Trails into Reverie: the capstone

Trails into Reverie (Hajimari no Kiseki, "Trails of Beginnings") was released in Japan in August 2020 and in English by NIS America in July 2023. Falcom designed it openly in the image of Sky the 3rd: a capstone that clears the board. Its story runs on three interlocking routes, Rean's, Lloyd's, and that of the masked figure known only as C, following Crossbell's hard-won independence and the aftershocks of Erebonia's near-apocalypse, while a vast optional dungeon, the True Reverie Corridor, houses the series' largest playable roster and dozens of character episodes.

Do not mistake it for a spin-off. Kondo has said its main scenario alone carries roughly 80% of Cold Steel IV's text volume, by the standards of this series, an enormous script, and that the game exists because, during IV's development, the team wanted a title in which a newly independent Crossbell could stand at the centre. Reverie formally closes both the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs, debuts characters bound for Calvard, and hands the saga to its second half. In this Library's reading order it is the single most prerequisite-heavy game in the series: everything before it is required, and everything after it builds on its reset.