Now let's finish up the first part of Cold Steel IV Act 1!
Time to enter Hamel proper. Unsurprisingly, there's black Pleroma Grass everywhere here, too. Sure enough, Ash is actually here, beating himself up for coming back to Hamel even after he managed to escape. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be that happy to see us, although it seems more like he's self-deprecating and angry with himself for letting himself be used to start the war between Erebonia and Calvard. I'm still not convinced he's actually the one who shot the emperor though!
Regardless of whether he actually did it or not, Juna doesn't care. She blames the curse for it, but that's not good enough for Ash. I'll give him credit for actually taking the blame here and not passing the buck. He blames himself for being too weak and letting himself become a pawn in a game he never wanted to play. He hates the fact that his life was decided for him against his will because of that prophecy. He even goes so far as to say he wasn't even in an actor in the play, but only a mere puppet. Ash thinks his part in all this is done, but Juna isn't having it. She's really embodying the spirit of Rean early on in this game more than anyone else. She even seems to be mimicking some of his gestures.
Ash still isn't convinced that he belongs with them, but Altina promises to support both him and Rean and to ease the burdens they carry. It's weird when other characters are like, "Hey, you think you've got it bad? Rean has it worse," but Randy does it here. And I guess in this case, he's not wrong, at least! Kurt finishes it up by saying that tragedies can't be undone, but Ash survived for a reason and it wasn't to be a triggerman for some shooting. The curse might have driven him to do that one thing, but everything else in his life was Ash's own doing.
Ash finally gets the point and stops moping. Randy says he isn't the type to let himself get beaten down and not get right back up swinging, and that's something Ash can get on board with. Unfortunately, we all get interrupted by jaegers, including a dude with a really annoying voice. And as soon as Randy said they were a jaeger corps enhanced by Ouroboros, I immediately knew it was Gilbert. Let's see if he's still a pushover! Turns out he's so useless we don't even need to fight a battle to KO him (BLOORF)!
Okay, we do have to fight him after all. Oh hey, Gilbert talks about being in Phantasma, nice. "Can't we all just get along?" the greatest S-Craft in Trails history. After beating up on Gilbert for a while, Zephyr decides to interrupt the fun. They're not here to back up Gilbert but to investigate the black Pleroma Grass. However, Rutger says the time isn't right yet, but since there's so much here, it's a potential candidate. Randy calls their bluff and says they're after Ash, too, just for different reasons. Rutger concedes and admits he's here to recruit Ash into Zephyr. Randy says they like to recruit guys with their backs against the wall and nowhere else to turn. Luckily for Ash, he does have somewhere else to turn now that he has New Class VII again.
Zephyr decides to take Ash by force instead. This is a pretty fun fight since it's neat to see them use follow-ups and even one Rush attack. We had 35 turns to finish the fight for bonus AP, and I finished it in 31 aw yeah. Of course, Rutger calls his secret weapon, the Divine Knight Zector, so now we get our first mech battle. It's pretty straightforward and Rutger seems to come out on top, but we get a moral victory for being able to damage his knight's weapon.
Gilbert decides this is the time to take advantage of our weakness and catches everyone off guard (they should all be kicked out of Thors just for this imhotbqh), but thankfully, Fie, Elliot, and Sara are there to bail us out. Rutger is proud that his little girl's all grown up, and that's good enough for him, it seems, so he pulls back.
oh heck yeah it's the emotional/heartwarming scene music from CS3, I love this song
Anyway, everyone suddenly remembers they're supposed to be investigating the singularity and Rose shows up to chastise us for forgetting, but doesn't this mean she could've been doing this all herself? Oh wait, it's just a spirit projection. Elliot informs us that they found a singularity at Lunaria Nature Park in Kreuzen in a similar spot with a lot of black Pleroma Grass growing, too. Afterwards, we decide to return to Eryn Village, but Pablo, Kairi, and Tatiana say they have to stay in the "real world" and investigate, so Randy offers to stay with them to watch over them since his job helping New Class VII get back on their feet is done.
When we get back, Juna waves at someone while walking toward them instead of away from them, which is an amazing development in this game.
Whew, that section was really great. Honestly, I think this really cemented New Class VII > Old Class VII for me. They're just so great together (and way better off without Musse, so don't be in any rush to find her, guys). Their chemistry is top notch. Plus, the fact that it's a much smaller group means they can always be together instead of constantly having to be split in half at best like the Old Class VII had to do.
