Great first game for what would be one of the most detailed worlds in fiction. Tons of world-building, amazing and catchy music (Sophisticated Fight will always be one of the greatest JRPG battle songs), character writing, and NPC depth. All would become series standards that Trails is known for.

The gameplay may be very dated and slow for today's standards but it contains a lot of the series' foundation such as arts, crafts, and grid movement.

The game starts off very slow as it's the tale of Estelle and Joshua's Bright journey across Liberl to become full-fledged bracers but it will soon escalate as they have to resolve various issues from town to town. Their intimate and evolving relationship, alongside a charming cast, it's one of the highlights in the game. In fact, when you get done with Trails in the Sky, it will make you want to play the second game since the cliffhanger is so jaw-dropping and plot twisted.

If you want to get people into the wonderful world of Zemeria, always recommend people to start with this. You absolutely can not go wrong with the first Trails game since it's the layout of the series and it does not do anything wrong either.

Okay, let me say this, Cassette Beasts is not a bad game. It does a lot of things pretty fine. In fact, it's pretty impressive that only about 5-7 people total made the game. It's a monster-taming RPG very similar to Pokemon. You go around the open world and platform around to access new locations, which I do find the visuals very charming, and engage in battle with beasts and trainers. You catch these beasts with cassettes by recording them and I really love the idea of having music integral to the game. It just helps give it its own identity.

Cassette Beasts share a lot of the same mechanics as Pokemon such as remasting, which is evolving your beasts into new powerful forms. As well as each beast falls into multiple types of elements; including more unique ones such as glitter, plastic, glass, and toxic. Plus I really like how you can customize movesets and abilities with stickers, even if the sticker doesn't match the element type of the beast. However, my favorite aspect has to be fusion. When you and your partner's beast combine into a new, bigger, more powerful beast that shares the same moveset. Plus I just think it's aesthetically super cool that no two beasts look exactly the same when you fuse them together.

Gameplay-wise...while personally I'm not a huge fan of monster taming in RPGs, I still found it severable and fairly fun. However, it's very barebones in terms of story. I felt like I spent 80% of the game on just going to new areas and fighting.

Cassette Beasts' plot is basically you're a complete stranger who landed on New Wirral, a strange land full of monsters, and you want to get back home. To do that, you need to defeat archangels to search for clues. And in the meanwhile, you can fight against ranger captains to get stamps (much like how you defeat Pokemon trainers for badges) and deal with vampires that may or may not be real estate scammers. That is essentially the plot within a paragraph. Granted there is a few cool moments I don't want to spoil but I found it to be very sparse for the most part.

If anything, the characters that serve as your partners add a lot of spice to the game's writing. They may not be super in-depth that get tons of development but they're still very likable characters that come from different time periods and places. Each partner has a bond system and you are able to learn more about the character's life before they came to New Wirral and even have the option to romance almost any of your partners once you max out thier bond. Plus a lot of the side characters such as the ranger trainers are colorful. They are pretty one-noted and only have a single trope for thier personality but alas they add to the game's vibrant atmosphere.

Other complaints I have is I personally found it super annoying for random people to pop up and challenge me to a fight all of the time, when sometimes I just can't be bothered at all. Plus the game does become very grindy in the post-game, especially since by then most of the content is either randomly generated quests or filling out the bestiary but as far as story content, there isn't much left to do after the final boss. And this is more of a Switch-specific issue but even with the stable patch update, I wasn't particularly a fan of the long load time. It's especially jarring when a loading screen pops up in the middle of walking from one area to another.

Cassette Beasts is a cutesy, fun 20-25+ hour game with some neat vivid ideas to break away from the monster-taming formula Pokemon have dominated for over 25 years. It doesn't truly do anything wrong or awfully. However, there's just much more to be desired with the story writing and there are certain mechanics and tropes I wish Cassette Beasts didn't copy from Pokemon. Maybe because I'm not in love with this subgenre of RPGs but decent gameplay alone can only keep my attention for so long before I would eventually get tired of the game. I don't think Cassette Beasts is bad, I'm just not sure if monster-taming games are for me

“Tales of loss, and fire, and faith
Everywhere, our hearts engraved
In the dark, you will not stray
Forge ahead, 'til the end we pray”

Quite frankly, FFXIV Endwalker not only is the cumulation to all of the major story elements in the game, and it just ties in everything so beautifully and tightly. But it just had essentially everything that I love about stories. During its 8 year run and 3 expansion packs. FFXIV became a massive world filled with dozens and dozens of characters you come to love over time and some of the most expansive world-building and lore I have seen, not just in video games. It pays off so much to not only do all of the prior MSQ but also complete certain chain-side quests since those get referenced as well. There were scenes that just felt completely epic and grand since it put in so much focus on all of the allies you made throughout FFXIV.

Endwalker is also an expansive,multi-layered, plot-twisting adventure that goes beyond the scope of the Eozora setting multiple times. As my expectations were completely broken for something I would never see coming in the game. I would love to go into details about this but I need to keep this spoiler-free for now. However, as a massive fan of a certain genre, I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased with how those elements are incorporated into the story. Between that and the overall theming of Endwalker, it definitely reminded me of a few of my all-time favorite games and it just gave me a greater sense of appreciation of the boundless scale of the expansion.

That said, Endwalker is easily the darkest and most grim FFXIV expansion yet with strong nods of dark fantasy. There were plenty of times when it got so violent and savage, I have no idea how Square Enix avoided an M rating at times. Not just with violence either, as feelings of hopelessness and despair fill the air, affecting the characters and questioning their motives on whether or not they were doing the right thing since essentially every character is mortally gray.

However one of the biggest themes of Endwalker is even when things are shrouded in darkness, there is also light and hope at the end. The emotional and character bonding you have with not only with your fellow Scions but other key characters are as strong as ever and there has been greater emphasis on spending time with them. Such as talking about various things around their surroundings, the constant dialogue updates, and seeing the conclusion of their personal arcs with growth since ARR. What were once seemingly random people you met are now your dearest companions you feel multiple emotions towards them and back.

In fact, the emotions everyone feels are as important as ever. I won’t go into details but one of the biggest emphases about this is the soundtrack and the variation of moods. From world music influenced acoustic guitars to quiet pianos and singing. It adds more to the emotional scenes, from dread to bliss to anger etc. And they’re all incredible pieces of music.

If I have to be objective, Endwalker isn’t perfect or flawless. It has pacing and filler issues, I thought some of the slower moments overstay its welcome at times. While this I am aware the game needs time to breathe and to create a more balanced experience. When everything is at high stakes and risks, I question the lengthy slowdowns at times. Some of the gameplay elements are mechanically iffy as well such as chasing down someone and the duties are more challenging than ever to the point it’s frustrating. When you expect the challenge it’s fine but MSQ duties should be easy enough for anyone to pass for the story without too much effort. Not to mention, I wasn’t quite a fan with a few choice scenes but they’re very minor compared to the grand scope of Endwalker.

But subjectively speaking and despite all nitpicking, it’s a gorgeous masterpiece in my eyes since not only Endwalker is the expansion pass that finally makes me admit FFXIV is now my all-time favorite Final Fantasy but also one of my all-time favorite games since it just beautifully combines everything I love seeing in video games stories into one while still having its own identity for this final chapter for the first major story arc in FFXIV. To me, Endwalker is the definition of peak fiction for that alone.

Amazing and emotional game. While functioning extremely similar to the first Sky game, The direct sequel establishes and writes out one of the greatest personal journeys have ever seen in a game. Sky SC introduces the series' overall antagonists and their direct combatants, as they play a major role in the story and Estelle and her friends must overcome them. If you thought Sky FC had tons of lore and world-building, then Sky SC is even more expansive as plenty of terminologies that will, later on in the series, get explored will be introduced in Sky SC.

One of the greatest strengths in Sky SC is the character arcs as most characters get focused on with their backstory and development mixed into the main story. In fact, by the time I was finished with the game, I was convinced Estelle and Joshua were some of the best pairs I have ever seen in fiction due to their bondage and how they lift each other.

Sky SC may be a bit too formulaic during the first half of the game and the party composition can cause the player to miss out on tons of important dialogue and interaction but alas, as far as story writing, it's near flawless. If you completed Sky FC and have not started Sky SC, then what are you waiting on??? Go play this game to see the breathtaking adventure and character growth of Estelle Bright.

Hajimari no Kiseki is the 10th game in the Trails series, wrapping up multiple plot points and character arcs from the Cold Steel and Crossbell series while setting up what next to come in the series. One could say Hajimari is very similar to Trails in the Sky the 3rd as far as structure. After playing the game for 135 hours, Hajimari no Kiseki just might be one of the strongest entries in the series with its various improvements in the game.

Aesthetic-wise, the visuals for Hajimari are largely the same as Cold Steel 3 and 4 and there are hardly any new locations with the exception of nearly all of Crossbell is now fully modeled in 3D. However, one of the biggest improvements is the animations. There are quite a lot of scenes with really smooth animations, from lip flaps to dynamic camera work to full-blown action scenes. The increased quality of animations is near Triple-A quality, and that's rather impressive considering Falcom was never for high visual quality.
The OST is also amazing. Falcom always had great tunes for their games but they have really knocked out of the park for this one. Me personally I love so many of the new battle themes since it's much heavier and the music is more complex, to the point I can say the OST for Hajimari is my favorite in the series.

Gameplay-wise, Hajimari is the best in the series as well. Although it's much the same as Cold Steel 3 and 4, what's different this time is there's a new mechanic called Valiant Rage when you can use 5 or more people in your party to do an all-out physical or art attack or recover your party. This adds an extra element to the series' combat. What else is noteworthy is the number of playable characters in the game. With over 50 characters, Hajimari boots one of the largest playable casts in an RPG. There are tons and tons of party combinations you can form with different builds. You could easily spend hours and hours just setting up characters. Not to mention Hajimari is more battle-focused than all of Cold Steel and Crossbell, so there's plenty of room for combat.

Getting to the core format of Hajimari, the game is split into two parts. The main story that you can go back and forth with Rean's, Lloyd's, and C's routes that are more aligned toward the traditional main stories for Trails and the True Reverie Corridor which is very similar to Phantasmagoria from Trails in the Sky the 3rd from all of the playable characters are gathered together and do dungeons to playable episodes that flushes out what happened between Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari and fun, silly minigames.

The main story for Hajimari has to be the best-paced and streamlined game in the series. No filler side quests, no harem bonding events, and once the ball gets rolling for each route, it stays rolling until the end and they all kick off by the end of Chapter 1. Hajimari no Kiseki essentially got rid of 2 of my biggest issues with Cold Steel 4, so it's a massive improvement as far as maturity and pacing.

I wasn't too excited for Lloyd's route since....without spoiling it too much, it's very repetitive to the story beats of Ao no Kiseki plus it's predictable with its twists at times but it gave the SSS new character development and a new outlook on Crossbell. Lloyd's route is overall fine but it's the weakest route. Rean's route plays out very similar to Cold Steel 3 by visiting different locations in Erebonia with different characters in every chapter. While Rean's route is a slow-burner, the payoff is very high and I felt like it had moments that rival the quality of Cold Steel 3 and Ao no Kiseki (my two favorite games of the series).
C's route is the best route in the game. You have a brand new set of characters with different but yet similar backgrounds and without spoiling much, it really gave everyone sustainable character development and reflection. Plus it really drives home some of the series' themes such as forgiveness and starting over with a new group of people. It's just phenomenal writing.

Of course, the three routes do connect to each other, which led to my biggest issue with the game. It's very convoluted. Trails always was great with keeping its stories and its lore very clean and understandable but with trying to tie up Cold Steel and Crossbell with the new plot points and lore introduced in Hajimari, I just ended up counting a lot of plot holes that just don't make sense. This is especially apparent in the final chapter when everything is supposed to connect but the presentation is just very complicated and the execution is messy. Falcom is usually great with writing stories but it seems like they shot for the moon too far this time, to the point the story hardly holds up by the time you're done with the extra chapter.
And there is the True Reverie Corridor, which is the strongest part of the game. Everyone across the Sky, Crossbell, and Cold Steel games are gathered together, providing an endless combination of character interactions you would not get otherwise between conversations in the hub areas, the group missions, and the trial doors. These conversations really complement the characters and bring out a new side of their personality and their interests. Not to mention there are a lot of dungeon levels to play in the TRC that boost the number of characters and the updated gameplay to good use.

There are randomly generated missions you can do to collect purple stones. You can use these purple stones to upgrade various gameplay elements such as increase brave points, charge meter, the number of characters you can have in your party at one time etc. There even a gacha system you can collect orbs to unlock minigames, episodes, orbments, accessories, etc. Considering there are 51 playable characters, the gacha isn't a bad system to get orbments and accessories to make building the characters easy. Plus there are items that can help boost a character's level, so you don't have to grind all day to boost up a character that is 50 levels behind. It's just really nice to have the quality of life elements as far as character, gameplay, and build management.

However, my biggest complaint about the gacha element is the way you unlock characters. You will get 40 of the characters by the story mode alone but the other 11 must be obtained by the gacha system. This might not sound too bad, considering you can't even use real money but considering the dialogue for the characters in the TRC updates for every chapter, you will permanently miss dialogue for the characters just for not having them and the 11 characters you get are randomized. Not to mention you can only get a few yellow orbs (the orbs you use to get the characters) per chapter. So unlocking all 11 immediately isn't possible either. New game plus does not fix this issue either sadly. This might not sound like a huge killer but considering talking to the NPCs that always have updated dialogue is one of the biggest highlights in this series, it's a real bummer.

In addition to that, there are also episodes that provide a strong bridge not only between Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari but between Hajimari and the upcoming Kuro no Kiseki. The quality of the episodes varies but most of them are good at least while there are a few that are really amazing. These episodes highlight and explore the character and the actions they made in previous games, give the characters proper conclusions to their arc that spans across games and expanded the lore and give them new context and hindsight. There are also a few episodes that are just plain silly and goofy that just show the everyday life of a character, so not all of them are serious or deep. The episodes overall enhance the world of Zemuria with its many sides and the characters that are involved in them.

There are also minigames, while it doesn't add much to the grand scope of Hajimari, it's fun extra content you can do. From playing a bullet hell-like Magical Girl minigame that spilled into three episodes and played out like a super generic high school magical girl anime (which is pretty charming in its own right), to going to the beach and ugghhhh.....having romantic dating sim conversations with a lot of girls in first person, to other things like a quiz game, mecha combat and POM makes a return again. I can't speak for the quiz game since it was untranslated and the story for the mecha minigame is untranslated as well but I found it unfun to play due to chunky controls. It felt like I was playing an unlocalized and niche PS1 game. Overall none of the minigames are amazing but if you want more Trails in various ways, then it's worth checking out.

Hajimari no Kiseki is overall a great game with a lot of strengths and the amount of content is massive that really made the game shine well. While it took a step back with clear storytelling and lore that is easy to follow through on top of a flawed gacha system, it took 2 steps forward for everything else from gameplay, character writing and interaction, plot pacing, further separating the waifu harem dating from the main story, etc. Hajimari is an excellent send-off and a strong conclusion for the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs. Out of all of the Trails games, Hajimari is a close second for my favorite Trails game with Ao and CS3 still sits as a tie for my all-time favorite. And even then, I can totally see why someone would say Hajimari is their favorite game. After all, the game just does so much right in all areas.

Honestly, it's one of my favorite games at this point despite I haven't even done every single thing yet. In fact, it's the best 9/10 game I've played alongside Radiant Historia and easily in my top 10 games.

The only thing I'm not fully sole on is the choice system which is based on convictions. It's an interesting mechanic and I like that your choices matter here, but I would prefer if more of the content was laid out in one playthrough such as the ability to get more units in one playthrough. Plus the voice acting would benefit a bit more with more emotion but that's an issue with both the ENG and JP audio from what I understand.

But otherwise, I love everything else about the game. The gorgeous 2D HD art style and soundtrack. The SRPG gameplay with elements from past Team Asano with the BP system and how every unit plays differently from each other. The class and job building are very addicting as well since there is always a sense of progression with leveling your units and their stats. I will even say the map design is great since vertical advantages and unit position against the enemy is a huge factor to gain the upper hand.

But the story and lore? Absolutely fantastic and phenomenal. The pacing is tight from start to finish as the story explores the various conflicts and wars between the three countries of Norzalia, each plague with their different flawed ideologies. From advocating free trade to government control under the context of religion. And it's pretty mature and even gritty. The typical anime/JRPG tropes are at a minimum and the game is not afraid to kill people off for good either (something I have been having an issue with Japanese writing lately). So it's a very refreshing change. This is just the tip of the iceberg as well. The political narrative is just so compelling and complex with various twists that challenge the convections of the main characters. Not to mention the character stories just add so much development and backstory to the characters, even the optional ones. It just makes them more natural and believable and not just a bunch of people that have no time to be themselves.

This is not my final review of Triangle Strategy. I will likely do that once I've completed the golden route but I'm putting down the game for now. But the game's gameplay is really enjoyable and the story has to be one of the best I've seen in general. Triangle Strategy is a must-play for anyone that likes RPGs or stories in my opinion. The game just blew my expectations off the chart. I know it's only April but this is my GOTY so far and it will be very hard to dethrone it.

-Written on February 17-

Hajimari no Kiseki is the 10th game in the Trails series, wrapping up multiple plot points and character arcs from the Cold Steel and Crossbell series while setting up what is next to come in the series. One could say Hajimari is very similar to Trails in the Sky the 3rd as far as structure. After playing the game for 135 hours, Hajimari no Kiseki just might be one of the strongest entries in the series with its various improvements in the game.

Aesthetic-wise, the visuals for Hajimari are largely the same as Cold Steel 3 and 4 and there are hardly any new locations with the exception of nearly all of Crossbell is now fully modeled in 3D. However, one of the biggest improvements is the animations. There are quite a lot of scenes with really smooth animations, from lip flaps to dynamic camera work to full-blown action scenes. The increased quality of animations is near Triple-A quality, and that's rather impressive considering Falcom was never for high visual quality. The OST is also amazing. Falcom always had great tunes for their games but they have really knocked out of the park for this one. Me personally I love so many of the new battle themes since it's much heavier and the music is more complex, to the point I can say the OST for Hajimari is my favorite in the series.

Gameplay-wise, Hajimari is the best in the series as well. Although it's much the same as Cold Steel 3 and 4, what's different this time is there's a new mechanic called Valiant Rage when you can use 5 or more people in your party to do an all-out physical or art attack or recover your party. This adds an extra element to the series' combat. What else is noteworthy is the number of playable characters in the game. With over 50 characters, Hajimari boots one of the largest playable casts in an RPG. There are tons and tons of party combinations you can form with different builds. You could easily spend hours and hours just setting up characters. Not to mention Hajimari is more battle-focused than all of Cold Steel and Crossbell, so there's plenty of room for combat.

Getting to the core format of Hajimari, the game is split into two parts. The main story that you can go back and forth with Rean's, Lloyd's and C's routes that are more aligned toward the traditional main stories for Trails and the True Reverie Corridor which is very similar to Phantasmagoria from Trails in the Sky the 3rd from all of the playable characters are gathered together and do dungeons to playable episodes that flushes out what happened between Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari and fun, silly minigames.

The main story for Hajimari has to be the best-paced and streamlined game in the series. No filler side quests, no harem bonding events, and once the ball gets rolling for each route, it stays rolling until the end and they all kick off by the end of Chapter 1. Hajimari no Kiseki essentially got rid of 2 of my biggest issues with Cold Steel 4, so it's a massive improvement as far as maturity and pacing.

I wasn't too excited for Lloyd's route since....without spoiling it too much, it's very repetitive to the story beats of Ao no Kiseki plus it's predictable with its twists at times but it gave the SSS new character development and a new outlook on Crossbell. Lloyd's route is overall fine but it's the weakest route. Rean's route plays out very similar to Cold Steel 3 by visiting different locations in Erebonia with different characters in every chapter. While Rean's route is a slow-burner, the payoff is very high and I felt like it had moments that rival the quality of Cold Steel 3 and Ao no Kiseki (my two favorite games of the series).
C's route is the best route in the game. You have a brand new set of characters with different but yet similar backgrounds and without spoiling much, it really gave everyone sustainable character development and reflection. Plus it really drives home some of the series' themes such as forgiveness and starting over with a new group of people. It's just phenomenal writing.

Of course, the three routes do connect to each other, which led to my biggest issue with the game. It's very convoluted. Trails always were great with keeping its stories and its lore very clean and understandable but with trying to tie up Cold Steel and Crossbell with the new plot points and lore introduced in Hajimari, I just ended up counting a lot of plot holes that just don't make sense. This is especially apparent in the final chapter when everything is supposed to connect but the presentation is just very complicated and the execution is messy. Falcom is usually great with writing stories but it seems like they shot for the moon too far this time, to the point the story hardly holds up by the time you're done with the extra chapter.

And there is the True Reverie Corridor, which is the strongest part of the game. Everyone across the Sky, Crossbell, and Cold Steel games are gathered together, providing an endless combination of character interactions you would not get otherwise between conversations in the hub areas, the group missions, and the trial doors. These conversations really complement the characters and bring out a new side of their personality and their interests. Not to mention there are a lot of dungeon levels to play in the TRC that boost the number of characters and the updated gameplay to good use.

There are randomly generated missions you can do to collect purple stones. You can use these purple stones to upgrade various gameplay elements such as increasing brave points, charge meter, the number of characters you can have in your party at one time, etc. There is even a gacha system you can collect orbs to unlock minigames, episodes, orbments, accessories, etc. Considering there are 51 playable characters, the gacha isn't a bad system to get orbments and accessories to make building the characters easy. Plus there are items that can help boost a character's level, so you don't have to grind all day to boost up a character that is 50 levels behind. It's just really nice to have the quality of life elements as far as character, gameplay, and build management.

However, my biggest complaint about the gacha element is the way you unlock characters. You will get 40 of the characters by the story mode alone but the other 11 must be obtained by the gacha system. This might not sound too bad, considering you can't even use real money but considering the dialogue for the characters in the TRC updates for every chapter, you will permanently miss dialogue for the characters just for not having them and the 11 characters you get are randomized. Not to mention you can only get a few yellow orbs (the orbs you use to get the characters) per chapter. So unlocking all 11 immediately isn't possible either. New game plus does not fix this issue either sadly. This might not sound like a huge killer but considering talking to the NPCs that always have updated dialogue is one of the biggest highlights in this series, it's a real bummer.

In addition to that, there are also episodes that provide a strong bridge not only between Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari but between Hajimari and the upcoming Kuro no Kiseki. The quality of the episodes varies but most of them are good at least while there are a few that are really amazing. These episodes highlight and explore the character and the actions they made in previous games, give the characters proper conclusions to their arc that spans across games and expand the lore and give them new context and hindsight. There are also a few episodes that are just plain silly and goofy that just show the everyday life of a character, so not all of them are serious or deep. The episodes overall enhance the world of Zemuria with its many sides and the characters that are involved in them.

There are also minigames, while it doesn't add much to the grand scope of Hajimari, it's fun extra content you can do. From playing a bullet hell-like Magical Girl minigame that spilled into three episodes and played out like a super generic high school magical girl anime (which is pretty charming in its own right), to going to the beach and ugghhhh.....having romantic dating sim conversations with a lot of girls in first person, to other things like a quiz game, mecha combat and POM makes a return again. I can't speak for the quiz game since it was untranslated and the story for the mecha minigame is untranslated as well but I found it unfun to play due to chunky controls. It felt like I was playing an unlocalized and niche PS1 game. Overall none of the minigames are amazing but if you want more Trails in various ways, then it's worth checking out.

Hajimari no Kiseki is overall a great game with a lot of strengths and the amount of content is massive that really made the game shine well. While it took a step back with clear storytelling and lore that is easy to follow through on top of a flawed gacha system, it took 2 steps forward for everything else from gameplay, character writing and interaction, plot pacing, further separating the waifu harem dating from the main story, etc. Hajimari is an excellent send-off and a strong conclusion for the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs. Out of all of the Trails games, Hajimari is a close second for my favorite Trails game with Ao and CS3 still sits as a tie for my all-time favorite. And even then, I can totally see why someone would say Hajimari is their favorite game. After all, the game just does so much right in all areas.

This was the first Trails game I've played and while I consider this to be the weakest Trails game, it's still overall a worthy JRPG to play and a great entry point into the series.

While I think the cast starts off as painfully generic anime cliches and Class VII already started off as a huge group (which will become larger as the Cold Steel arc progress) it gives plenty of room for the characters to develop, find their own identities, and take part of the social themes of Erebonia hierarchy and government during field trips.

Gameplay also has notable improvements with new features such as brave points to have a linked character follow up with additional attacks when the other paired character hit a weak spot with different weapons.

Cold Steel 1 also decides to switch up the format from past Trails games and give off a more pseudo Persona feel with the school settings and spending down time with bonding points with your fellow classmates. Whatever or not that is a good thing depends on the player but it does provide additional details for the characters.

Like Trails in the Sky and Trails from Zero, Trails of Cold Steel is no exception of starting off slow but compared to later games, this could be a plus since it's a much more relaxed atmosphere establishing the country of Erebonia in great detail while conflict and danger soon rise up more and more as the game progress.

While Cold Steel 1 has notable cliche anime writing at times that holds back the game from ever truly being amazing, the series' stapes in world-building and character relationship is still strong in this game. If someone a more modern Trails game to experience first with 3D graphics and better gameplay, then Trails of Cold Steel is a great starting point in the series (even if I highly recommend to play the Sky and Crossbell arcs eventually before Cold Steel 3)!

Quite a bloated game at times since the game is longer than needed (especially near the end) but still a solid game in the series with higher stakes, more threatening enemies, grander set-pieces, expanded character writing, and plot twists that will set the tone for the rest of the arc.

Cold Steel 2 functions extremely similar to the first game but there's a greater sense of freedom and exploration across Erebonia unlike the tight school format in the first game. There's also more focus on gameplay as you can hunt down cryptics to gain powerful lost arts, more playable characters, and more boss battles. Trails aren't known for its gameplay but it carries Cold Steel 2 at times during its weaker story moments.

Not the best game in the series but still worthy to play anyways despite its glaring issues.

The gameplay is probably the best from what I have played in the series. I always thought combat was too slow in past games and it always felt like a second thought. However, the combat in Ryza feels like a modern take of the ATB system from classic Final Fantasy games. So it never felt boring or a huge chore to do. The alchemy system, while at first overly complicated to take in at once, in the end, it's a neat way to unlock more recipes and make them stronger. I really like the new addition of going to these different mini-worlds throughout alchemy bottles to help you get a certain material way easier. I also do like there's a stronger focus with character builds and stats with the three main types of builds, attacker, defender, and supporter (I am a sucker for character building in RPGs).

However my biggest complaint is the story, characters and pacing are super inconsistent. The overall story is decent and I do appreciate they making an attempt for a more story-focused Atelier game, however, what throws me off is at first the game want to make you believe there isn't much to it, it just some friends looking for a way to end their summer boredom by picking up new things and getting away from their parents. You know something chill and laid back. End of the game the story felt very Final Fantasy Esque with stuff like different worlds, saving their town from great evil, etc. Honestly, I wouldn't have much of a problem with this if the game was much more upfront with the story from the start instead of pretending it going to be very character focus like the other Atelier games with no grand plot. So the change was just jarring, even if they tried hard to not throw everything at you at once.

Speaking of character focus, there's a huge lack of it and the development feels very wonky. There were plenty of opportunities to cover the themes of the characters' issues around them and how they can grow but sadly, the majority of it is just brushed over or pushed to the side for the story. At the end of the day, I feel like many of the characters haven't really developed. In fact, I say only Klaudia and Bos only receive any noteworthy development. Adding on to my inconsistency issue, I feel like Ryza's personality was all over the place, so it was hard to tell if she really developed (and I kinda think she has gotten too good with alchemy too fast but that is just a reoccurring issue within the series).

Other things are the side quests aren't too bad, you get to learn the villagers more as you do more of their quests, even if some of them were impossible to do until much later in the game and some of them are tedious to do. I found a lot of alchemy tools such as cloning, the garden, and weapon buffing have been unlocked way too late in the game. It would be nice to have nearly all of them within the first 1/3 of the game. The game aesthetics is very charming like some fairytale story and the character designs are pretty as expected from an Atelier game (except Lila), the art style is vibrant and I really enjoy the soundtrack the most out of all of the Atelier games I have played.

Overall, Ryza is a decent game, especially for a newcomer that got baited in with the "thicc thighs" and the gameplay and aesthetic are overall good. However, it tries to do both this coming of age, slow-paced, character-focused, self plot similar to the previous Atelier games and this grand, epic, adventure you see in many other JRPGs, and in the end, I feel like they dropped the ball of the former for the latter. If the game was like another 20-30 hours longer (I have done the majority of what the game has to offer within 44 hours), then maybe Atelier Ryza could do both in a much more natural and organic way.