I'm speechless. Words can't do it justice.

Absolutely phenomenal game that succeeds on almost all fronts. I expected very little coming into the Crossbell games given my disappointment with the Sky games, but Zero and especially Azure blew me away.

The game has great pacing, one of the best in any JRPG I've played actually which is surprising because pacing has always been the series' weakest part for me. The cast is fantastic and a lot of them are well fleshed out with only a few exceptions. I love Randy and Wazy especially, their arcs really moved me. KeA is so adorable and she must be protected at all costs.

Lloyd motherfucking Bannings is such a great protagonist man. The perfect one for crossbell. A guy willing to stare at the face of despair and struggle with all his might no matter how hopeless the situation is. He's the perfect representation of the indomitable human spirit. He's also a great representation of Crossbell as a state, always being the underdog with constant oppressors holding them back, yet they will never ever backdown no matter what.

The plot was surprisingly complex too, escalating tremendously from the straightforward but solid narrative of Zero, tackling incredibly ambitious ideas with it delivering never ending, nail-biting twists until the very last moments of the game. Yet somehow all these twists never serve to muddy the core message of the game which is to rely on the people around you in order to overcome the mistakes of the past instead of taking the easy way out with ones problems. The game never crumbles from the weight of its own ambitions which is something I greatly commend the game for.

The antagonists are hit or miss, but generally I don't have a problem with them very much and I think they're better handled than Sky SC's antags as their dynamics with the cast feel more relevant to what's actually going on in the story instead of it being fueled by some random past history that's irrelevant to the plot. There are a few exceptions to this in SC but generally this is the case. Imo at least.

As for other stuff about the game, the ost is absolutely fantastic, easily one of my favorites in any JRPG with many bangers such as Inevitable Struggle, Mystic Core, Get over the Barrier, To be continued! And much more. The gameplay is stellar too, taking the already great foundation of the series and making it even better with the addition of Master Quartz which adds a lot more decision making in the gameplay.

All in all, Trails to Azure is essentially a masterpiece with very little issues and fixed nearly every problem I had with the series up to this point. The last stretch and conclusion of the game left me in shock and awe. Not only is it such a satisfying conclusion to the game thematically, but it also made me incredibly excited for the series moving forward.

Though it took a long while, I suppose Trails won me over at this point.

Has it ever happened to you that you're working on a sequel to your 2D handheld platformer for a beloved and iconic IP, and everything is going great because you're fixing a bunch of problems the first game had and designing really cool movement tech and levels that are fun to play, but this guy you don't know keeps sneaking in at night and programming the most dogshit bosses imaginable and adding bottomless pits to ruin all of your levels? What do you mean you gotta collect seven rings in a zone to unlock the special stage AND it's the worst one in the whole entire series!? Somebody needs to stop this guy!!

Holy shit, trails finally hooked me. This game is easily the best one in the series so far imo with its incredibly entertaining cast and tight pacing. Very emotional at points too with Renne's arc and Lloyd's desire to protect KeA being the highlights. I really loved Lloyd and Randy's dynamic a lot too. Really hyped for azure now.

The weak link of the game sadly are its villains which aren't that great with the main villain in particular being laughable at points.

It took a long ass while but trails has finally clicked for me, and it took the barrier man Lloyd Bannings to do it.