Board 8 > The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

What's wrong with digital preorders? The game isn't actually out yet digitally. I have my digital deluxe preload done.

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US was supposed to be out already, but the digital deluxe pre-order version not only didn't preload, but didn't even launch. Can't download it even after you bought it.

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...It was? My preorder has said out 10/28 for quite a while now, ever since I bought it.

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They fixed this BTW.

I'm just trying to get to a save point so I upload my save with all the data transfers to the cloud for PS5. Please just let me save, it's taking so long ;_;

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtiEjpPHx9g

that's my daughter

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Oh yeah, Laura def sound fine. I don't have a problem with that at all..

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It basically just sounds like an older version of the previous voice

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oh the amount of reviews have doubled since launch and we've gone from 81 to 85

https://opencritic.com/game/10391/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iv

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I am enjoying it a lot so far. I was a bit worried this would make a lot of the same mistakes as Cold Steel 2 but so far that at least doesn't seem to be the case. Granted, a lot of those didn't become apparent in Cold Steel 2 until Act 2 and in CS4 I'm still on Act 1 out of I believe 3, so I guess we'll see.

Side note: Juna was always great but she is very rapidly ascending to top tier Trails character status here.
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oh yeah I've already put Juna in the same class as other Trails main protagonists even before this game started. She's certainly earned it.

Lloyd still #1 for me though

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One of my favorite Gamecube games!

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Monolithsoft please stop making all this Xenocrap and bring back the good shit.

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Juna is great, but she's not even the best member of New Class VII!

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I'm not into waifus (or am I) but if I were (I guess I am) Juna would be up there

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Ys reference


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CS4 with a major advantage over every other CS game

the return of Pom! from Ao no Kiseki as a minigame

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bfBZhXc_L0

good hand

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I'm still in Parm. Early impressions so far are it's better than the start of both CS2 and CS3.

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Got to Act 2

Hooray Crow and Duvalie

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I finished Act 2 Part 1 last night. Act 1 was very good and easily high-tier Trails content. Act 2 I am less confident on for various reasons that have to do with the structure of the story and I won't really get into specifics here. Even if my gut reaction turns out to hold true for the rest of the act that isn't necessarily an indictment of the game--every Trails game has had notably weaker segments other than maybe Sky FC (which despite this is in the bottom half of Trails games). It does mean though that the pressure would be on Act 3 and the finale to make something of the story.

Of course I'm also not even halfway through act 2 so maybe it's about to blow up in my face and become something amazing--who knows. I will say that if nothing else, some lore dumps from early in Act 2 have retroactively made me more ok with aspects of Cold Steel 3's plot that I was not so big on before.

Some more thoughts on Act 1--Really loved seeing Juna pick up the scattered pieces following the events of the Gral and unite everyone behind the goals of saving Rean and stopping the war. I think the main strength here is really that there's a clear goal that all of the characters have and that everything the characters do makes sense within the context of that goal. It seems simple but really to me the Erebonia arc has been susceptible to what's felt like aimless wandering through locations where the plot just so happens to be occurring, but this segment didn't fall into that trap at all. Also some great emotional moments and there's some cool NPC interactions but yeah. (Act 1 Part 3 spoilers) Also one small moment that is just really chilling and burned into my head is when they are on the way to Crossbell and they see the Erebonian and Calvardian militaries just flying past each other. The shock and desperation that the characters feel here is absolutely palpable and I love it.
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officially checking out of this thread. I'm still trying to power through a CS3 re-play. Just made it to Chapter 4. Story makes a lot more sense the second time through.

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Picked up a used copy of hajimari for $32 so at least if I try out the overlay method I didn't spend a ton on it

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whoops I lied, I'm back

for those who have played so far, I have a gameplay question. spoilers just in case:

Is it just me, or has "breaking" as a strategy been completely nerfed? In CS3, I remember when you broke an enemy it would be stunned for multiple turns. So far in CS4 when I break an enemy there's barely any delay. The strategy used to be break the enemy as close to when their turn would come up, to maximize damage and BP accumulation. Now, if you break an enemy on the turn before theirs, they can recover from stun and potentially even act the turn after that. Granted, I might be misremembering CS3, as I just did a NG+ playthrough and so I was totally op anyway. But I feel like the regular game had breaking that resulted in multiple stunned turns.

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Yeah, enemies recover from break much faster than they did in CS3. A lot of things from CS3 got nerfed in my experience but CS3 was trivial to break open so that's not too surprising that they'd maybe want to dial it down a bit.

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I'm 71 hours into the game on act 2-3 with 2 days to go until ps5 hits

Even if I didn't have to work and could play 48 hours straight I still don't think I'll finish in time

Ohhhhhh noooooooo

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Finished the Alster chapter last night. The bosses have been pretty easy on hard mode so far and i do agree with the break stuff. I'm glad they made Juna's order cost 2 bars now though as it was broken in CS3.

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ninkendo posted...

I'm 71 hours into the game on act 2-3 with 2 days to go until ps5 hits

Even if I didn't have to work and could play 48 hours straight I still don't think I'll finish in time

Ohhhhhh noooooooo

Just move it over!

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shane15 posted...

I'm glad they made Juna's order cost 2 bars now though as it was broken in CS3.

CS3 Juna + Kurt's Brave Orders were absolutely ridiculous together lol.

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Sorry LtM I gotta play the Cooling Springs level of Astro's Playroom

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Lloyd and Rean's exchange in 2-4 the first time this game made me tear up a bit

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There was a lot of broken stuff in CS3. Sledgehammer+Wind blade, Stacking 4 High tier bells on a mage then using Divine Song (This might actually be the most broken thing in CS3), Jusis/Ash being able to clip thru walls, etc

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with the boost arts got in CS4 and some exclusive accessories Rean gets if you max out Elliot and Emma's relationships he's pretty much the most broken character in the series using the high level bells setup (with Pandora/Magius + Titania MQs) and diabolos gem and ATS boosting quartz.

He just instantly casts any art with 1 delay and can buff himself even further with Saintly Force

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Yea that sounds about the same as CS3 then. What is the spell of choice? Is it still Calvary Edge? I'm still pretty early but it's pretty clear Art Support+spell casters is the way to go in general so far. Arts are very much out preforming Crafts early on.

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it's amazing how much easier this game got once Rean showed up (extremely mild spoiler)

also I'm in Act II now and I'm loving it but also the writing is kind of a mess. can't wait to finish and post a ranking topic

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Finished act 1 today. I'm satisfied with how it all played out. Was a bit worried at first with all the backtracking but it all felt a lot more streamlined this time around which was great. Watched the opening scenes of act 2 and it finally feels like we're getting down to business.

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if only
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https://twitter.com/shineget64/status/1330840766902657024

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also just a heads up even if you're not going for the platinum, make sure to at least finish all the quests

it's very important in this one

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Just finished the Crossbell stuff (only started a few days ago, got to it late)

Definitely doing that thing I do where I literally never use characters who aren't the main characters in battle because that's wasting Link Level growth.

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finished this yesterday, definitely full of post-completion gloom now. what a ride. might make a ranking topic someday

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I'm still in Act 2. It's nice you get so many characters to choose from but it puts you off using anyone outside the core team because you have to mess about setting them up.

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CS Ranking: 1 > 3 > 4 > 2

ninkendo posted...

also just a heads up even if you're not going for the platinum, make sure to at least finish all the quests

it's very important in this one

Yeah, kinda crazy that you can't see the ending unless you do all the quests, though the quests are quite good.

Normal End > True End tho.
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Gotta say, not letting me use the menu before this final fight in Act 1, right after a long stretch of equipment juggling, another boss, and one of the hardest AP challenges in the series?

Definitely the biggest low point of the franchise.

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ninkendo posted...

also just a heads up even if you're not going for the platinum, make sure to at least finish all the quests

it's very important in this one

hope I haven't missed any then!

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turns out

even if you don't do it, the last sidequest pops up in the final dungeon after you beat the game once and reload your save.

but you'll have to go ahead and finish the final dungeon again from where your last save was after doing that.

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I have a question for all you Cold Steel fans.

I'm kind of interested in this series, but I heard that this is part of another continuity or something like that. So if I just buy Cold Steel 1-4 and play through them, will I be lost, miss out on a lot of the story, or does it not matter too much?
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I did exactly that and, though I still have a lot of IV left, had no problem whatsoever. The games never outright refuse to explain context. Are there things that were cryptic/references I didn't understand? Absolutely. Did it bother me? No. Totally able to follow what's going on even in it's most crossover filled moments.

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I'm Crossbell Lawful

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lihlih posted...

I have a question for all you Cold Steel fans.

I'm kind of interested in this series, but I heard that this is part of another continuity or something like that. So if I just buy Cold Steel 1-4 and play through them, will I be lost, miss out on a lot of the story, or does it not matter too much?

You probably won't be lost but I highly highly recommend playing the Sky trilogy (at least FC and SC) first. One they're better games and two I do think you'll enjoy 4 more. Instead of the exposition dumps being helpful reminders/callbacks it might be confusing backstory.

(neutral sky here)

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colliding posted...

You probably won't be lost but I highly highly recommend playing the Sky trilogy (at least FC and SC) first. One they're better games and two I do think you'll enjoy 4 more. Instead of the exposition dumps being helpful reminders/callbacks it might be confusing backstory.

Can you give me full names of the Sky trilogy games? I have no idea what to even look for.
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