I'm just gonna dump my thoughts on this game right after finishing it bc i have a lot to say. First off i just wanna say this game is incredible. i played it all in 3 sittings over the course of 3 days, and thats the first time i've done that with a Trails game. every trails game before this has suffered from boring to below average gameplay or really terrible pacing that made me take a pretty long time to beat them. that is absolutely not an issue in this game, the gameplay is completely excellent and the pacing is definitely the best in the series. i love azure with all my heart but even that game suffers from really weird pacing issues that made binging it pretty hard. i never felt bored while playing CS2, i was always doing something interesting. whether it was battling enemies with the extremely fun and engaging battle system, or experiencing the great story, my attention was always held. battling has never been better, and i'm so glad i can say that after struggling through the subpar gameplay of fc/sc/zero. before i played this game 3rd had by far my favorite gameplay, and i still think that game's systems are very well executed and fun. they just dont compare to CS2 though. every party member in CS2 is incredibly fun, each one feels like they have something fun to play with. my favorite party members were fie/millium/towa. nuking bosses in a few turns with millium rean and fie s breaks is so incredibly satisfying and super fun. in the final dungeon where you finally get to use towa (my favorite character from the CS games so far) i was elated to find out she's incredibly strong and super fun. fitting her out with the proper quartz build made her nuke every enemy with a single art, it was incredible. the orbment system in general is very fun. i didn't really like it in CS1, due to being used to how it worked in ao, but after CS2 i can say i love the different effects and cool options the new systems offers. giving fie 110% evasion chance and watching her dodgetank everything is an unparalleled experience. putting aside the main gameplay, the quests in this game are really fun. i didn't like quests in any other trails game, i thought they were uninteresting and tedious without proper fast travel. CS2 fixes that with great and snappy quick travel that made traveling around eastern erebonia a joy. other minor things i loved were recruiting students to join the courageous' crew, customizing and riding the motorcycle (my friend dubbed it the towamobile after i put the towa skin on it), and snowboarding in ymir. now, onto the story. i love the story in this game. ao no kiseki still has my favorite overall kiseki story but CS2 definitely has my favorite final stretch. act 3 to the end was an incredible experience. act 1 serves as a great reintroduction after the chaotic cs1 cliffhanger, reuniting rean with his classmates is a joy even if a lot of them arent very interesting as characters (more on that later). act 2 is the bulk of the game and in my opinion also great. it has no shortage of great moments and flying around erebonia to liberate the areas you went to during your field studies in cold steel 1 is incredibly satisfying. act 3 however, is completely incredible. the entire segment while you climb the castle and fight all the enemies you met on your journey is amazing. blueblanc and duvalie are hilarious as always, xeno and leo's confrontation with fie is excellent and a fantastic moment for her character, mcburn and victor's showdown is badass as hell, and the final battle against crow and vita at the top is one of my favorite moments in the entire series. speaking of crow, he's easily the best character in the game. his dynamic with rean (who btw is a great protagonist, i swear people who think he's boring or doesnt have a personality played a completely different game. he's an incredibly down to earth and relatable, as well as being very nuanced with a lot of character depth especially after the climax of act 3) is soooo good and their conclusion in this game is probably my favorite part of trails so far. this game almost got my to cry like 4 times LMAO. towa is also excellent in this game, she has a lot of great moments in this game and a really compelling character arc. her struggle with being powerless and not worthy of inheriting the courageous from viscount arseid culminating in her taking the front lines and helping you liberate the academy is excellent payoff. her and rean's dynamic and relationship is also just really well done, they play off eachother really well and have really great chemistry. the scene where rean confides in towa and cries over crow's death is great. millium is also a highlight, she's incredibly funny just like in CS1 but has more focus on how she has trouble relating to normal human emotions. her crying at the end of the final dungeon is SO heart wrenching if you do her bonding events. the game isn't without its flaws however, for example i still dont find most of class 7 very interesting as characters. alisa/gaius/laura are all super boring with machias and elliot just being ok. however rean/fie/millium/jusis/emma are all excellent characters and take up most of the screen time so its not that big of a deal. in conclusion, this game is great. i loved every second i played of it and any flaws were either not that big of a deal or so minor and nitpicky i cant even be bothered to remember them right now. i did NOT expect to love this game as much as i did after i was very lukewarm on cold steel 1. i'm going to be thinking about it for a very long time to come and i'm extremely excited to continue the kiseki series and see what CS3/4/hajimari have to offer me! sorry if this was really scatterbrained or hard to read i just kinda wanted to throw my thoughts onto something right after finishing it. not a professional review or anything lol