I had zero idea that Triangle Strategy was divisive 😮 that game was fantastic

I loved CS4. It never even occurred to me that there would be anyone who didn't.

Wait, people hated Triangle Strategy? That's news to me. I'm right with you on Star Ocean: The Last Hope though, that one gets WAY more hatred than it deserves.

My only issue with Tokyo Mirage Sessions was that the censorship in the west took out just how scathing the game was towards how idols are treated in Japan.

Triangle Strategy, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and Neo: The World Ends With You are all stellar in my mind, so I’m glad to see them get love here. Haven’t played most of the others except for CS4 which is admittedly bottom three Trails games for me, but I’m not super passionate on arguing against it so I can understand your appreciation.

There were some qualms I had with Star Ocean 4, but something I always liked were the level designs and the fact that you actually travel to different planets.

To me, Celceta always was one of the really popular pillars on the Vita and was constantly highly recommended during the heyday of the Vita community. Celceta was custom-made for the Vita and its qHD resolution. Ported to PC and consoles later inevitably took some of the shine off it, I think. It's really built for handheld play, which is why it's so strange that it hasn't come to the Switch - that would be a perfect fit IMO. Just my thoughts on why nowadays it's maybe an underappreciated gem.

Cold Steel IV is my favorite game in the series. It never even registered to me that act 2 was dragging, i was having so much fun. I did not also realise Triangle Strategy was contested in any way, i haven’t come across many actively disliking it. But i guess the ratio of exploring/story content and combat can be a bit skewed for some people.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that enjoyed SO4 and I definitely loved TMS. Blue Reflection and Triangle Strategy are definitely on my to play list

OMG I just finished Memories of Celceta late last night [east coast USA time]!! I really enjoyed my time with this game. The ability to add status effects to your weapons and armor was FREAKING COOL. Ys VIII & IX certainly better but I had fun with Celceta :). Congrats on the big win against Villa. I'm still floating after Arsenal beat Liverpool ;)

CS4 is divisive? that game is amazing!

I played FF13 fairly recently and I loved it. I did not expect to like it as much as I did given its reputation but it was honestly amazing.

I played the remaster of SO4 not so long ago and I was honestly pleasantly surprised. I am not even sure if I agree about the characters, Edge I found to have a solid character arc and growth though I will say there is a few party members that feel pretty "token" and don't really end contributing much. And all the location you visit felt very inspired and varied. I wish we got more JRPGs with a space setting. I think my main issue was mostly the lack of QoL for certain things. Part of the game felt like they had an updated re-release planned like a lot of JRPG back then used to get but they never got to do it due to the reception/sales of the game which is a shame.

CSIV is the only one I've platinumed. I unabashedly love it.

TMS is a fantastic game. I remember people complaining about the dungeons but it was so much more satisfying exploring and figuring out the puzzles compared to most JRPG's nowadays where you run in a straight line and flick a switch every once in a while. I still need to play Triangle Strategy but I think it looks fantastic.

I did enjoy Star Ocean: The Last Hope, probably my second favorite with Star Ocean: Till the End of Time being my favorite (which also has it own issues among the fans). I really did love the combat in Last Hope, I remember it as just being so much fun; however there is no way I can take the main character seriously thanks to his name.

Blue Reflection has a goated soundtrack and one of the best menu designs I've ever seen but I got too bored of the gameplay loop around halfway through

Also, played Blue Reflection on your recommendation. Really enjoyed it. The OST is so good.

I've never quite understood the divisiveness for Star Ocean 4 personally. It's not my favorite JRPG or anything, and I know it definitely had its issues, but I thought it was a fun introduction to the series, and I have nothing but fond memories of it.

I only just noticed that Tokyo Mirage Sessions's acronym is Shin Megami Tensei's backwards 😂 That aside, one thing that did bug me is that the dungeon in Tiki's room was a DLC bonus for the premium edition of the Wii U game and in some parts of my play through I was dependent on the experience boosting I got from that to get through some bosses, especially ones who Itsuki was weak to since he can't be swapped out. That did break the flow and immersion for me, but I did finish it because I wanted to. Also, Memories of Celceta was the game that got me into Ys, and Burning Sword had a similar effect on me as Sunshine Coastline did when I first arrived on Seiren Island in Lacrimosa of Dana.

The things I dislike about TWEWY Neo are that most of the character development didn't happen until the final week which made some of the character interactions feel stale after a while and some of the exposition that would better explain the situation was locked behind in the Secret Files

CS4 and Triangle Strategy are indeed not beloved nearly enough. Both are incredible experiences.

Strong agreement on Star Ocean Last Hope. I replay it every couple years :).

"games others hated". All games on the video that are on steam have higher than 80% approval... There will always be haters, and they are usually louder, but saying players in general hated this games is pushing too far.

Triangle Strategy is One of the best Srpgs/Warstory Games I have ever played. I think it gets overshadowed by Octopath Traveler, because of the similar artstyle, but I still hope we get a sequel

Something that you didn't mention that was one of the biggest complaint of Star ocean 4 (that I remember from back then)it was the character design and stiff animation. Majority of reviews will said "they look like weird dolls".

I hope switch owners can eventually get the first "Blue Reflection" on physical soon!

CS4 is my favorite too, also Triangle Strategy is one of the best SRPG I played. Ys MoC was my entry to the world of Falcom & it's because of it that I love Falcom games to this day, it is one of the best RPGs I played.

I am surprised to see cold steel 4 and Ys4 is are divisive game. I love cold steel 4, it is my fav one of all series and I did like Ys 4, it is not the best one but I do put high on the list. As for other game, I can't put any comment for them, but I could see where they coming from on those two games, Tokyo Mirage sessions (I saw it got dancing bit, not huge fan of dancing in game) and star ocean 4 (I did try it out but never complete it) Edit: I wasn't a fan of the ending of Ys 4, it just end, no show what happen to other char.

For me it’s Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon and Lightning Returns. They both suffer from “one step forward, two steps back”, but I’ve put more time into those than the rest of their series entries

Cold Steel 4 is in my top 3 Trails games aswell. It had an insane amount of content and dialogue fleshing out the end of Saga. I think i now prefer Reverie and Azure, but its still a brilliant game.

I'm one of those people where Cold Steel 4 just absolutely soured me on the series. I actually kept a running journal of my thoughts while playing it, and reading those back later showed that I just didn't enjoy the game, story, or anything much at all. I respect your opinion and to each their own. But ever since then I've yet to go back and either continue playing the old games or play any of the new ones. (Also, the digital launch for the game was a mess which didn't help)

But...I haven't heard anyone say they didn't like Cold Steel 4...

I think people praise NEO all the time, the problem was that not many people know it exists. I just knew last year in september, and since I love the first game, I liked what I played so far (haven't finished yet).

I also loved SO4. I've always said it has a great B Movie charm. I can understand not liking Lymle though, but Merecle is probably my favorite SO character in general.

I really appreciate that you number the index, leaves it a surprise.

I played celceta right after playing the super famicom version of 4 and I can just say celceta's story is undeniably an upgrade. Just like the upgrade from 3 to felghana. Not counting the two sub-villains (who were just as tropey and unnecessary on the original), everyone else actually feels like they actually have something to do in the remake. Not to mention how they tied everything up to the Akashic records in a way that actually makes sense and doesn't come out of nowhere. Celceta to me was the perfect middle ground between Ys seven's focus on gameplay and Ys 8's focus on story. I never felt like dialogues went on for too long like in 8 or that the story was dragging on with a bunch of filler like in seven. It was just a comfy game. Also it's the last game with a top down camera which means it's the last game I was any good at.

I never got the impression that Neo TWEWY is hated, nor is Triangle Strategy.

Regarding Trails, I only played the Cold Steel arc and I honestly got so tired of how every single supposedly dead character comes back or the whole he is wearing a small mask so it must be someone else trope... I still pushed through because of the awesome gameplay and OST, but I no longer cared whenever something supposedly major would happen to any character.

I thoroughly enjoyed Triangle Mirage Session and I played Blue Reflection because of your review of the sequel. I really enjoyed that one too, thought it was a perfect game to relax to after a long day at work lol. I'm also with you on CS4, I loved it, thought the ending was great and all the pros for me far out weighed the cons.

I love CS4 but idk if i think its the best. CS3 is and just learned recently that some people hated on it lol. And Sky the 3rd is great and gives so much lore and Kevin is a great protagonist

blue reflection actually really touched me, it hit on so many things that other games didnt. the emotions of being a high school girl, the confusion, uncertainty and stress. i loved that game so much, the second one just wasn't as good.

Whoever doesn't like CS4 does not understand the game. Sure, it has an overly long Act II, but epic battles in that game and crazy OMG moments make that game a masterpiece IMO. Hajimari does the same but with better pacing.

Triangle Strategy had a common SRPG problem where despite giving you choices it felt more like wrong and right answers rather than tradeoffs.

It's not fair that CSIV get all the hate. That sketchy plot device is working like it's crunch time from CSII onward, but with every incident of the game bait and switching deaths or heavy consequences my willingness to attend to a multi thousand hour narrative diminishes.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions is amazing, super underrated game. Great list dude!

Wait, people didn't like Triantle Strategy? I think it's incredible!

Celceta got a lower ranking for me because it just ends without resolving most of the plot threads in the game. It basically ends mid scene

Triangle Strategy is not hated, it was well received by VN / SRPG fans. It also sold very good (1M copies only on Switch).

The Legend of Heroes has become my *all time favorite JRPG franchise* and while I love all of the 10 western-released entries so far, I'd order them (best to least) as follows: 1) *Cold Steel 2.* 2) *Cold Steel 1.* 3) *Cold Steel 4.* 4) *Trails Into Reverie.* 5) *Cold Steel 3.* 6) *Trails in the Sky SC.* 7) *Sky the 3rd.* 8) *Trails from Zero.* 9) *Trails to Azure.* 10) *Trails in the Sky 1.* Yes, I loved the "Erobonia arc" the most (and in particular *original Class 7 arc* in the first CS 1 & 2 games), followed by the "Liberl arc" and lastly the "Crossbell arc".

Always find it interesting to read/hear opinions on CS4. I personally did not like it, though I did enjoy playing it, and think that all 4 CS games could've been made into a trilogy and have a more focused narrative. Not sure if it has anything to do with it, but I think people who start with the Sky trilogy tend to like the CS games less, whereas people who start with the CS games tend to like them a lot more (that's just my guess though). I personally prefer and enjoyed the Sky and Crossbell games a lot more than the CS games, but a series so big and ambitious is bound to have ups and downs. That said, the Trails games are very special and have provided me with 100s of hours of entertainment and joy, which is the most important part. Great video! Made me want to check out some of the other games on the list.

I love the Blue Reflection Ray Anime and Blue Reflection games. I'm glad it's getting a lot of support from everyone. One of the best Magical Girl series ever.

Blue Reflection 1 still has my favorite rpg ost of all time

I think you struggled to find games that people hated, because i doubt anyone hated at least half of these.

Finally, someone who loves star ocean 4 and neo The world ends with you

Wow you have great taste! I love both blue reflection and tokyo mirage sessions, thank you for bringing awareness to these games 😊

Really loved CS4 I've yet to play a trails game I don't like I loved them all to this date, I know I still have to do the Sky trilogy but I promise I'm gonna get it done I have all of them installed in my computer Blue Reflection I was playing that game around the same time that Elden Ring released along AI the Sumnum files and when I was done raging over Elden Ring I would always go between those two game to relax kick back and enjoy incredible story and experience I didn't know about Tokyo Mirage to me this one looks really good and I might visit it after I'm done with Persona 3 Reload

Star Ocean 4 remains my most played game. I have now played all six main entries in the series and 4 remains the one I think of when the Star Ocean is mentioned. Sarah is my favorite character and I don't care what anyone else thinks.

Disagree: I was so let down by CS4 the problem for me was not the "spoiler" but the fact that it made all the character sidequests feel pointless. "Oh this person is not bad they are being forced to do evil things because of X" so when you solve the quest it is not rewarding because they didn't do it out of their own will. ALso the Cold Steel cast getting majority of screen time felt wrong on a conflict on this scale. Basically it should never have been called CS4 and it should given more focus on the other characters from the Sky and Crossbell arcs. Agree: Hell yeah TMS was great! Confused: Whut people didn't love YS: MoC? I thought it was great.

Cold Steel IV is fantastic! The series problem is Cold Steel III. After CS1 and 2 really got going and CS2 ended on a high note, CS3 was someone pulling the emergency brake on the train and then slowly going again, making me wonder constantly "Wait, this is just CS1 again?" until it gets going. CS3/4 should have been one game.

A few of the games mentioned I feel are "Palate Cleansers". Sure you can go and have a HUGE, SERIOUS RPG with the expectation that everything is going to be absolutely refined, but every once in a while, you just want cake.

People actaully hated CS4?? I thought it was an 8.5/10. For the most part, this is the conclusion of Rean Schwarzer, a guy who just wanted a simple life as a scrub. got roped into major drama, had to git gud, went through major depression doubt, and rose back up when the World needed him most. Can't wait for his next apparence and hopfully another duel with Shizuna!

For Star Ocean, give Till the End of Time a try. I adored that game growing up, and the big reveal was definitely divisive as a plot choice

They hate Star Ocean: The Last Hope??? I loved playing that game and it had everything I ever wanted from a JRPG.

Ohhh you definitely need to try Star Ocean: Until the end of Time. That one and The Last Hope were my favourites. It might be a bit odd going back though as TLH was like an evolution of TTEOT in terms of combat lol, in some ways. I was shocked to see Triangle Strategy on here, I've only heard good things about it!

Man, I am totally happy and glad that I got into the Trails of Cold Steel franchise because one single fanfic that features Hikigaya Hachiman as a member of Class VII. Just finished CS2 yesterday, taking a few days of break before continuing on CS3, I fucking love the characters there but I fell in love with Towa Herschel the most. Also, I am putting the other games on the video on my list of games that I'll play. It sounds like a cup of my liberTEA.

I played CS4 for 230 hours on my first playthrough - it's my favorite game in the entire series. Didn't know people disliked it so much. And Triangle is a strange one. When I played it, I thought it was a rare 9/10 or even 10/10 experience. Then I saw a lot of people complaining it had too much dialog. It's a jrpg! I want a crap ton of story and dialog.

Star Ocean 4 is totally underrated. Love the combat system and the exploration. I think people overreact to the characters

most games on this list were either generally considered to be good, or had a mixed reception.

My biggest problem with Blue Reflection was mostly how I was constantly feeling like creepy voyeur with how camera was framed in cutscenes, especially the fanservice ones - like it was looking through windows, doors or even from closets. I don't have problems with fanservice most of the time, but it was really uncomfortable for me in this game.

I liked almost everything in Star Ocean 4. The only real issue was a specific part of the combat system for me. The targeting system. It forced my target to change away from my intended enemy without my input. I set it to manual targeting and it STILL changed my target automatically causing serious issues in combat. Outside of that critical issue I had it was a great game. Star Ocean 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 worked somewhat. 4 is the only 1 I had to actively fight the enemy targeting system.

To this day, Memories of Celceta is still my favorite Ys title. It's highly wierd that people are so down on it.

I loved all of Cold Steel so much, that I played and Platinumed all 4 games back to back in 2020. I had only just discovered the franchise in August and when I found out 4 was releasing in October, I busted my ass off to catch up while still being very thorough. I loved every single moment of it and was hooked on the franchise because of it. I'm my view, there's nothing bad in any of these games... only story moments that rank more memorable than others.

Not ashamed to admit I liked Tokyo Mirage sessions also. The battle system was so much fun and well balanced. Also, this was the building block used to help make SMTV graphically and Persona 5 and really setup the "stylized" interface we know and love for their games. To me it is the Final Fantasy X-2 of the Shin Megami series. Would have had a better reception being a standalone much like you said just as FFX-2 would have been with new characters as a standalone.

Man i loved Neo World Ends With You. The DS Original is still one of my all time favorite games. And while the sequel isn't as good, its still a very worthy sequel.

Surprised CS4 has such a reception. It's tied with CS3 for my favorite Trails game. Sure it bloated, but the characters are so good that it didn't really matter to me.

The biggest problem of Tokyo Mirage Sessions is that it isn't what it was supposed to be. It got announced as a crossover game between Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem and it is barely both of them. It is mostly similar to Persona (which is "only" a spin-off of SMT) and it has some FE elements sprinkled in that wouldn't be missed, if they would've changed them to non-FE designs etc. When it got announced I think everybody thought off a darker RPG or SRPG with gameplay elements and designs representing both series mixed in, which isn't what we got at all. That doesn't have to be bad of course. The game is still on my pile of shame because I'm interested in the game itself and not what it was supposed to be, but I can understand that fans of both series were disappointed by the missed potential.

I’ve never heard anyone say bad things about Triangle Strategy. I thought it was universally well thought of.

I also loved Triangle Strategy. I feel like most of the hate it got was from people who really wanted it to be something else, something it never promised anyone it would be. I really liked how it stayed pretty grounded, and also how each individual character (even the ones that shared a job) came with a pretty clearly defined specialty that made it feel like everyone had a workable niche

Way back, Star Ocean 4 PS3 port really saved me from the letdown caused by FFXIII and the general lack of good JRPGs for a certain period on the PS3. Even with it's faults, I really really love that game.

What a great list! There are definitely some titles here that I would have otherwise overlooked.

CS4 was amazing. I really don’t vibe with the “fans” of Falcom games, which is a shame because they make incredible games

The only thing keeping me from Triangle Strategy was the Denuvo DRM. Now that this video has reminded me of its existence, and since Denuvo is now gone, I might actually pick it up.

I finished tokyo mirage session 3 times, even on hardest difficulty. I love it! Awesome battle system. I agree on most game, i enjoy all i played from this list.

Cold Steel IV's always gonna be an interesting one. I'm part of camp dislike myself, and it's interesting to see bits I personally, well, *heavily* dislike about the game being highlights for others. The connection of the plot device with past games you mentioned for instance is something that detracted from those games for me, in spite of me loving the interconnectivity of the series normally. I won't go into detail here, but let's just say I feel it went a bit too far in this case. Though there are parts of the game I do hold in high regard. I overall love the finale, and the true final boss is my favourite in the entire franchise. Act 1 was enjoyable, especially with its greater focus on NC7. Duvalie was a personal highlight, it made Rufus my favourite antagonist of the Cold Steel arc, and it threw open the floodgates for people to start theorising how a certain something might be more important than initially thought. It's far from the worst thing I've ever played, as it has quite a bit I enjoy. And I can see why things that bother me are loved by others. But overall I feel it completely fumbles the execution of some admittedly VERY good ideas while also dropping the ball on what was already established. I believe it's simply a difference of what people value and want to see in stories and how certain plot points are interpreted, which makes the divide of opinion around CS4 so interesting.

Appreciate the fact that Blue Reflection is here. The second game is...okay, but I think the first is much more enjoyable and relaxing, and has a more interesting story.

Best Celceta track (imo): In the Fires of Ignition. That riff... Team JDK at their finest. Second Best: Seeking the Vanished Mask.

I think Mirage Sessions ended up so divisive precisely because of WHICH fandoms it pandered to. I won’t fault the devs for knowing what side of their bread the butter was on, in terms of what SMT or FE games would be the most popular… but it became obvious that: -When they said “Fire Emblem”, they specifically meant “awakening and fates” (a perfect way to instantly polarize FE fans) -when they said “SMT” they specifically meant “Persona” (ditto, but for the SMT fans.) From that starting point, there was just no way this game wasn’t gonna be polarizing, regardless of whatever else they did.

Triangle strategy is one of the best strategy jrpg games out there.

I really cannot do anything else than agree with you fully. A few little remarks though - I enjoyed both Cold Steel III and IV about equally. Just like you I do not get the negativity against Cold Steel IV. I think it's a very good game. I tried Neo: The World Ends With You, but I could not really get "into" the game so far. I will give it another chance in the future though. I have not played Triangle Strategy (yet) so I cannot comment on that one. And I think Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore deserves a port to the PC. I played it on a emulator, but I think it would do very well on the PC platform.

I'll join you on that hill, CS4 is amazing and I never felt "the thing" was out of place and it made perfect sense to me. Heck Valimar even outright partially explains what it is and how it affects people. Osborne to this day is still my favorite villain in the series, and man that ending hit me in the feels so hard. Simply beautiful. I still tear up when I see screenshots from the end credits pop up on my PC as screensavers, lol. I'm not sure where it would rank for me honestly, but it would definitely be top 5... maybe... 😂

I've heard that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is somewhat divisive, compared to 1 (especially Definitive) and 3, but XC2 is among my favourite JRPGs thanks to the surprisingly deep combat mechanics, the amazing and beautiful Titans and other places to explore, and the playable cast being fantastic. No single Titan feels like it takes forever to explore, unlike XC3's Erythia Sea, the music is brilliant, and even the villains are likeable folks. The reason I like XC2 more than XC: Definitive is mostly due to the simplified Quests and deeper combat - Quests in 1 were often intricately interweaved, with branching paths depending on how you solved the core issue, which affected relationships between NPCs along with what Quests were available in future. This is admittedly far better worldbuilding, but a complete pain to keep track of for the best outcome, so XC2 simplifying them to singular solutions (yet still having Quests relating to other Quests) is a lot better. As for combat, I love the Blade Combo and Driver Combo mechanics, and how if they're performed together it becomes a Fusion Combo, earning back some Blade Combo time and dealing a lot of damage. Completing Blade Combos with specific elements has an elemental orb (of the type used as the finisher) orbit around the enemy, up to a total of 8 (one for each element), and their purpose is to be broken in Chain Attacks. XC2's Chain Attacks are also the best out of the trilogy, as there's no luck involved at all; instead, all three combatants are guaranteed a turn, and if they manage to break an orb (most effectively done by striking with the opposite element - Fire/Water, Wind/Ice, Electric/Earth, Light/Dark), there's a single guaranteed QTE that if passed earns a second round. If enough orbs are broken, then the last character to act gets to use a Lv. 4 Special to amplify the damage dealt. XC1's Chain Attacks also had a single QTE for more attacks, but it was luck-based and only for a single character instead of all three; XC3's Chain Attacks...are simply horrible. Granted, XC2 isn't perfect - its in-game tutorials are woefully awful, for one thing, and it does include gacha in the form of Core Crystals (thankfully no microtransactions - instead, Core Crystals are found from killing enemies or found in chests, etc.), and the character designs can be hit-or-miss; the English VA is also love-it-or-hate it, apparently, and Field Skills can require party-shuffling. It's still the one Xenoblade Chronicles game that I find myself returning to the most, though, as in my eyes the many pros outweigh the few cons.

I don't care who "hated" CS4. I love CS4. I fucking adore it lol

Always super cool to see Tokyo Mirage Sessions get the love it deserves. It's my second favorite game of all time I really don't get why people hated it.

My top would be Symphonia 2

I loved CS4. It rounded off the cast's stoires, the past heroes's arcs all to build up CS's cast lift them up to their peak. OST was at it's best, it's like the Marvel Endgame of the series. Up until CS4, I never felt a sense of finality and redemption in a Trails since.

I keep forgetting I wanted to try Mirage (never got into any FE or SMT games either) just by how unique it looks. Too bad I huge a huge backlog. Wonder if the price has come down since it came out.

If ya like a spacefaring adventure try the Mass Effect trilogy. It has a heavy focus on the characters like a jrpg :)

My main problem with CS4 is best summed up as: Falcom keeps pulling their punches.

Thank you for mentioning Neo: TWEWY, i totally enjoyed the sequel too ❤