klaw
34 reviews liked by klaw
Reverie is half way back to what makes a falcom game great fun: a combination of building story sequences and engaging gameplay. The three different routes help keep it varied. It tries to clean up the mess from the last game, but can never really outgrow its shadow. At the end of the day it gives hope for a better tomorrow, one that was sorely needed.
Update (12/2023) : Minor editing. Content still the same
This review also doubles as a personal love letter to the series. TLDR - I cried and it's my GOTY 2023 :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After three long years, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is finally out in the West. This entry acts as the grand finale of the last two story arcs, composed of the previous six games, and symbolizes the end of the first half of the entire story that began with Trails in the Sky 1 which originally released almost 20 years ago. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way:
This game does little to none when it comes to helping newcomers with the story. If you’re new to Trails, stay FAR away or you’ll be making the same confused faces as the new characters introduced in this game whenever they see past characters reference events in the previous story arcs. Managing the equipment of 30+ playable characters gets exhausting and the eye rolling anime tropes from earlier games are all still there. The minigames are also on the dumb side of things.
But worst of all are the numerous mistakes and bugs in the localization. There are instances of characters saying the wrong voiced lines in battle, the incorrect proper noun used in dialogue (Jusis instead of Rufus, Calvard instead of Crossbell), spelling and grammar mistakes, and skills and item descriptions being incorrect. If you play only through the main story and keep the difficulty at normal or lower, you’ll experience these errors at a minimum. However, one of Trails’ most defining aspects is the amount of writing and attention to detail it gives to characters outside of the main cast. Every NPC from the retired couple living in the apartment nearby to the junior chef working at a popular restaurant has their own individual storyline that advances for each inch you progress in the main story. Many of the NPCs in Reverie were NPCs back when the series was still 2D and getting to see where they are now in life since the events of the earlier games brings joy to those that have been with the series since the beginning. It makes the world feel so alive knowing that these everyday characters are living their own lives and always have something new to say after completing the next story objective or sidequest. Unfortunately, the dialogue from these NPCs is where most of these typos and grammar mistakes are found. A good chunk of Trails players go out of their way to talk to every NPC so these mistakes are a detriment to the unique experience that the series has since the first game. This is something that NISA really needs to work on as they continue to be the English publisher for this series, and I hope that they fix this with patches in the near future.
But from here on out, it’s complete praise. I laughed, cried, squealed, screamed, smiled, eyes popped open, etc. I went through an entire range of emotions during my time with this game all because it gave me another opportunity to be in this wonderful world with a cast I’ve been in love with for the past seven years. Nearly every major story character from all the previous story arcs makes a physical appearance in this game with the rest being either referenced or mentioned at least once throughout the events of this game. Getting to see these characters have their heroic moments and having banter with each other brings humor, excitement, and engagement in the current story events because of the legacies and backstories they built from the earlier games. And yet somehow, even with these established characters already being fan favorites, they are topped by the new characters introduced in this entry of the series. Nadia and Swin are child assassins first introduced in a collectible in-game novel from the last game, Cold Steel 4. Their fates intertwine with Lapis, a talking doll, and a mysterious masked person going by the name “C”. This group of four make up one of the three story routes in the game with the other two routes being headed by Rean and Lloyd, the protagonists of the Cold Steel and Crossbell story arcs respectively.
The Trails’ signature brand of quality character development has always been phenomenal with small casts and it’s no different with C’s group. The relationships they build with each other, the conversations they have, and the events they go through together as their route intertwines with the other two all combine to make them another group of characters you’ll come to love in the Trails series. It’s a shame that their route is the shortest out of the three.
Nevertheless, the three-route system and the ability to jump between them at almost any point greatly improves the series’ continuous problem with pacing. Although I ultimately loved my time with Cold Steel 4, the game felt to me thirty dungeons too long and at multiple times pushed me with how much fighting or dungeon crawling I had to do to advance to the next major story event. With Reverie, I never had this issue thanks to always learning or seeing something new through the eyes of different groups of characters. While fixing this issue, Reverie maintains the positive sides of the series’ storytelling. The numerous callbacks to previous games, amazing character development and relationship building for both old and new characters, continuing storylines of NPCs, interesting plot buildup, the big revelations, continuous lore and world building, the attention to detail, references and minor story setups for future story arcs if you pay enough attention, the wonderful banter between the humongous cast inside and outside of the main story, it’s all there.
It's extremely hard writing this without mentioning major story details to avoid spoilers. But I will say this: the moment that all three routes converge together led to endless hours of me screaming, crying, yelling “OMFG!” to the events I saw on screen and the crazy plot revelations being revealed. Sure, I was doing this for most of the game but when “that” sequence happened, I was literally jumping out of my seat!
And then I finally hit credits. During the final hours, my excitement was at an all-time high but at the same time, there was a bittersweet feeling lingering in the back of my mind knowing that this final grand adventure with these characters was coming soon to an end. When the first lines of credits appeared on screen, tears came out. It was finally time to say goodbye to these characters from the world of Zemuria. Sure, there is a special dungeon and post-game content containing special story scenarios. These events act as fanservice, help to explain various events that happened between the stories of Reverie and Cold Steel 4, give attention to other characters that didn’t have major roles in the main story of Reverie, and/or provide a glimpse into the next story arc. But ultimately, this will be the final time these characters will be in the spotlight of this phenomenal series.
As I tried to simultaneously wipe my tears and view the illustrations in the credits, my mind started to go down memory lane. From my time in Liberl with Estelle and Joshua to overcoming every barrier in Crossbell with Lloyd and the Special Support Section to conquering the endless trials thrown at Rean and Class VII, these journeys are some of the most memorable experiences I had in video games. As I continued down memory lane, specific story moments came to mind. Estelle and Joshua returning to Rolent after reuniting, Tio’s heart to heart conversation with Lloyd about finding a purpose to live, the juxtaposition of the state of Rean’s character after the major events of Cold Steel 2 compared to his companions, the whole finale of Trails to Azure, Kevin’s “sacrifice” , the first time everyone meets up in Cold Steel 4, these are just a few of the specific events I reminisced about out of the countless unforgettable moments throughout the entire series as credits continued to roll.
Reverie solidifies how special the Trails series is to me. A few years ago, I wrote a little post about how I played too many games to have an absolute favorite or Top 10 but have an easier time listing games that are personally special to me. My example at the time was Persona 4 because even though there are aspects of the game that haven’t aged well, its story themes resonated with me during my high school years. The Trails series is special to me but for different reasons.
Throughout all my years playing games, I never had a turnaround in opinion as big and insane as I had with this series. My first experience with this series was the PSP version of Trails in the Sky 1 back in high school. I couldn’t stand it. I found it slow, repetitive, and generic, all the worst words you can describe an RPG with. I gave up early on. But in the following years after high school, I observed a fiery and passionate fanbase preaching to every gaming corner on the internet to “Go buy and play Trails!”. I proceeded to see this fanbase getting bigger and bigger to the point that they saved this series in the West after initial poor sales of Sky 1 stopped the release of its sequel. It wasn’t until the slow summer of 2016 that I decided to buy Sky 1 on PC and gave it another shot.
And then it all clicked. I found Estelle and Joshua to be charming characters. I found the “laid back” attitude of the story to connect with me so well because it made me feel like I was journeying the nation of Liberl alongside these two, learning more and more about the history, politics, and people of their home country alongside them. My mind was completely blown with the amount of writing the game gave to the NPCs. Every single character I could talk to from the villager to the soldier guarding the nearby gate had their own unique names, personalities, and storylines. It made the world feel so alive not through realistic graphics but showing that every human being you can meet and talk to were living their own lives. Even though the gameplay was still slow and outdated (the original version was released in 2004 and was designed to run on low-end PCs of that era), the story kept me pushing till the end. I loved the main characters too much to give up and the world building and lore was all interesting. And then I arrived at the infamous ending of Sky 1. I still remember the night when I saw the ending. It was 2AM and I was having an intense internal conflict deciding between going to bed or immediately starting the sequel.
The moment I decided to start the sequel in the middle of the night was when I officially became obsessed with this series. That year, I finished all the Trails games that were currently available in English, Sky 1, Sky 2, Cold Steel 1, and Cold Steel 2. The attention to detail, the amazing lore and world building, the volume of dialogue given to every character and NPC and the consistency with it, the way characters are built up and developed throughout the beginning before the big plot twists and revelations drop, the detailed diversity and backstories and politics of each individual nation in the world of Zemuria that affects each story arc, etc. I’m amazed at what this series does and to top it all off, there is ONE GRAND STORY being told that links all these story arcs together. There is no “cheating” with huge timeskips and completely different settings/universes that long running video games do with their sequels. Every story arc happens a year apart from each other and takes place in neighboring nations. As a result, the events of previous story arcs can directly affect the current and characters/organizations from earlier games making appearances, even if minor, can potentially bring major plot implications. It’s a type of story experience generally reserved for books, and the fact that a video game series is doing this and pulling it off speaks volumes of how special Trails is.
This series brings out a child-like media obsession from me. It’s the movie that’s watched on repeat for hours on end. It’s the book series that’s easy to daydream and self-insert yourself into. It’s the weekend TV show you make sure to drop everything for. It’s the album on endless repeat in the background. I never thought I could fall in love with a piece of media like this since becoming an adult and graduating from college. As the years go by and I find my time and interest in video games waning bit by bit, I told myself that if I ever lost complete interest in games, I would make an exception for Trails. It’s the one series whose story I need to see through to the end.
If we follow the original Japanese release dates, it took Falcom 16 years to reach the halfway point in this series with Reverie. They are on record saying that they plan to pump out games faster so that it wouldn’t take as long to finish the latter half of the series. But with how long it takes for these games to come out in English, I wouldn’t be surprised that it would still take 15-20 years for us to see the remaining story arcs Falcom has planned for this series. I sincerely hope I live long enough to see this series through to the end. I can already vision it…a middle aged me, balding, slightly chubbier (hopefully), bawling deeply into a box of tissues after hitting credits in the final game of the series. I’ll be crying not because the ending is sad or anything like that. I have no idea how they plan to end this series. But I know that regardless if Falcom lands the ending or not, it will all be bittersweet because it will signal that my time in Zemuria has come to an end. It’s a world that I have come to love and know so much with countless endearing characters whose stories I deeply enjoyed. Who would have thought that a video game series with one of the most generic titles ever could capture my heart like this?!
As the young kids would say, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is “peak fiction”. In the year that has a new Fire Emblem, a new Zelda, Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo 4, and much more to come, Reverie has and will personally top them all for me. Even with its major issues with the localization and the fact that it’s nowhere nice for newcomers, I can’t help but say it is my Game of the Year for 2023. Thank you Falcom for giving me one last incredible ride with these unforgettable characters.
Score: 10/10
This review also doubles as a personal love letter to the series. TLDR - I cried and it's my GOTY 2023 :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After three long years, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is finally out in the West. This entry acts as the grand finale of the last two story arcs, composed of the previous six games, and symbolizes the end of the first half of the entire story that began with Trails in the Sky 1 which originally released almost 20 years ago. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way:
This game does little to none when it comes to helping newcomers with the story. If you’re new to Trails, stay FAR away or you’ll be making the same confused faces as the new characters introduced in this game whenever they see past characters reference events in the previous story arcs. Managing the equipment of 30+ playable characters gets exhausting and the eye rolling anime tropes from earlier games are all still there. The minigames are also on the dumb side of things.
But worst of all are the numerous mistakes and bugs in the localization. There are instances of characters saying the wrong voiced lines in battle, the incorrect proper noun used in dialogue (Jusis instead of Rufus, Calvard instead of Crossbell), spelling and grammar mistakes, and skills and item descriptions being incorrect. If you play only through the main story and keep the difficulty at normal or lower, you’ll experience these errors at a minimum. However, one of Trails’ most defining aspects is the amount of writing and attention to detail it gives to characters outside of the main cast. Every NPC from the retired couple living in the apartment nearby to the junior chef working at a popular restaurant has their own individual storyline that advances for each inch you progress in the main story. Many of the NPCs in Reverie were NPCs back when the series was still 2D and getting to see where they are now in life since the events of the earlier games brings joy to those that have been with the series since the beginning. It makes the world feel so alive knowing that these everyday characters are living their own lives and always have something new to say after completing the next story objective or sidequest. Unfortunately, the dialogue from these NPCs is where most of these typos and grammar mistakes are found. A good chunk of Trails players go out of their way to talk to every NPC so these mistakes are a detriment to the unique experience that the series has since the first game. This is something that NISA really needs to work on as they continue to be the English publisher for this series, and I hope that they fix this with patches in the near future.
But from here on out, it’s complete praise. I laughed, cried, squealed, screamed, smiled, eyes popped open, etc. I went through an entire range of emotions during my time with this game all because it gave me another opportunity to be in this wonderful world with a cast I’ve been in love with for the past seven years. Nearly every major story character from all the previous story arcs makes a physical appearance in this game with the rest being either referenced or mentioned at least once throughout the events of this game. Getting to see these characters have their heroic moments and having banter with each other brings humor, excitement, and engagement in the current story events because of the legacies and backstories they built from the earlier games. And yet somehow, even with these established characters already being fan favorites, they are topped by the new characters introduced in this entry of the series. Nadia and Swin are child assassins first introduced in a collectible in-game novel from the last game, Cold Steel 4. Their fates intertwine with Lapis, a talking doll, and a mysterious masked person going by the name “C”. This group of four make up one of the three story routes in the game with the other two routes being headed by Rean and Lloyd, the protagonists of the Cold Steel and Crossbell story arcs respectively.
The Trails’ signature brand of quality character development has always been phenomenal with small casts and it’s no different with C’s group. The relationships they build with each other, the conversations they have, and the events they go through together as their route intertwines with the other two all combine to make them another group of characters you’ll come to love in the Trails series. It’s a shame that their route is the shortest out of the three.
Nevertheless, the three-route system and the ability to jump between them at almost any point greatly improves the series’ continuous problem with pacing. Although I ultimately loved my time with Cold Steel 4, the game felt to me thirty dungeons too long and at multiple times pushed me with how much fighting or dungeon crawling I had to do to advance to the next major story event. With Reverie, I never had this issue thanks to always learning or seeing something new through the eyes of different groups of characters. While fixing this issue, Reverie maintains the positive sides of the series’ storytelling. The numerous callbacks to previous games, amazing character development and relationship building for both old and new characters, continuing storylines of NPCs, interesting plot buildup, the big revelations, continuous lore and world building, the attention to detail, references and minor story setups for future story arcs if you pay enough attention, the wonderful banter between the humongous cast inside and outside of the main story, it’s all there.
It's extremely hard writing this without mentioning major story details to avoid spoilers. But I will say this: the moment that all three routes converge together led to endless hours of me screaming, crying, yelling “OMFG!” to the events I saw on screen and the crazy plot revelations being revealed. Sure, I was doing this for most of the game but when “that” sequence happened, I was literally jumping out of my seat!
And then I finally hit credits. During the final hours, my excitement was at an all-time high but at the same time, there was a bittersweet feeling lingering in the back of my mind knowing that this final grand adventure with these characters was coming soon to an end. When the first lines of credits appeared on screen, tears came out. It was finally time to say goodbye to these characters from the world of Zemuria. Sure, there is a special dungeon and post-game content containing special story scenarios. These events act as fanservice, help to explain various events that happened between the stories of Reverie and Cold Steel 4, give attention to other characters that didn’t have major roles in the main story of Reverie, and/or provide a glimpse into the next story arc. But ultimately, this will be the final time these characters will be in the spotlight of this phenomenal series.
As I tried to simultaneously wipe my tears and view the illustrations in the credits, my mind started to go down memory lane. From my time in Liberl with Estelle and Joshua to overcoming every barrier in Crossbell with Lloyd and the Special Support Section to conquering the endless trials thrown at Rean and Class VII, these journeys are some of the most memorable experiences I had in video games. As I continued down memory lane, specific story moments came to mind. Estelle and Joshua returning to Rolent after reuniting, Tio’s heart to heart conversation with Lloyd about finding a purpose to live, the juxtaposition of the state of Rean’s character after the major events of Cold Steel 2 compared to his companions, the whole finale of Trails to Azure, Kevin’s “sacrifice” , the first time everyone meets up in Cold Steel 4, these are just a few of the specific events I reminisced about out of the countless unforgettable moments throughout the entire series as credits continued to roll.
Reverie solidifies how special the Trails series is to me. A few years ago, I wrote a little post about how I played too many games to have an absolute favorite or Top 10 but have an easier time listing games that are personally special to me. My example at the time was Persona 4 because even though there are aspects of the game that haven’t aged well, its story themes resonated with me during my high school years. The Trails series is special to me but for different reasons.
Throughout all my years playing games, I never had a turnaround in opinion as big and insane as I had with this series. My first experience with this series was the PSP version of Trails in the Sky 1 back in high school. I couldn’t stand it. I found it slow, repetitive, and generic, all the worst words you can describe an RPG with. I gave up early on. But in the following years after high school, I observed a fiery and passionate fanbase preaching to every gaming corner on the internet to “Go buy and play Trails!”. I proceeded to see this fanbase getting bigger and bigger to the point that they saved this series in the West after initial poor sales of Sky 1 stopped the release of its sequel. It wasn’t until the slow summer of 2016 that I decided to buy Sky 1 on PC and gave it another shot.
And then it all clicked. I found Estelle and Joshua to be charming characters. I found the “laid back” attitude of the story to connect with me so well because it made me feel like I was journeying the nation of Liberl alongside these two, learning more and more about the history, politics, and people of their home country alongside them. My mind was completely blown with the amount of writing the game gave to the NPCs. Every single character I could talk to from the villager to the soldier guarding the nearby gate had their own unique names, personalities, and storylines. It made the world feel so alive not through realistic graphics but showing that every human being you can meet and talk to were living their own lives. Even though the gameplay was still slow and outdated (the original version was released in 2004 and was designed to run on low-end PCs of that era), the story kept me pushing till the end. I loved the main characters too much to give up and the world building and lore was all interesting. And then I arrived at the infamous ending of Sky 1. I still remember the night when I saw the ending. It was 2AM and I was having an intense internal conflict deciding between going to bed or immediately starting the sequel.
The moment I decided to start the sequel in the middle of the night was when I officially became obsessed with this series. That year, I finished all the Trails games that were currently available in English, Sky 1, Sky 2, Cold Steel 1, and Cold Steel 2. The attention to detail, the amazing lore and world building, the volume of dialogue given to every character and NPC and the consistency with it, the way characters are built up and developed throughout the beginning before the big plot twists and revelations drop, the detailed diversity and backstories and politics of each individual nation in the world of Zemuria that affects each story arc, etc. I’m amazed at what this series does and to top it all off, there is ONE GRAND STORY being told that links all these story arcs together. There is no “cheating” with huge timeskips and completely different settings/universes that long running video games do with their sequels. Every story arc happens a year apart from each other and takes place in neighboring nations. As a result, the events of previous story arcs can directly affect the current and characters/organizations from earlier games making appearances, even if minor, can potentially bring major plot implications. It’s a type of story experience generally reserved for books, and the fact that a video game series is doing this and pulling it off speaks volumes of how special Trails is.
This series brings out a child-like media obsession from me. It’s the movie that’s watched on repeat for hours on end. It’s the book series that’s easy to daydream and self-insert yourself into. It’s the weekend TV show you make sure to drop everything for. It’s the album on endless repeat in the background. I never thought I could fall in love with a piece of media like this since becoming an adult and graduating from college. As the years go by and I find my time and interest in video games waning bit by bit, I told myself that if I ever lost complete interest in games, I would make an exception for Trails. It’s the one series whose story I need to see through to the end.
If we follow the original Japanese release dates, it took Falcom 16 years to reach the halfway point in this series with Reverie. They are on record saying that they plan to pump out games faster so that it wouldn’t take as long to finish the latter half of the series. But with how long it takes for these games to come out in English, I wouldn’t be surprised that it would still take 15-20 years for us to see the remaining story arcs Falcom has planned for this series. I sincerely hope I live long enough to see this series through to the end. I can already vision it…a middle aged me, balding, slightly chubbier (hopefully), bawling deeply into a box of tissues after hitting credits in the final game of the series. I’ll be crying not because the ending is sad or anything like that. I have no idea how they plan to end this series. But I know that regardless if Falcom lands the ending or not, it will all be bittersweet because it will signal that my time in Zemuria has come to an end. It’s a world that I have come to love and know so much with countless endearing characters whose stories I deeply enjoyed. Who would have thought that a video game series with one of the most generic titles ever could capture my heart like this?!
As the young kids would say, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is “peak fiction”. In the year that has a new Fire Emblem, a new Zelda, Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo 4, and much more to come, Reverie has and will personally top them all for me. Even with its major issues with the localization and the fact that it’s nowhere nice for newcomers, I can’t help but say it is my Game of the Year for 2023. Thank you Falcom for giving me one last incredible ride with these unforgettable characters.
Score: 10/10
It's Sen no Kiseki 5, for all that means both good and bad. I really liked the battle system as they just completely gave up on attempting to balance it; the ingame gacha showers you with extremely powerful spells and abilities, it's easy to keep the massive cast of characters level appropriate and you're just steaming through bosses by the end. Great fun and with the extra bonus characters in the 'hub' dungeon it's just fan service central.
I can't really go into any more as at that point we'd be in spoiler territory but I'm looking forward to a new start with the next series. The issues I had with Sen 4 are still very much here, and a reset of the scope is exactly what the writing team need. It didn't actively annoy me as much as the last couple of games but they also kind of forgot to write in a proper enemy. Weird stuff.
I can't really go into any more as at that point we'd be in spoiler territory but I'm looking forward to a new start with the next series. The issues I had with Sen 4 are still very much here, and a reset of the scope is exactly what the writing team need. It didn't actively annoy me as much as the last couple of games but they also kind of forgot to write in a proper enemy. Weird stuff.
As someone who loves the Crossbell arc a lot, I definitely had high expectations for this game.
But holy shit man, those expectations couldn't even hope to hold a candle to everything this game does so ridiculously well.
First of all, the gameplay's ridiculously fun. It's snappy, and all of the new features and gimmicks added to it are such a blast.
Swin's Marks - a completely new debuff unique to him that procs on his crafts and guarantee the next hit will be a crit especially, might just be the most fun I've had in this series since the golden days of stacking buffs on Richard in Sky 3rd and yelling go white boy go as he spins 6 turns in a row with less delay on his crafts than regular attacks.
Slap a Gungnir Sub-Master Quartz on that kid and watch him absolutely nuke anything he touches after marking something through a simple 20 point craft. It's beautiful.
But gameplay's never really been what's drawn me to this series - it's generally enjoyable, but definitely not the highlight that I'd mainly like to talk about.
That'd be the writing, and the numerous amount of incredible casts I've come across on this ridiculously expansive continuous series that have inspired me in ways both small and large.
And man oh man, this game definitely isn't any different in that regard.
Starting off unsurprisingly due to my aforementioned love for the once-called City of Sin; there's a few faults to be had with Lloyd's route - but to me, the only thing that really sticks out is that the way a certain chapter ties immediately into the finale isn't particularly rewarding at that time.
But apart from that? Perfect. Genuinely perfect.
It takes everything the Crossbell arc's about, spins it into a new perspective, and makes it come together so damn well as the SSS dust themselves off and get right back to fighting for their home they've come to love so much, same as they've done countless times before; except now, fully aware that their role as heroes was never theirs alone.
It's such a fascinating route; it makes full use of the speech about justice Dieter gave them in Zero, and even makes them truly be able to stand in KeA's shoes regarding her circumstances in Azure.
It really does feel like a third Crossbell game, because it wraps things up perfectly due to the emphasis on them, and I couldn't be happier about it.
But that's not all! It's even got the "Miserable Sinners", a group lead by a mysterious masked criminal known as C, as an all-new cast introduced in this game. And man, I don't think I've ever grown used to a war criminal and their unhinged children so easily.
Swin and Nadia are fantastic, because they make full use of the way Trails loves to branch off into different mediums to give the players multiple ways to grow accustomed to it's world.
All their volumes of books about their backstory are available both in Cold Steel 4 as a collectable series, on Reverie's title screen and on it's website - that's a way they love to give you a teaser of characters before they appear, and that's so fascinating to me because I personally don't know any other series of games that does something similar, definitely not in-universe.
One of my favorite characters in this series, Toval Randonneur, is much the same - he's first introduced as a young crook in the Carnelia books in Trails in the Sky, then a few years later in the timeline you'll see him again as a cocky bracer who's found his place in the world in the Ring of Judgment manga set just before Trails from Zero, and then finally introduced in-game as a more mature bracer in Cold Steel 1, eventually leading into somewhat of a mentor role through the early game of Cold Steel 2 where he makes use of those life experiences to pick Rean back up when he's at a low point.
It's just so cool to see characters develop like that through multiple mediums, and watching S&N take their future that belongs only to them after all they've been through in their books was so incredibly cathartic.
C themselves and Lapis are both fantastic too, and I did not expect this to be the existential crisis group, but they bounce off each other so incredibly well. They might be miserable sinners - but they slowly but surely find it's a lot less miserable with company, and stuff like that is just right up my alley.
It's also a breath of fresh air to have more of an anti-hero group after so many games of goody two-shoes, and it makes them all the more enjoyable. From what I've heard a more younger, newer part of the writing team was in charge of their route - and it really adds to how much it stands out, in a really good way.
Ofcourse, the game's not without it's flaws - having to juggle between three routes constantly means either having to split resources for sub-optimal builds or constantly swap the good master quartz, regular quartz and accessories around, and I chose the latter. Admittedly my own fault more than anything - splitting resources is probably what they expect from you; but yeah. Trading all that and making sure it's all given to the correct characters can definitely take some time when there's up to atleast 10 times in your playthrough where you gotta do this.
And yes, even though I've sung praise for Lloyd and C's routes specifically there are in-fact 3 of them - but much like towards Cold Steel itself I'm.. pretty much ambivalent towards Rean Route, personally.
It's fine, definitely not anything that's actively a blemish on the game or anything - just not my cup of tea, personally.
It's got plenty of Rean development, and if that's your thing you're in luck; but after four games of Cold Steel I'm just kinda tired of having things revolve around him as much as they do. I don't think he's bad by any means, but at some point it just feels like they're regurgitating things for him to get into his head after doing the same for four games long.
That's probably the point, to be fair - trauma like his is certainly not something that can be switched on or off due to something simple as good advice, but yeah. At some point enough is enough, hence the ambivalence to it all.
That being said, yes, even with not feeling too strongly about one of it's three routes - I utterly adore this game.
Lloyd and C's routes are without a doubt my favorite thing about this series yet, and I cannot wait for Kuro if this is the quality of writing I can come to expect.
But that's a trail for another day! One I'm very, very excited for thanks to this masterpiece.
But holy shit man, those expectations couldn't even hope to hold a candle to everything this game does so ridiculously well.
First of all, the gameplay's ridiculously fun. It's snappy, and all of the new features and gimmicks added to it are such a blast.
Swin's Marks - a completely new debuff unique to him that procs on his crafts and guarantee the next hit will be a crit especially, might just be the most fun I've had in this series since the golden days of stacking buffs on Richard in Sky 3rd and yelling go white boy go as he spins 6 turns in a row with less delay on his crafts than regular attacks.
Slap a Gungnir Sub-Master Quartz on that kid and watch him absolutely nuke anything he touches after marking something through a simple 20 point craft. It's beautiful.
But gameplay's never really been what's drawn me to this series - it's generally enjoyable, but definitely not the highlight that I'd mainly like to talk about.
That'd be the writing, and the numerous amount of incredible casts I've come across on this ridiculously expansive continuous series that have inspired me in ways both small and large.
And man oh man, this game definitely isn't any different in that regard.
Starting off unsurprisingly due to my aforementioned love for the once-called City of Sin; there's a few faults to be had with Lloyd's route - but to me, the only thing that really sticks out is that the way a certain chapter ties immediately into the finale isn't particularly rewarding at that time.
But apart from that? Perfect. Genuinely perfect.
It takes everything the Crossbell arc's about, spins it into a new perspective, and makes it come together so damn well as the SSS dust themselves off and get right back to fighting for their home they've come to love so much, same as they've done countless times before; except now, fully aware that their role as heroes was never theirs alone.
It's such a fascinating route; it makes full use of the speech about justice Dieter gave them in Zero, and even makes them truly be able to stand in KeA's shoes regarding her circumstances in Azure.
It really does feel like a third Crossbell game, because it wraps things up perfectly due to the emphasis on them, and I couldn't be happier about it.
But that's not all! It's even got the "Miserable Sinners", a group lead by a mysterious masked criminal known as C, as an all-new cast introduced in this game. And man, I don't think I've ever grown used to a war criminal and their unhinged children so easily.
Swin and Nadia are fantastic, because they make full use of the way Trails loves to branch off into different mediums to give the players multiple ways to grow accustomed to it's world.
All their volumes of books about their backstory are available both in Cold Steel 4 as a collectable series, on Reverie's title screen and on it's website - that's a way they love to give you a teaser of characters before they appear, and that's so fascinating to me because I personally don't know any other series of games that does something similar, definitely not in-universe.
One of my favorite characters in this series, Toval Randonneur, is much the same - he's first introduced as a young crook in the Carnelia books in Trails in the Sky, then a few years later in the timeline you'll see him again as a cocky bracer who's found his place in the world in the Ring of Judgment manga set just before Trails from Zero, and then finally introduced in-game as a more mature bracer in Cold Steel 1, eventually leading into somewhat of a mentor role through the early game of Cold Steel 2 where he makes use of those life experiences to pick Rean back up when he's at a low point.
It's just so cool to see characters develop like that through multiple mediums, and watching S&N take their future that belongs only to them after all they've been through in their books was so incredibly cathartic.
C themselves and Lapis are both fantastic too, and I did not expect this to be the existential crisis group, but they bounce off each other so incredibly well. They might be miserable sinners - but they slowly but surely find it's a lot less miserable with company, and stuff like that is just right up my alley.
It's also a breath of fresh air to have more of an anti-hero group after so many games of goody two-shoes, and it makes them all the more enjoyable. From what I've heard a more younger, newer part of the writing team was in charge of their route - and it really adds to how much it stands out, in a really good way.
Ofcourse, the game's not without it's flaws - having to juggle between three routes constantly means either having to split resources for sub-optimal builds or constantly swap the good master quartz, regular quartz and accessories around, and I chose the latter. Admittedly my own fault more than anything - splitting resources is probably what they expect from you; but yeah. Trading all that and making sure it's all given to the correct characters can definitely take some time when there's up to atleast 10 times in your playthrough where you gotta do this.
And yes, even though I've sung praise for Lloyd and C's routes specifically there are in-fact 3 of them - but much like towards Cold Steel itself I'm.. pretty much ambivalent towards Rean Route, personally.
It's fine, definitely not anything that's actively a blemish on the game or anything - just not my cup of tea, personally.
It's got plenty of Rean development, and if that's your thing you're in luck; but after four games of Cold Steel I'm just kinda tired of having things revolve around him as much as they do. I don't think he's bad by any means, but at some point it just feels like they're regurgitating things for him to get into his head after doing the same for four games long.
That's probably the point, to be fair - trauma like his is certainly not something that can be switched on or off due to something simple as good advice, but yeah. At some point enough is enough, hence the ambivalence to it all.
That being said, yes, even with not feeling too strongly about one of it's three routes - I utterly adore this game.
Lloyd and C's routes are without a doubt my favorite thing about this series yet, and I cannot wait for Kuro if this is the quality of writing I can come to expect.
But that's a trail for another day! One I'm very, very excited for thanks to this masterpiece.
This review contains spoilers
I'm sure there are people smarter than me with more interesting things to say about CS4, but I put my 90 hours in and I'm going to talk about them
This game is incredibly mid for Kiseki standards. That's not to say it's bad, or that it doesn't have some incredibly good scenes, but the amount of things I had to play through to get there wasn't worth it. This game does not respect your time; that's not new to this series, but it feels especially prevalent with this game.
Let's start with the magic stuff. The Trails series has always had a common theme of political intrigue weaving itself with fantasy elements, all the way back to FC. I think this is what makes The Curse so disappointing; the series has shown that it's capable of writing this combination in fascinating ways without diminishing from either side, but CS4 drops the ball so hard despite The Curse being fairly interesting on a conceptual level. CS4's plot, in theory, centers heavily around an imminent, massive war. Better yet, the war is taking place across most of Zemuria, so it's touching a bunch of locations that 10 games have been getting us attached to. This is a perfect recipe for some high emotional stakes for your finale. The magic side of the plot cancels a lot of this out; the plot isn't actually about the war, it's about the rivalries. For every good sidequest about someone coming to terms with the war, there are two or three about The Curse causing a problem for you to solve.
Unlike the rest of the series, the party is now well aware of magic. No more secret clan of witches, no more mystery behind the schemes the villains are making. You start the game in Eryn Village and the party's motivation lies not in politically based action but in magically based action. For me, this makes it a lot harder to be invested, because frankly, the realm of magic is the realm of bullshit. Writers can make whatever the fuck they want happen with magic, and the worldbuilding around the magic isn't really strong enough for it to feel like something I can study or make predictions about. This isn't something that really bothered me in the past because magic was always a background thing, but in this game it's at the forefront and therefore causes a significant tonal shift from "story about people trying to get through political events" to "story about people doing whatever the magic makes them do". This is an exaggeration, but it's still a noticeable change that I dislike.
Let's talk about villains. Osborne, who I love for being an amazing villain, got a lot out of the ending. I think "guy who became the world's greatest enemy with the specific goal of bringing the evil into himself and sacrificing himself to destroy it" is raw as fuck. I kneel. It's especially cool when you start bringing in Rean foils with his own self sacrifice. The other villains in the game are kinda just there. This goes into my 2nd big complaint with the game; the writers are terrified of making characters evil. Almost everyone here is an apologist, or has a secret agenda, or is being controlled by the curse. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT WAR. I'm not saying there are no exceptions to this, but a vast majority of the people you fight are portrayed as if they aren't even villains. Act 2 is especially awful for this, with a majority of its fights being against people who are either only testing you or are just feeling so guilty about it uwu you should feel bad for them. (fuck claire) On a more civilian level, the game can't even handle making evil minor NPCs. Anyone who says something slightly too patriotic, does something just a little too evil, the party has to lament about how this is the curse. This is literally just not realistic. If you want to write an anti-war story, you are making yourself look outright childish if you refuse to portray how all of the people committing evil, inhumane acts are just as human as the rest of us. As is, CS4 refuses to hold the anyone responsible for the war. Even at the end, the only person arrested is Rufus Albarea, who voluntarily did so for political reasons as if taking the punishment for your crimes is some selfless act. This is maybe the most cowardly thing you could do when writing a story about war. I'm truly impressed.
Let's talk about the video game. CS4 combat is well and truly broken. CS3 was actually balanced on nightmare mode, like it felt like the game was encouraging you to break it just so that you could survive. CS4 gives up. I was able to break this game in half, and I was doing the bare minimum in party equipment/orbment management. I would be fighting Arianrhod, a character in this series renowned for her strength, and she melts like butter against my evasion tank. Also, having 20+ party members is a daunting task, but it didn't bother me that much cause I just focused on a small cast of the chars that I like.
In summary, this game feels like a perfect summary of the Cold Steel arc. Awful pacing, broken combat, questionable romance, and a few excellent moments and characters that make it hard to completely disparage the experience.
This game is incredibly mid for Kiseki standards. That's not to say it's bad, or that it doesn't have some incredibly good scenes, but the amount of things I had to play through to get there wasn't worth it. This game does not respect your time; that's not new to this series, but it feels especially prevalent with this game.
Let's start with the magic stuff. The Trails series has always had a common theme of political intrigue weaving itself with fantasy elements, all the way back to FC. I think this is what makes The Curse so disappointing; the series has shown that it's capable of writing this combination in fascinating ways without diminishing from either side, but CS4 drops the ball so hard despite The Curse being fairly interesting on a conceptual level. CS4's plot, in theory, centers heavily around an imminent, massive war. Better yet, the war is taking place across most of Zemuria, so it's touching a bunch of locations that 10 games have been getting us attached to. This is a perfect recipe for some high emotional stakes for your finale. The magic side of the plot cancels a lot of this out; the plot isn't actually about the war, it's about the rivalries. For every good sidequest about someone coming to terms with the war, there are two or three about The Curse causing a problem for you to solve.
Unlike the rest of the series, the party is now well aware of magic. No more secret clan of witches, no more mystery behind the schemes the villains are making. You start the game in Eryn Village and the party's motivation lies not in politically based action but in magically based action. For me, this makes it a lot harder to be invested, because frankly, the realm of magic is the realm of bullshit. Writers can make whatever the fuck they want happen with magic, and the worldbuilding around the magic isn't really strong enough for it to feel like something I can study or make predictions about. This isn't something that really bothered me in the past because magic was always a background thing, but in this game it's at the forefront and therefore causes a significant tonal shift from "story about people trying to get through political events" to "story about people doing whatever the magic makes them do". This is an exaggeration, but it's still a noticeable change that I dislike.
Let's talk about villains. Osborne, who I love for being an amazing villain, got a lot out of the ending. I think "guy who became the world's greatest enemy with the specific goal of bringing the evil into himself and sacrificing himself to destroy it" is raw as fuck. I kneel. It's especially cool when you start bringing in Rean foils with his own self sacrifice. The other villains in the game are kinda just there. This goes into my 2nd big complaint with the game; the writers are terrified of making characters evil. Almost everyone here is an apologist, or has a secret agenda, or is being controlled by the curse. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT WAR. I'm not saying there are no exceptions to this, but a vast majority of the people you fight are portrayed as if they aren't even villains. Act 2 is especially awful for this, with a majority of its fights being against people who are either only testing you or are just feeling so guilty about it uwu you should feel bad for them. (fuck claire) On a more civilian level, the game can't even handle making evil minor NPCs. Anyone who says something slightly too patriotic, does something just a little too evil, the party has to lament about how this is the curse. This is literally just not realistic. If you want to write an anti-war story, you are making yourself look outright childish if you refuse to portray how all of the people committing evil, inhumane acts are just as human as the rest of us. As is, CS4 refuses to hold the anyone responsible for the war. Even at the end, the only person arrested is Rufus Albarea, who voluntarily did so for political reasons as if taking the punishment for your crimes is some selfless act. This is maybe the most cowardly thing you could do when writing a story about war. I'm truly impressed.
Let's talk about the video game. CS4 combat is well and truly broken. CS3 was actually balanced on nightmare mode, like it felt like the game was encouraging you to break it just so that you could survive. CS4 gives up. I was able to break this game in half, and I was doing the bare minimum in party equipment/orbment management. I would be fighting Arianrhod, a character in this series renowned for her strength, and she melts like butter against my evasion tank. Also, having 20+ party members is a daunting task, but it didn't bother me that much cause I just focused on a small cast of the chars that I like.
In summary, this game feels like a perfect summary of the Cold Steel arc. Awful pacing, broken combat, questionable romance, and a few excellent moments and characters that make it hard to completely disparage the experience.
as much an answer to the question of cs2 as to 3; a machine rapidly switching between the best and worst trails game; a stupid, utopian, optimistic humanist version of mecha anime like ideon which approached post ww2 and cold-war era questions of human nature/capacity for violence wrt nuclear weapons through the idea of “the weapon fighting the war itself”...
seeks catharsis through tracing the genre's concerns back to the second industrial revolution, the outbreak of world war 1, and more fundamentally prehistory; a retelling of (among other things) the universal century narrative where instead, the weight of history is a barrier that can be fully overcome, where the symbolic power of the mecha can be fully reclaimed, and where the evil behind all the conflicts, the invention of the weapon, can be isolated and defeated, revealing the ultimate truth resting in its origin: earth and fire could just as well become a human body and beating heart, the only thing the future really needs. never again listening to anyone who complains about the lack of permanent death in these games when the resurrection at this story’s end is literally the thematic completion of the entire series lol
seeks catharsis through tracing the genre's concerns back to the second industrial revolution, the outbreak of world war 1, and more fundamentally prehistory; a retelling of (among other things) the universal century narrative where instead, the weight of history is a barrier that can be fully overcome, where the symbolic power of the mecha can be fully reclaimed, and where the evil behind all the conflicts, the invention of the weapon, can be isolated and defeated, revealing the ultimate truth resting in its origin: earth and fire could just as well become a human body and beating heart, the only thing the future really needs. never again listening to anyone who complains about the lack of permanent death in these games when the resurrection at this story’s end is literally the thematic completion of the entire series lol
I think there's a lot to be said about The Curse™️ and even though I'm one of the people who thinks it's an interesting concept - it's evident the game really didn't know what to do with it, as it because more and more mindboggingly unclear what it's actually capable of the further the game goes.
It's a really good metaphor for the patriotism Erebonians have; but it gets used as the blame for literally everything despite the game trying to tell you it's supposed to be a devil-on-your-shoulder kinda thing that merely accentuates negative emotions.
No matter how positively you try to approach it, the way it's applied is not great.
That being said, I believe the game more than makes up for it. Once you're aware of the issues it has and focus on the things it does well - you'll find there's plenty of stuff to enjoy.
It took me a replay to really get over my grievances with the game because I was definitely one of those fans that solely looked at it's flaws, but ultimately I still think it's a fantastic conclusion to the Cold Steel arc with a ton of fan-service for long-time fans.
It's not perfect, that's for sure. How divisive it is should make that evidently clear.
But that doesn't stop it from being damn good fun - and at the end of the day, I'm more than satisfied with that.
It's a really good metaphor for the patriotism Erebonians have; but it gets used as the blame for literally everything despite the game trying to tell you it's supposed to be a devil-on-your-shoulder kinda thing that merely accentuates negative emotions.
No matter how positively you try to approach it, the way it's applied is not great.
That being said, I believe the game more than makes up for it. Once you're aware of the issues it has and focus on the things it does well - you'll find there's plenty of stuff to enjoy.
It took me a replay to really get over my grievances with the game because I was definitely one of those fans that solely looked at it's flaws, but ultimately I still think it's a fantastic conclusion to the Cold Steel arc with a ton of fan-service for long-time fans.
It's not perfect, that's for sure. How divisive it is should make that evidently clear.
But that doesn't stop it from being damn good fun - and at the end of the day, I'm more than satisfied with that.
Hmmmmm. There's a load of stuff I really like about this game but at the same time it's just brought down by its own weight, quite a lot. In a way, they've really painted themselves into a corner in terms of the number of characters you end up having to know. This is compounded by a script that at times is infuriatingly half-arsed, constantly falling into the same lines and vocal patterns (they managed to get the roof standing and constant comparing of how long it's been since the last meeting under control at least).
Ultimately the main character is kind of what has brought the series down. I don't rate Koki Uchiyama much as a voice actor, though he does seem to actually put in more effort this time around, and the way everyone surrounds him, as well as them bringing back romance events with pretty much any girl in the game, really pulls me out of the whole thing a lot of the time. I know what they're trying to achieve, but unlike the earlier games there's too much scope left open at this point and it just isn't as successful as it was with Lloyd.
Fundamentally, though, as a JRPG it is still a really good one. The world is huge, with lots of (albeit significantly reused) locations, the most playable characters I've seen in this kind of game (the last bit of the game is just pure fanservice for people who have played the previous games) and loads of stuff to do - mostly packaged up very considerately for people to find for themselves, rather than having to rely totally on guides. In many ways it really is Sen 2-2, which means the middle is quite baggy, but given the scope they've set for themselves I can't think of a more elegant way to try and cover everything.
Which leads me into my hopes for the next series. The number of characters involved directly in the story is just too many at this point. The first Sora no Kiseki had you playing the first chunk of the game with just two characters, and you never got more than a few joining you at once. There is a point in this game where you can choose from nearly forty - and for most of it you have to choose a team of 6-8 from twenty characters. Sora, Zero and Ao worked so well because they mostly kept things relatively small, and I hope they go back to that rather than having a core of 11-12 characters and then adding another 5 to that later on.
Whatever happens, I just hope they take their time and give the whole thing another pass before sending it out. Ys and Tokyo Xanadu, while having their own occasionally painful scripts, did their own thing and were successful enough that hopefully Falcom can just let this one stew a bit more and wrap things up properly in two games - maybe even one!
Ultimately the main character is kind of what has brought the series down. I don't rate Koki Uchiyama much as a voice actor, though he does seem to actually put in more effort this time around, and the way everyone surrounds him, as well as them bringing back romance events with pretty much any girl in the game, really pulls me out of the whole thing a lot of the time. I know what they're trying to achieve, but unlike the earlier games there's too much scope left open at this point and it just isn't as successful as it was with Lloyd.
Fundamentally, though, as a JRPG it is still a really good one. The world is huge, with lots of (albeit significantly reused) locations, the most playable characters I've seen in this kind of game (the last bit of the game is just pure fanservice for people who have played the previous games) and loads of stuff to do - mostly packaged up very considerately for people to find for themselves, rather than having to rely totally on guides. In many ways it really is Sen 2-2, which means the middle is quite baggy, but given the scope they've set for themselves I can't think of a more elegant way to try and cover everything.
Which leads me into my hopes for the next series. The number of characters involved directly in the story is just too many at this point. The first Sora no Kiseki had you playing the first chunk of the game with just two characters, and you never got more than a few joining you at once. There is a point in this game where you can choose from nearly forty - and for most of it you have to choose a team of 6-8 from twenty characters. Sora, Zero and Ao worked so well because they mostly kept things relatively small, and I hope they go back to that rather than having a core of 11-12 characters and then adding another 5 to that later on.
Whatever happens, I just hope they take their time and give the whole thing another pass before sending it out. Ys and Tokyo Xanadu, while having their own occasionally painful scripts, did their own thing and were successful enough that hopefully Falcom can just let this one stew a bit more and wrap things up properly in two games - maybe even one!
Going to be overly harsh with this one as the novelty of these games are starting to wear off. Cold Steel 3 is a fun experience, a much improved game over Cold Steel 2. Visually it is a MASSIVE upgrade from the previous two games, the music is great and there’s also an abundance of quality of life improvements. I could go over all the positives, the fan service is plentiful here, it is so refreshing to jump into after CS2. The game is so fun to break once you get brave orders after the first hours.
BUT
And it’s a big but, after 7 games, you would think Falcom would maybe be able to change the structure of their games. Every single chapter before the finale in Trails games without fail has a boss fight at the end where the enemies don’t actually fight you and they get a monster or lackeys to fight you instead, or you fight them and you lose in the cutscene. I’m also seeing a trend where they will dump endless lore on you in the last hour (that might just be a Cold Steel thing, I think Crossbell’s games were structured pretty much perfectly) which annoys me to know end as it just ends up making you feel like you aren’t following along. Don’t get me started on a certain type of character who has ended up becoming a villain in each arc so far…
I’m not saying this game isn’t good as it was, but the more I see the same patterns and the same structures within these games the more I feel like I will start to hate future entries, and I don’t want that.
Credit where credit is due, this is still a good game, yes I will be playing Cold Steel IV immediately, or at least starting it, but I hope at some point Falcom change these things as the further along this series goes I’m worried they won’t ever hit the heights of the Sky and Crossbell arcs ever again.
BUT
And it’s a big but, after 7 games, you would think Falcom would maybe be able to change the structure of their games. Every single chapter before the finale in Trails games without fail has a boss fight at the end where the enemies don’t actually fight you and they get a monster or lackeys to fight you instead, or you fight them and you lose in the cutscene. I’m also seeing a trend where they will dump endless lore on you in the last hour (that might just be a Cold Steel thing, I think Crossbell’s games were structured pretty much perfectly) which annoys me to know end as it just ends up making you feel like you aren’t following along. Don’t get me started on a certain type of character who has ended up becoming a villain in each arc so far…
I’m not saying this game isn’t good as it was, but the more I see the same patterns and the same structures within these games the more I feel like I will start to hate future entries, and I don’t want that.
Credit where credit is due, this is still a good game, yes I will be playing Cold Steel IV immediately, or at least starting it, but I hope at some point Falcom change these things as the further along this series goes I’m worried they won’t ever hit the heights of the Sky and Crossbell arcs ever again.
A game that drags for 3 chapters only to dump everything in the last 2 chapters, this game has severe pacing issues and strange priorities.
I kinda don't like the retcons too much, it borrows too much from previous entries (like Sky and Crossbell) for a severe lack of identity that kind of hurts many events in the past.
Setting that aside, I did enjoy my time spent for the most part.
Played on nightmare (Game was very easy, too much broken stuff lol) and aimed for the most completion (83% achievements on Gog)
I kinda don't like the retcons too much, it borrows too much from previous entries (like Sky and Crossbell) for a severe lack of identity that kind of hurts many events in the past.
Setting that aside, I did enjoy my time spent for the most part.
Played on nightmare (Game was very easy, too much broken stuff lol) and aimed for the most completion (83% achievements on Gog)