Reverie Corridor Endgame: I may have overprepared for this. Maybe. Just a bit. Anyway, as expected Elysium was trying to recreate Demiourgos - though I guess there was a surprise in that it somehow found traces of the original despite it having erased itself rather than just recreating the Crois method. Before it was made clear after the battle I found everything the Demiourgos was saying fascinating and was trying to incorporate it into theories in real-time but alas it sounds like it was just corrupted by Elysium too and so all it's talk about embracing destruction was probably just the Elysium programming and not any insight into whatever the hell is really going on with the Sept-Terrions/Aidios.
It literally never got an action in any of its three phases, but for posterity, my teams looked like this:
Team A (Rufus and friends): Rufus, Jusis, Lapis, Renne. Reserve: Swin, Nadia, Duvalie, and Vita. Backup: Lechter and Claire. Team B (Rean and Liberl): Rean, Fie, Crow, Altina. Reserve: Estelle, Joshua, Tita, McBurn. Backup: Roselia and Alfin (or maybe Olivier, it was an Arnor though) Team C (Team SSS): Lloyd, Randy, Rixia, Tio. Reserve: Wazy, Noel, Elie, Juna. Backup: KeA, Arios
The scene afterwards between OzXX and particularly Altina and KeA was nice. Then AZOTH was like... "ah fuck it, i'll let you guys remember this." However, the fact that apparently you can convert databases to can-work-in-Zemuria fashion is super interesting and certainly helps the simulation theory out.
And one final trip to the Daydreams. Technically one Daydream but as anyone who's seen it will understand, I'll be dividing it into three parts.
Rean: Yun Ka-fai ghosting everyone. Last we (and Rean) knew was he went out East to investigate the desertification of Eastern Zemuria. Someone actually mentioned it during the course of the story or Corridor as well so it's definitely still happening. With that in mind, and given that Rean heard that bit like a full year-plus from when this is taking place, it actually feels like the reason this was doomed to not find him is that he didn't go East *enough*. Like you'd have to go well clear of Calvard I assume. Instead, Rean finds ninja. And his maybe-senpai? Rean describes her as his age or maybe younger but at the same Rean is supposed to be the last disciple so by default anyone Yun Ka-fai taught should be his senpai I think? Sounds like she is wielding whatever new form of Zemurian Ore form we'll have in Calvard because Rean thought it was stronger than any other sword he's seen (and I am just going to assume he is not including the Sword of the End here or I'm out) and gets his sword broken. Which instinctively lets him know that he has lost his protagonist status and t get the hell out of dodge.
Renne: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I'm going to start with the worst of times because I genuinely really liked this and want to end on a high note. Is it now canon that Tita and Agate are dating? Please tell me this is a translation error and Renne is just teasing Tita like usual and blowing Tita's mention that she and Agate agreed to go somewhere up into something it's not to mess with her. Because dammit, Renne and Tita talking all night and losing track of time this is the real ship Falcom you must see it!
Okay, back to serious matters. Verne told the Epstein Foundation to get lost and for the first time (excepting, I assume, Ouroboros - nevermind that Duvalie had an ARCUS) there's gonna be a battle orbment developed without the Foundation's input. LMFAO at Tita relaying Estelle and Joshua's concerns though. "They wanted me to ask if you were being bullied at school. They said they'd head right over if you were." "...They really think I can't handle high school bullies?" "Oh. No. They''d be coming to protect the bullies from *you*." "..."
Meanwhile, Renne learns that her life is an anime and that mysterious new transfer students are always the most popular so this was actually an extremely poor strategy for maintaining a low cover. And then ends a man's whole career because his son was too stupid to realize he probably would have just won if he didn't do everything in his power to make Renne look like a goddess to the entire student body (which she does point out!) LOL at her comparing her unlikely election to Student Council President with Ash's.
Elaine: I liked the first person POV here and Elaine left a good impression from me between the snarking at Zin in the beginning over her rejecting promotions to thinking about her own issues. This was basically just a Kuro/Daybreaker teaser but it was a nice read. However, like Rean before her, she realized she lacked protagonist status when she ran into a villain who can no-sell anything from a non-protagonist. From a group called A. Damn, wasn't ready to hear that Anton had gone that bad. Her promotion to A-Rank however reminds us all of one of this series's greatest injustices - that Estelle is not an A-rank bracer *even now* when she should have set the record *and* put it forever out of reach like some of the old baseball ones like Cal Ripken at the end of *SC*. Let alone Zero. Or CS4. Or Reverie.
So that's Trails into Reverie, I guess! I liked it quite a bit, even if there are a few decisions Falcom made that are just... no.
and now, in the words that dowolf says are extremely poorly translated, i must look forward to look back - and that means looking back to the xenoblade 3 dlc finally after all this time.
Uh if anyone wants rankings or thoughts on anything in particular just let me know and i will try.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.