And thus, my journey to Crossbell reaches its conclusion. Having completed the Cold Steel series beforehand, I, more or less, knew what to expect, and yet there were several times I was really impressed or surprised with the developments in Azure. After all the set up in its prequel, Azure fully embraces the world and everything the series had built at that point, concludes with a very epic climax, and it also serves as a stepping stone to the Erebonia arc. I really loved most of the story beats and how it ties all the loose ends of Zero, and Crossbell's people and circumstances certainly got a special place for me, I grew to really love it in this duology.

Honestly, I think both of those games are a real treat to fans of JRPGs, and the vibes they have are really rare nowadays. If I had one complaint to make, it's probably that the game ends on a kind of sad note, though hopefully Trails into Reverie will amend that.