I don't spend a lot of time and energy on here anymore but I wanted to take the opportunity to proselytize for this game a little bit as the English release is coming up on the 15th of June 2023.

The game delivers on its concept and goes further. Really smartly written, aware of and playful with its language while not calling too much attention to itself in a detrimental way. Really curious to see how the translation will handle some of that material, like Yuuki's immediate default to addressing Kisa by 彼女 moments after meeting her while under the belief that she is a boy, a suggestion that Mare's gang consider themselves 彼女たち while not considering themselves not men at the same time. The intersection of 役割語 and what could be called "gendered language" in the patterns of characters like Tsukasa is also really well considered and really evident of the care taken in writing these characters and realising this setting while not explicitly being a "queer" work. I hope the translation work regarding these elements is good, and that the increased reliance of the English language on contextual markers like pronouns doesn't mean that they shy away from the facile way in which the Japanese script crosses borders, things like Shirota and Sugachi being called 歌姫 and 舞姫 with no friction or resistance.

Very cute romances, enjoyable music and drama. If you were interested in the concept of this game but are not a fan of the otoge angle, there is a non-romantic route in the game. Personally I found that a bit too cliché in a shounen manga way despite a very strong central concept, but the romantic route I chose (Shirota's) was incredibly well-devised, grounded and emotional. I played the last rhythm game in tears. Please give this game a chance if any of this interests you.

「狂楽の覚悟はお済みか、諸君！」

trails of cold steel IV is the conclusion of the cold steel saga and an ambitious attempt to tie all loose ends, including the liberl and crossbell cast. while this game has high highs and abysmally low lows at moments, the cast is just so memorable and very well written that i had to close my eyes to all the asspulls and plot holes and similar.

first of all, the good things. i admit i understand why some people are simply tired of rean and his story but you just can't hate him (talking about the in-game rean, not the rean the fandom projects on). he's just a guy put in shitty situations and tries to deal with them, obviously with the power of friendship because what is a JRPG without the magical power of bonds. but it's okay, the writing was really good there, the new class VII was amazing and brimming with character. the ost is like a warm hug, i love it so much and the battle system is very fun, the quartz system will never get old for me. another good thing, which was a deciding factor for giving this game a high rating is, well the true ending.
it filled me with genuine happiness and emotions like yeah, i followed the whole cast for 6 years and they all end up happy, good stuff. also i love the lore and worldbuilding, it was really solid, though this game went off the rails at times so even the worldbuilding was a bit janky.
the normal ending was pretty good too, no asspulls level hirohiko araki, though it was bittersweet it was pretty solid.

now the bad things. like i said, this was too ambitious of a project, cramming such a huuuuuge amount of story and lore (of three branches of this series) in one game couldn't work at all. i get this game should be played slowly and going from one corner to another soaking in the information and atmosphere but in the late game and especially going for the true ending everything just goes crazy and some oddly convenient stuff for the main party happens, which is, frankly, unrealistic especially looking at the ''war'' theme and part of the whole story.
thank god the romance options were optional, because if they were mandatory i would give this game 2* at best, the way they're written is classic weeaboo incel cringe bullshit and totally ooc 💀 thankfully, the homophobia backfired and we have crow and rean as the canon ship of cold steel because it's much more real and genuine than any of rean's social link romances
also the playable cast can be overwhelming at times, but that's on me.
overall, it's an okay game and it does its job to an extent, it could be much better, but it's not bad per se.