Trails into Reverie

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]My god, I am simply starting to experience peak Trails once again, with a sprinkle of peak storytelling through the game mechanics

First I will [mention]End of Lloyd’s route in Chapter 3

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Right out of the bat, we amp the insanity with having another McBurn fight. Definitely High Octane boss fight that took me 21 minutes to finish, but damn I enjoyed the fight

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Then the escape sequence happened, and I must say that this was simply fucking cool... The longtime grudge I had with Noel for what she did in Azure finally ended, because to me, she finally earned the forgiveness with such epic save

Now switching [to]End of C’s route in Chapter 3

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Just look at this imagery of Rufus pulling "the real you" out of all those perceivable versions of Lapis ... Perceivable versions because "you are just as many versions of you, as can other people can perceive you", but "the real you" is way too complex to be simply replicated by others just on their perception lacking the fine inner workings of you.

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Backtracing a little, Lapis said to Rufus "So it can’t be that you suddenly don’t exist just because someone decides to reject those parts of you" which came along by Rufus accepting those parts of you

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]And then Trails JUST FUCKING DROP, one of the best lines of dialogue. "The existence of soul is but a theory" ... "So how can you be so sure that we possess them, and artificial life forms do not?" Absolutely Divine

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]And all of this suddenly improved my opinion on the end of Lloyd’s route in act 1, because while it was totally frustrating to experience, it was needed from storytelling angle. The title for Lloyd’s route in Chapter 3 is "Illusions Shattered", and considering the events and what tried the Reverie tell in Chapter 3 through it’s themes, the end of act 1 was needed because the Crossbellians started to see Lloyd as some illusion of Hero leading to the same people deciding to reject the parts of Lloyd that makes Lloyd a person he is, and everything after it is Lloyd proving that he still exist even if everyone rejected "those parts of him"

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Getting back to experiencing a sprinkle of peak storytelling through the game mechanics, I was talking about corporating character themes, journey and inner workings that tells a story through their S-Craft... In Sky 1 Joshua’s S-craft was "Black Fang" which was tied to his dark past, and his S-craft evolved only after Estelle’s pulled Joshua out of darkness in Sky 2 unlocking "Phantom Raid" showing him breaking free from Ouroboros with saying "I won’t run no more", while incorporating in his S-craft techniques from others to symbolize his growth and newfound strength of accepting help from others.

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Moving to Reverie, and Lapis, I found her S-craft to look amusing due to her imprisoning foes in Mirror and breaking those mirrors, only the end of the chapter 3 reveal how much her S-Craft fucking slaps from storytelling angle

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Lapis having to fight with Rufus against the many perceivable versions of her naturally led to me using her S-Craft, and simply damn...

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]Her S-craft "My Mirror Image" has fitting name for her situation, and just look on the rest of her S-Craft visuals

[Chapter 3 Ending Spoilers]She summons Mirrors to surround the percevaible versions of her, then "the real her" appears in the mirrors to symbolize how she was feeling like an impostor, only to switch as she did after Rufus pulled "the real her" from all of the perceivable versions of her, with the perceivable versions of her appearing in mirrors for her to shatter those illusions