It starts with a very bad taste in mouth. Being a follow-up to the very divisive Cold Steel 4 doesn't help, but the fact its beginning is repeating the same narrative beats done in Azure and Cold Steel regarding Crossbell only amounts to exhaustion. And in terms of Lloyd's route, it never really changes, with some moments deliberately placed as a call back to the predecessors--Lloyd is facing the same problem yet again, and since there is nothing more to add to his development, his story ends up feeling redundant.
While Lloyd's route does end up taking the most time out of three, it thankfully isn't an overhwelming ratio compared to the other two. Rean's route is supplementary as one would expect, and his character arc is also disappointingly a retread, but due to how closely it relates to the final route with all new characters, it's more bearable.
And that final route is indeed a breath of much needed fresh air. The core 4 characters are as balanced in their chemistry as the S.S.S. in Zero, and the guests that join them as the game goes on provide interesting perspectives on them as well. These three routes all interact at some point with each other, like how dungeons with multiple teams in CS3 and CS4 worked, and even though there is not much freedom as to what you can do and you are more or less expected to play in a linear way, the way they interconnect still provides interesting storytelling opportunities that the series desperately needed. And the ending, while it's based on the similar deus ex machina cliche that made Cold Steel 4 difficult to like, ties up everything in a way more satisfying than that game ever could have hoped to.
A significant bulk of the game, however, is pushed aside to the Reverie Corridor, a dungeon that exists in a dimension separate from Zemuria. It acts as a convenient place for the game to include a plethora of side activities, with minigames (both VM and Pom Party make their return with the largest opponent roster ever in the series) and side episodes that shows glimpse of other stories not directly related to the main story of the game. Some of these sheds more light on some supporting cast member such as Ash and Kurt, while others set up some world-altering revelations for the next arc in the franchise. They are in essence like Trails in the Sky The 3rd, but with the dungeon crawling aspect more streamlined and with dynamic map layout and missions; having the main story that occurs separately in the real world Zemuria also makes it more relevant in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, a fitting conclusion to both the Ereborian and Crossbell saga, allowing the fans of the series to be more hopeful for the future instead of how Cold Steel 4 had left them.
While Lloyd's route does end up taking the most time out of three, it thankfully isn't an overhwelming ratio compared to the other two. Rean's route is supplementary as one would expect, and his character arc is also disappointingly a retread, but due to how closely it relates to the final route with all new characters, it's more bearable.
And that final route is indeed a breath of much needed fresh air. The core 4 characters are as balanced in their chemistry as the S.S.S. in Zero, and the guests that join them as the game goes on provide interesting perspectives on them as well. These three routes all interact at some point with each other, like how dungeons with multiple teams in CS3 and CS4 worked, and even though there is not much freedom as to what you can do and you are more or less expected to play in a linear way, the way they interconnect still provides interesting storytelling opportunities that the series desperately needed. And the ending, while it's based on the similar deus ex machina cliche that made Cold Steel 4 difficult to like, ties up everything in a way more satisfying than that game ever could have hoped to.
A significant bulk of the game, however, is pushed aside to the Reverie Corridor, a dungeon that exists in a dimension separate from Zemuria. It acts as a convenient place for the game to include a plethora of side activities, with minigames (both VM and Pom Party make their return with the largest opponent roster ever in the series) and side episodes that shows glimpse of other stories not directly related to the main story of the game. Some of these sheds more light on some supporting cast member such as Ash and Kurt, while others set up some world-altering revelations for the next arc in the franchise. They are in essence like Trails in the Sky The 3rd, but with the dungeon crawling aspect more streamlined and with dynamic map layout and missions; having the main story that occurs separately in the real world Zemuria also makes it more relevant in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, a fitting conclusion to both the Ereborian and Crossbell saga, allowing the fans of the series to be more hopeful for the future instead of how Cold Steel 4 had left them.