The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV

It is Much better than Cold Steel II/III and a pretty decent ending to the saga

This was a seriously long time coming, Trails of cold steel IV was an end to a series that was a super fun time from start to finish, in the short here I will say the game truly is a treasure if you love story, in depth game mechanics and lovable characters but I will also warn this final instalment is very much not the prior three games and that may be off putting at first but as I will explain it in the end made for a fantastic game in my eyes regardless of some of the flaws one could say it had due to the changes in combat dood. Okay so here for the long haul? Then here we go, we'll start with combat because frankly this was the biggest change, some might say a change that came too late in the series even, as everyone I'm no doubt is used to, usually battles were quick in the original two games, some boss fights could even be one shot on your first time around if not make them very low on health for the others to finish off assuming you had the right setup, third game was a bit slower but had the overpowered break system, it took more time but most fights including bosses again were an absolute breeze as long as you used the right character combinations and orders which were also introduced in III dood. But here's where the game changes a lot, the depth the devs went to actually make it a proper JRPG for a lack of better words (The others were too but you could just breeze through if ya wanted to really) was staggering, to start enemies are intentionally made faster "At the start" some people were irked by this but this was intentional to make sure enemies got a turn to attack, you know actual combat, I say it was intentional because after the initial turns bar some extremely speedy exceptions, things balanced out, even making faster characters get more turns in some cases, this was also extremely important to learn because break almost seems...well broken, initially breaking enemies like in the last game before they've had a turn actually is bad, they recover straight away making Juna's and various other orders seem pointless but if you break them after it's the same as the old game, it's all about timing essentially, this is much improved in my eyes, it makes combat more in depth, purposeful and in fact gives other uses to all the various master quartz available rather than just using a particular set, this made a lot of boss fights feel like they were last boss fights and forced players to use the spells including buffs and healing dood. To add one final addition to the game, sub master quartz are much improved in that everyone can equip the same one if they so chose, it allowed for some great variations in some regards even if I chose to mostly equip everyone with Oberon bar the spell casters for obvious reasons strategically, all in all the combat is truly amped up with the only issue being times you have to use guest characters as they are forced certain equipment and quartz which can make some fights a lot harder than they need to be dood. There's a lot to do in the game other than the main game, pom pom party is a new mini-game brought back from the Zero/Azure series I read, Vantage masters is back and in depth as ever and of course fishing is back as always, all give you some real nice stuff, particularly the vantage masters and pom pom party mini-game for beating everyone, personally I feel that mini games in that vain should either not give anything that's super worth it for main gameplay or be easy, which neither the vantage masters or pom-pom party are (despite me beating them still) as it detracts from the main game and takes more time than most people would like, they aren't bad by any means mind you but suffice to say I'm happy I'll never have to play them on III or IV ever again myself in NG+ dood. The characters as always are on point with some crazy sidequests this time around, golden poms are also a new addition for some extra money (sadly not normal sepith or a free level though) and I feel they more than ever have made it harder to miss anything with some nice map icons and "new" on areas you've been to before, the only really expensive thing which you don't even need to buy all of are the slot levels, they really add up in cost, I pretty much exhausted all of it opening up every characters slots near the end which is fine, I will say that the need for U-materials is extra high on this one and I will heavily suggest leaving yourself at least 300 for near the end for particular EX-quartz for Valimar, which you wiiiiill neeed but that said it's nice you can carry more than 99 of those now, it's a godsend for sure dood. The music is still great as always, that has been a consistent thing in each game, in fact there are some remixes in there that sent a jolt up my spine they were that good, which is hilarious because they were of one's I frankly felt weren't all that great in the prior games outside of being thematically great, Knight/soldat fights while I'm at it are crazy hard now, especially near the end, in fact the end was frankly horrifying to me in terms of how difficult it was O-o it isn't the worst by any means mind you but it certainly felt one sided most of the way through, I feel if they could have toned it down just a little at least dood. I feel that's as much as I need to say, there's a huge cast of characters and a fun variety of ways to play because of them and although I feel the combat change should have either been done earlier or in the next game, is still outstanding and shows a love and respect for their game and their players even in what quality they wanted to give us, it's been a long time since I've truly been invested in J/RPG's but this really did catch my full attention all the way through, I hope it does for all of you who read this too if you so choose to buy this and play all four games, thanks for reading dood!