-Written on January 12-

Night City is a very vibrant open world with a passable main story but it is plagued with filler and I hate to be this guy but....bugs as well.

Let just get this out of the way first. Night City is a gorgeous city filled with different cultures, people, and atmospheres. One part of the town is Chinatown while another is dominated by Afro-Caribbean residents and of course, you got your downtown and low poverty areas. Not to mention there's a huge deserted land outside of the city with a lot of clans out there. The environment is vibrant and full as you see different ads, different kinds of art on the walls. I always appreciate the variety, it never made exploring and driving around Night City boring, even nearly 90 hours later. Plus it made the city more realistic as big cities always going to have different cultural overlaps.

Cyberpunk 2077 could easily go with the cliche "everything has tall buildings with neon lights" setting as you see a lot of Cyberpunk works but instead it opts to create a world that looks very similar to ours but with the technological upgrades that coat the city and its citizens and it was a refreshing change. The music section could be just as cliche as well with synthwave everywhere you go but there's a whole range of music besides that, from rap, jazz, metal, rock etc. for the license tracklist. Even the game's own OST features tunes that are closer to orchestrated ambient.

The gameplay is very similar to the Deus Ex games when you are presented with options. You could go blazing around with a wide section of guns and melee weapons, or you could use your biochip to hack away electronics and enemies to help you perform stealth better. Of course, as you level up, you will acquire two types of points. Perks, which are little boosters such as a small increase in critical change or damage at a certain area of the enemy with a certain weapon type, and attributes, the main areas that can affect the playstyle of your character, V. With attributes, you can build your character specialize in hacking, shooting, crafting etc. These attributes will also unlock dialogue options for V if the attributes have enough points. I found the gameplay to be just fine, I had no issues with it. Though I got to say the hacking aspects are the most unique elements of the gameplay.

Quests, the main chunk of Cyberpunk 2077 and one of my biggest issues of the game. There are tons of gigs to do in Night City and you can unlock more as your Street Cred level up. While I was playing through the game I figure there are three types of side quests. Character quests, Gigs, and Crime Quests.

Character quests are when you usually have to do a chain of quests for a person you normally meet during the main quest (which I will get to in a bit) and follow their stories. I personally find character quests to be the best since it fleshes out who they're are as a person and the conflicts they're involved with. Their stories aren't groundbreaking but it adds a lot of context to what kind of place Night City is and the people that live there. Plus it gives you the chance to romance the character. The list is very short, especially because it depends on what gender V is and I wish you can do more with the character after you began dating them.

Gigs are when a fixer contacts you and wants you to kill someone, rescue someone, steal something or hack a computer, etc. They're short and there are multiple ways to complete a gig. Sadly they're very formulaic and repetitive, especially with the number of gigs you can do. The fixer always gives you a reason why you're doing the gig by calling you, so there is SOME story element but it's usually very forgettable because you only get two paragraphs of details why you're doing this at best. There are a few good gigs that expand on worldbuilding, but it's few and far between.

The last type of side quests and it's the worst one, Crime Quests. It's just you killing gang members that are either in their hideout or assaulting someone and you can complete this in literally 10 seconds if you're overleveled. There are nearly 200 of them to do and while there's very short, I spent 15 hours doing all of them and it's a bit mind-numbing, especially since there's hardly any reason to do these quests. The only reason you should do these quests is if you want great gear, weapons, and equipment. I personally think you get the best stuff doing these quests but it's personally not worth doing all of these unlike you really want to 100% the game.

The game has tons to do and I spent the majority of the game doing side content. However, I feel like a lot of it is patted filler and doesn't really add anything to the game from a writing perspective in the long run. I'm not a "more is better" guy so I honestly believe the game would be better if they just kept all of the character quests and the gigs that add a lot to the worldbuilding. After a while, it just felt aimless and boring doing all of these quests.

The main quest, while it started off as a generic "become a legend by doing a big-time heist" story, it quickly became something far more unique and interesting that compliments the Cyberpunk setting, how a huge corporation turn a city into a Dystopian and various conflicts such as man vs technology and man vs the self (in a way). The only disappointing part of the main story is it's too short for its own good. If you only do the main story, you can easily beat Cyberpunk 2077 within 20 hours. It had the potential to tell a great tale and the endings deliver well, especially with its philosophical undertones close to the end of the main quest. Just sadly, those themes of corporation domination and self-fighting aren't explored enough. I would greatly prefer it if most of the filler quests went towards a more expansive main story. I do not understand why CD Projekt Red shorten the story so more people can complete it. It's an RPG after all, you always need the dedication to finish those.

Other minor issues I have is balancing. After Act 1, you can do every side quest in the game before progressing the main story. If you like me, that likes to do every side quest before the main story, you will become ridiculously overleveled with the best gear. To the point, you can one-shot anyone and you're very hard to kill. Even bosses will fall to your knees within a minute. I don't think the game intended you to become a God while you playing the main story but it can happen easily lol. Player choice also doesn't have too much of an impact on the world. I mean you have a ton of dialogue options and you can get different endings for some quests but those are mainly self-contained. What kinda frustrates me is the ending you can get on the main story just depends on what choice you make right before the final mission, as if everything you did beforehand did not matter at all. I understand it's hard to make a unique player experience in an AAA game but it's disappointing your actions throughout the main story almost have 0 impact on what ending you can get other than doing character quests.

And there are bugs, yes bugs. I won't spend too much time on this since this is a topic beaten to the ground but I can say this much, the more I played, the buggier the game got. Early on when I started, I just saw tiny things float in the air, pretty ignorable right? 70 hours later tho, I faced quite a lot of issues like quests not starting or completing, doors not opening (and you was trapped inside), half of your body appearing above you while you ride a motorcycle sometimes for a few seconds etc. The game even crashed on me twice before and I once got respawned to a random place out of nowhere and I was falling endlessly. Luckily restarting your save file or killing yourself fixes these issues but it was stressful trying to find a solution to the quests not starting, especially the main quests as I thought the game would be impossible to complete a few times. I know CD Projekt Red is patching up the game nicely eventually but at the moment, I feel like I'm playing an early access version of Cyberpunk 2077 and I pay $60 to beta test the game. It's actually laughable this supposed to be the final build of the game.

And I know I just nitpicking at this point but I notice other things like there are no cop chases when you break the law, robots just appear out of nowhere. I also think it's completely pointless to have a huge dick in the game when the only time you could ever see it is if your character is completely naked and you open up the character menu. Yes, your dick doesn't even appear while you're playing the game, it gets covered up with briefs no matter what.

I know this is a small addition to the game but I absolutely love the photo mode in the game. Since the game lacks a third-person camera and I do think it's a weird decision to not include it, I think photo mode is a fair compromise to be able to see your custom character enough and you can use it at any given moment of the game. I love you can do various poses and emotions with your character. Some of them are even references to anime or memes. More options to create a photogenic scene is nice. It's a very fun thing I will admit I spent far too much time on it.

Honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 is pretty mid, even without the bugs. I personally found the game to be a massive step down from CD Projekt Red's previous game The Witcher 3 (which is one of my favorites) in nearly every area but maybe gameplay. Night City has a lot of life with many tales to discover and nearly all of the quests that bother to tell a compelling story to deliver fine enough at least. It also plays around with a lot of themes with its main story and the ending (at least mines) was solid despite the length. The gameplay functions well and offers you a lot of options which is really cool. However, it suffers a lot from pointless filler that adds almost nothing as well as a lack of impactful player choices and some balancing issues. As of the time I post this, It's very hard to recommend the game, even for PC users and I know consoles players got it much worse. If you dying to play an open-world cyberpunk RPG right now and you can deal with bugs and filler, then sure go for the game. Otherwise, I would at least wait until the game is patched out enough. Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of potential and it delivers in some areas, but it falls flat in others.

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy is the second installment of the “Secret” Arc of the Atelier games and the 22nd overall main game in the series. The game features Reisalin Stout aka Ryza to travel to the capital city of Ashra-am Baird to research and explore new ruins of the offset of the capital. Along the way, they met a strange creature named Fi. Atelier Ryza 2 saw a few setbacks from the first Atelier Ryza game but there are many improvements overall that made the sequel very worth playing.

(Due to Ryza 2 being a direct sequel, there will be very slight spoilers for Ryza 1 but nothing very heavy, Ryza 2 will be spoiler-free as well).

Gameplay-wise, Atelier Ryza 2 functions very similarly to Atelier Ryza 1 in the alchemy creation. You pick up and find ingredients in the maps with alchemy tools and use various ingredients to synthesize items with various traits, quality, and element values. Since Ryza 2 is a direct sequel, the game does expect you to be familiar with these systems already as there are far fewer tutorials this time. However, the alchemy saw a huge improvement and a greater degree of freedom. A huge feature that adds to that sense of alchemy freedom is the skill tree. With this, you can unlock alchemy recipes and skills in a nonlinear fashion due to how they can branch off. Many of the alchemy modes such as morphing, item rebuilding, gem reduction, item duplication etc. return to the game. As well as the new essence feature. There’s tons of depth with the alchemy creation, this is merely the overall basic summary. I spent hours looking up guides just to figure out how to synthesize a specific item, what ingredients do I need, and how and where I can obtain them.

Combat also saw many improvements. While still using the same Action Turn-Based system from the first game and many of its features such as tactics and the AP and CC item systems, there are some additional elements to make the combat feel more snappy such as the addition of a 4th party member. While you can only have 3 active party members, you can switch out one of the party members for the 4th one at any given time and even have them attack the enemy as soon as you switch to them. Also combos, yes combos. If you have enough AP built up, you can do the same skill 3-4 times in a row for devastating damage and fluid and flashy attack animations. It’s largely the same as Ryza 1 but with improvements to make combat feel more smooth.

So gameplay overall is largely the same as Ryza 1 but with new improvements. However, the biggest change is the exploration. You’re able to swing your way around with a grappler hook, dive and swim underwater, use a flashlight to explore dark places, and use a large creature to dig up rare ingredients. During these ruins, once you have explored them enough, these fragmented crystals will appear all over the maps of each ruin. You collect these crystals to solve the mysteries of each ruin with the clues you have gathered around. While they’re overall not terribly hard to figure out, it’s a nice addition to make you feel like you’re researching the ruins carefully and you get rewarded with skill tree points to use to unlock more recipes and skills for the game. There are also other gameplay elements in the game such as shop development when you trade-in items and ingredients to unlock certain items in shops and the Puni eater when you feel his ingredients and he will come back with different ingredients in return.

So Ryza 2 has tons of gameplay depth to keep the player busy the entire time. However, gameplay alone isn’t why Ryza 2 is an overall improvement, as the cast is the main highlight and the strongest value of the game. Being three years since the first game, the main cast has overall matured a lot. Ryza, while overall changed the least, is at least far less self-centered and has a greater concern of care for others this time around. Klaudia, going from a shy and insecure girl to someone with confidence running her family business. Tao, going from a wimpy booknerd to….well still a booknerd but the wimpness is overall gone at least. Lent going from someone that wanted to be strong to that strength actually backfires on him and that causes him to be depressed at times. He actually regresses as a character, which makes strong character development for him in the game. The new characters are great additions as well that feel right in place with the four main characters from the first game. Such as Patty, an elegant noble that is focused on her studies and has curiosity. Clifford, a jaded treasure hunter that tends to work alone and seeking “true romance”. And Serri, a soft-spoken Oren that is out on a mission to save her world.

Each of the main characters, besides Ryza, has their own personal character arcs throughout the game and each character develops very well as they deal with their own issues with Ryza. I won’t spoil what each character deals with as the personal arcs are some of the most story-driven beats in the game. But overall the game tackles themes of friendship, trust, inferiority, and self adequacy, and standing up to what you truly believe in. And the characters do not just revolve around Ryza either. There are plenty of scenes with the main characters talking to each other about various topics, from the mundane ones to topics that build on additional information about the character. This makes the cast feel like they’re actually friends with each other and not just a bunch of random people with the only thing that they have in common is knowing who Ryza is.

Ryza gives plenty of love to its side characters as well. A few of them even got arcs of the same quality as the main characters such as Dennis, the material wilder. Cassandra, the farmer girl, Romy, a traveling merchant that settled down for a bit in the capital. Zephine, a waitress for a cafe, and even Bos, the son of the Brunnen family from the first game. Even the characters from side quests get tiny arcs as well. Such as a gang that tries to find treasure or a schoolgirl that tries to overcome her fear of men with plants or a high noble man and his servant carefully watching over Ryza as they give her tasks.

Ryza 2 got plenty of gameplay depth and character writing, the game sounds amazing with tons to do so far right? However, I do have two major issues that I have noticed while I was playing through the game. My first complaint is Ryza feels very self inserty. While she felt like she was her own character in Ryza 1. Since the game evenly focused on Ryza, Tao, Lent, and Klaudia and no one character was resolving every single problem the cast had. In Ryza 2, can't help but think Ryza robs a lot of character development for other characters. Some character arcs absolutely required her like Serri's arc and even Klaudia but others not so much, in fact, I think it would be better if someone else was in replacement. For instance, I actually think it would be better if Tao was helping Patty with her arc instead of Ryza since the two already have an established relationship that had the chance to deepen. I can say the same for Lila and Lent for his arc.

Not to mention, Ryza feels like she can do anything now while in Ryza 1 she has clear limitations. It's very clear everyone relies on her to create this instant solution to solve a roadblock. On top of Ryza's always cheerful and happy attitude. I feel like Ryza went from a very flawed character to an almost flawless character that can solve literally any problem with almost no development. Not to mention Ryza is the only character that has a deep relationship with everyone. I mean the other characters do interact with each other and there is proof they are friends but it is missing depth. Hence why I said why she felt self inserty. Self-inserts are usually perfect problem solvers.

My second issue is the main plot. While the character arcs are great and offer plenty of story for the game, remember, Ryza came to the capital in the first place to investigate ruins and that is the main plot. It’s very repetitive and formulaic. Essentially for each ruin, you look at key objects, ask questions about the ruin with your party, hit a roadblock, resolve that roadblock with alchemy, fight the boss for the ruin and suck up the mana in that ruin for Fi. It doesn’t help that there's no true antagonist in the game like Ryza 1 or even no set goals like the other Atelier games. The ruins exploring feel very aimless and barebone in terms of plot. The one thing that Ryza 1 did better was the main plot. While it had odd pacing, it gave the characters conflict and problems to overcome against the antagonists.

Ryza 2 would be much better if it had that same “classic and epic JRPG main plot” as Ryza 1 did towards the second half. Only the final dungeon had something remotely close to what Ryza 1 had in terms of plot writing but by then, it felt very shoehorned and too late to have any real impact on the overall plot barring the emotional ending. And even then, the final dungeon retreads on plot beats from the final moments of Ryza 1. The main plot could be much more but the character arcs make it up greatly. However, it would be amazing if the main plot was mixed in with the character arcs somehow.

Overall Ryza 2 is an improvement in gameplay, a huge improvement in exploration, and a huge leap in character writing and development. While Ryza herself as a character is lacking in depth and feels too much like a Mary Sue at times, she is still overall likable enough compared to the first game. The lack of a focused main plot with impactable conflict is the biggest flaw in the game, and if you’re looking for a grand plot, then look elsewhere. Atelier games were never known for epic plots, but even for Atelier standards, it’s certainly not up to par. However, if you are looking for a game that has in-depth alchemy and combat with characters that undergoes their own personal struggles and have plenty of interaction with the cast and especially Ryza, then you will enjoy Atelier Ryza 2 a lot. It’s overall a very good game and improves much of the flaws of the first game. Highly recommend the second game if you don’t completely hate the first game.

Tales of Arise is the 17th main entry in the Tales Of series. Featuring the narrative of Alphen, a Dahnan man that can not feel pain, and Shionne, a Renan woman that electrocutes anyone that touches her with her “thrones”. Together they travel around the region of Dahna with 4 other companions to overthrow the oppression of the Dahnan people from Renans. Initially announced in 2019 and it has been 5 years since the last mainline Tales Of game, the game was met with a lot of skepticism due to its changes from the series’ formula but ultimately I want to believe those changes were for the best while still maintaining the series’ structure with its gameplay and story. In the end, Tales of Arise delivers a vibrant world with its hyper-focus of characterization and themes and flashy but smooth and responsive combat. Making Arise not only my personal favorite Tales Of game but also one of my favorite games of all time.

(Barring the opening moments of Arise, this will be spoiler-free).

The very first notable thing when Arise begins is its graphics. Considering past Tales Of games have been criticized for its dull and plain environments, Arise utilizes Unreal Engine 4 with its gorgeous and beautiful landscapes. From lush green forests to frosty snowy hills to heated lava plains. The world of Dahna is full of vibrant colors with variations of climate and atmosphere that clearly set around each of the 5 main regions of Dahna and how it corresponds to their elemental value (a recurring plot element in the series). Cutscenes are fluidly animated and choreographed as well, giving a more cinematic and thrilling presentation during important plot threads of the game. On top of a score to accompany the mood at any given time (which is more memorable than past Tales Of games), Arise is filled with various amounts of aesthetics to even add substance to the story purely by visuals.

The gameplay saw plenty of technical changes from past Tales Of games. While core elements, such as using artes and going into overlimit to use Mystic Artes, remained. Arise’s combat-focused more on dodging and evading and replacing many of the series’ known functions. Such as replacing multiplayer with its Boost System feature, replacing technical points (TP) with cure points (CP) and the Arte Gauge (AG), a stronger difficulty to stun enemies, and the lack of a victory screen after defeating enemies. However, the addition of the Boost System adds new gameplay features such as Boost Attack and Boost Strike to exploit the enemies’ strength. With the new changes, the gameplay encourages the player to be more active and aggressive with movement and despite these new mechanics, they all function in harmony and work together to create frantic but yet smooth and fluid combat.

In addition to the standard level-up mechanics in Arise, there is also a skill panel tree for each character to unlock different arts or improve their skill sets such as making it easier to get a perfect evade, reduce the amount of time to cast an elemental arte or increase the potency of healing artes. Branching paths to obtain different skills always create a greater sense of customization and combat development for the character. Weapon and accessory creation are also available to increase the party’s stats, and more become available to forge as the story progresses. Arise does not have a huge amount of leveling elements compared to other games of its genre but it provides enough customization to build each character in different ways throughout the game.

Despite its gorgeous visuals and tight-knitted gameplay, what makes Arise truly shine and make the game playing is the story. The game wastes no time establishing the plot beats as soon the game starts. In just the first 30 minutes, the game’s protagonist, Alphen, break free from Rehan slavery during an intense and explosive train chase scene, meet Shionne and learn of her situation and join a Dahnan resistance group to free Calaglia, one of the main realms of Dahan from an oppressive Rehan lord. And that is just the first 30 minutes out of a 40-90 hour long tale. Arise’s plot grew in scale and scope with various plot twists during the second half and ultimately became a grand epic plot renaissance of older Tales games and even other JRPG series such as Star Ocean and Xeno. All while still maintaining its overall theme of unition and overcoming prejudices, explored in different topics such as freedom and slavery, not getting consumed by anger and hatred, coming to terms with one’s past and acceptance.

The characters especially embody these plot beats and topics as they are the shining gem of Arise and the best part of the game. While there are only 6 main characters, each character is some of the most deeply fleshed characters I have ever seen in a game with their own personality, circumstances, likes and dislikes, quirks, and their own issues to overcome. Initially, the characters had an overall sense of distrust with each other mainly due to the Rehan and Dahnan dynamic. But overtime the cast began to understand and support each other and the biggest wall they were facing inside of them. Within the course of the game’s journey, the 6 main characters went from being strangers that were just essentially there due to having a common goal to having a familial, caring and warm, and close bond with each other.

The interactions with the characters are incredibly natural and organic, full of depth and there’s extremely abundant during the game’s run. From the series’ staple skits (even though I do miss the 2D anime skits, the new comic skits grew on me), during and after combat and fighting, working and completing side quests, camping during the night, and even random events such as healing a random person. The topics always vary as well and they are not even related to the main plot. The casts tend to engage in discussions about cooking, food, artifacts and relics, training, owls, and even romance and that is just a very small sample size of the seemingly endless conversations between the cast. Between the main plot and the various side scenarios, Arise offers plenty of character growth and chances to witness their strong, heartwarming connections across the 6 main characters. Especially since the cast is divided into 3 pairs to bring out the most development from each pair with each other, in an intimate and even romantic way. In fact, the cast of Arise became one of my personal favorite casts in any piece of media I have experienced. I can go on with how well-written and great the cast is but that would essentially take spoiler-filled essays to explain in detail.

The cast shines a lot during the game’s various amounts of content and it’s enough to rank up to 90-100 hours on one playthrough. While some of the quests are hunt quests that allow the party to tackle powerful bosses and gain astral flowers, an item to increase CP, each side quest always gives context for the request and allows two of the main characters to investigate the quest, allowing even further bonds between the cast. The side quests can vary from monster hunting, finding lost items, clearing optional dungeons and bosses, talking to various people, or just watching the characters getting into random shenanigans. Not to mention the NPCs update their dialogue for every major plot event. Although it’s not as dense compared to a Trails game, updating NPC dialogue is always a plus since they add to the world-building and make Dahna more alive. There are also other collectibles to obtain such as the number of owls and artifacts to discover, catching boss fishes, and clearing solo and group training exercises. Along with the main plot, Arise offers plenty of side content to get the best out of the overall story. Especially since some of the side quests are supplemental to the main plot and add extra insight.

Arise however is not without its issues since it’s not a perfect or flawless game despite its strides with the story, visuals, and gameplay. While the gameplay changes can be argued as a negative, I personally did not have any issues with it. The biggest gripe I notice is the lack of villain development and writing. While the motives are passable enough considering the setting and the overall plot and do create enough conflict against the main cast, each villain isn’t memorable and even generic, since not a single villain stays in the picture for too long. Also while the second half of Arise creates a greater scale of its theme and explores its topics in new ventures, it can be argued as being too “over the top” and “shounen cliche” with its sudden shift of direction. It can be said to be a farcry for its stable, more grounded, and focused first half of the plot, which addresses the issues of the world more directly. However, this is a matter of personal taste at best since I personally think the second half elevated Arise’s story into a truly adventurous narrative with great impact.

Arise can also be argued for its lack of creativity with the plot. While it still works very well for the overall narrative, Arise borrows many of the past Tales games with its plot beats. I will not go into details to prevent spoilers but if you play a few Tales games, then Arise’s plot will begin to feel more and more similar to past Tales games. To the point, the plot will become a cliche in the JRPG genre overall. This may be seen as a positive or negative trait, but I personally love the homage to past JRPGs, especially with the scale and the relationships of the characters. Other nitpicks could be said such as not unlocking the second set of artes you can use until the entire cast joins up with Alphen and Shionne and the fishing minigame can be rather tedious.

With smooth, acrobatic gameplay and beautiful, vivid visuals combined with some of the deepest character writing I have ever seen within a race torned setting and a world-hopping plot, Tales of Arise delivers one of the best stories I have seen in gaming and clear any doubt or insecurity with the direction of the franchise. It managed to even surpass my own expectations. I never doubted Arise would be a bad game but I would never expect that it would be my favorite Tales Of game and one of my favorite games of all time. I highly recommend the game to anyone wanting to experience what I believe will be remembered as a classic JRPG 20 years from now since it took many of the great elements from Tales and evolved it into something purely amazing.

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.

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.

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)!

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.

Sky 3rd is honestly one of my least favorite of the series from what I have played. I mean don't get me wrong it's still a good game. I just fail to see how it's the most important game in the series like many people say and praise it like a huge "lore library". It's honestly more of a super long conclusion to FC and SC imo. While some doors are super important and do lead into the future games well or really clear up some questions that happened in FC/SC, other doors felt like a filler anime episode or not as satisfying as I hope to be. I guess I prefer a Trails game more like FC/SC than 3rd.

Kevin and Ries's story is easily my favorite part of the game since it was surprisingly darker than I thought and both characters developed well because of it. It took a while to really pick up but it paid off nicely in the end. The gameplay is also the best in Sky, even if it has tons of annoyances against enemies (looking at you, petrification one-shots) and the dungeon grinding was more fun than I thought.

The ending was super nice and kinda emotional, especially since it felt like a proper send in the Liberl arc, something we didn't get as well in SC.

-Written on August 12, 2020-

The story in Azure has to be one of the tightest written tales I have seen in anything, not just in video games. Right from the get-go, Ao starts off by resolving a major plot point from Zero and it doesn't let up at all. There are tons of subplots sprinkled in the plot and it's all connected. Political tensions and the verge of war, the backstories of some characters begin to catch up, a mysterious powerful organization begins to act again, the Sept Terrions begin to spin out of control, the biggest secrets from Zero get revealed and there's just plenty of jaw-dropping dramatic events that occur near the end of the game. Not to mention there is just plot twist after plot twist to the point the game just gets insane with it but everything is explained so well. Everything subplot and character arc connect in the end as well. It's really hard to capture all of this without spoilers but Ao is a ride and it doesn't end. No not even the game's ending doesn't end the story since it directly led up to Cold Steel 3 at the very end.

The character writing is also expanded and really goes into a deep dive with the character's motives, beliefs, and even how they like when they are more relaxed. I love the SSS back in Zero but now they're hands down my favorite cast period. The main four characters are easily some of my favorite characters in any series but I certainly love the rest of the allies since they grow on you and they develop. Heck even the villains, I couldn't find myself disliking a single one of them despite they did plenty of things that aren't okay lol. But they're pretty charming and had a decent reason for their ideologies and executions. I just really enjoy the themes they beat over your head like getting over barriers, being there for your friends, and finding a new purpose. It really helps me overcome my own challenges and that is probably why I'm so attached to these characters. They are almost like real people that want to motivate you.

Azure isn't flawless of course but honestly so is every Trails game. The main issue I notice from Ao is how the game is a bit too haremy at times (Like 5-6 girls being all over Lloyd is a tad too much) plus the bonding system is honestly awful. There is no way you can unlock more than one final bonding event in a single playthrough without using a guide since the game doesn't explicitly keep track of that. Plus the finale is a bit draggy and kinda lose it super tight nonstop pacing the rest of the game had. I get why the finale is that long, but it kinda looses up a bit. I mean these are minor problems and Cold Steel as a whole is generally worse with all of this but people love to think the harem problem and weird pacing started at Cold Steel and the Crossbell games are flawless.

That said, Azure is easily one of my favorite video games, one of my favorite stories, and has my favorite cast period (and I never had a clear favorite for cast). It's tied with Cold Steel 3 for my favorite Trails game as well as my favorite JRPG. I love Azure that much and I can see why the Trails fanbase praises the game so much. There is so much I want to talk about with the story but it's so spoiler-heavy but huge props to Falcom for fixing my biggest gripe I had with Zero and building upon it so naturally and smoothly. Really if you do play the Crossbell duology, you're in a ride for some of the best story writing I have ever seen, since Azure works off from Zero that much. Like as far as stories go, I put it at the same level at 20th Century Boys, Radiant Historia, and Pandora Hearts and if you know me enough, you know I heavily praise those two a lot.

-Written on June 29, 2020-

The first thing that really caught my attention is the setting, Crossbell City. It's very rare in a JRPG to go for a modern urban setting since most of them are either based on fantasy or sci-fi (sometimes both). Considering I grew up in a big city for pretty much all of my life, the atmosphere felt very familiar, almost like home in real life. You have shops everywhere, entertainment places, run-down places, gangs, shady alleyways, political landscapes, apartments, something close like a Chinatown, etc. For better or for worse, Crossbell managed to capture the real feeling of a city, and naturally, I was drawn in. It isn't super-duper huge like say, Los Santos, but for a Trails game, it's pretty huge. In fact, I think Crossbell City is just as big as all of the major cities in Liberl combined in the Sky games. Not to mention areas become more rural once you step out of the city and I suppose that is very true here as well. So I appreciate it.

Trails is known for its massive NPCs dialogue writing, so I won't spend too much time here, since it's more of a trait for the series overall. However, I think Zero has the most care put into the NPC interaction. At times, talking to everyone in Crossbell State, including the non-city areas can get draining and exhausting at times due to the sheer size, the number of NPCs (especially in Chapter 3) how much you have access to it at all times. However, I can safely say it's worth talking to everyone in the end. You get plenty of conversations between the four main characters by talking to the NPCs that you won't hear anywhere else, whatever you are doing a main or side quest. Sometimes it just fleshes out little details for the characters, other times its additional story writing. With the way the characters respond to the citizens of Crossbell, it just feels more believable and realistic. Almost if they're real people talking back to the NPCs, rather just listening to everyone all of the time like cardboard. Not even the Sky and Cold Steel games are this responsive to the NPCs, so I was really impressed by this, considering Trails is already on the top of their game with the NPC writing.

Speaking of the characters, you have the four main characters, Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy that forms the Special Support Section (or SSS for short). They're a division in the Crossbell Police Department to get close to the citizens and address their needs in the wake of universal distrust (hence the amount of NPC interaction compared to the other games). I have to say, the characters are easily my favorite part of the game since it did a lot of the heavy lifting. It usually takes me a while to really like anyone in this series but I loved all four of them before I was even halfway done with the game. I just overall enjoy their chemistry and how they quickly mold in with each other. Each character also has a pretty different background that plays a part in their personality and their development later on in the game. They just an enjoyable bunch of people in the end. That not to mention the supporting cast of people the SSS get to meet over the course of the game and overall, they're pretty solid as well. I don't think there is an outright bad character (save for the villans) overall in the game as far as more major characters. I can easily dive deeper into the characters and talk about them one by one but I rather not make this essay overly long.

Zero is honestly one of the best JRPGs I have played as far as setting and character writing, in fact, it's a little bit too good. Because of the amount of text with the NPCs and just how long the cutscenes are. Zero felt like a visual novel first and a JRPG second like 70% of the time. The lack of dungeons compared to your average JRPG does not help either on top of some side quests that don't even require any combat. The dialogue to gameplay balance is rather pretty off. Especially if you take your time to talk to the NPCs. While I do appreciate all of the extra writing efforts and it's a huge part of why I love these characters, at the same time, I went into Zero no Kiseki to play a game, not to read a novel, so it's a bit off-putting. It's a shame as well since Zero no Kiseki has many gameplay improvements from the Sky series such as counters, team rushes, combo crafts (which I only have seen in Zero/Ao so far in the series).

The story itself is the most questionable part of the game. Without saying much, it's basically the SSS intervening in mafia activities with many connections with political figures. While it does dive into this faster and the story structure in Zero is far less repetitive compared to Sky and Cold Steel, it just... a whole lot of nothing really happens for a while. Zero is a very, very slow burn and nothing very intense doesn't have until near the end of the game. It also may seem like a lot of things is unrelated to each other at first. However, everything pays off in the end and the game suddenly gets far darker and twisted. As well as a lot of the story threads get connected. The last 15% of the game is pretty amazing and carries the first 85% of the game's slow-burn very hard. I'm not sure if this is a fine way to tell a story since Zero has pacing problems regardless of how good its final moments are though. Also, I do not like how the true main villain of the game is basically a repeat of the main villain of the Sky games but even more twisted and evil. The game even clearly pointed that out and I thought it was a bit unoriginal. Not to mention, the execution doesn't hit as hard. Despite all of this, this gives the SSS a lot of fortitude and it plays as a strong strength for the character writing. Sadly I can't go into details without spoiling but it's great.

What really hits home for me about Zero is its messages about justice, the corruption inside the police and the political world, power balance, citizen mistrust, and seeking reform. Despite starting Zero before the current protests and riots etc. It couldn't be perfect timing since at least here in the USA. We are currently struggling with these same issues with police corruption and misuse of power. Zero also clearly points out that even those that work in the police can't do much about the corruption unless there is major reform from multiple organizations. Zero also hit home in a very personal way about relying on your friends during your strongest hardships and not going through your problems alone or trying to resolve everything by yourself. I tend to do both quite a lot. So it's rather assuring for the game to tell me I'm not alone and I do have people that want to stand by me.

Zero isn't a perfect game at all due to its iffy story pacing and dialogue/gameplay balance. In fact, Zero isn't even my favorite Trails game. but Zero is probably going to be one of the games that personally means a lot to me. I love the cast so much, they're some of my favorites in the series, the city is very relatable to me and the messages hit home, especially now during these hard times both personally and the world around me. I say despite its problems, I am glad I played this game.

-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.

-Written on January 17, 2020-

So not long ago, I have finish Trails of Cold Steel 3. Lately, I have been very active in talking about the series in multiple places but I believe I have not gotten a chance on why I love it so much. I thought 1 and 2 were good, underrated games that tend to be overlooked so much. However, I never thought they were amazing. 3, however, blew me away in a way I would never guess despite my 3 years of anticipation for the game.

Let start with the aesthetics. The graphics, while isn't pushing the PS4 super hard and arguably dated, it's a massive improvement compared to 1 and 2. Especially the character models. I'm glad they don't have that plastic look anymore. they all look very clean and organic. The soundtrack is great as expected from the sound team. From trilling and intense battle themes to mystical interludes. There's a theme to fit every mood in the game. I love the environment design as well for the new cities and towns you visit in the game. Some of them reminded me of classic JRPGs painted in a new coat. Especially Parm.

The basic gameplay is more or less the same from previous entries (I guess don't fix what isn't broken) but I do love the inclusion of high-speed mode. It makes battling more fun and quick. In fact, things went so fast, it felt like I was playing an action RPG at times despite it being a turn-based game. I also love the level of depth there is when it comes to building a character with orbments and equipment. Based on what stats each character excels at. By the end of the game, I had plenty of builds such as massive CP gain, near-instant arts casting for any arts. 2.5x more damage for any first hit etc, high evasion, etc. I love building characters in any RPG, so this satisfies me greatly, especially when I get ultra-rare orbments and equipment. Not to mention the brave orders give an additional level of depth, from damage reduction to increase damage output for a certain amount of times. It gives a greater sense of control and what is best needed for your party according to the situation or the opportunity. With all of this. I just found the gameplay to be super addicting and I wanted more of it. I found every monster I could throughout the game simply because I enjoyed the combat that much.

Now here is where Cold Steel 3 excels at better than any JRPG series in my opinion and it's arguably the best part of the game. The world-building and its characters. Every single character in the game, yes even the old man that runs his gun store at Crossbell, has its own story and their own personality to share thanks to the ever-changing dialogue. NPCs in Cold Steel aren't just people that just there to exist, unlike most JRPGs. If you don't talk to anyone, you will miss out on a good deal of character interaction between the main characters and a better idea of what kind of lives they have lived in the past. What is also worth noting is how each NPC reacts to the major story changes as the game progress and how the changes going to affect their lives.

However, the game takes this even further with people you often see throughout the game such as the students and facility of the Thors Branch Campus and the residents that live in the city of the campus, Leeves. Throughout the game, nearly, if not all, of the non-playable students, get a sustainable amount of character interaction and development thanks to the changing dialogue and how every student gets their own side quest to complete, which reveals about the character even more. The fact that an NPC gets more development than quite a lot of main characters in stories just astonishes me. They weren’t just random students to fill up space, they were all written characters with their own goals, hobbies, backgrounds, and motivations that I know by name and got attached to. This is not even mentioning the development of the main characters you actually play with, because there’s so much of that, I can spend all day writing about that.
Of course, tons of previous characters return for Cold Steel 3 and not just characters from Cold Steel 1 and 2. A good handful of characters from Trails of the Sky and Trails of Zero/Azure (according to the unofficial English name) make their appearance in all kinds of ways for the first time as well. From becoming faculty staff within the branch campus from appearing in various towns and crucial story points. All and all, this adds up to 23 playable characters throughout the game at some point, each with its own unique set of crafts. When I saw the old Class VII for the first time in 3 years (the time between I have played Cold Steel 2 and 3), it felt like a heartfelt reunion. Seeing how much the characters have developed over time and overcame much of their issues and shortcomings from previous games was a joy to see.

However, what really holds up Cold Steel 3’s world-building and characters is its multi-layered main story. Between multiple organizations and antagonists such as Ouroboros and the multiple Jaeger Corps. As well as multiple backstories from characters and lore that were never fully explained until now. Every character has a role in the grand scheme of the theme of imperialism and nationalism and how that ties into something far longer seeded and rooted. Resulting in multiple plot twists and one of the most shocking, darkest, and jaw-dropping endings I have seen in a JRPG. At first, it seems like there are multiple story plots that seem like they’re unrelated, near the end of the game, everything comes together like a puzzle into one grand goal. The fact how 5-6 different plot points come together like that is pretty excellent writing since it’s a feat that is very hard to pull off that can make sense and not have a lot of plot holes.

However, it’s not a perfect game in any case of form as much I am praising it for its world-building, gameplay, story, and characters. An issue that is valid enough to speak of is the reliance on other Trails games to tell the tale of Cold Steel 3. It’s one thing if Cold Steel 3 goes off from Cold Steel 1 and 2, given it is a direct sequel. However, when the game starts to pull plot elements from Trails of the Sky series and the Crossbell games, it just becomes a much more demanding game to fully understand and enjoy. While the characters and plot lines are needed for Cold Steel 3’s story, considering the locations you visit and how the story works, it was an unexpected element at the very least. Trails is a game that is worth the time and investment in the end, but it’s a very difficult recommendation due to the length of the overall series, not to mention the Crossbell games are still not officially localized (I am aware you can play fan translations). 500+ prerequisite hours in the series just to play a single game is a very high order, even for the most hardcore JRPG fans.

Another issue I have noticed and what has bothered me the most is how the main character, Rean, is far too much of a chick magnet, to the point nearly every girl cathers to him in some way. While I won’t go as far as say Cold Steem 3 is a harem game and there are only truly three romantic options in the game, it’s quite cliche anime writing to have a lot of the girls swoon over him or encouraged to go after him. Even characters that don’t like Rean too much at first get their character compromised to an extent because they will eventually like him as well. I want to guess Rean is supposed to be this self-insert character and that would make sense if he was silent. However, he is fully voiced and has his own personality. So it’s quite jarring.

Despite my few nitpicks, those are very minor and they didn’t have much effect on my overall enjoyment. Within the 135 hours, I have spent on the game battling monsters, fishing, talking to loads of characters and watching the deep story unravel. I feel like Trails of Cold Steel 3 has set a new standard for my enjoyment of JRPGs, it will be extremely hard for any other JRPG, no game, to reach the same level I have love for Cold Steel 3. It did everything I love about the genre to a very exceptional level I would never expect. The fact a small studio has created a world more massive than any other game I have played is just mindblowing. Trails of Cold Steel 3 just very well be one of, if not, my favorite JRPGs of all time and that’s quite a high bar for me.