Thinking about this series in 2025 makes me sad. Sky FC was such a kino game, despite what people say about it being "slow" (SC has much worse pacing anyway) I still believe it was paced perfectly with a good plot, memorable characters, the best antagonist in the series, outstanding atmosphere, and the best twist ending in the series. The earlier games had a good grasp on how to create narrative tension and raise stakes when needed. To go from that to where the series is now, it really makes me feel like they phoned it in somewhere during CS, and they just don't have the writing talent to make the story work anymore. Every plot twist feels like an asspull, every antagonist feels like a joke, character motivations are all over the place, etc. and above all else, Falcom doesn't respect the concept of strong-minded characters sincerely battling over their ideals, despite the series being full of strong-minded idealists. Everybody just wants to get along, every battle is just a "test" of willpower/strength/whatever, and that destroys narrative tension. And as if to laugh at players for not liking this, Falcom went and made Kuro 2, a game that revels in death fakeouts and bullshit stakes while dragging the pacing out to an interminable crawl.
No this is not a reddit post, I'm just venting about one of my favorite games going to shit. We can't have nice things anymore.