Game Review: Eiyuu densetsu: sen no kiseki (PS Vita)

Eiyuu densetsu: sen no kiseki (Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel) is another excellent installment in the Trails series by developer Nihon Falcom. This time, the action takes place in the Erebonian empire and focuses on a group of students attending Thors Academy, an elite military school.  The group, called Class VII, is a mix of commoners and nobles -- highly unusual in a country with a rigid social system. Players take Class VII members through their first year of military training, and, naturally, tropes, teen drama, and absurdities abound. The game was released in 2013.

Sen no kiseki does nearly everything right. The music is top-notch, with absolutely perfect tracks for all situations: battles, towns, character tensions, quiet evenings, mysterious happenings, even homeroom! I mean, a short speech during an academy board meeting gets an epic swelling score, which was both ridiculous and yet appropriate. The opening theme is fun, and so is the ending. At one point, Class VII even has a concert! Kudos to Falcom Sound Team jdk for their continuing magnificent work on the series soundtracks.

The visuals are similarly impressive. The biggest change from the game's most recent predecessor, Ao no kiseki (Trails of Azure), is that the characters are fully formed 3D models, rather than adorable little sprites:

Sprites vs 3D models

A drawback of these snazzy graphics is that it's easy to see that a lot of the NPCs are identical, which is much easier to get away with when they're li'l baby sprites.

The physical environments share the same look from all Trails games: vaguely European and nineteen thirties (trains! retro airships!), but with magic! Class VII spends a lot of time on campus, and visit various cities within the empire as part of their studies. In all these places, the indoor locations are oddly enormous. Meanwhile, the monsters' designs range from formidable to forgettable, and the dungeons are dank and thankfully brief (except the last one).

The gameplay is where Sen no kiseki really shines. In particular, it's helpful that equipping quartz and thereby gaining Arts (magic spells) is no longer a guessing game. In previous Trails games, specific Arts are only available when you line up certain values of elements (e.g. 2 Fire, 1 Time, etc.), but this time around, a single quartz can provide one or more Arts. Master Quartz, which were introduced back in Ao no kiseki, continue to be helpful with their status boosts. The turn-based battles are a breeze, so grinding is not too much of a chore. The boss fights aren't hard, either.

As with any Trails game, Sen no kiseki is a completionist's dream...or nightmare. There is an insane number of collectibles, many of which serve some obscure yet awesome purpose, like granting fragments required to forge a character's strongest weapon. Talking to particular NPCs reveals recipes, which yield multiple dishes, depending on who's doing the cooking. (I cooked so much that I barely used actual items.) And there's fishing! It's literally just button-mashing so it doesn't hold a candle to the glorious experience offered by Final Fantasy XV, but fishing has been a mainstay of the Trails series since 2004's Sora no kiseki.

AND YOU CAN RIDE HORSIES IN CHAPTER THREE! HORSIES MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER.

(to the tune of "I'm on a Boat") "I'm on a horse!"

Finally, little improvements make a big difference for gamers. For instance, the mini-map has dots representing persons in towns, and red arrows are enemies on roads or dungeons. Your next destinations are marked with symbols, with colors indicating whether they're optional or required. The characters can run at top speed, and you can just teleport to key locations to save time. Bonding with your classmates only requires a card game or a conversation. So easy!

But the real meat of any JRPG, indeed any video game, are the story and characters. The Trails series has set high standards that Sen no kiseki meets. The main character, Rean, starts out as a typical protagonist: earnest and skilled with a sword. But it's shown early on that he's hiding something, and so is pretty much everyone in Class VII. Even their instructor, Sara, is playing her cards close to her chest. All the kids in Class VII are interesting and well developed, and they grow together over the course of the year. I point to the drama in the diagram below:

Adversarial relationships to overcome: Machias (glasses, gun) and Jusis (blond, sword) + Alisa (blonde) and Rean (boy band hair) + Laura (greatsword) and Fie (the little kid). Plus Emma (glasses) has a different agenda

The supporting characters are a great bunch, too. My favorite is Angelica, who's constantly hitting on any woman in sight. Celine is also terrific, because she is a cat. A magic cat.

"Meow. Also, let me guide you to your destiny~"

Ostensibly, the students at Thors are pursuing their studies against the backdrop of increasing hostilities between two factions of the empire: the Nobles and the Reformists, very Meiji Japan. The Nobles want the class system in place; the Reformists want merit, not birth, to determine rank. Class VII is a microcosm of that larger conflict, with Machias, a hotheaded commoner, immediately butting heads with the aloof Jusis, scion of one of the Four Great Houses. Other classmates have issues with each other, too; see above. Rean is constantly called upon to keep the peace, and he actually does a decent job, if only because everyone feels super awkward after one of his "inspirational" speeches.

As everyone learns to get along, a new threat emerges: the Imperial Liberation Front, whose immediate goal is to remove the leader of the Reformist faction. The antagonists aren't cartoonishly evil: they each have their own backstories and motivations, and they try to minimize civilian casualties during their operations. However, members of the military are fair game, including students...

This is where players really have to suspend their disbelief: that a group of first-year military academy students consistently foil nationally-destabilizing plots by a well-organized and well-funded group, and the only consequence is one stern lecture from an instructor about how they might not be lucky next time. Also, why are we fighting robots with swords??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Through it all, the game deals with a number of important themes: friendship and unity, knowledge and trust, power and responsibility, family and duty, and more. The writing is exceptional, if voluminous; Trails games are known for having LOTS. OF. TEXT. All the text. I played this in Japanese and watched runthroughs in English, and noticed that the XSeed localization can be...sassier. But certainly the translations capture the content and intent, as opposed to Tales games translations, which are atrocious, but somehow in a good way.

Anyway, on a final note, Sen no kiseki took me ~70 hours to complete, and about 30 hours were cut scenes. I'm not exaggerating--I calculated this based on EmiruTheKnight's YouTube videos of all cut scenes and boss battles. I had some doubts about picking up the sequel, but this game ended in a cliffhanger so Sen no kiseki II is on its way to me right now. I shall regain my honor and defeat my foes!!!

Random items of note:

• PSA: There's an update that fixes the slow loading times for the hard copy Vita version! Download immediately!
• PSA 2: Press the cancel button during cut scenes to fast forward.
• The timeline in Sen no kiseki overlaps with the Crossbell arc (Zero no kiseki and Ao no kiseki), and the scrappy little city-state gets a lot of mentions within the game. Still, Zero and Ao aren't required to enjoy Sen.
• Having said that, Rean is a lot like the Crossbell protagonist, Lloyd. They're both earnest, competent, have troubled pasts...
• This is mean, but I disliked Alisa's English voice so much that I'm getting Sen no kiseki II in Japanese. I'd rather struggle with kanji (and boy, do I struggle) than listen to her. 
• I'm shipping Rean and Laura:

Laura's dad already approves of Rean! Get to it!

TL;DR: A strong start to a spectacular trilogy! I'm into it!

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This post brought to you by a mini avocado!

Game Review: Eiyuu Densetsu: Ao no Kiseki Evolution (PS Vita)

Ao no Kiseki Evolution is a JRPG that adheres to formula: the bland hero, the colorful supporting characters, the weirdly sexual henchman who turns out to be the final boss, the mini-games, the pointless exposition...see Every JRPG Ever for the full and accurate description. Despite that, Ao is a delightful game with a gentle message of friendship and family. It has so much packed into it that it takes a minimum of 40 hours to finish. It took me 80+ hours -- but hey, I was writing a walkthrough while playing! 

Ao no Kiseki Evolution is the sequel to Zero no Kiseki Evolution. Both games are part of the Eiyuu Densetsu (Legend of Heroes) series. Ao follows the members of the Special Support Services (SSS), a small police group that handles odd jobs. The main setting is Crossbell, a small independent state located in the middle of the feuding Erebonia Empire and Calvard Republic.

Below is my feelings-based rating of the game:

Characters: 10/10
Ao primarily has six main characters. Your active party can only have four members, so two must be designated as Support Members. Each character has unique stats, weapons, and sets of skills, and it's fun to swap them around and see what team is most effective. You can also change who leads the team on the field.

Because I love you, here are character portraits with a dose of FAN SERVICE! Ladies first:

Elie, Noel, and Tio

• Elie is a privileged young woman whose grandfather is a Crossbell State leader, and her uncle's the city mayor. She fights with a gun and is terrible at lying. If you choose her as your partner in the Castle of Mirror, she will wish for...the well-being of her parents, whom she hasn't seen since they separated when she was little. Sad! 
• Noel is a former officer in the army. She's extremely straight-laced and will actually be a tough mini-boss later in the game. Take her on the roller coaster; she'll have a blast! Literally, she will be blasting things!
• Tio is 14, so no swimsuit photo! She's the classic kidnapped-and-experimented-on kid, except she's actually become well-adjusted and saves the team's bacon many times with her hacking skills. The Youths, they are our hope.

Next, the men!

Lloyd, Randy, and Lazy

• Lloyd is the idiot-savant team leader who cluelessly bumbles around until he suddenly drops truth bombs on allies or bad guys alike, based on the evidence you've collected so far. His big brother was killed a few years ago, and his big brother's former girlfriend keeps trying to ship him with everyone, including Lazy. Lloyd is only bland in comparison with the other guys on the team, now that I think about it.
• Randy is a beefcake ladies' man. But he was also a merciless mercenary in a past life, which he gets upset about whenever it's brought up. In this game, I think the voice actor's mike was turned way down low because I could never hear what Randy's growling about.
• Lazy describes himself as a "cool beauty" and it's a running joke that he looks like a woman. He used to work as an, ahem, companion and constantly makes inappropriate jokes as well as uncomfortable observations. In short, Lazy is my spirit animal. Also, he's secretly a knight for the church.  

And then there are the NPCs (non-playable characters), and of course I have their swimsuit portraits, my ducklings:

Rixia, Ilya, and Cecil

• Just kidding, Rixia is actually a regular playable character, but only after she gets super pissed off! She's a trained assassin masquerading as a theater performer. Her main client actually figured out her secret identity by comparing the times she's turned down a job with the theater performance schedule. Try harder, Rixia! 
• Ilya is the flamboyant and much-loved star of the Arc-en-Ciel theater. In the game, I chose her as the best swimsuit wearer because she is rocking the hell out of that sultry little number. Ilya is why Rixia gets super pissed off and joins the SSS, and I am shipping those two SO HARD.
• Cecil was Guy's girlfriend before he got shot in the back, and she's since focused her energies on finding a suitable match for little brother Lloyd. She works as a nurse at the local hospital.

There are many, many more NPCs, each with their own backstory, others with secret identities. Basically, Ao rewards you for talking to every single person, be it with an item, a recipe, or just the warm glow of knowing that someone cared enough to invent backstories for little sprites, just for you.

In short, characters are a strength of this game, and I heart them all.

Combat: 9/10
Ao features a turn-based combat system that can be utterly wrecked with attacks called Special Crafts (S Crafts). Your characters have a CP (craft points) bar that fills up when you attack or are hit, and when it reaches 100 or better yet, 200, the character can immediately trigger a devastating attack that usually wipes the field. Naturally, S Crafts come with ostentatious animations (that you can choose to skip) that are freaking hilarious because you have little chibi sprites trying to look badass and looking adorable instead. The fun part about this comes during the tough boss fights, when you have to decide when to deploy and what attack (or shield) to use, lest you be annihilated -- because bosses have S Crafts, too!

You can also choose to avoid enemy encounters, or smack the enemy from behind before engaging in combat for maximum advantage (i.e. all your characters attack first). The "team rush" mechanic has a higher chance of popping up, too -- this is when every single member rushes at the enemies. Then there's "Burst," which is a gauge that shows up in certain locations and when it fills up, Arts (spells) can be cast instantaneously, and the team has attack priority until the bar is depleted again. In short, there are a ton of fun ways to triumph in normal and even boss encounters.

The Orbal system is one of the cruxes of the combat system, and fans of the Legend/Trails series will be familiar with it. Characters equip quartz that grant the use of spells and/or new abilities (like seeing chests on the mini-map) or stat buffs (e.g. speed up). While I barely paid attention to this in the earlier part of the game, toward the end I had everyone armed with Tear (healing) and Seras (resurrection), and had worked out a way for my main caster (Elie) to spam powerful Arts so I could end boss fights quickly. MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA~

My only complaint is accidentally running into much weaker foes. See, enemies flee when your team out-levels them. Except for some reason, some run toward you in the process of running away from you, leading to an unnecessary fight. What the--?!

But otherwise, combat in Ao is a great mix of easy against normal enemies and sweat-inducingly difficult when it comes to certain bosses (Arianrhod!!!), so it's pretty great overall!

Gameplay: 9/10
The story has five chapters, divided into days. The story advances by completing the main mission of each day, and you can complete subquests for money and points that improve your rank as an investigator.

Now, I have to confess that I was super annoyed by how trivial some of these subquests were, especially the ones that came with SO MUCH EXPOSITION like the one where the team had to find some guy's long-lost father. But interestingly, the game's world is so small and so rich at the same time that there are a lot of surprise connections -- in the case of this annoying task, the dad is someone the team had previously met on an assignment from City Hall. Plus, you can actually skip all that exposition by pressing "X"! Don't worry, the menu has a journal function that tells you what your next step should be, so skip away!

It's also nice how small Crossbell is, and the developers make it super easy to get from one place to another -- within the city, you can teleport, basically, and outside the city you can drive your car or take the bus. In true JRPG fashion, you get an airship by the final chapter. Woot woot!

Soundtrack: 9/10
The music tracks are bomb and the voice work is outstanding. Since Falcom Sound Team jdk is responsible for the OST, everything sounds like an improvement/variation of all their best work from other games. For example, boss fight themes, "Unfathomed Force" and "The Azure Arbitrator," are reminiscent of the Ys series. For me, the most Ao track is "Truth of the Rainy Day" because it's so recognizable and like, sad, but like, also hopeful?

Story: 9/10
What's terrific about Ao no Kiseki is how so many elements from Zero no Kiseki pay off. The identity of Guy Banning's murderer and KeA's true nature are resolved here. What I thought was particularly genius was how the small daily tasks assigned to the SSS (e.g. finding a lost kitten) made the CMOA (crowning moments of awesome) such a sharp contrast, and therefore all the more awesome. For example, there's a hidden subquest where the team helps Sully practice her dance, which is part of a new major performance at the theater. When Chapter 4 begins, Sully is doing that dance, and I'm like, "Oh, nice, I helped her practice for this!" and then all hell breaks loose. I won't spoil it, but I screeched during this sequence.

And, during the mandatory talking prior to the final battle, all of our annoying running around is rendered noble because the villain wants to recreate the world with none of the dark stuff. The SSS team members passionately defend the sanctity of the small, everyday foibles that help us grow, the mistakes that we need to make so we can learn, and the importance of family and friends. It touched me in the feels.

Villains: 9/10
With villains, the goal is always conquest and/or utter destruction, so they ought to be judged on methods and style. And on that note, I present Ms. Mariabell Crois:

Translation: "Hahaha, very well."

When she's not slinking around in massive shoulder pads and leading with her cleavage, Ms. Crois (if you're nasty!) is president of IBC, Crossbell's premier financial institution. I say it's about time a banker did something villainous, amirite? So refreshing and so unlike real life!

While she's the main antagonist in this game, she's not the final boss, because JRPG. However, she was certainly a greater challenge than the actual boss, who, of course, had two forms.

Let me also give a shout out to the mini-bosses: Wald, Sigmund, Shirley, and Arios, all of whom my team hilariously left behind, unconscious in the final dungeon, on the premise that they posed a danger to our airship crew (well, except Arios). Safety first!

And OMG Arianrhod, who was so hard to defeat. She was 20+ levels above my team, for starters, and although the story would've continued even if I'd lost, my honor compelled me to defeat her. And of course, it turns out she's not really that bad, she simply agreed to KeA's request to stop us so we wouldn't be in further danger.

In fact, none of the villains in Ao no Kiseki are truly bad, per se. They're all acting according to their beliefs or upbringing. Each mini-villain is a foil for one of the characters (Randy and Uncle Sigmund, Lazy and Wald, Lloyd and Arios, etc.)

This brings me to my beef with the villains. Mariabell and Elie have a relationship that was established back in Zero no Kiseki, but here, as Mariabell reveals herself to be the scion of a family with centuries-long secret machinations, Elie doesn't get the same spotlight as her teammates. Unfair! And where is her final ultimate weapon, eh? Everyone else got one in the final dungeon!

In short, all the villains are fabulous, worthy adversaries, but the writers shorted one character and I am thus subtracting one point.

Visuals: 9/10
Ao no Kiseki Evolution is actually a port of a PSP game, so the visuals are spectacular for the system. Water and woods are rendered particularly well in the background. Combat animations are fun to watch. There are certain stretches of lovely scenery that automatically get a camera pan, like the waterfalls in Mainz Road or the flower fields of Armorica.

As for the bulk of the graphics, the combination of beautiful character portraits and cute sprites works, especially in scenes like these:

Translation: "W, well, here I go..."

HAHAHAHA!!!

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Overall, Ao no Kiseki boasts endearing characters, enjoyable gameplay and combat, and a charming mix of old-school designs and modern graphics technology. So much love is lavished on every aspect of Crossbell, resulting in overlong sequences of everyday things such as cars driving down roads or rain falling gently on the roofs. It's also a pleasure to see seemingly unconnected events come together, such as impulsively having a conversation with two NPCs and then receiving a call the next day about them going missing.

Assorted musings:

• GameFAQs published my walkthrough! Click here for a spoilerrific  guide to the game!
• As a bonus, here is a more complete Japanese walkthrough! 
• I squee'd when Sora no Kiseki characters showed up.
• Title explanation: Zero no Kiseki = Trails of Zero, Ao no Kiseki = Trails of Azure. Both of them are about KeA, who is a homunculus created to house the power of the "Treasure of Zero," which can manipulate the elements of Illusion, Space, and Time. KeA creates/becomes a giant azure tree in preparation for rewriting history.  
• Now I have to play Trails of Cold Steel!

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TL;DR: Terrific game that will consume SO MUCH OF YOUR TIME. Worth it!

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This post brought to you by New Year's eve! Goodbye, 2016!