Ao no Kiseki is the threshold of the Kiseki series to me: a solid game, that improved the combat and quartz system
I like how ED7 cleaned up the buffs and debuffs compared to ED6. So there was no more accidentally cancelling out a +25% with a +15% and whatnot. Instead you just get +25% or +50%, and casting it again will bump it up or increase the number of turns remaining.
But did you think burst mode and master quartz were improvements over Zero? I didn't. My problem with master quartz was that when you hit lvl 5 you get a huge boost, but now you have to stop using the thing because it doesn't gain any more exp and meanwhile you have all these extra ones that aren't gaining any exp if they aren't equipped, so...
but ended up bloated and took many steps back when it comes to the storyline, aggravated by the fact that it locks characters backstories behind that silly bonding system and proto-harem setting.
yes
It doesn't match the Sky trilogy, obviously, but still has plenty of fire and charisma in it, and playing it on hard mode was a lot of fun.
IMO, ED7 wins in terms of gameplay and soundtrack. One thing that disimproved was the food system. Since buying the food doesn't (usually) give you the recipe, there was little incentive to buy any food. As plain old items, it's overpriced.
Then Cold Steel came and Falcom decided to double, even triple down the worst features of that game, went full otaku pandering mode and made it span four games. The lack of hand draw portraits puts an even bigger dent in the lackluster cast of characters, in a series that had them as one of it's strong points. A shame, really.
yes
ED8 keeps the GPU busy though. And the battle system isn't bad, it's just that there is no martial arts tournament or megaboss-in-a-treasure-chest to challenge you (at least not in the first one)