CS4 is kinda disappointing.

[BeastSlayer]

I have just finished the game, it was even longer than CS3. To be honest, CS3 is actually my favorite entry in the CS arc. While CS4 does improve upon CS3, has some of the best gameplay and the most diverse cast since Sky3rd, it also has some serious problems:

1. Not enough new stuff: pretty much all the game mechanics, minigames, story structures, etc all came from the previous game. They expended the CS3 battle mechanics a little bit, and adjust the difficulty, but it is essentially the same. It also has the annoying candy crash mini game from Crossbell games. A large part of the game is structured very similarly to CS2 (going around in the ship to rescue friends and family AGAIN!).

2. WAY too much backtracking. You will go back to the same old places many many times. There is not enough new places to visit except for like 3 new villages and places in Crossbell that you could not visit in CS3. The rest of the cities are the some ones you visit in CS3 aka the westen side of the empire. I'd hope that we can visit all cities for the last game in the CS arc, but I guess Falcom did not have the budget.

3. We are still fighting the same bosses again and again...Hey any one mind count how many times we get to fight McBurn the Good Guy? It should be like 8 times if we have to fight him twice every game.

4. The story and lore in CS4 is a mess, mostly because the ending simply has been dragging for too long. CS3 has revealed most of the missing character background and lores, so the story in CS4 is very much predictable til the end. I have been guessing why someone has not died since CS3, and I turned out to be correct. And all of the plot twists are not very suprising in CS4, you can pretty much seen them miles ahead. Overall the story is pretty boring til the final chapter.

5. Lack of compelling villain. Other than the evil entity that was not explained when it became, do we have one truly evil guy in CS arc? Kain and Rufus are probably the closest. Other than that we have anti-heroes that swich sides all the time it gets old.

The true ending was not bad, it wraps up things pretty well, but I really wished they provided a little more details than a few lines and pictures.

Overall, CS4 has more gameplay but lighter on story and side quests when compare to CS3, it almost feel like an awesome anime series runs out of budget so it puts in a lot of filler episodes until the end.

[OnlyOffensive]

dont forget to update this post in 2050 when cs4 will actually see english auditory. ( which is steam )

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

dont forget to update this post in 2050 when cs4 will actually see english auditory. ( which is steam )

From what I have seen CS4 has smaller script than CS3. My guess is that CS4 should be localized in 2020. But I have no idea when it will come to PC.

[Tomoebi]

>The true ending was not bad
wait, there is multiple ending??

[Oguzhan]

Originally posted by 🍍Flavor🎧Wave:

>The true ending was not bad
wait, there is multiple ending??

Falcom seem to be pulling a multiple ending thing lately. They did it with Tokyo Xanadu+. In that game if your characteristic points (courage virtue and something else) are high enough, you can unlock the true ending of the game.

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by 🍍Flavor🎧Wave:

>The true ending was not bad
wait, there is multiple ending??

There are 2 endings, the normal ending and the true ending. Normal ending is kinda like bad ending, it ends very abruptly without any closure, it's kinda pointless unless Falcom wants to use it as canon for the next game.

It's easy to get the true ending, you just to finish a 'hidden quest' to fight a hidden boss, finish the normal ending and load the save from there.

[Hat8]

They really feel intent on punishing people who want to play the game blind.

[OnlyOffensive]

And pushing players towards playing NG+ or postgame, which makes 0 sense in trails.

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

And pushing players towards playing NG+ or postgame, which makes 0 sense in trails.

You don't have to play NG+ to get the true ending though. As far as I know there is no hidden story or lore in NG+ in CS3 and CS4, unlike CS2.

[OnlyOffensive]

well the way you described it, its a postgame boss where you have to load clean save?

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

well the way you described it, its a postgame boss where you have to load clean save?

It is not a postgame boss, but an optional quest boss, and it is not possible to miss the quest. The quest give you clues and you have to find the hidden dungeon.

[Ghaleon]

I haven't played CS3 or 4 yet, but I listened to their soundtracks using the falcom music youtube channel... CS4's really seemed to be the weakest in the series to me.

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by Ghaleon:

I haven't played CS3 or 4 yet, but I listened to their soundtracks using the falcom music youtube channel... CS4's really seemed to be the weakest in the series to me.

Yep, CS4 is lacking in new content, which includes new music.

I've heard that Falcom originally wanted to end the CS arc at CS3, but somehow CS3 got too big, so they decided just drag the storyline longer to make another full game.

[Tokyo Banana]

Originally posted by BeastSlayer:

I have just finished the game, it was even longer than CS3. To be honest, CS3 is actually my favorite entry in the CS arc. While CS4 does improve upon CS3, has some of the best gameplay and the most diverse cast since Sky3rd, it also has some serious problems:

1. Not enough new stuff: pretty much all the game mechanics, minigames, story structures, etc all came from the previous game. They expended the CS3 battle mechanics a little bit, and adjust the difficulty, but it is essentially the same. It also has the annoying candy crash mini game from Crossbell games. A large part of the game is structured very similarly to CS2 (going around in the ship to rescue friends and family AGAIN!).

2. WAY too much backtracking. You will go back to the same old places many many times. There is not enough new places to visit except for like 3 new villages and places in Crossbell that you could not visit in CS3. The rest of the cities are the some ones you visit in CS3 aka the westen side of the empire. I'd hope that we can visit all cities for the last game in the CS arc, but I guess Falcom did not have the budget.

3. We are still fighting the same bosses again and again...Hey any one mind count how many times we get to fight McBurn the Good Guy? It should be like 8 times if we have to fight him twice every game.

CS2 is guilty of all of this as well. 1/2 and 3/4 were supposed to be 1 game each, and it shows.

2 has you redo several dungeons from CS1 with only small differences, and aside from UI changes and snowboarding theres not a whole lot of stuff. You can argue the mech segments are "new" because they only appeared once in CS1, but it feels like a 2nd half of the first game rather than a sequel.