Amazing start to the Calvard Arc. I hadn't loved any of the set up games for trails since Trails from Zero, mainly to their formulaic nature among other problems. While Kuro still retains that formulaic aspect, it manages to keep the game fresh while telling a mostly self contained arc for the protagonist (with many many loose ends that I'm sure will be explored in future games) and great new additions and changes to the trails formula.
The new turn based combat is probably the best in the series, though it still suffers from being too easy sometimes, and the field battles are an amazing addition that I never got tired of. By CS4 and Reverie the field advantage attacks had become a bit more complex so it was the logical next step, and I hope they keep expanding it.
The story is one of the game's strongest aspects. I was suspicious of the shift in morality they were advertising for this game and, while they still maintained the known trails tone through most of it, the different perspective the protagonist has truly is felt in the story and the choices you have to make. The alignment system is good for what it does and I thought it was well implemented as well.
This game made me very excited for the future of the series and I hope they keep dropping games of this quality.

Pretty hard game to review, I felt all kinds of way while playing it. The new abilities are a step up from BOTW and all really good, the story has some great moments and the gameplay loop created by the previous game still holds up super well.

Unfortunately I don't think the decision of reusing the map paid off, especially because of how much repetition in content there is in the stuff that is new. The depths, while a cool concept and great at first, is way too big with very few things to do and rewards that amount to dlcs from the previous game, which are just not satisfying at all to find. The sky islands are definitely better but there's so much repetition in them with the same concepts being used multiple times until you know exactly what you're going to find based on the shape of the island, with a few exceptions.

The story is probably one of my major gripes with it, as it overlooks a lot of what we experienced in BOTW. What's even more perplexing is its failure to acknowledge integral aspects within ITS OWN STORYLINE, which is baffling to me. I don't want to get into spoilers but having so many quests framed around investigating something you can learn early in the game with absolutely no reactivity is very immersion breaking.

Ultimately this is a good game that disappointed me in a lot of ways, and I don't think it comes close to reaching the revolutionary status that BOTW achieved, even if it improved it in some ways. Also very annoying they had so many years to fix flurry rush and it's still just as inconsistent as it was before.

Had been a good while since I last played an Assassin's Creed game, Syndicate at release being the last one I tried, and I have to say Origins was a great title to come back to.
While the many changes make it feel quite different from the classic assassin's creed experience, it still feels like an assassin's game and tells an important story for the series, with Aya and Bayek being two of the best characters we've seen so far and Egypt being absolutely gorgeous. I also appreciate how the modern day story seems to be getting back on track.
If I have to complain about anything it would be the super simplified parkour elements that have zero depth, and the stealth also not being incentivised at all, new combat is fun but I was getting a bit tired of it by the end.

Maybe not the most well written trails game, but for me it was the most enjoyable one. After binging these games pretty hard in the past few months, it was a perfect conclusion to everything that came before and left me very satisfied and still hyped to experience the rest of the series as it comes out.
The new characters introduced are extremely well done, and most of the established characters were used very well and had moments that way surpassed what I thought a game like this would try to go for.
Also used this series to practice my Japanese so it felt like a great accomplishment to finally finish this final one and take a break while I wait for Kuro to come to PC.

Cold Steel IV has a lot of issues in its narrative, maybe more than any other trails game, but it's also a big celebration of the entire series and sticks the landing in many important points to finally conclude the Erebonia arc and in some ways set the stage for what's to come.
Having the largest playable roster in any trails game this far while improving the already great CSIII combat mechanics makes for the most fun entry I've played. Coupled with the amazing side content it offers (some of the best quests in the franchise, huge amount of very interesting NPC dialogue) as well as the best parts of its story it became my favorite Cold Steel game and a fitting finale for an arc riddled with issues but full of interesting ideas and great moments.

A better Cold Steel 1 in pretty much every way, while carrying many of the faults of that game as well: an extremely formulaic structure being the main one that really wore me down after so many hours. That said, everyone in the new cast, the new areas, new additions to the gameplay and improved graphics were all great and made for the best entry in the Cold Steel games yet.
The call backs and involvement from past games were also implemented very well and made the huge investment in the series feel worth it.

Nayuta is a super solid game all around with very creative game design and fun combat that just keeps getting more interesting even at the last stretch. Not as much focus on the story as your standard trails game but what's here is well done with some very endearing characters and fun NPCs.
The additions for the Kai version are great, especially all the new art made for the game which adds so much to a ton of scenes and has my favorite artstyle in the trails series so far.
It was the perfect game to use as a break in my cold steel binge and I'll definitely revisit it in New Game+ at some point.

This game made me realize I just don't like Class VII as a whole, there's definitely some hints of a few good characters there but overall it had so much filler dialogue and way too many conversations that led them nowhere.
That said, I still had a ton of fun with Cold Steel II. Act 1 and 2 have vastly different structures which helped break the pace and made the game not as tiring as CSI was by the end, Act 2 especially was amazing gameplay wise, exploring Erebonia freely and recruiting old friends was a ton of fun, even though it was one of bigger lows trails has had in terms of story.
The finale was pretty stellar with some great reveals and the best fights the series has had.

As the first 3d trails game introducing the biggest region yet in the series this game had a lot to setup, and it is very much an introductory game that takes its time showing you the world and the massive new cast of characters.
It's my least favorite trails game for a bunch of reasons, mainly the extremely formulaic chapters and a cast that didn't really manage to grab me in this first game, but it also does a lot of things right and a lot of the strong points of the trails series are still here in great form, like the fantastic NPCs and engaging plot once it gets going.
Lots of changes to the combat but it still has the same feeling, with some pretty fun new mechanics to play around with.

I should also mention this game does not look good. While it was nice seeing the new 3d enviroments, the character models and animations are lacking a lot, to the point I prefer how the 2d games with the great sprites and charming combat animations looked over this title, but it was the start of the 3d era so i'm sure it'll get better eventually.
Overall it was a solid foundation for an arc that has immense potential, and I'm definitely looking forward to continue with these games.