Trails into Reverie Accomplishes the Impossible! - Review - Tarks Gauntlet 

Hey guys. Sorry I've been gone for a billion years, but I wanted to make sure I caught up on the trails reviews before Kuro releases. I also made a second channel while I was gone. A place I could upload random crap to and still feel like I'm accomplishing things. Link to that in the description if you want more Tarks. See you all again in 2 weeks! The next 3 months of content is all ready to go so I won't disappear again for at least that long!

Your back!!! Long live the Gauntlet 🧤

I'm actually glad they gave you a break from all the sidequests in Reverie. After CS4 where I just wanted it to end already I started getting really burnt out on sidequests. It really gave me the energy back to tackle Daybreak fully with all its content, and that game ended up becoming one of my favorites

The true legend of heroes is the vids Tark uploads along the way

glad to see an upload from you :) can't wait to watch tomorrow!

I'm definitely in the camp of not knowing anything about this franchise and do not have the drive or will to ever play catch up on it, but I DID enjoy this video and wanted to support your return to RU-vid stuff!

8 months? WTF man! Glad you back

Good to see you're doing well! Your channel got me interested in the Trails series with your Sky and Coldsteel review videos from years ago and since then I've finished all the games and it's quickly become one of my favorite series. Looking forward to your thoughts on the next game as well.

Glad to see everything is going well enough and making a comeback 😊😊

Welcome back, good to see your return to youtube. I completed Reverie in February of this year, and loved it. With regards to the divisive two endings of CS 4, I think a lot more about that will be uncovered in Calvard. A lot of theory-crafting has been churning in the works since CS 4's initial release, and one of the major issues with the true ending has been solved: how did the characters get a "second chance" anyway? I don't want to spoil this, so all I'll say is that the solution is in the cover art for Reverie. I liked the Cold Steel series, and I really loved CS 4. They call trails the "MCU of JRPGs" and coming from a heavy comic book background myself, I think that really helps one to understand what trails is going for. In trails, things are hyper-connected and it makes sense, it's just that sometimes, you have to wait five games for before a plot point you saw in one game finally gets an explanation in another. This is a common feature of comic book story-telling, where a long-running series will wait years to explain something. The trick, as a fan, is telling whether it was incredible creative vision or extreme laziness. They can look remarkably similar, and it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. Anyway, welcome back! Looking forward to watching more of your videos over the next few months!

I only just finished Sky SC last night so ill be tapping out of this review, but here is a comment for the algorithm. Welcome back!

That was beautiful and deep poetry. Now I can’t wait for Nayuta. Glad to see your content again, brother.

8:20 From what I hear from news on the most recent game, it seems like Falcom is experimenting and having Kai (which will apparently be the finale of the Calvard arc.) use the Reverie structure to avoid the pitfalls Cold steel 2 and 4 had in terms of pacing.

HolySh- i missed your reviews very hard. Im glad you are okay. Blessings for your family and friends.

Nice work

This also reminds me I need to go back and finish it since I just launched the attack to retake crossbell

yeah in terms of combat Reverie is easily the most broken in the player's favor because of over-the-years power creep. There's always the usual popular choices coming back like making evade tanks, delay spam, art nukes, etc. But I had fun with some characters creating setups outside of the usual picks. Had a guaranteed-win Altina solo setup where she had the capacity to 100% upkeep her own stealth and cast arts in between re-application so she'd never be targetted and keep on chipping enemies. With Erda MQ and Caliburn/Beowulf side she never had issues with having the CP/EP to keep going even around midgame. On the other side I had 0-damage Tita. Evading attacks is the popular choice but why dodge if you know the attack won't even hurt you if it does. I had optimized her tankiness so hard that a +100 endgame nightmare boss had wiped everyone else but her with its strongest move, leaving her at like 70% health and then proceeded to have the next 10 turns before I could act and Tita had more health at the end of those turns than at the start. Don't gotta worry about S-Crafts or arts that either can't be dodged all of the time or ignore evade, don't gotta worry about an attack canceling any craft/art guard, don't even gotta worry about having any protection up. Oh yeah and she had nearly 100k Health. I could choose to do nothing ever and she still wouldn't die. (that was a problem once when I was trying to game over a boss fight to redo something I missed early in the game XD)

Bro this is so funny I literally was comparing reverie to knife of dreams with one of my friends

Watching this even tho i just started cold steel 4 last week

I really need to play catch-up on the Kiseki games. I've fallen way behind. I only ever finished Cold Steel I and II and played a small chunk of Zero before I trailed off to something else. I enjoy them, it's just a series that requires alot of dedication lol! Welcome back by the way. Always enjoy hearing your insight on games dude.

TARK IS BACK LET'S GOOOOOO! That said, uh, shelving this video to the Watch Later list til I get caught up on Trails xD

Possibly my favourite Trails so far, with CS3 a close second. So much hype and great moments. Also hard disagree on Blade being better than Vantage Masters.

There's actually only one song that's actually a remix of a song from Ys 1/2 that plays in the SSS building if you turn on the radio in Randy's room if i recall.

I think we all love the technical asspects

A Wheel of Time analogy! Had to happen sometime. Both very long series stretched out over a single continent aimed at one main antagonistic force... Also I don't know about the others, but Crossroads of Twilight, yeah... absolutely nothing happens in the plot until the last page. Literally. The Cold Steel games weren't quite that bad. I actually liked their slow pacing, even if I wish CSIV had more excitement. I just disliked... other things about them. But Reverie was a great game, that I can agree 100%. The odd slightly trashy moment, but a brilliant high-concept, interesting adventure overall.

My biggest disappointent in Reverie is the Lloyd section. It's not necessarily bad, but it definitely was the weakest of the 3. It is pretty much just a repeat of Ao's last chapters after separation. There are some good moments like McBurn fight but aside from that? Not too many.

I wanna watch the vid......but I'm still on Cold Steel 3...

I want to say maybe in this decade will never get to this game cuz I start jrpgs slow but one day I’ll come back to this. Happy to See You Back !

This being made like sky the 3rd made this game soooo much fun to play. None of the padding that cold steel had and man this is how allll gatcha systems should work in every game. Glad to see ya back taurks

You have a 2nd channel since 3 month? Why didn't you mentioned that in a community post here?

I stopped after CS2, and also played Trails in the sky through the Third. This video may inspire me to push forward 🔥

I've only played cold steel 1-4 and I think that is only requirements. By the end of 4 they have beat the story bush to death and u know what's happened and happening. In fact 4 was my least favorite 187hr out of the rest. It just dragged too long. I'm on ch1 of reverie now myself

I disagree with everyone who says that you can't enjoy the Trails of Cold Steel series unless you have played previous ones. The only Trails game that I have ever played is Trails of Cold Steel IV on my Switch OLED. I'm only around 22 hours into the game, and I like it a lot even though at times I don't understand what's going on. In fact, I like it so much that I am thinking about getting this game and other entries in the series for my PS5. That's why I am watching this review. I haven't made up my mind yet though because I still have a backlog of 20 games on my Switch including Trails of Cold Steel IV that I have to beat, around 30 games on my Series X to beat, and around 25 on my PS5. That's my problem. I always buy a ridiculous amount of games for all three of my systems, fall in love with 2-3 games from each system, and never get around to playing or beating the other ones. I love turn-based jrpgs more than other games though, and that's why I am thinking of getting this game for my PS5 once I finish some of the games in my backlog.

I really need to get back to reverie and finish it. I played the very beginning but then got burnt out cuz i played 3 and 4 back to back and needed a little break.

Thank you for bluring that Charakter 👍 Hope the next trails Game will be even better

I recent years it feels like square Enix has passed on the leadership role of the JRPG genre to both atlus and falcom, we went from dragon quest and final fantasy being the two best JRPG series to now persona and trails being the two best

I couldn't finish CS4 because I was tired of the pacing issues. I did get a plot synopsis of the ending. Is it worth giving TIR a try? I don't want to be burnt again.

I actually miss the divine knight battles was hoping they stayed to mix things up with Soldats

I will say I started to see cracks in the story with two things I am no going to spoil here. I still have faith as long as they don't double down on these two things for future stories.

Reverie it's SOOO GOOD! I am now at the final chapter playing it right now and I am just blown away, easy top 3 best Trails together with Azure and Sky SC.

Pog

I watched this it seemed very light on spoilers other than maybe some party members eh I guess? Anyhow I think I pretty much liked every Cold Steel game less than the one before (with the exception of 2 I loved that one). But by the time I finished Cold Steel 4 I was just so fucking sick of this series. I thought I never wanted to play a Trails game again. Enough time has passed where I am more intrigued at giving this a shot. I like the idea of the Reverie corridor, I just wish it would go on a deeper sale on PSN. I think I am up for it now but not so much I want to spent 44-60 dollars.

just beat this game for the 2nd time the other day - easily one of my favorites from the entre trails saga

Maybe it's because I tend to not look too deeply into the story or disect every bit I come across, but for me Reverie felt like the nice to have, but rather unnecessary part. I played it shortly after release and I also went for the platinum, so this may have also played a part here, but to me it felt like it way, WAY overstayed its welcome with all the minigames and stuff.

Ive literally played all the games except the crossbell saga somehow and i mean all even kuro 1 and 2 my backlog is immortal

Well, I guess to start, welcome back Tarks to the RU-vid landscape. You have been missed. Anyways, I kind of feel bad whenever "Trails" gets brought up. The fanbase, for better or for worse, is clearly very passionate about it and I constantly hear about the series no matter what corner of the internet I go to, damn near every day almost at that. Of the handful of Japanese RPG channels I follow, or even just know about, pretty much all of them love the series. You all put so much praise and high regard in damn near every entry...yet here I am not only thoroughly disinterested in it but borderline disliking it even. I've tried to get into "Trails" a couple times now but it's never ended well. Played two of the other "Legend of Heroes" games from the "Gagharv" trilogy, "A Tear of Vermillion" and "Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch" if you must know, and didn't like them at all. Though I'm told they don't count...despite still being tangentially related apparently? I even tried watching an LP for "Cold Steel" from a channel I used to follow (Revis Dumas, doesn't exist anymore) and was completely disinterested. Not to mention some anime adaption or spin-off from not too long ago that I tried and then dropped in two episodes. I often joke about this but it really does feel like a case where I grew up playing and appreciating the wrong games. To be so completely unable to get into something apparently so amazing, all cause I prefer these lesser games instead. It feels like I'm missing out.

I was disappointed with the Crossbell route - it felt like a replay of the duology because no real growth or arcs, but I absolutely loved C's route. It was a fun game. (I still haven't played Sky)

SPOILERS BELOW!! While I do understand people who dropped the series after Cold Steel 4 because of it's various issues, I myself have my laundry list of problems with the direction of the narrative, I'm of the opinion that Reverie saves the Cold Steel arc JUST ENOUGH to not make me drop the series entirely. The biggest thing that immediately salvages Reverie is simply the complete toning down of the Cold Steel harem nonsense. The fact that this game had three separate but interconnected stories to tell meant that Falcom could not waste a single ounce of space with Rean and his harem insanity beyond one off lines from Musse or Alisa. The thing that made this game worth playing is that of the big mystery of what the hell is happening, how is Rufus out of prison and why is he doing this, and the other oddities occuring. It felt like a return to form to some extent. Also, the C route definitely adds to the mystery and intrigue of what this story is trying to tell. All in all, Reverie was pretty fantastic as a closing game for the Western Zemuria saga and I'm interested to see where Kuro takes the story.

HE’S BACK aaaaand I can’t watch because I’m still behind on Trails games ….

Lapis is just "& friends"? If anything, she's the one character truly necessary, the actual protagonist. Saying any more might be spoilers.

5th game with this engine?? Then why did cold steel 1 & 2 feel so different from 3,4 and reverie? 3, 4 and reverie feel like the same engine but 1 & 2 feels completely different

Meh. Reverie was... fine. I've played all the games leading up to it (Sky Trilogy, Crossbell, and all 4 Cold Steel games) and while I had already been losing interest/faith in the series during CS 3 and 4, Reverie sort of was the final nail in the coffin. From the absolute inundation with mini games to the still ongoing waifu mechanics, from the way they make Ouroboros into more and more mustache twirling Batman villains, to the constant revivals and fake-outs - I'm getting to a point where it's hard to take the story seriously anymore. The Sky games were amazing, a breath of fresh air. Female protag in a JRPG, the ending of Sky 1 being an absolute gut punch, the expert foreshadowing, character writing and world building...oof! Such great games! Then, Crossbell. With its socio-political themes, making the connection from Sky to Crossbell via Ouroboros, the small-scale story that turns out to be world-shatteringly important. And absolutely loveable characters once again. Nothing falcom did afterwards ever really compared to these two arcs. Cold Steel's first two games were ok, a breath of fresh air, a totally different perspective, as the naive, patriotic students realize "hey... are we the baddies?". That was a great moment. The school setting was fine for laying the groundwork of world building and giving the characters that naivety only teenagers have. And then, sadly, CS 3 happened. I guess i didn't like the direction of the characters and how Ouroboros turned out to be largely all talk... and it got worse in 4. Yes, the scope was epic, but it also felt kind of forced and a lot of moments and plot threads felt repeated. And Reverie, as a finale, kind of like Sky 3, was fine. If you don't take it too seriously. I'm not a huge fan of swin and nadia... I'll have to see how Kuro pans out for me when it releases... but yeah. "A few scuffs" is putting it mildly. But maybe it's just not for me anymore.