- The Genesis devices continue to be a big question mark that can seemingly do whatever the hell the plot needs them to.
- We don't really get much on Mare and what the deal with her obscured speech is. Or just Mare in general, really.
- Shizuna, while amazing, is still a mystery.
- Risette's backstory is still being deferred to a later game.
- We get a little bit about what Grimcats is (in a bonding event), but nothing too substantial.
On the other hand we get a nice big info dump on what Quatre's deal is and...well, I certainly wasn't expecting THAT. Calling him Quatre is probably the biggest jebait they could've ever pulled, and I find it hard to believe they didn't know exactly what they were doing with that lol. Hat's off to you, Kondo you wonderful troll. I was also worried that we'd get no payoff for Nina's shadiness and while I'm not 100% clear on what was going on with her, the church connection makes it all the more interesting. She seemed clearly in charge of Ashrad's group, but her mystery powers mark her as something much more than just that.
The big reveal of who Garden Master actually was behind the obvious Ace guise was a big head scratcher of a moment. Now, I'll freely admit that he could have been mentioned in this game or the first and I'd have missed it, given how I played through them, but it felt like a big out of nowhere moment, and then he was dead before you could blink. Just an all around weird turn, but at least it wasn't the climax of the game, I guess.
The time rewinding stuff, while interesting at first, began to get a little silly as time went on. While it served its purpose well as having some shocking moments where party members died, it soon started sucking any tension out of scenes, because you knew it was gonna be rewound anyway. Hell, Ellroy even jokes about that at one point which, while funny, doesn't help matters. Ellroy is great in every scene he's in, by the way, although his appearance in the final dungeon was completely nonsensical and existed purely for the sake of having a boss, because that's what Kiseki final dungeons do. Act 3 was probably the most egregious offender when it came to time rewinding. Aside from the sheer length of the thing, some of the scenarios you die in just feel like the characters are being written as dumb or lacking the usual danger sensing they typically show off, just to have a big death scene. The bit where Shizuna and Van get blown up by a bomb under a table kind of stood out. The thing is, I kept expecting there to be a big cost to using this power over and over. It felt like there should be a consequence to a power that lets you cheat death like that. Either that, or there'd be a moment where it straight up doesn't work. Maybe it'll be explored more in the next game since, I assume, the power still exists. Oh and the Genesis devices somehow travelling back with you when you rewind time in chapter 3 was baffling and I was worried was a giant plot hole, but the characters do (eventually...) acknowledge it. It's never explained of course, so...next game? Maybe?
I think part of my problem with the game was how it felt more like a self-contained story akin to the 3rd or Hajimari. I was expecting we'd get something that advanced, or at the very least began, the Society's plans, but given Ellroy's talk of having betrayed them (at least until he goes back later) I have to wonder if anything he did here mattered at all. In some ways it's similar to CS2 in that regard, but that game at least had an Anguis clearly trying to advance the Plan and we got little snippets at the end. Here, it just feels like wheel spinning. At this point I can't seriously imagine this arc is getting wrapped up in one more game, which makes me a little fearful of a CS4 type of situation where there's a bit too much padding for my taste. Ultimately, I think my opinion on this game hinges on how the rest of the arc plays out. I should say, though, it's not like there's necessarily anything wrong with self-contained stories, but in a series like this and the expectations I had going in, I felt a bit let down.
Some other nitpicks I had: why on earth was Van the only one to get a new S-Craft? It kind of made it feel like the game was a bit rushed, especially with how many locations from the first game were cut. Granted I wouldn't want them to pad out the game more with pointless visits to places, but I was surprised at how many places were left out. Also, I'm not entirely sure why Connect Events were even in this game, considering how few of them there were. I guess the structure of the game wouldn't have really made it work, but then why bother having them at all? The ones we got were good, though, so I can't complain too much. I also wasn't too impressed with the activities on the island - they felt really half assed and didn't seem to have any worthwhile character interactions.
"Boy, Barkhorn's absence in the trailers is really weird, huh? Hooo boy, I bet there's some fuckery going on!"
Reality: I must go, my planet needs me.
I can't believe he got Yun Kafai'd. Complete with a letter to the protag and all! I guess they're saving...whatever may be going on with him for when the main story finally kicks in, otherwise what was even the point of him in the first game?
The ending with Dingo was touching, though and to be honest was how I ultimately wished Crow's story had concluded, and I'm glad they resisted reviving him. I continue to love the Kuro crew, so if nothing else, getting to spend more time with them here was a good enough excuse to play the game. For all my gripes I still enjoyed my time with it, but I was just left feeling a bit underwhelmed, because of my expectations for this to go balls to the wall with reveals and stuff. I suspect I'll probably have a better time with it in English and not no-lifing it the way I did sprinting through.
Since I can't edit my post let me just add
I haven't played kuro yet, waiting for English.
But I did listen to some OST tracks, and maybe it's cuz I'm avoiding these forums here due to trying to avoid kuro spoilers (I didn't click yours lol, I took a risk hoping you had something to say that wasn't a spoiler but whatever), but so far I find it to be pretty generic sounding. Mind you I only listened to final boss, final dungeon, and a few other tracks, but they just aren't doing it for me. Seems to me that Trails' music in general hasn't really been up to snuff after cold steel 1. Everything after is still good, don't get me wrong, but Cold Steel 1 overall was probably the last game where I love every track pretty much. Cold steel 2 has s ome great additions like the regular battle theme early on and stuff, and cold steel 3 has some of the atmospheric town music (and god forbid I like Singha's take on the geofront music). But final dungeon final boss music wasn't as good as cs1 and everything earlier IMO (though reverse babel in Hajimari is very good, and ALMOST best song ever territory, except it like. climbs and climbs and climbs to this climax that doesn't actually happen and it loops back, NOOO lol, the climb is SOO good though). I'm sure kuro 1 and 2 have tracks that aren't final boss/final dungeon, something major that I really love, but you get my point.
Anyway enough of my rant, I heard that Falcom doesn't have JDK anymore, they FIRED them?! WTF? Is this true? Is this a Kondo thing or something else? How/why did this happen? Who is the moron? Did JDK get greedy and demand a 5x pay multiplier or something? If that's the case ok maybe I can understand where they're coming from but still, I kinda doubt that's what happened.
The band are still around; in fact they put on a performance at, I believe, TGS a few weeks back. There's been changes in their line up, but that's about it, I think? There was some drama surrounding the sound team, because people were saying Unisuga had left or was let go and some other things to do with proper crediting of their musicians. Discourse around Falcom music stuff tends to get a bit weird and hostile, so I don't pay too much attention to it, to be honest.
If you want a quick non spoilery take: I wasn't too thrilled with how it felt like not much progress was made with the overall story and the game felt more like a 3rd/Hajimari style plot that doesn't really have much to do with the main over-arching narrative. That said, I think a great deal of those opinions may change depending on how it ends up impacting what happens in the next game. My other issue was how little we learned about various people's backgrounds that were a mystery in the first game. As I said above, it feels like wheel spinning until we get to the big stuff. Anyway, since writing my impressions, I cooled off and did a bit of reading to clarify a few points and I think I'm not feeling quite as harsh towards a few things, but my overall issues still stand. I still had a great time with it and there's plenty to like, it's just that I had expectations of one thing going in and got something a bit different. Also, the final battle has one of the coolest/most hype moments in the series, so look forward to that.
I can understand the avoid the music discussion bit. I find it really odd how much people like to spend time just to dump on Singha tracks. I can see some of the distaste. The guy has a (seemingly less frequent over time I may add) habit of stuffing in these crazy weird short guitar melodies that has a purpose of something like 'lol random!' in a desperate attempt to be unique. But that tends to only be a second or two of a track that's normally like 2 minutes or something, nothing to really curse the guy's soul and offspring over, and it doesn't always happen. Plus some songs are just plain good, one of my fave examples is his geofront song.
Regarding some hype boss battle thing. Interesting, though I don't think I get hyped over boss battles much, I mean I enjoy them. But they're more like a turn based strategy kind of entertainment for me than a spectacle thing for me. For me what causes hype is sitting in the crimson palace's banquet hall and seeing all the big name npcs talking to each other just begging me to eavesdrop on them lol. I'm not sure w hy I like it so much more in cold steel. Like the one in sky 3rd where you end by talking to Kloe as Joshua, that one just felt kinda tedious to me, but the cs3 dance party one is SOOOO good. CS4 also has these too on the island resort, great times.
Man if the series ever has a true ending last game and you have a giant scene like that with like ALL the characters over the course of the entire series, I think I'll just swoon in joy.
