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And with that I am finally done with my second run of this game. Took me way longer than I liked, but it is done.

And now we wait...

Overall, I can say replaying this game after watching someone play it in one year, playing the fanpatch translation the next year and then the official localisation the year after that was not a very smart decision. The game is good enough when you play it for the first time, but after the second time it isn't as good anymore. Most of the sidemission from this game have completly lost their edge from the first two games. Reans route immensly relied on nostalgia and the love for Rean and Class7 and that just doesn't hit as strong the second time you play this game. Kevins route overall was really badly paced plus the fact that the game tried (and failed) to paint him and Rufus as villains was kind of stupid. We know Kevin doesn't want to do what he is supposed to do and we also clearly see that Rufus heart is way past the backstabbing and murdering part too. So its story wasn't exactly very convincing as everyone who knew Kevin and watched him struggle knew he wouldn't pull that damn trigger for real. The ASO was such a bore most of the time. Only that one chapter were we for once had both Elaine and Agnes with us (as well as Jorda) was actually truly good. We were stuck in Edith for far too long and it was getting boring as hell. Then we were tuck in the small town of Ankorville for 3 acts and nothing came out of it in the end. The game overwriting its own rules by enabling Van to turn into Grendel whenever even tho Agnes and an actual Genesis are not even around was also weird and you may overlook this the first time you play, but certainly not the second time.

All in all I am a bit disappointed by how glad I am that I finally, after almost 7 months of running more from the game than playing it, I have finally finished it and hopefully NEVER have to play it again.

ALSO I was hoping replaying the game would give me some answers by making me see things I have overlooked or not understood the first time, but its exactly the opposite. I have found things I overlooked, alright but they cause more questions and not answers.

And in light of that I can not believe we still have to fear Falcom not bringing Kai 2 out next year or avoiding a world wide release.

What is he? Part of that cult or what?

Speaking of Renés Grendel form being overpowered... how did he pull that shit? By use of the Genesis or their replica, rather? Because if these things were always capable of such OP stuff, why did we never use it?

I am pretty sure Paulettes mother-instincts know that there is more to Yume than just a cute little child. Or that at least something has taken her over right now, something that she needs to support and not stop.

I seriously had to laugh here XD It was like: "Now guys?! Really?!"

Her saying that gave me a little "Aww. Shizuna." Moment XD

Now if he had just noticed that a bit earlier, he might have been able to do something about this before it was too late.

Uh... so the "heaventurn" is when the heavens turn white and in the end speak about the reset? Okay! Now... what does finding the tachi within by beating the black god does have to do with any of that tho?

I still wonder how much of a role it playes that Mariella saw who was under that mask before the reset. And even then... what does it matter if it is Sheena Dirke? What difference does it truly make?

You know... as a shipper that clearly made me happy and all... but wasn't it a bit overdramatic? ^^' As if he could have still reached her or changed anything by screaming her name while she was in the middle of the process of overwriting that damned grand reset.

Okay... let's bring this game to an end.

You've gotta be joking! So that pod that Risette was in wasn't for survival but for revival? It brings dead people back to life as long as they have at least a brain left? So its that why we made sure none of the people we would want to revive have a body left? So we can not revive them through those means? Are you fucking kidding me Falcom? Is that seriously your solution for this problem and you eventhink you did well with it? Bullshit!

Oh so they... WAIT! First of all: They would have never made it to get them into that pod within 5 minutes PLUS there is only ONE pod and I doubt even Marduk was able to rebuild them and have a second one at hand. Meaning that there is no way in hell that they "saved" them both. Secondly: If they gave them artifical bodys, which we already cleared up was not exactly an easy feed to beginn with just mere minutes ago, does that mean they cut their Heads of their body because unlike Risette these guys still had one. WTF FALCOM?!

Listening to that bullshit makes me realize it would have been better they simply decided to make it canon that these two were not killed at all, despite my decision in the first game.

Hash words given that they know each other since childhood. I mean yes, they were out of touch for a while but not so long that it would really lead to them missing out on too much about Renés life. So what the hell was that about?

I took like 10000 screenshots because I wanted to "enjoy" the ending without constantly pausing it, but that means I have to work myself through them all now ^^'

We all know how the fandom was worried that it turns out Zemuria is nothing but a simulation. I guess this at least puts that theory to rest. Zemuria does exist at least... although we do of course not know where exactly it exists, given the fact that we neither have an actual sun nor mon and thus no idea how the circle of day and night even comes to happen to begin with so... maybe we are not passed the simulation-idea just yet ^^'

Would you for gods sake please stop hurting my boys?

We stop this stream of awful events to bring you: Shipping time! Just like we are supposed to whenever we end a game on a cliffhänger of hell XD

I agree with Shizuna, this is totally a cube and not chest. Althought the word "chest" might be symbolic as there is clearly something Diving Knigh-isch inside that thing.

I love how mean Falcom is by giving you this false sense of hope shortly before everything goes down the drain. They did that in all 3 games with a cliffhänger. In Sky 1, they made Estelle confesse to Joshua and you assumed everything would be alright now that he knew she loved him no matter what. In CS3 the Couragous came and everyone thought they would save the day as they always did. And this time they were all like: "Look! We made it! Wohoo!" for a short moment, just to kick our asses afterwards in all 3 cases XD By the by... why has no one questioned the fact that despite Laegjarns supposed defeat, the Sky stayed the same and did not change? After all... wasn't destroying the chest also supposed to take off the shield around Zemuria?

I think the Fandom has very good reasons to assume our Diving Knight come back, given that ist highly unlikly Emilia alone with her Excalibur could have beaten that thing. Yes, they made it look like she just died because she misjudged where he would be attacking, but that doesn't mean she would have been able to beat him on the long run, given that only one direct hit was needed to kill her. Given how fast that thing was, even Excalibur would not have been able to avoid direct hits forever, despite Emilias piloting skills.

It is certainly interesting that the chest stayed somewhat damaged tho. If it couldn't completely regenerate, that means we have definitely weakened it. Which might be to our advantage next time we try.

Guys... don't get me wrong, we certainly did not need any more heartbreak in this game, but this was absolute bullshit! That thing should have crushed them all. That it magically jumped back into position was a really weird plot amore. PLUS we had a reset afterwards either way, I don't see why we couldn't have killed all these guys here for even more player-pain ^^'

I still think that whole thing is really macabre, by the way. It might look just like some sort of statue... but there are still human remains in there, even if they are nothing more than bones ground to dust. And we act like its just Excalibur's melted form that we do not need to spare any sentiments for.

While this whole scene was a big ass plottwist at first it is also leaving A LOT of questions open. EVEN. MORE. QUESTIONS. So far, only Van could turn into a grendel and that shard-version of Dingo. Both of them needed a "Mare" - kind of thingy to make that possible. While Vans transformation was caused by Agnes and the Genesis, meaning she could be responsible for it, it seems weird that that is relly all it took and yet no one else of the ASO ever turned into a Grendel as well. Isn't it possible that René too has one of the devils inside of him and that is how that works and this is why he said his friends didn't know much about him? Because all this time they were fussing about Vans demon core while René himself had to deal with its own? But nah, that would be too easy and would beg the question while Van was struggling so much with his demonic core and René seems to have no problems at all with it.

Clearly.

The small wishes of a mother... I am sure she would have supported Agnes love for Van, no matter the outcome.

I knew that one would be painful... but I was hoping I could keep myself from tearing up for once. I failed. Of course.

I wish we would get a grip on what the hell they were doing, given that Agnes said that she did it differently and clearly she did, given that she was basically erased from the timeline, while her mother died slowly fading away and god knows what happened to her grandmother.

Now I am crying. How cruel was it to make such a promise to a 12 year old girl afraid of losing her sickly mother? And what kind of impression does it leave to that girl, when it comes to keeping promises? To trusting that the people you love so dearly will keep their promises?

Still crying. That one was extra cruel and painful.

Even the title-screen of that chapter was painful.

But I feel like it was the right choice to send them of all the teams to Creil. Kevin has to ponder what an important and fleeting gift life is, making it harder for him to end one. Lapis learning to feel sad about the loss of the Kids she played with in Creil. Swin and Nadia as former Assasins beeing reminded even more how important it is to protect and not end lifes, no matter what. And Rufus facing what could have been if he had taken things any further as Governor General back in the day.

Anyway... we move on from the sadness that is Creil and go try to save (and ultimately lose) one of my beloved blond Angels. I do plan to finish this game today, so that might be a long ride.

They are using police lights to be able to travel faster, but as soon as we arrive in Edith, we are suddenly not in a rush anymore...

We left Vans last act around 10 and they were not even in the car yet, but he seriously think they can make it back to Edit in 1 hour? Even if speed limits are not an issue thanks to the police's support, that is still a questionably short time they have to get back to Edith from Ankorville.

How Latoya stayed single the whole time is a mystery to me. Look at her! She was beautiful! (I still wonder why they hide Epsteins face from us. After seeing Kuroganes and Hermes face tho, I think its propably not for any other reason then forcing interest in him, just like with them.)

Also Lilia was such a cuty. Smol Versions of Trails-Character are always so adorable ♥

The beginning huh? Not for us. We've been waiting for the second game for years now...

Wrong Priorities? The best present for Agnes right now will be getting her back anyway...

That is not what she actually wanted to say.

What is truly going on with this child?

I skip most of the memento Orbs (which I will likely regret later, as I did not watching all from Reverie... but whatever XD) but this one is about Risettes past so it seemed necessary to watch. It is interesting as the narrator states that Risettes Hometown was destroyed by the war. So... this place around 50 years later... would that mean that is the same war we started with the Twillight? Is it still going on or did they never had the funds to repair the damage? OR is it a different war entirely?

Oh! I think the story hints at them living at the Chat Noir Café. Faszinating.

We are back in our timeline one hour before the launch and just saw Maxim and Familie and is that just me or did Yume look upset for a moment?

They had way too much fun with this XD Julian, your grandfather would be shocked!

No wonder no one has been arguing about Agnes being called Vans favorite assistant; he doesn't really hide it that she in fact IS exactly that. His favorite.

Shizuna... we are not doing death duels with Rean, that is illegal in Trails- AND in Mona-Land. You better get that into your head before the next duel or I have to strangle you... Right after I calmed down Altina I guess, because then her worries would be absolutly understandable.

I am still immensely worried about Falcom going to far with the Sci-Fie here. I mentioned that before but a pod that is able to keep someone alive who apparently didn't even have any other vital organs other than her brain? Even if lets say that pot can connect someones brain to something that simulates all other vital organs and thus keeps the brain working like if the body would still be mostly intact, it begs the question how she got into that pot fast enough to do that. The brain can only survive so long without oxygen before taking severe damage and that "so long" isn't that long at all. Around 3 to 5 minutes without too much damage and after 10 minutes your either dead or what is left of your brain is a fried mess that barely functions on its own at all. So assuming Risette died in that Bio-Nano-Machine-Monsters-Attack that day, they need to get what was left of her into that pot and connect it to whatever she needed to be connected with to survive, within less than 5 minutes. And we are talking about a post-apocalyptic world here with very limited resources. It didn't sound like they had any abilities to teleport or something like that. PLUS assuming that Risettes whole family died that day... who even was it who brought her to witchever place they would even find such a pot in such a short amount of time even if it was possible? I mean, this IS a fantasy game alright and we could argue somewhat about how making a replacement body for Millium worked, given that her body is, unlike Risettes not mechanical, but just like the one of a human. How did they manage to replicate a human body? I guess one should not think about it too much... but still, I think a bit more logic would still be good. Like... at least make her survive the attack at first and then afterwards when people found her and brought her to a doctor or whatever she actually died there and they had to get rid of the destroyed body to enable her to survive in that pot or something. BUT even then we still have the question WHY anyone would keep her alive in that state and for what purpose.

URG! So. Many. Questions.

Oh my Girl you deserve a slap or two. But yeah, then you will get a hug. I hope...

I guess we ARE all in agreement that Agnes is Vans favorite for real XD

Mare came to Van because Agnes genesis reacted to her screaming when Van was attacked way back when in the first game. With Agnes gone, after the soft reset, we will not have access to Mare until with got at least Agnes back AND for that to happen we have to remember her first (assuming we do not do that) and then find a way to bring her back. So aside from the final battle, this really is goodbye for us and Mare for a while.

Anyway... lets go get our just reward for finishing the Garten yet again.

You know... that scene was supposed to give us some answer... but yet again, I am going out of it with even more fucking questions. Geez.

But the heavens turning is Reans part O.o

I am so confused right now.

I know all this was mostly to show us Lapis development, but it was absolutly cruel! I had tears in my eyes. Falcom really wanted us to suffer here.

I do wonder tho why the replica reacted with Lapis and why Marielle was dragged into this as well but no one else?

Thank you, Rufus. You have been far too obedient this whole time for my liking. It was about time you finally said something AGAINST Kevin.

Meaning that indirectly, she was responsible for many deaths... including Dingos and of course the people of Creil.

I mean... she is right but big words coming from the woman who is at the mercy of the (former, lets be real here) heretic hunter who killed the faceless with a part of the same salt pale that destroyed his home and killed his family. Just saying.

Apparently we are no match for the original 3 leads of the calvardian revolution, huh? ^^'

And with that, Kevins route to is done and over with. Thank the Goddesse for the fact that this one was fast. Painful. But fast.

Vans chapter took me hours and I am absolutly exausthed and the last thing I need right now is Kevin. BUT I want to finish this game as fast as possible so I will force my way through as much of Kevins last chapter as I can today.

So come and join me while we will go to the place were a great tragedy took place and listen to the Song my mother taught me.

Or something like that...

I know where the church gets the artifacts from but WHERE THE HELL DO THEY TAKE THAT MONEY FROM?! This is one of like 12 or so Mekabas they want to replace, after all.

Right?

You know I am not a big Kevin fan but you have to be fair here... at the end of it all, as much of a stupid idiot he is... he means well. His hands are already stained with blood as the heretic hunger so if he kills Hamilton, no one else has to have blood on their hands as well. Keeping Ries out of that (although he is enjoying his freedom way too much...) is not purely for her sake alone, but it is also well-intentioned. He knew she would carry this burden with him, even if she would not like what he has to do, that is what they promised each other after all. But he didn't want her to be part of this. He didn't want her to watch him kill someone. Didn't want her to be his biggest weakness in all of that. We know he is not happy about this job, he does it because he has to, meaning if anyone could persuade him to change his mind, it would be Ries. He didn't want to see her suffer the consequences if she ended up not being able to change his mind. His decision to not involve her was as much for her as it was for him, but once again, he thinks he protects her, he doesn't mean to hurt her - even tho he knows he does. It is hard to be angry at him for all of this. I actually can only feel sorry for him. And hope that in the end of it all, he will NOT have to pull that damn trigger.

Isn't it weird that in Reans final act, he actually narrated the "in the meantime" stuff himself... but in Kevins final act, some random Narrator did the job for them?

Seriously... she would be so angry at him she would follow him to Gehenna (again) just to put him in his place - well deserved as it would be, we would prefer the next thing Ries hears about Kevin is NOT that he is dead.

My poor girl... I hope one day someone tells you how amazingly strong you have become and how proud Dingo would be, if he could see you now.

We have a lot of those bullshit fights in Trails that happen for no logical reason... not even for an emotioanl one... they really just happen for padding or because the game needed a big fight for some reason at a certain point, so we are used to it. BUT this one really takes the cake and eats it when it comes to "most stupidest excuse for a big fight".

This right here is the second biggest bullshit, right after that stupid excuse of a reason for a fight. There is no dangerous radiation; that was confirmed relatively early on after the incident. And as proven, can be tested on the go. So what reason would Calvard have to keep the relatives of the people who died in Creil locked out of it? Even IF a flare up in radiation is a concern, letting them in for a short amount of time, to let them grieve, while constantly testing the radiation levels should have been fine. ALSO Gotti gets permission to come her, location scouting for a film about the tragedy, but the families of the death are not allowed to come here? WHY?! Makes no sense whatsoever.

I so vividly remember that old man sitting on that bench with a dog by his side for some reason... not fully sure if it was on the side of that small stream tho or on the opposite side. Its scary tho, the things you remember...

This is Falcoms punishment for all the players who complained that no one died or stayed death in Cold Steel. (Which isn't even fully true...) They thought we deserved to watch children, animals and innocent people die and then throw the option at us that with the soft reset we might be able to save them, but let me warn you, to not get your hopes up: Creil will NOT survive the soft reset either. Gotti is here because he wants to make a movie of that tragedy, that would be null and void if this tragedy never comes to happen and thus Gotti beeing here would make no sense. This thing here is final. For one reason or another, things will run its curse, even after the soft-reset. Falcom is just throwing us a bone to make us hope, only to take the bone away eventually and tell us that you can not truly ever change the past - although doing so is funny, thinking of how Daybreak 2 did exactly that in some ways ^^'

I feel like this is the hardest part about coming here. You knew the whole city was destroyed and everyone died but the true power of this explosion only gets clear when you play Kevins act 3 and see how far the impact of the explosion reached. How naive it was to just think for a moment, "Maybe the cat was out hunting and thus survived?" because she could have never gotten far enough to not be killed in that massive explosion. And also... it makes it clear to you, when you see the place were Dingo died, why there never were any bodys left to bury.

Hamel was a cruel story and a hard place to be at. But this one is even more cruel, because you were there before, when everything was fine. You've met the people, you did not just met its survivors and heard the horror-story from them, you were there yourself when everything was still fine. You wanted to boy, one of only two survivors, who wanted to become a bracer to impress his girl to one day show up again in the Saga, as a great Bracer, with the Girl by his side. You felt how amazing it was of that nun to decide to not work in Ateria, but in her hometown instead - just to know now that that decision killed her.

We had some small scale event like that in Cold Steel when Celdics market was destroyed (What is it with the C-Towns going down? What is Falcoms Problem with the letter C?) and it already hurt too, when the Major died and other people ended up fighting for their lives, in a place we had been in previously. But this one hurts even more as EVERYTHING is gone and no one ever gave us the time to properly grieve... until now.

The Ironie of the fact that that stupid damn church of all places is still standing and yet its walls protected NO ONE! Adios is cruel indeed.

A pretty thorough examination? There was a dead person melted into that thing, you know? That is kind of macabre. I know you didn't know that but still... it is however irritaning that they never found anything indicating that, if the examinated it so thouroughly. I mean, clearly Emilias body would have not survived the heat of the reentrace into the atmosphere in that state and all but was there really no sign left that a once living being has been inside this statue? Then again... not one body remained here in Creil... this day is truly a very sad Day in this game.

It makes you wonder... if Risette would not have been able to save them... would she have stopped existing? Then again, she doesn't come from this loops future, but from a different loops future (as far as we know at least...) so I guess our Risette should have been fine but her soul would be certainly lost for this timeline. Then again... there is no soul that can be lost, she IS here after all. (Timetravel is really confusing, guys...)

You know what I wonder? Agnes bloodline, did it exist in Risettes world? And was Risette's world coming from a soft-reset Loop?

We have two pieces of information that could easily have led to the sin counter not going up as fast. First is the great Twillight. The indication exists that there was a world where no one beat Ishmelga and the great Twillight thus stayed active and do to people soley focusing onthe war then, the sin-counter got down, because development of technologie soliey focused on war-machines and not on stuff like going to space. (Which could in fact explain the bio nano machine thingies. It IS possible that they focused on their development in that timeline in order to win the war, but instead of winning the war, it lead to them overtaking the world or something like this. The second thing is (what we will hear only later in the game) that there was ONE timeline were Russel, Smidts and Hamillton were not Epstein's disciples but the Professor was instead. However he was quickly thrown out of this position because of... you know... how he is ^^' We learn as early as Trails in the Sky that Epstein's disciples brought the Orbal Evolution to Zemuria an thus pushed the development of all kinds of modern technology, including airplanes and such. Without these kind of technologies, going to space would be impossible. And since no one ever brought the Orbal Revolution to Zemuria, they instead focused their research on bio-nano machines for some reason?

HOWEVER it makes you wonder how the sin-counter works if those evil machines taking over the world didn't count as such a great sin that it would activate the septerion and cause it to rewind time? ALSO if Agnes bloodline does exist in every Loop did they die out before they could cause a soft reset or was it impossible to do so because either the tower was destoryed OR they would have had to set the timer back so too far in order to fix that mess and weren't capable of it? We do not know the rules of the Risette so we don't know how many years back one can actually go.

Questions. So. Many. Questions.

Yeah... with that mask on it was absolutly impossible to see that it was her. Of course. No way in hell her clothes and hair and voice gave her away, as the mask was only hiding half of her face... ^^'

She is so sick of him at this point XD

The whole scene was AMAZING. The Teamwork was great! But they were all moving so damn fast that I had no time for screenshots.

I kow you weren't with us then, Bergard. But I am pretty sure the ASO has told you everything about our time-travel-stories from last spring, right? So I am pretty sure you shouldn't be THAT shocked that it IS in fact possible.

So they are here to... uh... confuse the Sin-Counter? O.o For what purpose? So it won't be able to reset time BEFORE Roy can get his plan going? Otherwise that wouldn't make much sense because in the end these guys certainly didn't help with destroying the Septerion, that much is for sure. ALSO why chose people like Melchior and the Tyrant to "help"? Its not like they are very trustworthy.

I think shocking people with harsh truths is this mans second favorite thing to do... right after killing.

As I am trying really hard to be a fair shipper, we have to give it to Elaine that she certainly wins the title-screen-war with this one. While it might be slightly unfair, since here he has no cake to eat that could distract him, he is clearly fondly looking at Elaine and I do believe he did not once look at Agnes in the title screens, aside from the one from her specific little nighttime chapter and even then he looked at her back, not at her eyes. (We can certainly say tho that Shizuna is the ultimativ loser of that game, because all he had for her was annoyance written all over his face XD)

I give Elaine the Title-Screen-Win, Agnes wins in other regards. Starting with understanding Van completely and giving him something he can be proud of. (Among other things.) He always felt like such a worthless lowlife and keept people at arms length, even the one he did love and care about. And then Agnes walzed into his life and refused to leave and her growing to be such an amazing and strong young woman while walking alongside him, going from a naive, sheltered little girl to someone who can protect others and understands the world with all its complicated facets, just shows that Van isn't just a worthless lowlife. Because if he were, Agnes would not have turned out this way after being around him for a year. And while she might not be "Sunshine Agnes", it is pretty clear that if Van is the nightsky just before dawn, than she is the one who makes him shine brighter than the actual night sky, and she does not just make him shine she also makes him see that he shines. In that sense, Elaine can certainly NOT compete with that, because the way she treated him upon their reunion, was anything but making him see the way he shines.

*achem* Sorry, back to the topic at hand.

Which is apparently Shizuna, which has taken her loss at the title-screen-battle not so well it seems XD Jokes aside tho, I chose this connect-event for a reason.

That damn monster one-shotted me XD See, the issue with my cheats is, that they stay with every party member even if they have left my team and are on the other side of the battlefield. So right now, she too has the one-hit kill ability and endless HP and since she is way faster than Van, she got the first attack and immediately crushed my otherwise totally overlevelled ass. Ups.

(Second round I beat her within 3 attacks because I am leverl 150 already, but that is also because of cheating so nothing to be proud of.)

Losing against her was obviously not the reason I chose that event, so here is the actual reason: She didn't say it as clearly in the offical translation, but in the fan translation she right out stated that the fight with Rean got her all riled up, which is the reason why she ended up losing control over the sword. Now, as she herself stated, it wasn't even a proper fight but rather a little bout, so now imagine what will happen when they fight for real. Her losing control over that stupid sword might be our only chance to beat her. Rean is a very calm, collected and strategic fighter. Shizuna is in pure berserker-state when the curse of the sword takes over. With you know the beserker-state from Final Fantasys old games, then you know that the berserker-stat basically makes you stronger and faster, but you are literally just a brainless monster, fighting until you die without any regards for anything, including strategie. IF Shizuna were to succumb to that state in her fight with Rean, then she clearly would be even stronger and faster, but I can see someone as calm and collected as Rean beeing able to push that sword out of her hand as well, which would then make him the winner of this battle. One might call this a bit unfair, but it is Shizuna who chose to use the sword, knowing the risks fully well. Would I prefer Rean winning the fight a bit more fairly? Yes. Do I think that is realistic? No ^^' IF Rean would win a fair battle against Shizuna, that would make him just as strong as she is and put him on a level strength wise were it would make no sense whatsoever to assume he even needs anyones assistence to beat anyone EVER. Then again, Falcom was always bad with its power-scaling ability ^^'

The ability to connect souls and exorcise demons? I... might be stupid here but isn't that exactly what we will need in the next game? Connecting Vans and Agnes souls to find a way to get her back and exorcising the demon residing inside Van? I mean... it would give Shizuna a plot-reason to have this demonic sword. Just saying.

Am I the only one who wonders what kind of game Yun Ka Fai is playing? He gave Shizuna a cursed demonic sword to wield and control when she was still a child and even after killing her own brother and hurting Kurogane, he still left her with that sword? I kind of get that this is likely a Sword that needs a wilder to be kept at bay or otherwise we have an Inuyasha-Sword-Movie kind of situation at our hands but if Shizuna has lost control before, would it not have been a way better Idea to search for someone else who is not so "easily" overwhelmed by emotions that can mean total destruction? What are his plans with this sword and this girl? ALSO why is it her Rean needs to beat in a fight to find his "true sword"? (Whatever that means) Why was it not more than enough to best Yun Ka Fai himself?

I am still worried guys. That Shizuna was never meant to have that sword longterm, but only keep it at bay as much as possible until Rean comes and gets it, as someone who has been able to control demonic powers before and all that. I feel like Falcom is chasing an excuse to give Rean his freaking Demon-Form back at least occasionally. Because... what else could "his true sword" actually mean and why does he only gain it after beating Shizuna? We all know we hope his "true sword" is not meant literal and we actually get Valimar back but even then it would be questionable why Shizuna would be able to lead to that.

Alternative it is possible that Yun has another demonic Sword like this and by beating Shizuna Rean proves himself worthy of it? When it comes to looks Rean certainly deserves a Sword as pretty as Shizunas but I would rather not have my Rean have anything demonic on him EVER again ^^'

How do you come to that conclusion only now? XD

Alright... lets put Shizuna aside for now and lets go back to the story. I have already wasted way too much time on this act.

Because if we start a full new loop, then that would mean their souls would be reborn. However... if there is no new Loop, then their souls will likely vanish... or be reborn eventually into new lifes, not old ones they will repeat yet again.

I have yet to understand why Vans body reacts like this. I mean its the demonic core inside him, I get that much but why is it reacting only in certain circumstances?

I love how he called Agnes Vans "facorite little assistant" XD I mean, with the true meaning behind calling her "assistant number one" we all know that he isn't spouting nonsense and that this is a fact. But I still find it funny that even Harwood, who isn't around that often, totally gets Agnes' position in Vans ' group.

You know... this isn't even half as funny as the "talking cate" running-gag from Cold Steel and I am not just saying that because I am an Erebonian-Bitch.

I still think Altina is way too overdramatic here... but I guess given what Reans been through and his self-sacrifice-tendencys, its hard not to worry about him. Its not like I am a stranger to the "don't you dare hurt my boy!" - Feeling.

ANYWAY... our time with what little of Class7 we were provided with is sadly over. We return now to the ASO. Without Agnes... and Elaine instead. But the story is going to be interesting at least.

This is by far not the first time Agnes is out of commission for a while and the ASO is doing thing without her. However the circumstances this time are a bit more complicated. Most of the time Agnes wasn't available on free will do to school duties and such, while this time, she was basically "forced" to leave. (We know that it was convenient for her to be forced to leave, but Van and the others don't know that yet.) It was also never during a big out-of-town mission that she was absent. I think Jack is a bit overselling her by saying that she was basically the one doing all the work in previous missions, but she clearly had a big part in it most of the time. Which is still not saying they can not do without her, but it probably feels a bit odd to do something so big without her support, especially since she is our primary healer and spellcaster. And all that aside, there is also the fact that the danger-level of this mission is very high and Agnes will likely be anxious not knowing if everyone was alright. ALSO she is supposed to be revealed as the Präsidents daughter officially all of a sudden, on her very own birthday no less, which is a situation where she would have likely had the emotional support of the ASO. AND you may also have to add Vans situation to all the reasons why Agnes being gone isn't exactly ideal. While Agnes clearly showed no sign of any problems in working with Van as well as being physically and emotionally close to him, I think he is still a bit troubled by the fact that he rejected her and the question how she is dealing with it and what it will mean for their relationship. Finishing this mission in Ankorville side by side would likely have given him some peace of mind. While now, she is out of reach so he can only hope that she is doing alright and that their relationship from before her confession is still stable.

Outch. That was a low blow.

But lets talk about this for a moment. In theory, it would be only a low blow if it was done intentionally with the knowledge of what happened on Vans last night's stroll through Edith. Which begs the question: Does René know? And if so... how? How much does he know? I mean he is very perceptive, and I am sure he knew about Agnes feelings for Vans. Plus, we do not know how long he has been working with Agnes on her plan, so he might have guessed through certain words or body language that she did in fact confess to Van or was planning to at least.

This situation has 3 options:

René somehow knows about the rejection and intentionally used those words to hurt Van, knowing fully well, no matter what his feelings for Agnes are, he does love her in some form and hurting her hurt him and now pointing out that if he hadn't rejected her, he had a valid reason to refuse to let René take her was meant to be pure punishment for Van. It seems unlikely as someone who clearly supports Van and Elaine that he would feel like its better to hurt Van even further for rejecting Agnes, since he should have been supportive of that choice. But I feel like this is such an odd thing to say without intending it to mean something. Why does "She is my employee" doing nothing but "she is my girlfriend" would do the trick here? I mean at the end of the day, the President ordered René to bring Agnes back home; there is no way Van dating Agnes should be reason enough to not listen to the President's order.(You know... people on the internet have been thinking that René may know the future... uh... no.... past... uh... you know past loops and stuff, somehow and has been partially guiding Van to certain points for certain reasons via his CID-Missions. Which would make you wonder if that particular sentence from him is meant to tell Van that if he would have not rejected Agnes thinks (and I do not just mean this very moment) would have turned out differently. But why would René support Van and Elaine if he knew Van dating Agnes would have better results for the overall scheme of things?

The second option would be René guesses that Agnes confessed do to his perceptiveness, also likely already knowing what to come for her so assuming she would at least confess before she leaves this world. And this sentence was meant to gauge out what Vans answer to the confession was. Because had he said "Yes, I love you too" he would have had a personal reason to stop René from taking Agnes away, if he isn't saying anything tho and reacts how he does, he clearly rejected her and thats the only thing René wanted to know. Which still leaves the question open why the answer would be of interest to him, aside from what this would mean for Elaine.

The last option is that he said that without any thought behind it and meant nothing by it, but to somewhat politely deal with Vans veto, by explaining him personal ties matter more than the job connection Agnes has with him. But once again, this seems to be too deliberately said to be just randomly chosen word that are jus by pure coincidence hit where it hurts. I mean this man is clearly a traitor but obviously in a very different way then Richard, Arios or Crow were. There is something behind what he is doing that is in the end likely very well intentioned. So there is almost no way in hell he didn't say that on full as purpose to either hurt Van or give him a hint for what to do after the soft reset.

Moving on... not quite yet tho...

ALSO Renés words, causing Vans reaction, causes the others to somewhat understand whats going on. Making it even more likely that René deliberately said that for some reason.

I feel like, despite the way she played all of them like a fiddle, while planning her soft reset, I think she felt awful about it all. The lies and the deception and the fact that it meant leaving the ASO behind on such a crucial time. What she did was to save everyone, but she likely felt like she actually left them hanging. Van was so proud of her. Calling her his "lovely assistant", making her gain the title "assistant number one" not since she was the first to become his assistant, but because she is the most important of them all, and yet here she is, leaving her job behind for another important mission. No wonder she ends up asking Van to fire her for this.

I know I said this before but I have to say it again: THIS IS BULLSHIT! The game constantly makes it look like replacing Agnes with Elaine would even things out in the ASO but it does in fact NOT do that at all. Elaine provided physical strength but that is not what we are lacking when Agnes is gone. On the contrary, as Agnes does not provide physical strength, her not being in the team doesn't change the physical strength of the team at all. What we do need, when Agnes isn't there, is a healer and a spellcaster and Elaine provides non of that. I play with Wand this time so I am good, but when I played Kai with the fanpatch I fought fair and square and not having a strong healer was a freaking nightmare. Non of the healing abilities the other have are as good Agnes was and that shortly before the final was a huge ass issue. Having another offensive fighter does change nothing about the fact that our team is now weaker because we lack a healer, not a fighter.

But whatever...

I mean I get why they made sure Elaine and Agnes are different and all that, I just don't understand while the game likes to pretend giving us Elaine after Agnes is gone would even things out, since she doesn't provide what we have lost at all. She replaces a poster-Girl with a former poster-girl (she is not on the cover for this game after all) and thats it.

Does that mean you will not interrupt me while I approach a grieving Marielle in a destroyed Creil this time? ^^'

Yeah thats... kinda fair ^^'

I mean, we are so used to most of Ouroboros being a big bunch of softies that bark but don't bite that when someone like Harwood or him comes along you are totally in shock XD

So... since we established that Simeon is on par with McBurn when it comes to powers and Ulrica can boos their powers with her magic words even more... how cooked are we if McBurn return in the next game and we have to face all 3 of them in the final dungeon with a way smaller Team at hand? ^^'

You know at this point, when these two finally battle it out, it will be a battle of two friends testing their might instead of whatever makes all of us cower in fear of that fight ^^'

(Seriously tho... I have those two in my Grim Garten Team and its SCARY how OP they are.)

As a non-believer, I always wondered how Believers deal with situations like that. I mean, how long can "its gods will" really make you accept a cruel destiny and a harsh world? Kevin as someone who literally works for the church and thus by extension for the goddess, must have it especially rough. When you give it your all to please your goddess, and then she comes around saying: "Hey, kill that old lady that everyone loves!" it must feel like a punch in the gut by a person you trusted would never hurt you.

Am I the only one who things how that situation from the first game ended is kind of unsatisfying? Neither of those 3 got their happy ending with each other. I mean it guess Falcom just cements in stone here that the Calvard Arc isn't as tropy and predictanle as Cold Steel was but... how can that be okay? Why even bring this story up if it ends the way it did?

I am glad I did this mission this time, even tho I have still no idea in hell what going on ^^' The medallion can only be used by Agnes and its VERY powerful as it gives her like 50CP per round or something like that. This i likely almost as effective as giving Rean both Master Quartz with the CP gain PLUS the Gladiator Belt and Gladiator Headband. HOWEVER it makes no fucking sense giving us this thing now because Agnes will in fact not join our team ever again in this story.

That old bastard knows something again but refuses to say it, as per usual. He is so damn useless. What did you even survive for? To stand around, all knowing without telling anyone anything?

ALSO! I wonder if them pointing out the differences between the Ancorville in the Book and the one in real live actually has a meaning. I mean if this book plays in Ankorville, and whoever wrote it knew the people there well enough to give certain real-life people roles in it, why change the river to a slope or the hospital to a graveyard? If the autor wanted to add a graveyard, they could have easily enough just added ut to some of the outskirts. After all, Himmel Cemetery in Heimdall isn't directly in the city either, so people would simply have assumed that the autor needed a graveyard and was inspired by how it was done in the Empire or something like this. HOWEVER... what if this is actually from a different Loop? What if this book was written by someone who knows the previous loops or at least one of them and in that very loop for some reason the river has dried out and it naturally left a slope? And what if in that loop instead of a Hospital there way a Graveyard there for some reason? However the busaccient still happened in both timelines? I don't know... it just seems odd to send us to talk to all these people telling us all this stuff for nothing.

When I first played that game with the fan-patch and that man said he will revoke Reans title if he isn't good enough in that battle I wanted to strangle that old man. And I still want to. How dare he say something like that after what Rean has been through to get that title and prove himself worthy of it?

Rean was doing really well in that fight. Do I not give him enough credit when thinking about his future fight with Shizuna? O.o But... she is a monster!

When I first saw that scene, I thought for a moment they suddenly decided to fight each other... but they were actually amazingly in sync here.

Look at my boy warding off that freaking Dragon-Attack! He is THE best ♥

I misinterpreted those words, didn't I? This isn't about the launch and the attack on the septerion. The heavens turn when the canopy is lifted, right? Still omnious words tho.

But with that another chapter is done! Sadly... that was the last time I played my boy for the rest of this game. Glad he managed to proven himself at the end of it.

Next we meet, we will be back with the ASO in Ankorville to figure out the final lie.

But not right now. Right now I need to eat XD

Edit: Sorry guys, I was a bit in a rush to get to my parents, where I was invited for lunch, that I actually forgot to mention something. Which is: Why the freaking fucking hell would someone of the caliber of Yun Ka Fai work with someone like Latoya Hamilton?

ALSO if he works for her, why did he want to get that information out of Van? Latoya should know how the teleportation of the Vestiges works, right? Did she not tell him and he wavered because of that?

I wonder if on the long run this is all somehow connected to Sheena Dirke? Given Yuns track record, it is very likely he knew her too.

Alright, I am back. Lets comtinue with this game, so I can finish it soon.

Lets start with my golden child doing not so golden things XD

I know Calvard is big but isn't 100 a bit overkill? ^^'

It took Van AGES to get the trust of the Fire and Ice Grahlsritter but Rean and Co made it happen in one night. Thats the power of Class7 I tell you.

These guys... while Rean only seems rationally unbothered because, you know, emergency situation and all that. Crow, straight out, is enjoying this XD

Its also interesting to notice were the girls are placed. Fie is basically sitting on the armrest with only minimal bodycontact, while Altina is just slightly sitting on Reans knees and the rest of the other side of the armrest. Still more body contact then Fie, but all in all clearly kept as minimal as possible. HOWEVER Towa sits straight in Crows lap. No avoiding bodycontact at all. And seeing were Fie is placed in Reans cockpit, we can certainly say there was a way to have a bit less nodycontact, but Crow took full advantage of that situation, that damn bastard XD

I always found Falcom bold for given Rean connect-events with the girls, given how unfair it seems for Fans of the girls who did not join them here. But positioning Towa in Crows lap, even tho she is part of Reans harem was certainly... an interesting choice. Sure, it makes sense that they couldn't put all 3 girls in Reans cockpit and in theory putting Towa in Crows cockput makes the most sense, given that she is the one of the girls who is closest to him. BUT Crow and Towas connection is quite deep and Towa does react to all of the times Crow flirts with someone and the fandom does ship these two... so... bold choice to place her right into his lap AND even allow Crow to enjoy it. Crowa always seemed to be that missed out oppertunity for me. Could have been an interesting couple, especially as Crow is the only one from the Cold Steel Main casts boys that has no official loveinterest. (Which is likely because he is secretly part of Reans harem... but still!)

But lets move on from this for now...

How very convenient (for Falcom, not the plot, it makes somewhat sense for the plot) that at a time like this, long-distance communication is a problem. And how very irritating that Towa still told mint to keep people at Thors in the loop. How was she supposed to do that, if long-distance contact was impossible?

(Rean narrating what happened in the meantime was so random... but it made sense, no need to prolong the game anymore.) That is so Rean by the way, he does not agree with what Kevin does, but he understands that he cannot question the morality of this, as this is the church's doing and one does not question the church's decision. (One should tho, but I hope Rean will learn that eventually...)

I stand with my question from last time: Why did Towa show up with Crow and not with the Girls? (She likely went to wake him up for whatever reason, as he still looks dead tired... but that seems very unnecessary to me, given that we won't be in a rush until noon.)

I am sorry guys but I am NOT doing the fishing side-mission. I am absolutly fine fucking up my rank because of this. I do not have the time to fish all the fish we have encountered so far (or not, since I wasn't fishing) just to make Rean a fishing god once more ^^' I don't have the patience for that either.

Your words in the Goddess's ears... because I love that boy and have full faith in his strength and abilities and I do NOT see him being a match for her any time soon ^^'

I am glad that he accepts that S-Rank, even tho most of the time, through the Calvard Arc it looked like he preferred to leave the work to Elaine and the ASO instead of doing much himself XD He was always there when needed tho, so we let that slide.

Thats my boy ♥

This day must feel like Christmas to Killika, both of them paying their respects to her father's grave and working together like this is probably a dream come true for her after all these years.

I understand that Towas stamina is not the best and that she isn't the greatest fighter either, so transporting her via Sammy was seemingly the best and safest option, but it totally left them open to attacks way too much, given that Altina can do shit in this position and Towa can't use her gun with her having to hold on so tightly. Bringing Towa gave them a clear and very obvious weak point.

You know... the games makes you think that our biggest hurdle is to beat the Septerion and lift the canopy, but clearly what happens afterwards will be far worse. Which is likely why everyone is preparing for it. They missed the "soft reset part" in their plans, but better be prepared in case the impossible is actually possible, I guess. But after we beat whatever kind of Diving-Knight-Copy the new Septerion is... what can come that we will clearly need the Heroes from Erebonia to make it through?

I always thought Altinas reaction in that scene was way too overdramatic. She acted like Rean was running into what could be his certain death but despite everything... there was no reason to believe Yun planned to kill Rean or that he was in serious danger, especially since Shizuna was not there. She clearly would not mind hurting Rean if the fight is too fun to stop, but I doubt Yun would do the same and I also believe Kurogane is not the type to kill someone who is not a real threat. After all, Rean means no harm here.

Rean doesn't seem concerned at all anyway. He actually looks happy to finally see his master again. By sweet pretty boy ♥

These were harsh words from a master Rean cherished so much, so I somewhat get Altinas and Fies reaction, but Rean was never one to not understand the situation or the implication behind such words. Chosing Rean to become the weapon against the black god was clearly a gamble, seeing how he was back then, how long it took him to gain the confidence and strength to see himself worthy and able to be what he is now and do what he is finally capable of. And Rean understands that and honestly, so should anyone who knew him back then. (And it wouldn't surprise me if a glimpse into past loops would actually prove Ka Fai right, by showing us that most of the time, Rean was failing for one reason or another...)

I feel like Bergard beeing so out of place among my people is not just because of his lack of costume. The game benches him throughout the whole game, even tho he should be the strong and wise mentor. He was not there in the second game either. I thought it was do to the fact that we added Swin and Nadia to the team and just got way too many people or had a lack of rooms BUT with Shizuna and Renne and Elaine constantly shiming in, I think the team already is bigger than in Daybreak two AND Paulette has offered a room for Jorda even tho in the part of the building that Van is in, there is no free room available. So it clearly is not like there would have been a problem with adding another room for Swin and Nadia even with Bergard there. I wonder what they were thinking when adding the dead man if they had no idea what to do with him after the first game?

I am so done playing this for today but I just want to finish this chapter. One chapter per day is the best way to go at this with my timelimit an all. There should be roughly 5 chapters left after this. So I could make it with around 9 days left that I could actually play something else if I do it like that.

Its interesting to see how both Bergard and Van took the attack for Aaron, but only Van is on the ground while the old man is still standing strong. How inhuman are his powers actually?

How old is she planning to get? O.o

Trails through Daddy-Issues is actually the secret true name of the Trails-Series XD We either have no Daddy or a problematic situation/relationship with our Daddy, there is hardly ever any in between when it comes to active Trails-cast-members XD

Oh, looks like Agnes is comfortably sitting next to Van again after giving Renne the passenger seat on the way here. Surely giving Van some comfort that she clearly didn't do that to avoid proximity after his rejection of her feelings.

He did not just say this! Blasphemy! The freaking fucking cube itself should fall on him for that! (How did the censorship even allow that? XD)

I totally forgot that that backstabbing bastard already shows up here. I thought he would only come to get Agnes after this ordeal.

I do love how ever since the first Calvard game where Van and Rene were still at odds and even now when we are at odds yet again, these two always great each other with a high five XD How am I supposed to take your anger at him seriously if you always act like best pals, guys? (I hope the next high five René gets its with a fist in his damn face from Van for what he pulled with them in order to help Agnes do what she did - and I DO get it was necessary because all involved teams fucked things up gloriously and we were far too late to do anything but wait for the reset and that no one of our people would have aided with Agnes plannes for the soft reset and SOMEONE had to do it but... still... he deserves a fist in his face. Like Rufus did back then. Man was that satisfying to watch XD

*achem* Back to the problems at hand...

Which is that Agnes knew that this was the last time she would fight alongside Van and the ASO. I wonder how it must have felt like to know that this is basically the last time she works with the people she learned to love and care for so much in the past year.

This was such a great scene and I loved the teamwork between Cao and Aaron. They might not have been friends (who would be friends with this cunning, scheming little bastard anyway?) but they did grow up together so it makes sense that they can work together like that without even talking. I guess that makes total sense, but seeing it in action was really great.

What final phase? You all seems to know whats coming so there is nothing to prepare for, you are all going to be soft-resetted alongside everyone else and according to the rules of that (I ASSUME that these are the rules, otherwise way more people should know about the resette coming...) none of you should even know that the reset happened or what the fuck you did wrong in order to fix whatever the final phase was supposed to do. SO WHAT FINAL PHASE?!

Last time I started with Kevin and I wanted to kill Altina for calling at the worst moment in Trails-History so I thought I should do Van first as his story isn't that loaded with "final" - feelings, even tho it has the word in it. HOWEVER... I need a fucking break from the ASO especially know I will be stuck with them for the rest of the game as soon as Reans and Kevins routes are finished. So we start out with Rean, then do the ASO chapter and finish it gloriously with Kevin in Creil... or what is left of it. And then... the game will be over soon enough.

In any case... before I close this game for today, lets take a look at the names of those chapters. Reans is relatively easy. "Where the heavens turn" was the place mentioned in Yuns letter. However... what weird wording is this? Why do the heavens turn there? I would understand "burn" because of the rocket launch and the missles. I would understand "Where the heaven gets pierced" once again because of the missles and the rocket. But I seriously things "heavens turn" sounds rather odd. ALSO I always wondered if Shizuna knew that fighting against Rean before the soft reset was pointless, as even if he would SOMEHOW win against her and find whatever his true Sword is supposed to be, there would have been no time left to use it to "pierce the heavens" or whatever he is supposed to do with that thing. That would of course mean she knew about the soft reset coming as well as its timing. So she decided to be with her beloved Van and have a little fun instead because fighting Rean for all the right reasons with a useless outcome would be boring as hell ^^' (In the end its just Falcom prolonging that fight so people would return for the next game to see their babyboy SOMEHOW beat that damn demon spawn XD)

Next is "The Final Lie" which very likel refers to what Agnes did. HOWEVER why the "final lie" that would suggest a whole lot of lies. I can not rember much of this chapter to be honest, so maybe there are more lies hidden in that one, but if it does refer to Agnes, then we should seriously consider how many lies our girl has told us since the first game while constantly beeing pissed at Van for doing the same thing for the exact same reason.

Kevins routes name is the most curious for me. "Songs my mother taught me" is the title of the memory where Dominique walks into Sheenas house. The title would lead you to assume that Sheena somewhat adopted and raised Dominique after that and such she called her her "mother" and later sang the songs Sheena taught her. HOWEVER Dominique is not in fact in this chapter at all, as she is at this point with Agnes. So there are two options left: For some reason they used the title here, because the Song Hamillton sings to honor Creil was taught her by Sheena as well and she might to had been some sort of mother figure for her, for all we know, she was young enough to somewhat at least be happy about having a motherfigure, even tho she was already an adult at the time. OR the title is used since the "mother" as in Sheena has her cameo in that chapter... but that would be rather sneaky XD

I have 13 days to finish this game and I will force my way through it, even tho I do not feel like playing it at all. Lets hope I can make this a bit quicker somehow.

Right. A forced ASO-Chapter was next. Wonderful...

I would have started with them anyway, so I shouldn't feel too frustrated about it.

In anye case, spoilers ahead as per usual! This will be the last chapter where we still have Agnes in our team. (And I still haven't gotten the Z1 outfits for anyone but Shizuna. Damn it!)

I'd love to tell you what they are currently talking about and what my own theories are about all this. But I have no freaking idea what they are talking about ^^' I only understood the basicas of those bio-nano-machine thingys and the only thing I got from the Vestiges part of the conversation at the moment is that the way they teleport is not normal and apparently... uh... when they do teleport, they stop existing in our dimension for a moment or something like that? (But wouldn't that make Jordas little shadow-trick immpossible to pull? There is no way her shadow just managed to follow them to... whatever place they vanished to in those moments.)

"Final farewell"? Who of you is dying? O.o Or were the translators just a bit overdramatic here? ^^' (Or is that implying that the Roaring Lion actually only "survived" his supposed death, because he still has one final mission to fulfill? You know... like he is some kind of ghost with unfinished business or something? O.o)

Well... that should theoretically speaking take care of my Z1 Outfits problem (I hope) but uh... this will also stunt my progress for today.

I love you Rean but your tendency to bond with people over (non-)fishing is... weird ^^'

Well, he is (almost) everyone's darling boy for a reason. Glad even you can see his charm. (And also glad that it isn't enough to get you were most of the fandom would have loved to have you 2 games ago or so XD)

He said he listend to a radio interview Towa gave (about working woman... never really thought that was an issue in Erebonia...) either shortly before or after the war but... would't that be like mere months after he supposedly died? So while Gaius was forced to take his place and responsibility, believing he was at fault for his master dying, he had the time to listen to the radio? The guts of that man...

She may not be blond... but I think I still make her an honorary member of my infamous "blond angels" anyway. We just call that rose-colored hair "strawberry blond" and the problem is solved ;P That would make her member number 6. (After Olivert, Alisa, Alfin, Tita and of course Agnes.) She deserves it. She is one of the best.

I didn't get ANY Z1 Outfits despite like 300 tries. BUT this is certainly an interesting one I may or may not use for a while just for fun XD

Oh... since... when do I have that? ^^'

(OPS! Apparently I already have all the Z1 Outfits for the girls ^^')

I may or may not had was too much fun with this XD

The Speach-bubbles will go when the plot gets serious of course, but the outfits will stay until the final chapter XD

Its time for some bonding events... I am not really in the mood and we are waisting way too much time here, but we gotta do, what we gotta do.

We LITERALLY live with a former Dominion and are somewhat close acquaintances with two other and no one ever thought of this before? Really, Falcom?

Why would they refuse to show us that word? It should be something like "Dad" or so, right? Why refuse to allow us to know she speaks to her father?

Granny is also a forbidden word? Geez! Its not like we can not guess it already.

(You know... it just hit me that, if the waitress from the Café is her grandmother, then there must be another grandmother as well, meaning we could still have Risette be the fucking grandchild of Zin and Killika or whatever XD Wouldn't that be fun?)

We do not learn much from this flashback, but certainly too much for this connect-event to be optional. (Why must Falcom always do this?)

So we do know that Risette likely lived with her grandmother and what I presume to be her father. There could still be other left that we just do not see in this flashback, but I feel like the likely indication is that any other family member is dead. ALSO her reaction to "real monstermeat" seems to indicate some issues with food. The word "real" either indicates that they usually eat "artificial" (as in chemically produced) monstermeat OR they actually eat meat from the bio-nano-machines, which would indicate that they either hunt for them or wait for them to die and then take their meat. Given the reaction to the attack, it doesn't feel like "hunting them" is really an option tho. Risettes supposed father said to hide and he would keep them at bay put the picture suggest it were 3 of them and even IF he is a strong fighter, hunter, bracer or whatever it is very unlikely that he could handle 3 monsters. So why did he tell them to hide instead of running? Did he believe they would be satisfied by just killing him? What if he got infected, at we could see that this is clearly an option. ALSO was that the attack that basically "killed" Risette? Then who "saved" her by putting her inside that thing? Because with 3 monsters roaming around, it seems unlikely that her grandmother or her father survived. (Then again... I was theorizing that those pots weren't meant for surival, but for preservation until she can be turned into a Nano-Machine herself or something like this.)

Questions! So. Many. Questions.

Before I saw this connect-event, I thought Quatre's body looked the way it usually does and that he just has... very small breasts he may hide well with certain ways one can hide their breasts with. I didn't think there was much more to it, despite knowing his body's situation. But its clearly not that easy.

However... he is quite pretty as a girl isn't he?

It is actually even more complicadet that I thought. I assumed he actually does have a female body and some medicine is taking care of his body producing more male hormones or whatever but his body changes when he is in stress-mode within a short amount of time even tho usually it is more male than female. The "stabalizer" works to prevent this "stress reaction" and isn't some "testosteron pill" or whatever. Geez, thinks are never easy with the ASOs situations, are they?

Damn, even his stamina is weaker. (I do not like the indication that if his body was female he would be physically weaker, but lets hope they didn't mean that and only meant that those quick changes in his body are causing the weakness...)

I wonder if a body with more female hormones would react differently to the protection and the body-contact than a body with more male hormones? After all it is said woman are more cuddly and like bodycontact more. PLUS... we are kinda weak for protective man, aren't we? ^^'

This side mission started out really lame but ended up being really wholesome and emotional.

I think my team looks really nice today XD

This is what I have been playing the last 2 weeks or so. Moonlight Peaks. Really interesting Farming game that I got giften by my two friends who wanted to cheer my up after the last months have been hell for me.

As you know, I was grieving my dog and dealing with guilt about the question if I could have saved her if I had done anything differently. (While guilt is part of the phases of grief, please guys, as harsh as it sounds, trying to figure out what you could or should have done differently in order to have a different outcome is stupid, because the past is the past and you can not change it, no matter how much you regret it! Feeling guilty won't bring back whoever you have lost! Don't torture yourself any more than the natural process of griving is asking for!) Meanwhile, my job was forcing me to work with complicated people and difficult clients under harsh circumstances as I got kind of kicked out of what was supposedly mine. (Its too complicadet to explain, but lets say I have been the leader of a "team" withing my "company" for some time and had constantly endured my boss switching out whatever team member I was working with after some time and it ended with me losing my part as the "leader" of that team and ultimativly getting send to a different team, with someone else taking over my team shortly before "the end of a project". So to speak. I work in a kindergarten, but this was the easiest way to explain it for people who don't work in this job.) A few weeks after my dog died and with the chaos at work still being in progress, my mother suffered a stroke, thankfully a light one, but it was still scary as hell and lead to me battling my anxiety like 24/7 as I was constantly terrified of the thought of my mother dying, even tho in itself she recovered relatively well and fast. Its been a few weeks now and I can still not bring myself to turn off my phone at night like I used to, because I am terrified of my mother having another stroke and trying to call me for help - even tho she would never do that, she would have died of that stroke if not for a neighbor seeing her and noticing the signs. So I went from mostly out of the worst of the grieving process, straight into a state of constant worry and panic, to a point were I now have to tell myself that I have no right to tell my mom how to live her life, just because I want her to live longer and have to constantly remind myself that her not answering a message within a certain amoubt of time does not have to mean something happened to her. Its a work in progress I tell you. And with my mom barely out of the hospital I got the worst news at work. I have to work with a colleague again, that was been bullying me for one and a half years to a point were my depression got really bad. I had a full out panic attack at work, was crying and hyperventilating after finding out and yet my boss thinks that can all be fixed by just talking to each other nicely.

So this is what I've been up to the past weekends when I was not playing Horizon. As you can see, I am still in need of cozy games that allow me to relax. My live is still... in a lot of chaos. I am still grieving, dealing with guilt and work just sucks so much with all the chaotic stuff going on there and the people I work with are being... well... very difficult at the moment. My day to day life on a weekday is waking up, getting ready for work, taking care of my beloved cats, going to work, working, going home from work, beeing forced to do whatever keeps me away from actually doing something for me, come home, feed the cats, take a bath and go to bed and rinse and repeat. So naturally on the weekends all I want is to sit infront of my PC and rot there while playing cozy games. Leaving my flat not as clean as it should be and me frustrated with myself about the fact. So yeah... currently I do not find it in me to play ANY non-cozy game. However on the 22 of July my almost 3 weeks of Summer-Holidays finally start and I fully intend to finish Horizont before I leave for my yearly trip to the beach around two weeks later.

So that we are ready for September when... we have a problem.

Anyone who plays games and does not live under a rock has somewhat had the opportunity to find out the amazingness that the last(?) weekend was. Everyone and their mother announced their games or gave them trailers or release dates and I think I have NEVER had so many happy gamers on my timeline. The only Franchise with a BIG announcement everyone was exited about that was missing was Falcom as per usual. But they were there so... yeah.

However... among many other things, one thing that was announced was that the new Fire Emblem Game is coming out the freaking same day as Trails in the Sky SCR. Which was not on my Bingo Card for this year, that much is for sure ^^'

So obviously there are two questions to tackle. The first one is, the obvious question if I should play the new Fire Emblem game, given that I am still 2 routes away from finishing 3 houses and the new game COULD potentially be some sort of sequel to it. But if you think that this will stop me, then you clearly do not know me.

So the more important question is what I will play first. However... Trails has and will always come first and foremost. Even in case of this Remake. Clearly I am looking forward hating on Kevin, complaining about Joshua, waiting for chapters 5 and 6, wondering how I ended up wishing Gilbert would come back and then complain about the fact that this game dragged on for waaaaay too long. So yeah. Trails in the Skys Remake of the Second Chapter will come first. I do roughly plan on finishing it not later than Christmas, so that if I wish to, can switch over to the new Fire Emblem game.

Now... the next Elephant in the room is the upcoming year, because it is very likely jam packed with games I want to (or have to in case of a certain FF-Game...) play. How will I aproach that mess?

Once again, the golden Rule is Trails comes first. ALWAYS. So whenever Kai 2 comes out, I will play it immediately. No matter what game I have started beforehand and not finished yet. Ideally, I will try not to start any big game shortly before Kai 2 comes out. I am pretty sure it will come out around fall, but I could be wrong, so that means I can not exactly plan around its release until we have a definite release date.

That said, the plan for now is to start the new gaming year with Persona 4 Remake. I loved this game (golden) so much when I played it for the first time. Royal ended up beeing better, but P4G was much better for me than Vanilla P5 was and so I am looking forward to the remake and do plan on playing it on release (if Kai doesn't come out in Spring, that is. Starting P4R like 4 weeks before Kai comes out would be fucking stupid.)

FF7R3 is... not very high on my priority list to be honest. I originally wasn't even planning on playing it, because I hated the two other games. HOWEVER I do feel like somehow I just have to finish the Trilogie myself. So I WILL force myself through the last game somehow... but I just haven't decided yet when, certainly not upon release because I will either play P4R by then or prepare for Kai coming out soon. Honestly I am not unhappy about the Clerith shippers on my timeline finishing first so I can see if there is ANYTHING in this game that I can actually look forward to or not.

We have to see the possibility of the following games that I want to play coming out next year as well:

The new Pokemon Game

Kingdom Hearts 4

Persona 6

(I feels like I have forgotten a very important game but I can not remember which one that could be as I am not a Zelda-Player O.o)

So... Pokemon might not take too long, but Kingdom Hearts and Persona are high-maintenance games that will take A LOT of time to finish. Meaning that even if they come out with 3 months between them (tho I would assume they both aim for fall as well...) its absolutly impossible to play both upon release and that is assuming I have finished P4R and/or Kai by then. IF of course, they release around the same time as Kai 2 (which would be really bad for Falcom. IF Kai 2 gets a worldwide release they will have it rough. Its already somewhat a bad idea releasing the game next year with all those triple A-Game releases. Not that I want to wait another year. Hell no. We've waited long enough!) then Kai 2 will come first or course. If not... I guess I will make it that whoever releases their game first will be the lucky winner.

You know Nina, if you can do this, why do you send Kevin to do your dirty work instead of killing Hamilton yourself? (I hate how she is connected to Rufina, because she is clearly not truly a good person.)

You are very lucky Lapis. I can imagine woman swooning at just the idea that Rufus Albarea is princess-carrying them XD

So... you are planning to do something the church will be pissed about? Lovely.

And with that, part one of act 3 is completed and done and over with. Hurray! We are getting closer to finally finishing this game.

IF I remember correctly, we have two Chapters in Ankor-Ville left. One with Rean. One with Kevin. And then... uh... one more with Van I think. Still a lot, if you look at it like that. Especially if they drag on as much as this one. The pacing of this chapter overall was really bad by the way. All the dungeons and fighting was mostly at the end of the chapter, the rest was boring walking and talking and some of the shittiest kinds of minigames since Final Fantasy 7R2.