I played way too much of this game since the last post! Specifically I finished Rean's Act III and then opened up the finale. I had raced through because I could sense the game ending just because you get a sense for how this shit goes after eleven games.
I thought I'd be splitting this up more but I don't actually have much to say about everyone's Act IVs specifically, so this will mostly be about Rean's Act III end and daydreams. Unmarked spoilers after the rocking boys
It really is a shame how uneventful everyone's Act IV was because I am very surprised at how interesting the hooks for Rean's Act III turned that whole chapter around for me? I think this game is doing a really bad job of generating an even amount of interest across the different perspective characters. Often I am way more interested in the daydreams I've unlocked because most of these characters have closed the plots they're trying to open already. Everything I like about the main chapters has the same energy as the fanfic-y petty drama of the daydreams.
The red herring with Arios, however, is really fun especially since they don't just throw it away after unmasking him. I really love the shot-reverse shot stuff here and really ate it up when they do Eight Leaves forms at each other.
And then Act IV is just nothing. Lapis is a future predicting emergent AI. Great. Cool. Rean's darkside has form and is sexy. Alright. Lloyd gets his heterosexual boyfriend back. Sure. Can't wait for all of this to be meaningful in a oversaturated finale. The finale being unified between the perspective characters gave me a sigh of relief but like, why not just make the entire game that way? At no point did the character select give me insight into the narrative or thematic thrust. The game is mostly rephrasing everyone's arcs that were wrapped up in Cold Steel or the Crossbell liberation prologue while it completely fumbles Rufus who has gone from coolest perspective character in Trails to just a Guy in one game.
I don't know why they were so afraid to commit to the Sky the Third bit of having a perspective duo come out of nowhere when Third is easily some of the best character work both for the new characters and the old ones that get screen time. Like that is the game that puts Renne on the character poll map and instead Lapis is here doing shitty who's on third jokes-tier jokes.