I'm pretty LTTP on this one but after a lot of issues with shipping it finally arrived in Thursday and I've been playing the hell out of it.
I'm up to the Chapter 6 side story now, I'm really sorry I didn't pick this back up in December would've been a great game to get into after Xenoblade 2 but regardless the game ends up being a lot of fun. I was worried I wouldn't like the action RPG system but its pretty good, despite having so many characters yet only really using one at a time the combat works pretty well with being able to switch your two party members in and out pretty easily, took me awhile to remember the controls for everything but once I did I found the combat pretty fun although pretty easy (at least on normal).
The story is... okay. Like other people have said its pretty much generic light novel anime stuff but I do like how Falcom incorporated various things into the game that you'd expect from their other series. Also Towa is here so... instant win because Towa is awesome.
The character in general are pretty good and I have liked most of the main cast and thought that they had an interesting setup for the most part. Kou actually having normal friends was something I didn't expect but was done really well and I liked that they do notice when Kou is all of a sudden hanging out with a bunch of people he never had before, none of these characters ever act like complete idiots or seem completely obvious at least. Kou himself is a pretty standard LN protagonist who doesn't have nearly as much of an interesting backstory as Rean does and his motivations are pretty terrible but I'm glad hes not a blank slate either. Kou really shines in his interactions with the other characters, most notable for me at least is with Rion and how their relationship plays out with him but they are all well done.
I believe that Kou is friends with Jun, Ryouta, and Shiori as the game is beginning and I like how they don't fade completely away into the background and you get to do events and develop your relationships with them. Although that said, this game is worse then Cold Steel was on being stingy with bonding points or whatever they are called in this game, getting like 2 in the beginning when you have like 5 or 6 characters you can do events for wasn't cool, I'm assuming thats one of the NG+ bonuses you can get so I'll likely go through them all on a second playthrough.
One thing I'm surprised about is how unlike Cold Steel it doesn't feel like the game is intentionally forcing Asuka as the main pairing for Kou, where with CS It was clearly Rean and Alisa as the canon pairing. Kou and Asuka's relationship at least to the point I'm at has never felt like a romantic one, granted that may change I've got a few chapters to go but Kou seems to show more interest in general friendship and getting Asuka to open up and tell them whats going on then pining for her or something.
On the other hand with pairings... Spoilers up through Chapter 6
So yeah the game is far from perfect but Its really fun and certainly hits a spot for me on something I've been wanting to play since not liking Persona 5 all that much. I hope the last two chapters don't make me regret saying that and hopefully we see a sequel after Sen no Kiseki IV comes out later this year.
Also I forgot to mention this above but I LOVE all the fanservice with Cold Steel, Alisa has her own anime with Rean as the villain (and THATS where those Cold Steel 2 costumes come from!), there is posters and trailers for the various CS games (including Sen no Kiseki III) and they re-purpose the Finishing Mini game from CS with 'Demon Rean' as well as giving Alisa her own game and Blade being one of the mini games in the arcade as well. This is well done fanservice without having to be super pervy (although multiple times its mentioned that Alisa's anime is lewd which made me laugh because of course it would be XD).
I'm up to the Chapter 6 side story now, I'm really sorry I didn't pick this back up in December would've been a great game to get into after Xenoblade 2 but regardless the game ends up being a lot of fun. I was worried I wouldn't like the action RPG system but its pretty good, despite having so many characters yet only really using one at a time the combat works pretty well with being able to switch your two party members in and out pretty easily, took me awhile to remember the controls for everything but once I did I found the combat pretty fun although pretty easy (at least on normal).
The story is... okay. Like other people have said its pretty much generic light novel anime stuff but I do like how Falcom incorporated various things into the game that you'd expect from their other series. Also Towa is here so... instant win because Towa is awesome.
The character in general are pretty good and I have liked most of the main cast and thought that they had an interesting setup for the most part. Kou actually having normal friends was something I didn't expect but was done really well and I liked that they do notice when Kou is all of a sudden hanging out with a bunch of people he never had before, none of these characters ever act like complete idiots or seem completely obvious at least. Kou himself is a pretty standard LN protagonist who doesn't have nearly as much of an interesting backstory as Rean does and his motivations are pretty terrible but I'm glad hes not a blank slate either. Kou really shines in his interactions with the other characters, most notable for me at least is with Rion and how their relationship plays out with him but they are all well done.
I believe that Kou is friends with Jun, Ryouta, and Shiori as the game is beginning and I like how they don't fade completely away into the background and you get to do events and develop your relationships with them. Although that said, this game is worse then Cold Steel was on being stingy with bonding points or whatever they are called in this game, getting like 2 in the beginning when you have like 5 or 6 characters you can do events for wasn't cool, I'm assuming thats one of the NG+ bonuses you can get so I'll likely go through them all on a second playthrough.
One thing I'm surprised about is how unlike Cold Steel it doesn't feel like the game is intentionally forcing Asuka as the main pairing for Kou, where with CS It was clearly Rean and Alisa as the canon pairing. Kou and Asuka's relationship at least to the point I'm at has never felt like a romantic one, granted that may change I've got a few chapters to go but Kou seems to show more interest in general friendship and getting Asuka to open up and tell them whats going on then pining for her or something.
On the other hand with pairings... Spoilers up through Chapter 6
I got more of a vibe for Kou and Rion then anyone else, as I mentioned above they go from being completely not into each other to eventually being friends and while its clear Rion eventually develops at least somewhat of a crush on Kou, Kou has some fairly interesting interactions where he teases her a lot, something he doesn't seem to do with any of the other girls and something she gets back at him for a few times. On top of that when the Grim Greed falls and that crazy asshole tries to grab Rion again Kou steps right in from of her as a general gesture to protect her, Idk its subtle something that isn't done really well in Falcom romances but yeah compared to everyone else I thought it made the most natural pairing.
Looking at the other girls for pairing with Kou you've got...
Shiori who is clearly one sided/childhood friend trope
Asuka seems to be more of a friend/comrade in arms
Sora is very clearly the little sister trope (also one sided if anything) side story also kinda sets her up with Yuuki although somewhat reluctantly on his part
Mitsuki obviously is the SUPER AMAZING Student Council President trope with a dick fiance so she doesn't show much personal interest in Kou and one of the side stories shows Shio seeming to have an interest in her
Towa is related unlike the Cold Steel Series so thank god they didn't try and be creepy with that
In comparison with Rion despite her being famous Kou has no idea whom she is at first which ends up making both of them annoyed at each other to the point Kou picks on her, she picks on him (I laughed out loud when she sent a group of fans after him) it really does feel like how a teenage romance would develop with him vowing to save her when its revealed she has a Grim Greed inside of her. In general I think they made a good point to give Rion a lot of scenes early on to develop her character since she joins so late into the story (something that I said they really should have done with Haru in Persona 5) whats interesting though is almost all of those scenes generally revolve around Kou or her group members but mostly Kou, Idk maybe its just me but considering how late she joins the group into the story she gets a hell of a lot of time to play off Kou and really none with any of the other cast to that point which makes me think they intentionally were setting them up as a pairing more then any other, its with her that Kou actually acts somewhat differently then the general NICE GUY ALL OF THE TIME personality he is defaulted to most of the time, and its pretty clear Rion likes him with him popping up in her thoughts before she thinks shes about to die and of course then getting saved by him at the last second.
IDK I really like the pairing of those two more then any others in the story and so far its the only relationship that even seems to show any hint of Kou acting not like his normal self, maybe would've been more convincing if he acted out more when shes in trouble in Chapter 6 but Asuka is clearly the main female lead and he doesn't act out really when she disappears either.
Clearly I'm overthinking things but yeah, thats what I thought of with the various girls up until that point.
Looking at the other girls for pairing with Kou you've got...
Shiori who is clearly one sided/childhood friend trope
Asuka seems to be more of a friend/comrade in arms
Sora is very clearly the little sister trope (also one sided if anything) side story also kinda sets her up with Yuuki although somewhat reluctantly on his part
Mitsuki obviously is the SUPER AMAZING Student Council President trope with a dick fiance so she doesn't show much personal interest in Kou and one of the side stories shows Shio seeming to have an interest in her
Towa is related unlike the Cold Steel Series so thank god they didn't try and be creepy with that
In comparison with Rion despite her being famous Kou has no idea whom she is at first which ends up making both of them annoyed at each other to the point Kou picks on her, she picks on him (I laughed out loud when she sent a group of fans after him) it really does feel like how a teenage romance would develop with him vowing to save her when its revealed she has a Grim Greed inside of her. In general I think they made a good point to give Rion a lot of scenes early on to develop her character since she joins so late into the story (something that I said they really should have done with Haru in Persona 5) whats interesting though is almost all of those scenes generally revolve around Kou or her group members but mostly Kou, Idk maybe its just me but considering how late she joins the group into the story she gets a hell of a lot of time to play off Kou and really none with any of the other cast to that point which makes me think they intentionally were setting them up as a pairing more then any other, its with her that Kou actually acts somewhat differently then the general NICE GUY ALL OF THE TIME personality he is defaulted to most of the time, and its pretty clear Rion likes him with him popping up in her thoughts before she thinks shes about to die and of course then getting saved by him at the last second.
IDK I really like the pairing of those two more then any others in the story and so far its the only relationship that even seems to show any hint of Kou acting not like his normal self, maybe would've been more convincing if he acted out more when shes in trouble in Chapter 6 but Asuka is clearly the main female lead and he doesn't act out really when she disappears either.
Clearly I'm overthinking things but yeah, thats what I thought of with the various girls up until that point.
So yeah the game is far from perfect but Its really fun and certainly hits a spot for me on something I've been wanting to play since not liking Persona 5 all that much. I hope the last two chapters don't make me regret saying that and hopefully we see a sequel after Sen no Kiseki IV comes out later this year.
Also I forgot to mention this above but I LOVE all the fanservice with Cold Steel, Alisa has her own anime with Rean as the villain (and THATS where those Cold Steel 2 costumes come from!), there is posters and trailers for the various CS games (including Sen no Kiseki III) and they re-purpose the Finishing Mini game from CS with 'Demon Rean' as well as giving Alisa her own game and Blade being one of the mini games in the arcade as well. This is well done fanservice without having to be super pervy (although multiple times its mentioned that Alisa's anime is lewd which made me laugh because of course it would be XD).
