Gotta start saying already that this is like my fav game of all time, holy shit Falcom how did you surpass Azure. Now to the actual review lol. As there is no official translation out till like 2023 I used the Spreadsheet my by Zerofield as way of playing, ofc I can’t say how faithful it is to the actual script of the game, but they did a great job imo, everything was clear and not a single line felt “robotic” like the older Zero and Azure translations before Geofront lol. And as a last thing before I proceed to talking about the game itself, I actually got a Platinum trophy on it and I’m way too proud of myself to not mention it here LMAO.

Hajimari no Kiseki, or Trails into Reverie for the 2023 waiters, is the epilogue for both the Erebonian and Crossbellan arc of the series, bringing back a huge ammount of playable characters from said arcs rip Dudley, but tbh pretty much everything happens in Crossbell anyway, the Erebonian sections of the game are few and not as plot relevant as the wild shit happening in Crossbell, so I’d call it the 3rd Crossbell game more than Cold Steel 5; think of it like Crossbell but with CS3/4 gameplay + some additions to it (and actually challenging and balanced).

Since we already talked a bit of gameplay may as well get into it a bit deeper. Hajimari has what can easily be called one of, if not the absolute best, combat systems in a turn-based JRPG, and sure you could argue the same applies to CS3 and CS4 and I don’t praise those for the gameplay, and that’s for two main reasons, 1 being that Hajimari gives you a huge ammount of freedom, way more than CS3/4, and it is much more well balanced. Erebonia as a whole was a terrible arc when it comes to balancing, everything was way too easy, Cold Steel 2 especially was a joke of a game, allowing you to hit kill any boss you want with the correct setup, but fortunately, Hajimari does not have this problem. Every boss feels challenging, normal battles are quick and yet require a bit of attention, especially on higher difficulties where even those, if you don’t strategize properly, can lead to waste of resources for needless heal or even a game over. Anyway, the main new thing about the combat are Valiant Rages, which you got 3 kinds, those being Valiant Craft, Attack and Art. They give you buffs, recoveries, and a considerably high ammount of damage, being great to help you buff your team while also dealing a lot of damage, using them properly can help you a lot, but the Burst gauge is probably the most limited resource you will have in battle, requiring proper planing ahead and non-wasteful use. This game also excels in variety, having an amazing number of 51 playable characters, plus a few characters that are not exactly playable but can give you brave orders, and surprisingly enough, every character feels unique, and the Master Quartz system complements them really, really well, the insane ammount of characters and the customization makes it so the combat rarely feels repetitive, and gives a huge ammount of varieties and possibilities to mess around. Ofc, it’s not all perfect, you do get some underwhelming characters and some overwhelming ones (Lloyd being able to give infinite CP) with his brave order spam lmao, but overall it is pretty well balanced, and with a good enough build everyone is viable and fun to use.

Now moving onto the structure of the game, it’s story and pacing, as well as the gameplay loop. It is, without a doubt, the best paced Trails game, and implements the True Reverie Corridor, TRC for short, which is one of the best things this series has ever done (Tio being the absolute best). The main story takes no more than 30~40 hours to beat, being really quick and well paced, every single chapter has the plot moving nonstop, and the division between 3 routes for 3 different protagonists was an amazing move. While Lloyd’s route is my personal fav, with C’s coming right after, none of them disappoint. Except for Rean’s, where really Class VII goes mostly ignored and he’s clearly the focus, every character have their moments, going through a nice development. And now going back to the TRC, it’s what helps the pacing of this game the most. Relocating all side content to it was a great choice, it leaves the story be and allows it to happen without big interuptions, really, you do your pacing, if you want to spend like 40 hours on the TRC and then go back to the story, that’s on u, and it is what I did a few times lmao, it is a really addicting kind of dungeon, and honestly the only actual good take I’ve seen in randomly generated dungeons, with even mini-puzzles in it and something new almost every floor. When talking about side content, one of the first things that come to mind are the episodes, and god they’re amazing, pretty much a comeback of the doors from 3rd, bringing along some great extra moments for the characters, some kinda sad, some just chill, others even wholesome, emotional, funny, etc. I just really wish there were more SSS related episodes LOL, oh and not to mention the 3 extra episodes u get from clearing the extra chapter, those are some pretty cool insight on a bit of some characters to come in Kuro and plot related stuff for the Calvard arc, making me considerably hyped for it. Overall, Hajimari has easily the best pacing and na amazing plot, not filler at all as some people have already said just cause it’s an epilogue smh, in fact I’d say plotwise it really only loses to Azure cause that one is just unbeatable heh, and the TRC really helps a lot with the pace as well as giving freedom to what u wanna do, as u can access it almost any time.

Welp we’ve already tapped into the more important stuff, so lets get into the rest. First of all the sinners cast, and just, wow, it’s easily the best written cast ever since the SSS, no it is not my fav and I doubt anything is beating the SSS for that, but it quickly grew to be my 2nd fav cast in the entire series, especially Swin and Nadia, not to say I didn’t care about C and Lapis, those were really, really amazing too! But Swin and Nadia are just so cool man, I love their dynamic and just their overall character and personalities and asdjaskd everything. Now changing topics, it’s really great to see how much more polished this game is from CS3/4; the animations are way better and more fluid, in fact, it’s so much better you can unironically notice which animations came from CS3/4 and which ones are new from Hajimari, it’s just that clear how much more effort they put into it, and the cutscenes are amazing and really well animated too, the game just feels like a level of quality that was never seen before in Falcom’s modern, 3D games. Now changing topics once again, let’s talk about the OST; it is clearly not the best in Falcom’s history, cause y’know, 3rd and Crossbell’s OST are right there, but it’s not really bad either, sure there are some kinda underwhelming track and the quality of the soundtrack is far from what Falcom is capable of doing, but it has some great musics too and some favs in the series; it’s good, just not perfect or one of the best.

Well as no game can be perfect there are very tiny nitpicks I got with the game. The main one being why the fuck can I not leave the TRC and go into Crossbell on the post-game, I really just started NG+ so I could have the entire TRC unlocked, including post-game only stuff, and also explore Crossbell. And well this ain’t really new it was an issue with CS1 and 2 too but holy fuck Nord is the most boring area in this fucking series. Exploring it is a huge snoozefest due to being super big and open, making Rean’s chapter 3 my least fav in the game, and honestly the only one I actually dislike.

And well that’s all I got to say about this game. It’s really just that great. By far my fav game in the series and of all time, na easy 10/10, no Tio Plato/10, and as the copypasta says:
Greatest of all time. Zenith of the medium. Hallmark of media. Gold standard of storytelling. Apogee of creativity. Vertex of invention. Crest of ingenuity. Acme of imagination. Pinnacle of innovation. Epic of epics. Legend among legends. Peak fiction

the only flaws are:

1. Lady not playable
2. Lady doesnt have enough screentime
3. this isnt even a flaw from this game but me wishing they make LadyNico canon

EN: Octopath Traveler was a game that took me. 3 attempts. 3 chances, for me to enjoy it. Perhaps my tastes in games shifted a bit, making it so I could actually enjoy it this time. It's a great game, awesome even. Gameplay, music and overarching story easily being the highlights. The characters are all great too. The lack of character interaction however is, something I think is most of the time thrown as a criticism, but I don't think it deserves to be called a negative. This isn't what the game was aiming to do. It was always trying to convey each story individually, with just small hints to a bigger, overarching plot. And that, it does greatly. The lack of character interaction is not for everyone, heck, I'm not a fan of it. I value interaction a lot. But even if I don't like it, I reckon it's personal taste. So putting it as a criticism doesn't seem fair to me. The game also struggles a bit with grinding. If you explore the world a lot, you're gonna easily be over-leveled, but. With 4 characters. Out of 8. Having them gain EXP separately honestly almost killed my desire to even do the other 4 stories. I did, but with much less motivation than the first 4 characters I finished. Overall, the game has surprisingly gone from what I considered a 2, the first time I played it, to a personal 7. I say personal because, objectively speaking, I'd say it deserves an 8 or 9. But my ratings are purely subjective to my own enjoyment, and as I said, no character interaction and grinding is a big no no for me

PT-BR: Octopath Traveler é um jogo que me tomou 3 tentativas. 3 tentativas pra que eu conseguisse gostar do jogo. Talvez meus gostos mudaram um pouco nos últimos anos, fazendo com q eu tivesse a chance de gostar mais do jogo. Em geral, é incrível. Jogabilidade, música e história sendo fácilmente os pontos mais fortes. Os personagens são muito bons também, claro. Uma crítica comum que vejo ao jogo é a falta de interação entre os personagens, e enquanto acho justo não gostar dessa falta de interação, vejo isso mais como algo pessoal do que um ponto fraco do jogo em si. Em nenhum momento o foco do jogo era descrever a jornada dos 8 personagens principais juntos, mas sim a história de cada um deles, separadamente, e de pouco em pouco dar pequenos pedaços de história que conecta cada uma das jornadas separadas dos mesmos. Enfim, essa falta não é pra todos. Eu mesma prefiro, e muito, ter um grupo de personagens que interage entre si e se desenvolvem juntos, mas acho que não seria justo considerar isso uma crítica quando não era o foco do jogo de início. Algo que eu consideraria uma crítica, porém, é o grinding excessivo. Cada um dos personagens evolui separadamente, o que quer dizer que, apenas 4 que estiverem no seu time no momento irão ganhar EXP e avançar em níveis, os outros 4 vão ficar pra traz, fracos. Consequentemente, você vai ter que gastar um bom tempo evoluindo eles. De vdd, quase matou minha motivação pra continuar o jogo e fazer as histórias dos 4 personagens que resolvi deixar pra depois. Enfim, um jogo que a anos atras eu consideraria um 2, agora diria ser um 7. Não de forma objetiva, esse 7 vem de algo pessoal, minhas notas não são baseadas em fatores objetivos e sim puramente no quanto eu mesma gosto da experiência. Se fosse objetivamente, Octopath merece um 8 ou 9, mas a falta de interação entre personagens e grind excessivo degradaram um pouco a experiência pra mim

Kirby's transition to 3D was pretty awesome actually. It's an incredibly fun game, almost every copy ability feels good to play and control (almost.), there's a lot of level variety, solid level design, and overall I'd say except for having to play pretty much all levels at least twice, which isn't the most fun thing ever, to gather all Waddle Dees cause some are just random and unclear, exploring around is probably my fav part of this game really, every little corner you explore of each level rewards you with something. The bosses are also fairly fun just a little bit too easy really. Some I did hitless on 1st try, and others took me at MOST 3 tries to do hitless, which is kind of a shame cause I wish there was a little bit more challenge to them.

Besides gameplay, each area is stunning and looks unique in it's own way, and that makes every level memorable to an extent without even putting the level design into consideration. The soundtrack is also something I didn't expect to be such a high but it surprised me again and again with banger after banger.

Honestly this game just nailed it damn well

Crosscode stands out in many ways, but I think it makes for a more interesting review when you nail what truly makes a game REALLY stand out and makes the experience unique, and for Crosscode, I think it's the exploration honestly.

The big areas full of puzzles and content on every corner of the map are all, with no exception, memorable and unique. Part of that is because exploring in this game isn't just running around and maybe finding something here and there, there's a real sense of difficulty in just moving around, to go from a place to another, you're gonna have to figure out a puzzle, do some tricky platforming, sometimes be fast and work against a timer. Just the action of moving around the map in itself feels unique all the time cause, despite the controls being simple, you can run, Lea auto-jumps, a normal attack and a ranged attack, but all of it, together with the incredible level and puzzle design from this game, mixes up perfectly to create a really enjoyable and rewarding world to explore

Talking about XC3 is a. Complicated matter. I love this game, it truly is one of my fav games and as of now (before Future Redeemed), my 3rd fav Xeno game, just behind Blade 2 and Saga 3 respectively. But it has many, many flaws easy to pick on, and, at least imo, not many factors that make it stand out from the others in the Xenoblade series that XC2 doesn't do, imo, just plain better or in a more memorable way

To start with the one thing I believe XC3 to truly stand out within the series, it's how thematically strong and consistent it is. When it comes to how it handles not only it's own themes, but the ones it inherits from Xenoblade 1 and 2, as the thematic singularity of this series, is incredible. There's so much depth to all of it, and it stays consistent through the entire duration of the game. Everything working to complement it. It's scope is also wild, yeah, X did it too, but the world is so large, and Aionios is very detailed and has some incredible worldbuilding, being probably the better build world of the 3. And ofc there's the polish, naturally, with more budget and time, comes a more polished game overall

As to what I think it does very well, but not in a way that makes it as memorable as the others, I think the absolute best example is the OST. It has the style of the series, but I personally think it lacks some of the "soul", like, it's very, very hit or miss. You have some of the best tracks in the series, personal fav from 3 being Noah and N. But at the same time you have the most forgettable area themes in the entire damn series. Listening to any area theme from either XC1 or XC2 immediately reminds me of what area it's from, no exception at all. But listening to XC3's OST? Unless it's a very important area, no, not at all. It may help with the atmosphere, but it certainly doesn't help with making it any memorable. Speaking of areas, while they're huge and full of content, I again think they're far from being memorable, a lot of them at least. I don't remember any area from XC3 nearly as well as I do Gormott, Leftheria, Uraya, Satorl Marsh, Sylvalum, or really 90% of the areas in the other games. Dannagh Desert is probably the one I remember the most and that's like, literally Torna's Dannagh Desert so I'm not sure if that's even fair. The gameplay is fun, very fun, but imo it fails to capture the same ammount of variety XC2 had. Yeah, you can mix and match classes, but you could also mix and match multiple blades in a single driver, essentially having 3 different playstyles for the same character at your disposal anytime. The Break combo in 3 doesn't have the same depth or feeling that the Driver, Blade and Fusion combos had, giving you less options really. And like, honestly Chain Attacks are such easy win buttons in this game that the only way to make the game challenging is to play on hard mode without Chain Attacks... Which isn't fun because that makes bosses huge HP sponges! Challenge Mode also doesn't help. None of the Challenge Battles are challenging, at all. Really the "rogue-like" mode is the only place where you can have some challenge in this game, and for me easily the most fun thing in the entirety of it. Lastly, the characters are incredible, amazing, some of the best, but again, and this I will acknowledge is very much personal, depends on the person and the emotional connection they feel to each cast of characters, but no, for me, it doesn't even get close to 2's cast. It's still great tho

And now for the, very much blatant, flaw(s). The story is fine, it goes well until around chapter 6 beginning yeah. And then they throw it out the window, fuck up the pacing completely, make it a mess of unanswered questions and borderline nonsensical stuff, while making you go around gathering materials for a stupid god damn BOAT while having NO RELEVANT STORY MOMENTS WHATSOEVER DURING THIS STUPID FETCH QUEST GAH. The story lacks a "major changing point". 1 and 2 both have THAT moment that completely changes the course of the plot. 3 does not. It's Moebius from beginning to end. Oh and Moebius? You mean, probably the 2nd weakest group of antagonist in the series? If it weren't for the Trinity in XC1, I'd easily call Moebius the worst antagonists in Xenoblade. I get what they were going for, if you like it then honestly, go off oomfie. But really, Z is a mess, 90% of Moebius is just,,, more comic relief then actual antagonist. And the very one Moebius that kinda works as a real antagonist, N, imo is the least well executed """sympathetic""" villain in the series. I'm sorry like. It works yeah ok it does, you do understand his reasons and all. But like, really Egil and ESPECIALLY Jin and Malos just feel. So much better executed. It's hard to feel as much sympathy towards N compared to those other three, and the most frustrating part is idk why. Is it cause his actions were a little bit too much? His reasons not enough? I'm really not sure, he just doesn't feel as impactful as the others, and in a cast of antagonist already as bad (imo) as Moebius, that really doesn't help at all

Overall, for as easy as it is to pick on XC3 for small, sometimes big, flaws and just things it, in my point of view, doesn't do as well as the other games, it's still an incredible entry in this series, still one of my favorite games, and I hate talking about it cause I somehow make it seem like I dislike it lmao. But yeah, awesom game

Strive is. Fun. Imo, like very fun. It's by FAR the fighting game I've put the most time into, like legit. I main Bridget and Elphelt and I can say those are incredible characters with awesome momentum (even though Elphelt needs some serious buffs). It's one of my fav games and by far my fav fighting game

And it's outta love that I have to say arcsys please balance your game a little better. I don't even play competitively. I stopped caring about towers and Celestial, pretty much only play on parks now. And it's gotten to a point where I refuse matches against some characters out of them being unfun. Yeah no I won't go around saying Axl, Faust or Johnny are unbalanced, those are just characters I personally do not enjoy playing against but that are,,, fair. Even if Axl is the most obnoxious poopoo garbage character ever put in a fighting game and the game would be better off without him ANYWAY. Happy Chaos (ofc it's HC) and Sol are 2 other characters I straight up refuse to play against <3

Everyone knows why HC is poopoo garbage to play against, sure love paying massive price for fighting game to just press forward and block for 90% of the match, and ofc HC is straight up just a character that does not belong in Strive as in he does not have to play the game
And then Sol is extremely obnoxious in how he does not let you play the game because pressing 1 singular button during his pressure and getting counterhit means death, as his combos not only do impossible to understand damage (who looked at those numbers and thought it was ok) but WA gives him some of the best momentum in the game

So yea. I love the game, but these two are a problem that need fix. Until then I'll just hop on park and refuse every match against Sol and HC (and Axl and Faust and Johnny but those are skill issue)