The greatest gaming experience ever created by man. Future historians will look back and wonder how this game's brilliance remained unmatched for centuries. Perfection, thy name is Pom! Pom! Party! Oh, and Trails to Azure is okay too I guess.

Alright, enough joking around. I'll attempt to write a serious review of this game. It's not going to be easy though, because the story went in a direction that kind of left me speechless.

I'm sure you've seen the trope where at the eleventh hour the twist villain is revealed to be an important person that the protagonists trusted. Trails to Azure has this trope, but the game takes it a step further. After the eleventh hour twist villain is revealed, at the TWELFTH hour a new twist villain is revealed that undoes the previous twist villain. This new twist villain is potentially the most baffling one yet. In Trails to Azure we go from thinking the chancellor of Erebonia is going to be the villain, to having the friendly Mayor being revealed as the twist villain, to having the true puppet master being revealed to be... the lawyer who works in the building down the street? It was bad enough in Trails from Zero when the cult mastermind was revealed to be the fishing doctor.

It's weird because while the Mayor being the twist villain was more predictable, I think he worked as a more fitting final adversary. He was using morally questionable methods to accomplish something good for the people of Crossbell: Independence and safety from invading countries. The protagonists attempting to defeat him means they would have to come to terms with the fact that they're fighting to put Crossbell back in danger. This confrontation does happen, but it's quickly thrown aside in favor of the new twist villain who can be considered to be a less epic antagonist. Going from taking on the self-appointed president of the Independent State of Crossbell to taking on a measly lawyer just feels like a bit of a downgrade. And the laywer doesn't even get a boss fight. This laywer was so convicted in his beliefs that he shot Lloyd's brother, but he was convinced to give up his plan after a simple speech from Lloyd. I just don't think that's a very strong villain, even if it's consistent with the Laywer's character.

Despite the strangeness surrounding the twist villains, I do actually like the endgame. Just as the Mayor was thrown aside as a villain, the Laywer was too. The ultimate antagonist of the game can be said to be KeA herself, even though she's not really a villain. The Lawyer and Mayor being thrown aside allowed the final confrontation of the game to be about convincing KeA that she doesn't need to take on the burden of rewriting all the wrongs of the world. It's a more heartfelt endgame scenario than your average JRPG. I'd have to say that on the whole I really enjoyed the story of Trails to Azure, even if I thought the twist villain was weird. You could call it directionless at points but that's because the game keeps you in the dark as to where the story is going for a very long time.

I really like this cast of characters, probably even more than the cast of the Trails in the Sky games. Even though they're just coworkers in a police department, they resembled a family by the end of the duology.

I enjoyed the new additions to combat like Master Quartz and the Burst ability. I think I've finally reached the point where I can say I like the combat system. Granted, I would never choose to play without the turbo mode on.

The soundtrack here can be a bit of a mixed bag at points. The basic battle theme is my least favorite so far. Luckily, the endgame bosses have some of the best music that the series has to offer.

I like this game. I think I like Trails in the Sky the 3rd as an overall package more but I enjoyed the moment-to-moment experience more in Azure. It could be argued that it's the best Trails game I've played but there's definitely some things about it that don't sit right with me. But maybe that's why it's easily the most interesting Trails game to think about so far.

Trails to Azure is an amazing conclusion to the Crossbell arc let down by a needlessly frustrating final boss. Returning to Crossbell City and the SSS was an absolute joy, one that was only enhanced by the main cast additions of Noel Seeker and Wazy Hemisphere. This game did away with Joshua and Estelle and had smaller, more contained cameos of characters from the Liberl arc, but that's because the Crossbell cast is known and beloved now. I don't think Joshua and Estelle were strictly necessary to pass the "protagonist baton" in Trails from Zero, but they were welcome. With that said, I was happy to have much more of a focus on the SSS getting to be the heroes saving the day (mostly) on their own this time. And this game even had a bit of surprise twist in the end that I genuinely didn't see coming and justified Joshua and Estelle's presence in the last game. And this was after a number of other twists and turns that the story took that were all welcome (even if it did begin to feel like the game had 2 or 3 climaxes).

The combat system is pretty much the same as it was, except for the addition of Master Quartz and the Burst Meter. Master Quartz have their own slot in the party's battle orbments (yes, the Epstein Foundation has outdone themselves again with yet ANOTHER new line of battle orbments) and essentially allow for characters to further assume typical party roles. They achieve this by increasing stats and then giving a special bonus such as a chance to inflict a random ailment when you attack an enemy or granting a boost to strength and defense for the first few turns in combat. The Burst Meter is a more narrative-based mechanic in that it only activates during times of extreme stress or adrenaline for the party. The meter fills as the party deals damage and depletes a little when they take damage. Once full, this meter allows the party to take uninterrupted turns for the duration of the meter, with arts being cast instantly and the potency of arts and crafts both being increased; a bonus which encourages you to go all-out just like the characters.

I have only two major gripes with Trails to Azure: the pacing and that damn final boss. The pacing was good for a decent chunk of the game, but I felt like it slowed a bit in the second half (thanks in part to the "mandatory" beach episode). However, the pacing issues really became apparent after the first twist at the end of Chapter 4 which led into the finale. The finale in this game felt so much longer than all the other games to the point that it felt like almost half of the major plot developments or information took place in the finale. It was still well done and enjoyable, but I felt like either some of the revelations could have happened in Chapter 4 or they could have even just had Chapter 4 end later in the story (or added a Chapter 5).

In the end though, we had the great character writing and moments that I've come to expect from the series and, despite rushing a bit through the final dungeon and not quite liking the villain's extremely quick repentance for their actions, the game was on track to go out on a high note. Then the final boss fight started. The first phase was annoying but do-able with some re-configuring of my loadout and team. The second phase wasn't too bad. The final phase? Oh no that was one of the most frustrating boss fights I've ever had to deal with.

For starters, Lloyd is canonically an evasion tank. You are rewarded for building him this way because of the fact that you can counterattack when you dodge an attack. The final boss has many attacks that, apparently, you can't dodge. I'm not sure whether it's because they're coded to be unavoidable or because the boss just has an extremely high hit chance. They also have attacks that can either attack in a wide arc or in a straight line, making it so you have to be aware of your group's movements. He will summon four minions that need to be killed quickly or else he'll absorb them for a strength boost and then an S-break ultimate attack that will do a great job at putting your party on death row. If you're killing them quickly but they manage to get a turn in, they'll get a shield that absorbs one attack, adding a turn to what you need to kill them. If you try to use Tio's S-break to give yourself those shields at any point, the boss can decide to just nullify it. Same with any stat buffs. Oh, and if you do too much damage to it, the boss can immediately counter with a Vanish so that your party member loses all their EP (mana) and is out of commission for a turn. They can even do this if you're in the middle of using your Burst Meter. And, of course, they have an unblockable, unavoidable, uninterruptible instant win move they can start casting if they fall to low enough health and you just have to hope that you can kill them fast enough without having party members Vanished. I get that the final boss is supposed to be able to ignore the rules because they're capable of rewriting reality, but it just felt cheap when I can lower the difficulty multiple times but still lose because a single character hit too hard and then they cast their instant win craft.

Also, the game ended on quite a happy note only to be followed up by a very abrupt "anyway, Crossbell City was occupied for a few years" and a series of drawn stills showing the party acting as some underground resistance. It felt very out of left field and rushed almost, and a bit like a "Tune in to the next games to eventually hear about this!" sort of deal.

I loved this duology and it was great, fantastic, a true high point of the series for me so far. But damn did that game do its best to make the ending feel less satisfying between the boss and the occupation we don't get to even know about outside of a credits montage. Truly, some of the highest highs and the lowest lows.