This game carried so many many expectations on my end, and well having fully beat it I can say it pretty much met all of them and surpassed most.

I'll try to segment this so it's easier to follow and offer general thoughts on the series and game at the end.

The gameplay is the best in the series, MG is a great addition but gets pretty boring down the line as these dungeons usually do. TRC at least had cooler bosses but more of Kuro II gameplay is never a bad thing.

The music, I prefer not to speak about

The visuals and performance somehow both improved despite this being an updated version of Kuro 1's engine? and I played on a PS4 slim so good job falcom for making the game even more optimized, cinematic and well directed.

The side quests are easily the best in the series, this game focuses on all of the cast as much as it can so it's inevitable. The connect/bond events are among the best for sure, dunno if this was necessarily my favourite set overall but a perfect batch regardless.

The character writing is brilliant, the main cast gets widespread damn near perfect focus and a great inspection into them while adding a lot of meaningful development to most. The side cast is focused on equally well, brilliant stuff everywhere.

Alright arghhhhhhhhhhhh this game is such a fucking blast, it feels like a festival if you're invested in the series/kuro. The stretch from act 1 to intermission is legendary. Not a single dull moment or lackluster scene, everything goes full steam at building up this game's themes and characters. Which is a point I wanted to get to, this game is probably the most centered around its themes after Hajimari/The 3rd in the series, which is really surprising. The narrative is also super character driven, and despite being so big it rarely fails to be great. Also fun to note that this game is equal parts sequel to Hajimari as it is to Kuro in my opinion, so if you love those games, not loving this is impossible. Act 3 is a weird case, while I love the amount of payoff it gives to certain characters, and the side character focus is pretty damn good, it runs for too long for its own good and the narrative developments are a bit icky. Regardless, one of the best parts in the game. The hate is pretty funny, I understand why though I just disagree. The finale is a great chapter, rather short but the connect events and ending are perfect. Wish certain characters showed off more in the finale but it's fine even if they didn't. The DLC update leaves so much in air in a good way.

That said this game offers a lot, there's tons of setup and elaboration on past events. The character work as I said is immaculate. And it's nearly perfectly paced outside Act 3. But the way it drives home the theme of sins, your past and where and who you are in this world, acting like a thematic sequel to Kuro/Hajimari while adding its own new grounds that Kuro 3 will hopefully tread effortlessly. The lore bits are so fucking rewarding, the picture they are painting is something I genuinely cannot wait to see. It gives enough to be satisfied and want more. And generally its tendency to resolve stuff across the series while adding more to it is great. Despite being a game so indulgent in its own happenings.

As a last note, THAT FINAL BOSS IS THE FUCKING BEST A TURN BASED GAME WILL EVER HAVE MECHANICALLY UOHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE YOU KONDO (I still prefer certain other boss fights in the series narratively)

Best starting entry, best main cast and probably one of my favorite protagonist of all time already as well. I think one of the biggest reason Kuro works is that it's desperately the type of game Trails needs, overtime even though I fucking love Trails there definitely has been many problems and tropes especially in the Cold Steel that did bugged people including me. While Kuro definitely isn't perfect it does take steps to improve on that while still keeping all the elements of a Trails game that I came to love. The new combat system got bad responses upon release but I actually really like the field + shard system, Hajimari and Cold Steel 4's battle system was already great and almost perfected so it was hard to see where it could go from here. They implement mechanics and different quartz system which is fresh and I could see being really fun in the future.

One of the coolest things in the story is how they utilize the wide cast of characters and world building. Van being someone "who walks in the realm of bluish-black" like he said is already someone familiar with the way the world works, making connections with pre-existing and new parties along the story culminating in one of the most fun chapters at the end I had in a while. I love every single one of the main party cast introduced, Agnes and Aaron definitely being my fav, the way everyone of them offers something to the group dynamic is so good and I can't believe I'm already as attached to them as I am. The story gets a bit slow around Chapter 3 and 4 but man everything else is peakkkk. Almata aren't the best group of villains ever but they certainly did their jobs and all had a memorable narrative role. The whole ending section really was a journey, me making this far into it and putting countless hours, was definitely worth the grind, seeing the conclusion to Van's character arc in this story was really an indescribable feeling and one of the reviews here goes more details into it (damn I can't believe I actually managed to write all this without mentioning much major spoilers lol)

Tldr 10/10 top 1 in fiction I'm done.. but if they make Kuro 2 and future games better than this and Hajimari it's fucking over man