Trying to finish Trails of Cold Steel II.

My opinion hasn't really changed on it from last time, it still drags and most of the game feels like padding, the characters are uninteresting and the combat is a downgrade from the older games. The tone of the writing also really doesn't fit the setting and that bothers me a lot.

As with CS1, the bond system feels unnecessary and it's not really used for character growth (which would have probably been fine if they were interesting in the main story). I'm still playing only because I really liked the previous games, otherwise I'd have dropped them early into CS1.

Borrowed Nine Sols and tried it for a few hours. It seems quite good, I really enjoy the art and parrying feels really satisfying.