Quite true that CS4 is kinda a low point in the series, it left me soo disappointed after how good Cold Steel 3 felt in comparison, and I hated how similar the plot felt to Cold Steel 2, and how slow things were happening for a game that should conclude everything in the arc.

At the very least, Reverie felt like a step in the right direction, and the Daybreak arc felt better with the removal of romance options and side quests being a change from feeling like a bracer (since you are more on the grey side of things, you can blackmail people to solve a quest among other things).