Video Game / The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

When heroes', liberators', and hermits' fates intertwine.^note Characters in the picture clockwise starting from the top: Lapis Rosenberg, Rean Schwarzer, Swin Abel, Nadia Rayne, Lloyd Bannings, Elie MacDowell, Tio Plato, and Randy Orlando. Centered is the enigmatic C (Actually Rufus Albarea.)

WARNING: Due to the Trails Series being a Long Runner, this page assumes that you have played Trails of Cold Steel IV. The page will be filled with unmarked spoilers from the previous games so be careful of Late Arrival Spoilers ahead.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie^* (英雄伝説 創の軌跡, Eiyuu Densetsu: Hajimari no Kiseki, lit. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Beginnings) is the tenth game of Falcom's long-running Trails Series, taking place five months after the end of the Erebonia arc. The game acts as a Dénouement Episode to both arcs, wrapping up many lingering plot lines and providing a capstone to the western half of the Zemurian continent.

Taking place after the Great Twilight, the story focuses on three different routes: The Day of Reindependence (starring Lloyd Bannings, the protagonist of the Crossbell arc), Lost Symbol (starring Rean Schwarzer, the protagonist of the Erebonia arc), and The Miserable Sinners (starring C, an enigmatic masked character.)

An update was announced on September 17, 2020, revealing more Daydreams, characters and levels in the Reverie Corridor to be added, along with a raised level cap from 180 to 250. It was released on October 1, 2020.

The game was released in Japan, China, and South Korea on August 27, 2020 for the PlayStation 4. Versions for the Nintendo Switch and PC came out on August 26, 2021 for the same regions, courtesy of Clouded Leopard Entertainment. An English release for all previous platforms plus the PlayStation 5 came out on July 7, 2023, courtesy of NIS America. However, for the impatient, Clouded Leopard and NIS has worked out a deal where they are allowed to sell the PC version with Chinese and Korean GUI in the Americas on Steam, without obstruction from NIS.

A sequel, Trails through Daybreak, was released in Japan on September 30, 2021.

The official website can be found here.Trailers of the game can be seen here or here, here and here for the English-language version. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie provides examples of:

• Absurdly High Level Cap: You face the Final Boss at around levels 140-150. The original limit is 180. The October DLC raises it to 250 for the Bonus Dungeon, which only really needs a party of around level 190 on Normal Difficulty.
• Actually a Doombot: A bunch of characters have evil robot versions of themselves who act like they're the real person, known as a simulacrum (singular) or simulacra (plural). Examples include the clone of Rufus at Crossbell who delivered a Curb-Stomp Battle against the SSS, multiple clones of Arios ^note  (One clone appears in Rean's chapter 3, and 2 clones appear in Rufus's chapter 4) and the clone of McBurn that appears in Lloyd's chapter 3.
• Advertised Extra: Despite being on the promotional videos and posters, the Grandmaster doesn't get involved in the events of Reverie. She only shows up in a post-game Daydream similar to Star Door 14 from Sky the 3rd.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Most of the problems in the game's story were brought about by this: Elysium, an intelligent system brought about by the aftermath of Cold Steel IV, tried simulating the Great Twilight scenario, which had the side-effect of simulating the curse of Erebonia, corrupting the system. After the final battle, the ex-administrator of the system, Lapis, decides to delete the whole system as humanity is not ready for it.
• All Elections Are Serious Business: The "An Unconventional Student" Daydream centers around the son of a politician who has decided that being elected student council president (of an admittedly prestigious school) is an essential first step in his own political career. To achieve this, he uses bribery and blackmail to eliminate as many other candidates as possible so he can win in a walk, and tries to bully the school idol into either endorsing him or make her break and not be as popular as him. Unfortunately for him, the school idol is the former Angel of Slaughter, who effortlessly evades all his bullying attempts, exposes how he had been suppressing rival candidates to the entire student body, causing him to get expelled, and beats up all his enforcers. For an encore, Renne also gets his father impeached for his own political indiscretions. She ends up getting elected as council president by a 70% margin as a result of this despite having never stood as a candidate.
• All Just a Dream: The end of the Magical Alisa Daydream reveals that it was all just a dream from Juna sleeping at her desk. And then her ARCUS II flashes with a brief pink light after she leaves...
• All Myths Are True: A group victory quote between Swin, Nadia, Roselia, and Toval has the four lampshade that their life stories are sold as popular books.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Cosmetic items such as costumes, hairstyles and accessories are among some of the rewards you can earn from the Reverie Corridor. Some of them are also necessary to complete mini-quests within the corridor as well.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • While the UI of Cold Steel III and IV was really great, it unfortunately lacked a party menu, forcing players to scroll through all the characters one at a time just to pick their characters; made worse by the fact that certain characters have to be on the active party before certain boss fights and some of them are all the way to the end of the list. Reverie now has a dedicated party menu button (left on the D-Pad) so players can shuffle through characters easily.
  • To avoid turning the game into a tedious grind-fest due to the huge character roster, you can obtain EXP boost items in the game that instantly reward amounts of EXP to the recipient to instantly help characters catch up. You can also buy them as DLC. However, characters that are not in your party no longer receive Leaked Experience unlike Cold Steel IV.
  • The game prevents higher difficulty SPD bonuses for certain enemies and bosses, usually if the player has no meaningful way to customize the characters to survive said bonuses.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Ash is rather skeptical when he's told that there may be a ghost in the catacombs under the Imperial Museum. Rean calls him out on it.
  Ash: A ghost, huh? You expect us to believe that bullshit?
  Rean: Might I remind you that we experienced monsters and a Magic Knight down there already? Not to mention this was the spot the Dark Dragon's Nest appeared before the Great Twilight. Something abnormal happening again isn't out of the question.
• Armor-Piercing Question: During Rean's first chapter, when he and Claire talk alone at the hot springs, Claire asks Rean whether he's happy. While Rean does claim that he's happy in general about Millium and Crow being alive, and that life has been treating him well, Claire outright tells him that he's lying because she tells him that she's also feeling the same way. Rean then admits that he's actually confused about this happiness and wonders if he deserves to experience it since he still hasn't forgiven himself for triggering the Great Twilight and nearly got the entire continent in a world war back in Cold Steel IV.
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: At the end of the game, Lloyd pulls out his badge to "arrest" Rufus for escaping prison and all his assorted misdeeds in the Cold Steel arc, but most importantly, ignoring all the bonds he has formed over the course of his journey.
• Ascended Extra: Rufus Albarea went from a major antagonist and a boss fight throughout the Cold Steel games to the third protagonist of this game.
• Beach Episode: The game lets the combined Class VII (as well as Celine, Duvalie, Elise, and Princess Alfin) put on swimsuits for a "beach vacation" at Mishelam Wonderland, featuring mini-games like splitting a watermelon blindfolded with a wooden sword, or riding a banana boat being pulled by a motorboat while collecting flags. Through downloadable content, the Special Support Section (as well as KeA and Rixia) can do the same.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: The "Hollow" copies^note As well as the Class VII simulacra fought in Rean's Chapter 4 all have black sclera with golden irises, making them quite similar to both Rean's ogre mode from Cold Steel IV and McBurn's demon form.
• Blade Lock: At the beginning of Rean's chapter 1, Rean engages in this with Matteus Vander before Matteus overpowers him and pushes him back. Kurt then engages this with his dad immediately afterwards.
• Book Ends:
  • Both the first boss and the Final Boss of the base game use the same OST, "Zero Break Battle".
  • Rean's Final Boss fight in Cold Steel I is against Crow in a mech fight. Rean's final boss fight in the main story is in a mech fight alongside Crow and Rufus (also their final time being playable characters in the main game).
  • At the start of the game, Lloyd and the SSS scale up the Orchis Tower to arrest Rufus' guards. At the end of the main game, Lloyd, Jusis, Lapis, Swin, Nadia, and Zeit climb Retributive Tower to "arrest" Rufus and save his life.
• Bonus Dungeon: The Reverie Corridor is a hub area that you first gain access to in Lloyd and Rean's Chapter 2. This area can also be accessed after the Final Boss for Post-Game Content. While there, you can access dungeons, view Daydreams and acquire guest characters and miscellaneous items.
• The Bus Came Back: Characters who were only mentioned in passing in Cold Steel IV, among other individuals, finally come back on-screen:
  • Rixia Mao, as well as Teo and Lucia Schwarzer, were last seen in Cold Steel II.
  • Noel Seeker, Wazy Hemisphere, Henry MacDowell, Alex Dudley, Zeit, Arios MacLaine, Ilya Platiere, Sergei Lou, Fran Seeker, Shizuku MacLaine, Wald Wales, Mireille, Garcia Rossi, Dieter Crois, and Ian Grimwood haven't appeared since Azure, almost a decade prior. Though with these characters (as well as Rixia), players outside of Japan may not have noticed that the bus ever left, given that Azure had only been localized for release in the West a mere four months prior to Reverie getting localized as well.
  • And in what's likely the biggest case in this game, Professor Erika Russell was previously only featured in her debut back in The 3rd, meaning that this is her first appearance in 13 years.
• Busman's Holiday: "A Look on the Bright Side" shows the Bright family having to do Bracer work on their first family vacation in years (the first ever since taking in Renne) because Gilbert, perennial Butt-Monkey of Ouroboros, ended up accidentally getting into a fight with a wild boar the size of a bus.
• Call-Back: Considering this is the tenth game of a long-running series, this was bound to happen, but a few ones specifically for this game include:
  • Altina recalling that Rixia, Rean, Lloyd, and her all first met at Geofront during the Divertissment in Cold Steel II with Altina noting that because Rixia is in her civilian attire, that means Rean won't be distracted by her Yin attire.
  • Rean recalling that he helped out Juna making pretzels at one point, referring to Juna's bonding event in chapter 4 of Cold Steel III.^note which also answered the question that fans had for a long time as to whether any of the bonding events are canon or not.
    • Also in the same Daydreams, Margarita wanted Millium to help her with her dish for the royal wedding, but couldn't as Millium's spare body was still sleeping at the Black Workshop at that point in time.
  • In the final dungeon, Lloyd deduces that the other Rean they see is another possible future. He explains that he believes that is the case because, as shown in Azure, the SSS died in another timeline.
  • The SSS beach event has Lloyd recalling that he did apply sunscreen to Elie's back in Azure, embarrassing the both of them.
• Cap:
  • Before the October update, the maximum level of the game was at level 180. After the patch, it is increased to level 250.
  • Meanwhile for experience, the cap is at 99,999 which is not a lot in this game as that amount is only worth around 2-3 levels from level 150 onward.
  • Finally, the damage cap for this game is at 9,999,999.
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Long range wireless communication between Crossbell and Erebonia was only possible because of an Artifact in the possession of Prince Olivert, which disappeared when he did, making it impossible for Rean and Lloyd's parties to keep in touch with each other. In fact, Rean's party later concludes that the real target of the operation against Prince Olivert was the Sonorous Seashell, for that reason and to grant long-range transmission capability to the other side.
• Central Theme: Each of the three routes has a particular theme that its respective protagonist's development revolves around.
  • Lloyd's route: Duty. Lloyd and the SSS have gone from complete underdogs just trying to help people as police officers, to the very symbols of hope for Crossbell during its time under Imperial occupation. Though this seems to be a positive thing at first, their lionized status means their defeat at the Supreme Leader's hands is enough to almost completely dishearten Crossbell's people and leave them vulnerable to brainwashing. The SSS are only able to save the day after realizing they've lost their way, and that they were never obligated to solve all of Crossbell's problems for them.
  • Rean's route: Sacrifice. Even after earning his happy ending in the previous game, Rean is still having trouble forgiving himself for his role in the Great Twilight, and is still tempted to throw away his life for his loved ones at any opportunity, much to their concern. It takes a confrontation with his Alternate Self from a hypothetical timeline where he made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Ishmelga, with devastating consequences, for him to realize his constant desire for self-sacrifice only hurts the people he wants to protect, and finally start living for himself for the first time.
  • C's route: Identity, fitting for a character whose true name isn't even known at first. Rufus' desire for purpose in his life is further explored, and it's shown how he feels he no longer knows his reason for being after his defeat. Then there's his companion Lapis, who has amnesia and is determined to find out who she is. They both are able to grow and find meaning in their existences through their travels together, with Lapis ultimately choosing to delete Elysium and go on a new journey to learn more about the world, and Rufus getting a new blank slate in life due to the public now thinking him dead.
• Chain of Deals: "One Lucky Stone and One Unlucky Ship" centers around Jingo making one with various customers, starting with a rock that Cerberus found on the street, and ending with a poorly maintained but salvageable thirdhand airship.
• Company Cross References: The Magical Alisa LS minigame references the Show Within a Show from Tokyo Xanadu (and said show was in turn an example of this trope, as that show's characters were all nods to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel), and its mascot character Mona comes from the spinoffs of Lord Monarch.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: For the mech fight against Zoa Gilstein piloted by Ishmelga Rean, he will dodge attacks even if it's his weak spot.
• Cool Mask: Curiously enough, C, the main protagonist, wears a prominent one. It breaks at the end of Rean/C's chapter 2, revealing that the one behind the mask is actually Rufus Albarea, who cut his hair short after escaping from prison after Cold Steel IV.
• Cruel Mercy: Lechter's Daydream episode has him spare Hubert, a double agent who was planning to kill him to gain the CID's favor. At this point, Hubert lost the trust of Erebonia's ID and because he made it out of the train without killing Lechter, the CID likely won't trust him either because they'll know he cut a deal with Lechter to save his skin.
• Crutch Character: A variation: Rean and Rufus are playable for almost the entire length of the story, have really great Crafts, powerful Brave Orders, and great orbment lines. However, they cannot be used for the last phase of the final boss fight, due to being taken out of commission at the end of the previous phase. As such, if the player neglected to equip and train their other party members, they may be in for a rough time.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Lloyd's first chapter ends with the simulacrum of Rufus soundly trashing all of the SSS, Wazy, and Rixia at the same time. When Lloyd makes one last charge at him, Rufus fells him with one swing of his sword while barely moving from his position.
  • The first three phases of the Final Boss battle with Zoa Gilstein have the player's Soldats dealing paltry damage before getting effortlessly wiped out. Ordinary Soldats can barely put up a fight against one Divine Knight, let alone all seven combined.
• Cutting Through Energy: When the Retributive Tower fires its Wave-Motion Gun at the Arseille II, Aurelia, Victor, Matteus, Wallace, and Vandyck stop the beam from hitting the ship with nothing but their weapons enchanted by Roselia and Vita.
• D-Cup Distress: A group victory quote between Elie, Rixia, Alisa, and Emma have them discussing this with Alisa suggesting they go to famous brand store that sells better bra sizes.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Due to the presence of the new mechanic United Front^note Valiant Rage in the Japanese script, the switching stance button went from R2 to L3.
• A Day in the Limelight: Similar to the Doors from Sky the 3rd, there are 17 Daydreams that give certain characters their chance to shine in events that take place in the gap between Cold Steel IV and this game, with more being added later as DLC. Here's a list:
  • Buried Trails, Beaten Trails, Blazed Trails: Swin and Nadia, touring Crossbell, accidentally cross paths with Rixia.
  • A Day in the Lives of the SSS: A day for the founding members of the SSS (Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy) to get back into their old groove.
  • St. Astraia's Violet in Bloom: "Kurtina", Juna, Musse, Elise, and Elliot investigate coma incidents at St. Astraia.
  • Home Sweet Turf: Wazy and Wald return to Crossbell, and cause trouble for Noel.
  • Down the Rabbit Hole: Millium ventures into the Black Workshop to reunite with Airgetlam, accompanied by Altina, Jusis, Rean, and Alisa.
  • To Your Blessed Future: Olivier and Schera get ready for their wedding, only to find a certain nuisance has stolen the wedding dress.
  • A Maiden's Melancholy: Claire, Sharon, and Sara investigate a theft of military technology that may have involvement from Ouroboros.
  • The Path Chosen: Towa finds herself at a crossroad regarding her future career choices, and goes for a long orbal bike ride with Crow, George, and Angelica.
  • Justice a Deux: Machias and Dudley investigate a criminal conspiracy that's been depriving them of their morning coffee.
  • The Fallen Prince: Cedric being trained by Ouroboros to become an Enforcer.
  • Project Orbal Gear IV Pt. 1: Tita tests a new Orbal Gear, with Agate's help.
  • Project Orbal Gear IV Pt. 2: Tita, the New Class VII girls, and Princess Alfin go through a new level at Einhel, fighting their friends along the way as a test.^note Estelle, Renne, and Kurt are the first group fought, followed by Rean, Ash, and Joshua, and finally Agate at the end.
  • Wishes of a Witch: Roselia, Emma, Celine, and Vita discover the fate of Isola, Emma's deceased mother.
  • The More Things Change: Lucy and Kloe attempt to meet up with Lechter as Lechter does some housecleaning in the Intelligence Division.
  • Ultimate Wilderness Cooking: Freddy attempts to come up with a dish for Prince Olivert's wedding.
  • One Lucky Stone and One Unlucky Ship: Jingo attempts to get an airship, while Marquis Ballad deals with woes regarding his own airship.
  • Unlimited Blade Crafts: Rean, Duvalie, and two other members participate in a martial arts tournament against fearsome swordfighters like Aurelia, Arios, and Victor. It also reveals how Rean has access to Spirit Unification in the main game.
  • A Look on the Bright Side: The Bright family takes a vacation in Ymir.
  • A Step Forward: Mary thinks about her feelings for Makarov in light of her getting an Arranged Marriage.
  • Thors' Open Campus: Ash helps out around the Branch Campus' school festival and unwittingly ends up the Student Council President.
  • Through Memories Aglow: Giliath Osborne's thoughts about his entire life when he became the chancellor through Rean's dreams resonating with the burnt picture of the Osborne family.
  • Look Back to Look Forward: Effectively the Post-Credits Scene of the game as McBurn confronts the Grandmaster, only to wind up audience to her and Roy Gramheart discussing their future plans.
  • Beyond the Reverie: Three short stories bridging the gap between Reverie and Daybreak:
    • Another Hot Springs Paradise: Rean and his family take a vacation in Longlai, while Rean himself searches for his master Yun Ka-Fai.
    • An Unconventional Student: Renne transfers to Aramis Academy as an exchange student.
    • Forward, Sword in Hand: Bracer Elaine Auclair contemplates a promotion to A-rank and investigates criminal activity.
• Dénouement Episode: To both the Zero/Azure duology and the Cold Steel tetralogy. Reverie explores the epilogue of Azure in greater detail, and covers the aftermath of Cold Steel IV, all while expanding on the fates of numerous characters and setting up future plot threads.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If a player picks a girl for Rean at the start of his first chapter, then in Through Memories Aglow when his dream resonates with the burnt picture of the Osborne family, said girl will have a photo with Rean on his desk.
  • During chapter 4 of Rean's route, at one point, Rean and another character have to play the Horror Coaster minigame at Mishelam. If players pick anyone else other than Crow, then at the final enemy, Crow shows up and takes care of it by shooting at it. However, if players pick Crow to accompany Rean, then Crow just stands up from his seat and shoots the enemy.
  • All of C's victory quotes have two versions, both masked (with audio distortion) and unmasked. Even paired quotes that can only logically occur after C stops wearing his mask have masked versions, in case the player decides to make him re-equip it from the costume menu.
  • For the fight against Ishmelga Rean, Rean and Lloyd are required for the fight. If the two of them are at the front lines, then both of them will show up staring at Ishmelga Rean when the boss fight starts. However, if either Rean or Lloyd are in the support party slot, then they don't show up when the boss declares that the fight is on.
• Disappears into Light: At the end of the game, the simulated Rean from the Normal Ending timeline disappears after Lloyd gives him a fist bump, with a smile on his face.
• Disc-One Nuke: At the beginning of Rean's chapter 2, there's a Lone Blade quartz underneath the Heimdallr Museum. Players don't even have to fight the optional boss to obtain it as the chest is at the same place where the Magius Master Quartz is located in Cold Steel III.
• Disguised in Drag:
  • One of the side episodes has Kurt crossdressing while he, Juna, and Musse enter St. Astraia.
  • A group victory quote with Wazy, Joshua, Kurt, and Swin has the former lampshading the times when the latter three have worn a maid, a schoolgirl uniform, and a goth loli without him knowing as he thinks it suits them. The latter three obviously object to this.
• Dragged into Drag: In "St. Astraia's Violet in Bloom", after Kurt's experience being Disguised in Drag, the end credits have a brief scene showing Musse trying to recruit him for a Cross-Cast Role play. The following scene shows that he was unable to get out of it.
• Dub Name Change: A few terms were changed from the Japanese version to the English dub:
  • The Valiant Rage mechanic is named the United Front mechanic in English.
  • Reverse Babel, the game's final dungeon, had its name changed to the Retributive Tower.
  • Elaine Auclair's Red Baron was changed from "Sword Maiden" to "Beauty's Blade".
  • The NPC Crichton, who was named as such in Cold Steel III-IV, was renamed Clayton for Reverie. Possibly for legal reasons, as he was pretty clearly inspired by Michael Crichton.
• Duel Boss: Rean vs the simulacrum Arios at the climax of chapter 3 of his route, Rufus vs Duvalie at the beginning of chapter 4 of his route, and McBurn vs Overlord McBurn at the Reverie Corridor's final Trial Door.
• Dueling Player Characters: This is the case for two battles in Rean/C's chapter 2. This is due to the fact that Rean Route Chapter 2 and C Route Chapter 2 take place at the same time, and are very intertwined.
  • The first occurs in Mater Park. You start out controlling Rean's party fighting C's. Once C's party reaches 50% HP, the battle ends and you get a cutscene. After the cutscene, you switch to C's party fighting Rean's, where you now have to reduce Rean's party to 50% HP.
  • The second occurs in Himmel Cemetery, as shown in the trailers. You start out controlling C's party fighting Rean's. Once Rean's party reaches 50% HP, the battle ends and you get a cutscene. After the cutscene, you switch to Rean's party fighting C's, where you now have to reduce C's party to 50% HP (technically just C but C has so much HP that the rest of his team gets kicked out before C can if players have been hitting the party with attacks that hit the group).
• Early-Bird Cameo: By clearing the expanded Reverie Corridor, players can read 3 short stories that give a sneak peek at some characters who will make their proper debut in Trails through Daybreak: Dingo Brad, René Kincade, Albert, Odette, Bermotti, Shizuna Rem Misurugi, Kurogane, Elaine Auclair, Agnes Claudel, and Van Arkride.
• Ensemble Cast: While Lloyd, Rean, and C share the spotlight as the three central protagonists of the main game, the unlockable Daydreams focusing on the other cast members also take up a decent chunk of the game's content.
• Epiphany Therapy: It took five whole games, two separate talks from both Duvalie (in the tournament Daydream) and Claire (in his first chapter), and facing off against a simulated version of himself who committed to the Heroic Sacrifice but Rean finally manages to find the answer to his life questions, and consequently rejects the alternate Rean's proposal to sacrifice himself yet again.
• Evil Knockoff: Played with throughout the game:
  • In the main story, Elysium has filled the villains' ranks with quite a few robot copies of several characters. That being said, some of these characters were already evil.
  • The Reverie Corridor also recreates several characters to serves as bosses, most notably the "Hollow" copies. Again though, some are based on actual villains.
• Extremely Short Timespan: While there's a one month gap between the prologue and the first chapter of the game, the entire rest of the main story only happens in a week's time from March 15, 1207 to March 22, 1207. The side stories, however, avert this as the earliest date shown in-game is, ironically enough, the final Blue Sealing Stone Daydream where Rean inherits the burnt Osborne family photo, taking place three months after Cold Steel IV.
• False Flag Operation: Act 3 of Rean's route focuses on a group of rogue Imperial Army soldiers in Nord collaborating with the EDF to reignite the war with Calvard via using the stolen Sonorous Seashell to create a device to remotely take control of Imperial and Republican vehicles to stage a fight in the Highlands.
• Fate Worse than Death: As revealed by Ishmelga Rean, the Normal Ending version of Rean in Cold Steel IV spent an unknown amount of time fighting against Ishmelga for control in the dark corners outside the continent before fusing together into Ishmelga Rean.
• Final Boss:
  • In the main story, Ishmelga Rean piloting Zoa Gilstein is this for Rean, Crow, and Rufus. After that, Lloyd and the other 36 characters fight Zoa Gilstein as Ishmelga of the End on foot.
  • The last opponent of the updated Reverie Corridor is Genesial Demiourgos, which is fought with three teams of eight characters each.
• Fishing Minigame: For the final fish of the game, Estelle, Lloyd, or Rean are the ones who are allowed to fish it once the rest of the fishes are gathered.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Nadia is said to have incredible analytical skills, which plays a major part against the final boss of Chapter 3 of C's Route. But the party member with the Analyze-based craft in C's route is Lapis.
  • During Act 2, Rean's group runs into rogue soldiers collaborating with the EDF, who activate some copies of the gospel that negate any orbal energy nearby, leaving them unable to use their orbments. While they do lose the ability to use arts and combat links, they are still capable of using Brave Order in the ensuing fight.
  • In Chapter 3 of C's route, Renne casts the Recuria art on C's group when they were about to be inflicted by the mind-altering effects of the Curse. When she joins the party shortly afterwards, said art is not available from any of the quartz she comes equipped with.
  • The scene in Chapter 3 where C is able to find the real Lapis out of a pile of externally identical replicas loses a lot of emotional impact if the real Lapis is wearing a non-default costume skin.
  • At the cutscene at the end of C's duel with Duvalie in Act 4, the former will cast the Ivy Nail art to hold their opponent in place even if the player hasn't equipped them with the corresponding quarts for said art.
  • Despite a grievance that is far more severe and justified than the Jusis/Machias and Laura/Fie arguments that prevented them from forming links as a plot point in Cold Steel 1, Duvalie and Rufus can form links starting from the first moment they're in the same party.
• Girlish Pigtails: One of the group victory quotes has this trope where Estelle, Nadia, KeA, Alfin, and Tio are going to form the twin tail group when Celine reigns them in.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: While the series mostly played this trope straight in earlier games, Reverie begins to invert this trope, as the Erebonian government is reforming itself to avoid the reputation of the evil empire it had in previous games and is trying to avoid war as far as possible due to societal trauma caused by a horrific civil war and a senseless invasion of Calvard happening within two years of each other. Meanwhile, hints are shown that Calvard has a shady side that has yet to be dealt with and faces a very real danger of democratic backsliding. Roy Gramheart, the new president of Calvard, is an apparent President Evil implied to be taking advantage of the political capital the Great War's fallout gave him to amass power, and he managed to contact the Grandmaster of Ouroboros and offered a neutrality agreement, where he wouldn't interfere with her Eternal Recurrence Plan for two and a half years if she didn't interfere with his plans during that time. Even more alarmingly, he tries to use the Retributive Tower crisis as a pretext for invading Crossbell, much like when Osborne tried to "assist" Liberl during the Orbal Shutdown Phenomenon; it's not lost on the main cast that this would likely result in Crossbell being annexed by Calvard. The DLC also gives three short stories foreshadowing the Calvard arc. Renne's story has her transfer to a school in Calvard to investigate the Verne Company, Calvard's equivalent to Reinford, as it refused to participate in the West Zemuria Tech Union ran by the Russell family and Professor Schmidt.
• Grand Theft Prototype: Though it's not exactly a prototype, the SSS manages to hijack a Sorge and have Juna pilot the machine while the SSS ride on its right arm and head.
• Guest-Star Party Member: For Rean and Lloyd's routes, their party changes every chapter until the final chapter so technically whoever joins them ends up becoming this as they leave at the end of the chapter. But the standouts for the main game, not counting the Reverie Corridor include:
  • During the prologue, Juna is only available for the first battle and then leaves as she assists the hostages of Orchis Tower escape. This leaves the original four members of the SSS to free the rest of Orchis Tower by themselves.
  • Elise joins Rean's party throughout chapter 2 and never returns in the main game unlike everyone else despite being fully customizable when she joins.
  • Aurelia joins partway through Rean's chapter 3 and then gets replaced by Olivert when the party goes to the Courageous II at Nord. Unlike Elise above, if the players didn't obtain either Aurelia or Olivert at the Reverie Corridor, their loadouts cannot be edited.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • If players are trying to get specific characters at the Reverie Corridor and don't like the character they got (mainly due to the character's Brave Order or the Master Quartz they come with is terrible and by default, cannot be brought to the main story), then the player is out of luck as Save Scumming doesn't work the normal way if the player has saved their game after beating the special monster that drops the special orbs. Instead, the player has to first save before fighting the special monster, get the yellow orb, and then go back to the main hub and hope to get the character they want.
  • The vast majority of all character notes are acquired automatically through either story progression or during Daydreams. Which makes the handful that have to be collected manually easier to miss, since it's easy to forget that they aren't collected automatically.
• Handshake Substitute: Lloyd and Randy pull off one after they have a talk about Randy's failures (his backstory with his friend, Lloyd getting beaten back in chapter 1, and Mirielle in a coma, and Lloyd encouraging him again.
• Hard Mode Perks: After beating the main story, the player can add 50 or 100 to all enemy levels. This causes the enemies' stats to skyrocket, but it also means the EXP scaling will work in the player's favor.
• Hero of Another Story: Swin Abel and Nadia Rayne were first introduced in the "Three & Nine" books found in Cold Steel IV. Reverie's website has their story in the website alongside pictures depicting the events of their story.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Two of the protagonists, Rean and C/Rufus, primarily use swords in contrast to Lloyd who uses tonfas.
• Hijacked by Ganon: For the second game in a row, the main villain and final boss is Ishmelga; in this case, a recreation of Ishmelga inadvertently created by Elysium, who proceeded to quite literally hijack control of Elysium and is the hidden mastermind behind Supreme Leader Rufus and all the other simulacra.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: You can speak with a professor, Carton, and his student, Myria, Myria being upset because she thought an exam was going to be delayed because of classes canceled during the war. If you speak with Carton a second time, he comments to Rean that Myria would come crying to him Sharkodile^* crocodile tears no matter how long he delayed the exam.
• Holding Out for a Hero: Deconstructed in Lloyd's route. The SSS' status as Crossbell's main Hope Bringers before and during the Imperial occupation resulted in the people of Crossbell placing them on an absurdly high pedestal, so that when Supreme Leader Rufus beats them in battle, the citizens collectively cross the Despair Event Horizon and come to believe their dreams for independence are utterly hopeless. Wazy calls out several citizens for placing such absurd expectations on the group and blaming them for their current state of affairs, pointing out that the SSS are not responsible for fixing all of their problems for them and that if they want their freedom, everyone has to pitch in and do their part instead of making them shoulder all their burdens.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • The new mini-game Project Tyrfing acts as a mech simulator to help Rean get used to the new model Panzer Soldat, the Tyrfing S. The opponents are Fie in a Kestrel Beta, Laura in the Branch Campus' Spiegel S, Gaius in a Hector Mk.II, and finally Crow in his Tyrfing X.
  • The boss of the prologue is the Asmodyne, a Zauber Soldat developed at the same time as the Leviathan. It was intended as the Imperial Defense Force's trump card against Calvard. A successor model, the Asmodyne Menace, is later shown in the final chapter.
  • Lloyd's route introduces the Helmord, a newly developed Zauber Soldat that serves the successor to the Sorge and Melgea models. Rufus ends up piloting a custom gold version, the Helmord G, for the second phase of the final boss battle.
  • Lastly, there's Zoa Gilstein, the Zeroth Knight. It's the combined form of all 7 Divine Knights with Valimar's form as the base, piloted by Ishmelga Rean. It's later renamed Ishmelga of the End after losing its connection to Elysium as well as the Rean half of its pilot.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: The entire party suddenly finds themselves mysteriously crying just before Zoa Gilstein appears at the climax of Rean's chapter 3...
• Interquel: The vast majority of Daydreams take place sometime after Cold Steel IV, but before Reverie's main plot (not counting the prologue that occurs considerably earlier). The biggest exceptions are, of course, the stories you'll unlock after beating the True Final Boss, which serve as a Sequel Hook for The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak.
• Irony: After five games, Rean finally learns that he shouldn't give in to his Martyr Without a Cause tendencies and sacrifice himself to save the world. Only for Rufus to do his Heroic Sacrifice to save the world.
• Large Runt: Despite being the completed version of the Great One and packing a lot of punch in all of its attacks, Zoa Gilstein is only around the size of a Goliath Noa. This is in stark contrast to both Ark Rouge and Lost Zem, who were massive behemoths by comparison.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Reverie Corridor locks inhabitants' recent memories of the outside world while they're in it and their memories of being in it when they return to reality. Due to Elysium constantly trying to break in and the Retributive Tower showing up, the Black Mirror eventually decides to give the party access to their real-world memories so they know what they're training for. Even then, it bugs out and blocks memories of the Retributive Tower until Ishmelga Rean is dealt with.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Due to the game's events happening five months after Cold Steel IV, these are inevitable. Examples include: Rean becoming a Divine Blade, Valimar and the other Divine Knights no longer existing, and Osborne being the Reincarnation of Dreichels, to name a few.
• Legacy Character: The new C shares the identity Crow Armbrust created while he was leader of the Imperial Liberation Front. The two eventually end up confronting each other, with Crow clearly not happy someone's chosen to revive his old alias.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Zig-zagged; in Chapter 4 of C’s route, he challenges Duvalie to a one-on-one duel to let her vent on her rage over his murder of Arianrhod, but wins the duel by secretly casting the Ivory Nail art to hold her in place before disarming her. Quite a few of the spectators considered it a dirty trick, but he and Duvalie both point out that they had never explicitly forbade the use of orbal arts in their duel.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Everyone in the True Reverie Corridor suffers from short-term Laser-Guided Amnesia regarding current events, meaning that the three parties can't use it as an alternative line of communication in the absence of long-range orbal communications caused by the disappearance of the Courageous. This ensures that each party operates in isolation as the plot intended until communications are fixed at the end of Chapter 4 (with the device triggering the Laser-Guided Amnesia deciding to only affect memories formed within the TRC itself due to Elysium continually trying to break in when the various parties return in the next Chapter).
• Lootboxes: The Sealing Stones are effectively lootboxes that contain either loot items (Quartz, consumables or cosmetics), new Daydreams, new minigames or new characters to use in the Reverie Corridor that are obtained through defeating bosses in the Reverie Corridor.
• Magical Girl: The minigame Magical Girl Alisa LS fully embodies this trope where the minigame is set in an alternate universe where the characters live in the real world^note Hilariously, it reuses assets from Tokyo Xanadu eX+. Except it turns out it's all just a dream from Juna sleeping at her desk. Or does it?
• Man Hug: Randy delivers one to Lloyd in chapter 4 of Lloyd's route since he wasn't sure whether he could save Lloyd and Noel. Considering the last time he saw Lloyd he was beaten by Rufus back at the end of chapter 1, it's only natural for Randy to be worried about him.
• Mask of Power: The masks that the Black Workshop uses to brainwash people are back; Ilya Platiere spends most of the game wearing one, brainwashing her while also granting her immense power.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Lloyd and Rean ask the fake Rufus where the other Rean and the Zeroth Knight are, everyone in the group (and there are 38 of them) immediately have an exclamation point in their heads, realizing that there's another problem that needs to be solved.
• Monster Whale: Ark-Kaitos is a large whale-like cryptid with a temple on its back and the ability to fly. It serves as the boss of both the Reverie Corridor's 4th Stratum and of Machias, Olivier, and Alfin's Trial Door challenge.
• Must Have Caffeine: The "Justice a Deux" Daydream centers around Dudley and Machias joining forces to take down the black market operation that had disrupted their coffee supply.
• Nerf: Various game mechanics have been nerfed from the Cold Steel games.
  • Reverie has made some modifications to various Brave Orders from Cold Steel IV, making them better in some areas, but worse in other areas. For example, Lloyd's Raging Hammer cost has been reduced from 3 BP to 1, but it now only gives a 150% increase in break damage instead of 300%.
  • The most powerful art of the entire series, Chrono Burst, is nerfed to the point that players can no longer spam the art for infinite turns. The art only gives the caster two turns and cannot itself be used again during either of those turns.
  • The most powerful offensive art, Albion Wolf, is also hit by this. In Cold Steel III and IV, it removes all positive buffs first with its All Cancel attribute before inflicting damage, making it an unstoppable nuke. Reverie has this skill be useless against Perfect Reflect, preventing damage bypass. It's also been downgraded in power from 4S to SS+.
  • Several Master Quartz abilities are weakened, notably Sirius capping at 300% bonus to counterattack damage instead of 400% (weakening the power of dodge-tanks), and various Quartz recovering EP from offensive arts capping at .5% of damage instead of 1.5% (making it harder to get effectively infinite EP through usage of high-power, wide-range arts).
  • The strength of the offensive Lost Arts has been dropped to the point where high-end standard arts targeting an elemental weakness can be stronger (Lost Arts don't get the elemental damage multiplier, even if one of their elements is something the target is weak against).
• New Transfer Student: The St. Astraia Daydream has Juna, Musse, and Kurt temporarily transfer to the school to investigate the mysterious reason of why the students suddenly are in a coma.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: Reverie reuses a lot of assets from Cold Steel III and IV, from character models to areas to the battle system. One part of the game even goes as far as to reuse content from Tokyo Xanadu.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Certain cutscenes will have the characters be clad in their default outfits instead of whatever costumes or accessories the player has equipped them with.
• NOT!: In the Daydream sequence "A Day in the Lives of the SSS," Tio brings Jona some vegetables. He comments that he was just thinking he was not getting enough leafy greens down where he was. "NOT! I'm seriously gonna kill you if you do this again, Tio!" he tells her, saying he wants pizza and cola. She tells him to buy it himself if he's going to gripe about what she gets him. He concludes that sucking it up and eating it is better than going out.
• Nuke 'em: What happens to Juno Naval Fortress; reduced to a crater after a blast from Retributive Tower that's located all the way over in Crossbell. Turns out the rock of Juno wasn't very solid after all...
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Victor, who at this point has lung disease and only one arm, teams up with Arios and defeats Cassius Bright and Zechs Vander in an unofficial tournament in Unlimited Blade Crafts.
• Old Shame: Crow doesn't see his past identity as C as a very fond one, and he warns the current C that he'll eventually come to see it the same way.
  Crow: You think you can pull it off now, but trust me—you're gonna look back and wish you never did.
• Optional Boss: Taking the place of Cold Steel II and IV's Trial Chests are the 10 Trial Door challenges, optional battles involving select party members having to fight against certain boss characters. If the player wins, each character used will get one updated Craft (some of which are S-Crafts). The update would later add in Trial Door EX challenges, 8 more battles that cover all characters playable in the Reverie Corridor that weren't featured in the original 10. The English release, having all this content in it already, makes no delineation between the normal challenges and EX challenges.
• Papa Wolf: Lloyd's reaction to Novartis talking about how he'd love to use KeA as a power source again is to directly threaten him.
  Lloyd: Keep treating my child like an object to be broken and I'll use a real object to break your face.
• Parodies for Dummies: In one Daydream, Machias audits Marquis Ballad's purchases and finds that he bought a copy of The Dufus' Guide to Being Adored by a Younger Relative.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling:
  • The Reverie Corridor is an in-universe version of this as one of its primary purposes was to help make the characters stronger. Through it your characters will not only gain a ton of XP but will also be drowning in loot items that would otherwise be scarce in previous games.
  • In New Game Plus, it's possible to up the levels of all enemies by 50 or 100 (up to the cap of 250) to keep enemies at a reasonable difficulty level, and to make XP rewards large enough to be useful.
• Power Gives You Wings: The proper second phase of the fight against Zoa Gilstein has the mech sprouting wings on its back.
• Promoted to Playable: A few characters in the previous arc make their playable debuts in this one. Notably, Rufus Albarea is a major playable character thanks to being the new C's true identity, both Cedric and Freddy are playable in side stories (interestingly, the former is only controlled in battle while the latter is only controlled on a field), and (the real) McBurn is a DLC character.
• Purposefully Overpowered:
  • At the climax of chapter 3's boss fight, Nadia gains a second Brave Order that is hands down the most powerful BO in the game as it grants an increase of 700% to break damage, all stats buff for five turns and it only costs 2 BP. It's gone after the fight is over, however, as it represents a command to target the unique weaknesses of one specific opponent, who is dead after that fight.
  • The DLC character McBurn is the most powerful party member in the series, fitting for his title as one of the strongest characters in the series. He has some of the highest stats in the game in almost every category, a single-line orbment, high physical and magic damage output, an excellent set of Crafts including the most powerful S-Craft in the game, a ridiculously powerful self-buff that gives him a large STR, ATS, and Speed buff, 150% HP recovery,and 100 CP immediately, and a Brave Order that, for the cost of the entire Order gauge, gives the party 100% crit and 100 CP. He also comes pre-equipped with the highest tier of weapon and armor, without needing any Black Zemurian Ore investment.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Koi No Shooting Star from Tokyo Xanadu eX+ reappears in the game as the Magical Girl Alisa LS minigame's incidental music, while Aka Ki Tsubasa from the first Cold Steel installment shows up as said minigame's title theme.
• Red Baron: A series tradition, continued yet again.
  • Swin Abel, codename "Three of Swords"
  • Nadia Rayne, codename "Nine of Swords"
  • Ilya Platiere, the Dusken Dancer
  • Zoa Gilstein, the Zeroth Knight and the Great One
• Regional Bonus: Much like the PC and PS4 English releases of Cold Steel I and II, the English release of Reverie has additional voiced lines that were not voiced in the original Japanese release.
• Relationship Upgrade: After years of being Implied Love Interests for each other, Randy can be seen proposing to Mirielle during the credit sequence. And a later picture shows him with a ring on his finger, proving that she said yes!
• The Reveal:
  • C is actually Rufus Albarea, who plans on pulling a Zero-Approval Gambit and take the blame for the events of this game, as well as the events of Azure and the Cold Steel games, to atone for what he's done.
  • The Eighth Awakener, Ishmelga Rean, is a What If? scenario of the Rean from Cold Steel IV's Normal Ending made real thanks to it hijacking the Elysium system.
• Rotating Protagonist: The game cycles between three different routes focusing on Lloyd, Rean, and C. The player can generally switch between them freely, but there are times where they must get to a certain point in one route to continue with another route.
• Say My Name: Happens to all three protagonists where someone will scream their name. Examples include KeA screaming Lloyd's name at the end of Lloyd's chapter 1, Alisa, Crow, and Lloyd screaming Rean's name at three different occasions (Alisa screaming Rean's name in the Cold Steel IV Normal Ending vision Rean watches in his chapter 4, Crow screaming Rean's name when Ishmelga Rean tries one last desperate attack against Rean in their final battle, and Lloyd when his team gets separated from Rean's team when entering the final dungeon), and Lapis with Rufus after he gets nuked by the Heavenly Thunder in a simulated vision.
• Scarf of Asskicking: The mysterious man in bandages, who looks like a long-haired Rean, wears a red scarf. It's later revealed that it is indeed Rean, or rather, a simulation of the Rean from Cold Steel IV's Normal Ending.
• Schmuck Bait: During Rean's duel against Zoa Gilstein, players are automatically partnered up with Altina, whose first art gives the mech one Perfect Craft Reflect. Using this art causes Zoa Gilstein to use its bow that deals multi-hit damage and the Craft Reflect will only reflect one hit while the rest passes through.
• Sea Sinkhole: The destruction of Juno Naval Fortress by the Retributive Tower's Keraunos weapon leaves behind a massive hole in the surrounding waters.
• Seen It All: Neither Class VII, the SSS or the Liberl Bracers are particularly shocked by the reveal of what's really going on.
  Nadia: I guess future-predicting AIs are just Tuesday if you've been through enough crazy in your life.
• Sequel Hook: As this game is supposed to bridge the Erebonia arc with the Calvard arc, this is inevitable. But some highlights included in Daydreams, as well as the game itself show:
  • Look Back to Look Forward: Heavy implications that President Gramheart is a power-hungry demagogue, which is a terrible omen for Calvard's democracy given the popularity the Great War and its aftermath gave him.
  • Beyond the Reverie: a series of three short stories showing events to come in the future.
    • Another Hot Springs Paradise: A character referred to as "Princess" who is capable of breaking Rean's tachi is introduced.
    • An Unconventional Student: Renne being the Student Council President in a Calvard academy who is investigating why the Verne company isn't joining the West Zemuria Tech Union and Dingo, a Calvardian journalist who asks for Renne's help uncovering government scandals.
    • Forward, Sword in Hand: A newly introduced A-rank bracer who breaks Sara's record for becoming the youngest A-Rank bracer who encounters a man who wants to inject fear into the hearts of men after he was inspired by the Retributive Tower incident that happens in Reverie.
  • The credits show the Reborn ILF traveling to Calvard after Rufus is declared to be dead.
• Shout-Out: Shares one with the rest of the series here.
• Smashing Watermelons: One of the minigames at the Mishelam Daydream is the boys of both Class VII and SSS in their respective Daydreams doing this. Specifically, Rean or Lloyd do the first split and then the chosen male companion does the second split. The minigame rewards the players with the swimsuit and the blindfold for the men.
• Superdickery: At the start of Rean's chapter, it depicts Rean and Kurt dueling Matteus Vander which ends with Kurt getting flung off the Eisengard Mountain Range by his own father. Meanwhile, Claire is shooting at both Juna and Altina with a sniper rifle with seemingly hostile intent. When Juna wonders how they got to that situation, the game cuts back to 10 hours ago when Rean's chapter finally starts; we eventually learn that Matteus and Claire are merely testing them, not trying to murder them.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes:
  • The other Rean has gold irises as Ishmelga Rean.
  • These are also present on the "Hollow" characters.
• Supporting Protagonist: While Lloyd and Rean do play major roles, C and his party are the main focus of the game.
• Tagline: "Where one trail ends, another begins."
• Take My Hand!: Noel does this to Lloyd to save him from the burning Reinford Factory while riding a bike.
• Taking You with Me: Ishmelga decides to blow up all of Zemuria after Lapis decides to destroy the Elysium system for good, claiming that humanity isn't ready for it. This forces Rufus to stay behind to pull off a Zero-Approval Gambit to save Zemuria at the cost of his life.
• Three Lines, Some Waiting: There are three plot lines going, and plot lines generally get frozen at two points in each chapter. First when everyone needs to reach the point where they need to visit the Reverie Corridor, and second when two plot lines directly intersect, causing the story to bounce back and forth between them.
• Time Skip: Five months have passed between the end of Cold Steel IV and the main story of Reverie. After the prologue, another month passes before the first chapter begins.
• To the Pain: When C's group captures an EDF soldier and interrogates him for information, Nadia steps up and describes how she'll slowly cut off his limbs and then sew them back, in such a way he woudn't be able to move them. Then she'll sew his mouth and eyes shut so he won't be able to do anything but think. All the while making stuffed toys comparisons and never breaking her cute tone. She's about to continue, but the guy breaks and spills the beans. When asked about it later, Nadia answers that it was a bluff; she doesn't do that stuff... anymore.
• Tournament Arc: The Daydream "Unlimited Blade Crafts" features Olivert hosting one, with Rean, Duvalie, and two other party members participating against characters like Arios, Cassius, Victor, and Aurelia.
• Training from Hell: "The Fallen Prince" centers around Shirley putting Cedric through the Red Constellation's hellish training regime.
• Trap Door: During Rean's journey inside the Castle of Mirrors in his fourth chapter, his party ends up falling into one. Unlike the last two times however where Thanks for the Mammary was involved, nothing like that happens.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Lloyd and Rean make the same speech when entering the final dungeon to their respective group as Lloyd, KeA, Rufus, Nadia, and 17 other characters chosen by the player get separated from Rean, Lapis, Swin, and the remaining 17 people due to Zoa Gilstein's interference.
• Undisclosed Funds: C recruits Nadia and Swin by writing a proposed retainer on a card and showing it to them. The amount isn't given in numbers, but Nadia is of the impression that it could take the two of them from flat broke to able to retire comfortably in one step.
• The Unreveal: When the Rean freed from Ishmelga's influence is about to tell Lloyd what is going to happen three years from the game's events, Lloyd tells him to not say anything as they've already rejected Elysium's guidance.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The main weapon of Retributive Tower, the divine lightning, allows it to nuke any part of Zemuria as demonstrated when it nukes Juno Naval Fortress which is all the way near the western part of the Zemuria continent.
• Wham Line: During the fight against Zoa Gilstein, everyone is on the ropes, only for Rean in his Tyrfing S to charge in anyway and actually managing to injure it, surprising Ishmelga Rean and everyone else. Then one line manages to turn a Hopeless Boss Fight into a Heroic Second Wind.
  Valimar: Well said, Rean.
• Wham Shot:
  • A gameplay example but in Zoa Gilstein's boss fight, players may attack one of Zoa Gilstein's parts and Zoa Gilstein may dodge an attack, making players think that it's not its weakspot for that particular stance (as it is tradition in the mech fights in the Cold Steel games. Only for the next character to attack Zoa Gilstein and players may notice that the part they targeted was a four star rating.
  • In chapter 4, if players first played Lloyd's route before Rean's route, then at the end of Lloyd's route, Rean shows up with a different hair and eye color, just like at the end of Rean's third chapter.
• What If?: Actually deconstructed, as the Elysium system made a simulation of Cold Steel IV's Normal Ending, where Rean merged with Ishmelga. The simulation then promptly takes control of the system, and becomes the Big Bad of the game.
• The World Is Not Ready: This is Lapis' reasoning for why she's destroying the Elysium system for good as Ishmelga desperately asks her why she's doing it when the Elysium system is guiding humanity to better heights.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The start of Lloyd's route is one. After two long years, Crossbell is no longer occupied, and is on the verge of regaining its independence, or at least local autonomy under a charter that isn't as massively and deliberately flawed as their original one was, guaranteed by a nation that doesn't have a vested interest in Crossbell being a failed state. But seconds before ink is put on that charter, the region is conquered again.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: When Rean finally meets his Normal Ending self in the latter's world, they end up talking for a few minutes with Rean rejecting the offer to take Ishmelga's power and do what his Normal Ending self did in order to save the world. When it goes back to their Single-Stroke Battle with Rean's Tyrfing S VS Ishmelga Rean's Zoa Gilstein, the entire thing only lasts for a second.
• You Are Worth Hell: Lloyd, Jusis, Lapis, Swin, and Nadia go right back into the Retributive Tower to save Rufus as he enacts his self-sacrifice to save Zemuria.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Lloyd's first chapter in the game ends with simulacrum Rufus stomping him and the SSS and then declaring that he will conquer the world with Crossbell at the center.
• You Do Not Want To Know: Inverted trope. In his last moments, the Rean simulated from the Elysium system wanted to tell Lloyd, Jusis, and company about what's going to happen in the future. Lloyd however tells him to not say anything as they've already rejected Elysium's guidance.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: In the final chapter when the three groups finally get to meet up for the first time, Rufus immediately decides to ditch the group fighting the Asmodyne mech on their own so that his group can go on ahead. Everyone, including his own team, has a thing or two to say about it.
• Zerg Rush: The Retributive Tower spawns endless amounts of mechs to fight off against the Crossbell Police, Red Constellation, Zephyr, Ouroboros, both Thors campus, the Merkabahs, and finally the Arseille II.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Rufus pulls off one at the end of the game; with the Retributive Tower poised to fire upon whatever humanity hates most, Rufus uses the tower's own communications array to broadcast himself to the world, take credit for the tower, and declare the world under his ransom. He quickly becomes the most hated man in the world, causing the tower to target itself since Rufus is still inside.

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