A great exploration of conflict and how prejudice towards a specific group can prevent understanding of one another. It has many glaring issues but the sheer passion and heart seeping out of every pore of it makes up for it tenfold. So many moments are executed with the utmost of sincerity that I can't help but just feel enamored by it.

The cast is also surprisingly well written with Deathpolca and Diana being the most standout. Deathpolca is an excellent protagonist that is perfect for the kind of story this is. Diana is one of my favorite JRPG party members ever with an incredibly strong character arc that had a cathartic conclusion. The rest of the cast are no slouches too with them being very endearing and having great dynamics. The weak link of the casts are sadly the antagonists but the Emperor and another one I shall not name are pretty good.

The way it functions as a prequel to King Exist is also unlike anything I've ever seen. This is a very uniquely executed prequel.

The one true flaw of the game that I can't ignore is definitely the gameplay and overall world design being boring. It is not very fun to play sadly, and when compared to other RPGM games such as Black Souls, it falls flat in this aspect for me.

I love Deathpolca so much.

King Exit translation when.

The writing is surprisingly pretty good by SN standards with how it feels like a geniunely fun adventure where you explore lots of places and learn interesting details about the world, and its strong ties to the lore of the series add more to the intrigue. And a lot of the supporting characters get a good amount of screentime and most of them have quite the likeable personalities.
Gameplay got more refined from the first game although it still retains some of its jank, it even kicks the challenge up a notch but the battles in general were still enjoyable.

Nayuta no Kiseki was a game that i've been looking forward since i've caught up to trails (Kuro 1 back then) and something was always strange of why this game took more than a decade to get localized and after NISA announcing Nayuta is coming to west, nothing could've prepared on how much i've loved.

It's so crazy knowing Falcom releasing games every single year, but something is very different in this one game especifically. For a example that really took their own time to create an story than doesnt really rely in the other games, and that's the biggest strength of this game, it gives a sense of identity while pleasing the veterans like me. Also it's not a game that was forced to be the next game for whatever means, like Tokyo Xanadu was released to give more dev time for YS 8 or Kuro no Kiseki 2 for YS X in the same reason.

So coming from after Kuro 2, i'm so glad Nayuta felt like a complete fresh of an air, chibi sprites, old falcom soundteam soul, immaculate art direction and a simple but touching story while maintaining a bit of the Trails series is everything i wished for. It's safe to say that it meet my expectations by a long shot, playing an trails game late a night and having me dialed makes this game an another special to me. Especially considering the struggle of being an Trails fan.

The last thing i wanted to mentioned is how i geniuely missed the old comfy and insane tracks that Falcom is very known for, especially Saki Momiyama (Zero/Azure composer) was insane in this game, it geniuely stole the spotlight for me and makes me miss the cohesion and the passion of every sound team composer and making an special game for as long they can remember.

I can't fully articulate how much this game means to me and the pure emotions it brings out of me in every route. I'll just say that this is the most consistent route based vn I've ever read, I genuinely adore every route and every heroine. Seeing the progression of Key from the beginnings of Kanon and Clannad to something this refined is so satisfyingly. While being familiar in the types of themes it tackles, Summer Pockets is able to separate itself as unique with how it executes on similar concepts of past Key works. The setting, the characters even outside of the heroines, all of it contributes to creating a fictional world I didn't want to leave.

Arc Rise Fantasia is a game that never got the appreciation it deserved when it was out. A JRPG for the Wii that was notorious for its limited selection in the genre, ARF took some ideas from the Tales series with regards to its story and tried a different kind of turn-based battle system, and all in all I believe it delivered on almost everything.
The story of ARF emphasizes the religions in the game and how conflicts arise from the differing Law’s of the two major gods. Later in the game, it also shows the history of the world, which is fantastic since more world-building is always something I can appreciate. I won’t go more into the story, but all I will say is that it’s not a groundbreaking story, but it’s an interesting one. One negative I will say is that the game has a lot of back-and-forth between different locations that gets annoying after a while. For a 50+ hour game, it has a limited location pool. Now for the characters
The main characters L’Arc and Ryfia are cliches of the genre. Most of the cast have cliches or tropes to them (Serge being a womanizer, Cecille wanting to be the courageous hero, Leslie being a femme-fatale and so on), though they all have grown throughout the game. They don’t stay static, the cast develops and shows more of them, especially in the Skits that the game offers. I don’t think it will be a stretch to say that the skits give a lot more for the characters than the actual story scenes.
The battle system is fantastic. It’s turn-based, putting a big emphasis on strategizing your turn to be as effective as possible. The game is challenging as well, most of all the boss battles, which with one or two wrong decisions, can spell a game over for you quickly. Level grinding can help you have an easier time with the boss battles, but you won’t run them over with a couple of extra levels. Strategizing is the key to winning. I had trouble with just one of the boss battles, which you are not expected to win, so if you like a challenge this game gets a recommendation just from the battles alone.
And lastly for the music. For me, it's probably tied with the battle system for the best part of the game. A fantastic OST and a joy to listen to, particularly the boss fight themes. Unexpected Fight and Before the Mighty One are the two biggest highlights of the OST.
I will touch on this in the end, but the most infamous part of this game is the atrocious English voice acting. Yes, it's shit, yes I played the undub version with the Japanese VAs, and no it does not ruin the game. If you can only play with the English voice acting, you can turn off the voices in the settings, my only suggestion is to turn it back on for boss battles (the characters give you hits when the boss is going to hit like a truck) and if you can play with the Japanese VAs do it.
In conclusion, Arc Rise Fantasia is a hidden gem that should be experienced by a lot more people.