell to all the characters we've met over the years that's like 400 500 hours of gameplay that said though. This huge cast also causes a few minor pacing issues right around the middle of the game and you'll be kind of pushing through these moments as quickly as possible just looking for that main arc by the time.
The conclusion was delivered though, i don't think any fan will be
disappointed with this conclusion. You do have an epic 75 hours ahead of you
and that is if you face the story alone.
You don't take on any of the side quests any of that good stuff an amazing same as the third entry. Honestly and what i do think the third entry was the better game.
This is still for sure a worthy conclusion and they didn't screw it up which, honestly by today's standards with games movies just media in general that's a success in itself for now. I'm just psyched to see where the legend of heroes goes next. I'll see you all on the next article, thanks everyone.
