Without a doubt the strongest game to kick off a Trails arc!
I'm so glad we didn't get yet another reset in terms of stakes but jumped right back to an experience as intense as Reverie before it - hell, even way more I'd say.
There's a lot to appreciate here; the new engine is gorgeous, the mixture of real-time and turn-based combat for overworld encounters works surprisingly well despite the real-time combat being a bit one-dimensional due to it working as a sort of prelude to regular turn-based encounters by giving you an easy-to-achieve break and follow-up on it as soon as you switch to turn-based afterwards and the more mature tone of the game is a very welcome surprise.
The fact that it gives you more reason to actively go for side-content is great to see as someone who wouldn't dare skip it either way; having full bonding points as long as you do all sidequests is SUCH a welcome improvement after Cold Steel requiring you to do a NG+ run to see all of them and the new Alignment system that goes up way easier through sidequests was a fantastic addition as well. It didn't end up mattering as much as I thought it would, but it's definitely made me more excited for my eventual replay when the official localization drops.
But the cast is easily my favorite thing about it. Right off the bat, Van Arkride is a phenomenal protagonist, and slowly realizing just how vast his connections are is such a blast, as his impact on the world at large adds so much to previous games too. His fractured and awkward friendship with René and Elaine is fantastic - it's rare to see something like that in these games, and it's easily one of my favorite things about the mature mood this game has. I'm sure everyone around his age has been there at some point in their lives, so there's a bittersweet catharsis in seeing them slowly warm up to one another yet again.
I'm genuinely surprised at how much Agnès feels like a second protagonist due to how involved she is in the story aswell; for a long while, Van feels more like the conduit that ties everyone together while the story revolves more around her; and considering we haven't seen something like that since Sky, I'm really glad about that. She has so much agency and story focus, and the stuff she's dealing with really strikes a chord with me, so she's a surprising favorite of mine considering I didn't expect that beforehand at all.
The rest of the cast is fantastic too, and the way they're nearly all united by grief in one way or another is bittersweet. The build-up from co-workers to feeling like a genuine family is perfect, and I'm glad the formulaic structure of the chapters is used well to properly give everyone some time to shine; sometimes in surprisingly non-linear ways.
Bonding Events are therefore not nearly as necessary to get to know certain characters properly here which is such a relief; it's simply an addition to the character that's properly established in the story, because this game knows what to do with it's entire cast despite it's size. No shade towards any class from a predecessor of this game or anything, ofcourse.
I'm also amazed at how well it follows up from Reverie - I fully expected that game to be closure for Crossbell and Cold Steel respectively primarily; but now I fully understand why Swin and Nadia are making a return in Kuro 2, and I can't wait to see them again.
Overall just a really solid game! I can't think of any complaints that really stand out to me as worth mentioning honestly, it's been an absolute blast from start to finish.
I'm so glad we didn't get yet another reset in terms of stakes but jumped right back to an experience as intense as Reverie before it - hell, even way more I'd say.
There's a lot to appreciate here; the new engine is gorgeous, the mixture of real-time and turn-based combat for overworld encounters works surprisingly well despite the real-time combat being a bit one-dimensional due to it working as a sort of prelude to regular turn-based encounters by giving you an easy-to-achieve break and follow-up on it as soon as you switch to turn-based afterwards and the more mature tone of the game is a very welcome surprise.
The fact that it gives you more reason to actively go for side-content is great to see as someone who wouldn't dare skip it either way; having full bonding points as long as you do all sidequests is SUCH a welcome improvement after Cold Steel requiring you to do a NG+ run to see all of them and the new Alignment system that goes up way easier through sidequests was a fantastic addition as well. It didn't end up mattering as much as I thought it would, but it's definitely made me more excited for my eventual replay when the official localization drops.
But the cast is easily my favorite thing about it. Right off the bat, Van Arkride is a phenomenal protagonist, and slowly realizing just how vast his connections are is such a blast, as his impact on the world at large adds so much to previous games too. His fractured and awkward friendship with René and Elaine is fantastic - it's rare to see something like that in these games, and it's easily one of my favorite things about the mature mood this game has. I'm sure everyone around his age has been there at some point in their lives, so there's a bittersweet catharsis in seeing them slowly warm up to one another yet again.
I'm genuinely surprised at how much Agnès feels like a second protagonist due to how involved she is in the story aswell; for a long while, Van feels more like the conduit that ties everyone together while the story revolves more around her; and considering we haven't seen something like that since Sky, I'm really glad about that. She has so much agency and story focus, and the stuff she's dealing with really strikes a chord with me, so she's a surprising favorite of mine considering I didn't expect that beforehand at all.
The rest of the cast is fantastic too, and the way they're nearly all united by grief in one way or another is bittersweet. The build-up from co-workers to feeling like a genuine family is perfect, and I'm glad the formulaic structure of the chapters is used well to properly give everyone some time to shine; sometimes in surprisingly non-linear ways.
Bonding Events are therefore not nearly as necessary to get to know certain characters properly here which is such a relief; it's simply an addition to the character that's properly established in the story, because this game knows what to do with it's entire cast despite it's size. No shade towards any class from a predecessor of this game or anything, ofcourse.
I'm also amazed at how well it follows up from Reverie - I fully expected that game to be closure for Crossbell and Cold Steel respectively primarily; but now I fully understand why Swin and Nadia are making a return in Kuro 2, and I can't wait to see them again.
Overall just a really solid game! I can't think of any complaints that really stand out to me as worth mentioning honestly, it's been an absolute blast from start to finish.