Ghoolian
2019
It takes a little while to get the ball rolling with this game because it gets stuck on a focus of introducing it's cast members in it's first half while being a bit too mysterious for it's own good IMO - but man, when it picks up it picks UP. It's got an absolutely amazing story filled with some surprisingly fantastic fanservice for anyone who's played any previous Ys games.
Taking as long as it did sure was worth it though, because the cast is great and the combat's fantastic, the worldbuilding is surprisingly enticing and the movement options that slowly open up as you add more members to your party feel SO good.
I have also joined the ranks of the Adol understanders now. Sure, the whole "silent MC because he's retelling the story without painting it with his own perspective" thing is admittedly interesting but still does exactly that; not really make him stand out as a character.
Until this game, that is! Oh man, its plans for him intrigue you as soon as the intro, and I'm proud to announce they didn't fumble that one bit. He's so good.
So yeah, despite the meat of the story taking it's sweet time - it's just a fantastic game on all fronts honestly! It more than makes up for that despite my doubts about halfway through. I had a great time with it.
Never thought a game would make me yell "YOOO IT'S THE FUCKIN BAT FROM YS 1" in the middle of a boss battle but here we are!
What a ridiculously charming experience it was.
Taking as long as it did sure was worth it though, because the cast is great and the combat's fantastic, the worldbuilding is surprisingly enticing and the movement options that slowly open up as you add more members to your party feel SO good.
I have also joined the ranks of the Adol understanders now. Sure, the whole "silent MC because he's retelling the story without painting it with his own perspective" thing is admittedly interesting but still does exactly that; not really make him stand out as a character.
Until this game, that is! Oh man, its plans for him intrigue you as soon as the intro, and I'm proud to announce they didn't fumble that one bit. He's so good.
So yeah, despite the meat of the story taking it's sweet time - it's just a fantastic game on all fronts honestly! It more than makes up for that despite my doubts about halfway through. I had a great time with it.
Never thought a game would make me yell "YOOO IT'S THE FUCKIN BAT FROM YS 1" in the middle of a boss battle but here we are!
What a ridiculously charming experience it was.
2024
I'm not gonna use this review to express my thoughts on Persona 3 in general, as I think that should be rather evident but instead I wanna talk about everything this remake does both right and wrong for me in comparison to FES.
More than anything, I really miss the ludonarrative harmony FES was indeed more often than not rather infamous for.
There's a lot of it gone that's probably for the best - like automatic romance links and the jealousy system that came with it, but man do I miss Tactics being the way they were before P4. I get that they didn't want to spend too much time implementing those in P4 and P5 (essentially making it a hassle to use because of how barebones it was) but it was such a ridiculously layered system with surprising amounts of personality that I'm genuinely sad to see it being nigh unusable in a Persona 3 remake.
Right off the bat, it's the exact same as it was in every game since P4; all tactics are unlocked from the start and they're not a lot. We've got Act Freely, Full Assault, Conserve SP, Heal/Support and ofcourse Direct Commands. And that's it.
Persona 3 placed great importance on portraying the other SEES members as seperate entities, going as far as making the tactics unlock over time the longer the group spent together and I don't know man, that stuff was genuinely magical to me.
It set P3 apart in such an unconventional way, and I get that it wasn't for everyone but once you got the hang of it I genuinely thought that system was fantastic. All of its quirks, like Yukari being programmed to be more selfish with her healing if necessary and what not really made them feel like their own characters.
Persona 3 and FES gave the player additional tactics after the second, fourth and fifth Full Moon - Knock Down, Same Target and Attack Fallen.
And Knock Down in my opinion, is the major loss here. Early on, I did my best to do what I could with the Tactics system as it is now but found myself having to use Minato's (I'm an oldhead and that character unironically saved my life so I'm not calling him anything else, bear with me here) SP far more often than I should. Junpei would trial-and-error a fire weakness, get it right, see the exact same enemy standing right next to the one he downed and just slash that same enemy again instead. It's not great, and it's definitely something that made me have to look for other things to appreciate in this game.
Of course, that's not all bad - especially for a game with as many revisions as Persona 3, I think it's good that each of them stands out in their own way.
In a way, I'm really glad to have that feeling of "Man, I wanna go back to FES and experience it like that again someday".
I just wish it wasn't through the game incentivizing me as to how I SHOULD be playing by making my preferred option far, far worse. I imagine they're completely incapable of shifting and using Theurgies as well - so yeah, that just further proves my point.
I've gotten quite used to the trend of Tactics being a husk of its former self, but I was certainly hoping that wouldn't be the case in a Persona 3 remake when that's the one game where it was purposefully designed around it, and that was done so well. It's a damn shame.
My other major gripe is the Rewind mechanic - because yes, I am gonna be that guy that says it goes entirely against its themes (because it does!).
In reality, it's not as ridiculous as it seems, because it is essentially just making autosaves of previous days anytime you save but like.. there's such a dichotomy between adding quality of life changes and actively popping up Hey Your Actions Have No Consequences By The Way in a game that literally starts up with Memento Mori.
They could've added this to the game as is without actively needing to tell you about it, and anyone who'd need to make use of it would still find it while people that wouldn't still think as hard about how they should spend their time as they should. Even if simply saving before any choice is always a possibility, popping up a feature like that genuinely makes a massive difference on your mentality approaching choices like that, in my opinion - and it certainly shouldn't have a place in Persona 3 of all things.
Apart from that, my issues are pretty nitpicky; I miss having a narrator for what is now inner dialogue. I liked not being able to read Minato's thoughts, as it set him further apart as his own character (which he absolutely is) and I think having that layer of seperation from him was good. It made moments like "Yesterday was a terrible tragedy.. however, you must still go to school today." all the more shocking in my opinion because even before you witnessed everything about him in December you had those clear signs that there's certainly something wrong about how apathetic he is to all of it. I feel like not hearing it from himself added to that, but again, nothing too major. Still a really nice detail that set him apart, though.
FeMC also isn't included in this which I personally don't care for but I can see why that'd disappoint people. I feel like the Portable remaster was basically their attempt at making up for the fact that they didn't want to make such a major overhaul to both routes but instead decided to focus more on the original P3 experience which is fair, honestly.
Especially after playing through the game you realize how much effort that took, and despite the fanbase she has it would've set the game's release date back a pretty major amount. (And I figure it wouldn't be too enticing from a business perspective either, we all know how scummy they get with day 1 DLC already so I think hell would freeze over before we could expect that much content from them in a single game)
All of this lines up pretty well what I expected from the game honestly - Tactics being fully implemented again would've been fantastic, but considering how it's been treated ever since FES I figured it wouldn't be the case.
So, all that's left is hoping it makes up for it. Like I said earlier, I had to look for other reasons to appreciate this game with most of the ludonarrative harmony that made FES so magical to me gone - and I'm really glad to say those definitely exist!
Because oh man, the new content sure is good.
I LOVE what they've done with Tartarus. Twilight Fragments, a new resource gained through Tartarus itself and ranking up Social Links are used to fully heal your party's HP and SP in Tartarus for a price of 8 fragments, something I was a bit disappointed to see pre-release - but it's actually a surprisingly fantastic system due to it having multiple uses - the other being Twilight Fragment chests, at the cost of 1-3 fragments with said cost deciding how good the reward from its chest is. And what's in these chests is easily the best rewards you'll find in Tartarus.
That decisionmaking, combined with the fact that it's yet another way of incentivizing maxing out Social Links and making the most of the limited time you've got is SO good. It's a fantastic high-risk/high-reward decision that has made me appreciate climbing the Tower of Demise even more.
Theurgies are a welcome sight aswell - although a bit overtuned in terms of damage numbers, it's great to have a system that switches up the monotomy of Persona's combat, especially in long boss battles.
With the fact that it charges faster in different personalized ways for each character, it really guides you to making the most of your party's strengths, and what a reward for doing that right it is.
Incredibly cool animations and an attack (or utility!) that makes a massive difference anytime you use it. They feel SO good to use.
These also combine with the new activities at the dorm - because if you do one of the two activities each character is assigned to 3 times with them, they'll unlock (or upgrade) a new passive skill unique to them alongside their Theurgy. And these make a massive difference too! Really potent stuff that sets each SEES member further apart from eachother and really has you think about which ones you like bringing with you most.
The dorm activities writing-wise are a pleasant surprise as well; I figured it'd make the SEES dynamic a bit too chummy early-on or feel too lighthearted after heavier events, but they nailed it.
Early-on, it's very much a give-and-take thing especially with studying, where characters are generally like "Oh this benefits us both, so yeah sure" and after events like 4/10 you can't escape the gravity of the situation in these either.
Pleasantly surprised at how a studying event with Akihiko and Mitsuru a few days after for example actively had them being too distracted to focus on studying and Minato being the one to attempt to shake them out of that slump. It was really bittersweet.
What I mostly appreciate in this game though, is the Link Events that kind of make up for the fact that the male party members didn't get any Social Links outside of FeMC's route in Portable.
Because oh man, even as someone who generally likes their Social Links there (we don't talk about Ken's one, though) these are easily the best content these characters have gotten since the original game. It's all so incredibly good.
I really hope these are the future ideal for party member links because they work so well - they don't have to stick to a 10-part structure that sets up some alternative arc for the character outside of the story, you simply get to see more of their perspective and how they're dealing with the current problems at hand.
They're all written so incredibly well and immediately stopped me from worrying about whether they'd get the character writing right after how dirty some of these have been done in spin-offs.
Not only that, they understand Minato really well too; showing off just how kind and selfless he is, but also addressing how much of an issue it can be if he continues to be such a yesman and gives him more room to make choices for himself aswell. It's.. just some genuinely perfect stuff honestly, exactly what I was hoping to see from them and then some. I didn't think it was possible to make me like Persona 3's cast even more but holy shit, they sure pulled that off.
So yeah, despite my gripes with it I think this game is absolutely fantastic.
It doesn't hit me in quite the same ways FES did, and due to that I think FES specifically will always be my favorite game because nothing quite clicks for me in gameplay and story integration like that game does - but I'm really glad this game manages to stand on its own two feet despite what it lacks in comparison by more than making up for it.
If you're a sceptical Persona 3 fan who wasn't sure Atlus could ever reach those heights again like I was, rest assured - it's still an absolutely incredible experience. Just in its own, fantastic way!
More than anything, I really miss the ludonarrative harmony FES was indeed more often than not rather infamous for.
There's a lot of it gone that's probably for the best - like automatic romance links and the jealousy system that came with it, but man do I miss Tactics being the way they were before P4. I get that they didn't want to spend too much time implementing those in P4 and P5 (essentially making it a hassle to use because of how barebones it was) but it was such a ridiculously layered system with surprising amounts of personality that I'm genuinely sad to see it being nigh unusable in a Persona 3 remake.
Right off the bat, it's the exact same as it was in every game since P4; all tactics are unlocked from the start and they're not a lot. We've got Act Freely, Full Assault, Conserve SP, Heal/Support and ofcourse Direct Commands. And that's it.
Persona 3 placed great importance on portraying the other SEES members as seperate entities, going as far as making the tactics unlock over time the longer the group spent together and I don't know man, that stuff was genuinely magical to me.
It set P3 apart in such an unconventional way, and I get that it wasn't for everyone but once you got the hang of it I genuinely thought that system was fantastic. All of its quirks, like Yukari being programmed to be more selfish with her healing if necessary and what not really made them feel like their own characters.
Persona 3 and FES gave the player additional tactics after the second, fourth and fifth Full Moon - Knock Down, Same Target and Attack Fallen.
And Knock Down in my opinion, is the major loss here. Early on, I did my best to do what I could with the Tactics system as it is now but found myself having to use Minato's (I'm an oldhead and that character unironically saved my life so I'm not calling him anything else, bear with me here) SP far more often than I should. Junpei would trial-and-error a fire weakness, get it right, see the exact same enemy standing right next to the one he downed and just slash that same enemy again instead. It's not great, and it's definitely something that made me have to look for other things to appreciate in this game.
Of course, that's not all bad - especially for a game with as many revisions as Persona 3, I think it's good that each of them stands out in their own way.
In a way, I'm really glad to have that feeling of "Man, I wanna go back to FES and experience it like that again someday".
I just wish it wasn't through the game incentivizing me as to how I SHOULD be playing by making my preferred option far, far worse. I imagine they're completely incapable of shifting and using Theurgies as well - so yeah, that just further proves my point.
I've gotten quite used to the trend of Tactics being a husk of its former self, but I was certainly hoping that wouldn't be the case in a Persona 3 remake when that's the one game where it was purposefully designed around it, and that was done so well. It's a damn shame.
My other major gripe is the Rewind mechanic - because yes, I am gonna be that guy that says it goes entirely against its themes (because it does!).
In reality, it's not as ridiculous as it seems, because it is essentially just making autosaves of previous days anytime you save but like.. there's such a dichotomy between adding quality of life changes and actively popping up Hey Your Actions Have No Consequences By The Way in a game that literally starts up with Memento Mori.
They could've added this to the game as is without actively needing to tell you about it, and anyone who'd need to make use of it would still find it while people that wouldn't still think as hard about how they should spend their time as they should. Even if simply saving before any choice is always a possibility, popping up a feature like that genuinely makes a massive difference on your mentality approaching choices like that, in my opinion - and it certainly shouldn't have a place in Persona 3 of all things.
Apart from that, my issues are pretty nitpicky; I miss having a narrator for what is now inner dialogue. I liked not being able to read Minato's thoughts, as it set him further apart as his own character (which he absolutely is) and I think having that layer of seperation from him was good. It made moments like "Yesterday was a terrible tragedy.. however, you must still go to school today." all the more shocking in my opinion because even before you witnessed everything about him in December you had those clear signs that there's certainly something wrong about how apathetic he is to all of it. I feel like not hearing it from himself added to that, but again, nothing too major. Still a really nice detail that set him apart, though.
FeMC also isn't included in this which I personally don't care for but I can see why that'd disappoint people. I feel like the Portable remaster was basically their attempt at making up for the fact that they didn't want to make such a major overhaul to both routes but instead decided to focus more on the original P3 experience which is fair, honestly.
Especially after playing through the game you realize how much effort that took, and despite the fanbase she has it would've set the game's release date back a pretty major amount. (And I figure it wouldn't be too enticing from a business perspective either, we all know how scummy they get with day 1 DLC already so I think hell would freeze over before we could expect that much content from them in a single game)
All of this lines up pretty well what I expected from the game honestly - Tactics being fully implemented again would've been fantastic, but considering how it's been treated ever since FES I figured it wouldn't be the case.
So, all that's left is hoping it makes up for it. Like I said earlier, I had to look for other reasons to appreciate this game with most of the ludonarrative harmony that made FES so magical to me gone - and I'm really glad to say those definitely exist!
Because oh man, the new content sure is good.
I LOVE what they've done with Tartarus. Twilight Fragments, a new resource gained through Tartarus itself and ranking up Social Links are used to fully heal your party's HP and SP in Tartarus for a price of 8 fragments, something I was a bit disappointed to see pre-release - but it's actually a surprisingly fantastic system due to it having multiple uses - the other being Twilight Fragment chests, at the cost of 1-3 fragments with said cost deciding how good the reward from its chest is. And what's in these chests is easily the best rewards you'll find in Tartarus.
That decisionmaking, combined with the fact that it's yet another way of incentivizing maxing out Social Links and making the most of the limited time you've got is SO good. It's a fantastic high-risk/high-reward decision that has made me appreciate climbing the Tower of Demise even more.
Theurgies are a welcome sight aswell - although a bit overtuned in terms of damage numbers, it's great to have a system that switches up the monotomy of Persona's combat, especially in long boss battles.
With the fact that it charges faster in different personalized ways for each character, it really guides you to making the most of your party's strengths, and what a reward for doing that right it is.
Incredibly cool animations and an attack (or utility!) that makes a massive difference anytime you use it. They feel SO good to use.
These also combine with the new activities at the dorm - because if you do one of the two activities each character is assigned to 3 times with them, they'll unlock (or upgrade) a new passive skill unique to them alongside their Theurgy. And these make a massive difference too! Really potent stuff that sets each SEES member further apart from eachother and really has you think about which ones you like bringing with you most.
The dorm activities writing-wise are a pleasant surprise as well; I figured it'd make the SEES dynamic a bit too chummy early-on or feel too lighthearted after heavier events, but they nailed it.
Early-on, it's very much a give-and-take thing especially with studying, where characters are generally like "Oh this benefits us both, so yeah sure" and after events like 4/10 you can't escape the gravity of the situation in these either.
Pleasantly surprised at how a studying event with Akihiko and Mitsuru a few days after for example actively had them being too distracted to focus on studying and Minato being the one to attempt to shake them out of that slump. It was really bittersweet.
What I mostly appreciate in this game though, is the Link Events that kind of make up for the fact that the male party members didn't get any Social Links outside of FeMC's route in Portable.
Because oh man, even as someone who generally likes their Social Links there (we don't talk about Ken's one, though) these are easily the best content these characters have gotten since the original game. It's all so incredibly good.
I really hope these are the future ideal for party member links because they work so well - they don't have to stick to a 10-part structure that sets up some alternative arc for the character outside of the story, you simply get to see more of their perspective and how they're dealing with the current problems at hand.
They're all written so incredibly well and immediately stopped me from worrying about whether they'd get the character writing right after how dirty some of these have been done in spin-offs.
Not only that, they understand Minato really well too; showing off just how kind and selfless he is, but also addressing how much of an issue it can be if he continues to be such a yesman and gives him more room to make choices for himself aswell. It's.. just some genuinely perfect stuff honestly, exactly what I was hoping to see from them and then some. I didn't think it was possible to make me like Persona 3's cast even more but holy shit, they sure pulled that off.
So yeah, despite my gripes with it I think this game is absolutely fantastic.
It doesn't hit me in quite the same ways FES did, and due to that I think FES specifically will always be my favorite game because nothing quite clicks for me in gameplay and story integration like that game does - but I'm really glad this game manages to stand on its own two feet despite what it lacks in comparison by more than making up for it.
If you're a sceptical Persona 3 fan who wasn't sure Atlus could ever reach those heights again like I was, rest assured - it's still an absolutely incredible experience. Just in its own, fantastic way!
As someone who started with Like a Dragon 7, hearing from long-time fans that the series generally didn't focus on being all that interconnected despite having its overarching narrative blew my mind.
You're telling me they knocked it out of the park like this, in a way I've hardly ever seen before on essentially their first try? Holy shit dude. It's incredible.
Not only does it follow up on LaD7 incredibly well, by the time the protagonists split up and form their own parties, it manages to be such a fantastic love letter to Kiryu's entire journey as well.
And sure, this might seem like it doesn't mean much coming from someone who didn't witness any of it; but honestly, that's exactly what makes it so impressive for me.
Without feeling like an overblown or elongated trip down memory lane, it manages to make him reminisce about just about everything he's been through so damn well at such a critical point in his life that it left an impressively emotional impression despite me not having much knowledge of these events, because he's such a ridiculously charismatic character.
That blends into this game in many ways; even newly introduced characters have so much respect for his legacy that it shapes their entire story influence in ways you wouldn't expect, impressing you even further.
It making him this endearing for me already, I can't imagine how it'd be for long-time fans. Gotta be some of the most cathartic fanservice I've ever seen, and it's done so damn well.
Ichiban continues to be the absolute best aswell; the story starts off pretty slow and meticulously, focusing more on the two new party members, Tomizawa and Chitose; and the effect he has on them, much like with the original cast - is yet again colossal. He's the best, man. Nothing but good in his heart, and it makes you fall in love with him all over again.
The impact both of these characters have on the story is phenomenal, and this.. might just be the best implementation of dual protagonists I've ever seen? Genuinely can't think of any examples where it amazed me as much as this game did.
They're both so involved that it doesn't feel like either's ever left out, even when you're ping-ponging between two different parties. The stakes mean so much to both of them, and that's done so damn well. Really impressive stuff.
Much like LaD7 (and previous entries, I'm sure!), this game manages to balance the inherent goofiness this series love to have with an incredibly poignant and emotional story that I absolutely adore.
On a gameplay front, it's also a major improvement from it's predecessor - which is great to see. I didn't mind it's gameplay all that much, but it was definitely a little stiff and janky in some ways.
Adding movement during to turns to allow you to angle AoE attacks or group up with your party to get in range for buffs and healing is SUCH a welcome change. Not only that, it plays around with said movement options in a lot of fun ways - like adding combo attacks if you're close to teammates (both in bond levels and combat range), or back attacks that are guaranteed crits. It allows you to line up your abilities so much better, and gets you thinking what angle's best for your regular attacks too.
You can even knock back enemies towards allies and have them follow-up on it; so yeah, there's a lot to do with it and it adds so many layers to the combat as a whole. Makes for one of the most fun turn-based games I've ever played, honestly.
All that to say - this game is fucking incredible. Genuinely can't think of things that remotely bothered me during my playthrough, it's been such a blast.
As I mentioned, it is a bit on the slow side - but exploring Hawaii as the most endearingly goofy protagonist I've ever seen known as none other than Kasuga Ichiban more than makes up for that, so I didn't mind that at all myself.
I get the feeling there'll be plenty more Like a Dragon games in store for Ichiban even if Kiryu understandably bows out; and I'll be there for them no matter what. But man, I'm gonna be impressed if they ever manage to top this one for me.
It's such a fantastic story that implores you to live on, no matter how deplorable you think you or the world might be - because the only way you can change that is to keep going.
You'll always worry about things you can no longer change - you might regret them or be angry at yourself about them; that's life.
But as long as you keep going, life will always throw a few open doors your way.
And so I'll gladly do just that.
You're telling me they knocked it out of the park like this, in a way I've hardly ever seen before on essentially their first try? Holy shit dude. It's incredible.
Not only does it follow up on LaD7 incredibly well, by the time the protagonists split up and form their own parties, it manages to be such a fantastic love letter to Kiryu's entire journey as well.
And sure, this might seem like it doesn't mean much coming from someone who didn't witness any of it; but honestly, that's exactly what makes it so impressive for me.
Without feeling like an overblown or elongated trip down memory lane, it manages to make him reminisce about just about everything he's been through so damn well at such a critical point in his life that it left an impressively emotional impression despite me not having much knowledge of these events, because he's such a ridiculously charismatic character.
That blends into this game in many ways; even newly introduced characters have so much respect for his legacy that it shapes their entire story influence in ways you wouldn't expect, impressing you even further.
It making him this endearing for me already, I can't imagine how it'd be for long-time fans. Gotta be some of the most cathartic fanservice I've ever seen, and it's done so damn well.
Ichiban continues to be the absolute best aswell; the story starts off pretty slow and meticulously, focusing more on the two new party members, Tomizawa and Chitose; and the effect he has on them, much like with the original cast - is yet again colossal. He's the best, man. Nothing but good in his heart, and it makes you fall in love with him all over again.
The impact both of these characters have on the story is phenomenal, and this.. might just be the best implementation of dual protagonists I've ever seen? Genuinely can't think of any examples where it amazed me as much as this game did.
They're both so involved that it doesn't feel like either's ever left out, even when you're ping-ponging between two different parties. The stakes mean so much to both of them, and that's done so damn well. Really impressive stuff.
Much like LaD7 (and previous entries, I'm sure!), this game manages to balance the inherent goofiness this series love to have with an incredibly poignant and emotional story that I absolutely adore.
On a gameplay front, it's also a major improvement from it's predecessor - which is great to see. I didn't mind it's gameplay all that much, but it was definitely a little stiff and janky in some ways.
Adding movement during to turns to allow you to angle AoE attacks or group up with your party to get in range for buffs and healing is SUCH a welcome change. Not only that, it plays around with said movement options in a lot of fun ways - like adding combo attacks if you're close to teammates (both in bond levels and combat range), or back attacks that are guaranteed crits. It allows you to line up your abilities so much better, and gets you thinking what angle's best for your regular attacks too.
You can even knock back enemies towards allies and have them follow-up on it; so yeah, there's a lot to do with it and it adds so many layers to the combat as a whole. Makes for one of the most fun turn-based games I've ever played, honestly.
All that to say - this game is fucking incredible. Genuinely can't think of things that remotely bothered me during my playthrough, it's been such a blast.
As I mentioned, it is a bit on the slow side - but exploring Hawaii as the most endearingly goofy protagonist I've ever seen known as none other than Kasuga Ichiban more than makes up for that, so I didn't mind that at all myself.
I get the feeling there'll be plenty more Like a Dragon games in store for Ichiban even if Kiryu understandably bows out; and I'll be there for them no matter what. But man, I'm gonna be impressed if they ever manage to top this one for me.
It's such a fantastic story that implores you to live on, no matter how deplorable you think you or the world might be - because the only way you can change that is to keep going.
You'll always worry about things you can no longer change - you might regret them or be angry at yourself about them; that's life.
But as long as you keep going, life will always throw a few open doors your way.
And so I'll gladly do just that.
2019
This game has some absolutely phenomenal writing - easily some of my favorite I've seen yet. It's worldbuilding might honestly be the most rich I've experienced yet, which is really impressive.
But what really fascinated me was its themes and the myriad of perspectives it uses to portray these with. It's got nothing but love for idealists - even while displaying it in a dying world, it's seen as utterly commendable holding onto it despite the hardships you undoubtedly face as a result. But it knows this isn't always as easy as it seems, and there's plenty of characters that very realistically struggle to keep that faith alive for an extended period of time and still manage to shake off those worries for the sake of a better future.
A lot of it has been very relevant to me lately, and incredibly comforting as a result. Ch'en and Muelsyse are especially characters I'll think fondly of for a long time due to how much their character arcs mean to me - but the main trio of the Doctor, Amiya and Kal'tsit are also some of the most profoundly fascinating characters I've seen in a long time. It's got such a great cast.
It's not without it's flaws however; and I'm not even gonna talk about the gacha aspect because that's a given - I think the stamina system in this game might genuinely be the worst I've ever seen. You get like 3 refill items a week; which wouldn't be too bad on it's own, but considering the amount of grinding you have to do to make sure your operators can keep up with the gradually increasing difficulty of the story, it's really rough. You've gotta grind LMD, exp tickets, general materials AND promotion chips; all while being able to do like 10 maps a day if you don't get any automatic stamina refills due to level-ups. It grinds the game's pace to a halt, and as a result I ended up using alternative methods to experience the story at the pace I wanted to do so while playing the game itself on the side - otherwise I would've probably read it at about 1/10th of the pace I did now.
I didn't regret it one bit considering how fantastic it ended up being, but yeah - be prepared for a slog if you wanna experience it naturally.
A very well worthwhile slog if you're up for it - but one I personally much rather sped up to get to the things that really interested me; its utterly incredible writing.
But what really fascinated me was its themes and the myriad of perspectives it uses to portray these with. It's got nothing but love for idealists - even while displaying it in a dying world, it's seen as utterly commendable holding onto it despite the hardships you undoubtedly face as a result. But it knows this isn't always as easy as it seems, and there's plenty of characters that very realistically struggle to keep that faith alive for an extended period of time and still manage to shake off those worries for the sake of a better future.
A lot of it has been very relevant to me lately, and incredibly comforting as a result. Ch'en and Muelsyse are especially characters I'll think fondly of for a long time due to how much their character arcs mean to me - but the main trio of the Doctor, Amiya and Kal'tsit are also some of the most profoundly fascinating characters I've seen in a long time. It's got such a great cast.
It's not without it's flaws however; and I'm not even gonna talk about the gacha aspect because that's a given - I think the stamina system in this game might genuinely be the worst I've ever seen. You get like 3 refill items a week; which wouldn't be too bad on it's own, but considering the amount of grinding you have to do to make sure your operators can keep up with the gradually increasing difficulty of the story, it's really rough. You've gotta grind LMD, exp tickets, general materials AND promotion chips; all while being able to do like 10 maps a day if you don't get any automatic stamina refills due to level-ups. It grinds the game's pace to a halt, and as a result I ended up using alternative methods to experience the story at the pace I wanted to do so while playing the game itself on the side - otherwise I would've probably read it at about 1/10th of the pace I did now.
I didn't regret it one bit considering how fantastic it ended up being, but yeah - be prepared for a slog if you wanna experience it naturally.
A very well worthwhile slog if you're up for it - but one I personally much rather sped up to get to the things that really interested me; its utterly incredible writing.
Ridiculously fun game, definitely deserves all the praise it's getting.
I was a bit skeptical over how bizarre the Wonder mechanic looked in pre-release footage, but it makes for a really fun gimmick that never gets old due to innovating constantly - causing no level to feel similar.
This is the most fun I've had with Mario games since SMW, and that's no easy feat with how consistently I've enjoyed em.
Definitely worthwhile for platformer fans!
I was a bit skeptical over how bizarre the Wonder mechanic looked in pre-release footage, but it makes for a really fun gimmick that never gets old due to innovating constantly - causing no level to feel similar.
This is the most fun I've had with Mario games since SMW, and that's no easy feat with how consistently I've enjoyed em.
Definitely worthwhile for platformer fans!
2023
Real happy to see a brand new Fate installment, because it's been a hot minute since Extella Link!
And I loved this one. Really cool new take on the Holy Grail War with Masters that have some really unique motivations and Servants that suit them perfectly.
The cast is fantastic - definitely one of my favorite Fate casts yet, mostly because it's in my opinion honestly pretty rare for them to be as consistent as this one.
The setting is great too, and I love how well it's characters and their motivations are acclimated to that; they all fit in really well.
And the music, although for the most part not too memorable, accomodates it nicely too.
My absolute favorite thing about this game is it's gameplay though, which is admittedly pretty rare for me! Something about the way it portrays the power dynamic between Masters and Servants through gameplay is unlike anything we've seen in the series before, and I love that.
Regular encounters definitely feel like your average musou fight, but when a Servant steps in (or when you've built up enough meter to play as the Servant you're with) the game changes entirely, in a really good way. Bosses can be terrifying here, and that's exactly as they should be when a Master like Iori runs into a fight meant for Servants. They're tough, but really fun and well-paced once you figure out how to fight against them and properly get your Ripostes off, and it makes beating them feel SO good.
Arguably the most interesting thing about this game however (which is definitely recommendable if you're interested in it's cast) is how much it hinges on a replay.
New Game+ is ridiculously streamlined - pretty much everything you've done in your first playthrough is carried over; so if you've done all you could, you won't have to worry about any side-content you've already done. BUT, if you want to - simply because you want to experience a Servant's sidestory again or just get it's rewards twice - you can! It'll simply be counted as Completed either way, and that's really neat.
But more than that, there's quite a few NG+ exclusive scenes, sidequests and even an additional ending that adds SO much substance to it's cast; and it lets you know what is and isn't new by making the original story's text gray and adding a feature skipping through all of that whenever it pops up.
It's a fascinating decision! Adding all of it to the first playthrough would've definitely messed with it's pacing a lot (of which the only issue in my opinion is already big groups of sidequests at the same time, so yeah lmao) and there's also a few scenes that are definitely made in mind with you already knowing the main story and what happens next.
I'm not quite sure if it's solely to preserve the pacing - it could very well be them being too proud of those scenes (they should be) and never being able to figure out how to properly squeeze it into the main game, but yeah, I've never seen anything like that.
I really liked it personally, especially with it being as fast as it is. Takes about 1/3rd of a regular playthrough, of which about 75% will be new content and the other 25% being the route you didn't take the first time around, so it adds a lot to the experience! Didn't feel right making this review until I've explored it fully, because yeah, it's major stuff.
Iori especially profits so much from it. NG+ essentially confirmed everything I thought about him through the foreshadowing the main story contained and goddamn man he's up there as one of my favorite TM protags yet. Insanely unique character.
So yeah, cool game. Definitely unique! In some ways good and some ways bizarre.
I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope there's more games like this in store to keep bringing some new perspectives to the Fate series in the future :)
And I loved this one. Really cool new take on the Holy Grail War with Masters that have some really unique motivations and Servants that suit them perfectly.
The cast is fantastic - definitely one of my favorite Fate casts yet, mostly because it's in my opinion honestly pretty rare for them to be as consistent as this one.
The setting is great too, and I love how well it's characters and their motivations are acclimated to that; they all fit in really well.
And the music, although for the most part not too memorable, accomodates it nicely too.
My absolute favorite thing about this game is it's gameplay though, which is admittedly pretty rare for me! Something about the way it portrays the power dynamic between Masters and Servants through gameplay is unlike anything we've seen in the series before, and I love that.
Regular encounters definitely feel like your average musou fight, but when a Servant steps in (or when you've built up enough meter to play as the Servant you're with) the game changes entirely, in a really good way. Bosses can be terrifying here, and that's exactly as they should be when a Master like Iori runs into a fight meant for Servants. They're tough, but really fun and well-paced once you figure out how to fight against them and properly get your Ripostes off, and it makes beating them feel SO good.
Arguably the most interesting thing about this game however (which is definitely recommendable if you're interested in it's cast) is how much it hinges on a replay.
New Game+ is ridiculously streamlined - pretty much everything you've done in your first playthrough is carried over; so if you've done all you could, you won't have to worry about any side-content you've already done. BUT, if you want to - simply because you want to experience a Servant's sidestory again or just get it's rewards twice - you can! It'll simply be counted as Completed either way, and that's really neat.
But more than that, there's quite a few NG+ exclusive scenes, sidequests and even an additional ending that adds SO much substance to it's cast; and it lets you know what is and isn't new by making the original story's text gray and adding a feature skipping through all of that whenever it pops up.
It's a fascinating decision! Adding all of it to the first playthrough would've definitely messed with it's pacing a lot (of which the only issue in my opinion is already big groups of sidequests at the same time, so yeah lmao) and there's also a few scenes that are definitely made in mind with you already knowing the main story and what happens next.
I'm not quite sure if it's solely to preserve the pacing - it could very well be them being too proud of those scenes (they should be) and never being able to figure out how to properly squeeze it into the main game, but yeah, I've never seen anything like that.
I really liked it personally, especially with it being as fast as it is. Takes about 1/3rd of a regular playthrough, of which about 75% will be new content and the other 25% being the route you didn't take the first time around, so it adds a lot to the experience! Didn't feel right making this review until I've explored it fully, because yeah, it's major stuff.
Iori especially profits so much from it. NG+ essentially confirmed everything I thought about him through the foreshadowing the main story contained and goddamn man he's up there as one of my favorite TM protags yet. Insanely unique character.
So yeah, cool game. Definitely unique! In some ways good and some ways bizarre.
I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope there's more games like this in store to keep bringing some new perspectives to the Fate series in the future :)
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.
2020
This game genuinely feels like you just walked out of a session with one of the best DM's you've ever met.
The amount of options you have is incredible, and the creativity available to you with which you can approach combat situations (or avoid them entirely with a silver tongue!) just keeps blowing me away.
Act 2 is where this game really started to grow on me, where (if I recall correctly, atleast!) you can avoid literally every single optional boss through doing dialogue properly in some RIDICULOUSLY unique ways. It's so much fun, and it's the major reason it feels like such an authentic and fantastic DnD experience; it really just feels like a DM playing along with the astoundingly bizarre ways you're trying to dodge rough fights.
I could go on for hours about what I love about this game dude, oh my god. The world's gorgeous and ridiculously alive, the cast is FANTASTIC and the writing is, as a result, such a treat.
Gameplay's really solid and grounded; beautiful adaption of 5E in that regard, and the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful too.
I wanna go a bit more in depth about the cast especially because, god dude. They're so good. I love ALL these goobers. Some of em are definitely coarse at first, but once you peel back the layers you start to realize why they are the way they are - and how they develop from that by spending time away from the toxic environments they're used to is wonderful.
Autonomy is the major means of doing so, and I appreciate the way that's handled so much. Shadowheart's my favorite example of this; sometimes things will straight up get worse if you butt in too much and start guiding her in choices she has to make.
You gotta depend on your allies, trust them to do the right thing - and in doing so, you'll realize they've come a long, long way since the start of their journey. It's so fucking good. Genuinely so proud of their development, it's all really satisfying.
There's still some flaws here and there - Act 3 can definitely get a bit buggy at times, but with how ridiculously expansive this game is that's honestly to be expected, and with how ridiculously fun this game is it hardly impacted my enjoyment at all despite some surprisingly big ramifications on my playthrough.
I've heard critiques about how the ending is a bit slim, but if you've properly followed a character's arc through their personal quests and camp dialogue you've got more than enough of an idea of how they'll deal with the aftermath, so I didn't really feel like it had to be anything bombastic. It works just fine with everything you know at that point, IMO!
I'm already thinking of what I want to do in my second playthrough. There's SO much possible divergences from my first playthrough, and so many checks to hopefully not fail this time. And I don't think I'll be getting tired of it anytime soon!
The amount of options you have is incredible, and the creativity available to you with which you can approach combat situations (or avoid them entirely with a silver tongue!) just keeps blowing me away.
Act 2 is where this game really started to grow on me, where (if I recall correctly, atleast!) you can avoid literally every single optional boss through doing dialogue properly in some RIDICULOUSLY unique ways. It's so much fun, and it's the major reason it feels like such an authentic and fantastic DnD experience; it really just feels like a DM playing along with the astoundingly bizarre ways you're trying to dodge rough fights.
I could go on for hours about what I love about this game dude, oh my god. The world's gorgeous and ridiculously alive, the cast is FANTASTIC and the writing is, as a result, such a treat.
Gameplay's really solid and grounded; beautiful adaption of 5E in that regard, and the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful too.
I wanna go a bit more in depth about the cast especially because, god dude. They're so good. I love ALL these goobers. Some of em are definitely coarse at first, but once you peel back the layers you start to realize why they are the way they are - and how they develop from that by spending time away from the toxic environments they're used to is wonderful.
Autonomy is the major means of doing so, and I appreciate the way that's handled so much. Shadowheart's my favorite example of this; sometimes things will straight up get worse if you butt in too much and start guiding her in choices she has to make.
You gotta depend on your allies, trust them to do the right thing - and in doing so, you'll realize they've come a long, long way since the start of their journey. It's so fucking good. Genuinely so proud of their development, it's all really satisfying.
There's still some flaws here and there - Act 3 can definitely get a bit buggy at times, but with how ridiculously expansive this game is that's honestly to be expected, and with how ridiculously fun this game is it hardly impacted my enjoyment at all despite some surprisingly big ramifications on my playthrough.
I've heard critiques about how the ending is a bit slim, but if you've properly followed a character's arc through their personal quests and camp dialogue you've got more than enough of an idea of how they'll deal with the aftermath, so I didn't really feel like it had to be anything bombastic. It works just fine with everything you know at that point, IMO!
I'm already thinking of what I want to do in my second playthrough. There's SO much possible divergences from my first playthrough, and so many checks to hopefully not fail this time. And I don't think I'll be getting tired of it anytime soon!
2023
Imagine writing a whole two-game character arc that's a ridiculously potent metaphor for the personhood of women under capitalism with Angela only to turn around and fire an artist of yours the moment you get criticised for the most nonsensical shit. Absolutely spineless.
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.
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.
This review contains spoilers
If in your life you ever have the chance to pay with everything you have -----
Then I'm sure that even you will be able to create a rainbow, no matter how dark it may be.
Then I'm sure that even you will be able to create a rainbow, no matter how dark it may be.
"If you lose sight of one dream, replace it with another."
Skies of Arcadia is all about how no suffering lasts forever and how we all have the strength to adapt and overcome anything as long as we're capable of finding it within ourselves - and it is so real for it.
It's rare for a game to focus so heavily on realizing there's more to life than being stuck in your old ways, but the amount of perspectives it uses to make that hit home combined with Vyse's optimism makes for such an uplifting journey.
Of course, it's not perfect - being a relatively old school JRPG means it has the issues you'd come to expect from them, in this case mainly a ludicrous encounter rate and some incredibly slow combat pacing due to it's wide variety of special move animations that can last pretty long.
The combat's relatively barebones and a bit confusing to get into, but despite turns taking a while it's relatively fast-paced in how long battles last once you've got the hang of it, so it's nothing too bad in my opinion. Random encounters last two turns at best, and bosses are creative enough to keep you on your toes so there's still a lot of fun to be had there.
But the cast is what really makes this game, as I've mentioned - beyond Vyse just being a fantastic protagonist, the main trio as a whole is a blast and the other party members that tag along during different parts of the game are all real fun too.
And not only that, the setting is one of a kind. There's this genuine childlike joy at sailing through the clouds with the crew and discovering all there is to its world, and I'm amazed I've never seen anything like it since.
All in all, just an incredibly whimsical and unique experience if you're capable of putting up with the usual classic JRPG struggles. Trust me, it's absolutely worth it.
Skies of Arcadia is all about how no suffering lasts forever and how we all have the strength to adapt and overcome anything as long as we're capable of finding it within ourselves - and it is so real for it.
It's rare for a game to focus so heavily on realizing there's more to life than being stuck in your old ways, but the amount of perspectives it uses to make that hit home combined with Vyse's optimism makes for such an uplifting journey.
Of course, it's not perfect - being a relatively old school JRPG means it has the issues you'd come to expect from them, in this case mainly a ludicrous encounter rate and some incredibly slow combat pacing due to it's wide variety of special move animations that can last pretty long.
The combat's relatively barebones and a bit confusing to get into, but despite turns taking a while it's relatively fast-paced in how long battles last once you've got the hang of it, so it's nothing too bad in my opinion. Random encounters last two turns at best, and bosses are creative enough to keep you on your toes so there's still a lot of fun to be had there.
But the cast is what really makes this game, as I've mentioned - beyond Vyse just being a fantastic protagonist, the main trio as a whole is a blast and the other party members that tag along during different parts of the game are all real fun too.
And not only that, the setting is one of a kind. There's this genuine childlike joy at sailing through the clouds with the crew and discovering all there is to its world, and I'm amazed I've never seen anything like it since.
All in all, just an incredibly whimsical and unique experience if you're capable of putting up with the usual classic JRPG struggles. Trust me, it's absolutely worth it.
Definitive proof that posts about how games would be improved if their MC was a bisexual guy from Atlanta are true.
The Fell Xenologue definitely has it's issues in terms of difficulty scaling and the baffling way it's set levels work (Characters being at a set level on a per map basis, but never getting downgraded in classes; meaning that on map 1 you'd have a level 15 myrmidon Lapis and a level 15 swordmaster Kagetsu, like c'mon lmao) so I would definitely recommend just playing it on Normal There's some fun ideas with it's maps, but the tools you're given really don't feel up to par in a lot of situations so playing through it on higher difficulties is really not worth the headache, unfortunately.
Luckily, it's difficulty scaling is seperate from the main game; you can blaze through it on Normal and still appreciate the regular playthrough in your difficulty of choice, so that's a relief.
That being said, I genuinely appreciate the story a lot and Nel, Nil and the Four Winds are some of my favorite characters in both this game and the series as a whole, so it's peak actually!
Madeline and Gregory are kinda average as units, though the latter is the uncontested king of the Olwen ring but Zelestia, Nel and Nil are all really good and fun to use, especially the twins considering they interact with Emblems like no other as Dragon units.
Haven't dabbled with the new classes much but Enchanter's gonna be really interesting - Weapon Surge opens up a lot of new tactics especially for goofy challenge runs where you stick to one class for the entire team, something I'm quite fond of myself. Definitely wanna try an all Arts run with it's +5 MT to an Arts weapon of choice mechanic, someday.
So yeah, the Xenologue working the way it does is a bit of a let-down, but it's story and all the supports the DLC characters get are fantastic and they definitely made replaying the game worthwhile.
Whether it's worth the price is up to you, but as someone who enjoyed the main game a lot - this was no exception despite it's flaws.
Luckily, it's difficulty scaling is seperate from the main game; you can blaze through it on Normal and still appreciate the regular playthrough in your difficulty of choice, so that's a relief.
That being said, I genuinely appreciate the story a lot and Nel, Nil and the Four Winds are some of my favorite characters in both this game and the series as a whole, so it's peak actually!
Madeline and Gregory are kinda average as units, though the latter is the uncontested king of the Olwen ring but Zelestia, Nel and Nil are all really good and fun to use, especially the twins considering they interact with Emblems like no other as Dragon units.
Haven't dabbled with the new classes much but Enchanter's gonna be really interesting - Weapon Surge opens up a lot of new tactics especially for goofy challenge runs where you stick to one class for the entire team, something I'm quite fond of myself. Definitely wanna try an all Arts run with it's +5 MT to an Arts weapon of choice mechanic, someday.
So yeah, the Xenologue working the way it does is a bit of a let-down, but it's story and all the supports the DLC characters get are fantastic and they definitely made replaying the game worthwhile.
Whether it's worth the price is up to you, but as someone who enjoyed the main game a lot - this was no exception despite it's flaws.