This is a perfect game, it achieves what it sets out to do pragmatically & precisely. The narrative encircles around its characters without feeling forced, huge on the writers.

The pacing can feel a bit off but with how short the segments are, it was never a proper gripe to me. Gameplay is simply kind of there. Presentation is the best it gets. The characters are simple, earnest and concise. Awesome feat to have all of them play a role and have their own stories wrapped up satisfyingly. I'm in awe of how good this game still is honestly

While it sacrifices some quality on the individual mysteries early on they're mostly essential for the kind of narrative flipsides Kodaka executes in the full runtime of raincode.

Arguably his best work, while I still quite easily prefer V3 it's fucking incredible for a creator to only leap ahead from that while putting the franchise to rest and still retain his charm and strengths to the fullest.

I do think he is a bit lost on how to interweave murder mysteries into a larger than life mystery narrative this time around as he's not using the death game structure but that lets him be so much more creative and expansive with the world and setting, which raincode absolutely needed. And at the end of the day it's rewarded thoroughly. Here's to hoping raincode 2 fixes that.

This game carried so many many expectations on my end, and well having fully beat it I can say it pretty much met all of them and surpassed most.

I'll try to segment this so it's easier to follow and offer general thoughts on the series and game at the end.

The gameplay is the best in the series, MG is a great addition but gets pretty boring down the line as these dungeons usually do. TRC at least had cooler bosses but more of Kuro II gameplay is never a bad thing.

The music, I prefer not to speak about

The visuals and performance somehow both improved despite this being an updated version of Kuro 1's engine? and I played on a PS4 slim so good job falcom for making the game even more optimized, cinematic and well directed.

The side quests are easily the best in the series, this game focuses on all of the cast as much as it can so it's inevitable. The connect/bond events are among the best for sure, dunno if this was necessarily my favourite set overall but a perfect batch regardless.

The character writing is brilliant, the main cast gets widespread damn near perfect focus and a great inspection into them while adding a lot of meaningful development to most. The side cast is focused on equally well, brilliant stuff everywhere.

Alright arghhhhhhhhhhhh this game is such a fucking blast, it feels like a festival if you're invested in the series/kuro. The stretch from act 1 to intermission is legendary. Not a single dull moment or lackluster scene, everything goes full steam at building up this game's themes and characters. Which is a point I wanted to get to, this game is probably the most centered around its themes after Hajimari/The 3rd in the series, which is really surprising. The narrative is also super character driven, and despite being so big it rarely fails to be great. Also fun to note that this game is equal parts sequel to Hajimari as it is to Kuro in my opinion, so if you love those games, not loving this is impossible. Act 3 is a weird case, while I love the amount of payoff it gives to certain characters, and the side character focus is pretty damn good, it runs for too long for its own good and the narrative developments are a bit icky. Regardless, one of the best parts in the game. The hate is pretty funny, I understand why though I just disagree. The finale is a great chapter, rather short but the connect events and ending are perfect. Wish certain characters showed off more in the finale but it's fine even if they didn't. The DLC update leaves so much in air in a good way.

That said this game offers a lot, there's tons of setup and elaboration on past events. The character work as I said is immaculate. And it's nearly perfectly paced outside Act 3. But the way it drives home the theme of sins, your past and where and who you are in this world, acting like a thematic sequel to Kuro/Hajimari while adding its own new grounds that Kuro 3 will hopefully tread effortlessly. The lore bits are so fucking rewarding, the picture they are painting is something I genuinely cannot wait to see. It gives enough to be satisfied and want more. And generally its tendency to resolve stuff across the series while adding more to it is great. Despite being a game so indulgent in its own happenings.

As a last note, THAT FINAL BOSS IS THE FUCKING BEST A TURN BASED GAME WILL EVER HAVE MECHANICALLY UOHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE YOU KONDO (I still prefer certain other boss fights in the series narratively)