One look: seeing the different available versions and DLC it is a clear: I don't care about how good the game is, I don't support those publisher.

Do the other Legend of Heroes games belong in a series before Trails of Cold Steel (Trails in the Sky?)

EDIT: looks like Cold Steel comes well after Sky, with two games in between that aren't [yet?] on GOG.

Yes they do.

There are three sub-serieses that all share the same world & characters & continuity.

The Sky games (the first sub-series) take place first. Then the Crossbell games (the second sub-series) take place after that.

Then with the the Cold Steel games (the third sub-series), the first two take place at the same time as the Crossbell games, and then Cold Steel 3 & 4 take place after the Crossbell games.

But each series is heavily inter-connected with all of the others, so really, they are all part of one single series.

This game, Cold Steel 4, heavily features many characters from the Sky sub-series, and also from the Crossbell sub-series too, and Cold Steel 4 also continues & concludes many plot lines that were started in the Sky sub-series and the Crossbell sub-series.

Are we missing a lot from the middle ones not being out on PC yet? Should I wait until they all are before diving in? There seems to be a ton of praise for the series. (Looks like it's two games never translated, Zero and Azure.)

Missing the Crossbell games does indeed leave out tons & tons of crucial information.

However, there is a good solution to that: which is to buy the Japanese version of the games, and apply fan translation/mod patches to them (the fan translations don't only translate the text to English, but also they include quality of life improvements for the games).

Currently there is a very good fan translation & mod out for the first Crossbell game.

And the same group is also about to release a mod & fan translation for the second Crossbell game as well, which should happen any day now.

Here is a link to their website where their translation/mods are hosted:

https://geofront.esterior.net

I wouldn’t blame GOG for the exorbitant prices. I’m pretty sure all Falcom games are hella expensive. In fact Japan pumps the prices up on most of their games. And i think sometimes JP doesn’t allow region pricing or some shit.

This is great info to have, I would much rather have a Japanese-only release of these games here, rather on steam, though I am greatful that there's a digital PC version of these games... Time to make a community wishlist entry!

It would unironically be awesome if GOG were to get in touch with Falcom, Joyoland (the group who did the PC ports of Crossbell), and the Geofront guys and release the Crossbell games pre-patched with the fan translation on GOG. Given that these games are like 10 years old at this point, it'd actually fit with GOG's original mission of getting "good old games".

I actually already have both Zero and Azure purchased, but I'd happily buy them again just to get a GOG installer.

Series has been great to me in these Covid months. : ]

Great release, instabought! XD
The best part, this was released here on day 1 no less! Thanks Nisa and Falcom for this release!
I'd just wish certain japanese developer that has some games here on GOG (and haven't released anything on GOG in more than a year) would follow Falcom's example...

Is it actually buyable directly from the company in Japanese to apply the patch, or is DRM applied such that it's not really buying?

Great Release! ^_^

You can buy a digital download version of Zero here:
https://www.dlsite.com/soft/work/=/product_id/VJ009178.html/?locale=en_US

And there's no DRM on Zero. You just need to apply the translation patch once you download it.

Azure is a bit trickier, but here's a guide on how to legally aquire it:
https://geofront.esterior.net/2020/06/30/trails-to-azure-now-available-to-purchase-via-paypal-on-joyolands-website/

There are few games these days that will get a day one purchase from me, but after waiting over a year on the CS3 cliff-hanger this is one of them.

For those looking at this who aren't familiar with the Trails franchise, the series excels in building up a world and a large cast of characters over time, with this game being the culmination of everything to date, so it's definitely not a place to just jump into the series. This particular arc of the series encompasses all of the Cold Steel games (1-4), with 1-2 and 3-4 each forming a sub-arc. The Trails in the Sky series is the start of this overall series, and is really were I'd recommend a new player looking to get into the series start (you could also start with CS1, but you'd be missing a lot). Unfortunately the middle arc of the series (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure) doesn't have official English releases at this time (although as others have mentioned there are fan translations); in CS 1-3 it wasn't too difficult to pick up the missing bits from those games, but I'll have to see how that works out with CS4 given that the characters from that arc have a larger role.

Anyway, really glad Trails of Cold Steel 4 has now been released here, and hoping we get official releases of Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki, along with the upcoming Hajimari no Kiseki and Kuro no Kiseki.

Yeah, I got 'em wishlisted over at steam, I'll most likely pull the trigger depending on just how deep a sale I can get them...