Summary: Fantastic Co-Op game with outstanding boss design. The intended long-term gameplay loop falls flat for me but the first playthrough is extremely special and is worth the pricetag already.

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Remnant 2 is a fantastic Co-Op experience. The Boss encounters are super creative and great across the board. The worlds are cool and atmospheric, the gunplay and sound design is solid. Pretty much everything is really great.

Bosses and Major Encounters in Remnant are very Destiny-esque in a way. They all have a central mechanic/gimmick to work around that makes them standout from the rest. Usually these gimmicks result in some fun planning with your group. These fights all having a fantastic high-energy pacing.

I've seen people complain about add swarms during fights, but I feel that these swarms (when used) are designed to keep the pace and intensity of a battle consistently tense. They also serve as supply restocks and a good way to force your team to coordinate. Very few bosses are just an enemy to shoot and dodge away from. Of the main world bosses, I really only found 1 to be lacking.

The game also rewards exploration really well. Lots of items to fill out your build can be discovered, allowing for a ton of variety in the long run. There are also a ton of well hidden (perhaps TOO well hidden tbh) secrets to be discovered.

However..

The game is meant to be replayed a ton. Problem is- the actual replayability feels EXTREMELY lacking to me. The same maps, the same dungeons, the same bosses.. time and time again. There is very little to do that makes traversal/order of operations more exciting. Runs will also takes several hours which make replays more tedious than anything else.

The other issue with the replays is that there will be some side dungeons you won't get the first time. Naturally that should be GOOD for replayability right? Well if you are unlucky then you will end up getting the same side dungeons over and over with pretty much no fresh rewards for doing them again. So in a hunt for fresh new content on playthrough #2, #3, #4, etc. you will find yourself potentially disappointed.

Remnant 2 makes for an exceptional first playthrough, clocking in around 20 hours which is pretty rock solid. However, the hunt to experience all of its content is more tedious than it is enjoyable.

I highly recommend the game for the first playthrough alone, just know what you are getting into for replays. It seems that a lot of people find a lot to love in them, so maybe its just a me problem!

Trails is an impressively inconsistent series. So many of the games have constant pacing issues, arcs go on too long without getting anything done, characters often refuse to shut up as they repeat the same longwinded dialogue over and over and over and over again, the story has long since lost any sense of stakes, game balance is a total joke... the list goes on.

But at the same time there is plenty to love, even with the many faults that hold this series back. The scale, the characters that are actually good, the music, the combat system (easy as it is to break), the potential for the mysteries, (even if I have no faith in falcom pulling it off satisfyingly.) and more.

The thing about Trails into Reverie is that it does almost exclusively the good things. The rest of the series flounders about between moments of greatness and stretches of tedium in every single game. All the while, Reverie paces itself exceptionally well during the story and offers the best combat experience of the Cold Steel era of the franchise. The C route has my favorite character writing of the series to top it all off.

This game just rocks. Its a shame that Kuro goes back to all the usual positives and negatives that the series is used to.. just further setting Reverie apart as the best the franchise has to offer.

Finished in one sitting. Very nice little game with incredible movement. Worth the price for sure.

Need to emphasize that the movement in this game is really just so damn fun. Lots of sequence break potential using the open ended tools and exploration. The game basically feels designed for it.

Level design is intricate and super fun to zip through as you unlock more movement mechanics. Without a map it becomes confusing at times though.

Combat is extremely barebones and the lock-on cam is just straight up terrible, don't use it on the final boss like I did or you'll just end up with a headache as it snaps all over the place with neither you nor the boss in center frame.

Art direction is the ol' PS1/N64 era style and it looks really nice.

Music is really charming as well with a couple standouts.

Game is dirt cheap and easily worth your time for a fun afternoon. If you like replayability then good news, this game is so open ended that you can easily take completely different routes every time you play.

+ Gorgeous Art/Animation
+ Great Soundtrack (And its a really beefy soundtrack too. Around 200 songs.)
+ Fun boss fights
+ A ton of environmental variety to keep things interesting
+ Surprisingly effective Nostalgia Bait


- Mediocre writing
- Forgettable characters
- Lack of QoL in random places (Likely for the sake of that "classic" feel.)
- Tedious checklist for True Ending
- Combat grows repetitive for non-bosses
- The "Lock System" is very inconsistent.

+ Great Combat, likely one of the most naturally cinematic combat systems out there.
+ Great Art Direction
+ Surprisingly engaging Story and Characters
+ Great customization
+ Stupid chaotic 3v3 PvP
+ Rusty

- Chapter 1 is honestly full of pretty boring missions, the rest of the game makes up for it big time though.
- Some classic From Soft issues: Camera problems, a couple weird hitboxes, etc. Not a big deal most of the time.

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Best Songs:
Rough and Decent (Bad Joke)
Steel Haze (Rusted Pride)

This is the first Souls-like to ever come close to From Soft quality. Even more shocking is that it actually does reach that level of quality at some points.

+ Great Atmosphere
+ Excellent Art Direction
+ Superb Bosses
+ Surprising variety of mini-bosses/elite enemies
+ Spot-on Soulsbornekiro gameplay
+ You can play records in the Hub and vibe while you go about upgrading, restocking and leveling up
+ Fantastic Sound Design
+ Twink

- Very Linear
- The stagger system could be communicated a bit better to the player, the lack of an on screen stagger bar can be frustrating
- Some of the elite enemies are a bit HP Spongey
- Sudden difficulty spikes (Not a huge deal but it can be a big turn-off to some)
- Last chapter is too long
- Balance is a bit messy, certain blades are just soooooooo much better than others

First of all, I skipped the story dialogue because I didn't want to translate it (still watched most of the cutscenes at least).. so I guess take the 5 stars with a grain of salt?

But this game is genuinely just so fun, super aggressive and smooth combat with some truly stellar boss fights. Falcom really upped their presentation with this game and it does so much for enjoyment.

Killer soundtrack of course.

Despite not reading anything, I still got a really great feel for the friendship between Adol and Karja, really loved it! There was so much personality in their combined fighting styles.

Complaints? Game starts a bit slow and the islands lacked some visual variety, but these are easily made up for.