As someone who loves the Crossbell arc a lot, I definitely had high expectations for this game.
But holy shit man, those expectations couldn't even hope to hold a candle to everything this game does so ridiculously well.
First of all, the gameplay's ridiculously fun. It's snappy, and all of the new features and gimmicks added to it are such a blast.
Swin's Marks - a completely new debuff unique to him that procs on his crafts and guarantee the next hit will be a crit especially, might just be the most fun I've had in this series since the golden days of stacking buffs on Richard in Sky 3rd and yelling go white boy go as he spins 6 turns in a row with less delay on his crafts than regular attacks.
Slap a Gungnir Sub-Master Quartz on that kid and watch him absolutely nuke anything he touches after marking something through a simple 20 point craft. It's beautiful.
But gameplay's never really been what's drawn me to this series - it's generally enjoyable, but definitely not the highlight that I'd mainly like to talk about.
That'd be the writing, and the numerous amount of incredible casts I've come across on this ridiculously expansive continuous series that have inspired me in ways both small and large.
And man oh man, this game definitely isn't any different in that regard.
Starting off unsurprisingly due to my aforementioned love for the once-called City of Sin; there's a few faults to be had with Lloyd's route - but to me, the only thing that really sticks out is that the way a certain chapter ties immediately into the finale isn't particularly rewarding at that time.
But apart from that? Perfect. Genuinely perfect.
It takes everything the Crossbell arc's about, spins it into a new perspective, and makes it come together so damn well as the SSS dust themselves off and get right back to fighting for their home they've come to love so much, same as they've done countless times before; except now, fully aware that their role as heroes was never theirs alone.
It's such a fascinating route; it makes full use of the speech about justice Dieter gave them in Zero, and even makes them truly be able to stand in KeA's shoes regarding her circumstances in Azure.
It really does feel like a third Crossbell game, because it wraps things up perfectly due to the emphasis on them, and I couldn't be happier about it.
But that's not all! It's even got the "Miserable Sinners", a group lead by a mysterious masked criminal known as C, as an all-new cast introduced in this game. And man, I don't think I've ever grown used to a war criminal and their unhinged children so easily.
Swin and Nadia are fantastic, because they make full use of the way Trails loves to branch off into different mediums to give the players multiple ways to grow accustomed to it's world.
All their volumes of books about their backstory are available both in Cold Steel 4 as a collectable series, on Reverie's title screen and on it's website - that's a way they love to give you a teaser of characters before they appear, and that's so fascinating to me because I personally don't know any other series of games that does something similar, definitely not in-universe.
One of my favorite characters in this series, Toval Randonneur, is much the same - he's first introduced as a young crook in the Carnelia books in Trails in the Sky, then a few years later in the timeline you'll see him again as a cocky bracer who's found his place in the world in the Ring of Judgment manga set just before Trails from Zero, and then finally introduced in-game as a more mature bracer in Cold Steel 1, eventually leading into somewhat of a mentor role through the early game of Cold Steel 2 where he makes use of those life experiences to pick Rean back up when he's at a low point.
It's just so cool to see characters develop like that through multiple mediums, and watching S&N take their future that belongs only to them after all they've been through in their books was so incredibly cathartic.
C themselves and Lapis are both fantastic too, and I did not expect this to be the existential crisis group, but they bounce off each other so incredibly well. They might be miserable sinners - but they slowly but surely find it's a lot less miserable with company, and stuff like that is just right up my alley.
It's also a breath of fresh air to have more of an anti-hero group after so many games of goody two-shoes, and it makes them all the more enjoyable. From what I've heard a more younger, newer part of the writing team was in charge of their route - and it really adds to how much it stands out, in a really good way.
Ofcourse, the game's not without it's flaws - having to juggle between three routes constantly means either having to split resources for sub-optimal builds or constantly swap the good master quartz, regular quartz and accessories around, and I chose the latter. Admittedly my own fault more than anything - splitting resources is probably what they expect from you; but yeah. Trading all that and making sure it's all given to the correct characters can definitely take some time when there's up to atleast 10 times in your playthrough where you gotta do this.
And yes, even though I've sung praise for Lloyd and C's routes specifically there are in-fact 3 of them - but much like towards Cold Steel itself I'm.. pretty much ambivalent towards Rean Route, personally.
It's fine, definitely not anything that's actively a blemish on the game or anything - just not my cup of tea, personally.
It's got plenty of Rean development, and if that's your thing you're in luck; but after four games of Cold Steel I'm just kinda tired of having things revolve around him as much as they do. I don't think he's bad by any means, but at some point it just feels like they're regurgitating things for him to get into his head after doing the same for four games long.
That's probably the point, to be fair - trauma like his is certainly not something that can be switched on or off due to something simple as good advice, but yeah. At some point enough is enough, hence the ambivalence to it all.
That being said, yes, even with not feeling too strongly about one of it's three routes - I utterly adore this game.
Lloyd and C's routes are without a doubt my favorite thing about this series yet, and I cannot wait for Kuro if this is the quality of writing I can come to expect.
But that's a trail for another day! One I'm very, very excited for thanks to this masterpiece.
But holy shit man, those expectations couldn't even hope to hold a candle to everything this game does so ridiculously well.
First of all, the gameplay's ridiculously fun. It's snappy, and all of the new features and gimmicks added to it are such a blast.
Swin's Marks - a completely new debuff unique to him that procs on his crafts and guarantee the next hit will be a crit especially, might just be the most fun I've had in this series since the golden days of stacking buffs on Richard in Sky 3rd and yelling go white boy go as he spins 6 turns in a row with less delay on his crafts than regular attacks.
Slap a Gungnir Sub-Master Quartz on that kid and watch him absolutely nuke anything he touches after marking something through a simple 20 point craft. It's beautiful.
But gameplay's never really been what's drawn me to this series - it's generally enjoyable, but definitely not the highlight that I'd mainly like to talk about.
That'd be the writing, and the numerous amount of incredible casts I've come across on this ridiculously expansive continuous series that have inspired me in ways both small and large.
And man oh man, this game definitely isn't any different in that regard.
Starting off unsurprisingly due to my aforementioned love for the once-called City of Sin; there's a few faults to be had with Lloyd's route - but to me, the only thing that really sticks out is that the way a certain chapter ties immediately into the finale isn't particularly rewarding at that time.
But apart from that? Perfect. Genuinely perfect.
It takes everything the Crossbell arc's about, spins it into a new perspective, and makes it come together so damn well as the SSS dust themselves off and get right back to fighting for their home they've come to love so much, same as they've done countless times before; except now, fully aware that their role as heroes was never theirs alone.
It's such a fascinating route; it makes full use of the speech about justice Dieter gave them in Zero, and even makes them truly be able to stand in KeA's shoes regarding her circumstances in Azure.
It really does feel like a third Crossbell game, because it wraps things up perfectly due to the emphasis on them, and I couldn't be happier about it.
But that's not all! It's even got the "Miserable Sinners", a group lead by a mysterious masked criminal known as C, as an all-new cast introduced in this game. And man, I don't think I've ever grown used to a war criminal and their unhinged children so easily.
Swin and Nadia are fantastic, because they make full use of the way Trails loves to branch off into different mediums to give the players multiple ways to grow accustomed to it's world.
All their volumes of books about their backstory are available both in Cold Steel 4 as a collectable series, on Reverie's title screen and on it's website - that's a way they love to give you a teaser of characters before they appear, and that's so fascinating to me because I personally don't know any other series of games that does something similar, definitely not in-universe.
One of my favorite characters in this series, Toval Randonneur, is much the same - he's first introduced as a young crook in the Carnelia books in Trails in the Sky, then a few years later in the timeline you'll see him again as a cocky bracer who's found his place in the world in the Ring of Judgment manga set just before Trails from Zero, and then finally introduced in-game as a more mature bracer in Cold Steel 1, eventually leading into somewhat of a mentor role through the early game of Cold Steel 2 where he makes use of those life experiences to pick Rean back up when he's at a low point.
It's just so cool to see characters develop like that through multiple mediums, and watching S&N take their future that belongs only to them after all they've been through in their books was so incredibly cathartic.
C themselves and Lapis are both fantastic too, and I did not expect this to be the existential crisis group, but they bounce off each other so incredibly well. They might be miserable sinners - but they slowly but surely find it's a lot less miserable with company, and stuff like that is just right up my alley.
It's also a breath of fresh air to have more of an anti-hero group after so many games of goody two-shoes, and it makes them all the more enjoyable. From what I've heard a more younger, newer part of the writing team was in charge of their route - and it really adds to how much it stands out, in a really good way.
Ofcourse, the game's not without it's flaws - having to juggle between three routes constantly means either having to split resources for sub-optimal builds or constantly swap the good master quartz, regular quartz and accessories around, and I chose the latter. Admittedly my own fault more than anything - splitting resources is probably what they expect from you; but yeah. Trading all that and making sure it's all given to the correct characters can definitely take some time when there's up to atleast 10 times in your playthrough where you gotta do this.
And yes, even though I've sung praise for Lloyd and C's routes specifically there are in-fact 3 of them - but much like towards Cold Steel itself I'm.. pretty much ambivalent towards Rean Route, personally.
It's fine, definitely not anything that's actively a blemish on the game or anything - just not my cup of tea, personally.
It's got plenty of Rean development, and if that's your thing you're in luck; but after four games of Cold Steel I'm just kinda tired of having things revolve around him as much as they do. I don't think he's bad by any means, but at some point it just feels like they're regurgitating things for him to get into his head after doing the same for four games long.
That's probably the point, to be fair - trauma like his is certainly not something that can be switched on or off due to something simple as good advice, but yeah. At some point enough is enough, hence the ambivalence to it all.
That being said, yes, even with not feeling too strongly about one of it's three routes - I utterly adore this game.
Lloyd and C's routes are without a doubt my favorite thing about this series yet, and I cannot wait for Kuro if this is the quality of writing I can come to expect.
But that's a trail for another day! One I'm very, very excited for thanks to this masterpiece.