There are isekai Light Novels (and a lot of other genres, it's basically YA novellas). And Rean is actually bordering on an Isekai protagonist levels of mary sue than the somewhat more balanced LNs battle couples (that at least had a group of protagonists and villains at around the same strength).
Reminds me, watching old video game OPs on a flight I forgot how Rean is so generic he looks the same as the Tears to Tiara 2 protagonist (recommended game):
Does the main character of that game also have a super special awesome ogre move that is totes tragic for incredibly softball reasons?
I don't think I would score any game in the area of 8 or 9 outside of some of my favourite games of all times in my 30 years of playing video games. I don't know, maybe my standards are just really high, but Trails games hover between 5 and 7 for me, and this is coming from someone who prioritises gameplay over story, and I really enjoy the gameplay and music of the Trails games, but the story and writing had just been getting worse and worse, and that really sours the experience for me, espeically considering the writing quality of the Sky trilogy, I know what they're capable of.
I'm not that harsh on them, I do legitimately think the Sky trilogy and crossbell duology are above 8s in my book, but they really hit that classic 32bit rpg hitch that I used to really enjoy Xenogears for example is probably one of my top JRPGs along with Grandia or Lunar, I see the first 5 games at that level more or less.
Cold Steel it's between 6 and 8 for the most part... And Kuro is a 7. Perfectly serviceable, but kind of suffering from the sins of the past. To me a 5 is something that I actively have to force myself to play when I actively dislike it... can't think of any example right now though from the stories I'd heard, decent odds that FFXIII would have probably been here. And below that it's shit that I will just drop with zero regrets, which ain't the same as stopping playing something for one reason or another. FFIX is a fantastic game, I'd give it like an 8.5, but never finished it due to real life kind of fucking with my flow and now my emulator save files are lost to time.
I think it's funny as hell that more people croaked in the first two chapters of Kuro 1 than in the entire Coldsteel tetralogy.
LOL, holy shit, yes. You would expect that the Ironblood military dictatorship that we were sold would be a lot more ruthless. But Cold Steel is when the candy canes started to really sprout hard. Calvard being "darker and edgier", feels kind of dumb to me, specially since it's not for the reasons I would have expected since the biggest local mafia are saints involved in the community for example.
It's fair to say that Rean ends up as a fairly bog standard "light novel style every man" kind of character. The setup was definitely there for something more interesting. But, the follow through left a lot to be desired. I think it's cool that Rean was made to drop out of the 8 leaves school because his fundamental outlook was incompatible with the school's philosopy. I wish I knew anything about that story beat beyond describing it in broad strokes though. I also wish that the plot point was developed beyond vague off handed remarks. That's the sort of thing that, if focused on, can lead to some pretty cathartic story moments. But, Rean just keeps practicing as he was with no further mention of his teacher until he's recognized as a master. And that's just one thing.
Ugh, his whole "blade master" arc feels like such a copout. It's literally "you get this because you are somebody's self insert in the office". Why would a dropout and snot nosed runt that is barely 18 get to be on the same levels as fucking Cassius and Arios? Richard wasn't considered anywhere near a Divine Blade and seemed like a beast. It was just another "You are so fucking cool Rean, we all are gnats compared to how fucking cool you are!" and another 5 poor women get dragged into the harem. Joshua and Lloyd must have been swatting harem flies like hawks to protect their territories.
Even in Reverie he basically takes over the entire plot despite being the conclusion to Crossbell as well.
That's another thing that worries me about Kai, fucking Rean is back. I'm through the moon with Kevin and of course Van is a given, but there are so many characters that could have been put there instead to give them a nice pick me up from just Erebonia alone. Could have been anybody from new class 7 if you wanted someone from Tors for example, all grown up and with new responsabilities and a faggy pep talk from their teacher to go fuck off in the general area.
With the previous arcs, it wasn't just about Estelle, it wasn't just about Lloyd; the other characters had their moments to shine, some moreso than others, sure, but I never really got the impression C7 showed that family dynamic besides just outright telling it to us, and "a lot of time has passed, and now here's their reunion in CS3".
It was pure tell, don't show. New class 7 improved a lot with that till the plot devoured them and made them background characters. I really think something like the Skit system from the Tales games would do wonders to flesh interactions between secondary characters. Van's group does bounce a bit better between each other, specially after Aaron, but Rissete, Quattro and specially Judith and Bergard just feel kind of along for the ride. The crossbell people on the other hand feel like a family even with Noel and Wazzy coming in later and the Sky people though it was always Joshua and Estelle, the rest felt welcome.
