Finally approaching full results

By now, for the academics among you, the Spring 2026 semester is in full swing. For many this may be a return to the grind and the struggle; whether it be it as a student or teacher. However, for me it feels more like the end of a cycle and the beginning of another. I’m currently a few weeks into what should be the last class of my PhD. My first PhD research project is also almost finished. By the time this semester ends, I will likely be preparing for candidacy and hopefully committing to what will become my thesis.

The research front of my status update while small, is significant. After rushing to get out the best I could offer for my latest status update, I finally acquired permission to utilize full datasets (if only for my background dominated control regions). This harkens the beginning of the end for this analysis. Once I put together a paper draft and have presented sufficient background limits it sounds like this project will finally be getting pushed through for full approval to get final results. In terms of lab work, it has been slow going but things are moving forward. Most of my research work the past week or so has been in updating my analysis draft. I’m very much looking forward to actually having public presentable results.

The last class I am taking is essentially a crash course on the frontier of particle physics. It would best be summarized as a catch-all course for filling in any knowledge gaps that aren’t covered by graduate Quantum Mechanics and/or Quantum Field Theory courses. Thankfully, this means that a lot of it is review and the pace of the class isn’t expecting us to perform crazy higher order (loop-level) calculations. It’s been rather fine thus far. My highest appreciation goes to having my graduate Quantum Mechanics, QFT courses, and Particles being taught by different professors. I feel as though the variety of perspective and description has really solidified what all of this means. The physics of particles and fields is by no means easy to grasp, but this has helped me significantly.

Here’s to hoping I have more good news by my next blog post.

On a more interesting note, I have figured out a potential thesis analysis to pursue. The current project I’m working on involves a search for two “Higgs Boson-like” particles ($X$ and $\phi$), one of which is expected to serve as a “dark sector portal” (i.e. it couples to Standard Model and Dark Matter particles). Thus far, I’ve been working in a very symmetric phase space of $X \rightarrow$ $\phi\phi$ $\rightarrow$ 4 clean photons ($\gamma\gamma\gamma\gamma$). If you’re curious how such particles can be predicted you can do a quick Google of “Two Higgs Double Models (2HDM)” (or just ask me lol). These kinds of theories are basically the simplest kind of extension you can make to the Standard Model, while also solving known issues without even considering Dark Matter. These theories also naturally fall out of minimally supersymmetric theories.

Coming back to thesis ideas, I had been spitballing the idea of mixing the intermediate state (i.e. the $\phi\phi$ part) up a bit with something like a heavy X decaying to two new Higgs-like $\phi$’s ($\phi_1\phi_2$). While this is extremely novel, it for many reason would be a nightmare analysis to do for my PhD. However, a much more doable signature is something like including a Standard Model Higgs (things like $X \rightarrow \phi H$). This leads to a lot of fun phase space to explore that’s quite different from what I’ve done thus far, so could be a fun thesis project to do.

Snowpocalypse and False Spring

Given that most people reading this live in the Midwest, I would be hard pressed not to comment on recent weather and its impact on the everyday. Since the harsh cold and heavy snow started hitting I effectively have minimized my travel.

Out here in Indiana, there have been at least a couple of occasions of near whiteout conditions. That being said toll road conditions have been okay enough for at least a couple days of travel for lab work here and there. Generally speaking though, I have kept at home in the warmth of my apartment whenever possible.

As a graduate student and academic I do have obligations, such as attending classes, meetings, and colloquia, to have continued presence on campus throughout the week. As of late every time I go on campus, it feels more like a gamble of whether or not I can leave. The parking lots this year have been atrocious. I’ve been very wary about getting stuck when I go to park. In fact, at least one person in my cohort DID get stuck earlier this month.

However, I can at least say I haven’t encountered any ‘critical mission failures’ that slowed my pace at all. Once it warms up longer though, I’ll start getting back around to going out more again.

We did recently get a couple days of warm, that were immediately soured by freezing temperatures returning.

Valentine’s Day Date Night

This year for Valentine’s Day, Lily and I checked out this place in downtown South Bend called “Cascade”. It’s right off the river, so it has a pretty nice view. It was a higher scale restaurant, but was accessible enough. There was a solid mix of affordable options and pricey ones. I admittedly saw the menu listed A5 Wagyu so I had to try it. All in all it was solid. Pricing was reasonable, but wouldn’t say it was the best in SB, but it does pretty well. Enjoy the pics.

Game Updates

With myself being cooped up in my apartment much of the time, you all know that means I’ve been gaming whenever I’m not working. However, this time the update will include only one game review.

After 2025 ended, I had started the likes of Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest 7 (the original PS1 version). However, my LE copy of Trails Beyond the Horizon arrived. Thus, my free time became derailed and consumed by the 140 hour runtime of that.

Trails Beyond The Horizon

To those that know me, Trails quickly rose to become one of, if not my favorite franchise a few years ago. For the uninitiated the Trails/Kiseki franchise is a series of Japanese RPGs engaged in telling an epic of unequaled scale in the medium of video games. The closest comparison one can succesfully make is the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise. Both series have one cohesive world and narrative that unfold over a series of games with various protagonists. However, this comparison does falter when we consider the sheer scale of the world building in the Trails series.

To further summarize Trails is a 13 game series that takes place in several different nations on the continent of Zemuria. Several different games bundle up as arcs, taking place in specific countries and locales that have direct correspondence to those of our own world. Furthermore, the world itself excluding some of the fantasy elements is an attempt at portraying the advance of human civilization over the past 200 years in condensed form.

Beyond all of this, perhaps its biggest selling point and what truly differentiates it from a saturated medium of JRPGs, is its attention to detail. Every character major or minor that you can talk to in the game has their own life going on. Minor NPCs you met in the Trails in the Sky FC work their way back in to the games 12 games later. Sure, as a Japanese IP it has its share of unappealing tropes but conversely there just isn’t any other game series that does quite what this one does. Trails is more comparable to masterworks in other media in this context, such as Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.

With the primer out of the way, it goes without saying that try as I may, objectively reviewing these games is always a challenge for me.

Trails Beyond the Horizon is the 13th game in this series, and the 3rd game to take place in the country of Calvard. Calvard is essentially a mixing pot culture, much like America, with a lean towards southeast asian cultures. This game in particular engages in a three protagonist narrative, much like Trails into Reverie did a few years ago. However, unlike Reverie the core Calvard arc cast have the majority of the screen time in this game. It goes nearly without saying that this is not a game to be enjoyed as your first exposure to the series. Its narrative is not one to be enjoyed on its own as it serves as payoff and further contextualization of overarching full series narrative for the whole series. Conversely though, one could also argue this game has the best gameplay in the series.

The actual structure of my review here, will be decomposed into components of artistry, writing, and gameplay. Beginning with artistry, this is among the highest calibre work Falcom has put out in recent times. It walks the line between stylization and slight realism. It has an anime JRPG style, but it isn’t so stylized as to feel overly immersion breaking. That said it isn’t pushing the frontiers of rendering technology in the slightest. However, that’s never been a sticking point for Falcom. The animation direction now competes with the best the rest of the genre can muster. We’ve certainly come a long way since the stilted animation and low frame rate of Trails of Cold Steel on the PS Vita. That being said, from what little I have played of the Trails in the Sky remake, there is certainly an argument to be made in favor of continuing to push more into pure stylization. However, this is 100% a matter of preference and intended tone.

The music in this game is a bit harder to parse. My impression is that the OST is pretty good, but doesn’t quite match the best Falcom has ever put out. However, worth noting is that most (if not all) the best Trails music is unlockable in this game as part of the optional Grim Garten. In the case of this review I am judging purely the “new” additions though. I would argue that there are certainly many great tracks on the OST, such as in the varied battle themes. However, in terms of exploration and dungeon music I do think it is a bit lacking at times. The Fortress of Destiny just doesn’t hit as hard as Reverse Babel or Gral of Erebos. Detoxify the Snake Venom on the other hand is another example of Falcom composing normal battle music that has no business going as hard as it does. The vocal tracks for the opening and ending do a perfect job as eliciting the feelings they should’ve (don’t go spoiling yourself now though).

Now Dies Irae is a really hard one to judge. For those in the know, these words translate from Latin to English as “Day of Wrath”. The title of this song is quite fitting for what follows, but the actual musical contents are a bit varied. Musically, it’s great but it reflects a more morose than wrathful feeling, veiled with what feels a hint of hope. I feel like there’s a hint of more to this track, but it’s hard to say. That said, it doesn’t stand out amongst the best either. I did think it worth discussing though.

Next, we can discuss the narrative. Without actively spoiling the game itself, the plot centers around demystifying the lies surrounding Calvard’s space program and the greater world at large. This is done from three perspectives. You could even argue they are organized by Good, Neutral, and Chaotic in line with the alignment system in the game. The core route follows the Calvard cast and the ending of the game has the most impact for them in particular. The other two routes bring in cast from prior games such as Rean Schwarzer from Trails of Cold Steel and Kevin Graham (who first appeared in Sky SC). Unfortunately, while Reverie’s three routes were quite excellent all around the asymmetry in route content does hurt this game a little bit.

While Rean and Kevin have stellar routes, they also have much less content than the Arkride Solutions cast. Conversely, while the Arkride Solutions cast have the most screen time it has pacing issues around the midgame. This gets remedied by introducing a new town to explore in Act 3, but I digress. That being said there are no stretches of plot in this game that I would call outright bad (such as in Daybreak 2). In fact, Act 3 of this game has some of the best content in the game. This sort of makes up for Daybreak 2’s Act 3 being the narrative low point of the series. Putting the pacing issues aside, the worldbuilding and overall plot details this game sets up and answers are among series highs. The finale gets to the point while also going out with a bang. How good it truly is of course depends on if they can stick the landing it whatever comes next.

In terms of character writing this game does mostly a great job, with an exception named Ulrica. The casts of characters in each route are mostly well written. One could argue that not enough time in the narrative is directly spend focusing on the characters but conversely we’ve also had a lot of time spent on character building moments in the prior games. If I were to levy a criticism on main cast character writing, it would be putting important moments behind optional bond events. While you can always go back and watch these with Connectin Points earned through the Grim Garten, players can 100% just skip these and miss out on important context. Conversely, the NPC writing also feels like a series best. There’s a lot going on and lots of return characters from all over the series history. This compounded with the fact the game happens only over the span of a few days in particular makes this world feel potentially more alive than ever.

The most mixed bag in terms of character writing has to go to the antagonists that appear in the Grim Garten, but this is optional content by and large. You need not sully yourself with Ulrica’s zoomer speak any longer than you want to.

Lastly, I’ll talk about the actual gameplay. There is certainly an argument to be made for this being the pinnacle of the series (or even the greater JRGP genre) in terms of actual combat mechanics. Although I am a bit wary to jump to that conclusion. To begin, this game iterates on both the turn-order manipulation this series has long been known far, as well as the action hybrid mechanics that Trails Through Daybreak introduced. Perhaps one of the best things the Calvard arc games have done in general is bringing balance to the modern Trails games. In most aspects player and foe alike can manipulate the flow of battle in their favor.

Turn order being player specific starting in Daybreak 1, kept players from overabusing turn order manipulation on bosses. However, in this game they have softly reintroduced ways to steal turns back in but you must use the new ZOC feature. Conveniently, they have also given ALL human enemies the same capacity.

Similarly, Daybreak 1 also introduced conditional limits on when you can activate an S-craft/S-break (S-break interrupts turn-order). Daybreak 2 introduced bosses being able to do the exact same and that continues here. Players now have to live with the reality that they live in ignorance of when a boss can use an S-break attack (Fair games are scary aren’t they?). This is very much a game where a boss can activate ZOC to steal 3 turns, and then hit you with an S-break to really put on the hurt.

This game also reintroduces the orders and disorders from the later Cold Steel games. In this particular aspect, all main game content is well balanced. The Grim Garten boss fights in particular are not. Orders when utilized by the player require use of boost gauges, whilst bosses may not have said limitations. It is very much possible for one to run out of boost gauges overriding a boss disorder, that they can in turn use every turn they have. This makes well planned builds in the game ESSENTIAL.

The arts and crafts system in this game is as good as it has ever been. One of the boons of the Calvard arc games has been in giving players the freedom to upgrade crafts to make them cheaper to use or do more damage, as well as give a happy medium in the arts system that implements the best of both the original system in Sky and the system we had in Cold Steel. In particular the shard skill descriptions being visible in the orbment menu has made designing different build configurations much nicer. However, this game really illustrates the limitations of the arts driver and plugins system. The specific arts (i.e. spells) that you can cast are inherently limited to whatever driver and plugins you can slot into the driver. Not all spells exist as plugins, which inherently limits how many people can get access to a spell. This can lead to some awkward combat situations late game if you aren’t careful. That being said the overall difficulty of this game, even on Normal is probably the highest it has been in years which is honestly great. This is very much a game where you need to think through your setup before most bosses, especially from Act 3 onwards. Thankfully, there are plenty of opporutnities to get access to all the tools you need to survive. The main thing that puts this game behind Reverie in that aspect is not having the crazy cast size of playable characters it had (which they even joke about in this game).

The last aspect of gameplay to discuss would of course be the optional side content. I would argue that the quality of side content has wavered over the course of the series. The 4SPGs (i.e. the quests) you do in this game are a mixed bag. Some are quite good, while some are very forgettable. I would argue the 4SPGs of Calvard were at their best in Daybreak 1. However, Daybreak 1 did not have the Gartens of Daybreak 2 or Horizon. The Grim Garten (and the Marchen Garten that predated it) are the natural evolution of these optional repeatable dungeons Falcom has been experimenting with since Trails in the Sky 3rd chapter. While the Marchen Garten seemed like an overly simplified version of Reverie’s Reverie Corrider, the Grim Garten seems like a happy medium, in terms of actual content. There’s a bundle of various minigames in the game too, but it’s more of the same from Daybreak 2. Curiously, they did omit the Uno-like card game that was in Daybreak 2.

An offhand comment I think is worth thinking on, is that the Calvard games are a bit alien in the sense of exploration freedom. While every prior arc by the second or third game gives you nearly full reign over the explorable locales of the particular country it takes place in, Calvard has yet to give us the reigns on that point. In some sense this does make it feel more restrictive.

Overall, this game delivers on exactly what I’m here for even if it has some flaws keeping it from being the peak of the series. That being said, I don’t think Falcom can get away with having Van and company sweep Edith for clues 6 times in a row next game. I’m giving it a 8.8/10.

P.S. Roy Gramheart is a trooper!

Now I unfortunately will be going back to Xenoblade and Dragon Quest 7… However, now that I am fully up-to-date on Trails I can maybe bring back some streams.

Outlook

That more or less wraps up what I’ve been up to. Next update will be in either March or April I predict. Hopefully I will have very good news on the research end by then. I’ll also have plenty more regular life stuff to talk about by then too.

Anyways, stay toasty my friends!

Until next time, Rob

Extra

Also some fun news that almost slipped under the radar, the project I finished my time at UToledo on got published at the end of last year and was the front cover of the journal it was in!