Farewell To Arms

Next year can't come soon enough. Numerous technical issues aside, Sen no Kiseki was a lot of fun and ended on a massive cliffhanger that left me laughing for a good six minutes. I'm quite impressed by the effectiveness of the ending even though Ao no Kiseki had already spoiled the conclusion to the conflict between the aristocracy and the reformists. Indeed, the time for me to rejoice is still a long way away.

Set in the Erebonian Empire, the story follows Rean Schwarzer as he arrives in the town of Trista to begin his studies at the esteemed Thors Military Academy. During the admission ceremony, Rean becomes acquainted with the soft-spoken Eliot Craig and the two talk very briefly about their distinct crimson uniforms, which set them apart from the majority of students who are dressed in either white or green according to their social classes. As the students leave for their designated classrooms after the ceremony, Rean and a few others are instead taken to an old building behind the academy for their "special orienteering". Once inside, their instructor Sara Valestin informs that they have in fact been selected for Artillery Class "VII" - a new and unique class where the students are chosen without regard to their background. This is very unusual given the widespread segregation between the nobility and the commoners within the empire. Machias Regnitz, who appears to bear some animosity towards the aristocracy, immediately takes issue with this arrangement and almost gets into an argument with the seemingly prideful Jusis Albarea, the second son of the Duke of Albarea, whose family rules the state of Kreuzen as one of the Four Great Prestigious Noble. Before Rean and the others can ask for any clarification about Class VII, they are thrown into a dungeon underneath and must navigate their way back to the ground floor. Puzzled and a little troubled by this turn of events, Class VII nonetheless set out to complete their orienteering in hope of getting some answers.

What lies ahead of them, however, are hardships and challenges that they would have never expected to face as a group of students. This is the story of Class VII, and the story of Erebonia, a mighty empire whose very foundations will soon be shaken to their core.

The game feels quite different from previous instalments with its school setting, which stood out for me more than the fact that the story takes place in Erebonia. Structurally, almost every chapter follows the same pattern - two days of school life in Trista and two days of special practice in another city. This is far more consistent and well-defined than other Kiseki games, though such a rigid schedule can understandably make the game come across as a bit repetitive and restrictive for some people. Furthermore, the players' freedom to explore the world is limited by the inability to access many areas or revisit various locations. The game often forces characters into the party as well, which can be rather bothersome, particularly during the special practice part of each chapter where the players are forced to use a prearranged party.

Instead of the somewhat intricate methods of raising characters' affection points in the last two games, Sen no Kiseki takes a streamlined approach that is much easier to manage. Character events are now mostly placed within the school part of the game, and the available events are clearly marked on the map, which I find quite helpful. Being able to check the characters' Link Levels makes it very easy to keep track of everything as well. Although I do sometimes miss all the choices that I got to pick back in Ao no Kiseki, which also had a much larger NPC cast for the main character to bond with, the straightforward approach Sen no Kiseki has taken fits in well with its setting, and I'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out.

Team ruuuuuuuush

While the battle system has remained largely the same as previous entries, Sen no Kiseki introduces the Tactical Link feature which significantly speeds up the fights and adds some variety to them. In addition to the standard status parameters, every character now has an Attack Element attribute. In its most basic form, Tactical Link allows party members to perform additional attacks by targeting opponents' Attack Element weaknesses. As the characters' Link Levels increase, they gain new abilities like quick heal, cover and counter. Later on in the game, players can earn Brave Points with each successful additional attack. These points can be expended to perform Rush or Burst, which is essentially Team Rush from the Crossbell duology. Support members no longer randomly participate in battle like they did in Zero and Ao no Kiseki, but they can be switched in and out without wasting any turns now, which is really convenient. Overall, the battles themselves feel quite fast-paced but the persistent technical hiccups kind of offset the rushing sensation one would get from all the fighting.

Despite Falcom's earnest efforts, Sen no Kiseki falls really flat in the technical department. Constant frame rate drops, terrible loading time, jagged edges and shadows on the 3D models, bad collision detection, the list goes on. I honestly cannot imagine how slow the loading time was before the patch, because the game still takes its sweet time loading even after the update. The never-ending frame rate problem can be rather annoying as well. At first I was glad that the game didn't lag around flowing water like the awful Record of Agarest War did, but then I reached the last dungeon, which actually looks somewhat imposing, and watched as the frame rate crashed through the floor. While I doubt anyone is going to be awed by the game's weak graphics, I think Falcom actually did a pretty good job with some of the backgrounds and the characters' expressions. I really liked how lively the characters felt, even though their models lacked in details and the animation was pretty dodgy at times.

Putting a chapter worth of contents on a drama CD

How unexpectedly expected. One of the things that I have always enjoyed about the Kiseki series is its characters, who usually appear quite generic at first glance but often turn out to be more than meets the eye. As far as I'm concerned, the main cast of Sen no Kiseki is pretty decent. It's probably the first time in the entire series that the main characters are all high school students, which could have caused some major headaches if handled poorly. I don't blame anyone for getting a little worried when accidents like this happens, because no one in their right mind would sign up for some adolescent misunderstandings. Considering who voices him, Rean is surely no stranger to forces of nature and misunderstandings of frustrating proportions. Thankfully, the boys and girls in Class VII are more rational and reasonable than their distant brothers and sisters. Not that it didn't take about half a month for Rean and Alisa Reinford to finally apologize to each other and patch up their relationship, but it's something that I could live with at least.

A certain Jewish boy once said that he wanted to be tall and black all his life, but I sort of feel sorry for the dark-skinned Gaius Worzel, who towers over the rest of Class VII and yet possesses an even weaker presence than Akari. Gaius' problem is that he's stuck in a class full of ridiculously special individuals, who overshadow him both in plot relevance and battle usefulness. It's a tough life being a foreigner in the empire. In contrast to Gaius' almost perpetual lack of presence, the class representative Emma Millstein, who looks like she could fill in for Hanekawa on the model student's off days, remained mysterious throughout the game and rose to become one of the most relevant characters by the end. I'm frankly a little perplexed by how little has been revealed about Emma's real identity, something which I had been waiting the whole game for. Sitting, waiting, and wishing.

Happy Laura is a miracle of the universe

My favourite character in the game hands down. It's been some time since a character has exceeded my expectations, and Laura S. Arseid is absolutely amazing. As expected of the daughter of Erebonia's top sword master, Laura boasts the highest strength stat in the party and dominates the battlefield with her powerful attacks, good reach and excellent Crafts. Laura's Attack Element also allows her to stun monsters from any angle with her field attack, which saves me the trouble of switching characters – monsters will stop moving for a few seconds when the field character changes – and ambushing the confused creatures from the rear. In terms of personality, Laura is probably not all that interesting or exciting, but there's definitely some charm to her old-fashioned way of speaking and her knightly graces. The dignified demeanour of Laura's, which does not seem to fade away no matter the situation she's in, is one aspect of her that I'm quite fond of. In that sense, she is not unlike Arianrhod - the Steel Saint who radiates so much dignity that it's impossible to hold anything against her, even though she's a terrifying foe with such overwhelming strength that she can take out the entire party with (that) one attack. Considering that Arianrhod is most likely the legendary Lianne Sandlot, who has quite a history with the Arseid family, the connection between Laura and the saint may run far deeper than it seems.

Just hold hands and hug each other already

One does not simply talk about Laura without mentioning her friend and rival Fie Claussell, even if it did take quite a while for the two to develop such a close relationship. Quiet yet bold, Fie is the youngest student in Class VII but surpasses her classmates in reflexes, agility, and combat skills. Similar to Emma, Fie's background stayed a mystery for a good few chapters, though her weapon of choice and penchant for explosives tipped me off pretty quickly, so the reveal that she was a former Jäger (elite mercenaries) came as no surprise to me. The same can't be said for her class however, and Laura in particular becomes troubled by Fie's past as a soldier of fortune whose lawless ways are the exact opposite of Laura's code of chivalry. This causes a rift between the two girls that renders them unable to Link to each other. Eventually, the blue-haired knight figures out that she just wants to know Fie's past because, well, she "likes" the silver-haired ex-mercenary. Even Fie is surprised. In order to learn more about Fie's life and hopefully mend their strained relationship, the girls decide to settle it like real (wo)men with an all-out duel. Needless to say, my body was not ready for this; neither was it ready for the moment when Fie revealed that she was practically raised by the famous Jägerkönig. That instant flashback to Ao no Kiseki, my body could have never been ready.

Rixia fans unite!

Laughed harder than I should have at this scene. Such impeccable taste from an otherwise disagreeable character. It's a great thing that Sen no Kiseki continues the series' tradition and comes with a colourful supporting cast, who complements the main characters quite nicely. On the other hand, I'm stuck with the same kind of petty antagonists that the series likes to throw around as well. Every so often I wish the antagonists and villains could be a little more compelling in their motivations and goals. Sen no Kiseki has the Liberation Front of Empire – a group of terrorists whose comrades got massacred so hard in Ao no Kiseki that I find it hard to take them seriously – as its main, and for me, ineffective antagonists. I really can't stand those who fight for the future with their feet firmly and indulgently planted in the past. It didn't help that the terrorists and their leaders were rather formulaic in their personalities and characterizations. Not that the main cast was much better, so it's not too thrilling to watch them confront each other sometimes. To make matters worse for the terrorists, everything that they did was merely part of some sort of grand plan by the Iron Chancellor Giliath Osborne, the very person that they have been dying to kill. While amusing in the beginning, it has become quite dull for me looking at clowns dancing in the rain of irony.

Eliminating Osborne, the central figure of the reformists, is something that the aristocracy too desires. The game makes it pretty clear from the first chapter that the terrorists were in fact backed by the aristocracy, whose personal army regularly gets in the party's way. The escalating tension between the aristocracy and the reformists, and by extension, the clash between conservatism and modernism, are a major theme that runs throughout Sen no Kiseki.

In spite of its prosperity and great military might, the political situation in Erebonia is volatile. Although the empire has modernized rapidly thanks to Osborne's reform, which has improved many imperial citizens' standard of living, a lot of people have suffered under his aggressive and ruthless policies as well. Unfortunate, but reforms without victims of changes would have been too good to be true. Many nobles resent Osborne greatly too as their privileges are threatened by the socioeconomic changes brought forth by him, and they are determined to stop the chancellor at all cost. Ultimately, the conflicting ideologies and belligerent behaviours from both the aristocracy and the reformists plunged the empire into a vicious civil war, which started with the assassination of Osborne by the terrorists' big boss "C" - Rean's senior and classmate, Crow Armbrust.

Apprehending the big boss all alone

What were you thinking really, Captain Claire? I'm slightly relieved that Crow isn't one of my party's mainstays, even if he's actually quite strong. Him being the man behind the mask wasn't much of a reveal at all by that point of the game. I think most players would have figured out C's true identity since that the code name of every terrorist leader is, well, the first letter of their given name. Crow is about the only important character who fits that criterion. The fact that he is always with the party but conveniently vanishes whenever C appears in person is very suspicious as well. Still, their carefree senior is the leader of the terrorists comes as a big shock to Rean and the others. Personally, I'm more surprised that the famed opera singer Vita Clotilde, who leads a double life as the radio presenter Misty, is in fact the Blue Abyss - the Second Pillar of the Agnis, a group of extremely dangerous individuals belonging to the mysterious organization Ouroboros. I felt a moment of joy when Osborne was sniped right through the heart, because Crow had just unknowingly played into the chancellor's hands by assassinating him. Someone with an artificial black heart (well, considering who voices Osborne...) just don't die that easily. I grinned when the aristocrats' battleship started dropping off mecha units, who promptly and effortlessly captured the imperial capital. Then I nearly fell off my chair when Emma called Vita her sister. The royal road sure got bumpy towards the end. Or rather, the brakes simply went out.

Having killed Osborne, or so he thinks, Crow jumps into his personal mecha, Ordine the Blue Knight God and escapes before Claire can arrest him. Back at the academy, Class VII realizes that the aristocracy faction seeks to seize the academy and hold the students hostage, as many of their parents are notable figures in the empire. The class rushes out to assist their teachers, only to find that their help isn't needed as the teachers are quite formidable out on the field - taking down the aristocrats' army tanks with ease. Against the incoming mecha units however, even the teachers themselves know that it will be a difficult fight. Class VII again prepares to step into the battlefield and give their teachers a hand, but Alisa's super maid Sharon Kluger arrives, surprising everyone, and joins the fray. Sara confirms Sharon's alter ego as one of Ouroboros' top agents – Dodendraad the ninth Legion – once and for all, though Sharon says that she's currently taking a break from her job as an agent. As the fighting at the western gate intensifies, Class VII discovers that two enemy units are quickly approaching from the east and takes it upon themselves to defend the unguarded eastern gate.

Wait till Rean goes Shining Finger

Unfortunately, even though the class manages to disable one of the units, their attacks prove futile against the reactive armour of Scarlet's Spiegel (Sturm und Drang!). All is not lost however, as Rean finally awakens and calls out to Cybuster, I mean Valimar the Grey Knight God, which the class uncovered after an intense battle against the unworldly Loa Erebonius. Although Valimar is weaponless, Rean still manages to give Scarlet a good beating with unarmed fighting techniques he's learned from his teacher, the great Sword Sage Yun Ka-Fai. As Rean soundly defeats Scarlet and her Spiegel, the game heads into the last battle with Crow's arrival.

Pull back, Alisa, pull back

Rean emerges victorious after a fierce fight against Crow, but the terrorist leader soon unleashes the true power of his mecha and critically damages Valimar. The tables don't stay turned for too long these days, do they? As Crow is about to finish Rean off, the rest of Class VII comes to his rescue. Still dazed from Crow's attack, Rean is baffled by his class' actions and becomes dumbfounded when they tell him to run away while they hold Crow off. Knowing that they have no chance against the powerful Ordine, Rean refuses to go alone. However, everyone tells Rean that he and Valimar must get away because they will be crucial in the unfolding crisis as a third force, not the aristocracy or the reformists, but a new power as envisioned by Prince Olivert, that will bring winds of change to the empire. Of course, Rean won't have any of that, but Valimar takes off anyway after receiving commands from Emma's talking cat Celine. Rean watches and screams hopelessly as his friends are left behind to fend off an enemy far too strong for them. The screen then fades to black as Valimar disappears into the evening sky.

Cue the ending song.

Well played, Falcom. This magnificently cruel ending makes the cliffhangers of Sora no Kiseki FC and Zero no Kiseki look like absolutely nothing. I must have been really naïve to have thought that they'd wrap up the story with just one game. So many questions, so few answers. From the strange absences of Crow and Millium Orion in the beginning part of the game, which seems to suggest that KeA had rewritten the history more times than I had previously thought, to Osborne's connection with Ouroboros and his convoluted plan to rid the empire of corrupt aristocrats; there is so much to reflect back on in this game, and so much to look forward to in the next one. Sen no Kiseki may have suffered in certain areas due to its technical shortcomings, but it is an entertaining game through and through. As one of Japan's oldest game developers, Falcom has taken a significant and courageous step forward with this game. Whether the step is in the right direction or not remains to be seen, but if Falcom could continue to treat their games with the same amount of love and passion, the sequel to Sen no Kiseki could end up quite phenomenal and may very well redefine the series.

I am the flower of my field

Until we meet again.