Hmmm, end of Chapter 2
Really not super thrilled with how they handled Crossbell in this one. Ch.2 had some good/great parts and I enjoyed it, but didn't like it as much as Ch.1. It felt like it climaxed at the tower and the last bit is an afterthought of just some boss fights with not much at stake.
Like when they revealed that "oh hey every major character/npc from Crossbell arc is locked away on the island and that's why they're all missing" it was both kinda lame but at the same time it was sorta acceptable as a setup to "everyone from Crossbell arc is trapped on the Mishi island under the lockdown from evil empire gov who wants them to fade away to irrelevancy rather than kill them or let them roam free" and Randy & Tio are technically being held hostage by the government so they can't do anything currently to help.
...which would have been an acceptable setup to having a really satisfying moment later on in the game or Sen 4 where Rean & crew break into Mishi island and free everyone and then team up.
But no, they're all just let go at the end of the chapter, which makes no sense at all considering the whole gov plan to keep them out of the public's eye and the whole bird cage lock up plan.
Instead by just letting them go it just comes across as Falcom going "oh shit we don't know how to write the Crossbell arc into the Sen story without the Crossbell gang showing up the Sen cast as the best characters, so we'll just come up with a convenient excuse to keep them all locked away off-screen the entire time the Sen cast is in Erebonia and then let them back out once the Sen class leaves" which is extremely unsatisfying and lame for people who've played through the Crossbell series. I think they really shouldn't have even bothered doing a chapter in Crossbell if they weren't ready to do real Sen meets Ao plot. Hell they already did some of that in the epilogue of Sen 2 where Rean and Lloyd faced each other. I mean the game is only 5 chapters long, if you're not ready to do anything with Crossbell, use that time for another new location.
Kinda glad to be out of Crossbell now, when it's new areas with new characters it's a lot harder for Falcom to fuck it up. The sad thing is that in Zero, Falcom seemed to have no problem writing Joshua & Estelle into the main cast/story without overshadowing the main Crossbell arc. They didn't hide Joshua/Estelle away until the end of the game or anything, hell they had most of their time in Zero, the FC chapter. There's no reason why Falcom coudn't have made Lloyd and crew work into the story with Rean and crew during Crossbell, but instead it seems like they took the easy way out to just not deal with it for now which sucks.
The Crossbell chapter's also kinda odd, because I'm not sure who it's aimed at. Most of it feels like just retracing the steps of SSS team. Like "hey, remember when SSS team fought here? Or remember when they went here?" etc... but not doing anything with it, just mentioning it over and over. Is this chapter supposed to be for western Sen players who never played Crossbell to get an info dump on all the stuff SSS team did in the games they didn't play? I mean there's so much of it, I gotta imagine anyone who didn't play Zero/Ao would be like "stop showing me all these flashback photos of people I don't know already!! I don't care about this stuff!", but then if it's supposed to be fanservice for people who played zero/ao it's like "duh, I already know the SSS team fought Duvale here. I played that part. Tell me something new". It's almost like the chapter is supposed to be a refresher for people who played Zero/Ao back in 2009/2010 but forgot what happened and the chapter is devoted to reminding them what happened so they are more caught up for the things to come in Crossbell. It's just a really weird chapter that feels like it won't please most people.
Also I don't really get why Lloyd is buddy buddy with Arios post-Crossbell considering that he was part of the whole conspiracy and team bad guys at the end of Ao...shouldn't he like be in jail?
Like when they revealed that "oh hey every major character/npc from Crossbell arc is locked away on the island and that's why they're all missing" it was both kinda lame but at the same time it was sorta acceptable as a setup to "everyone from Crossbell arc is trapped on the Mishi island under the lockdown from evil empire gov who wants them to fade away to irrelevancy rather than kill them or let them roam free" and Randy & Tio are technically being held hostage by the government so they can't do anything currently to help.
...which would have been an acceptable setup to having a really satisfying moment later on in the game or Sen 4 where Rean & crew break into Mishi island and free everyone and then team up.
But no, they're all just let go at the end of the chapter, which makes no sense at all considering the whole gov plan to keep them out of the public's eye and the whole bird cage lock up plan.
Instead by just letting them go it just comes across as Falcom going "oh shit we don't know how to write the Crossbell arc into the Sen story without the Crossbell gang showing up the Sen cast as the best characters, so we'll just come up with a convenient excuse to keep them all locked away off-screen the entire time the Sen cast is in Erebonia and then let them back out once the Sen class leaves" which is extremely unsatisfying and lame for people who've played through the Crossbell series. I think they really shouldn't have even bothered doing a chapter in Crossbell if they weren't ready to do real Sen meets Ao plot. Hell they already did some of that in the epilogue of Sen 2 where Rean and Lloyd faced each other. I mean the game is only 5 chapters long, if you're not ready to do anything with Crossbell, use that time for another new location.
Kinda glad to be out of Crossbell now, when it's new areas with new characters it's a lot harder for Falcom to fuck it up. The sad thing is that in Zero, Falcom seemed to have no problem writing Joshua & Estelle into the main cast/story without overshadowing the main Crossbell arc. They didn't hide Joshua/Estelle away until the end of the game or anything, hell they had most of their time in Zero, the FC chapter. There's no reason why Falcom coudn't have made Lloyd and crew work into the story with Rean and crew during Crossbell, but instead it seems like they took the easy way out to just not deal with it for now which sucks.
The Crossbell chapter's also kinda odd, because I'm not sure who it's aimed at. Most of it feels like just retracing the steps of SSS team. Like "hey, remember when SSS team fought here? Or remember when they went here?" etc... but not doing anything with it, just mentioning it over and over. Is this chapter supposed to be for western Sen players who never played Crossbell to get an info dump on all the stuff SSS team did in the games they didn't play? I mean there's so much of it, I gotta imagine anyone who didn't play Zero/Ao would be like "stop showing me all these flashback photos of people I don't know already!! I don't care about this stuff!", but then if it's supposed to be fanservice for people who played zero/ao it's like "duh, I already know the SSS team fought Duvale here. I played that part. Tell me something new". It's almost like the chapter is supposed to be a refresher for people who played Zero/Ao back in 2009/2010 but forgot what happened and the chapter is devoted to reminding them what happened so they are more caught up for the things to come in Crossbell. It's just a really weird chapter that feels like it won't please most people.
Also I don't really get why Lloyd is buddy buddy with Arios post-Crossbell considering that he was part of the whole conspiracy and team bad guys at the end of Ao...shouldn't he like be in jail?