Is this actually canon or spin-off?

[That Terrible Biscuit]

I completed CS IV last week. I did Sky FC all the way to CS IV so Im literally burnt out (even did them all on hard)

Im planning on getting this but not this year (maybe next year) but is it actually part of the main story or is it like 'lets just have fun with it before we close the book completely'?

Also is the next arch about Renne being in high school and when will it officially be released in the West?

[Ogami]

This is canon and set 6 months after the end of CS IV.
Its pretty much Cold Steel 4.5 and servers as big epilogue for the entire western Zemuria game series ( Sky, Crossbell, Cold Steel).

Its just a final big adventure and brings everyone together from all the games and closes some hanging plot threads from the last few games and also teases a bit about the future.

As for the next game , Kuro no Kiseki , its not really about Renne in high school.
The main character is a 24 year old man called Van who is a "Spriggan" which is basically a bracer for the underworld, accepting shady quests and morally questionable tasks that cant be solved by the bracer guild or the police.
He gets contacted by a young girl to find a stolen artifact of her grandfather which sets the whole plot into motion.
The cast is entirely new but there are some minor cameo appaearances by known character like Renne who now lives in Calvard and studies there.
But she has a very minor role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBur1kayI7U

As for an English release, nobody knows. Nothing has been announced yet.
But there is a 100% complete English fanpatch for the Japanese Steam version, currently playing myself with it and its very good.
There is also Kuro no Kiseki II which is the sequel and also already on Steam but not in English of course.

[That Terrible Biscuit]

Originally posted by Ogami:

This is canon and set 6 months after the end of CS IV.
Its pretty much Cold Steel 4.5 and servers as big epilogue for the entire western Zemuria game series ( Sky, Crossbell, Cold Steel).

Its just a final big adventure and brings everyone together from all the games and closes some hanging plot threads from the last few games and also teases a bit about the future.

As for the next game , Kuro no Kiseki , its not really about Renne in high school.
The main character is a 24 year old man called Van who is a "Spriggan" which is basically a bracer for the underworld, accepting shady quests and morally questionable tasks that cant be solved by the bracer guild or the police.
He gets contacted by a young girl to find a stolen artifact of her grandfather which sets the whole plot into motion.
The cast is entirely new but there are some minor cameo appaearances by known character like Renne who now lives in Calvard and studies there.
But she has a very minor role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBur1kayI7U

As for an English release, nobody knows. Nothing has been announced yet.
But there is a 100% complete English fanpatch for the Japanese Steam version, currently playing myself with it and its very good.
There is also Kuro no Kiseki II which is the sequel and also already on Steam but not in English of course.

Man I just feel so burnt out reading this. Id say from early 2018 Iv spent about 600hrs on the whole series. I did Cold Steel arch first and after 2hrs into Cold Steel IV I decided to go back to check out the Liberl arch. Sky 3rd didnt really feel canon to me because it just felt like all the characters were trapped in a box and it didnt feel the same, had a different flow to it.

Luckily when I finished them thats when the Crossbell arch got an official release so I could get straight onto that followed by Azure. Once I did them then I got start Cold Steel IV again.

Im guessing it will get a proper western release which will be next year I reckon. Which is fine for me because like I say just burnt out. I thought once I defeated Osborne I got the bad ending but turned out you could just play the real ending and only had to slug through one final battle and of course watch the rest of the ending. A massive sigh of relief when I did that. I probably took 3 hiatus from it hence why it took so long.

I remember starting Sky FC (with voice mod) and played it on hard and with it being so bare bones and grounded I must have spent 4hrs just grinding on the first area lol

[Ogami]

Honestly, i would try to play Reverie at some point and then just stop and wait a few years.
The western Zemuria arc which is about 60% of the overall planned story is finished after Reverie and Kuro is the first game in the "Eastern Zemuria" arc and that will run for many years to come.
The director said in an interview about 8-10 more games to finish the whole overarching storyline.

So really no need to rush, i played Reverie 2 years ago in Japanese with a fantranslation and then took a break. Only recently starting to get back into Trails with the fantranslation of the first Kuro game.

[vkobe]

Originally posted by That Terrible Biscuit:

I completed CS IV last week. I did Sky FC all the way to CS IV so Im literally burnt out (even did them all on hard)

Im planning on getting this but not this year (maybe next year) but is it actually part of the main story or is it like 'lets just have fun with it before we close the book completely'?

Also is the next arch about Renne being in high school and when will it officially be released in the West?

the only spin off is the anime

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2138610/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Kuro_no_Kiseki/

Kuro_no_Kiseki is already released in west, you just need to disable english in search option or check japanese in language option research

[That Terrible Biscuit]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Honestly, i would try to play Reverie at some point and then just stop and wait a few years.
The western Zemuria arc which is about 60% of the overall planned story is finished after Reverie and Kuro is the first game in the "Eastern Zemuria" arc and that will run for many years to come.
The director said in an interview about 8-10 more games to finish the whole overarching storyline.

So really no need to rush, i played Reverie 2 years ago in Japanese with a fantranslation and then took a break. Only recently starting to get back into Trails with the fantranslation of the first Kuro game.

I am planning on it. Just not yet. I got Like a Dragon on Steam summer sale last month and I left it a side to finish Cold Steel IV. Cant play 2 JRPG's at the same time because they take up too much time. I'll probably get Reverie next summer when thats on sale

[That Terrible Biscuit]

Originally posted by vkobe:

Originally posted by That Terrible Biscuit:

I completed CS IV last week. I did Sky FC all the way to CS IV so Im literally burnt out (even did them all on hard)

Im planning on getting this but not this year (maybe next year) but is it actually part of the main story or is it like 'lets just have fun with it before we close the book completely'?

Also is the next arch about Renne being in high school and when will it officially be released in the West?

the only spin off is the anime

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2138610/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Kuro_no_Kiseki/

Kuro_no_Kiseki is already released in west, you just need to disable english in search option or check japanese in language option research

Yeah I watched the anime couple months ago. Wasnt what I was hoping for really.

[Alex]

As canon as it can possibly be.
The only spinoff to be released in English atm is Nayuta [correct if I'm wrong there].

[Stabbey]

It is canon. Unfortunately, given how absurd and sloppy the plot is.

[Dr. Rudolf von Richten]

Originally posted by Stabbey:

It is canon. Unfortunately, given how absurd and sloppy the plot is.

At least the plot (which is indeed quite weak) brought Lapis into the world, which is 100% win. ;-)

[Ogami]

The story is fine, this was never meant to be more then one final fun adventure for the characters of the previous arcs, one final quest to bring everyone together as a big goodbye to western Zemuria and to tease a bit of future stuff.
The entire plot barely lasts a week.
For that its perfectly fine.

[That Terrible Biscuit]

Originally posted by Ogami:

The story is fine, this was never meant to be more then one final fun adventure for the characters of the previous arcs, one final quest to bring everyone together as a big goodbye to western Zemuria and to tease a bit of future stuff.
The entire plot barely lasts a week.
For that its perfectly fine.

Yeah it just feels like Sky the 3rd. It feels part of the story but not entirely necessary because all the characters get trapped in an alternate universe and it more or less fleshes out Kevin and Ries. You felt incredibly OP'ed though like you didnt need to grind much.

To me Sky finished at SC. And of course Cold Steel finished at 4. Reverie just doesnt seem necessary, like 'lets just have fun before we close the book on it'

Still be getting it, just not for another year

[Philosopher]

Originally posted by That Terrible Biscuit:

To me Sky finished at SC. And of course Cold Steel finished at 4. Reverie just doesnt seem necessary, like 'lets just have fun before we close the book on it'

Still be getting it, just not for another year

Sky 3rd was the first time we saw Osborne in person. You'd only heard of him before that. It's also thanks to third that the events implicating the Brights were allowed to take place in Crossbell, as well as the role Kevin played over there. We also got a glimpse into Gehenna or "hell" in third, which hadn't been done beforehand, and it shaped some of the future encounters our heroes would have. I'd not say third was useless because of all that.

Just like Reverie is the first game we get to see the face of the new President of Calvard that will probably be a big player in the coming games, for reasons revealed in that game. I'd say it did a pretty good job closing a lot of loose ends and giving you an idea of where everyone was headed after all this.

There were a few good moments in it. I played it for almost 400h recently.

[Weagles_Fan]

Originally posted by Alex:

As canon as it can possibly be.
The only spinoff to be released in English atm is Nayuta [correct if I'm wrong there].

Still to come, 19 September is the current release date planned.