A good start to my most anticipated arc in Kiseki. The cast is probably the best since Sky and Van is a stellar protagonist. The battle system could use some polish but it's definitely on its way there. The OST has its moments but is sadly a bit weak due to a large talent exodus in Falcom's sound team jdk. My biggest gripe with Kuro as things stand is the writing, which, while not terrible, doesn't hold the momentum from the excellent Chapters 1 and 2. The mafia antagonists seldom behave like an actual mafia while the plot point of an immigration crisis promised in earlier arcs isn't delivered on very well. It's a fun game but today's Falcom is perhaps focused too much on the sci-fi, the supernatural and the showy. While these elements can definitely be exciting, they tend to be at their best as garnish for more grounded, human struggles, a touch of magic to make the ordinary seem extraordinary. Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair to hold 2021's Kuro no Kiseki to the standard of what Falcom started building in the early 00s but they are so, so close to making something great. All they need is to find that bit of harmony between the classic and the modern.

Hajimari/Reverie is probably my 2nd-least favorite Kiseki game behind the much-maligned CS4. While it does well to give add an actual campaign to its dungeon-crawling [something Sky 3rd sorely lacked], it struggles to justify its reason for existence. Much of the main story is spent retreading the arcs of characters whose arcs have already concluded; champions and heroes now doubt themselves and wallow in self-pity even though they've overcome much bigger barriers in the past. This appears even more damning when there remains a good deal of characters from Cold Steel's massive cast that could have used the extra screen time instead. A lot of Reverie's narrative is self-contained and it does little to set the stage for future arcs like Sky 3rd did, outside of a few episodes at the very end of the game.

There are a lot of good things about this game: the Picnic Squad, the Infinity Corridor, a good amount of mini-games and fun episodes, but somehow it does almost everything worse as a "side game" than Sky 3rd, with many of the Erebonia arc's loose ends never being tied up.

Realistically, Kiseki/Trails is my favorite video game series and I will probably enjoy every entry. I have fallen in love with the world, the characters, the gameplay and the OSTs to the point where it would be hard for me to outright hate one of these games. The foundation Falcom has set is just too strong.

But I really, really hope the writing quality in Kiseki does not ever sink as low as it does in CS4. What a disastrous, poorly thought out conclusion for an arc that took up a decade of Falcom's time.

Cold Steel III is an undoubtedly enjoyable experience, harking back to the comfortable school days of Cold Steel I. The smaller class-size lets each member of New Class VII get the screentime they deserve all while also letting the player see how the characters from the first 2 games have grown over the past 2~ years. Unfortunately, the later chapters of the game start to introduce certain plot elements that I feel ultimately cheapen a lot of what happened in not only Cold Steel I+II but even games from earlier arcs. Sad to say, it only gets worse in the game's sequel.

A game so underappreciated in the fanbase that I would have been under-appreciating it too if I didn't happen to have $30 when I walked into Gamestop one summer. The plot of Guardian Signs is as close as it comes to where I want the plot of mainline Pokemon to be - full of rising action, interesting twists and memorable characters, without becoming too showy or edgy. The tropical setting is intriguing and each location feels important in the grand scheme of things. Guardian Signs gives the player a sense of free will that the Gen 7 games set in Alola seemed to promise but never delivered on. This game had Pokeride before Pokeride, Soaring before Soaring; there was a certain connection with your Pokemon bros that you captured and it came the closest of the 3 games in the Ranger subseries to really capturing that flash of immersion to make the player feel like a Pokemon Ranger. OST is also pretty damn good and the sound team seems to have gotten a sense of mastery over the soundfont they used.

9/10 would destroy my DS screen again.