An amazing start to the new Arc, but not one without its issues. The middle of this game drags pretty hard, and difficulty balance is all over the place (while never really truly getting hard, outside of the last boss, fuck that guy), but the refinements to various systems including cooking, Connect events and Orbments, as well as the complete overhauling of Combat have landed in a very, very solid base in which to build from, and im excited to see the Field Combat be expanded.

Van is an amazing character, and (most) of the main crew is excellent too, specifically Aaron and Agnes (and Elaine, but thats kind of cheating). Excellent stuff here.

the Cold Steel series has been very rocky so far, and Hajimari is no different. Concluding Cold Steel (and, pretty much the Crossbell arc too) pretty well, and doing some great things with Rean's character (though i feel like 5 games was way too much for what was told), gameplay is also a bit more refined, but the bloated cast and size issue is still there from CS4, just less prevalent imo. definitely the most fun ive had in a Trails game thus far in terms of gameplay though. was fun to break this one.