Genre: RPG.
Release date: 26-9-2024.
Alright feels like its almost tradition for me to play a falcom game in september every year...
and I kinda feel old when I realize i've been at this for over 10 years.
There's a lot to think about but I tried to go into this game with very little expectations
but honestly it was hard, it seems falcom really pushed this a certain way and tried to get
old fans to come back for it because it promised a lot.
**I feel like I need some permanent disclaimer that this is just a blog where I ramble
about games I play, a place to write some thoughts on the wall. If you don't like it
then close the tab, you can always play it yourself and form your own opinion.**
Pro's
- Rean route and Kevin's route were great.
- Grimgarten is kinda fun actually.
- Storywise it really delivered... and a lot of things makes sense now.
Con's
- Van's route was a slowburn and just boring compared to the rest.
- Maybe not make characters unplayable in grimgarten if they joined up prior.
- Gameplay balance is weird; its either easy or made to make your life miserable.
-
Anyway on to the game itself! it is structured similarly like reverie and there's a new and
improved marchen garten but with a twist if ouroborous decided to mess with it. OK I guess...
its like snake gang improved the original. Whenever I had to go in there for the story(early on)
it wasn't really interesting. Some of the events may've been amusing in there, however it still felt
like it was but an after thought. It seems they can't let go of gacha mechanics so that's there as well.
Grim Garten is just a grind dungeon where you can freely decide who to play as but sadly there's
some exceptions depending where you are during the story. I am grateful to the gacha gods for
gifting me Risette's black dress and some accesorries as well as Rion's bath towel.😅
Combat is pretty much the same as the kuro games except with improvements
so I won't be going into that, newly improved so it doesn't get stale I guess.
at times; to try and make it more movie-like. Falcom sure has improved with this.
Music was pretty good, I loved the OP and I always listened to it when I booted up the game
except for when I took a short break to do whatever like chores. The final dungeon theme
this time was amazing and I loved it, like you just knew this was it!
 |
| I liked how everyone was covering each others eyes in this scene LMAO. |
Things I enjoyed were mostly the little things like character interactions as shown above
and it was great when the main story actually progressed but depending on the route
I found it varied heavily and not every route was as great as the other.
Some parts were a bit of a slog especially early on not much happened.
 |
| Dog aggro is serious business, Van's a real magnet. |
The prologue was kind of exciting but things calmed down quick for a bit in chapter 1, honestly
it was like a reintroduction to everything I still knew & then some. I know my memory is not
great but its not that bad, I struggled to keep playing during those parts. I know all games
have their boring or slow moments but at times it could seem they focus too much on small
matters to stall or kill time till something happens that requires immediate attention
till then you focus on doing random requests so Van doesn't go out of business
which is what most of Van's route felt like which was not great.
 |
| Damn he wastes no time... huh? |
It took me 50-60 hours to finish the game and the reason for that was mostly
because I did side quests so chapter 1 took me like 15 hours, maybe i'm slow but when
I closed the game I saw the completion at 40% in ps5 menu I was shocked because not much
of note had happened really, thankfully it picked up from then on in the different routes.
If I had to rank them it would be Rean > Kevin > Van.
 |
| Hello good sir, this is a no smoking zone. |
I did however stop doing sidequest during ch3, because I felt like it was time to get back
on track with no distractions. Had I skipped sidequest ands just focused on the plot then...
I think I would be done a lot sooner.
TL;DR while I don't think Kai is a bad game, it can be very enjoyable however I think
Van route just spins it wheels for too long while we get big reveals elsewhere till we finally
get the bang for our buck with Van but at that point it is the end which sure was something.
I'll recommend this game to long time trails fans but if you're new to the series
this is not the place to be, there's lots of games you could try first but Kai is not one of them.
More ramblings after the jump but there's some complain'o-jutsu
but I feel like I should get it across that I generally enjoyed the game!
