This one sure did take me a while.
After being continually flabbergasted by the writing and systems of the cold steel games, It was nice to play a kiseki entry for once that didn't make me feel like my brain cells were being numbed to death yet despite I still do think kuro suffers a little bit from how bloated this franchise quickly became.
Frankly I don't think kiseki's writing has been that good even during the zero/azure days but there were stand out moments and charming worldbuilding and engaging storylines, Kuro does return to that era a little bit by having a much more darker storyline with characters that actually stay dead instead of magically being saved off screen to show up later, Its not perfect if anything these games really need a glossary button during dialogue because there are way too many characters and factions to remember all at once and the writers attempts to make van the connective piece of the next saga can only mean this is going to get much worse very quickly.
Speaking of the writing the pacing in kuro sure is something game has about 7 chapters including intermission and boy are they long the general formatting is the same as previous titles but you'll be doing it multiple times a chapter and it got old very fast, In general I would prefer them to tone down the amount of side quests as there's very little thought required for these quests as they mark every single little thing for you.
But enough about the superficial how is the new orbment system and mechanics? well its interesting enough I suppose, It seems like they took some criticism from how downright stupid the orbment system in later cold steel entries got and for the most part they have tried to bring it back up to snuff with pre-CS era orbments but I still think its kind of dumb overall they did bring back elemental requirements for skills (but not arts) which is appreciated as that kind of system was very fun and intuitive, Which made me groan at how little thought the newer systems needed despite this though a lot of the old meta's are here best spellcaster setup is pretty much just boosting your given element and slapping on arc feathers for extra damage and delay and with the addition of arts drivers that have replaced art orbments I find the system has kind of lost the plot. While i wasn't the biggest fan of art orbments in the later CS games if they were gonna bring back elemental points I have to wonder why didn't they just use the sky to azure system instead as you could still keep the shard skills but you would have a system that's much more engaging, Instead of a system I found i was actively ignoring well into the endgame as the skills loose their lustre pretty quickly once you figure out what's worthwhile and what's useless (spoiler alert its 90% of the non drive attack skills).
I will say though this has given me hope for the next few entries but I'm still going to hold my breath as I picked up on many telltale signs that things could get screwed up very quickly...But with all that said Kuro's a nice game highly recommend seeking it out early on steam instead of waiting for the NISA translation.
After being continually flabbergasted by the writing and systems of the cold steel games, It was nice to play a kiseki entry for once that didn't make me feel like my brain cells were being numbed to death yet despite I still do think kuro suffers a little bit from how bloated this franchise quickly became.
Frankly I don't think kiseki's writing has been that good even during the zero/azure days but there were stand out moments and charming worldbuilding and engaging storylines, Kuro does return to that era a little bit by having a much more darker storyline with characters that actually stay dead instead of magically being saved off screen to show up later, Its not perfect if anything these games really need a glossary button during dialogue because there are way too many characters and factions to remember all at once and the writers attempts to make van the connective piece of the next saga can only mean this is going to get much worse very quickly.
Speaking of the writing the pacing in kuro sure is something game has about 7 chapters including intermission and boy are they long the general formatting is the same as previous titles but you'll be doing it multiple times a chapter and it got old very fast, In general I would prefer them to tone down the amount of side quests as there's very little thought required for these quests as they mark every single little thing for you.
But enough about the superficial how is the new orbment system and mechanics? well its interesting enough I suppose, It seems like they took some criticism from how downright stupid the orbment system in later cold steel entries got and for the most part they have tried to bring it back up to snuff with pre-CS era orbments but I still think its kind of dumb overall they did bring back elemental requirements for skills (but not arts) which is appreciated as that kind of system was very fun and intuitive, Which made me groan at how little thought the newer systems needed despite this though a lot of the old meta's are here best spellcaster setup is pretty much just boosting your given element and slapping on arc feathers for extra damage and delay and with the addition of arts drivers that have replaced art orbments I find the system has kind of lost the plot. While i wasn't the biggest fan of art orbments in the later CS games if they were gonna bring back elemental points I have to wonder why didn't they just use the sky to azure system instead as you could still keep the shard skills but you would have a system that's much more engaging, Instead of a system I found i was actively ignoring well into the endgame as the skills loose their lustre pretty quickly once you figure out what's worthwhile and what's useless (spoiler alert its 90% of the non drive attack skills).
I will say though this has given me hope for the next few entries but I'm still going to hold my breath as I picked up on many telltale signs that things could get screwed up very quickly...But with all that said Kuro's a nice game highly recommend seeking it out early on steam instead of waiting for the NISA translation.