I'm kind of mixed on this one. I liked the soundtrack but there is a noticeable downgrade and variety of tracks here than in previous games, and the combat was fun (albeit very very easy, even on Nightmare) with some new additions to spice things up. However, I am pretty conflicted about the story overall.

Cold Steel IV's plot is really really good at points with some awesome and emotional moments but at the same time it is very messy, with a lot of blatant filler and generic shonen and power of friendship stuff. It was almost nauseating to boot up the game sometimes because I just was not very invested in some of the early to mid-game plot. Without getting too spoiler-y, it is disappointing to me that Falcom chose not to commit to some of the highly emotional moments from past games in the saga, instead choosing to undo them here. I don't mind twists like that occasionally but it really did lessen the impact certain moments could have had in this game, as I started feeling that nothing bad could actually happen to good guys. I did love the big crossover between the Trails sagas, however.

I definitely didn't dislike Trails of Cold Steel IV or anything, though. I enjoyed it a lot overall. It just wasn't as impactful of an ending to the trilogy as I was expecting.

Though it did take a while to click with me, alongside a few updates that really smoothed things out, I really enjoyed this game. Firstly, the obligatory observation that the game is extremely unpolished. Updates helped but as it stands, it is still pretty rough around the edges. That aside, the game really did surprise me with how good it was. Roaming around the islands with my finely-tuned physics settings/controls was so much fun and the traditional boost levels were a good time too, if a bit same-y aesthetically. The boss titans were a blast, too, with some janky mechanics and straight banger tracks accompanying them. The music was also excellent, as is usual with Sonic games (my favorite tracks were Find Your Flame and Rhea Island).

I'm glad I pushed through it all and finished Sonic Frontiers. It is a surprisingly unique take on recent Sonic games and I imagine a sequel to it could be truly great.