The Legend Of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Confirmed For Nintendo Switch

It’s a bit silly not to release the other Trails games when they all feed into this one. Maybe a Sora, Ao, Zero collection incoming?

Well if they bring 1 and 2 over to switch physically I'll double dip for sure. Only have them digital on pc. Same for if they did Trails in the Sky.

@nessisonett NIS has the license for the 3rd and 4th game, XSEED for the 1st and 2nd.

So we should stalk XSEED for that.

Another series I’d like to try. I might see if the first 2 games come to Switch or how expensive they are on Vita.

@Rayquaza2510 That seems hugely stupid given how closely linked the games are. They’re genuine sequels so it’s kinda crazy different companies have the licenses.

I'll believe it if it's still there tomorrow.

@JoeDiddley They are available as psp digital titles for vita. https://store.playstation.com/en-us/grid/search-game/1?query=legend%20of%20heroes

Don't think they go on sale too often like most vita and psp games these days.

Oh whoops lmao. I was thinking of Trails in the Sky. But Cold Steel are up there for vita too. Last I looked physically they weren't cheap.

Give me 1 and 2 and I'll play it.

I’d love to dive into this series, as I’ve heard great things, but I’m not gonna start with the third or fourth game, that’s just nuts. If NISA bring the first two over to Switch, then I’m all in. Otherwise, I guess I’ll just have to miss out.

@Spoony_Tech IV was already going to come anyways, for ps4 atleast, just didn't have a release window. I highly doubt they'd joke about a Switch port. Especially since they already have III coming out on Switch. Would be hilarious and stupid to only have the third entry of a four entry franchise on a system lol.

@The_Pixel_King You don't have a pc, ps3, vita, or ps4? Even non gaming pcs can handle these games decently. So no reason not to get into the series if you actually want to do so if you atleast have a modern pc or laptop.

Bring the two first ones, and I'll consider getting these lol

Nice! Switch is RPG Hangout.

@Cevil If anything, a digital soundtrack would be hetero in that it’s widely available, watered down and with less interesting packaging.

@Joker13z Well, Saints Row 3 (and now IV) say hello, lol. 😜

@EVIL-C Yeah that's 2 games out of 4 lol. You just proved my point.

I played the first one on Vita and really enjoyed it, and I started playing the second, but then my Vita basically died. When I read the story summary of Part 2 within the menu on III's demo, I saw that II was the close of a story, more or less, and III is like a new beginning. I say this to say, unless you just really want to play them, you don't need to play I or II to really learn what's going on, the summaries do a fine job of bringing the player up to speed.

It might be a bit silly, but is there a good video on YouTube detailing the story of the first two? Would love to play this series, but the switch is my only option...

@Pineapple_Mohawk Like I mentioned to another the first 2 run on pretty basic pc hardware. You got a semi new pc? Doesn't have to be a gaming one.

@Rayquaza2510 Practically the best option. And if III and IV sell enough, that would push XSEED more into bring I and II to the Switch.

@Joker13z Yeah I'm fully in agreement with you. It's silly, lol. 😋

Just thought of another example, Assassins Creed 3 & 4 on Wii U. 🤣 Then they act surprised when it sells poorly...

@Dualmask: Honestly, they really don't. The summaries are intended to be refreshers for people who've played the rest of the games already and leave out a ton of details. Any claims from NISA that "it's totally fine to start with CS3" are marketing talk, since they didn't publish any of the other games and don't want to lose sales by recommending people to buy a competitor's games.

On top of that, CS3 only contains summaries for Cold Steel I and II... but it also assumes you've played Trails in the Sky FC, SC and the 3rd as well as Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, even though it doesn't contain any summaries for them. Hell, it doesn't even have character profiles for them.

I'm going through CS3 right now and I honestly can't imagine playing it without playing through the rest of the series (not just CS1 and 2). Chapter 1 ends with a crazy event that'd probably be enough to make anyone who's played the Sky games shed a tear, while it's going to mean literally nothing to anyone who hasn't. Chapter 2 meanwhile has almost non-stop references and mentions of characters and events from Zero and Azure without any real explanation of any of them...

The game also REALLY loves showing images of characters and events from previous games whenever things in the past are mentioned without actually saying who or what is being shown. Anyone who's played them will know immediately... anyone who hasn't will just be even more confused.

It's nice that CS3 and 4 will be available in a portable format for those who have played the others, but I seriously cannot recommend anyone to actually make this their starting point. This series is truly one of a kind, you're doing yourself a major disservice if you make one of these your first Trails game.

There will undoubtedly be people who say they don't have any other systems to play the others on, but honestly, ALL of them are available on PC, and all of them will run on 20 year old toasters. They're not graphically intensive games.

@Joker13z no, the problem isn't so much that I don't have a capable hardware, it's more that with a newborn and work and adult life, there's not a lot of gaps to squeeze in some play time... Switch helps a lot with my current situation...

I've basically have never heard of this series and they're already announcing a new one. The only Cold Steel I know is Cold Steel the Hedgehog.

@EVIL-C Yeah I've never been a fan of just having 1 or 2 of a series on a platform just randomly thrown in there lol. I can only hope as the Switch gets older more complete collections like what they've done with Resident Evil are released

@Pineapple_Mohawk That's cool man I get it. I was just making sure you knew it could be run on pc mainly cause usually everyone has a decent one in case you really were wanting to play the first two. Not everyone is keen on specs for pc ports. Good luck with everything going on though. Hope xseed decides to eventually port them but sadly I wouldn't hold out for it.

@Joker13z Unfortunately not, man. I’ve kinda fallen on hard times over the past 18 months (split from my wife after 25 years of marriage, which is still killing me. Plus some serious health issues), so I had to sell my beloved JP import white Vita, then my PS4 Pro, then even my Switch.. but I managed to replace the Switch with a new Lite back in December! Whatever happens, I’m not letting that go. Aside from my amazing daughters who are grown up and live with their mum, it’s all I have in my life right now.

[EDIT] Reading that back, it sounds like I’m wallowing in self-pity. I’m not (okay, just a smidge), but it was kinda cathartic writing all that down and getting it off my chest a bit. Though if I wrote everything, I’d still be here next week. Lol

@Dualmask Heavily disagree with this. Cold Steel 3 plot is heavily based around the aftermath of 1 and 2. Even the new characters have their backstories shaped by pre-established events and characters.

If you start with Cold Steel 3, Rean is going to have a bloated backstory with at least six key time periods (Life before adoption, life after adoption, life as a student, time spent in the Civil war, time spent as a government dog defending Crossbell from Calivard, and time as a unit in the Northern War), as opposed to just two at the start of Cold Steel 1. The same will be true for Olivier, Sara, and really any major character who was still an adult before the events of Cold Steel 1.

@The_Pixel_King Jesus dude...I want to give you a hug now haha. It's all good about writing all that out. Sometimes you just need to let it out. Really sorry to hear about all that. I'm glad you still have atleast one device to game on even if you can't buy much games. You need an escape ya know?

Funny enough (well not really funny but you know) my poor dad is going through a similar issue but he's never been a gamer. He's been with the lady he married after my parents divorced for 23 years now and all of a sudden she isn't sure if she wants to be with him anymore and currently living in an apartment not with him. He's trying to work it all out and still be with her but who knows. Doesn't help she semi cheated on him too

So yeah good times all around right now. I hope things get better for you where they can. Stay strong man.

Isn't it a bit silly to put 3 and 4 on switch but not 1 and 2 ? I have them on ps4 but for those who want to discover the serie, I hope they will put the two first games on switch. If not, newcomers will be utterly lost if they tried to play from the third game !

I will get this but only after playing the first three. I still had to get through the second one on my PC.

I just threw down money on a preorder for the limited edition. We've got to show Falcom that there's an audience for their games on Switch. Please give us Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, Falcom.

@The_Pixel_King You kinda seem too old to even had the time playing video games. My mother was taught on how to use the Mac & only my dad plays solitaire. There's several scenarios that would only make sense in this era.

@Joker13z it depends on how our fathers upbringing which determines their interest in videos games. If you got everything handed to you on a silver platter which includes becoming lazier back in the earlier 1980's that's 40yrs since video games started. I played some oldies on DosBox, but still confused on how 50+yrs old are into video games, besides the one idea I can't mention here.

@Drake @Seacliff Welp, having beaten the first game and forcibly skipped the second, the summaries were enough for me. But to each their own.

That being said, I wouldn't complain if Parts I and II were ported to Switch. I wouldn't rush to buy them, but it would only be a good thing.

If you want ToCS 1 and 2 on Switch, get @XSEED on Twitter. Be respectful though, of course. This is such a great RPG series and I hope more people can get into it.

I hear great things about this series, so it's good news IV is coming to Switch.

"What about 1 and 2 huh? How are you gonna understand the story without 1 and 2!"
-Keef

This series has always been on my radar, but I have such a huge backlog I haven't gotten around to it. With how often I have to work away from home, I would rather get the entire series on the Switch than on the PS4. With that said, I probably wont get to play it any time soon unless XSeed is convinced to port over the first two games.

This is the best news ever!! So happy it's not an april fools joke!!! =D

@67Vasile Haha, I’m 46 my man. And I’ve been playing video games since the 80’s. I got married in 1995 at 21 and had my first daughter in 1996. She’s 24 now. I feel super right now though. Lol

I have one of them on Vita and thought it was a bit slow and boring.

If the first two get announced I will get the series on switch as I have been interested in the series for a while but starting in the middle just doesn't feel right to me.

I don't really have the time but...

I love me a good JRPG!

@The_Pixel_King the closest system that was made was the Atari system and black/white TV's before the 80's. Windows and Battle net didn't show until 1993, not to mention floppy A disks before those. I grew up with tetris/pacman since those were on arcade rigs. Than Warcraft/Starcraft than lastly Nintendo dragged me around

My friend said "play this series" so it's exactly what I'm doing! I'm playing the first two via steam (midway through 1 right now), and I'm very excited I'll be able to play the last two on the switch. Especially since saves apparently do not carry over between 2 and 3, only between the pairs.

"Legend of Heroes" is the most boring videogame series of all time. It's a series of visual novels written by people who have no business writing books. These are in no way RPGs. The player does absolutely nothing apart from pressing a button to forward the novel. There is no decision-making on your part: you just sit and read. There is no exploration in he games, because that would involve letting you decide where to go. Instead, it's the most linear experience you can imagine.

This is a wonderful generation for Nintendo in the JRPG department

@TheWingedAvenger I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but it definitely isn't related to the Trails series. These are JRPGs with a deep combat system and many locations to explore. There is a lot of text and dialogue, but also a large amount of gameplay. Do some actual research before spreading false information. Google "Trails/Kiseki series" and you'll quickly discover that this is not the game you're thinking of. And once you do so, kindly delete your comment before people are turned away from the series as a result of your ignorance.

@Ryogo_Kaburaki
I've played "Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermilion" and "Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky" on the PSP, and both of them are basically books that you read, not games that you play. These games are extremely linear: everywhere you go is carefully planned out so you can't go off the beaten path. They are hardly videogames. Yes, there is combat and there are dungeons to explore, but there is no world to explore - only linear paths between one endless, boring dialogue and the next. If you like reading novels written by videogame developers, then by all means play these "RPGs", but if you like novels written by real writers, just go to a book shop!

If anyone wants to see with their own two eyes what this "game" is really like, they can go to Youtube and watch a complete let's-play of it. I watched a lot of it, and it was obvious to me that this new game in the series is just as lazy as the previous entries: no world to explore, just a series of linear paths and long tedious dialogue that looks like it was written by a college student on marijuana.

If you're interested in real RPGs where you actually play the game yourself, go for the Dragon Quest series or the Zelda series, or the first 7 Final Fantasy games. There's a reason why those are the best-selling series in Japan.

@TheWingedAvenger News flash buddy, that's what a lot of JRPGs are. Not every game has to be open world, or even have exploration at all. Just because this type of game isn't your thing doesn't mean it's not a video game or that other people don't enjoy it. The game is not "playing itself for you" or "lazy." It's quite simply not the kind of game that you personally enjoy. This series has a large and dedicated fanbase and the writing/characterization is frequently praised. It's lauded as one of the best examples of world building in the genre, with many explorable cities and tons of lore. Again, just because this type of JRPGs are not your thing does not make them bad or lazy games.

@Ryogo_Kaburaki
I agree with almost everything you say. Yes, lots of people like these titles. Yes, games do not have to have an open world. Yes, this is simply not my kind of game. And yes, its writing is frequently praised.

But your point about the game not being lazy ultimately doesn't hold water. The designers could have kept everything that they had - story, dialogue, combat - as it was, and added a world to explore. It would have taken time, but it would have paid off, because when games add an open world they usually sell a lot. Just look at Zelda, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy (from 1-7), Ultima, Elder Scrolls. Surely videogame developers are aware that these are the most successful RPG series on Earth, and that they all happen to be open-world.

The writing in these games is frequently praised, yes, but only by gamers and game reviewers. The writing doesn't hold up to the work of pure novelists in the same genre. I just think that if people like the writing in these games, they should try reading the classic books of Ray Bradbury and Roger Zelazny because they will experience a huge jump in writing quality.

@TheWingedAvenger Falcom is a very small company and does not have a comparable amount of resources as Nintendo, Square Enix, or Bethesda. That steep competition is precisely why an open world Trails game wouldn't sell well. The series is still obscure, Falcom doesn't have the funding for aggressive marketing or hyper realistic graphics, and so many other developers are releasing open world games in this day and age. However, I would argue that Falcom handles world building and characterization better than those companies. They do not have the time or money to create an open world or 'stunning' graphics, and would rather focus on other aspects of their games anyway (music, story, characters, world building, continuity across 9 games set on the same continent, etc). I may also point out that your judgement of the writing is based only by your experiences with some of the earlier games in the series. Tear of Vermilion suffered from an incredibly rushed translation job by Bandai Namco, so your complaint that "it seems like it was written by a college student on marijuana" is undoubtedly a result of the awful translation on their part. Tear of Vermilion is also largely unrepresentative of the series as of today, because it is not part of the Trails sub-series. As for Trails in the Sky FC, it has comparatively weak writing to the rest of the Trails series, I'll give you that. But the other EIGHT games in Trails which you have NOT PLAYED, are vastly improved in this aspect and many others. You're not exactly an authority on the writing quality of the Trails series when you're only taking into account the oldest game (released in 2004). Another main draw of the series is the continuity between each game, which is something you also can't comment on having only played one Trails game. Cold Steel IV is like the Avengers Endgame of JRPGs, with over 30 playable characters and insane plotlines built up over a decade of games finally coming to their conclusion. Falcom is not lazy. Every game developer isn't a Triple A juggernaut capable of just sneezing a massive world onto a game and lining their pockets with profit. Falcom is a very small company, and they had to choose what they wanted to prioritize in their games. They wanted to create a series of interconnected games with deep lore, world building, and memorable characters. Wasting time on a large (but barren) open world would only lead to an unfocused plot, meaningless space, and limited resources to do anything else in the game. And with so many other developers (with nearly endless pockets) making open world games, creating something refreshing and unique that only a small company like Falcom could do was the option they went with. You say that you agree every game doesn't need an open world, yet you say the absence of one in the Legend of Heroes series means the developers were lazy. You also act like there is no exploration at all. It's true that a lot of the world is comprised of narrow pathways, but towns are large and fully explore-able, caves and dungeons exist, etc. The game that you played (Trails in the Sky FC) is very linear in terms of progression, but again, you lack experience with the rest of the series. Quite a few of the future games give you more freedom as to where to travel and explore. Some even give you access to nearly the entire world halfway through. As for the writing, of course it's no classic literature, but it's a hell of a lot better than anything found in other video games. So again, as someone who only played an irrelevant, poorly translated Legend of Heroes game and the first/oldest Trails game, you really have no place in a comment section for the newest game in the series releasing over 15 years after the most recent game you played and 8 main series games later. It all comes down to personal taste. I don't take any issue with you personally not having an interest in The Legend of Heroes. However I do take issue with you ignorantly bashing an entire series based only on your experience with a dated game released over a decade and a half ago. What's next? Are you going to crucify Super Mario Bros because it didn't have the sandbox style of Odyssey? Start Zelda with The Adventure of Link and judge Breath of the Wild just by your experience with Zelda 2? You have no business here and your rhetoric is quite simply ignorant and judgmental. If you don't like the games, fine, but don't throw out false statements about the series, discourage interested people from at least trying it, and sling mud at the developers just because Trails isn't the kind of series that YOU wanted. Why even post here if the series wasn't what you were looking for? Just ignore it and move on. You're not helping anyone make an informed purchasing decision, you're just spreading false information and uninformed opinions. End of Story.