Board 8 > Trails of Cold Steel 3 Playthrough Topic (Unmarked Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Solfadore posted...

Interesting character, when she's not hitting on Rean with every other line.

This is Musse's dilemma. because she spends way too much screentime on the latter

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That fire Archer you get at the start of the game is op with those fire boost skill cards.

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OK I'm definitely doing something wrong with the game. Just finished Chapter 3, and that Arianrhod fight was the single hardest battle in the whole series by a country mile (and was in fact much, much harder than all the 'supposed to lose' fights or crazy optional bosses from earlier games). It took me a solid 7 or 8 tries on normal difficulty, which isn't good.

Especially since looking it up online, apparently it's supposed to be a pretty easy fight?? I'm doing something wrong.

Even with Delay immunity, I just couldn't get out of their rhythm, where her and her mooks consistently chained 5-6 turns in a row to get rid of Platinum Shield before Arianrhod unleashed her S-craft for a total party wipe. Finally eked out a timid win when by sheer luck Plat Shield lined up just before her first S-craft. Jusis immediately revived the party with Seraphic Ring and from then on I could finally tone down the onslaught to manageable levels.

Beyond buffing Aurelia's strength, unleashing Aurelia's order, then doing an all-round of S-crafts (except Jusis to parry the inevitable OHKO S-Craft from Arianrhod), I'm not sure what I should have done differently here.

Otherwise, really not a fan of the ending of Chapter 3. There were some very dumb scenes (such as the incomprehensible standoff with Zephyr in front of Juno Fortress for some reason?), a lack of meaningful conflict (hard to care about North Ambria, and 'Ouroboros Experiments' just feel like filler, which was my main problem with Cold Steel 2), and a general lack of good writing in favour of generic anime tropes, which sadly has plagued the Erebonia arc since the beginning. Playing Crossbell between Cold Steel 2 and 3 really highlighted that issue.

The one highlight was that short scene with Angelica in the cemetery at the end, which was a great cliffhanger! I did NOT see Evil!George coming, and I really hope it sticks and is not a lame 'Mind-controlled' cop-out. I'm pretty sure the mysterious guy was just Lughman with silver hair, but then again I might be getting tunnel vision with that particular character. Either way, that has finally gotten me interested in the Gnomes, and I'm curious to see where this lands.

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I tend to think that most of the story issues with Cold Steel 1 and 2 are also present with 3, because yeah I do find it hard to care about most of the conflict in the game. Ironically the best parts for me were scenes in Hamel from chapter 1 and some of the Juna scenes in chapter 2, and really those scenes are only good because they're piggybacking off of story beats that already happened in the Sky and Crossbell arcs.

I do think that Cold Steel 3 does a much better job with individual character arcs and with its group dynamic than the first 2 games did, but it still feels to me like something is missing a lot of the time.

As for general gameplay strategies, what I did most of the time is just stack as much break damage as possible on 2 characters and then pick whatever Brave Order let's you inflict Break as soon as possible. Then just do as much damage as possible while they're in Break, and then repeat. Also I will point out that the Scorpio master quartz is insane and I recommend abusing that as well.

If you want specific strategies that blow the game completely apart, you can try these:

--This one only works when you have access to New Class VII's Brave Orders, but you can use Sledgehammer to get them into break, and then just spam normal attacks while repeatedly using Wind Blade. You will never run out of BP since all your attacks will crit them in break, so you can just repeat this near indefinitely to put out an absurdly high amount of damage before they get a chance to get out of break.

--This strategy is limited by your EP and your BP, but you can cast spells instantly with near-zero delay if you combine Divine Song with CD reduction master quartzes and Bell quartzes. The setup I went with is to get them into break by whatever means necessary and then have my spellcaster in reserve and also equipped with Scorpio as their secondary master quartz. Then as soon as the enemy gets into Break, switch in the spell caster, use divine song, and then just unload high level arts on them. Because of Scorpio your damage output is pretty insane, and for me it was enough to just finish off most bosses by itself with one rotation of doing this.
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Took me a few tries to beat that Chapter 3 boss as well. In the end i just nuked them with S crafts at the start to get rid of a few of the backup girls then it was more managable.

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Sledgehammer to Break and then whaling on them with any Brave Order that reduces delay like pyre mentions was my basic go-to as well.

If you can afford it and you know an enemy turn is going to happen switching to a defensive one like Altina's too.

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Good to know. I've been generally abusing Sledgehammer, but the Arianrhod fight denied me access to it since Juna wasn't in the active party.

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To be honest i think that's what made that fight harder. The lack of sledgehammer. All the original class 7 members just seem to have new class 7 moves that cost way more bp to use but are less effective.

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I made some small progress into what is shaping up to be the final major chapter (with the possibility of a magic-focused finale and/or epilogue). A few thoughts:

- Emperor/Osborne conversation was really interesting. I had always assumed the Emperor was just a figurehead who let Osborne call all the shots, but it seems that to some extent, Osborne is acting with his blessing, and that he's far more knowledgeable about the wider situation than he lets on. Osborne is still the more influential player of the pair, but it's a different dynamic than I expected.

- Heimdallr being the location for this chapter was so obvious that even Rean guessed it. I like those small moments where the game leans on the 4th wall, like when the party in Cold Steel 1 immediately commented on how Osborne looked evil/untrustworthy minutes after meeting him.

- The game's difficulty curve continues to be all over the place, with the fight against Victor and Aurelia (which going by lore should have been brutally difficult) being pretty easy - just put two Evergreens and Sirius MQ on Fie and send her to the front lines. Victor and Aurelia's prior duel was the most shounen thing.

- Did not expect Calvard to form a key feature of the final arc. I don't think it'll stick, which is a shame because political intrigue/international relations is waaaaaaay more interesting than the magical mecha mayhem we've seen thus far.

- One guy I've barely mentioned across this topic, but whom I like quite a bit - Major Irving. He stands out like a sore thumb out of a flood of shallow high school anime characters, and has no patience for any of the stupidity from the students or faculty. He's just trying to run a military academy vaguely the way it should be run, instead of everyone competing over power levels and disobeying basic instructions for no reason. Keep fighting the good fight, Irving. (Plus, his relationship with Claire is solid.)

- Osborne shows up during the briefing with Carl Regnitz. He really needs more screen time - the tension ramps up considerably the minute he walks in, and his relationship with Rean is an interesting dynamic. Hope he gets more exposure this chapter - he's the more interesting antagonist of the two between him and Ouroboros.

Game is throwing some more signs that Ash is Osborne's illegitimate son. Not sure if he is himself aware, but I think so. Unclear if Rean and Ash have the same mother.

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Alright stop the presses, series over, true conflict resolved and good ending achieved.

I am of course talking about the final volume of Tomatonio.

who cares about ouroboros, osborne and the fate of the empire, this spunky tomato got eaten and all is well

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Are we sure Rean has the right priorities?
(Yes.)

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rean's arm died doing what it loved

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Damn Ash shot the Emperor, though all the Ironbloods seem to have known this would happen and let it go through to... seemingly get a pretty weak casus belli on Calvard? Not sure how things will progress from there, but curious to find out! Rean/Osborne convo was intriguing - mostly things we already knew, though the revelation that apparently Osborne can't die is intriguing! I love how Osborne trolls Rean throughout the conversation.

Osborne, Rufus & co. continue to be easily the most interesting plot hook of the Erebonia arc, which doesn't give them the attention they need and sent us all in a filler dungeon against a random dragon instead. Maybe it'll pan out to be a plot point in the 4th game, but I feel we could have easily done away with this entire plotline and just kept it to Calvardian agents.

Other highlights include:
- Class VII reunion was ok but a bit whatever. They all made grand declarations of how they'll take steps to improve the Empire and stand against Osborne (with Millium sitting in the room right there), but I thought they'd already made that point a game earlier.
- I love how completely useless Elliot is. Jusis is like "I'll use my position as acting duke to seek support for our cause with the Nobles"; Machias chimes in "I'll leverage my connections in government to dig up info on what Osborne is doing." Meanwhile, Elliot: "I'll play my shows and gather info that way!" Dude, you're playing music in front of an audience. How are you learning anything?
- I find it somewhat funny how everyone just... believes us when we come back from fighting the dragon. I guess Old Class VII being with us clinched it, but otherwise, Rean's group basically went down in the sewers and came back saying they totally fought off the ancient Dragon of legend in a mysterious secret temple that disappeared.
- Side-dungeon in the sewers against weak Cryptids... WHOA Lechter is in the party! I had been waiting for that since Trails the 3rd - is it the first time we get a read on what he can do in combat? ...huh, his stats kinda suck. I expected him to be better, though it makes sense since he's not supposed to be a combat character (which admittedly hasn't prevented the game from going all 'This old character is the general of the army so obviously he's a better fighter than the 20yo soldier').

Either way, I'm not sure where this is all going to lead. Ash seemed to not fully be in control of his faculties when he shot the Emperor, which plays off of the Emperor's prior comments on a 'curse'. Again, I hope that's not quite true since I'd prefer characters to make actual mistakes and have actual flaws rather than be goaded into action by MAGIC, but we'll see.

I have no idea who the final boss for CS3 will be, but I'm expecting Ancient Mysterious Being #124 since that's what we've got thus far in CS games.

oh wait who am I kidding it's going to be Lughman, huh? Guess we'll see!

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Solfadore posted...

though all the Ironbloods seem to have known this would happen and let it go

I didn't get that impression at all, honestly. Rufus and Cedric, yeah... but I thought Lechter, Claire, and Millium weren't in on it. The former specifically given the quest he takes you on for the express opposite purpose. Unless I forgot some details that suggests they did?

The All-Stars party with Lechter was great lol.

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Solfadore posted...

Either way, I'm not sure where this is all going to lead. Ash seemed to not fully be in control of his faculties when he shot the Emperor, which plays off of the Emperor's prior comments on a 'curse'. Again, I hope that's not quite true since I'd prefer characters to make actual mistakes and have actual flaws rather than be goaded into action by MAGIC, but we'll see.

This is a lot of why I don't like the plot behind Cold Steel 3 the more I reflect on it. I'm hoping Cold Steel 4 does more to contextualize this, but I don't know. It also feels a lot to me like they're trying to foreshadow a "Osborne was a good guy all along we swear!" type of twist which would just be utterly disastrous if they actually end up going that route.

And yeah I also thought the dragon plotline was pretty mediocre.
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Correction - despite my offhand comment about Millium, I wasn't counting her among the Ironbloods and don't think she was in on it at all. Uncertain about Claire either since that doesn't seem to be her style, but then again, I'm not sure which way she'll lean if she has to choose between Rean and Osborne.

There's no way that Lechter wasn't aware, if Cedric was.

Speaking of Cedric, if he WAS aware, I really hope he's not being influenced by Red Gnosis or some other mind-altering drug as I had theorized a bit earlier in the topic. If he is not influenced, and is just joining Osborne out of his own free will, I like that. Pretty fun antagonist, who says mostly the right things in public, but always with an undercurrent of arrogance and unpleasantness.

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I don't really get what they were trying to do with that Dragon part of the game. Just seemed like filler that didn't need to be there like the old school house bonus stuff at the end of 1 and 2.

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yeah the whole dragon dungeon seemed like stuff thrown in to make sure this game had a multi-team "final" dungeon type experience

also I too can't follow any of the magic/lore in this game so it mostly went over my head

pyresword posted...

This is a lot of why I don't like the plot behind Cold Steel 3 the more I reflect on it. I'm hoping Cold Steel 4 does more to contextualize this, but I don't know. It also feels a lot to me like they're trying to foreshadow a "Osborne was a good guy all along we swear!" type of twist which would just be utterly disastrous if they actually end up going that route.

And yeah I also thought the dragon plotline was pretty mediocre.

Agreed. Which is a shame because the series has been great in the past in creating interesting antagonists with solid, understandable motivations and yet who cannot be said to be 'good'. Colonel Richard in FC is a great example - you can totally understand why he would attempt a coup against what he perceived to be a weak queen who was not taking the necessary steps to counter Erebonia, and yet he's never painted as 'good all along'. Same thing with some (though not all) of the Ao no Kiseki conspirators.

There is clearly scope to have an interesting antagonist in Osborne, whose backstory made him genuinely believe that an aggressively expansionist policy and a brutal removal of the noble faction is the way to go for the continent's prosperity. Clearly Rean & the party will never stand for this, but it still makes for a fun antagonist who genuinely believes they're in the right. Yet I'm concerned the game might end up painting him with the ol' 'good all along - just staving off the ancient prophecy' paintbrush.

I'm concerned it could get even worse if the game goes the "Woe is me, when I gave my heart to save my son I was now incapable of feeling pity or emotion" route. Which I don't think it will since he's shown compassion to Claire & Lechter, but the threat is still there.

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My take on the Ironbloods through the end of CS2 and through CS3 is that there's some serious information asymmetry going on.

I think Rufus is the only one who may be fully read in on whatever the fuck is going on and the others are informed on a more need-to-know basis. So the way I saw the whole thing with the Emperor going down was that Osborne and the Emperor knew because of the whole Black Records thing, Osborne told Rufus and Cedric because getting the two of them in on it would be the most immediately helpful to getting the rest of the country to unite for war (since Rufus still holds a ton of sway politically and Cedric is the heir and "aggrieved" son.)

And the other three weren't told explicitly because they might cause problems. Claire and Millium because they're the most morally upright of the group and Millium specifically might tell Class VII and blow the whole operation. As for Lechter IIRC he's spending pretty much the whole day and evening implying that his savant-like cold reading is throwing up warning signs that shit is about to go real bad but he can't quite connect the dots until its too late. His actions beforehand in trying to eliminate causes for war and his backstory drop just prior are in his favor too, IMO. IIRC 3rd also has him tell Osborne to his face that he's just along for the ride for now and isn't ride-or-die or anything and I think this whole plot being another war frame-up like Hamel would have him off the ride if he knew in advance. I didn't think it was an act, at least.

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I do think the series will continue portraying Osborne's methods as sinister and questionable regardless, at least. I just worry they'll go too far down the ancient evil route when trying to justify his actions. Or that they already have gone too far.
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xp1337 posted...

My take on the Ironbloods through the end of CS2 and through CS3 is that there's some serious information asymmetry going on.

I think Rufus is the only one who may be fully read in on whatever the fuck is going on and the others are informed on a more need-to-know basis. So the way I saw the whole thing with the Emperor going down was that Osborne and the Emperor knew because of the whole Black Records thing, Osborne told Rufus and Cedric because getting the two of them in on it would be the most immediately helpful to getting the rest of the country to unite for war (since Rufus still holds a ton of sway politically and Cedric is the heir and "aggrieved" son.)

And the other three weren't told explicitly because they might cause problems. Claire and Millium because they're the most morally upright of the group and Millium specifically might tell Class VII and blow the whole operation. As for Lechter IIRC he's spending pretty much the whole day and evening implying that his savant-like cold reading is throwing up warning signs that shit is about to go real bad but he can't quite connect the dots until its too late. His actions beforehand in trying to eliminate causes for war and his backstory drop just prior are in his favor too, IMO. IIRC 3rd also has him tell Osborne to his face that he's just along for the ride for now and isn't ride-or-die or anything and I think this whole plot being another war frame-up like Hamel would have him off the ride if he knew in advance. I didn't think it was an act, at least.

This a great point. I'm having a hard time getting a good read on Lechter, despite the backstory we just got. I don't think he's particularly morally upright or would object to the Emperor plot, though. His objection re: Hamel seemed more premised on 'it's a bad idea and will blow up in your face' than on moral grounds.

To be fully transparent, I admit I've also done a bit of a Kurt-style "I don't recognize this combat style SO CLEARLY OUROBOROS", and have long pinned Lechter as a potential candidate for secret Anguis. I have no basis or evidence for this, other than the fact that (IIRC) one of the remaining Anguis (the 5th, I think?) is supposed/thought to be a young man, and Lechter kind of just fits the mold.

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Thinking about it as well - one of Cold Steel's key problem across the series is too little content padded over too many games. I don't know how busy/hectic CS4 will be, but I'm convinced the whole Erebonia arc could probably have been crunched into 2 games.

You can leave CS1 mostly intact (perhaps cutting the Nord Highlands arc entirely and trimming the Celdic piece), brutally shorten CS2 to its bare minimum (to basically have the entirety of CS2 just be 'the final arc' of the 1st game). Ao's final arc was very long and turned out to be great in the end, but I can't imagine how painful it would have been to stretch that content over an entire game like CS2 did.

In this one, you can cut one of the arcs (maybe Lamare) and trim Heimdallr, and still arrive at a decent 1/2 game.

Do that, remove the mechas and the magic/lore stuff, maybe cut down/fuse some characters in the old Class VII, and you have a solid core to build around.

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IIRC, the original plan was to have CS2 basically be the final chapter of CS1 but "welp"

And I don't think Lechter is particularly morally upright - guy's a top-notch intelligence agent so he can't be a stranger to morally dark stuff. I left that to Claire and Millium only. I do think this particular scheme might have been a bridge too far for even Lechter though given the backstory dump and insight we get with him just prior. Like you said though he's a tough read so I could definitely be wrong.

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Solfadore posted...

Thinking about it as well - one of Cold Steel's key problem across the series is too little content padded over too many games. I don't know how busy/hectic CS4 will be, but I'm convinced the whole Erebonia arc could probably have been crunched into 2 games.

You can leave CS1 mostly intact (perhaps cutting the Nord Highlands arc entirely and trimming the Celdic piece), brutally shorten CS2 to its bare minimum (to basically have the entirety of CS2 just be 'the final arc' of the 1st game). Ao's final arc was very long and turned out to be great in the end, but I can't imagine how painful it would have been to stretch that content over an entire game like CS2 did.

In this one, you can cut one of the arcs (maybe Lamare) and trim Heimdallr, and still arrive at a decent 1/2 game.

Do that, remove the mechas and the magic/lore stuff, maybe cut down/fuse some characters in the old Class VII, and you have a solid core to build around.

eh, I kind of completely disagree. as boring as these games can be (and yes, they are often boring) I appreciate the slow build and the way things generally come together at the end.

Solfadore posted...

To be fully transparent, I admit I've also done a bit of a Kurt-style "I don't recognize this combat style SO CLEARLY OUROBOROS", and have long pinned Lechter as a potential candidate for secret Anguis. I have no basis or evidence for this, other than the fact that (IIRC) one of the remaining Anguis (the 5th, I think?) is supposed/thought to be a young man, and Lechter kind of just fits the mold.

I think this was the 4th Anguis, and I know that at least as of the end of CS2 this was heavily theorized by the Trails fanbase. Not sure how or if those theories changed after CS3/CS4.

If you're curious, some other very popular theories from that time were:

1st anguis = Nielsen
5th anguis = Barkhorn

For the record, though I think there are compelling cases to be made, I ultimately don't think I buy any of the above theories myself. Though the 1st anguis one is certainly very interesting and would be awesome if it did turn out to be true.

Edit: Oh and I forgot to add--one thing in favor of the 4th anguis theory is that when the 4th anguis appears in the Celestial Globe in Sky The 3rd Evo, he has the same Japanese voice actor as Lechter, though this isn't necessarily meaningful as he also voiced at least one other character in the series who I can't remember right now.
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Oh snap Nielsen as 1st Anguis would be really cool. I hadn't even thought of that (and also missed pretty much all of his questline in the relevant game, sadly!).

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pyresword posted...

Edit: Oh and I forgot to add--one thing in favor of the 4th anguis theory is that when the 4th anguis appears in the Celestial Globe in Sky The 3rd Evo, he has the same Japanese voice actor as Lechter, though this isn't necessarily meaningful as he also voiced at least one other character in the series who I can't remember right now.

That's not true, IIRC.

The Fourth Anguis's lines are written in a distinctive way that is shared with Lechter but their VAs are different. The Fourth Anguis shares a VA with Carl Regnitz if you want to go down that rabbit hole. Or better yet, Dogi.

Of course any Fourth Anguis theories need to now consider that CS3 reveals that they were a former member of the Order of the Moonlight Horse who joined along with Sharon and Enforcer III.

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Solfadore posted...

Oh snap Nielsen as 1st Anguis would be really cool. I hadn't even thought of that (and also missed pretty much all of his questline in the relevant game, sadly!).

When I played the game I knew about the theory going into it, and I still just can't see it despite having watched for it. I don't know. To be fair though, this sort of nuance could be easily lost in the translation process, especially considering it wasn't even a final translation
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xp1337 posted...

That's not true, IIRC.

The Fourth Anguis's lines are written in a distinctive way that is shared with Lechter but their VAs are different. The Fourth Anguis shares a VA with Carl Regnitz if you want to go down that rabbit hole. Or better yet, Dogi.

Of course any Fourth Anguis theories need to now consider that CS3 reveals that they were a former member of the Order of the Moonlight Horse who joined along with Sharon and Enforcer III.

I'd thought both things were true, but that the fanbase generally put more weight into the speech pattern issue, on the assumption that just whatever voice actors happened to be on-hand were used for the Celestial Globe scene. It's been a while since I dug into this though.

Ultimately I don't believe any of these anyways, with Lechter being the least likely in my mind, particularly in light of the new information which you mentioned about the Order of the Moonlight Horse.
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Of course, that's because all the cool kids know the superior First Anguis theory is Dan Russell

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NO WAY Lughman was evil all along? Unbelievable. How could you, I trusted you so much...!

...is what I was planning to say when the game revealed his sudden but inevitable betrayal, but I did not predict him being Alisa's father as well. Alright game, you got me on this one. Given how the fact that he was Alberich was played without fanfare, the game also seemed to expect players to have suspected him, which is good since he wasn't exactly subtle.

HOWEVER - one major issue I have: Irina Reinford and Gwyn both knew all along and said nothing. Why?? I'm willing to excuse Schmidt because he's always been an asshole, but there better be a good reason for Irina & Gwyn keeping mum about this for 10 years.

Anyway, seems like I'm off to the final dungeon soon. A few thoughts in the meantime:

- I've said it before, but it's a bit goofy to hear that Arianrhod has only been with Ouroboros & the Grandmaster for 20 years. So she basically did nothing for 230 years, huh?
- The exposition of Erebonia's basic lore was fine, I guess. Again, not the biggest fan of the importance magic is taking in this arc, but I've made my peace with it.
- I'm... really not sure what this 'Great Twilight' is supposed to be, but I don't think it's the apocalyptic thing the plot is making it up to be. Otherwise, you had an astounding number of characters (including random Red Constellation & Zephyr jaegers) who all seem to be on board with ending the world, which makes no sense. I'm willing to believe that Ouroboros & the Gnomes have a fetish about the end of the world, but no way are Osborne and Rufus gunning for that.

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I think Irina and Gwyn knew about his allegiance at the beginning, but I don't think they knew the full extent of his plans or the fact that he was still alive in the present.

Could be wrong, I confess to not remembering this part so well.
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Game beaten! That was certainly a mean cliffhanger.

Final dungeon was kind of heh, and a bit shorter than I expected. The 3 miniboss fights were cool (especially the last one) though rather on the easy side, which surprised me given how much I struggled against Arianrhod earlier on.

I have no idea who the final boss for CS3 will be, but I'm expecting Ancient Mysterious Being #124 since that's what we've got thus far in CS games.

Looks like I was right on the money! The final boss was a complete joke. Very surprised we didn't get to fight Alberich, at least - though I'm glad Osborne got punted into CS4, since removing him now would have made the last game pretty dull.

Also game, do you seriously expect me to believe that you killed off Olivert, Toval and the Viscount offscreen in a random cutscene, and then five seconds later show me Crow in perfect health and with his memory back? Nobody ever dies in this series. They'll be fine.

Final impressions later.

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I liked the final dungeon and the final (well, hardly a fight, I mean the very, very last one where Rean loses it) battle.

CS3 was my second favorite Trails behind 3rd (Zero and Ao unranked because while I watched every story scene + nearly all NPC dialogue doesn't feel fair to try and fit them in a ranking) though.

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Solfadore posted...

Also game, do you seriously expect me to believe that you killed off Olivert, Toval and the Viscount offscreen in a random cutscene, and then five seconds later show me Crow in perfect health and with his memory back? Nobody ever dies in this series. They'll be fine.

Agreed but I hope that Millium stays dead

I actually really liked Millium in this game despite kind of hating her in the first 2.

For the most part I didn't care at all about the Old Class VII members in CS3 at any point, but she was great and I also thought Machias had somewhat of a cool part.
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My overall impression of the game is mixed. As a whole, I'd say it's better than the first two (certainly better than CS2, and probably better than CS1), but not by all that much. What may not have helped is that I played this right on the tails of the Crossbell duology, which benefits from a much tighter plot, sound pacing and a better-developed core cast of characters.

Plot
I found the pacing to be inconsistent, and the game seemed to be treading water for quite some time. The fact that the first 60-65% of the game's plot can be boiled down to 'Ouroboros does experiments for mysterious reasons', without any sort of payoff to those experiments, is quite problematic. Contrast that with even buildup-heavy games, like Trails FC and Zero no Kiseki, who manage to get in some big chunks of world-building and character development while building up to satisfying payoff.

When the game centers on Osborne & crew's plots, it shines - and the end of Crossbell's 1st day (as well as, to a lesser extent, the party in Valflame Palace) was absolutely the highlight of the game for that reason. Problem is it doesn't give them much to do and spends entirely too much time on Ouroboros' 2nd fiddle and a wide array of Jaegers we care little about, as well as an escapade into a random filler Dragon dungeon that made absolutely no impact on the plot.

Fingers crossed that CS4 doesn't turn out like CS2, but I'm concerned it might, judging by where we left off.

CS1 > CS3 >>> CS2

Characters
Much more encouraging here - I found the new Class VII to be an altogether much stronger crew than the old one, and the game seems to be getting back to its 'less characters, more development' roots, as opposed to the plethora of undeveloped, one-note characters that were in the old Class VII (where only Jusis and Sara had a modicum of depth). It could afford to give less screentime to the old crew, in fact, to allow the new ones to shine a bit more.

Juna has some solid development in the 2nd chapter, and has a simple, but effective dynamic with Rean. Ash is great (yes, even despite the fast one he pulled on the Emperor), and Musse is the best character in the crew half the time, and its worst offender on the other. If CS4 can tone down the flirt dial, she has room to improve. Kurt and Altina were kinda whatever, but at least they weren't too offensive.

It's fun to see Rean in an instructor role, where he shines much more positively than as a generic student.

Outside of Class VII, the best "new" character this game is probably Cedric, who I found very effective in his role of unlikable villain and who surprisingly managed to avoid being irritating or obnoxious. Aurelia's antics remained fairly fun the whole way through, and I still have a soft spot for Major Irving. Claire got some solid development as well, though on the flipside Sharon has regressed.

New Class VII: Ash > Musse > Rean = Juna > Altina > Kurt
Old Class VII: Sara > Jusis > Machias > Fie > Alisa > Laura > Emma > Elliot > Millium > Gaius
Antagonists: Rufus > Osborne > Cedric > Claire > Lechter >>> Duvalie > Sharon > Arianrhod > Campanella > Jaeger King > Shirley > McBurn > Azure Siegfried (did not rank Alberich & George since we barely saw them)

CS3 >> CS1 = CS2

Setting
Clear improvement over the first two games. St. Arkh & Sutherland were a bit dull, but Crossbell was a great setting, and Ordis was a beautiful locale (and my favourite city in this arc thus far). I also prefer Leeves to Trista, though I'm not quite sure why. The complete lack of Nord Highlands is a welcome boon as well!

Gameplay
Order mechanics were pretty cool and gave some much needed depth to the Brave Point system. Less sure what to think about Break, but probably a good thing still overall. My main concern, gameplay-wise, is that the difficulty level was all over the place, with some genuinely hard fights (Chap 1 Shirley/Duvalie; Chap 2 Campanella/McBurn; Chap 3 Arianrhod), and a whole lot of others being complete jokes, up to and including everything in the final dungeon.

Mech fights felt very, very scripted, to the point where I didn't feel I could really lose so long as I did the obviously good decision every turn (attack the weakpoint, impede where needed, unleash Unite when you have the BP and heal when needed).

Strangely enough, the Keep was a bit of a downgrade over the old schoolhouse from the first game. For the latter, you at least felt like you were progressing towards a plot development, as opposed to being complete filler. I think the game is stronger if you simply remove the Keep (and find something else for the characters to do in the Prologue).

Music
Some great tunes still (Step Ahead being my clear favourite, though the theme that plays against the enforcers/jaegers/Ironbloods in the final dungeon is solid as well), but overall I think there were a few more better tunes in the first two games. Nothing to complain about, though.

Overall verdict
Best game in the Erebonia arc, though that is not saying much. Ranking is as follows, but then again, it may very well change as time passes - likely for the better, as playing this right on the tails of Ao just highlighted the deficiencies more.

Ao > Sky FC > Sky 3rd > Sky SC > Zero > CS3 >> CS1 >>> CS2

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My overall ranking: Sky SC > Ao > Sky The 3rd > CS3 > Zero > Sky FC > CS1 > CS2

For me Cold Steel 3 is saved by having a strong core cast, good gameplay, and a really good first 2 chapters even if they didn't end up building to anything I cared about. I do have problems with the overall plot of the game though, which I think I've pretty much already brought up in the topic.

Also Cold Steel 3 has Vantage Masters which is something none of the other games can say, and is probably legitimately a contributing factor >.>

I don't know what to expect for Cold Steel IV. I could easily see it ending up very bad for similar reasons to what I think you're implying. But on the other hand, I think one of the things holding CS3 back is that it had to keep the player in the dark for as long as it did, so it might be that my interest increases now that (presumably) all the cards are on the table and they can just tell the story they want. Also I'm hoping that the return of (CS4 character appearance spoilers?) the SSS and the Brights can improve things. It's also been a somewhat divisive game--some of the fans really don't like it but there are also some long-time fans who will swear by it. So I don't know--we'll see. I'm also told it still has Vantage Masters...

CS3 has my least favorite soundtrack by a longshot, but I've never seen eye-to-eye with the fanbase on this issue.
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Great topic and a nice refresher. The Crossbell bit was the highlight for me. So glad i played the Crossbell games last summer as that part of the game would've lost some of the magic without it. I'm hopeful we get CS4 in September but i can't see it coming until October earliest.

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pyresword posted...

CS3 has my least favorite soundtrack by a longshot, but I've never seen eye-to-eye with the fanbase on this issue.

I don't think it has a lot of great tracks (and it's kinda hurt by not having a real final boss theme), but Spiral of Erebos is my favorite dungeon theme in the series.

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