The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV

This complex story, which has developed over multiple game entries, has done an impressive job in tying up loose threads and creating a cinematic finale. Luckily for fans of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, outside of a couple of minor stumbling blocks, it succeeds. There are moments when the plot seems a bit rushed or convenient in addressing past events. There's also the issue of the game's two endings. After initially beating the game and seeing a relatively downer of an ending, players are told they haven't seen the "true ending." There's no way to avoid this, though thankfully players won't have to replay the entire game or search for some tiny, easily missed task for the "true" ending. But this doesn't make much sense in terms of game design. Instead, it feels like the developers forgot to include a quest at the end and used this as an excuse to patch it in.

As much as Trails of Cold Steel IV relies on its story, the fact remains it's still a game too. And it's here that it seems to stumble a bit more. The series' gameplay has never been all that consistent to begin with. That's not to say it's bad, but each game has felt significantly different that the ones before. After making an effort to streamline a lot of the commands and options in the last game, for some reason the developers decided to not only add more new complexities and techniques, but also reintroduce mechanics from previous titles, such as the Lost Arts from Trails of Cold Steel II. Though fans might enjoy seeing some of these options reappear, it also feels like a step backwards. These additions don't break the game, but it makes for a much steeper learning curve, especially after getting used to the smoother mechanics of Trails of Cold Steel III. Finally, this isn't meant as a starting point for newcomers. Between all the references to past events and characters, and the patchwork gameplay from prior games, this is solely for fans that have followed the saga from its start.