Only reason I will continue to watch is because I'm watching it with other friends who also played and love the games. So we are basically making fun of how much of a train wreck this is. Because oh boy...

It fails as a stand alone anime really hard and as an adaptation/spin off is a plain embarrassment. I'm 100% sure Falcom had nothing to do with this because the writing quality displayed in the, as of right now, 4 episodes is abysmal. 3rd Episode is literally a Power Rangers like episode, done horrible (making Power Rangers look like a Master Piece in comparison) and the 4th ep is literally a shitty fanfic of the Trails of Cold Steel Audio Drama: Returning home.

Awful characters. Awful plot. Nonsensical situations and reasonings. Lavi has to be the worst main character I've seen in a long time in anything. She's a walking contradiction. "I have a tragic past, I want to become a soldier to save my country" - "I also don't give a rat ass about the mission I was given to help my country, I would rather eat ice cream and go shopping as half of my team is undercover in a party" The others are just as bad if not worse. "Our mission is to learn more about Erebonia's new hero, but we are too freaking stupid to pick up a single newspaper and read his full name, age, where he's from and how he looks. We are also too stupid to just ask around about him even thought THERE ARE PUPPETS SHOWS OF VALIMAR on the streets"

The whole reason Osborne sends Rean to Crossbell is to turn him into a public figure. To create a hero for people to rally behind. His whole plan was to make Rean and Valimar as public as possible. Which is literally why in CS3 he uses glasses. He start to wear glasses so that people would recognize him less when walking outside. That's how much of a public figure he was. The anime: "wE dOnT eVEn kNoW hIs nAmE! hEs SUcH a mYsTeRy!"

I went into this expecting nothing good. Anime adaptation of games are rarely good, Cyberpunk and Arcane are two exceptions in a sea of garbage. And yet I still find myself really disappointed because, at the very least, I expected what the trailers and name implied: The Northern War. This big event that was crucial to Rean's development and whole reasoning for his change/fears at the start of CS3. Instead what we've gotten so far is a really, really shitty "Travel Guide to Erebonia" with some member berries sprinkled here and there "Hey! Look, a character you like from the games appeared for 5 frames!" "Hey! The music you like from the games playing as they walk across the city! Be excited!"

4/10. This is not Average, nor below average, but straight up bad.

I dunno who this anime is for. Its clearly not for fans (unless you are one of those I've seen on reddit creaming themselves over seeing Altina, Ashe, Alisa, etc for 3 seconds) because of how much they are butchering the source material. It is also not for newcomers because I don't see why anyone would choose to watch this over anything else, not just this season, but in general. As 2 out of the 4 episodes, in this 12 episodes anime, have been filler. Ep 1 and 2 were exposition for people who didn't play the games, which I get, it wasn't executed really well, but I get why something like that was needed, but Ep3 and 4 have done 0 to push the plot forward. First time in my life of watching anime on which I see an anime have filler after just 2 aired episodes. That should be more than enough to showcase how bad is this anime/project doing.

Maybe its for the trolls? Those are the only ones I've seen getting anything out of this, as they've been swarming other forums going "What you mean its a bad adaptation? its as shitty as the games!" in a nutshell.

Will It get better? Honestly? The potential is certainly there. Once they actually get to the, you know, Northern War, then it may get good, as the games do give, if a brief, recount of what happened, so they will have some actual canon to adapt there. However, given how awful they are being at setting up the conflict, I don't really have hope.

If it does get better, then I'll gladly change my review and gladly recommend it. I'm a fan after all. I'd love to be able to tell friends and people I know "Hey, this anime is awesome and the games its based on are great too, check it out! Like with Cyberpunk, Castlevania or the currently airing The Last of Us. But as off right now.. hell no. If anything, I can see this anime pushing anyone even remotely interested in the series away rather than making them want to try them.