Board 8 > The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

xp1337 posted...

pyresword posted...

*checks order status*

Processing

NISA please.

That's what NISA is telling me too but it literally just showed up at my door a few minutes ago so there's hope for you!

where do you live so we have an idea how far they're going. They ship from Texas
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A few people on Reddit claim to have gotten theirs and say they live in New York. (Also with no update to the status on the website.)
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also in NY here.

would be weird if it was just a NY thing though.
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Check my mailbox as I left for work



Now I have to wait another 10 hours before I can play it
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I'm just finishing up Cold Steel 1 and I've already preordered 3. I won't get around to it for a while anyway to avoid burnout, but since I've heard conflicting things is it actually necessary to complete all of the previous sky/crossbell games or is it really just beneficial?

I'm not really sure when I'll have the time to go through the rest of the games in the saga beforehand.
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the other games are all better than CS1 and 2 so you should play them anyway
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captaincanadian posted...

I'm just finishing up Cold Steel 1 and I've already preordered 3. I won't get around to it for a while anyway to avoid burnout, but since I've heard conflicting things is it actually necessary to complete all of the previous sky/crossbell games or is it really just beneficial?

I'm not really sure when I'll have the time to go through the rest of the games in the saga beforehand.

The continuity in the series is very, very strong, so it's obviously beneficial to play the others to get the full sense of the world. Is it strictly necessary? I'd say you could play them independently of each other and still enjoy them because the subseries are all set in different countries (that still directly and indirectly impact each other, so you'll be missing out on those things), but you'll obviously get greater enjoyment from full understanding of the previous entries.
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"Necessary" in that can you technically understand the story without them? No, but you will be missing out on a lot. A LOT.

Characters from previous games and plotlines that weren't resolved show up quite a bit to continue their stories. The game does recap them slightly, but its like reading a wikipedia article for something instead of actually experiencing it yourself. You will lose out on a lot of the emotional impact of the games, and a lot of references and nuance will be lost on you.

And as said, the older games are all better than Cold Steel 1 and 2 anyway so you'd be silly to not want to play them if you like CS1.

I just really can't get over how terrible the combat was in that 1st 10 hours of Trails in the Sky I played.

Though I guess even fans agree that TitS1 is rough on the gameplay side of things, from what I've heard.

I mean, Trails in the Sky has very basic combat, but I couldn't see how anyone could categorize it as "terrible" unless you only started playing RPGs with FFVII.

like if that's one of the worst RPG battle systems you've ever encountered you're very lucky
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Probably is! I just can't stand the pointless monotony of starting so far away from the enemies and having to move Every. Single. Fight.

Every fight takes about 2-3 times longer than it should.

Eh, to me, it reminds me of Skies of Arcadia. Once you get special moves that can target multiple enemies over a wide range, battles start going much, much faster.
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Trails in the Sky's combat is something that definitely opens up the further along you get into the game as you have access to more abilities and start to understand the quartz system (and is further improved upon in the 4 following games that have a similar system), but it's never bad, just... perfunctory, as you'd expect in the opening hours of a command-based jRPG.
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also if you don't want to move every single fight just let the enemy attack you from behind

problem solved
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NFUN posted...

the other games are all better than CS1 and 2 so you should play them anyway

This is the main reason I try and get people to play the other games tbh.

In other news I got an email from NISA finally and according to the tracking info they gave me the package has already been delivered. (Apparently they actually shipped it 2-3 days ago and only emailed me today) So hype for whenever I get home.
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I've actually already beaten and enjoyed Sky FC but I made the mistake of starting SC immediately after and burned out a couple of chapters in and haven't gotten back to it.

I've always intended to go back to that one but was more curious about the crossbell ones which from what I've looked up have serviceable translations now.
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captaincanadian posted...

I've actually already beaten and enjoyed Sky FC but I made the mistake of starting SC immediately after and burned out a couple of chapters in and haven't gotten back to it.

Yeah, that's understandable. They're very long games, but SC would definitely be worth trying to get back into. It's a borderline top ten game for me.
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captaincanadian posted...

I've actually already beaten and enjoyed Sky FC but I made the mistake of starting SC immediately after and burned out a couple of chapters in and haven't gotten back to it.

I've always intended to go back to that one but was more curious about the crossbell ones which from what I've looked up have serviceable translations now.

DEFINITELY do NOT play the Crossbell games without finishing Sky first.

Its probably even more of a worse idea than playing CS3 first. Crossbell spoils Sky to an absurd amount and one of the most prominent plot threads in Zero is a direct continuation to something from Sky.

You 100% absolutely should play the games completely in order if at all possible.

Is this the last Cold Steel game? I have the first two, but I havent followed any of the series

there's a 4th
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swordz9 posted...

Is this the last Cold Steel game? I have the first two, but I havent followed any of the series

3 is the infinity war and 4 is the end game
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http://www.geeksundergrace.com/gaming/review-the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iii/

The Christian living review
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Finally my Mishy plushie has arrived.

Oh and I got the game also I guess.
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5 hoooours

Same
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Prologue beated.

Probably my favorite prologue chapter of the series so far, depending on how heavily you want to weight the first 15 minutes of SC in judging that prologue. I am a fan of the setup along with the new characters (smaller main cast than CS1/CS2 is a good sign...if they actually maintain that for the whole game). Also just enough teasing of what's going on behind the scenes to keep me interested.

Also do people want a dedicated discussion thread for people playing through the game now for the first time? If so I can make one.
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My assumption is Rean plus the 4 students plus 2-3 rotating old characters
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ninkendo posted...

My assumption is Rean plus the 4 students plus 2-3 rotating old characters

Yeah this is what I'm hoping.
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I bet CS4 goes the tits 3rd route and everyone is playable near the end like 30 characters
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If reddit is any indication, it does and the "30" number is lowballing it...
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HERE WE GOOOO yaaaa

I leave work in 30 minutes
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ninkendo posted...

I leave work in 30 minutes

Call out

It's Mishy time!
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The free DLC ride is over huh?

Good thing these all suck.

So long my item bundles, though ;_;

Dedue posted...

The free DLC ride is over huh

Well, this one isn't a port from another system, so that's usually how that goes.
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I plan to get the CS games at least

24 hours in now and just started Chapter 2

So many plots happening all at once both new ones and old ones from from all the previous games

Definitely the best Chapter 1 in the whole series
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ninkendo posted...

24 hours in now and just started Chapter 2

So many plots happening all at once both new ones and old ones from from all the previous games

Definitely the best Chapter 1 in the whole series

Yes this. All of this. Now time for Crossbell hype.

Didn't have much time to play last night* but after work today it is the weekend.

*Because I was tired after staying up until 4AM the night before finishing chapter 1...
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Finished chapter 2 last night about 40 hours in

that's the one that's heavily dependent on you have playing the crossbell games to get any emotional impact.

If you did it's incredible
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how is it if you didn't? hard to say I know, but hazard a guess.

the extent of my crossbell knowledge is the cs2 epilogue

I'm guessing one wouldn't tear up at the big speech at the end of the day 1 field studies
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And beyond that obviously missing out on the back stories of pretty much every important character from those games
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ninkendo posted...

I'm guessing one wouldn't tear up at the big speech at the end of the day 1 field studies

This scene hit me hard not gonna lie.

colliding posted...

how is it if you didn't? hard to say I know, but hazard a guess.

I think the game does as reasonable a job as possible providing the missing context. I don't think it will fall completely flat, but I'd be lying if I said I thought the impact would be exactly as strong.
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Anyway I also finished chapter 2 last night.

I don't think it quite reached the sheer insanity of chapter 1 but it was also a much more emotional plotline. Hard to say which I enjoyed more but they were both very good.
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Judging by my work schedule and how long it takes on average to beat a chapter I'm guessing I will finish my playthrough by next Tuesday

Just in time for Death Stranding
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When is @SaveEstelle catching up on the rest of the series
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ninkendo posted...

When is @SaveEstelle catching up on the rest of the series

When Trails the 3rd comes out on something I can play it on
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ninkendo posted...

When is @SaveEstelle catching up on the rest of the series

tune in to the latest SELF topic to find out...!

oh wow spoilers
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