I don't actually care a whole lot for the climax of 1. I don't remember being too thrilled with the climax of 7 or 8 either, though I guess we'll see what happens on this readthrough. (I didn't make it to the end of 10 so technically cannot comment there, but let's just say I'm not at all surprised by your assessment)
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.
Reverie: Should be finished with my Reverie Corridor adventure for now so Daydream commentary time. Quite a few of them here.
Not new, but of course there are missions related to this:
Return to the Beach: So, I left here with more questions than answers. While, predictably, all the events with basically everyone else were also very flirty in the VR sections... in the post-event talks Rean and the girl have back near Mishette's stand it really felt like even when whoever it was would make a more overt declaration of their feelings to Rean he would be vague like "I don't know what to say." (Laura) and Alisa's felt surprisingly not explicit given she's basically the implied love interest. Compared to Fie where Rean seemed to lean into it by responding they were "more than family" maybe it *does* very slightly take into consideration your bond choice by adding/changing like a single line here? Or maybe it's all just a coincidence and I am thinking way too hard about this. dammit falcom.
Minigame ones:
Magical Alisa Pt 2: Still a thing. Quiz, Normal Difficulty: 2 e z Project Tyrfing: Okay, so I was able to S-Rank every other mini-game so far but this one may be beyond me and I'm not even gonna try LOL. Controls are super clunky and it sounds like you basically need a no-damage speedrun? no thanks. Kinda sorta explains where Rean's not-Valimar came from at the end of Act 3 I guess? I mean not how he did it but at least I know where the emch came from.
Regular Daydreams:
Claire Daydream: Was a little neat seeing the Claire/Sara/Sharon team-up and Sara giving Claire a pep talk was nice. Also pleasantly surprised her cousin was more than just "person who hates Claire" even if she would be justified to do so and raises a good point (that Claire herself previously acknowledged) that it's pretty damn weird that she just keeps her job like nothing changed after the Great Twilight. Not a fan of the Emperor somehow escaping that team tho. Sharon had him tied up how did he do that?
Towa's Group: This was a good one, probably my second favorite so far. Just a nice chat between the four of them discussing Towa's future career choice. Also nice to have the direct follow up confirming that Isara from the Claire event became a new teacher at Thors.
Machias Daydream: lol Machias and Dudley making coffee serious business. I have mixed feelings on this one. Once they started talking about missing shipments I thought this would tie into the EDF's rerouting shipments to secretly amass them since most of these Daydreams actually do connect back to the main story in a way... but that was apparently a swing and a miss and it was actually the GOAT Sidequest Villain and that conman from Azure. Unfortunately unlike the GOAT sidequest in Azure this was a letdown. I know the bar was super high after "jumping onto a moving train followed by a traintop battle" but this was just anticlimactic. Also soft confirmed Dudley will not be playable by making all the "battles" cutscenes.
Cedric Daydream (yeah I know it feels like defeating the point to have to spoiler the name there but...): This was also a fairly good one even if Cedric was dragging it down for a good chunk of it. Hadn't he been with Ouroboros for a few months by then? Feels like he should have learned that lesson much earlier. Also it's total BS that he actually made it to the end unless Shirley's *actual* orders were "but seriously guys don't try too hard against him" because he got past what... 24ish Red Constellation Members? I know he says he didn't fight them all but at one point we see him in the underground with like 12 of them and there's only one narrow path. Lloyd, Tio, *Wazy, and ZEIT* acted like they were done for when they were facing like 8 of them with dogs and needed Rixia and Heiyue to save them but I'm supposed to believe Cedric and his roomba pulled this off? don't get me wrong, it was a pretty cool roomba but it was basically a healbot at best.
Tita Daydream: Definitely my favorite Daydream so far. It basically had it all, with Tita's frustration with not being able to help (and calling out Renne when she invoked focusing on school since Renne is also in school), to the Liberl team mini-reunion chat at the bar, and then seeing Tita's friends at the branch campus all try to help her with the Orbal Gear IV. And finally the operational test where she manages to save the airship. Looks like we'll be getting a Part 2 though but at a later date.
From a worldbuilding standpoint though: I feel like the Orbal Gear IV relying on an artifact ruins the point though? It means that it wouldn't be able to be reproduced (which becomes a problem when Emperor steals it back) and like theoretically should run afoul of the Church? Like they make a big deal out of the fact that it'd be an improvement on the Eidolon Gear tech and... well sure, it is... because you have an *artifact* at the core! That's cheating! I could have sworn in CS3 Tita mentions the Orbal Gear III, if successful, could be mass produced to help with dangerous work... but the Orbal Gear IV would be one-of-a-kind. Like, if it *had* been something made with tech they understood then even its destruction at the end of the Daydream shouldn't have mattered because they'd still have the data to give to Erika and could be rebuilt.
~~~
So, yeah! That's that. Back to C's Route I think.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
Good episode with an interesting perspective about how, just because you didn't have success on the terms you wanted, it doesn't mean you weren't successful.
Played a little bit of Mario Wonder with my wife. I was Luigi and she chose Blue Toad (she originally chose a Yoshi, but once I explained the restrictions, she decided against it). Seems like fun so far. The psychedelic drug trips feel like they're going to be a highlight.
Act IV beated, all routes. And Finale started and played up until what the game called the "Final Preparation Period" (Just defeated Supreme Leader Rufus and Ilya Alter) I feel like if you really look at it all the Acts are short but Act IV felt really short. Probably didn't help that it turned out I was probably halfway through (or more) each route before that Reverie Corridor trip so wrapping them all up went pretty quick.
Act IV, C Route: wow arios sent shizuku to jail, father of the year. Ian's cell more like a home office with all those perks he got from his connections. who says crime doesn't pay. ...Oh, that's why they showed the Emperor's artifact thing breaking at the end of Act III. I suppose there's precedent with this with Weissmann fusing with the Aureole but this felt like an unnecessary thing. I felt Swin and Nadia had a better resolution when they crushed him in Act III but I guess we needed a boss fight.
Anyway, once he's gone Ian tells us that actually what we're dealing with is a superintelligent AI that accidentally came into existence from the interaction between the orbal net and spirit veins. I'll kind of buy this because IIRC in Azure I'm pretty sure Mariabell and Dieter outright stated they modeled it after that as part of the plan to empower KeA. But then Lapis got kicked from her admin role by a mystery culprit who is likely the one behind everything that has happened. Since the AI is so good it can calculate paths to its desired future, Lapis threw a hail mary with one of her last actions and determined shipping herself to Joerg with instructions to go to Rufus was her best shot to fix things. but what if the ai predicted that she would do that. The other Stahlritter come by to take Ian and Shizuku to NPC jail and Renne notices comms have been restored.
Act IV, Lloyd Route: Went to Lloyd next because Estelle and Joshua are there. Wow, if only the EDF thought to put up tiny sandbag barriers in our way they could have stopped us dead way earlier. We make it up to Ilya just in time but then almost get brainwashed but Lloyd isn't having any of this shit and realizes the hard counter to brainwashing is shonen speeches and it's so effective he upgrades his craft again. I'm actually a little surprised we *didn't* save Ilya here. Anyway, back at Mainz the team is chatting about how they're totally ready to save Crossbell now when Fake!Rufus broadcasts to the whole world "come at me bro" and then Rean calls up and oh dear it's all ogre again. Nice way to set the stage for wondering what his group is about to get up to though!
Act IV, Rean Route: The best nonsense, as it turns out. Holy shit the Mischnedier shit is so absurd it becomes amazing. "come let us make a wishy... with mishy~~" o7 what a true fucking bro. and lmfao at the active voice time event afterwards with juna and all the girls clearly moved emotionally while Celine is trying to be the voice of reason. Crow: "Are we *sure* this wasn't just some event?"
Oh, so Lloyd *did* tell Juna that all the old Crois equipment was at the Castle of Mirrors. And the Castle mysteriously reverted to that form. All the mirror cutscenes were pretty cool, from Punished!Rean to the various instances where the mirror images would try and snipe us. At the bell room, Rean makes the rookie mistake of not listening to Celine and gets trapped in a void where he gets to watch the CS4 Normal End and be told that should have been the real ending. not gonna lie it's not even totally wrong imo. But Rean breaks out of it and we meet Chuuni!Rean. man i want this as a costume, ngl i like this look. also he has alberich's combat shell why not (at least the party is as exasperated at this as i am.) Rean stupidly tries to solo and to my surprise actually kinda wins... for a few seconds.
Chuuni!Rean got like a split personality thing going on as he switches between acting like Rean and chatting amiably with the party... and being the final boss he is going to be and just wrecking the party in a cutscene. Rean!Chuuni!Rean then summons his Divine Knight and peaces out while telling us we better kill him next time (because his other personality is the final boss ofc.) Then we check the machine he was guarding and find the Seashell so we can take down the comms jammer. Schmidt says it's hiding something like the Nord machines were but we specifically don't disable that because we need to be surprised by it in a future cutscene. Then we call Lloyd as we saw in Lloyd's route.
Finale (up to defeating Rufus and Ilya): oh ya. time to liberate my crossbell. again. this is, what? the... fourth time? This sequence was super hype, I really liked it. Switching between parties was fun as always. Also, Dieter and Garcia (but especially Dieter) coming in for the save was great. Lloyd and Rean's teams seemed a bit surprised by it though and yet Rufus should have been able to relay that to them since Ian told his group that he sent them in as sleeper agents. Ilya Alter turns out to be the power source for the Soldats and that's just kinda bullshit but fine. For what feels like it's happened too many times now, we settle this matter with a dance off.
LMFAO at Rufus walking in on the fight and just going, "You got this guys!" and going on ahead. The reactions from *everyone* were priceless lol. Rufus and Fake!Rufus's conversation was good. Finally Rean and Lloyd's groups catch up as Ilya Alter retreats back to here and party selection was tough here (I had the SSS for Lloyd's group of course even though it meant benching the Liberl Team) because so many people have a good reason to be in on this fight. Think I settled for Rufus, Rixia, Lloyd, and Jusis as my main party. Rean, Duvalie, Juna, and... you know I forget who was last here. But you have 3 Ironbloods, Altina, the rest of the SSS... it was a competitive slot!
Once defeated Juna starts celebrating too early when Lloyd and Rean question Fake!Rufus on where Chuuni!Rean is. We find out when another special broadcast comes through (pre-taped! Although I suspect it's actually a deepfake being created by the AI) since it's now noon. Oh, they have a killsat system set up. And used it to nuke Juno. guess that rock wasn't so solid after all. Retributive Tower, huh. KeA had an unusually serious look watching it too. Better watch out she doesn't find a way to recall the Aion Type Alpha because I *still* rank that as the scariest weapon in this series.
Then we have an emergency all-hands meeting at Orchis Tower. Calvard's new president threatens to "help" Crossbell in the same way Osborne threatened to "help" Liberl with Liber Ark and we've only got until end of the business day to solve this before he does. But uh... I'm with Wazy here, I don't think Calvard can solve this with their military. At all. Feel like it'd help if the Church stepped in and said they were taking point here invoking whatever emergency powers they had for the Salt Pale incident and told Calvard to fuck off but that'd be too easy I guess. The party isn't sure how to get there however but Olivier, Vita, and Thomas join the call and are like "we got this. probably." but won't tell us because Elysium could be wiretapping us. But they're going to discuss it with Baelz and Towa? I don't think that solves that problem!
Then we leave to wander Crossbell before the operation. Rufus tries to take his OG group and be unsociable but Lloyd still isn't having any of that and basically demands he hang out with them. Lapis also remembers that the actual last thing she saw was that Lloyd is the only one who can figure out the truth here.
And that's where I'm at. New Reverie Corridor stratum is open so that's probably next, but maybe I'll wander a bit and talk to NPCs first, idk.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
Oh yeah, I was going to make a snarky comment about that but the character limit warning popped up as I was getting there so I tried to just wrap things up quickly there since I didn't want to split it into two posts. Same for a number of other minor comments throughout all of that.
I'd claim total bullshit but Elysium probably could figure out a target like that for the sake of making a demonstration but yeah it's 100% Trails to do that. Also, not even a skeleton crew at Juno? Classic Trails.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
I could have sworn someone worked out the rough dimensions of the continent, or at least the known parts, or maybe Falcom commented at one point. I forget exactly, so take this with a grain of salt, but I want to say it was something like... Europe-sized? So it should, but also no one ever talks about time zones so apparently not?
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
World 1 beated in Super Mario Wonder! Playing co-op feels like chaos at times, especially since my skill level and my wife's are, quite frankly, far apart, and she has a hard time keeping up during some of the Wonder Seed segments.
But it's still a lot of fun. It's extremely creative, and the levels are well designed.
At first glance, it seems wild that Takeo doesn't realize Rinko is interested in him, not Suna, because it's super obvious to the outside observer (Suna sees it, too, I think), but he's been conditioned to assume that's always the case up to this point.
Also I'm about halfway through Warbreaker. The magic system in this book is really weird, so I'm not particularly invested in it.
The characters are good though, and the machinations and Intrigues of the plot are really fascinating. I'm definitely hooked on this aspect of the book.
it was a close thing but the integrity of baseball was defended this year
~~~
Reverie: Played a bunch of Vantage Masters and Pom Party then talked to allll the NPCs. Ready for my next Reverie Corridor trip next.
Popping into the Reverie Corridor but only to talk to the party and play minigames: oh elysium is trying to hack us so the Corridor AI went "fuck it, have your Zemuria memories back." Not really sure it had to do that but at least everyone is on the same page again.
VM: Missed opportunity to make Zeit the rightful VM Final Boss. lol'd when I saw the VM symbol appear above him. I have a mission for 19 different opponents now and I guess it comes down to gacha characters because Rufus appears to have been the "final" boss of them. Yay RNG because out of Angelica, Alfin, and Aurelia (forget if I mentioned she was my gacha character from last time/3rd Stratum. also just noticed the alliteration there lol) only Alfin plays.
Pom Party: smh failed minigame for not using the Fateful Confrontation mix at any point. KeA a worthy final boss tho. she took a few tries to defeat and was the toughest opponent for me.
NPC/Sidequest Tour: Lots of walking around to check areas since a few had new spots I couldn't get to before like the subway and wetlands. Beat up a bunch of cryptids for Zemurian Ore fragments. Have enough for 2 weapons - made one for Lloyd cuz he's totally the main character in this story (and I'll talk about it more once the game is over but my opinion of Lloyd has improved a lot over this game) haven't decided on the other. Probably Rean or Rufus because they're the other MCs.
Weirdly the book trophy (and TRC Mission) popped *before* I completed all the Carnelia-equivalent collection - just when I bought the new newspaper. Also haven't found someone to trade the book set to but seeing as you literally just buy them from shops this time maybe there isn't one?
As for Lapis saying only Lloyd could find the truth behind the incident, there were a few events where he was clearly piecing it together despite the rest of the party thinking all the information they gathered was useless: data that didn't match known history, the Emperor's replica being different, and more chatting about Elysium's future prediction. The common link there, especially the first two, was KeA and Nadia practically broadcasting that they were the products of an alternate what-if history.
Put that together with Rean seeing the CS4 Normal Ending and Elysium has probably at least played through the CS4 Normal Ending. I guess it may be trying to overwrite the Reverie/True End timeline with its simulated Normal Ending one (Edge!Rean in its final boss personality tried to name itself but the name was blocked out like Argres was when under the curse so "somehow Ishmelga returned?") though that doesn't explain the Soldat data having the advanced models that early unless Elysium was playing a modded CS4 save... which I guess it could have. There's also still the mystery of why Edge!Rean is different from the other replica what with resonating with Real!Rean. Like even if Elysium simmed Ishmelga (and the curse) wouldn't it have to stuff it into a robot body like all the others? Not sure why it'd be different unless part of simming Ishmelga caused it to literally recreate the Sept-Terrion of Steel since Schmidt commented under his breath that Elysium might be able to recreate artifacts.
so yeah. Reverie Corridor time now
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
I'm glad they decided not to play out this "Takeo doesn't get it" game for the entire run of the show. I'll be curious to see what happens next now that they both know they like each other.
Found my first Special World course in Mario Wonder
Climb to the Beat doesn't seem like it'd be too bad with just me but timing based levels with a partner in this game can be rough
i've been really struggling even through super mario world so i don't know that this would be a good idea for me, but i've been looking for good couch co-ops (in theory) since overcooked...
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness
Reverie: Should be done with this trip to the Reverie Corridor.
The Corridor itself: Oh, we can only do half of the 4th floor for some reason (even the characters are confused!) so this was quick. This floor's gacha results: Roselia and Vita.
Minigames:
Finished collecting all the swimsuits. "cool"
Magical Alisa Pt. III: Of the three bosses in this one the first/Divine Knight(?) one was the toughest. He almost got me! oh god even here it's ishmaelga. was not ready for his blob form to show up like this.
Project Tyrfing: still a clunky minigame. did better here though and i guess an s-rank may not be *as* hard as i thought it was because i saw i got more than half the points needed from my time bonus so it doesn't have to be no-damage. ...but still no interest in pursuing the s-ranks here.
Quiz, Brutal Difficulty: I didn't like these questions for the most part. They felt exceedingly arbitrary. yeah, yeah "brutal mode" but 3rd's equivalent felt more like genuine questions and not shit like "how many consecutive creepy sheep battles do you fight in cs2"
Daydreams:
Tita Daydream Pt. II: Continuing where we left off and yes this is still the best. I love Einhel's OG theme but this new one was also, as they say, "a banger." And Tita, Alfin, and the New Class VII girls teaming up for a test run through Erika's souped up version was fun. Also this is actually the best daydream because after defeating Erika and Agate, Tita acknowledged the worldbuilding quibble I had after Part I that because the Orbal Gear IV relied on an artifact it was completely unable to be replicated so even if they hadn't lost it the results would be pretty meaningless. Tita just didn't realize it was an artifact until Schmidt told her in this one LOL. But yeah both this daydream and the PArt I were just a ton of fun and heartwarming.
Hexen Clan Daydream: This was another great one, with the Hexen Clan quartet (fun fact: before this daydream but after i got roselia and vita from the gacha, one of my short 4th Stratum runs used this very team for this very reason. it was pretty funny.) Though a lot of what Emma's mom did here seems kinda nuts. Like maybe even more nuts than some of Vita's shit. I get she was Vita's teacher and all but Vita and Roselia are just casually like "yeah she probably altered causality to make all this happen at exactly the right time" and i'm like "bruh." So instead of Emma's mom going to a farm upstate like Roselia told them, she decided to try and solo the Gnomes with predictable results.
My worldbuilding quibble *here* is when Emma's mom explains she violated a Hexen Clan taboo and looked into the future to alter it. She makes it sound like she "had" to mutual kill Alberich's previous incarnation here to push the Great Twilight back enough so that Emma's generation could finish it. ...Except the Great Twilight was on a ridiculously precise schedule that was mapped out at or before the Great Collapse and had to happen exactly when it did so I don't particularly see what killing Alberich 11 years prior does to help. If anything, either he gets murked by the Guild/Church/Ouroboros in the DG Cult cleanup without her intervention or he survives it like Joachim but does *not* end up in position to subvert Reinford as Franz. Just felt weird. Also not really a quibble anymore but IIRC Vita's reason for leaving is still an unknown other than "she committed a taboo" and I wonder if it's the same deal where she looked into the future and whatever she saw made her go, "welp joining Ouroboros." or if it was some other unknown taboo.
Lechter Daydream: A third (fourth if we go back to Tita Pt. 1) good one in a row! I know Falcom has teased Kloe/Lechter from the start but even back in 3rd I liked the Lucy/Lechter ship more and we're still sailing (but so is Kloe) so it was fun seeing a kind of sequel to that door in 3rd. Watching Lechter do intrigue stuff was pretty fun, and then Kloe and Lucy finding him at the end to remind him that there *are* people who care about him just as he was thinking his lack of people like that is what seperated him from the other Ironbloods was sweet.
Freddie Daydream: ...this was basically a filler door lol. Like it wasn't bad but also it felt like a waste of a daydream? Also, lol "They're hot and they're cold, they're 'yes' and they're 'no'" i c wut u did thar nisa. Roselia and Ballad's sniping at each other was pretty great. Roselia actually was like the multi-door MVP for a good chunk of this section. She was in, what, 3 of the 6?
Jingo Daydream: The sequel door we never expected from 3rd. the lucky stone returns. LMAO at Jingo and Shirley "vibing" and also iirc Neinvalli's new location is like right next to the guild which makes it hilarious how Jingo is getting an Enforcer and Jaegers strolling in. Ballad's section was bleh (except for Machias editorializing his investigation outloud lol) but it was nice seeing the tie-in to Orbal Gear IV Part 1 with it being his airship Tita saved (Musse mentions this offhand in Part 2 but cool to see it from this angle.)
Duvalie Daydream: Well, Rean and Duvalie but I didn't want to spoiler another character name here. Tournament Arc! So, making this a bracket meant I was almost certainly going to be mad at us not fighting one of the teams but I wanted that Cassius fight. unfortunately, he was doomed the moment his "fight" in cs4 was actually rean visualizing himself over cassius. Still, I think I'd have subbed that fight in over either Aurelia (cuz we've fought her before) or the two generals. I took Fie (cuz bond choice) and Renne (I wanted someone with Analyze and also I still had hope that maybe we'd fight Cassius and get dialogue from her) but alas I don't know if all your teammates are basically silent here or I just picked poorly (I imagine Laura/Kurt/Elliot/Gaius/maybe Lloyd would have had stuff to say given our actual opponents.) Alfin also sad that Schera was sent to NPC jail but it led to naother hilarious Roselia sighting.
Think that means we're done here and it will be (probably) final dungeon time next!
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
Some of the Daydreams are written by other authors than the main story author, which explains why they might not necessarily fit into canon.
I thought the Freddie Daydream was a ton of fun. I love every scene with Wilhelm in Reverie though. He's hilarious and awesome. Big turnaround from CS!
Trails into Reverie Main Story beated: I really liked the endgame here. A+ final dungeon theme (but I knew this already because I listened to parts of the OST when it first came out) and a lot of great character moments. Not gonna do a big wrap-up yet because there's still Reverie Corridor stuff to do but provisional MVP: Lloyd. my boy here just rising up the character rankings the entire game and endgame was no different. A+ main story ending.
also gonna end up in (at least) two posts. sorry.
It's Trails so I'm sure no one died but not only is it kind of ludicrous to think the massive CGF, CPD, Red Constellation, Gralsritter, Ouroboros, EVERYONE IS HERE battle with the Tower didn't result in deaths. Heck, before everyone actually did arrive there it felt like the CGF/CPD should have been straight wiped-out. I guess it sorta makes sense if Edgy!Rean really did want us to make it to him that he'd hold back just enough to let us through while maintaining the illusion he was really trying to stop us. Also, another worldbuilding quibble is the idea that Elysium could be surprised by the Aresille II - how? If I understand it right, it basically knows everything that was ever stored on an orbal computer. You're telling me they built it without ever committing any detail to a computer despite the fact it *uses* computers? When it started development *months* before they even knew Elysium existed?
Team split was funny because I wanted to basically keep the Thors characters with Rean but there are literally so many it is impossible even though it's a group of like 20. So Rean basically became Class VIIs old and new +Towa but -Jusis and Juna. Lloyd's Team as a result becomes Lloyd/Rufus/Nadia, the rest of the SSS, all the Liberl characters, the Ironbloods minus Millium, ex-Ouroboros not covered by the above (Duvalie and Sharon), Juna as honorary-SSS, and Jusis because Rufus is on this team. It still mostly works out to me because Estelle's group is much more tied to Lloyd and it's a short jump to then give them Tita and Agate too. And the Ironbloods and Jusis go naturally with Rufus but still lol so many cold steel characters for real.
Reverse Babel-I mean Retributive Tower theme too good. Might be my favorite Trails final dungeon theme but there's some good competition in this field, but I definitely love the more somber/serious feeling it has while still having a sense of urgency to it... if any of that makes sense. Speaking of the name there, while NISA's translation here has been uneven from the start, it really started unraveling in the Final Chapter. I think Reverse Babel is used a lot more in their actual translation than Retributive Tower with the sole exception of the main story dialogue (which obviously would be QA'd a bit more.) Like literally the "Trails to Walk" screen and summaries call it Reverse Babel. Not sure why they changed it either since "Project Babel" is still a thing they stuck with. Not a big fan that only Lloyd's team got into trouble during the exploration and had to be saved by Rean's group either but oh well.
We regroup at the end (and I pop into the Reverie Corridor specifically to see if dialogue updated only for it to almost literally make the record scratch noise and have KeA mention it seems like it rewound their memories a bit) specifically so it could keep it pre-Final Dungeon lol. Edgy!Rean shows up and Lloyd has first good moment of endgame when he reveals the truth behind Edgy!Rean - that he's a what-if of the CS4 Normal End that Elysium simulated. When Edgy!Rean tries to snark that he didn't think the first to reach this conclusion was a "mere police officer" Lloyd has a good comeback about how he just used his experiences with the Azure Tree and while he may have need some help from his friends to lay the pieces out a bit more clearly, that's the difference between them - he's not alone. Also, was it just me or did KeA have this all figured out from the start? She seemed like she had the answer when Lloyd started. Is she the one who fills in the blanks if Lloyd doesn't do the subevents to put it together himself?
Anyway, I'd have to double-check CS4 but Ishmelga seems pretty out of character here. I get that Ishmelga-Rean says he's no longer either but a fusion of the two but it pretty much treats him as like 90% Ishmelga. Anyway, he's decided to take over because he feels humanity keeps inviting disaster and he's gonna use Elysium to stop that before it happens. And evolve humanity. Honestly he started sounding like Weissmann there and I was a bit surprised Estelle didn't say something about that. We beat him up and then he calls on her Divine Knight and I actually think this is potentially the most interesting worldbuilding detail here - Elysium can recreate *Sept-Terrions*. It was sorta implied by having a Divine Knight at all but Wazy of all people mentions it here and I wonder if that calls into question what they actually are if they can be recreated like this. KeA was similar I suppose - superior - even, but a direct copy feels weird in the sense that I feel like it may call Aidios's divinity into question. She unquestionably *exists* but did she really just hand out super-advanced tech? I always kind of felt the difference between artifacts and Sept-Terrion was like a divine spark of some sort but if an AI can recreate direct copies somehow idk.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
Anyway, in a kinda-funny call back to CS1 we're just gonna re-introduce mech battles here right in the final boss sequence, huh? Wasn't so bad but the absolute cheater can dodge weakness hits and it's just annoying when all 3 my knights whiff on a weakness and have to eat counter damage. We're about to lose because quite honestly he's not wrong that taking 7 Soldats into a two-Sept-Terrion fight is kinda silly (you need to use the SSS here tbqh) but then Valimar, Ordine, and El-Prado show up because when you recreate Divine Knights you give them a loophole to intervene. Despite Edgy!Rean whining here I feel like Valimar's logic tracks there - to a point I feel Elysium should have predicted it even. But other than like refilling my HP and EP I don't think they did much lol.
Then Rean enters the talking is a free action dimension and chats with his alternate self. Rean Alter says that they're about to fuse and Rean should do it and then take the Zeroth Knight and do the CS4 Ending again (I also think it's interesting that he too mentions "the Goddess's shackles.") Rean has a good moment though when his character arc finally reaches its destination and he rejects the offer and states that while he almost made that choice because he wanted to protect his friends - his brief glimpse into the CS4 Normal End save showed him that in doing so he didn't protect them all, just crushed them. Also they can just beat the shit out of Ishmelga again. Rean Alter then realizes, "fuck. right. you have 40 party members here. good call." as Lapis disconnects Edgy!Rean from Elysium. Ishmelga is having a meltdown and makes the fatal mistake of challenging me to an on-foot battle. He might have an S-Craft. Probably does. But I won't know that because once I broke him he simply never got another turn ever again.
Afterwards, he decides to be a sore loser but also kinda funny in that he flips control of the Tower to the collective unconscious in response to Lapis's "fuck you, *you're* worthless, I believe in humanity!" speech so that humanity itself ends up firing the tower at the most hated location until everyone is dead. Rufus was right, it was pretty ironic. We teleport out - except Rufus who changed to an evade tank during the cutscene and dodged the teleport. He then gives a speech to egg Zemuria into targeting *him* so the Tower blows itself up. And it does! ...Or not, it was Elysium running a final prediction before Lapis deleted it. So she begs everyone to help her save him. My boy Lloyd steps up here and takes it on as a support request and because no one - abso-fucking-lutely no one - escapes the Crossbell Police Department. Jusis and the Picnic Front also volunteer and Zeit scores another W by sending us back in.
I really loved the atmosphere in the return to the Tower even though it's literally just walking back through the empty last zone. You've got the Tower theme back - which is still 100% fitting - now with the red lights and warning alarms along with the active time voice events of Rufus's speech again along with the party's reactions. And it ending with Lloyd thinking to himself that they'll set this right and asking Guy for strength is just fantastic.
We arrive only the room is empty. Shit, didn't account for that. Lapis almost jobs to falling debris but Rean Alter saves us. And this is again where this endgame shined. The party realizing it *is* Rean Alter and not Edgy!Rean/Ishmelga, Jusis emotionally apologizing that if he'd known that they'd encounter Rean Alter he'd have brought the CS4 Bond Partner, Rean shaking his head and telling him it's enough to know there was a future where everyone was happy, and *Lloyd's* reaction. Rean Alter mentions he wants to pass on a warning about something coming around three years from now, but Lloyd stops him and tells him that it'll be fine. Whatever it is, they'll handle it. They already made the choice to not rely on Elysium. Rean Alter's farewell to Lloyd was also good. (The Grandmaster hinted at something is this timeframe too in the CS4 bonus scene IIRC. And don't think I didn't notice that Zeit did *not* get a ! mark like the others when this was mentioned! But then, it's Zeit, he could just be thinking "yeah whatever, just another chapter i'll have to bail these losers out of.")
Next to Rufus who is having a good scene of his own as he sits waiting for his death when the team busts in. And my boy Lloyd comes out with what I think might have been my top moment in the entire game when he "arrests" him. "Your sins are too many to list. But the worst of all - the *very worst* - is not knowing how damn loved you are." lloyd stop. you're going to make me say something i'll regret like "are estelle and kevin in danger on the character ranking?"
And that's basically the end! Rufus wakes up in the hospital and Olivier explains to him the official story is that Rufus Albarea died at the Retributive Tower so he's free to go but that that freedom means he's starting from nothing. Lapis recruits him for an adventure and we see the broadcast of Crossbell finally *finally* achieving independence. For real this time.
But it's not really over because the game says there's more stuff in the Reverie Corridor and I mean... yeah, last time we left off there was a barrier blocking further progress into it. I choose to go there simply because the way everything was worded here I wasn't sure if I'd get another chance if I went to the Title Screen here without replaying the end. And lo and behold we get an ominous cutscene (like with the creepy black lines special effect) where the Reverie Corridor fails to shutdown.
So I guess that's next! I just saved when I first got control though because again, the way the system text explained things I was afraid if I went to the Title Screen instead that I'd have to replay the ending lol.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.
My boy Lloyd steps up here and takes it on as a support request and because no one - abso-fucking-lutely no one - escapes the Crossbell Police Department.
Remember, the theme of Lloyd's story in Reverie is that he's not a hero. Goddamn that storyline is clumsily executed.
I made it up to the stopping point in Lloyd's Act 2 and started Rean's Act 2 in Trails Into Reverie.
In Armorica Village, Lloyd reunites with Elie. We learn that Speaker MacDowell was shot in the chaos, and KeA went missing, to boot. Elie blames herself for it because she chose to tend to her grandfather at KeA's prompting. I thought Lloyd encouraging her and helping her overcome her guilt was a great scene here. I'm not a Lloyd/Elie guy, but the game makes me more willing to accept it with scenes like this than Rean/Alisa!
Elie also had a chance to speak to Dieter, who's pretty evasive when she asks him why he would join up with Rufus considering he was pro-independence at any cost before. He talks about how he's come up with his own reasons and isn't being manipulated by Mariabell anymore, and he tells Elie to consider what "justice" actually means, for some reason.
We also get an interesting exchange involving Rixia and Shanshan (whose name I now know how to pronounce since I finally heard it spoken!). Shanshan is oddly possessive of Rixia, but then we get a brief glimpse of her giving off that strange aura. I'm sure this will come up again soon enough. Rixia also receives a ransom note saying they have "the dancer" and the Zero Child at the Ancient Battlefield. Everyone immediately assumes the dancer is Ilya, but why couldn't it be Sully? Guess we'll find out once we can advance the story!
When we transition to Rean, he's arrived in Heimdallr with Altina and Ash, and they meet up with Kurt's mother. We get a quick summation of where everyone went and what they planned to do, and then we're off to search for clues about C with the help of Elise (whom I already knew would be tagging along since we saw her with Rean in C's route). It seems Elliot is in Heimdallr, too, so I guess we'll be meeting up with him soon!
Yeah, I feel that Falcom is more convincing at selling Lloyd/Elie because it's almost canon in their eyes. I think they've still backed off at actually making it canon (good. elie worst girl i'll say it) but they get a lot closer to it than with Rean.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.