Committing myself to evil atrocities in my second full playthrough as The Dark Urge origin character was pretty fun and something I really recommend for a second playthrough. I also used it as a chance to do things I had missed out on in my first playthrough of Balders Gate 3 where I did mostly play a good character. Now I’m considering could I actually try and play in a harder difficulty and see just what else I’ve missed because honestly I’m pretty sure there is a lot. This will contain plot spoilers for Balders Gate 3 and some choices I made for companion quests.
My Dark Urge Character
The Dark Urge is a really interesting way to play Balders Gate 3 as it adds such an interesting origin story. I wanted to commit to an evil playthrough to see some different choices not only for my own character but how much I could corrupt my companions too. Having already played through Balders Gate 3 and completing the game, as well as reading the PSN trophy list I did know where that was going to go but the ride along the way was very fun and had some unexpected surprises. I really liked that the character still had a choice to try and repress their evil nature but I completely basked in the blood of my enemies, and friends in some cases. Ending the game in the name of Bhaal, the god of murder and seeing my character sitting there in Orin’s clothes on a throne watching the world end was pretty glorious.
I mean, she looks pretty evil. Both playthroughs I’ve completed now have been playing a magic caster, first as a warlock and this time I was a sorcerer. The wild magic surges certainly added to the chaos from time to time which was sometimes to my benefit but not always. I am pretty sure I put all 12 levels into sorcerer as well but I’m pretty interested in trying a multiclass build to see how that works out. I did this playthrough as a Lolth-Sworn Drow as I thought it would give me an edge with intimidation checks and helped me pass through some encounters without combat.
Corrupting Companions to do Evil Things
My party for most of the playthrough was Astarion as a Rogue Assassin, Shadowheart as a Life Domain Cleric and Lae’zel as a Battlemaster Fighter. I did switch in Minthara for a lot of Act 2 because she seemed pretty at home in the Shadowcursed lands and felt for story reasons she was a great choice. However, in my first playthrough of BG3 I accidentally shot and killed Lae’zel early on and missed all of the Githyanki plot so I wanted to do that this time around. Will left the party after the raid on the emerald grove and Karlach attacked me on sight for my atrocities. Gale was there. I did use him a little bit but as I was playing a magic character I didn’t have much need for him but I did see more of his companion quest this time around which I kind of failed to do previously. This playthrough I had Astarion commit to becoming an Ascended vampire and Shadowheart become a Dark Justiciar. It was pretty brutal but actually made some combat encounters a lot easier than on a good playthrough. I’d like to say some of that is because I learned a lot in my first playthrough of BG3 and kind of know what I’m doing now but it also helps that I wasn’t completely and utterly outnumbered. I did do one redeeming thing though and that is to pet the dog.
How Would I Play Again?
Balders Gate 3 has a lot of replayability value because you can’t see everything in one playthrough and because there are some interactions you can get locked out off based on if you’re good or evil. Or you end up making mistakes, and there are plenty of options to make mistakes, and so can’t see certain things through to the end. There is so much content available in Balders Gate 3 that makes playing a second or third playthrough desirable with more challenging difficulties, different classes to try and play and character companion quests to enjoy. Not to mention the opportunity to play as an Origin character and see how things are different in comparison to how they are as a companion.
I think if I were to play again I would probably go for a ‘good’ character approach again and try completing some of the quests I’ve still not managed to solve. I would like to try and complete the game on tactician difficulty although it’s a little intimidating but now I kind of know what I’m doing, what I can get away with and how to make things more challenging or easier on myself I feel I would be able to do most of a playthrough in this mode. There are some legendary weapons, gear and items I’d like to try and get. I think if I were to play again I’d try playing a physical class more than a magic one. I did start a ranger character playthrough but I feel like I’ve made too many mistakes on that one or missed way too much to be able to make the most of the playthrough. I’ve tried to learn more about D&D in general too which has helped me understand some of the rules a bit better like advantage, concentration spells and just how much you should/can do between each long rest as well as how character stats work.
Having never played any Yakuza game in my life, picking up Yakuza: Like A Dragon with very little context on the series was a choice, largely dictated by the availability on Game Pass, seeing two odd screenshots in a discord server and exactly one commendation of someone saying they liked it. I remember seeing many memes following release footage of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth including a trailer full of random features that did intrigue me but probably more along the lines of ‘that looks like a weird game’ rather than ‘hey I should play that sometime’. Here I am, just short of 55 hours of playtime later, having finished Like A Dragon and actually being quite surprised with how much I liked it.
I did read a few mostly spoiler-free reviews which gave me the impression that Like A Dragon is new-to-the-series friendly, and it is but also had some pretty scathing comments about combat. Not an issue for me, I like turn based combat, so it didn’t really affect my opinion when starting the game. One issue I’ve had playing, which is more of a performance problem rather than gameplay is that the game did keep shutting down, sometimes at very frustrating moments when I wasn’t able to save, so a lot of repeat progress had to be made. It was not an issue with my PC, my specs are more than capable of running Like A Dragon and I made a few adjustments that did prevent that from happening too much. I was, however, going through the very last chapter with no where to save and kind of wanting cutscenes and things to speed up so I could save my clear data and not have to do the end for the second time.
I played Yakuza: Like A Dragon subbed with Japanese voice acting which I liked. All the emotion came through incredibly well. It isn’t unusual for me to play JRPG’s like this, I’m used to enjoying Japanese voice acting and reading subtitles when playing games although I’m not a purist either, and have enjoyed English voice acting just as much. I managed 43 achievements which was pretty good going for a first playthrough and think I managed to beat the game with my party around level 58 without too much level grinding. It was challenging enough but not rage inducing.
There were times during the main story that I was a bit lost but not because I didn’t understand what was going on or didn’t have much context due to a lack of knowledge from previous games in the series. I just felt there were some points where the plot was a bit weak or didn’t really get full explanations as to why things happened. Perhaps that’s me being a bit picky or I missed something but overall I did enjoy playing. Like a Dragon’s charm is in it’s characters and their interactions with each other. Ichiban Kasuga became a pretty easy to love protagonist with unwavering optimism, loyalty and kindness to others he interacted with. He was charming, goofy and wasn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve or show what he was really feeling. There were some interesting opinions I’ve read about him being the inverse of Kiryu, with his choice of suit representing that most obviously.
Kasuga’s dialogue options were a good mix of heartwarmingly wholesome, goofy and maybe a little outrageous at times. His delivery was usually pretty charming and I just found him incredibly likeable. He draws people to him pretty effortlessly. His way of seeing the world like an RPG and getting to play the Hero, and all of his Dragon Quest references made his character feel fun to play. Other party members where just as engaging and offered fun dialogue and what really felt like strong friendships developing between them all. I particularly liked Saeko, who made for a great female party member which an interesting range of jobs to choose from. She was a constant in my party. She was cute, headstrong, funny and completely on par with the rest of the characters, rather than just there solely to fuel the main protagonist’s ego. In fact, her introduction is that of her shutting a conversation down about a particularly unsavory character which made me like her instantly.
There are so many minigames to choose from when you want a break from fighting and I found some of them really fun. The business management minigame was something I did really quite enjoy, because I like making money, and it gave me a lot of satisfaction shutting down shareholders because my sales and net worth wasn’t as high as it could be because I was paying employees a fair wage, giving them bonuses, pay rises and promotions all the time to keep morale high. Who doesn’t want to run a business with a chicken called ‘Omelette’ as it’s mascot though? I also did all of the quizzes at the vocational school for many academic achievements and watched a few of the movies. I even tried my hand at Dragon Kart racing which was pretty fun. Too much of my time was spent not winning cats at claw machines much like how my time is spent in actual arcades in real life.
For someone like me, not just unfamiliar to the series but someone that does tend to gravitate towards more cutesy animation, cozy games or quite high fantasy RPG’s this was pretty fun. I hard my reservations, not everything was to my taste, there were plenty of cringe moments with some more lewd and crude content but overall Yakuza: Like a Dragon was engaging, fun and full of emotion. There were a fair few moments I had chills and felt myself tearing up. I’m glad I gave it a chance.
I could have left playing Persona 3 Portable in such a short space of time honestly. These games aren’t exactly known for being done quickly. I know, for one, having already played Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal. However, nothing kicks in my ADHD hyperfocus quite like a deadline, particularly if it’s something I enjoy. So how did I do, did I manage to actually complete Persona 3 Portable in three days? A game that on average takes around 65 hours to complete if you’re just there to enjoy the main story?
Persona 3 decided on using an Evoker to access your Persona power which involves your characters and party members shooting themselves in the head…which is, a weird choice but okay.
First, the backstory – you might be wondering why I thought I would attempt this (probably not), around all of the usual parenting and life things I do (because I do do things, sometimes) and a perfectly respectful answer would be for the challenge. But no, that was not the case. It is much more longwinded than that. Last month I took advantage of one of the Discord Nitro, I think? offers for a free three-month game pass through Xbox. Once applying and logging into an Xbox account I didn’t know I had I browsed through the games and saw Persona 3 Portable was available.
As I’ve said I’ve played 4 and 5 and have been wanting to play this particular version of the game for some time purely because it has the option to play as a female protagonist. I much prefer playing games with a female lead, I’m not against male leads, but for RPG’s, I like playing the character of the gender I most feel comfortable associating myself with. It frustrates me that the other Persona games don’t have that option, even more so that it was added in for P3P but not for the subsequent games. Anyway, I digress, the reason I thought I would attempt to finish Persona 3 Portable in three days is because I didn’t realise that when a game is taken away from game pass, you can’t play it anymore and have to buy it if you want to play or continue.
This, is dumb. I’ve had access to Playstation+ for years and as long as you continue subscribing, any games you download are yours to play even if they’re removed from the PS+ ‘store’. Apparently, Microsoft say no to this. So I immediately felt a rush to complete it. For one, I want to make good use of this free trial to actually help me decide if I want to continue subscribing afterwards but this revelation that games are removed and then inaccessible (although, information on this is varied, for some games have remained accessible, for others you have to go offline the day before it’s removed and complete within 30 days without going back online during that time or you lose access) has me having my doubts.
Persona 3 Reload – the remake of the original Persona 3 game (Not the portable version, no female protagonist – big sigh) is going to be available through game pass on release day and as I now have a very decent spec gaming PC I might as well make use of it rather than paying the £50 on the PSN store. I’m hopeful it will be available for some time, although I’m keen to play it on release and have it preinstalled/downloaded for the day it becomes available, I would much rather take my time to play and enjoy the remake. And because I’ve kind of sped through Persona 3 Portable I’m not sure how I’m going to feel playing the remake so close to this speed run.
There are much less places to navigate in P3P but it can still be a bit overwhelming trying to find where everyone is at times
Anyway, the TLDR version of this is no, I didn’t finish it and with the time left of me today, I don’t think I’m going to finish it. In some ways, that’s a good thing, a lot of things are unresolved, I missed out on maxing out certain social links so in a way that’s enough of a motivator to finish playing P3Reload and maybe I’ll buy it again one day in the future. The trouble with Persona games is that they do require some amount of level grinding and I am getting to the point where I have been skipping random encounters and now finding things way too challenging. I got pretty far into the game though, I’m closing in on the end of October so I’ve got the jist of the main story and if I haven’t found out all the big reveals and things yet then I feel like I’m pretty close to it. I think the highest floor I got to on Tartarus was 146 out of I think 263 floors. That’s still quite the climb!
Dark and Creepy. Just the sort of game I want to play.
Persona 3 Portable is, like the other Persona games I’ve played, a weird game. It’s dark and creepy, with some pretty heavy content in contrast to the incredibly upbeat tracks that play during the game. I played as the female protagonist which I believe has a few different social links to the male protagonist so that at least gives me some level of variety when Reload is released. It features, as always, a whole host of Persona’s to draw from to make you stronger as you level up. I think that’s really what you want to grind levels for not exactly your own character stats but because higher levels allow you to fusion and collect really, really strong Persona’s.
When I grow up I want to be Elizabeth. She makes choices.
I have really enjoyed what I’ve played so far. There are some creepy and questionable characters that did make me inwardly cringe a little bit, as almost every JRPG game I’ve played has done. There were some heartwarming conversations and relationships too. As usual I seemed to max rank a lot of non-party member social links rather than actual party members. I really need to stop doing that…However, I did max rank the Moon social link which I think is pretty critical to do so from the content I’ve seen up to this point although the fate of that character is yet to be determined and I’m going to do my best to abstain from reading spoilers.
It’s always the characters I like that the bad things happen to!
I really liked that character too and I was fully committed from the moment you first meet them that I was going to max rank that link no matter what. Brooding, grumpy guy in a long coat that kinda has a heart of gold and apparently quite skilled at cooking delicious meals? Where a lot of your social link time is spent talking, or eating food? Yes. Really there was no question that I was going to spend time figuring out what Shinjiro’s story was. I liked most of the characters. A lot of the female relationships were really nice to see develop over the course of the game I played. In fact I think really it was only Junpei I didn’t like, but as he’s the token creepy perv that was a given. I’m highly suspicious of him anyway.
Mitsuru (also a bit suspicious of as I haven’t started a social link with her yet…) telling Junpei how it is
I still don’t really know the full story behind Strega, the rival group to the SEES team who are also utilising the Dark Hour. I have encounted Death and managed to escape because I was not ready for that challenge. In P3P I have encounted Death more times than any other Persona games but I believe there’s a very good reason for that given the name of the tower you climb is called Tartarus and one of the very early cutscenes where you summon your Persona for the first time it looks like the Death persona Thanatos kind of takes the place and attacks the shadow you’re fighting really rather violently…haven’t had an answer for that so I sort of feel like I’m either making it up or missing something.
More suspicious characters…
Despite playing on beginner, because I rushed through, I did find some of the combat a challenge. Persona uses turn based combat, which is my preferred way of fighting because it gives me time to think but it really doesn’t lend itself to speeding through things. I found getting new Persona’s through shuffle time not nearly as generous as Persona 4 and doesn’t quite compare to how easy they are to get in Persona 5 Royal. Lack of items, quest deadlines and trying to remember where everyone was on what day to spend time with them was very overwhelming although having experience with Persona games already I was kind of expecting that and did follow a guide to help me get as far as I did. You also have social stats like charm, academics and courage to level up through going to school, doing exams, or going to certain venues throughout the gameplay. I maxed out all but Academics, although I was pretty close to doing it.
Either way, I enjoyed what I played and I’ll play Persona 3 Reload at a much slower pace, making much better use of the compendium and hopefully finding whatever changes are coming in the remake enjoyable.
Spoilers below for the RPG video game by Larian Studios Balders Gate 3 based on Dungeons & Dragons.
Balders Gate 3 is an incredibly good game and worth putting in the long hours to get to the end of the story. I finished a complete play through last night which was the second campaign I started after kind of messing things up on my first campaign and deciding to start again. I have since gone back to my original campaign knowing more, being able to play better and to see if I can still make it through to the end despite some poor bad choices I made at the start. Because ultimately, this is what the game is about – it’s about choices and seeing through their consequences.
For my complete playthrough my campaign was mostly that of a good character, or that of the hero. I tried to save as many people as I could which largely benefitted me towards the end. In Act Three the main scenario is to gather your allies and I had a lot of allies to talk to or finish quests with which ultimately lead to a huge number of support in the final battles. I was locked out of some quests because I killed Lae’zel at the point you can free her after the Nautiloid ship crashes. My character was a Mephistopheles Tiefling Warlock which made Kagha changed her ways, saved most of the other Tieflings, killed all the Goblin leaders, stole a Githyanki egg from their creche, lifted the Shadowcurse from the land, saved the Nightsong and so on. All those kind of ‘good’ character choices. I romanced a few characters with permission from my romantic lead choice and finished a lot of the companion quests. I ended the game with Karlach as my love.
Balders Gate 3 was a really fun game but there’s so much to do it felt really overwhelming at times. A lot of quests are kind of stopped by certain perception checks and so on or, in my first campaign, seeing that I was limiting myself by making non-committal choices. That actually ended up with a lot of mistakes being made and not really doing very well in general whilst playing however I’ve learned a lot and I don’t think my first campaign is completely beyond hope now I know more of what is to come. I also know that now I’ve made all the ‘good’ choices I feel I can be a bit more direct with my own dialogue options as my first character I created was a Lolth-Sworn Drow, or a dark elf, Ranger and now I have seen more gameplay I am convinced I can fix it and still see the game through to completion however I have a lot of fun options ahead of me.
I have started a Dark Urge playthrough once I realized you could still change your character’s customization and job but it just gave you a dark, bloodthirsty backstory. It’s recommended as either a completely dark, evil character or as a redemption arc character.
I really loved the vibrancy of Balders Gate 3 from the colourful appearance choices during character creation to the world map in all three acts. Although Act 2 is more on the dark and gloomy side it was still darkly enchanting. Each act sets up the scene really well and further dramatizes the choices the character needs to make. I actually can’t wait to go back through the game and make some of the darker choices to see how things play out that way not to mention being really interested in all of the other jobs and the ability to multi-class sounds kind of fun. I want to finish the original campaign I started but I am very drawn to the Dark Urge origin character especially knowing that you can, if you wish, choose to become an Unholy Assassin which I kind of really want to do to see how things play out that way.
There are a lot of animals to pet or speak with if you have the ‘Speak with Animals’ spell or potion activated. As a ranger I felt communicating with animals would add to the roleplay experience.
As a warlock character that eventually…transformed…I felt pretty powerful during my final confrontations and had a lot of powerful spells at my disposal. Some of those big kill everything spells are excellent and really turn the tides in your favour when fighting a huge number of enemies which I found pretty fun. They made what seemed like it was going to be a very challenging, difficult fight into something much more manageable. That’s something I feel I can take into further campaigns or playthroughs.
The combat in Balders Gate 3 did take me a very long time to get used to and I found it challenging but once I understood things a bit more I felt like I could play better and took more advantage of my environment. Having speed potions, haste spells, misty step, dimension door and equipment like boots of speed or permanent stat buffs like longstrider made a huge difference and something I really took advantage of. At first I saw those kind of things as limiting your actions from hitting and killing things but actually sometimes you really need the movement. And when you get further along in the playthrough and have access to multi-hit actions combat and movement in a turn become possible. Buying potions and using them tactically, particularly the ones that stay on you until your next long rest are very handy to have. Some of these you can make yourself if you forage around for alchemy supplies which saves you some gold but resources are limited. Looting bodies for potions is another great way to give you an advantage. Stealth can also be really beneficial, although I am not someone that usually plays in stealth mode as I’m not very good at being stealthy. The game is largely strategy based and a player that takes their time with things is going to find it particularly enjoyable.
Just before closing in on the final battle of Act 3
The story is really compelling and some of the companion quests I did manage to complete did make me shed a few tears in the end. The narration throughout the story is great and immersive and reflects upon choices you’ve made. The romance options are a lot of fun and much more adult than I was expecting but then I suppose in a game where you can choose your genitalia why not have it on show at points during the game. I also found out that by pressing Triangle you could toggle your armour display on or off. You’d still be wearing it but you’d be walking around in your camp clothes instead, or, at one point I was just walking around in the city in new underwear I’d purchased for my character. I’ve always enjoyed RPG’s and Balders Gate 3 is quite unlike any other RPG I’ve played with such a unique combat system and having to pass charisma or deception checks during dialogue options or things don’t quite go your way. Adding advantage to your rolls throughout by certain gear, spells, potions or race choice really adds to that roleplaying factor and made it a lot of fun to play.
Balders Gate 3 is incredibly fun and really rewarding RPG. I can’t wait to see the rest of the options I missed out and thing the replayability of the game makes it well worth starting various campaigns. I am really excited about the prospect of completeing a dark urge playthrough. After all, there are still trophies to be gained…
Spoilers probably (for an incredible series of games that no one should be spoiled on so warning potential stumblers of the internet) because I have no chill and can’t keep my mouth shut. Apart from that one time I knew one thing and didn’t spoil it for exactly one person. Everything else is off the table, unless I’ve forgotten it.
There was no way I could add in the Cold Steel games into the title but this is my current love letter to The Legend of Heroes: Trails series of video games. Over the last 14 months or so I have developed a small obsession with a series of games that started off very innocently enough after a recommendation and has become an all consuming obsession that I can not get enough off. This is largely because there are still a few games out in Japan that haven’t been translated into English and as I can’t read, speak or understand Japanese I am at a loss. The Trails games are story-rich JRPG’s set in a science fantasy world and full of amazing characters that are easy to fall completely in love with. And some are incredibly easy to despise too.
Having funny moments like this helps break up some of the more serious context of the plot which allows for the player to appreciate, enjoy and process the plot in a comfortable pace
When I first played Trails in the Sky in 2022 I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was sold on the idea of turn based combat and a slower-paced game that required a lot of reading and as Trails in the Sky just so happened to be on sale on steam I went ahead and purchased it. Then Trails in the Sky SC, then 3rd and so on. In July I played the most recent localised game Trails into Reverie and now I am impatiently waiting for Trails Through Daybreak; the English titled name for Kuro no Kiseki (which is not my favourite choice of translation but I’ll have to go with it). I played the three Sky games first, then I think I played Trails from Zero on the Switch before playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2.
I then painstakingly waited(slightly teasing, because I know I haven’t really had to wait that long compared to others that have waited a very, very long time to be able to play these games in English) about three months or so to be able to play Trails to Azure, then finally went back to Cold Steel 3 and 4 and finished with Reverie in the summer. I say finished, if I didn’t miss two treasure chests in one of my playthroughs I would have a platinum trophy right now but alas…I have also played The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails although yet to go through NG+ which has additional information added and is either related to the Trails series or not. I have my suspicions, theories and I have questions, naturally. Whether is is part of the same universe or not it’s certainly a fun and interesting game to play.
What started as a slow burn cozy RPG became something so much more…
Now I sit here with fan theories buzzing in my brain continously fueled by dangerous territory , favourite characters, organizations I don’t understand the motives behind, more questions than answers, spin off games I have made up in my head that I want to see (basically just a game where Ries visits every culinary institution, bakery, cafe and so on to taste test all of the things – she could rock an Instagram account full of food pictures by the way) and an obsession with a world that is truly awe inspiring. This is the type of story craft and world building that makes me so envious yet so inspired. People came up with all of this and have turned it into something that people can discuss and theorize in great detail. The fandom may be small in comparison to other franchises but it is aggressively dedicated. I like that and I like that I am a newbie, but a part of that now too because these games have become treasures.
What started as a super cute and cosy game following these two teenagers adventuring around their kingdom to learn to be Bracer’s and help others in need has become so much more. It’s so easy to forget some of the finer details but the charm of Trails in the Sky with such likeable protagonists in Estelle and Joshua Bright continuing with the series was kind of a no brainer. I find starting new games really difficult because it’s a lot of new information to process, particularly RPG’s which are usually character driven and require learning a lot about the world you’re in. Trails doesn’t shy away from this and there is a lot to learn about the world by reading it all however there was no point I felt completely overwhelmed because it was a slow burn game. The plot development and pace was subtle and interesting. The orbment system was confusing and took me a long time to get into but now I understand it, you can make such strong characters it’s insane.
I intended to pace myself a little more between games because I was a little intimidated going from the 3rd Sky game to Zero with a new cast of characters to learn about and a new city to explore however I found the idea of it being pretty contained within the city of Crossbell and just having four party members helped convince me to try and without a doubt From Zero to Azure is my favourite arc. It sets so much up and made me realise just how much more there is to these games, particularly Azure. Because it was smaller and more self contained you get to really know the characters. Tio and Randy had so many laugh out loud moments but there were some heavy hitting themes too. Plus it introduced me to the wonders of the cast Avalon Gate and that became my favourite AOE heavy hitting spell from there on, which didn’t continue in later games which is very sad for me.
So many characters have depth to their back stories making it hard to choose just one favourite
Sky 3rd follows a hare’s breath behind if not on par with Zero/Azure if not for the unique style of play but for just how tragic and heavy it is. Having to traverse the literal abyss to find the truth behind my favourite character’s (Renne) backstory was an emotional task in itself because I already knew I was going to cry and just hate what I was about to see. Not to mention the protagonist of 3rd, Kevin, also has to deal with some incredibly hard moments and reading about why he is the way he is and what happened to him completely broke my heart.
Renne may be my favourite character and for very good reason because she is excellent but Kevin and Ries are without a doubt my favourite duo, or couple, I guess it’s hard to see one without the other now but their relationship genuinely is like no other. There is nothing outwardly romantic between the two, everything is really subtle because that isn’t the point of 3rd but some of the moments between the two are really intimate. It’s hard to describe fully, other than saying its just more between the two of them. I think it’s because of the content of 3rd being as hard hitting as it is and the shared trauma Ries and Kevin have over Rufina that makes it that way but I truly could not see them as anything but Ries and Kevin. Like, there is no one without the other. Ries literally jumps into hell, sword over her head ready to fight whatever Gehenna has to throw at her and she will stay and fight for as long as she can. She has a lot of those big impulsive moments that don’t always go in her favour but with both of them together they are just wonderful.
That being said Estelle and Joshua too go through quite the ordeal but have a very different dynamic and seeing that really flourish through the Trails games and then continuing to see them grow in later games is something really special. Estelle Bright is an amazing character to experience the Trails universe in because you learn things through her. She’s completely sheltered in her small hometown in a relatively small kingdom and exploring with her not only shows you just what a resilient character she is but also her reactions as she learns things about the world echo that much louder because you, the player, react the same way instinctively. At least I did because I had many ‘what is going on here’ moments which became more and more frequent as I carried on.
There was something really quite lovely about seeing Estelle search for the Bug of Legends to try and cheer Joshua up in the only way a small child could. Her resilience to keep going and to make sure it was the best bug, legendary even, as that was the only one that would clearly do. She never looses that charm about her and with everything she learns, her entire world opening up, she continues forward with such drive and determination. It’s inspiring and even more exciting to see in a female protagonist. Joshua never takes the spotlight from her despite him having things that make you curious and a heartbreaking enough backstory but they both shine individually as well as together.
I feel like I’ve not really given much time to the Trails of Cold Steel games and it isn’t because I dislike that arc. It has some of the most shocking and intense moments, introduces more fantastic characters and finally gives the player a chance to see Erebonia, a country you’ve been hearing about from the start. That’s what these games do best, plant tiny seeds early on and then develop them, give you bits of their history, so that when you are actually playing as people of Erebonia it kind of flips what you’ve learned on its head a little bit. You kind of thing of it pretty badly but then you see how the people of Erebonia’s lives have been enriched by the drastic, harsh and quite cruel methods of chancellor Osborne but it was all for a reason and getting to that point, learning what it was all for, certainly took its time but for me it was worth it.
The Cold Steel games play differently to the others and have that kind of life sim attribute to it of strengthening relationships with class mates in your free time. The difficultly I found was having so many people I wanted to get to know and learn about and having to choose between them kind of took away from the game a little bit. Not enough that I didn’t care or didn’t enjoy it but enough that I felt there were characters I wasn’t interested in getting to know and so later on some of the plot based decisions, conversations and dialogue felt a bit strange. I did however find many characters I really loved in all four games. Beryl for one, despite not being a main cast character is an enigma no one can figure out. She knows all kinds of things she shouldn’t and if only we’d been able to spend more time with her we could have reached Peak Beryl but earlier on…
Trails into Reverie was a pretty interesting game to play in the summer and one I had a lot of fun with. Bringing most of the characters together in one game and being able to create your own ‘dream team’ was really fun. Reverie, in a similar way to Sky 3rd has it’s own unique plot alongside a whole series of mini games and The Reverie Corridor dungeon to explore. One detail I really loved in the latter part of the game, or perhaps even NG+ was unlocking little character scenes and sequences in the Reverie Corridor after certain fights or conditions had been met. After battle you’d get a little scene between characters that was just a little cute victory thing but these added more detail to that and had for some real fun moments. Renne, Nadia and Musse couldn’t resist winding up Towa in this one in particular.
It’s so difficult to sum up everything I feel in a way that is both coherent and does this series justice that isn’t inconceivable squealing. Each game has kept me thoroughly engaged with the story and the characters, developing the world and the plot with each installment. They are unlike anything I’ve ever played before.
