I first played Demon’s Souls in 2021 right after the remake first came out. I think at the time I gave the game something like a 7/10, but in actuality I really just did not like that game and I was being nice. I lied! I'm sorry…

Demon’s Souls on PS3 was a really interesting experience for me. To be entirely honest, I'm not sure what made me want to replay the game. The game just has this weird pull to it unlike other fromsoftware games, save for BloodBorne. I knew i wanted to get the Platinum Trophy (we will fucking get to this i promise) but I really dont even know why i wanted that either. Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad I went and revisited the game. The PS3 version makes it a lot easier to meet the game on its level. The art direction is just simply more cohesive than in the remake, which does a whole more than you would think in terms of pulling you into its world. The game definitely devolves into a slideshow at points… but what PS3 game doesn't have an awful framerate? It's a part of the charm. The PS5 version has a lot more issues to it than just the art direction, being honest. Not only is the look of the game just really generic and very distinctly NOT fromsoftware, it also creates a really peculiar juxtaposition between cutting edge ultra extreme graphics and gameplay that is genuinely the exact same in both feel and function to the 2009 original. I’ve seen people complain about the gameplay in the remake and the art direction separately but not how they intersect to create a game that just feels wrong. This is not to say that the original is at all bad, but like i mentioned earlier, it's a lot easier to meet the game on its own level with the original rather than the remake. When i first played the remake i honestly just took it for a really mediocre souls game that didn't do much interesting and had terribly just insane design choices attached to it. There's still a few things I definitely still dislike about Demon’s Souls and I want to talk about what I appreciate about the game more now.

To start, I think it's incredible just how much they got right with this game. This is genuinely their first try at creating an entire game sub-genre and despite its faults, they did a great job. What Demon’s Souls does right, it REALLY does right. The level design is intricate and meaningful, and while the game is very linear within its individual levels, it allows you to tackle them in any order you wish (for the most part), giving a sort of Link to the Past style of player freedom. The combat is very simple, but it allows them to design enemies that provide a meaningful obstacle for the player. I’m still fairly mixed on a lot of the bosses, but one thing I praise the most of them for is the way in which the bosses actually interact with the arena in which you fight them. The bosses aren't like the boss's you'd find in a game like Dark Souls III, and instead are more focused on some sort of central gimmick that the player must exploit. As an example, a lot of bosses have separate AI patterns depending on how the player chooses to approach the fight. The Tower Knight will take the player head on in a grounded fight but if the player chooses to get to the higher vantage points of the arena to use magic/a bow the tower knight will instead fire soul arrows continuously at the player. I think this is really cool and works in some cases, but unfortunately, 99% of these boss fights are solved by simply using magic. Being a spellcaster makes this game genuinely trivial. There are a few bosses that are more akin to those of the rest of the series, and they’re pretty underwhelming to be honest. I really like Penetrator, since he has a huge polearm he stabs you with in a horizontally challenged arena. It bridges the gap between more gimmicky yet interactive fights and more interesting fights that challenge player skill, but the rest of them are either copy pasted into its sequel, (man eater becomes the gargoyles in dark souls 1) super underwhelming (flame lurker), or really cool but can permanently lower your level (Allant). Relating to the bosses, I STILL think the boss runbacks in this game are absolutely fucking dreadful. Some of them require you to run an olympic marathon with dumb fucking idiot skeletons that fucking hate you only to fight a stupid boss that is either the easiest shit of your life if you use magic or one of the worst video game experiences if you have with a strength build (the correct way to play these games). I would really like to know what the fuck happened here. A fair few of the bosses have really nicely made shortcuts that make for simplified but still engaging runbacks, but some of them just dont have shortcuts and they fucking SUCK. I would really like to see boss runbacks return to the series because they're honestly a really interesting and underrated aspect to the game design of these games but if a game as popular as Elden Ring is willing to forgo them I doubt we will ever see them again. I think the last truly negative i have on this game is the healing items, but honestly who fucking cares. Use the dupe glitch like the rest of us. It's fine. Everyone has already talked about how much it sucks, but it's really not even that bad without the glitch.

This paragraph is reserved for talking about the platinum trophy experience. OH my GOD this platinum sucks. Honestly, at first it's not too bad. If you make sure to follow a guide and get unique weapons as you go through the levels and pay attention to world tendency, it's pretty fun. It only gets fucking awful once you get close to beating the game. Since it's a 100% run, you have to do all the crafting bullshit before you go and finish up with the final boss. The crafting system in this game is so insanely obtuse and fucking stupid i cannot possibly imagine that not a single person in this design room didnt think it was ridiculously contrived and a massive time waster at least a little bit. Honestly most of the materials aren't that bad to get as it's likely you can get most of them just by playing normally, but the real problem is with pure greystone. I spent 5 hours farming for this shit and that seems like a godsend compared to some of the horror stories you can find about it. The rest of the stuff you have to farm for took me 10 minutes so they get a pass. You also have to do specific weapon crafting and fusion that is hardly explained by the game and is really contrived for the unique weapons trophy. Once you get past all of that stupid crafting bullshit you have to make sure you can get pure white character tendency so you can get a ring for the ring achievement. Doing this in a game that has its servers forever shutdown is really stupid, because there's only 5 red phantoms per save file and it means that if you mess up even a little bit you need to go and replay the game all over again. World Tendency and character tendency are honestly fine mechanics but their biggest issue is that they refuse to actually tell you in clear wording what the tendency actually is. BEcause of this you’re entirely left up to comparing screenshots of pictures of peoples TVs from like 2012, since all the search results are flooded by the remake. I actually managed to take advantage of the private server fans have made and had some absolutely lovely people let me kill them like 5 times so I could get the ring I needed, but even though I did legitimately do it on a PS3, it kind of falls into an unofficial limbo that I can't expect everyone to be willing to try. Overall I think the platinum was really rewarding but for the love of god please do not fucking do this to yourself.

If you haven't played Demon’s Souls on PS3, I think you should really give it a shot. It’s definitely flawed but it's a great game and I think it's a whole lot better than the remake, which honestly is just a really confusing product. If it was on PC it would make a bit more sense, but as is it's a just as inaccessible version of the game that seems to fundamentally misunderstand what the game is and what it was trying to be back then. I think it’s a little silly to say this after a whole review of me pointing out what I appreciate about Demons Souls, but I still think the game is a 7/10, I just mean it a whole lot more now. If you're wondering, yes, i finished platinuming the game on 4/20, and I did get so high i forget what happened next after finishing the game. If there are any typos in this review i will cry. I didnt capitalize my Is, im so sorry

When Persona 3 Reload was first announced, I was a little anxious and worried about it. I had gotten into the Persona series in 2017 when Persona 5 released and was completely enamoured with the series, playing through every title throughout that year. Persona 3 FES however stood out above all the rest. Its story, themes, characters, and the way they wove it all into the gameplay captured my imagination and heart in a way like few other games have or ever will. I also played through Persona 3 Portable and loved the alternative take through the eyes of the female protagonist, seeing new sides to my favourite characters and finding even more to love about Persona 3. It’s a game that I love so much that I’ve beaten FES twice and Portable twice (doing the Male MC route in the 2023 port release to see any more differences between it and FES). Persona 3 is a special game to me so when the remake was finally announced, it had a lot of expectations to live up to. I had worries that modern Atlus would try and inject P5 sensibilities and writing into the game considering how successful it was, I was disappointed to find out that The Answer from FES (which I know many don’t like but for me it is an incredibly important piece of the story that made Yukari my favourite character of all time) and that the female protagonist from Portable wouldn’t be included. The dream was always to have a definitive Persona 3 that includes all the content but I now realise how idealistic I was being. There will never be a definitive version of Persona 3 and that’s ok. Playing Reload made me realise that every version of P3 has its strengths and weaknesses, that each journey is its own unique take on the same incredible story and that your own tastes will determine which version will become your favourite.

Let’s get the elephant out of the room first. The omissions from this remake are disappointing and I totally get why many are disappointed from them but I also understand what Atlus have decided to do here. Reload is very much focused on the core journey story from the original Persona 3 and trying to make it the best possible version of that first and foremost. What that means is that while stuff like The Answer and FeMC did not make the cut, The Journey from the Male Protagonist viewpoint has been very meticulously expanded upon, including nearly everything that FES and Portable added to that portion of the game, like Aigis’ Social Link and people wandering into Tartarus to be saved. On top of that, there’s been a bunch of additions and tweaks that ultimately makes this arguable the perfect base to build upon like they did with FES and Portable in the past (and at the time of writing, rumours do suggest that The Answer is coming via DLC, further strengthening my thoughts). Reload is about remaking The Journey at its core to be the best it can be and while I share the disappointment in omissions, I think Atlus choosing to focus on the core of Persona 3 was ultimately the right decision, as much as missing out on the other stuff hurts.

Back to the initial worries and fear of how much influence P5 and modern Atlus would have on this remake. I am very glad to say that I was wrong on that front. While there are some fumbles and missteps here and there (especially if you’re like me and adore P3 to the point you’ll pick up on many nitpicks), the new content in Reload very much shows that the team on this understood and loved P3 like the rest of us. Yeah some things are lost in translation and effected by the evolution of modern technology, like how bright the dorm is now or how some things like having the option to choose swimming or kendo have been cut for just track and field but the new content, ooooo the new content expands upon my favourites that tickle the brainworms in ways that only Persona 3 could and that’s what I love.
The Male route had a few flaws with it being the first game to introduce Social Links, the most notable being the lack of Links for your male party members like Junpei and Akihiko. Reload has taken the opportunity to introduce new Linked Episodes for Junpei, Akihiko, Ken, Shinjiro, and Koromaru that will appear throughout the story. They’re very much character hangouts that expand upon each character in ways that are very much appreciated. Getting to have a closer look into how Shinjiro and Ken are feeling before their big Full Moon mission, hearing Akihiko talk more about his sister, and helping Junpei get through his rough patch are all wonderful things that make each of these characters more endearing and the writing fits right at home with these characters core identities. Yeah, a little bit of subtlety is unfortunately lost with Shinjiro and Ken but it’s definitely made up for with just how well these hangouts are written. Strega also get additional scenes in a similar manner that expands mostly upon Takaya’s character, giving him a new fascination with the Protagonist and his ability wield multiple Personas which I think really fits Takaya well, especially with how he views the Dark Hour and Personas as gifts bestowed upon the chosen few.
New night events have been added as well. The original P3 very quickly ran out of night time activities if you knew what you were doing, and so these new events are another great addition. Every party member now has two different night time hangouts with 3 events on each that unlocks abilities for them as well as expands upon their character. For example you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari or attend to the plants or read manga with Junpei. I had a lot of fun reading Yakuza novels with Aigis and seeing Yukari want to become strong and kind like the female protagonist in the show she watches. Again, the writing expands upon the characters in ways that truly fit with the characters and that’s all I could ever ask for. The abilities you unlock for doing these include stuff like reducing the SP cost of healing for Yukari which is a nice bonus.

These new bonding events and linked episodes do not replace any of the old Social Links. The team at Atlus made sure to preserve all the original Social Links with minimal changes and yeah while some like Magician and Moon kinda suck, I have come to appreciate them more now. In life we don’t just spend time with people we like, we often find times where we end up stuck with people who we know are kinda awful people but I think it’s important to have those experiences as well as the good ones. Our journeys through life lead us to meet all sorts of people and they shape who we are. For every cult following advantage taking Moon, there’s a Sun whose brightness shines all the stronger because we can appreciate the good more from having experienced the bad. Persona 3 never shies away from showing us the highs and lows of life and I’m glad the remake chose to keep that intact despite all the shouts calling for some Social Links to be replaced by the male party members.
One thing I’m glad they did change with the Social Links though is the romance aspect. In the original, nearly every girl was written in a way that they fall in love with the protagonist and automatically enter a relationship with him by Rank 10. It was an incredibly outdated view of the world even back in 2006, where Katsura Hashino mentioned in an interview that he believed men and women couldn’t be friends. Thankfully now those Social Links have been altered, and while characters like Yuko and Chihiro still clearly fall in love with the protagonist, you can now guide the link towards a platonic outcome and with characters like Fuuka and Mitsuru, I think the new rewrites work pretty well. Outside of that though, the Social Links remain relatively unchanged and I think that’s a good thing.

Over to the combat side of things, Reload has modernised things for better and worse. I am someone who saw the vision with the FES battle system, where party members were controlled by AI and you could issue general tactics to them. Yeah it was kinda annoying early on when your options are limited but the trade off is a brilliant story/gameplay integration where, as SEES gets closer and closer through their battles and become more experienced, you gain access to more tactic options, allowing better control of the AI members and signifying the growth of the bonds in the team. Reload goes with the modern approach of full party control and the stripped back AI mode as an option, which while it is more fun gameplay wise, you lose that beautiful synergy between narrative and gameplay which is something I think the medium should be more confident in itself exploring.
Thankfully unlike Portable, the game's enemies and bosses have been designed around you having full party control meaning it isn’t quite a cakewalk. It’s still easier on FES and the new Theurgy mechanic is something else that tips the balance more towards the player’s favour. Theurgy attacks are special attacks that can be used when a bar is filled from doing certain actions (like using a Persona for the Protagonist, or using healing skills for Yukari). Once full you can unleash a devastating attack that does an insane amount of damage. I don’t think they’re quite as broken as the Showtime attacks introduced in Persona 5 Royal but when you can hold onto 4 of them between battles to unleash on a Tartarus boss to sweep it in a turn, the difficulty becomes somewhat of a joke. If you’re not playing optimally, I do think there’s still a decent challenge from Tartarus bosses but it’s definitely up to player discretion and you’re given more options than ever to just tear the difficulty apart if you wanted to.

Speaking of Tartarus, there’s been a handful of tweaks to it. While still randomly generated, the aesthetic has been given a massive glow up and the possible layouts are now much more varied compared to the original corridor-like layouts. It leads to a more engaging place to explore though you’ll start to recognise the randomly generated patterns of each block soonish if you’re paying attention. There’s a few new things added like being able to chase down a massive rare shadow, enemies on a floor being inflicted by a random ailment, and dark floors. The Reaper can now follow you up to higher levels and the new twilight fragments you can find lying around can be used to unlock special chests which will eventually spawn a massive clock to allow party members who have fallen behind in levels a chance to catch up now. The fragments can also be used on the P3P style clocks to fully heal HP and SP though it is pretty costly compared to P3P. As someone who knew about the trick of not being forced out of Tartarus when tired the night before a full moon and being able to restore SP by returning to the entrance, I’ve never had a problem with other methods being introduced to restore SP in P3 though I do understand how it undermines the balance of managing resources and exploring Tartarus. Reload’s way and my general stinginess with limited resources meant I did get more of that resource/exploration balance than I did in FES or Portable.
Full Moon missions remain relatively untouched. The bosses have a few tweaks in attacks here and there but otherwise each mission plays out pretty similar to how they did before.

Voice acting in the English dub has seen a changing of the guard with the main cast getting new VA’s but the old VA’s are still around in more minor roles as a nice touch. Like Akihiko’s old VA Liam O’Brien is now Kurosawa the police officer while Yuri Lowenthall, the old VA for the Protagonist is now Yukari’s dad. Tara Platt even manages to come back as Elizabeth despite no longer being Mitsuru. The new cast have the benefit of much better voice direction leading to a much better sounding dub. As iconic as Michelle Ruff’s performance as Yukari is to me, and as much as I did love the way she put a harshness in her voice for her portrayal, I do think at times it was a little too strong, leading people to misread Yukari’s more sarcastic playful side as a general meanness. It took me a while to adapt to Heather’s performance but I think it does fit Yukari better overall as a character. While it’s much softer, she still manages to bring out the harsher tones when it's called for and I think she hits the softer side to her in such a sweet and lovely way. Junpei and Mitusru’s new VAs are perfect fits while Fuuka’s new VA elevates her character to new heights. Akihiko and Shinjiro have much more difficult performances to improve upon and I think the new VAs there, while they do a perfectly fine job, don’t quite hit the highs of the past. Ken and Aigis also have brilliant new performances further elevating the new dub.
Another good change is making sure the main VAs aren’t doing multiple roles. Like Derek Stephen Prince has a pretty distinct voice and in the original game he voiced Takaya, the principal, Mitusur’s father, and some delinquents and it’s a bit much. Reload uses a much larger voice cast and is all the better for it.

On the music front, the whole soundtrack has been reworked, again for better and worse. New songs like the advantage battle theme It’s Going Down Now and the new nighttime song are brilliant additions that would fit right at home with the original P3 and that’s the highest praise possible. A lot of the old songs are remixed to a level where I’d say they’re about equal with the original soundtrack and then there’s Mass Destruction which has been given an entirely new verse where Lotus Juice shows just how far he’s come with his raps as he starts firing through bars much quicker than I’ve heard him do before. Lotus Juice however…. Has potentially been given a little bit too much freedom…. Perhaps. The new dorm lyrics are a step down from before (Minding my biz, so mind your own biz? Where’s my so dance, wanna put you in a trance?) Burn Your Dread - Final Battle sees him trying to do the heavy rap he does so well in Mass Destruction but I don’t think it works quite as well here, in fact I think I would’ve rather they just used the Future Arrangement included in the movie soundtrack instead. It might be one of those things where I hold the original stuff in such high regard that I’m nitpicking at any small change because the music is still good, it’s another great Persona soundtrack, I just think it’s a little bit weaker in some places and stronger in others.

That’s about it for new stuff so let’s talk a bit about why Persona 3 is the best Persona game. This game was designed with the calendar system in mind. Where in P4/5 you’re given a deadline to finish a dungeon and finishing it early puts the story to a complete halt, Persona 3 uses the Full Moon deadline to go, this is the date the next boss is coming, it’s up to you how you well spend your time preparing for this. It allows them to keep moving the plot towards that mission, giving characters moments of growth and tension as the plot slowly unveils itself. It’s a slow burn through design, letting you grow accustomed to its many mechanics and systems while also getting you attached to its cast. Having every party member staying at the same dorm allows you to speak with them every day, watching them grow, seeing them worry, seeing the little animations they do like Fuuka being on her laptop or Junpei playing videogames, paying attention to little details of how often Yukari likes to sit on her own at the beginning. Having characters become unavailable for Tartarus or Social Links when big events hit them hard because everybody is dealing with their own stuff and the world doesn’t revolve around you. Having Persona evolutions being tied to huge plot related character moments instead of Social Links, where those characters find a new resolve to push forward through their lowest moments. Having characters like Junpei and Yukari not only be relevant at the beginning of the game but also manage to keep giving them moments throughout the whole story right through to the end.
The core theme of Persona 3, memento mori - remember you will die, delivers a powerful experience. Death is inevitable, it awaits every single one of us at the end of our journey no matter who we are, but it’s what we do with the gift of life that makes the journey through it special. Persona 3 shows just how impactful losing someone is. Whether it’s a friend, a parent, or an acquaintance, losing the people you love is something we all go through so it’s important to remember to make the most of your time with them. It’s important to grab life and find the resolve to make it through the hard times and fully embrace the highlights. That is the power of Persona 3, every connection you make helps you grow on your journey and the more impactful your journey is, the more you can look back as the end arrives and smile through the tears, knowing that you’ve not only had a fulfilling life yourself, but also enriched the lives of many others. It doesn’t matter whether it’s FES, Portable, or Reload, that core is there in every version of Persona 3 and each game has its own unique take on the journey of life and I think that’s beautiful. There is no definitive version of Persona 3 because there is no definitive version of life, we all follow our own unique journeys.

For every step backward Reload takes, there’s two steps forwards that made re-experiencing Persona 3 for a fifth time worth it. I adore the additions to the characters I love, I respect the desire to keep as much of the original game intact as possible while expanding upon it in other ways that fit within its core themes. Persona 3 is one of my favourite games of all time and I’m glad Reload has given me a chance to refresh my love of this wonderful experience and given many new things to love in the process.

A remake of the SNES classic, Super Mario RPG sticks very close to its roots to bring Mario’s very first foray into the RPG genre to a whole new audience on Switch.

What that means is that the core experience and charm of the 1996 original is left intact for this remake. All the original dialogue and jokes are left the same, the level design is the same and the character designs are left the same with the updated visuals keeping the very same squished chibi-esque look of Mario and co.
The handful of additions that have been made to this remake have been done with care and with an attempt to entice first time RPG players into the genre.
A breezy difficulty mode has been added for newcomers and a few additions to the battle system do lower the difficulty a bit. Like the original game, pressing the action button at the right time during an attack will do extra damage but here, the more accurate you time the button press, you can gain the addition of splash damage that hits all enemies. While this does make battles easier because you're damaging several enemies at once, I really like that it's based on your skill with the battle system and therefore you're being rewarded for playing well rather than just being gifted bonus damage. Timing your attacks well now also fills up a special gauge that can be used to pull off a flashy and well animated special attack that does major damage. Again it does make the game easier but I don't really mind that myself and I loved seeing the special animation for each party setup.

Changes elsewhere include a remastered soundtrack that perfectly captures the feel of the original game, the button icons now being based off the red/blue/green/yellow EU/JP SNES colour scheme instead of the horrible purple US version (which was probably the case for the Japanese original anyways), new post game boss rematches for those looking for a challenge, and brand new CG cutscenes throughout the story which brings me to my sole complaint of the game - the lack of any dialogue sound effects.
I don't need full voice acting in my Mario games but I do need a little more than pure silent text screen boxes and cutscene subtitles in my modern games. Something like the Mario & Luigi games unintelligible gibberish or the odd wahoo just to liven the reading up a little bit or even a text sound effect like Undertale does. There's points where Bowser does his signature roars which is what I feel was missing from Mario and Peach in particular. It's a minor nitpick in an otherwise really well done remake.

For those who haven't experienced Mario’s first RPG adventure I highly recommend this. A lot of the core DNA from the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series (which was even titled Mario RPG 2 in development!) can be found here. Bowser's very funny and heartwarming personality, the unique takes on classic Mario characters to give them even more personality like Boshi the Yoshi, the unique races brought into the Mario universe like the cloud people, the platforming elements and minigame challenges, the bonus stats you can attribute after levelling up, the well paced story that just keeps moving at a good pace, all encounters being seen on the overworld, the action battle system - it's all here and it's all very well done.

Super Mario RPG is a fantastic entry point to the RPG genre and is still a fun and charming adventure to this day.

Yet another Persona 5 spin off but while Phantom Thieves fatigue has been well and truly setting in, this spin off does offer a lot to love about it.

Atlus have decided to dip their toes into the tactics genre this time, blending their excellent RPG mechanics into a grid based tactics experience that is similar to Mario + Rabbids. By that, I mean that battles take place in grid based maps with a low camera angle where cover is your best friend. High cover will protect you from incoming fire from most directions while low cover will reduce the damage you take and this makes guns your main weapon of choice as you can shoot from behind cover to attack enemies at a distance. Being out in the open leaves you vulnerable to being knocked down like a critical hit would do in mainline Persona giving out the One More status to allow the enemy to move and attack again. By running up next to an enemy you can use a physical attack to push them out of cover and leave them in a vulnerable state for a teammate to knock down.
By knocking an enemy down you can activate an all out attack and do major damage by moving your characters into a triangle formation with the downed enemy in it. There's a lot of strategy to be found in trying to get as many enemies in the all out attack as possible, especially when characters that have already used their action can't move and you can't walk through any enemy or party member on the map.
Personas are your spell based attacks and these have been altered to carry an effect. Garu skills will blow an enemy away a few spaces, Zio skills inflict the shocked status, Psio skills pull an enemy towards you, etc. Basically most skills will assist in making an enemy vulnerable to being downed. Tactica also allows every character (except Erina who can't use a Persona) to have a sub Persona which grants additional skills to be used as well as providing more hp/sp or extra effects like increased melee damage. All your Persona fusion also returns with the Velvet Room and you gain new Personas just by defeating enemies and beating maps.
Maps are very well designed featuring different gimmicks throughout like opening doors or raising platforms via buttons, or being able to climb ladders to reach higher ground and being able to move all your characters as much as you want before using an action means there's a lot of puzzle like elements to maps as you try to find your way forward through them.
On top of that there's varied objectives too! Most maps are enemy rout objectives but there's also escape maps, survive maps and even an escort map and you also get bonus objectives to complete too. The bonus objectives tend to be the same 3 things every map (beat it in a certain amount of turns, don't let any party member die, and clearing the stage) and doing these increases the amount of money you earn for all your Persona summoning and weapon needs. Basically Atlus have managed to come up with an in depth and well thought out tactical game experience that compliments the traditional Persona game experience to build yet another excellent spin off in the gameplay department.

In the story department, this is yet another adventure with the Phantom Thieves taking place not long after the events of Persona 5/Royal (and if you haven't played either of those then be aware that the characters do make reference to events of those games throughout). For me personally, I was really hoping for a spin off story to dive into something like the Persona 4 Arena games did where the cast of 4 got to meet an older cast of 3 because at this point, the Phantom Thieves don't really have much to offer in terms of character growth, especially at the point of not long post their P5 adventure. And it seems like Atlus was aware of this because the story here is very much focused on new characters Toshiro and Erina with the Phantom Thieves acting more as a support role for these two newcomers. After being transported to a mysterious world that is very similar to the metaverse, the Phantom Thieves meet Erina who is trying to stage a rebellion against Marie who has made the Kingdom (basically a Palace) into a place to worship her and build her a perfect wedding venue. Erina is trying to free the citizens of this world from Marie's oppression and is overall a character who symbolises the fire of rebellion in one's heart which is very fitting for Persona 5 where the core theme of rebellion is what caused the original gang to awaken to their Personas in the first place.
Eventually the gang meet and free Toshiro from Marie's dungeon. Toshiro is a politician from the real world who had recently disappeared and went missing. He's a character who has very much lost the fire of rebellion in his heart as he's grown older, finding setback after setback that has scarred his heart and now his first instinct is to run from all conflict. Despite this, Toshiro is still great at rousing speeches and planning ahead so he ends up becoming more of a tactician for the group who tries to bring some level headedness to proceedings.
So the core of the story is basically trying to free each Kingdom from an oppressive ruler while also helping Toshiro rediscover the flame of rebellion in his heart with the Phantom Thieves being able to relate to some of the things he has experienced in life with their own situations from the original P5 game. It's a great group dynamic and Toshiro makes for an excellent character as a rare Persona experience of looking into an adult character whose life experience has caused him to lose his way. His dynamic with Erina in particular is very well done and I absolutely love where the game goes with those two. Seeing Toshiro’s growth throughout the game is very well done and it's clear to see a lot of work and care went into his character in particular.
With this being a Persona spin off, it does also have its more eye roll worthy moments of writing too. The game very much makes sure to hit you over the head with its theme of rebellion, losing a lot of nuance with it and we also have some character tropes exaggerated and repeated throughout the adventure. Yes, I get Morgana is NOT a cat, yes I get Yusuke is a starving artist, I don't need reminding of that multiple times throughout the story and with Makoto, I have no idea where her sudden “quick to violence” trope has come from because her whole awakening scene in Persona 5 is her literally bottling up all of her anger at being used and following the rules too strictly to the point she has her outburst that causes her awakening. Outside of that she's still very much a calm, collected, and reserved person so seeing her portrayal in this spin off at times was very much uh… what are they doing to my favourite character kind of thing.
But yeah, outside of those instances, P5T does manage to provide a thrilling and engaging tale of an adult trying to rediscover the fire in his heart and it's one I very much appreciate.

The game peaks at the third Kingdom before the final kingdom drags things down a little bit by reusing map gimmicks and boss fights from the initial three Kingdoms and the story runs out of steam a bit. It kinda feels like they just threw in some Persona tropes for the sake of it instead of wrapping the game up at an ideal point. We do get a fantastic ending however, that manages to hit some very strong emotional beats and I think it's the first time a Persona spin off has managed to make me cry so full props to that.

On the soundtrack front, Lyn once again knocks it out of the park with her vocal songs, from the powerful opening song, Revolution in Your Heart, to the very beautiful ending song, To My Dear, So Far Away. She provides some fantastic battle themes too while the non vocal themes lean more on the guitar front that provides some great riffs though can feel like they play in a more generic loop compared to most Persona soundtracks. Overall it's another fantastic soundtrack from the Atlus sound team.

On the performance front I played the Nintendo Switch version and it definitely feels like the game was built around that platform first, with its chibi Persona Q esque artstyle and boxy map design very much complimenting the weaker hardware. The game runs at a solid 30fps and looks great for a Switch title which is all you need really. Glancing at the other platforms it seems you get 60fps and a higher resolution instead so platform choice basically comes down to where you would prefer playing it.

So despite going into this one pretty tepidly and feeling burnt out on the Phantom Thieves and the whole Persona 5 aesthetic, I managed to come out of it thoroughly enjoying myself and falling in love with the new characters. The few setbacks the game has doesn't detract that overall this is a great tactics game with an engaging story to tell and one that explores a few unique things compared to most Persona titles.

Trails in the Sky SC (second chapter) picks up immediately after the events of the first game so unfortunately it is hard to keep this completely free of spoilers for the first game, so if you want to avoid spoilers then advise to stop reading this after this paragraph. I’ll try and keep spoilers for SC out of it as much as possible. With that out the way, let’s dive into the journey that is Trails in the Sky SC.

Being a direct sequel and continuation of Trails in the Sky, SC carries over the majority of the first game’s gameplay, mechanics and areas. You’ve still got that rpg battle system with light strategy elements, side quests are still tied to the guild, and we’re still travelling around Liberl. A few new elements have been added, such as Chain Crafts that allow multiple characters to use CP to attack an enemy at once and Orbments have been upgraded to allow for more powerful spells to be learned.

While mechanically little has changed from the first game, it’s ultimately been used as the perfect foundation to craft a thrilling and engaging tale which would have been extremely difficult to do without that experience the first game leaves on you. The story picks up directly from where the first game left off. Estelle and her crew managed to prevent a coup, saving Liberl but the mysterious Weissman had revealed himself as the person behind people’s memories being messed up, unlocking Joshua’s memories of his horrific past causing Joshua to abandon Estelle to protect her as he finds a way to try and bring down the mysterious Society of Ouroboros. It leaves Estelle distraught and heartbroken having just realised her true feelings for Joshua and as such she sets out on a new journey to find Joshua as well as fight back against the Society who have done so much damage to the people she cares about. With Joshua leaving her life, it causes Estelle to realise just how much she has relied on him and she sets out on a special senior bracer training course before she sets out on her journey proper. There’s a strength to her character as she grows into the person who she wants to be, learning how to overcome her weaknesses as well as using her strengths better.
Once again the game takes its time to really get going. The bulk of the first half sees you visiting all the towns of Liberl again as you help them deal with mysterious phenomena that have been brought about by the Enforcers, high ranking powerful officers, of the Society. Having been to all these places before in the first game, there’s an attachment you have to their people that spurs you on through these revisits to help each town and take on the sidequests. It’s something strongly helped by the strength of writing that has gone into the worldbuilding and NPCs of this series and you get a lot of heartwarming moments because of it. Like one side quest saw me having to find a lost ring for a young engaged couple and there’s a moment later in the game where you can stumble into the chapel as they’re getting married and it’s beautiful. There’s an attention to detail here with its minor characters that is hard to think of another game that goes to these lengths.
Another strength of SC is how it takes the party members you have grown to love from the first game and adds so much more to them here as they peel back layers you never see coming. There’s heartwarming moments between Agate and Tita, shocking revelations surrounding the lovable Olivier, the difficult past of Schera, and Kloe finding her resolve to take her path forward. Plenty of the characters also have an Enforcer that they have a history with that brings so much more personal gravitas to the conflicts that are fought throughout the game. We also get a few new party members to use like the mysterious travelling priest Kevin as well as a few other surprise people that I won’t spoil here.
SC allows you to choose your party much more often than the first game did but also ends up taking one or two slots for mandatory characters during important story events so you end up with a nice middle ground that allows you to get use out of almost every character while letting you bring along your favourites more often.
With the stakes being much higher this time round, the game does offer a lot of scintillating moments with high action battles and brilliant use of the music to sell these moments as best they can with the little character models. There’s definitely a few moments where I was wishing for cutscenes to be used to further sell the intensity of these battles, but what they did with a limited budget was still incredible.

Let’s get onto my favourite part about the story this game tells: Estelle Bright. There is one surefire way to get me to love a character and that is by making them suffer through losing someone they love and the majority of this game is Estelle dealing with Joshua abandoning her. There’s moments where she visits an area where the two of them had a special moment and the game flashbacks to a scene from the first game and my gosh it brings the tears so easily. Estelle’s journey is full of moments I could relate to on a personal level. The way she keeps so much of her struggles to herself as her friends try to support her, the moments of self doubt and questioning if she’s on the right path, and ultimately the resolve to keep pushing forward despite how much she’s hurting, it’s all wonderful character moments. Her greatest strength is being able to use even the most hurtful and darkest moments to give herself motivation and strength to push forward in her goals instead of giving in to despair like many of the characters who oppose her. Like her mother dying is what inspired her to be a bracer and help others, Joshua leaving her inspired her to find the strength to not only bring him back but also take down the organisation that made him like this. Estelle is just this wonderful ball of optimism and positivity that is so infectious. Her ability to speak from her heart and reach others, no matter how far into despair they’ve fallen, and pull them out of that darkness is nothing short of incredible. At the end of the first game, Joshua described her as the sun, the person who brings warmth to others and he hit the nail on the head, Estelle is on another level with her kind heart. She still has moments of hotheadedness and will act rashly at times, but she’s come a long way from how she was in the first game, gaining much more confidence in her abilities as well as realising her strength in getting through to others. And of course, she still has her plethora of witty remarks and one liners that allows her to steal almost any scene she’s in. The tender moments she has warms my heart every time while her silly moments never fail to make me laugh. All this to say, I think Estelle is one of my favourite characters of all time, if not my new favourite (I need to give it time for my feelings to settle)

The story doesn’t quite wrap everything up. While it does give Estelle a fitting send off, it does leave the trails of plotlines to pick up in future titles, which could be disappointing for some but exciting for others. I wasn’t left feeling unsatisfied from what they left for future games to cover, instead I was enthralled by the journey, given incredible character development for everyone I could ask for and enough tidbits to make me excited for the potential future of other characters.

While there are few new areas to explore, the new areas that are included are genuinely amazing areas, particularly where the finale takes place, bringing in a particular trope I love. Dungeon designs are also a step up, with more interesting layouts to explore and some with traps to avoid. Music wise there are plenty of new songs that live up to the standard of the first game while all the old locations have their original catchy music.

Trails in the Sky SC builds upon the strong foundations of the first game to deliver a truly special and incredible experience that will live long in the memory. Fantastic character driven moments with plenty of surprises and heartwarming moments take this game on a level few can match as it carefully crafts a tale that will see you shed tears throughout its wonderful journey. SC not only left me with another game to add to my all time favourites list but also a character in Estelle Bright that I have grown to love on so many levels. What an experience and one I am so glad to have had.

With the fourth mainline/numbered entry in the Pikmin series, Nintendo have chosen to do everything in their power to make this the most accessible and content rich game in the series. For those familiar with the Pikmin series, Pikmin 1 and 3 followed a gameplay loop that saw you exploring areas to collect ship parts/fruit to get off a planet before a deadline hit, causing a game over. Pikmin 2 saw you collecting treasure with no time limit and exploring caves as well as the overworld for that treasure. Pikmin 4 follows more closely to the formula of Pikmin 2 while adding plenty of its own new ideas into the mix.

So the core gameplay loop of Pikmin 4 sees you exploring areas and using your Pikmin to collect items lying around the world to collect its sparklium that can be converted into fuel for the characters spaceship that will allow them to explore other areas of the planet and eventually return back home. The story premise is that Olimar has yet again crash landed on a planet containing Pikmin and needs saving, however the Rescue Corps sent to save have also crash landed and it's up to you, a newbie Rescue Corps member to save not only Olimar but the missing Rescue Corps members too. Yes, for the first time in the series you play as a self insert character who you can customise with a limited set of options (which is nice, the character creator is nowhere near overwhelming) that can be changed at any point once you unlock the option in the game. So in addition to collecting treasure, you will also be finding Rescue Corps members to carry back and as the game progresses, random castaways that have gotten stuck on this mysterious planet too. What's cool about this is every character has a profile card detailing a little bit about themselves and what they came to the planet to do, whether it's to research the plant life or do a documentary, there's a varied bunch of characters to meet. They all help flesh out the Pikmin universe too as you meet characters from many different planets like Hocatate and PNF-404 and it shows the Pikmin universe is so much bigger than we realised. These characters once saved can all be found in the new hub area of this game where they will offer side missions to complete like make 300 Pikmin bloom or discover a certain amount of creatures. They're nice extra challenges that help make the smaller tasks you do while exploring a bit more valuable.

Right let's get onto the gameplay itself and all the tweaks Nintendo have made. When Pikmin came to Wii the pointer controls were such a natural fit for the series that it was hard to see an alternate way of playing that was just as good. The Deluxe port of Pikmin 3 on Switch tried to replicate this using gyro aiming but unfortunately the aiming would constantly need reset due to how quickly it would drift. With Pikmin 4 being designed for Switch, Nintendo have opted for a lock on cursor that works pretty well (aside from a few moments where multiple things are next to each other and it's hard to pinpoint what you want). Gyro aiming still comes into play but is only active when whistling or throwing Pikmin meaning you don't have to constantly reset it and you still get to quickly move your aim when needed. They've added a much more dynamic camera this time allowing you to get pretty close to the action on the ground as well as pulling out far enough to get a decent read of your surroundings and you've got shortcuts you can add to the d-pad for stuff like items and character switching which is really nice. While it's not quite at the same heights as the pointer controls during the Wii/Wii U era, Nintendo have managed to adapt the controls of Pikmin into something that is very suitable for both the TV and handheld playstyles of Switch with little compromise. The game also begins with a pretty heavy handed tutorial to help those new to the series and make sure that everything is explained in detail. It interrupts the game a little too often for me as someone who has played the series before but I can understand wanting to make sure people understand how everything works.

The biggest new addition to the gameplay this time around is Oatchi, your very own space dog companion! Oatchi can be used in a variety of ways. The main one I used was as a ride. Oatchi can carry your character and all your Pikmin on his back which is really handy and helps eliminate one of the main causes of lost Pikmin for me: the stragglers at the back being crushed or caught by enemies. Of course there's still enemies capable of knocking you and your Pikmin off causing chaos and leading to lost Pikmin but it is really handy being able to gather them all onto Oatchi's back to try and keep them safe. Oatchi is also able to complete many tasks that Pikmin can like carrying objects and defeating enemies and through upgrades he can become immune to various elements and carry heavier items. Thankfully he doesn't negate the need for Pikmin altogether, he's more of a handy helping hand for dividing up tasks or transporting Pikmin across water who normally couldn't.
We also have a couple of new Pikmin types with the Ice and Glow Pikmin. Ice Pikmin are impervious to being frozen, can withstand cold temperatures and freeze bodies of water if you have enough of them. They can also freeze enemies when used to attack them making fights a lot less riskier but when a frozen enemy is defeated they shatter and you don't get a body to carry back and grow your Pikmin population. It's a nice approach to risk/reward design that also helps make the game a bit easier if you choose to.
Glow Pikmin are mostly exclusive to the new night missions in the game but can also be used in caves. These Pikmin are impervious to all elemental weaknesses other Pikmin have but can still be killed by enemies. They can teleport to your character when they are done with their tasks and at the end of a night mission for every 10 surviving Glow Pikmin you have, you earn a glow seed that can be used to spawn Glow Pikmin in a cave. They're pretty handy if your Pikmin population is thinning out while in a cave and you can't find any more around.

Speaking of night missions, these are tower defence style missions where you are tasked with protecting a Luminol or two to collect a medicine for some of the castaways that are suffering a leafy transformation. These missions see you using Glow Pikmin to collect star bits to carry back to the Luminol to expand their numbers so they can defend against the oncoming onslaught of enemies throughout the night. As they can teleport to whoever you're controlling you can quickly switch between Oatchi and your character to manage defending multiple Luminol. It's a nice change of pace from the main missions and keeps the game feeling fresh. I do think it would've been cool if they had multiple captains like in Pikmin 3 so we could defend 3 or 4 Luminols because of how fluid the switching is with Glow Pikmin but otherwise it's a solid game mode and it's nice being able to explore at night.

The bulk of your game time is exploring the beautifully crafted environments and collecting the various treasures available. Nintendo have made a couple of tweaks to the traditional Pikmin formula. First is the limitation of just 3 Pikmin types at any one time which helps making sure each Pikmin type can have a chance to shine as areas are designed with this in mind and will offer recommended Pikmin types to bring along. There might be a couple of times where you'll want to swap out for another Pikmin type to accomplish a task but for the most part the game is extremely well designed around this, and in caves it is possible to find Pikmin types outwith the 3 you brought in allowing you to play with a larger variety at once for a bit. I think this limitation works well for preventing people from becoming overwhelmed by the amount of Pikmin types to choose from as well as making sure the player has to strategise with a limited amount of resources. Also different this time round is starting with a limit of only 20 Pikmin at once. This can be expanded by finding Farlic onions throughout levels, increasing the limit by 10 every time until you hit the traditional limit of 100. I assume this was done to ease newcomers into the series and not overwhelm them and I think it works well. It's another item to collect and it feels good watching your Pikmin limit expand, being able to accomplish more tasks and fight stronger enemies as your army grows. Another gameplay addition is the ability to rewind time to undo mistakes. It's a pretty comprehensive rewind allowing you to go back to specific points or even all the way back to the beginning of the day. As an optional tool it's great for accessibility and while I tried to avoid using it, it did come in handy during the final boss encounter after having my purple Pikmin wiped out from trying to figure out how best to hit the boss.

There's a very well done balance between overworld and cave exploration that helps keeps both feeling fun and fresh throughout. The overworld has all the usual Pikmin puzzles to solve, walls to break down, tunnels to dig, etc and caves can be found throughout these levels. Caves act much like they did in Pikmin 2, hiding treasure to collect and holding some of the more difficult enemy encounters. These areas have been tightly designed this time, offering very puzzle box like experiences as you work your way through them. They also tend to house the rarer Pikmin types allowing you to add new Pikmin to your army. The caves this time are often around the 5 levels mark so you don't spend as much time in them as you do in 2 allowing a better balance between the areas you're exploring. I loved the caves in this game as they were very fun and tightly designed areas that offer fun puzzles to figure out with your Pikmin.

I've covered so much already but wait, there's more! As well as being able to find caves through the levels, there are new Dandori challenges and battles that can be found too. Dandori, as explained in game, is the art of organising your tasks strategically and working with maximum efficiency to execute your plans quickly and by gosh the game does mean that. The Dandori challenges see you given a set amount of time to collect every single object within a level. You start out with a specific set of Pikmin and must act quickly and efficiently to grow your Pikmin army as well as defeating enemies and clearing paths to collect every item. These challenges are intense and you cannot stop for a second otherwise you're going to miss the target score. These are so much fun and really test your quick thinking abilities as well as how efficiently and quickly your brain can spot how to divide tasks up to get them done. I absolutely loved these challenges and getting a platinum score on my first try was always a delight.
The Dandori battles see you take on a mysterious leafling in a split screen battle to collect the most points before time runs out. It's a bit more chaotic and you can use your Pikmin to mess with your opponent and steal their items from them as well as pick up the traditional Nintendo style multiplayer items to turn the tide of battle. This is also offered as a traditional multiplayer mode in the main menu and it does its job well but the chaotic nature of them leaves them feeling a bit less satisfying compared to everything else on offer.

So yeah, there is an absolute ton packed into this Pikmin, taking me well over 20 hours to get to the credits while 100%ing every area on the way and Nintendo is like you thought that was it? Nah, here's even more content providing one of the meatiest post games in recent memory. We got more areas to explore, a new mode that caters to those who loved Pikmin 1 and a set of Dandori challenges that really test your skills. It's incredible just how much content Nintendo has packed into Pikmin this time around and the way each game style varies things up keeps things fresh. Despite having 9 Pikmin types and Oatchi available to use, they somehow manage to make sure each Pikmin type still has a role to fill without feeling pointless. The story mode also alleviates one of my main criticisms about Pikmin 3 by making sure that every single type of Pikmin sees use. 3 saw purple and white Pikmin go unused in the main story while 4 makes sure everyone gets their chance to shine, particularly through the caves that usually have challenges designed around specific Pikmin types.

The game is just a joy to play and very chill for the most part with late game providing some of the challenges veteran Pikmin fans might be looking for. Aside from heavy handed tutorials and a little bit of jank with lock on aiming, I don't really have much to criticise with Pikmin 4. It's an extremely well designed game that manages to expand upon Pikmin in all the right ways while finding ways to appeal to fans that love the style of Pikmin 1 or Pikmin 2. The sound design is as great as ever, with every Pikmin making unique noises and having cute footstep sound effects that differentiate over different material and there's one boss fight in particular that blew me away with how it played with the music. And of course the game carries the series usual charm with every item having a few logs to go through along with the funny names. It's always fun seeing these characters try to figure out what exactly a GBA SP could be used for.

Pikmin 4 takes the series to new heights while maintaining a delicate balance to try and appeal to as wide a demographic as possible. Nintendo have nailed expanding the various types of strategic gameplay on offer while also making sure that everything is balanced as finely as possible. Somehow they have managed to make this most content rich Pikmin title and kept it feeling fresh throughout making this my favourite Pikmin title so far and one of my favourite games of all time.

It's rare for me to get into a series or a specific subset of a series and play through the games in order from the beginning. My only knowledge of the Trails/Kiseki series before picking up Trails in the Sky was of the character Nadia who had intrigued me towards the series and the novel 3 & 9 which a friend recommended to me and it sold me on getting into the series properly. So without any real knowledge of the series played like and without modern expectations from recent titles colouring my viewpoint, I began my journey into the Trails/Kiseki series with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.

Trails in the Sky begins by introducing us to its charming protagonist Estelle Bright as her father brings home an mysterious injured young boy called Joshua who has little recollection of what happened to him at this point. There's no time wasted in presenting what a fun character Estelle is as she quickly demonstrates how rash and excitable she is by making sure Joshua gets rest, and throwing in witty remarks. The game uses wonderfully cute chibi models similar in style to the Golden Sun series which I adore so much. Dialogue boxes have well drawn 2D character portraits that have an excellent range of emotions shown off to further emphasise how a character is feeling in that moment. The game is adorable and it uses the combination of character models and portraits to detail its scenes very well.
After a timeskip of a few years we're reacquainted with the Bright family, seeing how well Joshua has fitted in and how close the family are. From here the real story loop begins as Estelle and Joshua decide to follow in their father's, Cassius Bright, footsteps and become Bracers, people who take on requests to help those in need and help maintain peace in the nation of Liberl with help of the army when needed. The story is very much focused on Estelle and Joshua and their quest to become full fledged Bracers and a good chunk of it is very cosy and heartwarming as they overcome the hardships they face along the way. It's what many would consider a slow burn, it does take a while to start getting into the big plot points and revelations but I think it's all the better for that. The game takes its time, making sure you get to know Estelle and Joshua, the world they live in and giving you the time to get attached to them so that the stuff that happens by the end truly impacts you. You go around visiting every city in Liberl, taking on missions from each guild, getting to know the citizens with the additional party members being rotated out from place to place. It's great because it gives you so much time to fall in love with its cast while keeping focus on Estelle and Joshua. Party members like Olivier and Tita get to shine in the chapters they're used in and because you have to use every character, you grow attached to their fighting styles and their personalities instead of benching newcomers because you're already taken with your current setup. Your travels see you meeting many people who Cassius has had an impact on and it gives a real sense of just how powerful this man is and how much he has done despite Estelle being unaware and seeing him as just her goofy dad. The fact that for the main story beats Estelle and Joshua often require help from more senior people really helps sell that they're junior bracers in training and as powerful as they are, they still have a long way to go to start solving missions on their own like Agate or Cassius. And I love that side quests are tied to the guilds! Doing sidequests gives you Bracer points which increase your rank so while you do a few simple ones like defeating certain monsters, you want to do them because you want to see Estelle and Joshua climb up the Bracer ranking, it's really neat. Unfortunately sidequests are time limited due to the structure of the game and it can be easy to miss some which is a shame. Everything is very well set up though story wise and they do an excellent job pulling you in.

While on the surface the story takes its time to get going, the game does a good job at adding intrigue to the seemingly simple scenarios that play out. Yeah you're stopping petty bandits but there's many signs of bigger things at play to keep you intrigued. By the time you get to the end a lot of things are tied together but then there's so many revelations that leave you excited for the next instalment.
As mentioned throughout so far, Estelle and Joshua are the stars of the show. The two perfectly compliment each other, she's the sun to his moon, a true yin and yang pair. Estelle is this bright cheerful character, bringing light to everyone she meets but often acts before she thinks and is usually very open with her feelings. Joshua is a lot more reserved, holds a lot about himself back and is great a devising plans on the spot, knowing how to use his words to prevent escalation of situations. He often has to remind Estelle to hold back while Estelle knows she has to be patient with him and his innermost feelings. They compliment each other so well and know each other on a level that they are pretty quick to pick up on something when it feels off. There's so many lovely moments between the two of them that help build up affection towards the two as a pair and it makes it easy to relate to both of them and the things they go through. So yeah, on the story and characters front this game left a huge impression on me.

Gameplay wise this is mostly your typical RPG affair. Visiting towns, going through dungeons, and defeating monsters to level up your party is the bulk of the game. NPCs are all given names and their dialogue is constantly being updated to reflect ongoing story or quest events which is such a neat touch. Most areas have a full 360° rotating camera and maps are well detailed for navigation, with towns having colour coded buildings for stuff like shops and the guilds. For some reason there are no maps for the dungeons. It's not a big deal as they tend to be small enough to commit to memory through exploration but it can be easy to lose your way if you mess with the camera too much.
Battles are a pretty unique affair, blending traditional turn based RPG mechanics with strategy RPG mechanics. These take place in their own battle arenas and you have your characters laid out in a starting position with enemies usually on the opposing side of the map. You can move your characters in a grid like fashion and they all have their own ranges with physical weapons. Estelle uses a staff and has to be pretty close to an enemy to hit it while Tita uses a gun so she can attack from any range while also having an area of effect that damages nearby enemies. EP is used to cast spells from orbments that can hit from any range as well as better spells being able to hit an area of enemies instead of just one. These take time to pull off though with a turn to cast and a turn to fire and can be interrupted by certain attacks. Each character has a number of orbment slots that can be increased and by mixing and matching orbments of various elements you can gain access to more powerful spells. For example I had a mixture of water and wind orbments on Estelle giving her access to both powerful healing spells and heavy damaging wind spells. It's a cool system and one I enjoyed experimenting with once I got a better understanding of it.
Finally there's CP which is built up through attacking and being damaged by enemies. At 100 CP you can unleash a characters unique special move to do heavy damage and at 200 CP you can maximise that damage. Specials can be activated at any time, allowing you to fully strategise heavy damage outputs by jumping in just before an enemy gets its turn. CP is also used for craft attacks, special physical attacks that can interrupt an enemy casting or inflict various status elements. These usually use around 10~30CP and are great in a pinch. Overall it's a pretty fun and unique battle system that I really enjoyed. The game also features overworld encounters rather than random ones, allowing you to have a degree of control of whether you ambush enemies or they ambush you and enemies can be easily avoided if you don't want to fight. It's a very nice design choice that I wasn't expecting going in.
The Steam version of the game also includes a speedup option which is nice to have when there's no fast travelling and want to speed through easier encounters. Exp is also handled really well with dwindling results as you get closer to the recommended level for the area. Once you start getting 1 or 2 exp you know it's time to start avoiding enemies more which is really nice and stops you feeling like you have to grind while also maintaining a difficulty that isn't easy to breeze past

The soundtrack is a joy, featuring many catchy tunes from the standard battle music to my personal favourite for the city of Ziess that perfectly embodies PS1 era RPG music. Each town gets its own unique theme while there's little variance for overworld routes and such. The main theme, Hoshi no Arika (The Whereabouts of Light) is a beautiful theme that perfectly embodies the melancholy adventure this game is. It's a wonderful soundtrack to a wonderful game that gave me so many warm and cosy feelings throughout.

As my first experience of the Trails/Kiseki series, Trails in the Sky provided a wonderful and cosy experience with memorable characters that I've fallen in love with and can't wait to see how their story continues. Aside from a few minor issues, this game provides an excellent foundation both narrative and gameplay wise to build from and I'm excited to see where they take the series from this point as I continue playing the titles. Estelle and Joshua have left such a strong impression on me and I'm so happy that I've finally dipped my toes into the series after seeing so many people talk about it.

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.