So with Reverie getting it’s English announcement I figured I’d finally clean this up and throw the save up. I don’t really have a lot to say about Cold Steel 4 itself, it was a decent game that did what it was suppose to story wise and fixed some broken game design stuff from the previous game. Had too many forced party member segments, but they made sense and I got through them all on the highest difficulty.The Rean gets any girl thing was a bit ridiculous, but at the same time it was basically what a decent amount of fans of the series were waiting for anyway since the original game had dating mechanics.

Below is the save and some general thoughts about the whole 4 games. Honestly I just can’t wait for Reverie to end this and eventually move on from this part of the world and onto the rest.

Oh and fanservice. Emma gets the above ridiculous rune only outfit that might as well be a shiny plugsuit or swimwear. It is by far the most silly outfit you unlock in game. I’m divided on whether it’s erotic or not, she is basically naked but it’s not really drawing attention to her sexually. It just doesn’t contain the same sexuality as swimwear or things like bunny outfits. Still basically did an entire playthrough just so I had it at end game for her final date since you unlock that outfit only in NG+.

All the old swimwear is back. Almost every Cold Steel character also gets a bath towel.

I don’t want to rant like I did for 3, so I’ll just go over a few thoughts and end this. First, the series would have been way better if Rean had a main lover/partner. 1-2 work without that, but after Rean graduates and his power and role become core to his character his arc just wobbles. New Class 7 kind of exist to cover the fact Rean doesn’t have a true go-to for his emotional support, even becoming a 5 part bond in 4 that would have just worked better as a singular person. It could have been his sister, who he showed the most concern of over any character in the setting, or hell just make him depressed over Crow and have him realize he was romantically in love with the guy. That would have worked better then the bonds of friendship stuff and fit Rean’s emotional arc through Steel 3-4. Crow was always the person Rean had the most emotional stuff with other then Alicia anyway and Crow was more important to the plot.

I don’t like how recycled the games are. Going back to old areas is fine, but why are 1-2 and 3-4 basically the same adventure? In the first entry you go to place by train, can’t back track, and are in a school. 2/4 give you an airship and have you able to backtrack and the school elements are basically gone. This is part of my issue and why I’m glad 3+ entries will never be done with the series again. Playing 1-2 and playing 3-4 is like playing the same games back to back, progression is just to similar.

Gaius ended up being the only member of Class 7 to get a potential girlfriend out of the whole cast. I say potential becasue it doesn’t admit it for some reason. This just weirds me out that Machias and Elliot have no romance hints at all but Gaius does. Jusis does to, but it’s with Millium who can also be with Rean, kind of, so that will never pay off. Honestly all the romance stuff feels weak in this series since none of it pays off with any big moments that matter. None of it really matters either, which bothers me. Who is with who is usually really important for a world that still has stories to tell.

I’m kind of at the point were Legend of Heroes as a series is the new big RPG to me. It has character design I like, which Final Fantasy gave up on and Persona’s characters are just to thin to get much out of me. It also has costumes and fanservicey stuff which other AAA games have abandoned. The story is interesting and very Japanese, even being set in a fusion of magic and machinery which is what gave FF it’s unique feel in the first place. While I expect the final answers to a lot of the unexplained answers to suck, as most long running series tend to have happen, the individual journeys are fun and the characters lovable. It’s also very addictive with how much completion metric stuff each game has. It suits me far better then the trainwreck FF become after 11.

Edit- Started Reverie, it lets you pick your lover for Rean, but whoever you did the bonding event with gets extra love xp(doubt it matters though). It also checks link levels , and apparently only Juna wasn’t high enough? I checked if I could fix this, but it would take hours that are likely not worth it. PS5 players have it easy, they don’t have saves so everything is auto the best for them.

PC save for Cold Steel 4

Lots of saves. A lot of them are for achievements. Like final enemy for scanning and Nightmare playthrough, or final cooking recipe. The saves separate from the clump at the top are all for bond events from the rest of the game, which also acts as jump in points to the Rean chapters of the game. Those are all NG+. The final one is at the big pick your girl moment.

Apparently, as far as I can tell from the few comments on save importing, Reverie lets you pick your final bond moment for Rean for the few changes that has in Reverie, so I didn’t bother beating the game with every combo here. The one clear save hits (almost) max unlocks for Reverie and chooses Emma.

Completion: Do everything.

Honestly all I care about is all costumes from in game sources and the import stuff, which basically requires doing all side quests. Filling up all the lists is just the completionist in me and all of that is thanks to guides. NG+ wasn’t needed for anything other then the costume unlocks and having access to all the bond stuff.