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THE LEGEND OF HEROES HAJIMARI NO KISEKI Free Download GAMESPACK.NET While the official localization of Trails into Reverie isn’t set for release until 2023, a dedicated team of fans took on the challenge of making a spreadsheet translation available for the game. Huge props to Kitsune and the Zero Field team for their work on the Haji spreadsheet! A very impatient Trails fan, I ended up caving when the Japanese Steam version of the game, Hajimari no Kiseki, launched. To those on the fence between waiting for the localization and playing with the spreadsheet and those who are merely looking for an English review alike, here’s my full take on Hajimari no Kiseki! As something of a foreword, I’m something of a Skyboomer with regards to the Trails franchise. I’ve made my distaste of Cold Steel IV abundantly clear before, but I do at least try to give any positive aspects of recent games the time of day in discussion and debate about the series. While I do think Hajimari no Kiseki is something of a return to form or at least a huge step in the right direction, it should be noted that this review is from someone who generally had a bad taste in his mouth through the Cold Steel arc. There will be spoilers ahead, though only one major spoiler will be in this review: the identity of one of the three main protagonists.TOP/BEST ADULT VIDEO GAMES IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)

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Additionally, while I will be referring to the game as Haji, Hajimari, or Hajimari no Kiseki, I will be using the English localized names of past arcs. It felt appropriate to review the game with the title it currently has after all. I think it would be fitting to start with the story of a JRPG, so let’s go with that. The three routes will be discussed individually, then as a collective. C’s identity will not be spoiled in this section, and only my main thoughts will be featured here. Going a bit deeper into things, Lloyd Route starts the player off. Unfortunately, this part of the game is easily the worst to many fans, myself included. The macro story beats are fairly weak overall, what with the independence of Crossbell feeling like a tired trend at this point and odd story decisions from before making a return. Due to shenanigans, the Erebonian Curse is back, and really only affecting Crossbell. The city is sieged by former Governor-General Rufus, the public is against the SSS, and they need to take Crossbell back once again. The problem with this route mostly lies within it feeling rather unnecessary and boring. The route on a whole feels sort of like a retelling of Azure’s highest points but with notably worse context and execution surrounding those events. Characters like Wazy and Randy do get good moments, but the route feels like a weaker retelling of Azure.

THE LEGEND OF HEROES: HAJIMARI NO KISEKI – Sepith Set 1.

An already fairly flawed entry in the series. Rean Route, on the other hand, surprised me consistently in its quality. If I had to shorten my thoughts, it’d be that Rean Route is the best of Cold Steel without the worst of it. The route does feel fairly par for the course with regards to Cold Steel’s atmosphere, themes, and such, but with better execution throughout. Rean’s arc finally comes to a very, VERY late close, and it still manages to feel fairly well done. Characters present in Rean Route feel appropriate for the situations they’re in and tend to add to the chapters they’re present. I was also surprised at just how… competent, the group felt. Rean and co consistently make reasonable deductions with the information given to them and take actions that feel appropriate and reasonable. On the whole, the route felt like a huge breath of fresh air. Rean’s harem is mentioned much less frequently and many of the characters who only existed to orbit around him get to spread their wings a bit. Pacing, which has been a problem through much of Cold Steel, is pretty good in this route, where only minor parts feel draggy. Rather than a huge world-ending story that couldn’t possibly accommodate the massive cast of Steel, Haji manages to keep the events in Rean Route notably more grounded and allows its cast to shine and patch over some of the admittedly lacking main story details.Lost Castle

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C Route is easily the best part of the game’s story, and it isn’t particularly close either. The Jingo-appointed Picnic Squad acts as one of the most well-woven main casts in the series with a story that feels perfectly paced and consistently thematically appropriate. Much of the route’s charm and intrigue lies within its cast, and as such, I feel it more appropriate to go into my thoughts on the route as a whole in the Characters section. As an aside, though, props to the new writers responsible for the route. It has been said that Haji’s existence allowed Falcom to integrate more of the newer employees into Trails, and if this is the quality they produce, I look forward to their work in the future. On the whole, Haji’s main story is one that I think is… okay. The routes vary in quality but end up rather good on the whole, but this is due mostly to the strength of the cast rather than the story which allows these great moments to happen. It feels like many of the mistakes of Cold Steel III/IV were lampshaded and even addressed in some cases, but it feels like too little too late. Seeing the people turn on the SSS and allowing that to spur character moments is cool! The problem is that it should have happened already, so setting up another Crossbell siege to act as the main stage makes these moments lose impact. Additionally, while the in-game reasoning for the Curse’s return is fine and justifiable within the context of the series.

Gameplay.

it brings the same issues as in Steel. When the Curse is used to spur these events, it reduces accountability on the part of villains or even normal citizenry, and as such it makes events hard to take seriously. Referring to earlier, the Curse shouldn’t be needed to have people be wary of the SSS and their actions; the story already set it up well enough in past arcs for these reactions to be genuine and thus add more impact. This is what I mean when I say the macro story feels like addressing Steel’s problems but in a too little too late sort of way. The content in Hajimari no Kiseki isn’t usually BAD, and the macro plot does allow for great moments to occur, but a questionable foundation and overreliance on Azure’s peak moments keep the story from hitting the Trails standard. I am aware that the story section was SUPER winded, but using that section as a reference will make the rest of this comparatively much shorter. As one can probably guess from the above, I think the characters of Hajimari no Kiseki are fantastic, and generally the best iteration of these characters seen so far. While some irksome moments do exist, such as a continued overfocusing on Rean and Class Vii or the continued romance teasing, the cast feels better than it has since the Crossbell arc, in my opinion.King’s Bounty II

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The SSS members, while surrounded by a rather poor macro plot, actually get good development on the whole. Wazy, Lloyd, and Rixia are highlights of this route, and I can’t complain about characters like Tio or Elie being inoffensive at worst. The cast of Cold Steel on the whole still carries many of the flaws from their past appearances, but many strides have been made to address previous issues. Characters like Juna or Gaius haven’t miraculously been made amazing members of the cast, but many characters have improved throughout Haji. For one, Rean himself has made huge strides in finally feeling like a fully developed, competent protagonist who doesn’t suck the life out of everything around him. While the harem still exists to some degree, characters like Elise manage to develop quite nicely without even mentioning their love for Rean. In another surprising turn, Alisa not once yells her mother or Sharon’s names in embarrassment due to their teasing. Alisa was a character with tons of potential in Cold Steel I, but sort of infamously devolved into a character with little agency or variation despite huge tethers to the plot at large. No preamble, no rambling about everything that I’ve thought about and experienced between my now infamous thoughts on The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV… it simply is not a mistake. Indeed, for all of my problems with that title, I walk away from my time with Hajimari no Kiseki – the Japanese release of Trails into Reverie – pleasantly surprised.

Story.

While it’s still not a perfect game by any means, it’s my humble opinion that the game is perhaps the best overall package that the series has had in close to a decade. After my Trails of Cold Steel IV review, you could be forgiven for thinking that I’d given up on the series. Despite my very real issues with the game, however, I’d always intended to see the story through to its conclusion. Part of that desire was fueled by the sunk cost of powering through 9 long RPGs, and not wanting to give up when I’d already invested so much time. I also have to admit that the response to my Cold Steel IV review, including some ridiculous and unnecessary harassment, also influenced my thinking. I had to see this through. I knew that I’d be getting around to Hajimari sooner or later. Hajimari is not Cold Steel V, despite what some might claim. It’s also not exactly a Cold Steel the 5th, either, though that’s undoubtedly the better comparison. Instead, it’s the epilogue to both Erebonia and Crossbell’s tales. It doesn’t change much in the grand scheme of things, but it offers a certain degree of closure to the characters involved that longtime fans will likely appreciate. The Cross-Story system works well here, allowing players to jump between 3 viewpoints at the push of a button. As a result, the pacing has been tuned to a much brisker pace. I’d go as far as to say that Hajimari’s pacing is probably the best that the series has ever featured.

Character writing has also been much improved. One route in particular – <C>’s route – was handled by staff new to Falcom, and it shows. The new characters of Nadia and Swin have a lovely dynamic that Cold Steel IV’s “3 and 9” could only really allude to. Seeing them in action, alongside Lapis and C, the whole group has perhaps the best chemistry in the series since the Special Support Section, and in some ways, it might even be better. Hard to say at this point, when one group has only been present for less than a 3rd of a game so far, while Lloyd’s group had already been around for 2 and some change. Hajimari’s actual plot is the weakest aspect of the game, but only because of one or two blemishes that honestly don’t hamper the overall package. More importantly, the game’s story features a very clear and strong theme to it all – something that I’ve personally felt the absence of in past series entries. It’s really hard to explain exactly what it is without spoiling some of the game’s key reveals, but the ending resonated with me in a way I hadn’t truly felt from the series in a very long time. Even if in the grand scheme of things Hajimari felt like the series’ plot spinning its wheels a bit, by the end of it all I was genuinely happy that the game’s story happened in the first place. The best way to describe it is that it feels like it’s focused. Where Cold Steel IV was all over the place.

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From beginning to end it felt like the writers and designers of Hajimari no Kiseki had their hands on the wheel and knew precisely where they were headed. The Cross-Story system is used to great effect, and the game generally beats around the bush much less than Cold Steel IV did, even though by the end of the story the cast has ballooned beyond even the number of characters present there. The latest title in the Kiseki series, which marks the story RPG’s 15th anniversary, is now on Steam! The empires of Zemuria have narrowly managed to escape the Great Twilight, a curse that threatened to end the world, thanks to the valiant efforts of those known as heroes. This has resulted in a ripple effect of events that hurtles the series toward its thrilling conclusion. Following the Great Twilight calamity, the three protagonists across the Zemurian continent find themselves drawn together by the thread of fate. Some are heroes, others are liberators, and yet others live as hermits. The cross-story gameplay system allows players to switch between three different characters, depicting the story from separate perspectives within the same timeline. What will the people of Crossbell think of their newfound independence? What will become of an empire which has lost one of its mighty limbs? And what of Ouroboros’ leader, the Grandmaster, and his ominous Eternal Regression Plan?Psychonauts 2

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