
So just one question I'd like to clarify with the ending of Cold Steel IV before I move on to Reverie.
Is true ending Rean the very same Rean I've been controlling since the first game?
With how the game is framed, it genuinely feels like the normal ending Rean is the one I've been controlling then he dies, and then the player jumps to a very identical timeline where everything is the same up until Franz takes control again and reminds Rean that he has the cage.
Azure showed that there are alternate possibilities that KeA can tap into but the implication is that she altered events to the SSS never died in the first place rather than there being a timeline where the SSS died still existing. Lloyd seems to have been shunted back, since he has some phantom memories of the old timeline.
So what's true ending Rean's deal exactly? Am I playing as a whole new Rean or was the normal ending just a what if that doesn't actually exist? I'm getting kinda existential here.