Oh man, where do I even begin with this one.. there's so much to adore here.
Right off the bat, the gameplay's probably the most fun it's been in the series for me - there's some questionable bosses with an overreliance on egregious status effects (the Trails classic, honestly) but the gameplay loop itself has come such a long way.
The newly added Quick Arts during Field Battles to give casters a bit more oomph on the field and Ex Chains to punish stuns with during Command Battles have made the combination of Field and Command battles an absolute blast, rewarding you with incredibly fast-paced normal encounters as long as you use Field Battle properly. It feels great!
But that's not what I'm here for - the thing that has made me such a massive Trails fan that I'd play through a whopping twelve (god, we're really at TWELVE already?) of these games is it's massively expansive world and casts, and that continues to be absolutely fantastic in this game, which I'm absolutely over the moon about.
Kuro 2 picks up the story themes of Kuro 1 incredibly well - where nearly all of the Spriggans are dealing with grief in one way or another and are slowly, but surely, learning to appreciate the precious present for what it is despite it all. And god, does this game nail that aspect. Including Swin and Nadia into the Spriggans, the fabled Three and Nine who have certainly got more than enough grief left to unpack was an absolutely genius idea. They blend into the cast SO well, and the way this game ties a bow on their character arcs is easily my favorite thing about it.
I loved em a lot already, and I didn't think I could love em even more. They're easily some of my favorite characters, not just within Trails itself; and this game added to that feeling tenfold.
Beyond them, it picks up the character arcs of the regular Spriggan cast really well too, and the newly-included villains add a lot to it's themes in that regard as well. Absolutely no notes on it's story, it's fantastic.
I've heard a lot of complaints about Act 3 before jumping into it myself which made me expect the worst but honestly I didn't.. really mind it, at all?
It's definitely where the game starts running out of steam and relying on old assets more than it did before (which is sadly not surprising when it came out only a year after the original) so it's definitely a case of making the most out of what it's got but man, it definitely pulls that off in my opnion.
I think having a long, drawn-out chapter making you aware of how much the connection you have with pretty much every single NPC you've come to love across these two games is great, actually! It makes it all the easier to appreciate what the game's going for, and I love the way it's handled that.
It's such a feel-good game for me.
Bittersweet, but it really makes me appreciate everything I've got going for me currently despite what it took to get here; and being able to resonate with this bizarre family of misfits like that has been such a blast.
It's just a genuinely great time and a perfect reminder as to why I love this series so damn much.
Right off the bat, the gameplay's probably the most fun it's been in the series for me - there's some questionable bosses with an overreliance on egregious status effects (the Trails classic, honestly) but the gameplay loop itself has come such a long way.
The newly added Quick Arts during Field Battles to give casters a bit more oomph on the field and Ex Chains to punish stuns with during Command Battles have made the combination of Field and Command battles an absolute blast, rewarding you with incredibly fast-paced normal encounters as long as you use Field Battle properly. It feels great!
But that's not what I'm here for - the thing that has made me such a massive Trails fan that I'd play through a whopping twelve (god, we're really at TWELVE already?) of these games is it's massively expansive world and casts, and that continues to be absolutely fantastic in this game, which I'm absolutely over the moon about.
Kuro 2 picks up the story themes of Kuro 1 incredibly well - where nearly all of the Spriggans are dealing with grief in one way or another and are slowly, but surely, learning to appreciate the precious present for what it is despite it all. And god, does this game nail that aspect. Including Swin and Nadia into the Spriggans, the fabled Three and Nine who have certainly got more than enough grief left to unpack was an absolutely genius idea. They blend into the cast SO well, and the way this game ties a bow on their character arcs is easily my favorite thing about it.
I loved em a lot already, and I didn't think I could love em even more. They're easily some of my favorite characters, not just within Trails itself; and this game added to that feeling tenfold.
Beyond them, it picks up the character arcs of the regular Spriggan cast really well too, and the newly-included villains add a lot to it's themes in that regard as well. Absolutely no notes on it's story, it's fantastic.
I've heard a lot of complaints about Act 3 before jumping into it myself which made me expect the worst but honestly I didn't.. really mind it, at all?
It's definitely where the game starts running out of steam and relying on old assets more than it did before (which is sadly not surprising when it came out only a year after the original) so it's definitely a case of making the most out of what it's got but man, it definitely pulls that off in my opnion.
I think having a long, drawn-out chapter making you aware of how much the connection you have with pretty much every single NPC you've come to love across these two games is great, actually! It makes it all the easier to appreciate what the game's going for, and I love the way it's handled that.
It's such a feel-good game for me.
Bittersweet, but it really makes me appreciate everything I've got going for me currently despite what it took to get here; and being able to resonate with this bizarre family of misfits like that has been such a blast.
It's just a genuinely great time and a perfect reminder as to why I love this series so damn much.