Many fans will claim that one of the big strengths of the Kiseki series is the NPCs. They all have their own names and stories that you can follow by talking to them each time the story progresses. At first I played the games just going through the main story and only talked to NPCs when it was required by quests. CS II was when I started to talk to all the NPCs, and on my replays of other games afterwards I began doing that. As far as Sky and Crossbell, I'm mixed on my opinions. Sky had some good little arcs with the penultimate chapter of SC having some great stuff mixed in with how much the situation changed, but most of the NPCs are forgettable. Crossbell I gave up near the end of Zero, and even when I play the Geofront version of Azure there are no plans on talking to the NPCs. 

Cold Steel was different though, where talking to all the NPCs was something I actively took joy in. Heck, in CS IV I found myself looking forward to going to every area and talking to everyone that I would spend hours in one sitting to do that, and would begin rushing through story sections to see the updates on those NPCs. For a while now I've been wondering why that is the case, and how it managed to be much more engaging compared to others.

First of all, there is the main hub of Thors, whether the OG or the Branch campus. While only the main hub in the 1st and 3rd game respectively, it still allows for an area to get to know everyone quite intimately. Crossbell had the problem of the entire setting being open too quick and way too large. In Cold Steel, the amount of people to engage with is relatively small and can be quite easy to keep up with. Another thing that really stands out is how well it leads into side quests that come up later on. My best example to go with is with Alan in CS I. If you keep up with him, you can see everything leading up to the quest where you help him out in sparring with the Class VII training doll. Afterwards it leads to Alan being more confident and forward with Bridget. While not all are nearly as good as this example, there are still connections to be seen with keeping up with NPCs in Trista and Leeves and how that leads up to their requests popping up. 

Of course it isn't just those areas that work really well, even the areas where the field studies occur have their NPCs that work really well. Like other games, not all of them are going to stick out and be notable, but there are two things that really elevate the NPC interaction. Each place you go to has at least one NPC or small group that has an ongoing story. In CS I you have such examples as the kids in the market place, where the boy is teasing the girl with another girl tired of his antics. In Nord there's the budding relationship with Toma and that one girl from the gate. So when the time comes in CS II, or CS IV, to go to all the places to talk to people, you already make the trip to get an update on those NPCs that you are already attached to, minus well talk to the rest.

The strength of how all the NPCs work out, even the most forgettable ones, comes in the major changes that occur and how much it changes in the follow up game, CS II and IV. Late game SC stood out to me because there was a huge change to the entire country, and it opened up completely for one chapter to see how every place was affected and how people were reacting. Crossbell never quite got that, though to be fair I'm sure it would've happened in Azure but because of the lack of interest I didn't get to experience that. With Cold Steel, you have two games where the situation has changed drastically, and in those games you see how people are reacting. CS IV worked really well with how scared some people were with how blood thirsty family and neighbors had become, and how overtime more and more men were being drafted and how everyone was handling that. 

Between the build up in the respective games to how much effort was put in to how everyone in the world was reacting to either the Civil War or the impending World War, Cold Steel in the one arc of games that I want to interact with everyone when I play through again. With Sky and Crossbell, once was enough, but these four games set the gold standard for me in making a truly living breathing world that managed to outshine everything else. With Kuro and what we know about the current political climate in Calvard, I am already salivating at the potential of what we will get.

I think one thing that CS4 did really well was show the impact that the approaching war on the average citizens, and it works precisely because we've had one or more games to get to know the characters (location-depending) before seeing everything hit home. This includes the Crossbell NPCs, most obviously the Hayworths since they have a plot that's crossed all three arcs so far. But seeing just about any of the NPCs and how they and the people around them are reacting to the mobilization laws was top-notch stuff.

Yeah, the impending war made for some really effective stuff. The one that stood out most was the little girl who's parents had been consumed by bloodlust and were trying to convince their daughter, who is like 8 at most, that Calvard deserved to be burned to the ground. There was something so disturbing yet real that shook me to the core about that. She also had that guy who she would hang out with that got drafted to she was really getting hit from all sides, but thankfully she had the support of her Grandmother through all of it. 

Haysworth was also really well done, mainly having Collin show his feelings on his dad being drafted and understanding what they were going through doing his best to be emotional support to his mother and others around him whose loved ones had been drafted. Only thing I lament is that Juna was the one to console him at Mishy Wonderland rather than Renne. Not a huge deal, but felt like it would've been a little nicer with their connection and have another moment to show how far Renne had grown.

While I have my beef with some of the writing decisions in CSIV, the way NPCs were integrated was exquisite. I think the way Falcom handles the topic of war is actually one of the best aspects of the Cold Steel arc hands down.

Most depictions of warfare in popular media concentrates solely on the physical confrontation. On the collision between soldiers, bullets and tools of destruction. On clever tactics in the field, troop movements, the killing. But this hyper-focus obfuscates that the process of war is far more expansive. Before bullets are being fired, it's words. Narratives are disseminated and wielded like weapons - usually called war propaganda.

Even with the corruptive force of the Great Twilight, there could've have been no Operation Jormunggand without the false narrative of Ash being a Calvard assassin. It was only through the combined media performance of Osborne, Cedric and Rufus, amplified by the Imperial Chronicle and radio technology that the curse found ample soil to spread its influence. And it's doubtful that the National Mobilization Law would've gained an unanimous vote within the Imperial Diet without this fake news that was carefully curated by Osborne and his Ironbloods.

The National Mobilization Law reminds me very strongly of Nazi Germany's concept of total war. When every aspect of a nation, every institution, every able person is turned into a gear of the war machine. And because Falcom NPCs have such memorable personalities and reflect the entire social spectrum of a nation, it's possible to convey the idea that war doesn't begin from the barrel of a gun. The logistics, the economical supply chains, the factories and their workers, the metal and septium that needs to be mined, the sheer amount of capital which is confiscated from the citizens. Even Raquel becomes an indispensable part of the operation by keeping up soldier morale and it brought to my mind a documentary I once saw about Marilyn Monroe, singing in front of a throng of US-soldiers while wearing clothing far too flimsy for the cold outside.

There is this saying from French filmmaker François Truffaut: "There is no such thing as an anti-war film". The most common interpretation of these words is that by depicting the fighting action, the deadly glory of the wargear, the cameraderie between soldiers, the film inevitably glorifies war. In my opinion, there are only few works of fiction that don't fall into this trap. The only title I can think of that completely circumvents this dilemma is the anime film 'Grave of the Fireflies' and by doing that it became for me one of the most effective anti-war fictions ever created. Cold Steel III and IV doesn't quite circumvent this, but it still does infinitely better than most depictions of war by showing the process from the very beginning.

One of the first fatalities in war is truth. And there are too few stories out there that depict this quite as grounded and realistically as the Cold Steel arc.

Warning, this post will contain open spoilers for Sky third, mainly containing to the main protagonist Kevin.

Well I've been holding it off, but the time has come to talk about Rean. It has been hard for me to decide how I wanted to go about discussing him, as back in the XSeed forum I went in enough detail multiple times about my ambivalence towards him. To be clear, I don't hate him, and on paper he is an interesting character. However, there are a few key reasons for me why in action it falls extremely short.

In the past I have seen people argue that because of the complexity of Rean's character, it makes sense that it would take many games to go through his arc. I would argue the opposite is true, when you have someone like Rean with deep seated problems you need to be concise and have focus on the characters journey. I have read a number of long running media with Manga, and the one thing in common is that the main protagonists are pretty simple. They may have an arc where they fall into a slump and have to get back up, but with a simple motivation and a key philosophy they are strong characters due to how they react to the world that they live in. Kiseki is all about the world building, and unfortunately this makes it extremely difficult for a character like Rean to have his arc work out well when you are balancing out characters and fleshing out the world/country he inhabits.

For my experience with Cold Steel, it took a little over 300 hours to get through all 4 games. As for the set up for Rean's arc early on, we have two main things that work in tandem, his sense of self worth and a want to belong somewhere. If we kept it mainly to this, it could work in the long run, and as far as the want to belong that aspect shines through. It doesn't have to be front and center but in each game you get moments where you see how important Class VII is to Rean and it works really well. The problem comes with the self worth and the other aspects that are attached to it. There's his ogre powers and his sword training in the 8 leaves style, then later you get him finding out Osborne is his father. It may not all be directly linked, but those various factors seem to in some way to play into his self image. 

In the past I always been hard on the Ogre power stuff, and the main problem is less how the game uses it, but how you have to play through 300 hours of game to get the whole story with it. When I think over the 4 games and how the Ogre power comes into play as a story beat, it plays out like this in my head. In CS I, Rean has to save his sister and his power comes out to stop the knight, then later he uses his power fully against Victor, who in no way would be harmed by it due to the gulf in power. Rest of the game it's not mentioned. Come CS II it comes out briefly when Ymir is attacked and halfway through he gains control, then it's just a game play mechanic. Then in CS III it's all about him getting ready to use it, someone else helping out instead, then later gaining control with the only other story beat being him almost going berserk fighting against the Steel Maiden until the end where he loses control when shit hits the fan. CS IV is where it is a bit more prevalent, as he has been consumed by the power, and even when he comes to he is still affected and even worse, can't handle it for very long. Finally near the end he comes to terms with the power but game mechanics still make him lose control.

There are probably indeed other moments that I missed from the main story, but I am not concerned about that. The main fact is in a 300 hour spanning saga, that's the main info I can remember with the stuff concerning the Ogre powers. Inevitably, no matter what others may say and despite solid write ups, in execution when playing the game it all feels disjointed. Any time the Ogre power stuff comes up there is such large gaps between when it become part of the story it feels more random and just a convenient plot device. This is even more obvious with the swordsmanship aspect. Near the end of CS IV, when Rean becomes a divine blade what should be an amazing moment felt more like a check list with how little it came up in the story. I understand that when putting everything together it can make sense and you can see what they were going for. However, expecting people to keep track of these small tidbits that make up a fraction of a percent of the 300 plus hours of games is a hard ask.

This is why to make Reans story more effective it should've been in a smaller game with a much more condensed story. Before Cold Steel, Kevin was the most complex main protagonist (compared to Estelle and Lloyd). While the arcs were very different, there are some similarities Kevin and Rean share. Both had an unknown power which came about and caused a sort of trauma, and both have a self image problem. Kevins story works extremely well because it was contained in one game, where the main story was short and straight to the point, and was in an extremely short game. Going back to the strange power, once you learn about Kevin's stigma, there's about another 10 hours of game until it comes back and everything comes together. You learn about how he lost control and his trauma of killing Rufina because of it. Going through Gehenna you see what kind of work Kevin went through, shouldering the burden alone. Then facing the specter if Weissman Kevin is able to start working to better himself and we get the same looking stigma S-craft but a different element to show growth. Then by the end of the game he has Ries there to help shoulder the pain which is the start of a new journey. 

While the game can take around 40 hours if doing everything, the main stuff with Kevin happens towards the latter half, and because of that players can easily remember the events. It's concise and hits players quick and hard. While real life getting over trauma is much messier, when it comes to a story to properly convey the ideas you need to be more precise and to the point. While I like the idea of Rean moving 1 step forward then 3 steps back, the fact that his journey takes so long is a hindrance rather than a boon. I won't argue that the ideas aren't there or people are wrong about what his arc it. At the end of the day though, the journey is way too long to keep track of unless you are super invested in him, which I (like many others), was not.

Another problem is how Rean a lot of the time just doesn't feel like his own character, which I place the blame towards the bonding system. I believe there was an interview in which Kondo said that the system was in place as a what if scenario. From my understanding, the idea was the player chose who to hang out with and it was the player imagining if Rean decided to hang out with those particular characters. The problem with this is we have no canon of who Rean likes to hang out with more. From the various bonding events, I can learn about the other characters a little, but it does nothing to show who Rean would choose to interact with. When faced with the limited time, who would he lean towards hanging out with.

If it was just the bonding times I would have little problems with that, but the main story doesn't go much out of the way to show who Rean prefers. Overall he is a friendly guy and I can see him hanging out with everyone to a degree, but no matter the situation one of two things would happen. He would have some people he would gravitate more towards, or he would try to do his best to equally spread his attention. In the main story, early on he seems to make some connections more towards certain characters due to some common grounds. To me, he would gravitate towards Jusis and Laura more, with Jusis having commonality with the family situation and Laura being a sword practitioner. However, outside the early parts of CS I, everyone just becomes an amalgamation of being class VII, where he's friends with them but any unique relationship is gone. In the bonding events you may have unique things, but there is no canon since you choose, not Rean.

Of course, there is one exception which is Crow. In CS II Rean is obsessed with getting him back, and in CS III and IV there are a lot of emotional moments with Crow involved. If there is one thing that can be certain, Rean has a real attachment to Crow. So with this it feels right that Rean would have preferences which makes it all the more baffling that we didn't get more of how Rean gravitated more towards others. Though my own theory is that Crow was supposed to Rean's love interest, but that is a topic for a different time. 

 Another small point is the harem aspect, and not because I dislike it. One thing I've noticed when it comes to who Rean ends up with is there's never a sense that it's because Rean likes the person, but the player prefers the person. It usually "I love X, that's who I ship with Rean", never thinking about who he actually likes. Then of course in CS IV the confession scenes to me played out with the girl confessing and Rean just going "Oh, ok". I know Alisa is the one to be considered canon, but that seems one sided.

So overall, my problem in this context with the bonding events is it never feels like Rean is friends with Class VII. Yes, he has a sense of belonging there and as a whole I see how he is happy. But when I try to picture in my head just him hanging out with any one of the class members that's not Crow, I just draw a blank. It just seems foreign to me that Rean would go hang out individually with let's say Elliot or Gaius. Sorry, this aspect I have a harder time explaining so I'm not sure if I'm making much sense.

It's frustrating at the end of the day. Much like a lot of Cold Steel, Rean is a character I want to like and understand why some people love him. However, there's so much bloat that overshadows Rean and he just hardly feels like a character outside of choice moments when the game needs to head in a certain direction. Perhaps if the saga had stayed two games and was more condensed he would've come across better. Unfortunately, I just don't see myself ever getting more than lukewarm towards him, with me being a bit sour towards playing the eventual Hajimari release because I just want to be done with him.

Well no other major aspects of this saga have really come to mind to discuss, so time to wrap up my thoughts on everything. While most of my posts have been quite critical of the game, at the end of the day I still enjoyed that saga. Unfortunately there were just so many things that stopped this saga from being truly great, and instead is just merely good. If there wasn't the past sagas and expectations I probably wouldn't have taken so much time dissecting everything, but I have such an attachment to the Trails series that I expect a lot so when it falls short I can't help but feel disappointed.

Outside of the major topics I discussed already, there have been many smaller things that bugged me which would've been easier to ignore if I hadn't those other bigger problems. One thing that still gets me is how at the end of CS IV, Rean is ready to sacrifice himself, yet the man who is able to remove all preconceptions to see the truth forgets the plot device he has and somebody else has to come in to remind him about it. Really is just a small detail that should be easy to just forget, but I can't shake that off personally.

I'm waiting until sometime next year to do a full series replay, going in order starting from FC. While I expect to find things to appreciate more about the CS saga, I doubt the major problems are going to disappear. At best, it may be a little less grating, at worst I will dislike it more after going through all the other games again. I hope Kuro scales back on the large cast and things are more condensed. Even at it's worst, Falcom still comes through and has great moments that can keep me moving forward.

You know, I was expecting Kotobukiya to be the one to finally give us a Kiseki plamodel but whatever, because we have a Valimar model kit coming out!

https://twitter.com/gsc_mechasmile/status/1481946952774619138

It's by Good Smile, who I've never bought a kit from but it looks like they're comparable to Bandai's HG offerings from a few reviews so it'll probably look pretty decent out of the box for people who don't have the time or practice to give it the full treatment and the video announcement shows it with its tachi in a combat pose so it's probably got decent articulation.

Late to the party, sorry.

 In regards to random npc chatting in the games. I've always said Cold steel is the best arc in this regard. Some additional elements as to why IMO include them being 3d models instead of sprites. Now I'm not actually saying 3d is better than 2d, or vice versa, but non-portrait random npcs get re-used a lot in sprite form, and as such it's hard to identify each individual NPC at a glance. The cold steel games made a lot of them have unique models, and even the more generic ones tend to be re-used less, and are easier to identify with at a glance  before even talking to the NPC.

I mean an npc just is more interesting if you remember previous conversations with them, so when they look copy-pasted, its hard to remember them. If they had great dialogue from before, you can tell after reading, but not everyone has something amazing happen at every moment, so that's not really feasible.

Another reason is the whole school setting. This basically forces you to see the same group of npcs over the course of the entire game, allowing them to have more depth/content, while also having the other ncps with less screentime on your field trips.

Though as I'm replaying CS3, while I enjoy the campus chat. I am finding that the field trip npc dialogue to be a little bit more difficult to enjoy. I think it's just because almost all the towns in CS3 seem fairly large compared to what you are used to in CS1 and 2.

On the topic of Rean. I'm also in the 'I don't hate Rean but I like him less than the other protags' camp. I think one of the elements that really matter in if I like a protagonist or not is how much they grow/mature. I don't think that's just me either, which is probably why protags are often teens/young adults. I like Rean more in CS3 and 4, probably because he goes from being a student to a teacher, and... That's about the only really good thing I like about him. He just doesn't seem to grow very much otherwise, especially given he has more screentime than the other protagonists. Even when he has some kind of epiphany moment, he ends up doing the same old thing that made him have that moment later. It's probably the same reason why Altina is such a popular character.

So currently helping my friend go through Cold Steel 4, and only just finished the prologue. I am interested to see how much my opinion of the game changes going through it again. For now, I am going to ramble about my feelings about a particular scene I'm not too keen on.

Near the end of the prologue, you get the scene where Juna is talking to the old Class 7 after learning about Rean's connection to Osborne. I get the idea of what they are going for. Two weeks have passed since the curse was released, and they can't be spending their time moping around forever while Rean is suffering and the world is at stake. They messed up and this is their absolute last chance to do anything to stop what is going on. That said, the way everything is executed just makes me more frustrated at everything.

The way the scene goes it comes across as if Class 7 has no idea that Rean is suffering and that if they won't do anything they will be the ones to rescue him. Had they been focused on what they were supposed to currently be doing and ignoring Rean's plight entirely, then that would make sense. However, everyone is taking the situation hard, with a classmate having died, the loss of some very important people (one being Laura's father), and with Alisa having her whole family being on Osborne's side. Nobody is doing well and after such a huge mess they are having a hard time coping with everything. 

Then you have the old class 7 agree that they've been bad role models, where to me it feels like the game is saying how dare they have emotions and need to cope with so much. The only thing that matters is that Rean is suffering, and they can just put all their personal feelings of what just happened aside. It's like this group is a cult, as any other's problem is small compared to what he is going through. Rean suffered for you, you can't be sad right now!

This scene probably wouldn't rub me the wrong way nearly as much if it wasn't for the fact that these games really try to make Rean to be the best guy ever in the eyes of everyone who knows him. I just get taken out as the scene just feels like another excuse for people to talk about how great he is while at the same time talking about his current predicament. I'll fully admit that my anti-Rean bias is making me view this scene much more negatively and ultimately this scene at worst is just not anything great, but it's how I feel about the scene, and it makes it so unenjoyable to me.

Also, me and my friend laughed so hard at the Musse scene where she wished she noticed Ash sooner. Scene sets her up to see thousands of steps ahead and could make Osborne sweat, but missed this one small detail that screwed everything up. Don't worry though, it was the curse that stopped her! Yes, later on you get more context that a being was manipulating stuff so it can get what it wanted. No, to me it still is stupid to me.

Why is it every time I try to be more open to this saga, while there are small things to find enjoyable there are other things that just really irk me?

I think it's because the storytelling is so good otherwise, you actively LOOK for flaws, while in other rpgs, people don't do that. Late reply I know, sorry =P.  Seriously though. I  look at the entire series as the ultimate gold standard, and  am always quick to mention the slightest of imperfections because I want to convey 'the game is perfect! really! trust me! minus this one thing I noticed, therefore making my opinion credible!)