gooba
13 reviews liked by gooba
I'll be real here, if this wasn't a spoiler free review this would be five times the length but I'm not here to subject you that, in fact we can both do that once you the reader are done with this game one day! I'm here to try my level best to condense my thoughts into something coherent without ANY spoilers, without sounding like a crazy lunatic, on selling to you what is arguably my favorite story in fiction so here goes. There will be ABSOLUTELY ZERO SPOILERS in this review, I'll be making sure of that. Spoiling this game for someone or for yourself has to be a cardinal sin or something SO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT LOOKING UP ANYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME UNTIL YOU BEAT IT, NOTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THE TERMS YOU HEAR AND DON'T EVEN MAKE A SIMPLE SEARCH ABOUT THE CHARACTERS I'M SO SERIOUS. LOOK UP ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
First off, what is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim? Well in a nutshell it’s a VN-esque game pumped full of steroids and cranked up to the max. This game features a non-linear narrative revolving around, you guessed it, 13 distinct characters. There are 2 types of gameplay options: Remembrance and Destruction. Remembrance is the real meat of this game and features the non-linear story with you controlling characters in a side-scrolling scenario whereas Destruction is the RTS (Real Time Strategy) section where you control the Sentinels as per the games namesake. Usually, you're mostly here for Remembrance which is understandable, I was too, but I personally find Destruction quite fun despite some considering it the weaker part of the game which I disagree with, it is genuinely really fun once you get the hang of it. It doesn't take too long once you get the hang of it either and the gameplay itself is quite minimalist, simple and most importantly it ends rather quickly as to not distract you from the story, in fact it adds even more to the story but that's a discussion for another day. That's it for the basic rundown of this game but allow me to go in depth and the reason why I hold this game in such high regard without spoiling anything for you.
This will be talking exclusively about Remembrance for the record but let me to get the simpler stuff out of the way first: the visuals are absolutely fucking gorgeous, so is the artwork and animations, characters have such subtle animations during events in order express their personality with some even happening in the background unbeknownst to the player and all accompanied by stellar voice acting in both languages but I personally find the dub much more enjoyable and would recommend it. The game is a visual treat for the eyes, this is Vanillaware at its peak, the music and even the sound effects are absolutely phenomenal as well but that's enough of the little stuff let’s move onto why you're really here. This game has the most unique way of telling a story that I've ever seen in a game, you can quite literally play the story in any order you like hence the obvious reason it’s called a non-linear narrative along with swapping between Remembrance and Destruction at your leisure albeit you will need to fulfil certain criteria to progress the overall narrative but worry not, the game spells out exactly which pre-requisite you need to do for unlocking the next segments. Every single character has their own distinct stories which branch into multiple other stories, oh and a neat fact, every single one of their stories is a unique spin on an existing piece of media or a movie, the characters themselves are also exceptionally well written for the most part. This may seem daunting but its presented in a way to hook the reader in, the stories overlap and intersect, there are countless clashes between the characters and their own goals and beliefs, some work together, some are at odds with each other and what really drives this home is the fact that eventually you will be seeing these certain events from another characters perspective sooner or later when you pursue the aforementioned characters story which on its own sheds even more light to the overarching narrative along with adding even more context on the event you just experienced. Again, this may seem daunting but it truly isn't, I say it has a unique way of presenting its story but it’s not merely just presented, the real reason is that piecing together the story IS the gameplay and I don't just mean the overall mystery, the game trusts and respects the players intelligence unconditionally. If a certain word is said again in another route? There is no flashback or "I remember them saying this" for the most part, the game reminds the player nothing because it trusts the player to remember the finer details and it does not let up in the slightest along with giving you an extensive archive to help you keep track. The plot is this constantly changing schematic inside your head which changes drastically as you take in and learn new information and plot threads, sometimes even flipping it over its head entirely, challenging everything you may have pieced together thus far. You the player are tasked with piecing this gigantic puzzle together, that in itself IS the gameplay, the puzzle may not make sense at first but you soon suddenly have some manner of "OH NOW I GET IT" moment which feels immensely satisfying BECAUSE you did this all yourself, the game did not feed you this revelation in a traditional manner, you the player pieced it together before the answer was even presented to you. It’s such a unique concept and I wish more games went to the lengths 13 Sentinels does in respecting the players intelligence to do. No matter how farfetched a plot detail may seem the game WILL expand on it in a well-executed manner at a certain point, the game trusts the player and it expects the player to trust the game in return, a symbiotic relationship if you will. Every bit of info, every bit of context from a different perspective and every single plot thread is tailor made to fit into the overarching narrative in such a disturbingly cohesive manner that you gotta wonder how long it took for the writers to make everything not seem nonsensical in fear of it seeming like multiple asspulls. Then again, this game WAS delayed multiple times so mayhap that was the reason, contrary to popular belief I haven't exactly deep dived into this game’s development cycle... yet.
This game is an experience like no other and, full disclosure, this is just me quoting 2 certain well known and respected game developers but I truly believe there will never be another game like 13 Sentinels but I would LOVE to be proven wrong, in a perfect world maybe everything was this game but this is just me being delusional for the sake of it but its heartening to know this games sales went from poor to exceeding expectations due to strong word of mouth by its small albeit extremely dedicated fanbase, giving Vanillaware the push they needed and deserved. This game is a phenomenal work of art, an extensive labor of love and passion by the developers and if you still managed to listen to my ramblings this far, I recommend this game to you with everything I have. Now go get in that Sentinel and strap in for the ride, also here's a cool line from the game to end this review cause why not :P
"It's really happening... Just as you said it would. So we'll do what we have to do. Get in the robots and fight. Our fate was sealed a long time ago."
First off, what is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim? Well in a nutshell it’s a VN-esque game pumped full of steroids and cranked up to the max. This game features a non-linear narrative revolving around, you guessed it, 13 distinct characters. There are 2 types of gameplay options: Remembrance and Destruction. Remembrance is the real meat of this game and features the non-linear story with you controlling characters in a side-scrolling scenario whereas Destruction is the RTS (Real Time Strategy) section where you control the Sentinels as per the games namesake. Usually, you're mostly here for Remembrance which is understandable, I was too, but I personally find Destruction quite fun despite some considering it the weaker part of the game which I disagree with, it is genuinely really fun once you get the hang of it. It doesn't take too long once you get the hang of it either and the gameplay itself is quite minimalist, simple and most importantly it ends rather quickly as to not distract you from the story, in fact it adds even more to the story but that's a discussion for another day. That's it for the basic rundown of this game but allow me to go in depth and the reason why I hold this game in such high regard without spoiling anything for you.
This will be talking exclusively about Remembrance for the record but let me to get the simpler stuff out of the way first: the visuals are absolutely fucking gorgeous, so is the artwork and animations, characters have such subtle animations during events in order express their personality with some even happening in the background unbeknownst to the player and all accompanied by stellar voice acting in both languages but I personally find the dub much more enjoyable and would recommend it. The game is a visual treat for the eyes, this is Vanillaware at its peak, the music and even the sound effects are absolutely phenomenal as well but that's enough of the little stuff let’s move onto why you're really here. This game has the most unique way of telling a story that I've ever seen in a game, you can quite literally play the story in any order you like hence the obvious reason it’s called a non-linear narrative along with swapping between Remembrance and Destruction at your leisure albeit you will need to fulfil certain criteria to progress the overall narrative but worry not, the game spells out exactly which pre-requisite you need to do for unlocking the next segments. Every single character has their own distinct stories which branch into multiple other stories, oh and a neat fact, every single one of their stories is a unique spin on an existing piece of media or a movie, the characters themselves are also exceptionally well written for the most part. This may seem daunting but its presented in a way to hook the reader in, the stories overlap and intersect, there are countless clashes between the characters and their own goals and beliefs, some work together, some are at odds with each other and what really drives this home is the fact that eventually you will be seeing these certain events from another characters perspective sooner or later when you pursue the aforementioned characters story which on its own sheds even more light to the overarching narrative along with adding even more context on the event you just experienced. Again, this may seem daunting but it truly isn't, I say it has a unique way of presenting its story but it’s not merely just presented, the real reason is that piecing together the story IS the gameplay and I don't just mean the overall mystery, the game trusts and respects the players intelligence unconditionally. If a certain word is said again in another route? There is no flashback or "I remember them saying this" for the most part, the game reminds the player nothing because it trusts the player to remember the finer details and it does not let up in the slightest along with giving you an extensive archive to help you keep track. The plot is this constantly changing schematic inside your head which changes drastically as you take in and learn new information and plot threads, sometimes even flipping it over its head entirely, challenging everything you may have pieced together thus far. You the player are tasked with piecing this gigantic puzzle together, that in itself IS the gameplay, the puzzle may not make sense at first but you soon suddenly have some manner of "OH NOW I GET IT" moment which feels immensely satisfying BECAUSE you did this all yourself, the game did not feed you this revelation in a traditional manner, you the player pieced it together before the answer was even presented to you. It’s such a unique concept and I wish more games went to the lengths 13 Sentinels does in respecting the players intelligence to do. No matter how farfetched a plot detail may seem the game WILL expand on it in a well-executed manner at a certain point, the game trusts the player and it expects the player to trust the game in return, a symbiotic relationship if you will. Every bit of info, every bit of context from a different perspective and every single plot thread is tailor made to fit into the overarching narrative in such a disturbingly cohesive manner that you gotta wonder how long it took for the writers to make everything not seem nonsensical in fear of it seeming like multiple asspulls. Then again, this game WAS delayed multiple times so mayhap that was the reason, contrary to popular belief I haven't exactly deep dived into this game’s development cycle... yet.
This game is an experience like no other and, full disclosure, this is just me quoting 2 certain well known and respected game developers but I truly believe there will never be another game like 13 Sentinels but I would LOVE to be proven wrong, in a perfect world maybe everything was this game but this is just me being delusional for the sake of it but its heartening to know this games sales went from poor to exceeding expectations due to strong word of mouth by its small albeit extremely dedicated fanbase, giving Vanillaware the push they needed and deserved. This game is a phenomenal work of art, an extensive labor of love and passion by the developers and if you still managed to listen to my ramblings this far, I recommend this game to you with everything I have. Now go get in that Sentinel and strap in for the ride, also here's a cool line from the game to end this review cause why not :P
"It's really happening... Just as you said it would. So we'll do what we have to do. Get in the robots and fight. Our fate was sealed a long time ago."
I’ve said this a few times before but this time I am not joking. This is the worst gaming experience I’ve ever had. Hundreds of hours of solid build up, an amazing predecessor, all for this 100 hours of pure mouldy dick cheese.
I’m not even gonna tag spoilers because I genuinely hope I spoil you and put you off. Everybody you thought was dead, is still alive. Anybody that did die, alive. Anybody that was dead before the events of the first game, alive. Anybody that was evil, not actually evil they were just being controlled. Anybody that made a remotely bad choice in their life, it was the actions of some mystical dookie god fuck I hate this game oh my god
The game thinks it’s so much more mature and clever than it is, you have characters in these dire situations making decisions like 13 year olds it makes me physically sick. The only reason I picked up this entire franchise was because of the cover image of this game man I wanna die
Combat is so gas my favourite turn based system ever peaked here, Rean is gas too idgaf if I have to see Lloyd again after Reverie I’m ending it all
I sincerely believe everyone involved in the production deserves some form of punishment whether it be suspension from game development or jail time.
Thank you
I’m not even gonna tag spoilers because I genuinely hope I spoil you and put you off. Everybody you thought was dead, is still alive. Anybody that did die, alive. Anybody that was dead before the events of the first game, alive. Anybody that was evil, not actually evil they were just being controlled. Anybody that made a remotely bad choice in their life, it was the actions of some mystical dookie god fuck I hate this game oh my god
The game thinks it’s so much more mature and clever than it is, you have characters in these dire situations making decisions like 13 year olds it makes me physically sick. The only reason I picked up this entire franchise was because of the cover image of this game man I wanna die
Combat is so gas my favourite turn based system ever peaked here, Rean is gas too idgaf if I have to see Lloyd again after Reverie I’m ending it all
I sincerely believe everyone involved in the production deserves some form of punishment whether it be suspension from game development or jail time.
Thank you
I remember being fairly excited for the release of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code when I first heard of its development. I really enjoyed all the main entries in the Danganronpa series and thus I was interested in playing its spiritual successor. But now that I’ve completed it…I’m not quite sure what to make of it.
There were times I was on the edge of my seat to see what happened next, and mysteries that were insanely fun to put together. And Rain Code’s final two chapters were an incredibly strong finish. But still, there’s a lot I didn’t enjoy in this game, or features I felt were executed better in the Danganronpa series. Sometimes I thought it was unfair to compare the two…but given how similar Rain Code tries to be to its predecessors, I think avoiding comparison is a fruitless endeavor. I want to say I liked this game…but I don’t know for sure.
Pros:
- Overall, I think the story of Rain Code is a good one simply because it sets up a lot of good mysteries that have some pretty crazy payouts. This game employs the same type of storytelling as Danganronpa, where each “chapter” of the game imparts a larger piece of the puzzle until you have enough to solve the big mystery at the end. It’s a solid formula and good lord the climax to this story in the fourth and fifth chapters is just mind blowing. It’s pretty much impossible to sit there and not crack a smile as you hear it all laid out. I prefer to keep my reviews spoiler-free, so unfortunately I won’t be talking about specific moments but there were a TON of dope reveals and concepts that I gushed over.
- I will say that one thing Rain Code has going for it over Danganronpa in the mystery department is that its setting allows much more varied investigations. Yuma has a whole city to investigate in, and there are much less restrictions on what tools are available in each case since anything that could be reasonably acquired in a city is fair game. Chapters 2 and 4 were my favorite to solve because of how insane the mechanics the culprits used to carry out their crime were, and both of them had very emotional endings. The second chapter also had the most creative investigation mechanic in the game, full stop. Those two chapters more than matched some of Danganronpa’s best cases.
- Of course, a large part of the reason why these mysteries were so enjoyable to solve is because they’re presented alongside the Mystery Labyrinth, which has some insanely flashy and interesting designs in it. Each labyrinth looks different depending on the case it corresponds to, and in some cases the types of questions and the layout can change depending on what kind of questions need to be answered to solve the mystery. A lot of its cutscenes and quick time events are really fun to playthrough, especially when you’re rapid-firing answers to questions as you try to avoid collapsing platforms or attacks from ‘mystery phantoms’ that seek to inhibit your progress. And while I still prefer Danganronpa’s Nonstop Debate minigames, Yuma’s Solution Blade cutting through statements in the Reasoning Deathmatch is so fucking cool. The sound design is killer on that. Deduction Denouement, while essentially a re-treading of Danganronpa’s Closing Argument, is awesome because Closing Argument is awesome.
- I’d also say that the minigames in Rain Code trim a lot of the unnecessary fat from Danganronpa’s Class Trial sequences. Instead of having to try and spell out the word “knife” or play fucking Tetris or some shit to figure out the item you need to present as evidence, Rain Code often just asks you a question, and you use your dope-as-shit sword to cut through with the correct answer. My favorite minigame was definitely the crime scene recreations, where you're tasked with reconstructing the crime as it happened. Chapter 1 had a ton of those and it was sick. Each Mystery Labyrinth also has different types of minigames, which helped prevent them from getting too stale, although the labyrinths were so enjoyable I doubt it would have mattered if there weren’t.
- I also really enjoyed the addition of cutscenes, even if they are occasionally clunky (more on that in the cons section). I love Danganronpa’s sprites and CG art style, but being able to see characters move around in 3D is very neat. The cutscenes where Yuma monologues about the theme and events of the chapter that play just before starting it are a highlight for me, I love how dramatic and symbolic they are (and yes as you might expect, Chapter 2’s intro cutscene is my favorite lol). Having almost every single line be fully voice acted was also very cool, and I think many of the voice actors gave great performances, especially those of Yuma, Shinigami, Desuhiko, Fubuki, Seth, Guillaume, and Yomi.
- The artstyle is as always phenomenal. Rui Komatsuzaki is an incredibly talented character artist, and the design of Kanai Ward and its unending rain is great. Nothing much to say here; it’s just good. And while I think the Danganronpa OST is miles better than this game, Rain Code had a few standout tracks, especially the Reasoning Deathmatch track; that shit had me PUMPED.
Cons:
- I might get crucified for this one but I didn’t think many of the characters in Rain Code were that memorable. This is definitely the main reason I feel so conflicted as to what degree I enjoyed this game. Danganronpa has its fair share of underdeveloped characters, but in general character motivations and development were a natural consequence of the way its mysteries played out. In that series, you knew that any murder meant one of the characters you’ve seen develop and interact with others would die, and another character would be their killer, which got you invested. There’s no such hook in Rain Code, and since Yuma has the entire city as potential characters of interest in each mystery, you aren’t likely to get attached to anyone involved in any of the cases, thus reducing their emotional impact. It’s honestly impressive Chapters 2, 4, and 5 managed to have the impact they did.
- The core group of detective characters Yuma interacts with throughout the course of them game are interesting in personality alone, and rarely get any sort of meaningful development as the story progresses since so many of them are “tied” to the chapter they assist or oppose Yuma in and don’t get any time to shine otherwise. Sure, I enjoyed Halara being cold and efficient, Desuhiko being a goofy guy, and Fubuki being airheaded. But past that surface-level personality, I didn’t care much about them.
- While being able to explore Kanai Ward in an approximation of an open-world environment is cool on paper, I felt that it was largely pointless. Rain Code is a visual novel—I’m here to read and solve mysteries, not sit through what amounts to a really complicated loading screen as I walk to the next dialogue trigger. I was not at all interested in any of the sidequests the open world offered, and I was only marginally interested in collecting ‘memory shards’ (which unlock one-on-one conversations between Yuma and another detective). The Danganronpa series had social links in the form of free-time events, which were actually woven into the story at suitable points in the narrative. But Rain Code has you search out the shards to unlock these links—which if you’re like me and only cared about the main story—I’m not bothering to look for.
- Luckily, the mysteries in this game are pretty good so I don’t have that many complaints about them, save for Chapter 3 which honestly had the most random and nonsensical mystery in the entire game. The Chapter 4 investigation was great from a mystery standpoint, but the navigation around its crime scene was made annoying by both this game’s clunky movement (discussed below) and an element I can’t say for spoilers. And while Chapter 5’s Mystery Labyrinth was god-tier, the investigation went by very slowly as it was basically a walking simulator (again, why I don’t think a open-world was a good idea).
- Like the mysteries themselves, the Mystery Labyrinths were pretty consistently fun and creative. That being said, I really didn’t enjoy Shinigami Puzzle, partly because it's an only slightly improved version of Danganronpa’s worst minigame, and partly because it has super-omega cringe level fanservice that would prompt a very unenjoyable amount of questioning if someone saw me watching it on my TV screen. GOD Shinigami, while really fun, is also slightly uncomfortable to watch. Not really digging watching giantess Shinigami jiggle physics all over my screen lmao.
- Finally, this game’s open world might have been more tolerable if this game didn’t have super clunky movement and look controls. Absolutely no look smoothing and the walking is so stiff, it's a few removed movement vectors away from being grid-based. It’s not the worst thing in the world but just a bit better animations and walking everywhere could have at least looked pretty cool. Also the lip-syncing in cutscenes kinda sucks but whatever.
Objective rating: 3.5 stars
Subjective rating: 3.5 stars
There were times I was on the edge of my seat to see what happened next, and mysteries that were insanely fun to put together. And Rain Code’s final two chapters were an incredibly strong finish. But still, there’s a lot I didn’t enjoy in this game, or features I felt were executed better in the Danganronpa series. Sometimes I thought it was unfair to compare the two…but given how similar Rain Code tries to be to its predecessors, I think avoiding comparison is a fruitless endeavor. I want to say I liked this game…but I don’t know for sure.
Pros:
- Overall, I think the story of Rain Code is a good one simply because it sets up a lot of good mysteries that have some pretty crazy payouts. This game employs the same type of storytelling as Danganronpa, where each “chapter” of the game imparts a larger piece of the puzzle until you have enough to solve the big mystery at the end. It’s a solid formula and good lord the climax to this story in the fourth and fifth chapters is just mind blowing. It’s pretty much impossible to sit there and not crack a smile as you hear it all laid out. I prefer to keep my reviews spoiler-free, so unfortunately I won’t be talking about specific moments but there were a TON of dope reveals and concepts that I gushed over.
- I will say that one thing Rain Code has going for it over Danganronpa in the mystery department is that its setting allows much more varied investigations. Yuma has a whole city to investigate in, and there are much less restrictions on what tools are available in each case since anything that could be reasonably acquired in a city is fair game. Chapters 2 and 4 were my favorite to solve because of how insane the mechanics the culprits used to carry out their crime were, and both of them had very emotional endings. The second chapter also had the most creative investigation mechanic in the game, full stop. Those two chapters more than matched some of Danganronpa’s best cases.
- Of course, a large part of the reason why these mysteries were so enjoyable to solve is because they’re presented alongside the Mystery Labyrinth, which has some insanely flashy and interesting designs in it. Each labyrinth looks different depending on the case it corresponds to, and in some cases the types of questions and the layout can change depending on what kind of questions need to be answered to solve the mystery. A lot of its cutscenes and quick time events are really fun to playthrough, especially when you’re rapid-firing answers to questions as you try to avoid collapsing platforms or attacks from ‘mystery phantoms’ that seek to inhibit your progress. And while I still prefer Danganronpa’s Nonstop Debate minigames, Yuma’s Solution Blade cutting through statements in the Reasoning Deathmatch is so fucking cool. The sound design is killer on that. Deduction Denouement, while essentially a re-treading of Danganronpa’s Closing Argument, is awesome because Closing Argument is awesome.
- I’d also say that the minigames in Rain Code trim a lot of the unnecessary fat from Danganronpa’s Class Trial sequences. Instead of having to try and spell out the word “knife” or play fucking Tetris or some shit to figure out the item you need to present as evidence, Rain Code often just asks you a question, and you use your dope-as-shit sword to cut through with the correct answer. My favorite minigame was definitely the crime scene recreations, where you're tasked with reconstructing the crime as it happened. Chapter 1 had a ton of those and it was sick. Each Mystery Labyrinth also has different types of minigames, which helped prevent them from getting too stale, although the labyrinths were so enjoyable I doubt it would have mattered if there weren’t.
- I also really enjoyed the addition of cutscenes, even if they are occasionally clunky (more on that in the cons section). I love Danganronpa’s sprites and CG art style, but being able to see characters move around in 3D is very neat. The cutscenes where Yuma monologues about the theme and events of the chapter that play just before starting it are a highlight for me, I love how dramatic and symbolic they are (and yes as you might expect, Chapter 2’s intro cutscene is my favorite lol). Having almost every single line be fully voice acted was also very cool, and I think many of the voice actors gave great performances, especially those of Yuma, Shinigami, Desuhiko, Fubuki, Seth, Guillaume, and Yomi.
- The artstyle is as always phenomenal. Rui Komatsuzaki is an incredibly talented character artist, and the design of Kanai Ward and its unending rain is great. Nothing much to say here; it’s just good. And while I think the Danganronpa OST is miles better than this game, Rain Code had a few standout tracks, especially the Reasoning Deathmatch track; that shit had me PUMPED.
Cons:
- I might get crucified for this one but I didn’t think many of the characters in Rain Code were that memorable. This is definitely the main reason I feel so conflicted as to what degree I enjoyed this game. Danganronpa has its fair share of underdeveloped characters, but in general character motivations and development were a natural consequence of the way its mysteries played out. In that series, you knew that any murder meant one of the characters you’ve seen develop and interact with others would die, and another character would be their killer, which got you invested. There’s no such hook in Rain Code, and since Yuma has the entire city as potential characters of interest in each mystery, you aren’t likely to get attached to anyone involved in any of the cases, thus reducing their emotional impact. It’s honestly impressive Chapters 2, 4, and 5 managed to have the impact they did.
- The core group of detective characters Yuma interacts with throughout the course of them game are interesting in personality alone, and rarely get any sort of meaningful development as the story progresses since so many of them are “tied” to the chapter they assist or oppose Yuma in and don’t get any time to shine otherwise. Sure, I enjoyed Halara being cold and efficient, Desuhiko being a goofy guy, and Fubuki being airheaded. But past that surface-level personality, I didn’t care much about them.
- While being able to explore Kanai Ward in an approximation of an open-world environment is cool on paper, I felt that it was largely pointless. Rain Code is a visual novel—I’m here to read and solve mysteries, not sit through what amounts to a really complicated loading screen as I walk to the next dialogue trigger. I was not at all interested in any of the sidequests the open world offered, and I was only marginally interested in collecting ‘memory shards’ (which unlock one-on-one conversations between Yuma and another detective). The Danganronpa series had social links in the form of free-time events, which were actually woven into the story at suitable points in the narrative. But Rain Code has you search out the shards to unlock these links—which if you’re like me and only cared about the main story—I’m not bothering to look for.
- Luckily, the mysteries in this game are pretty good so I don’t have that many complaints about them, save for Chapter 3 which honestly had the most random and nonsensical mystery in the entire game. The Chapter 4 investigation was great from a mystery standpoint, but the navigation around its crime scene was made annoying by both this game’s clunky movement (discussed below) and an element I can’t say for spoilers. And while Chapter 5’s Mystery Labyrinth was god-tier, the investigation went by very slowly as it was basically a walking simulator (again, why I don’t think a open-world was a good idea).
- Like the mysteries themselves, the Mystery Labyrinths were pretty consistently fun and creative. That being said, I really didn’t enjoy Shinigami Puzzle, partly because it's an only slightly improved version of Danganronpa’s worst minigame, and partly because it has super-omega cringe level fanservice that would prompt a very unenjoyable amount of questioning if someone saw me watching it on my TV screen. GOD Shinigami, while really fun, is also slightly uncomfortable to watch. Not really digging watching giantess Shinigami jiggle physics all over my screen lmao.
- Finally, this game’s open world might have been more tolerable if this game didn’t have super clunky movement and look controls. Absolutely no look smoothing and the walking is so stiff, it's a few removed movement vectors away from being grid-based. It’s not the worst thing in the world but just a bit better animations and walking everywhere could have at least looked pretty cool. Also the lip-syncing in cutscenes kinda sucks but whatever.
Objective rating: 3.5 stars
Subjective rating: 3.5 stars
Mystery is one of my favourite genres, but also a genre in which I only love a few works. Mystery is so hard to do right, both in terms of keeping the story engaging while not being confusing, and having a satisfying answer to all the questions that the reader has had over the course of the story. To come across a story like Fata Morgana, which does such an incredible job with its mystery, is such a pleasure. Twisting its story and changing your perspective of situations so many times without it ever getting confusing or convoluted, and having a record amount of plottwists without ever having any misses. The story has so many different plot threads that are being woven together into this beautiful tapestry, giving you an enormous amount of "aha" moments in which you recall an earlier part of the story that suddenly makes sense.
While its mystery is excellent, it's merely the method in which the story is told, rather than what the story is truly about. Fata Morgana at its core is a tragedy. A story about a group of characters thrown in the most harrowing, painful, difficult situations imaginable. Flawed, human characters who often act out of fear and ignorance, who make mistakes, who hold grudges, who do awful things. But while it deals with an abundance of themes, such as identity, communication, loneliness, fear, bigotry, hatred, coping with unbearable pain and a lot more, Fata Morgana is ultimately a story about forgiveness. About hope, salvation and love. It's one of the most powerful and beautiful love stories I've had the pleasure to come across. And it handles all of its themes with nuance, with delicate care. It's wonderful.
If I had any problems with the game, it would be a couple of pacing issues. Some parts drag a little long when we've already gotten the point. But other than that I struggle to think of any. Despite the scope, complexity and depth of its story and characters, I simply can't think of any loose ends or anything it truly dropped the ball on.
Lastly I want to mention some of its most immediately striking aspects. The atmosphere, art and music are among the best I've found so far in the visual novel medium, which is a high bar. The soundtrack is utterly enchanting and unique, and greatly enhances the emotional, harrowing, eerie and euphoric moments of the story. The VN delivers in every way when it comes to telling its story. It's an experience I'll absolutely never forget, and I struggle to put into words how impressive this story is to me. So I'll leave it at that.
While its mystery is excellent, it's merely the method in which the story is told, rather than what the story is truly about. Fata Morgana at its core is a tragedy. A story about a group of characters thrown in the most harrowing, painful, difficult situations imaginable. Flawed, human characters who often act out of fear and ignorance, who make mistakes, who hold grudges, who do awful things. But while it deals with an abundance of themes, such as identity, communication, loneliness, fear, bigotry, hatred, coping with unbearable pain and a lot more, Fata Morgana is ultimately a story about forgiveness. About hope, salvation and love. It's one of the most powerful and beautiful love stories I've had the pleasure to come across. And it handles all of its themes with nuance, with delicate care. It's wonderful.
If I had any problems with the game, it would be a couple of pacing issues. Some parts drag a little long when we've already gotten the point. But other than that I struggle to think of any. Despite the scope, complexity and depth of its story and characters, I simply can't think of any loose ends or anything it truly dropped the ball on.
Lastly I want to mention some of its most immediately striking aspects. The atmosphere, art and music are among the best I've found so far in the visual novel medium, which is a high bar. The soundtrack is utterly enchanting and unique, and greatly enhances the emotional, harrowing, eerie and euphoric moments of the story. The VN delivers in every way when it comes to telling its story. It's an experience I'll absolutely never forget, and I struggle to put into words how impressive this story is to me. So I'll leave it at that.
In a game filled with tragedies the biggest one is that despite being the best writing and story I’ve ever experienced in a game I can never recommend it to someone because I’ll have to say with a straight face that it doesn’t get good until fifteen hours in…
I went into this game thinking I could crack a few jokes at the expense of friends who enjoy visual novels. I come out the other side having been fundamentally changed as a person and reflecting on my own life and the experiences that got me where I am today. When this game was sitting at a 100 on metacritic, it should've stayed there, it is really that good.
I love the part where Randy Orlando shows up and says "It's Orlando-ing Time" and then he removes the second half of the final boss's health with a single attack.
This review contains spoilers
the good: cassius promoting rean to divine blade, anelace’s 2 seconds of her new design was good, every time when juna is the main character of the game, the divine knights’ farewell, everyone looks great in their wedding outfits, half the soundtrack is really good
the bad: half the soundtrack is pretty bad, the curse literally ruined this game for me, this game thinks i like millium more than valimar and i Do Not, seeing that little heart on altinas bonding event icon, arianrhod’s motivation being way lamer than she deserves, everyone that died didnt die, everyone that betrayed didnt betray, aberich is lame as hell, osbornes backstory and ending is stupid, why do rhey act like reincarnation means you are the same person???, ishmelga is truly the worst idea ive seen in a while (how dare you bring hamel back and give it such a stupid secret backstory), why does everyone give claire and lechter so many free passes, why does elie look like that
-
trails of cold steel 4 is a game with more lows than highs. its supposed to be a culmination of every game that came before it but some parts of this game made me so annoyed or angry that it sometimes had me feeling dumb for ever getting invested at all. even worse, i quite like cold steel 3, i even think its my favorite of the cs games! i liked the timeskip, i really liked how rean’s character and position changed, and i just generally enjoyed that game. but sadly every question it set up is answered in the stupidest ways in cs 4. every death is reversed, every betrayal was a fakeout to “scope out from the inside” while accomplishing nothing, every character is paid off with the stupidest endings and motivations, every woman and girl in erebonia wants to fuck rean even more than before, AND osborne has a new voice and its SO much worse that it sunk any chance of osborne moments working for me
i was spoiled on nearly every detail of this game because rarely have i seem a fandom that spoils every game so throughly 2 weeks after the japanese release, but im not sure what if any of this would have hit more successfully if i hadnt been spoiled, im inclined to think it wouldve been even worse for me honestly
-
anyway idk man ive heard several times that reverie is the best trails game i just pray i like it at all at this point (even with c’s identity being spoiled for me, of course :/)
ps the real curse of erebonia is the guy at falcom doubling boob sizes every game and vacuum sealing every womans outfit, please stop him he’s a menace
the bad: half the soundtrack is pretty bad, the curse literally ruined this game for me, this game thinks i like millium more than valimar and i Do Not, seeing that little heart on altinas bonding event icon, arianrhod’s motivation being way lamer than she deserves, everyone that died didnt die, everyone that betrayed didnt betray, aberich is lame as hell, osbornes backstory and ending is stupid, why do rhey act like reincarnation means you are the same person???, ishmelga is truly the worst idea ive seen in a while (how dare you bring hamel back and give it such a stupid secret backstory), why does everyone give claire and lechter so many free passes, why does elie look like that
-
trails of cold steel 4 is a game with more lows than highs. its supposed to be a culmination of every game that came before it but some parts of this game made me so annoyed or angry that it sometimes had me feeling dumb for ever getting invested at all. even worse, i quite like cold steel 3, i even think its my favorite of the cs games! i liked the timeskip, i really liked how rean’s character and position changed, and i just generally enjoyed that game. but sadly every question it set up is answered in the stupidest ways in cs 4. every death is reversed, every betrayal was a fakeout to “scope out from the inside” while accomplishing nothing, every character is paid off with the stupidest endings and motivations, every woman and girl in erebonia wants to fuck rean even more than before, AND osborne has a new voice and its SO much worse that it sunk any chance of osborne moments working for me
i was spoiled on nearly every detail of this game because rarely have i seem a fandom that spoils every game so throughly 2 weeks after the japanese release, but im not sure what if any of this would have hit more successfully if i hadnt been spoiled, im inclined to think it wouldve been even worse for me honestly
-
anyway idk man ive heard several times that reverie is the best trails game i just pray i like it at all at this point (even with c’s identity being spoiled for me, of course :/)
ps the real curse of erebonia is the guy at falcom doubling boob sizes every game and vacuum sealing every womans outfit, please stop him he’s a menace
This review contains spoilers
The best part of this game is when it ends.
I'm still not quite sure how to critique this game. In some ways, this game is the natural followup to everything CS3 had built up. It represents the oversaturation of a series which spent over a decade and a half adding characters upon characters without knowing what to really do with them. The bottom line, is at the end of the day, this game is only one thing for certain: it's bad.
I, notoriously, hated Cold Steel III. The game that everyone said was the best Cold Steel game leading up to it. People conversely acted like CS4 was the worst piece of fiction ever made, so my expectations going in were very low. I already hated CS3, so you're telling me there's something even WORSE?
As such, this review might read like a comparison piece between CS3 and 4. I really don't know what to think about this game on its own since so many of its issues stem from CS3, and to go even further, how this game handles plot points from all of its preceding games significantly impacts my impressions of it. That might be part of the reason why this game felt like a load of nothing to me—it DOESN'T stand on its own. It doesn't stand up for itself. It has no merit without having played all the previous games prior to it, it is consistently only acting to bring Cold Steel to an end.
=ACT 1: Gameplay=
This game plays pretty much identically to Cold Steel 3, but gives you a lot more freedom when roaming the world—like in CS2. As someone who typically talks to all the NPCs in a Trails game, this can be overwhelming. However, the fast travel menu is incredibly robust and tells the player when there was something new to interact with in any particular area. For me, this made it easy for me to mindlessly do an NPC sweep without worrying too much about whether I missed anything. What also helps immensely is that hidden quests and hidden items (such as book chapters) are all marked on the minimap, although you need to actually travel to the area to be able to see it first. Thanks to this improved quality of life, however; it made the gameplay experience of Cold Steel 4 much smoother than normal. This is something I think Trails games have been consistently improving upon since Cold Steel 1, and I'm glad to see these have improved to this point.
I will say though, there was a sort of charm to finding a hidden quest or hidden item yourself without having your hand held by the game, so part of me is mixed on these improvements, but overall I believe they are for the better when the side content in these games are normally significant enough to be of value to your understanding of the world, story and characters... which is not something I can say about CS4's side content! Most of the side quests in this game are abysmal! I will touch on these later, however.
Battle mechanics remain the same as in Cold Steel 3 with very little change. For full disclosure, I played this game on the Normal difficulty setting.
The usual bell/cast spam works with arts, and craft spam is the way to go with this game as usual. Issues arise with the amount of party members you get in this game, since there's no realistic way you're going to be working on optimising the equipment and orbments of all 37 of them, so the game seems like it was balanced around that idea—it's piss easy. I quickly realised that it's not really worth spending much time in optimising or grinding since this game is so easy that just a modicum of optimisation into even just three main party members will get you through the entire game. I similarly began to run by enemies with frequency because levels don't matter either, you gain them fast enough to keep up if you're underlevelled and it's very easy to kill enemies while underlevelled anyway. S-Craft spam is a strategy that remains sound, especially when you sometimes have up to 4 support members who will come in and take the place of your main party if they were all K.O.'d.
Ultimately, the gameplay segment of this game is as mindless as it has ever been, perhaps even more so than CS3, but it is still a fair amount of fun to play, it's just not very deep so it can get boring very quickly.
=INTERMISSION: Music=
KINGA COOKED!!!!!!!!! DEEP CARNIVAL BEST TRACK IN THE GAME!!!! PEAK OST!!!!
Despite what they might say, I do think I enjoyed the new tracks in this game more than what CS3 had to offer, but I can't help but feel that Falcom OSTs are starting to, overwhelmingly, just be "there" these days. I am aware Falcom pretty much has no sound director role and the composers don't even have input on where their tracks are used in the game, but this is DIRE. I barely even realised that there was a new motif written for CS4 by Takahiro Unisuga and I only know that because my stream chat told me. There was nothing about this game's music usage that communicated this to me, and I almost think the soundtrack direction actively ruined the experience half the time. The reason this section of the review is so awkwardly put in between the gameplay and story segments is because I deadass forgot to talk about the OST... me, the OST guy. This is getting real bad guys.
=ACT 2: Story=
This game is split up into a prologue, three acts, an intermission, and a finale. It is pretty much identical in scope and structure to CS2, a game which I also wasn't a huge fan of at first but have come to like more in hindsight. In many ways, this game is just Trails of Cold Steel II-2. In execution, however, this game falls flat in comparison.
I enjoyed Act 1 of this game, I really did. I liked it way more than I had enjoyed almost any moment of CS3. I don't think much really happens in it, but making it such a relatively focused gameplay experience while taking the focus away from Rean gives such us such a unique lens to view the current situation of Erebonia, even if it's just taking a bite out of CS2's piece of the pie. I really do like Act 1.
However, that, is where my praise for the story ends.
Playing this game feels like going through a checklist of character moments organised in such a segmented fashion that there's barely a coherent plot. It makes for a hollow experience because by the time you're not even a quarter into the game you start to realise that all you're doing is getting everyone on your side before going to the final confrontation, including characters who were previously thought to be dead. Half of this isn't even necessary to do either, they artificially make more content by having characters change allegiances on a dime just so the main party has another character to seduce over to their side with an anime pep talk. In most cases, these only occur to give OTHER characters their 'character moment' for the game which usually amounts to just convincing their friend or relative to change back to the heroes' side. Most of this, is effectively filler.
On the flip side to this, you have the bonding events which probably feature some of the best writing this game has to offer, at least as far as the non-romance scenes go. Almost all of these felt like they had substance for each of the characters involved. The issue here then stems from the main story being predominantly filler—why wasn't this incorporated into the main story?
Similarly, most of the side quests in this game typically fall into one of two categories:
1. "oh no.... the curse got them...."
2. Appearance of a significant character with 'stakes'
I'll touch on the curse in a moment, but when you KNOW that it's a side quest and important main characters and even antagonists show up, you already know there will be no stakes. They can't do anything significant enough to affect the main story, otherwise they can't have their important moment take place when it REALLY matters. It just makes me wonder why a lot of this was shelved for side content rather than being meaningful content for the main story, because as it stands the plot is incredibly flat.
There really is no way to discuss this game's story without bringing up The Curse. The damage this single concept has done to this series in immeasurable. Not only is it inconsistent with itself, it actively ruins past parts of the series. There is no consistency to how it behaves, probably the only consistent thing about this curse is that it somehow respects state borders? As a result, the way it gets used also suffers. It actively goes AGAINST every single character motivation of Chancellor Osborne prior to this game and ruins his character. It'll rewrite memories to get NPCs to behave in a certain way, but it'll also physically force Count Arseid to comply without rewriting his memories? It's such a mess.
The curse is used well about... 10% of the time maybe? I think Ash beating the curse allegations at the start of Act 1 was fairly powerful albeit a bit abrupt, and Cedric's arc in the finale of the game was surprisingly engaging despite it all because it worked in tandem with his existing motivations from the previous games. I'm not saying the concept doesn't have potential on paper, however; in execution it caused irreparable damage to anything Cold Steel could have potentially achieved by the end of its life.
A Japanese review I read said the curse is a plot point "an elementary schooler could've come up with" and I don't think more accurate words have been said. This story is a meme and so are the characters.
=ACT 3: Legacy=
How does it feel seeing the characters you love having their personalities stripped to nothing?
This is the first game in the series to bring back so many characters in the series, but they really serve so little purpose in the story it's laughable. It's really sad to see that all these characters amount to are character traits now—some which even DOUBLE UP on characters we already have in Cold Steel alone, so having their presence even just for the party dynamic feels excessive. Any two characters meeting for the first time feels like "oh haha look we're similar" or "oh haha we have a mutual friend" and there's really nothing of substance here.
Some of these characters return specifically just to make other characters look better. Cassius came back JUST to make Rean into a divine blade, which, huh? Where did that come from? This was never a goal or anything of the previous games and suddenly I'm supposed to believe that Rean is on the same level as Arios or Cassius despite him being such a non-presence in the story of CS3 and 4, it's such a weird moment.
Getting to finally meet Elie's mum is cool, but seeing the ghosts of Hamel felt like an awkward re-appropriation of an old event just to milk a plot point that had already been tied up neatly in previous games. Not to mention, Loewe coming back from the dead to say 2 lines is comical. On top of that, WE PLAY VANTAGE MASTERS OVER LOEWE'S GRAVE. WITH JOSHUA.
I don't understand Lechter or Claire's motivations anymore. Lechter, a character who has been cooking since Trails in the Sky the 3RD even had nothing good come of him. He wanted to avoid a war in previous titles, so why were all his actions from CS3 onwards to instigate one? Nothing makes sense anymore. This is just but one of the many wasted setups from Sky 3rd. If they were going to retcon out Sky 3rd stuff, why didn't they cut out the Tita and Agate jokes?
There is nothing in this game that doesn't feel outright disrespectful to the series' legacy. I think it's outright blasphemy to even call it "fan-service", it actively depreciates everything that has been building up until this point and then proceeds to rub salt in the wound AND spit in its face.
=FINALE: Where to next?=
To my surprise, this game wasn't any worse than CS3, nor was it better. It was perfectly in line with everything I hated about CS3, but somehow managed to have moments that I did care about despite it all. I would describe this game as having higher highs than CS3, but ASTRONOMICALLY lower lows than CS3, but I'm not sure I could say which I hate less.
CS3 set CS4 up to fail. I am convinced this is the unadulterated truth about these last two games in this series. My expectations were already low because of CS3 and thus I was kinda ready for CS4 to also be a mess, but when everyone acted like CS3 was the best CS game and CS4 was the worst piece of media to ever be created, I'm not sure I was expecting to feel so much... the same about both games.
Falcom company president Toshihiro Kondo once said that part of Reverie's reason for existing is to try to make up for some of CS4's failings. I have heard nothing but praise for the game, and also that it tries to backtrack on a few points from CS4. I don't know how salvageable this series is moving forward, but I will let them cook and see.
Despite it all, I am just glad it is over and I can finally get onto playing good games again. Thank you for reading.
I'm still not quite sure how to critique this game. In some ways, this game is the natural followup to everything CS3 had built up. It represents the oversaturation of a series which spent over a decade and a half adding characters upon characters without knowing what to really do with them. The bottom line, is at the end of the day, this game is only one thing for certain: it's bad.
I, notoriously, hated Cold Steel III. The game that everyone said was the best Cold Steel game leading up to it. People conversely acted like CS4 was the worst piece of fiction ever made, so my expectations going in were very low. I already hated CS3, so you're telling me there's something even WORSE?
As such, this review might read like a comparison piece between CS3 and 4. I really don't know what to think about this game on its own since so many of its issues stem from CS3, and to go even further, how this game handles plot points from all of its preceding games significantly impacts my impressions of it. That might be part of the reason why this game felt like a load of nothing to me—it DOESN'T stand on its own. It doesn't stand up for itself. It has no merit without having played all the previous games prior to it, it is consistently only acting to bring Cold Steel to an end.
=ACT 1: Gameplay=
This game plays pretty much identically to Cold Steel 3, but gives you a lot more freedom when roaming the world—like in CS2. As someone who typically talks to all the NPCs in a Trails game, this can be overwhelming. However, the fast travel menu is incredibly robust and tells the player when there was something new to interact with in any particular area. For me, this made it easy for me to mindlessly do an NPC sweep without worrying too much about whether I missed anything. What also helps immensely is that hidden quests and hidden items (such as book chapters) are all marked on the minimap, although you need to actually travel to the area to be able to see it first. Thanks to this improved quality of life, however; it made the gameplay experience of Cold Steel 4 much smoother than normal. This is something I think Trails games have been consistently improving upon since Cold Steel 1, and I'm glad to see these have improved to this point.
I will say though, there was a sort of charm to finding a hidden quest or hidden item yourself without having your hand held by the game, so part of me is mixed on these improvements, but overall I believe they are for the better when the side content in these games are normally significant enough to be of value to your understanding of the world, story and characters... which is not something I can say about CS4's side content! Most of the side quests in this game are abysmal! I will touch on these later, however.
Battle mechanics remain the same as in Cold Steel 3 with very little change. For full disclosure, I played this game on the Normal difficulty setting.
The usual bell/cast spam works with arts, and craft spam is the way to go with this game as usual. Issues arise with the amount of party members you get in this game, since there's no realistic way you're going to be working on optimising the equipment and orbments of all 37 of them, so the game seems like it was balanced around that idea—it's piss easy. I quickly realised that it's not really worth spending much time in optimising or grinding since this game is so easy that just a modicum of optimisation into even just three main party members will get you through the entire game. I similarly began to run by enemies with frequency because levels don't matter either, you gain them fast enough to keep up if you're underlevelled and it's very easy to kill enemies while underlevelled anyway. S-Craft spam is a strategy that remains sound, especially when you sometimes have up to 4 support members who will come in and take the place of your main party if they were all K.O.'d.
Ultimately, the gameplay segment of this game is as mindless as it has ever been, perhaps even more so than CS3, but it is still a fair amount of fun to play, it's just not very deep so it can get boring very quickly.
=INTERMISSION: Music=
KINGA COOKED!!!!!!!!! DEEP CARNIVAL BEST TRACK IN THE GAME!!!! PEAK OST!!!!
Despite what they might say, I do think I enjoyed the new tracks in this game more than what CS3 had to offer, but I can't help but feel that Falcom OSTs are starting to, overwhelmingly, just be "there" these days. I am aware Falcom pretty much has no sound director role and the composers don't even have input on where their tracks are used in the game, but this is DIRE. I barely even realised that there was a new motif written for CS4 by Takahiro Unisuga and I only know that because my stream chat told me. There was nothing about this game's music usage that communicated this to me, and I almost think the soundtrack direction actively ruined the experience half the time. The reason this section of the review is so awkwardly put in between the gameplay and story segments is because I deadass forgot to talk about the OST... me, the OST guy. This is getting real bad guys.
=ACT 2: Story=
This game is split up into a prologue, three acts, an intermission, and a finale. It is pretty much identical in scope and structure to CS2, a game which I also wasn't a huge fan of at first but have come to like more in hindsight. In many ways, this game is just Trails of Cold Steel II-2. In execution, however, this game falls flat in comparison.
I enjoyed Act 1 of this game, I really did. I liked it way more than I had enjoyed almost any moment of CS3. I don't think much really happens in it, but making it such a relatively focused gameplay experience while taking the focus away from Rean gives such us such a unique lens to view the current situation of Erebonia, even if it's just taking a bite out of CS2's piece of the pie. I really do like Act 1.
However, that, is where my praise for the story ends.
Playing this game feels like going through a checklist of character moments organised in such a segmented fashion that there's barely a coherent plot. It makes for a hollow experience because by the time you're not even a quarter into the game you start to realise that all you're doing is getting everyone on your side before going to the final confrontation, including characters who were previously thought to be dead. Half of this isn't even necessary to do either, they artificially make more content by having characters change allegiances on a dime just so the main party has another character to seduce over to their side with an anime pep talk. In most cases, these only occur to give OTHER characters their 'character moment' for the game which usually amounts to just convincing their friend or relative to change back to the heroes' side. Most of this, is effectively filler.
On the flip side to this, you have the bonding events which probably feature some of the best writing this game has to offer, at least as far as the non-romance scenes go. Almost all of these felt like they had substance for each of the characters involved. The issue here then stems from the main story being predominantly filler—why wasn't this incorporated into the main story?
Similarly, most of the side quests in this game typically fall into one of two categories:
1. "oh no.... the curse got them...."
2. Appearance of a significant character with 'stakes'
I'll touch on the curse in a moment, but when you KNOW that it's a side quest and important main characters and even antagonists show up, you already know there will be no stakes. They can't do anything significant enough to affect the main story, otherwise they can't have their important moment take place when it REALLY matters. It just makes me wonder why a lot of this was shelved for side content rather than being meaningful content for the main story, because as it stands the plot is incredibly flat.
There really is no way to discuss this game's story without bringing up The Curse. The damage this single concept has done to this series in immeasurable. Not only is it inconsistent with itself, it actively ruins past parts of the series. There is no consistency to how it behaves, probably the only consistent thing about this curse is that it somehow respects state borders? As a result, the way it gets used also suffers. It actively goes AGAINST every single character motivation of Chancellor Osborne prior to this game and ruins his character. It'll rewrite memories to get NPCs to behave in a certain way, but it'll also physically force Count Arseid to comply without rewriting his memories? It's such a mess.
The curse is used well about... 10% of the time maybe? I think Ash beating the curse allegations at the start of Act 1 was fairly powerful albeit a bit abrupt, and Cedric's arc in the finale of the game was surprisingly engaging despite it all because it worked in tandem with his existing motivations from the previous games. I'm not saying the concept doesn't have potential on paper, however; in execution it caused irreparable damage to anything Cold Steel could have potentially achieved by the end of its life.
A Japanese review I read said the curse is a plot point "an elementary schooler could've come up with" and I don't think more accurate words have been said. This story is a meme and so are the characters.
=ACT 3: Legacy=
How does it feel seeing the characters you love having their personalities stripped to nothing?
This is the first game in the series to bring back so many characters in the series, but they really serve so little purpose in the story it's laughable. It's really sad to see that all these characters amount to are character traits now—some which even DOUBLE UP on characters we already have in Cold Steel alone, so having their presence even just for the party dynamic feels excessive. Any two characters meeting for the first time feels like "oh haha look we're similar" or "oh haha we have a mutual friend" and there's really nothing of substance here.
Some of these characters return specifically just to make other characters look better. Cassius came back JUST to make Rean into a divine blade, which, huh? Where did that come from? This was never a goal or anything of the previous games and suddenly I'm supposed to believe that Rean is on the same level as Arios or Cassius despite him being such a non-presence in the story of CS3 and 4, it's such a weird moment.
Getting to finally meet Elie's mum is cool, but seeing the ghosts of Hamel felt like an awkward re-appropriation of an old event just to milk a plot point that had already been tied up neatly in previous games. Not to mention, Loewe coming back from the dead to say 2 lines is comical. On top of that, WE PLAY VANTAGE MASTERS OVER LOEWE'S GRAVE. WITH JOSHUA.
I don't understand Lechter or Claire's motivations anymore. Lechter, a character who has been cooking since Trails in the Sky the 3RD even had nothing good come of him. He wanted to avoid a war in previous titles, so why were all his actions from CS3 onwards to instigate one? Nothing makes sense anymore. This is just but one of the many wasted setups from Sky 3rd. If they were going to retcon out Sky 3rd stuff, why didn't they cut out the Tita and Agate jokes?
There is nothing in this game that doesn't feel outright disrespectful to the series' legacy. I think it's outright blasphemy to even call it "fan-service", it actively depreciates everything that has been building up until this point and then proceeds to rub salt in the wound AND spit in its face.
=FINALE: Where to next?=
To my surprise, this game wasn't any worse than CS3, nor was it better. It was perfectly in line with everything I hated about CS3, but somehow managed to have moments that I did care about despite it all. I would describe this game as having higher highs than CS3, but ASTRONOMICALLY lower lows than CS3, but I'm not sure I could say which I hate less.
CS3 set CS4 up to fail. I am convinced this is the unadulterated truth about these last two games in this series. My expectations were already low because of CS3 and thus I was kinda ready for CS4 to also be a mess, but when everyone acted like CS3 was the best CS game and CS4 was the worst piece of media to ever be created, I'm not sure I was expecting to feel so much... the same about both games.
Falcom company president Toshihiro Kondo once said that part of Reverie's reason for existing is to try to make up for some of CS4's failings. I have heard nothing but praise for the game, and also that it tries to backtrack on a few points from CS4. I don't know how salvageable this series is moving forward, but I will let them cook and see.
Despite it all, I am just glad it is over and I can finally get onto playing good games again. Thank you for reading.
This review contains spoilers
A Cursed Fairy Tale Disaster.
I will say this. I absolutely adored the Trails series especially Reverie and Sky Second Chapter.
I adored the deep lore, attention to detail and wordbuilding that they provided.
I loved most of the characters that each entry provides my favourites being Renne, Lowete, Crow, Fie, Estelle, Emma, Gaius (You Deserved Better) Randy, Wazy and many others.
The storytelling always fascinating to me, even if it doesn't always hit the mark. (Cold Steel Saga specially)
That said Cold Steel 4 is one of the most miserable, dragged out, unfocused and meandering JRPGs I've ever played.
Despite me ultimate hating this game, it had some redeeming that saved it from getting the lowest score.
Crow and Duvalie becoming Allies.
Music especially the battle themes.
True Ending Final Battle.
Ending Credits.
Fie, Duvalie, Altina, Emma, Randy, Renne and Ash character development.
Funny humor from time to time.
Most of Act 1 and 3 was soild barring some bad writing moments.
That's, unfortunately, it.
The Bad.
Gameplay is mostly a cake with some serious balancing issues.
CS4 tried to nerf some characters kit, mainly from new class 7, but the only thing that they did is just made New Class 7 severely underpowered especially after Act 1 (Aside from Musse who ends up becoming my premiere offensive arts user)
Lots of padded dialogue, mixed with repeated and stiff animation.
Lack of overall death and consequences seriously why is the Cold Steel Saga is too chicken to kill off it's characters?
Character development locked by forced Bonding Events and now it's at it's all time worse now.
WHY Falcom WHY!!!
While I'm glad to see Estelle, Joshua and other characters from the previous games again, they unfortunately have locked meandering kits and craft selections.
CS4 Rean portrayal.
I did like his character in the CS1-CS3 days, but he fell off a cliff once he fully lost control by the end of CS3.
Here's outside of forced muh sacrifice bull bullcrap horrifically bland and uninteresting, that lacked all the charisma that he had in the previous games.
Thank God for Reverie for fixing Rean I guess.
Bad writing, numerous plotholes and asspulls especially in Act 2.
The UGLY.
Act 2 outside the final act doesn't need to exist whatsoever.
Worse than Cold Steel 2 Act 2.
The Cursed plotline.
Without question the worst written plotline I've seen in any video game.
Outrageously contrived and lazy
Alisha dumb family issues plotline.
She barely felt like a character, but more of a lazily driven and incoherent plot device that exists to create tension and drama.
She's just annoying background noise.
Juna, the brain rotting, reconning, hamfisted, loud, annoying cow.
My most hated JRPG character.
If it wasn't bad enough that you were a bootleg Estelle, now you to act you knew Rean struggles while shaming old Class 7.
Also after Act 1 she just becomes another member of Rean's Harem, rubbing her face at Rean's crouch, while struggling to stay relevant.
Fuck this character.
She and the cursed plotline ruined Cold Steel 4.
I seriously have no idea of what Falcom was thinking when making this game.
A game that despite having some fantastic moments is littered with serious issues that killed the experience for me.
Despite my disgust with Cold Steel 4 as a whole, I'm glad it exists as it allowed for Reverie and Kuro to rise as they seemed that the Falcom staff have learn their lesson from Cold Steel 4.
We all make mistakes and Falcom's Cold Steel 4 was their mistake that shall not be repeated again.
I will say this. I absolutely adored the Trails series especially Reverie and Sky Second Chapter.
I adored the deep lore, attention to detail and wordbuilding that they provided.
I loved most of the characters that each entry provides my favourites being Renne, Lowete, Crow, Fie, Estelle, Emma, Gaius (You Deserved Better) Randy, Wazy and many others.
The storytelling always fascinating to me, even if it doesn't always hit the mark. (Cold Steel Saga specially)
That said Cold Steel 4 is one of the most miserable, dragged out, unfocused and meandering JRPGs I've ever played.
Despite me ultimate hating this game, it had some redeeming that saved it from getting the lowest score.
Crow and Duvalie becoming Allies.
Music especially the battle themes.
True Ending Final Battle.
Ending Credits.
Fie, Duvalie, Altina, Emma, Randy, Renne and Ash character development.
Funny humor from time to time.
Most of Act 1 and 3 was soild barring some bad writing moments.
That's, unfortunately, it.
The Bad.
Gameplay is mostly a cake with some serious balancing issues.
CS4 tried to nerf some characters kit, mainly from new class 7, but the only thing that they did is just made New Class 7 severely underpowered especially after Act 1 (Aside from Musse who ends up becoming my premiere offensive arts user)
Lots of padded dialogue, mixed with repeated and stiff animation.
Lack of overall death and consequences seriously why is the Cold Steel Saga is too chicken to kill off it's characters?
Character development locked by forced Bonding Events and now it's at it's all time worse now.
WHY Falcom WHY!!!
While I'm glad to see Estelle, Joshua and other characters from the previous games again, they unfortunately have locked meandering kits and craft selections.
CS4 Rean portrayal.
I did like his character in the CS1-CS3 days, but he fell off a cliff once he fully lost control by the end of CS3.
Here's outside of forced muh sacrifice bull bullcrap horrifically bland and uninteresting, that lacked all the charisma that he had in the previous games.
Thank God for Reverie for fixing Rean I guess.
Bad writing, numerous plotholes and asspulls especially in Act 2.
The UGLY.
Act 2 outside the final act doesn't need to exist whatsoever.
Worse than Cold Steel 2 Act 2.
The Cursed plotline.
Without question the worst written plotline I've seen in any video game.
Outrageously contrived and lazy
Alisha dumb family issues plotline.
She barely felt like a character, but more of a lazily driven and incoherent plot device that exists to create tension and drama.
She's just annoying background noise.
Juna, the brain rotting, reconning, hamfisted, loud, annoying cow.
My most hated JRPG character.
If it wasn't bad enough that you were a bootleg Estelle, now you to act you knew Rean struggles while shaming old Class 7.
Also after Act 1 she just becomes another member of Rean's Harem, rubbing her face at Rean's crouch, while struggling to stay relevant.
Fuck this character.
She and the cursed plotline ruined Cold Steel 4.
I seriously have no idea of what Falcom was thinking when making this game.
A game that despite having some fantastic moments is littered with serious issues that killed the experience for me.
Despite my disgust with Cold Steel 4 as a whole, I'm glad it exists as it allowed for Reverie and Kuro to rise as they seemed that the Falcom staff have learn their lesson from Cold Steel 4.
We all make mistakes and Falcom's Cold Steel 4 was their mistake that shall not be repeated again.
