This style of Metroidvania world design kind of feels 'lost' - the world isn't all that big, but you're not given a map nor where to go next. Scouring the small world - though 'repetitive', also reinforces its structure. It's spatially memorable.

The modern metroidvania feels defined by revealing squares on a minimap, in order to gain powers to reveal more squares on the minimap. The formula works (though I find it kind of eh), but it's also kind of same-y. That's why the genre is evergreen though - you can buy any metroidvania and it'll probably feel at least as good as another one you like.

One of the most stark differences would be comparing the experience of Metroid 2 to Super Metroid, and how complicated/hard to remember Super Metroid's maps become as that game gives you a minimap. Metroid 2 is possible - and arguably designed - to complete WITHOUT drawing or consulting a map. Of course, it's also linear, but that's not to say it doesn't have a sense of exploration.

So there's something sort of refreshing about THM2's lack of direction, that, even though it's easy and frustrating to get stuck in this game (though some NPCs do give hints).

The level design, controls, and character size is a bit tricky to handle, so I often had to replay sections a lot. At the same time restarting is really fast so there is a unique satisfaction to clearing the levels despite how hard it is to avoid simple enemy movements. I think I prefer this to the common style of metroidvania combat where you just tank hits or spam the same attack over and over.

One thing I enjoyed in THM2 was hiding the coins in blocks, and there being a fixed amount of money in the world. After a while I grew a little tired of breaking all the blocks for money, but there was something satisfying about the game's main collectible not being visible - it's nice to build this 'sixth sense' of which block may or may not have a coin inside of it. Even after you've likely 'cleared an area out', you're still not 100% confident that you've found everything there. Of course, it doesn't matter unless you are insistent on 100%ing - and the effect is that the world remains a bit mysterious.

Like with Treasure Hunter Man 1, I liked how sometimes areas were hidden somewhere within the scrollable map, but only revealed if you fell or jumped into a certain place. I think we lose a bit of that sense of secret with the 'modern metroidvania' which is more about perfectly checking off every room in the game. Imagine a 3x3 room: in a modern MV, it'd be obvious we missed a square on the minimap. But in THM2, there's no minimap - so the designer could hide a secret in the bottom-right square... and it'd be easy to pass by in some cases!

found this while looking for games for my 2014 throwback GOTY list. loved this game back in the day! taught it a many times as a Game Design Teacher... It's one of my formative '3d game dev' games - a very simple 3d game coding-wise but full of the kind of spatial possibilities you can get by being creative with it. loved how everything is just walking aroud, doorways, looking...etc. loved the parking lot area, the art gallery, the walkways across alien night skylines... evocative and fun space.

it's a fun alien world to wander, where nothing is said and it's mostly a story you make up based on the places you walk to and see, the little vignettes you run into. nice short15-30 minute game.

Casual town-builder that is overall feels like optimization puzzle. The interface is a little bit slow and information is organized kind of weird. There were a few discoveries to make in terms of how to best grow the town, but it was annoying to constantly cross-reference the structure evolution paths and keep in mind what needed to go where. Progressing time felt a bit needlessly slow even at 4X. The "Goddesses"' dialogue was... unique at what it was going for (this sort of 'maid' vibe) but they all felt a little similar with repeated text.

There's a metaprogression that makes it easier to score well on levels. I didn't like that simply because it made me feel less able to gauge how well I was actually doing the levels...?

I played a few hours but there were still more mechanics to see. This is really easy to get into and simple to start for a town builder, though, so it was fun to learn about the genre.

Ah... I was stoked to play Cold Steel after finishing off Zero and Azure - 3D! Erebonia! Olivier lore! Cold Steel I comes off as a padded adventure. For anime JRPG standards, I don't think the cast is terrible. I like Rean and Crow's dynamic, Rean and Jusis have some nice moments during that night scene, Alisa and Rean are cute at times. I probably would have finished this but the game pads everything out over 80 hours, character backstories get shuffled off to the second installment. To cap it off there's no canon love interest, and Rean is a boring protagonist, making it worse.

There's just too much noticeable repetition, Erebonia is too big but somehow, it doesn't FEEL big in the way Liberl felt big, because you're shuttled around in a train all the time.

I quit after about 20 hours and skimmed the rest on YouTube.

I liked a handful of moments - Alisa in her parents' home, Claire and Rean at the bar. But overall I don't think I could recommend this unless you're a die-hard Trails fan (hi...)

(Spoilers)

Not as good overall as Sky 1 (retraveling over Liberl gets a little boring, the Ouruboros stuff instantly feels repetitive, visiting each tower gets repetitive...I still don't really care for the battle system), but the main cast stuff is good and the final chapter was really cool by bombastic JRPG standards. Orbal shutdown phenomenon was interesting too, letting you revisit the world.

A nice end to most of the threads of Sky 1, but the emotional threads feel more tied up in Sky 3.

Kevin and Ries's story is nice and well done, I love the bonus content and emotional wrap-ups we get for all of Sky's other characters. It's an amazing sendoff to the Sky series and sets up the rest of the trails games nicely (even if those later games aren't that great)

Gameplay-wise, the game is a bunch of long dungeons, some REALLY sprawling and maze-like. I was already pretty sick of the battles by Sky 2, so I wasn't really into them here, either. Thematically, I did like the weird, distorted dungeons that were warped versions of areas in Sky, but playing through them was just kinda whatever...

Love some of the music!

I played most of this on Switch and then watched the final dungeon.

Unsurprisingly I was exhausted on the Erebonia setting at this point, the game still has a mostly airship/on-rails and disappointing portrayal of the country. It was a nice decision to start the game with rescuing Rean, but again the characters/writing really didn't make that very interesting.

I can't remember what happened for most of the game, but when they all go to Mishelam at the end before the final missions, that was actually a nice sendoff to the series and characters.