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It's not the only reason why (didn't care for the pacing or loop of CS2 thanks to how much ground there was to cover to avoid missing anything, same for how it actually handled much of its story once it was time for the civil war CS1 set up to play out), but being a better take on what CS1 did is part of it at least. And even as someone who never agrees whenever anyone insists that Persona 5 was too long, I absolutely did consider CS2 to be a game that just didn't know when to end already.
Based on what you're looking for both thematically and aesthetically, I would've recommended against starting this one.
This is the direction that Trails jumped off in starting around Ao (as far as more weeb stuff/otaku pandering is concerned), and it's pretty much never looked back.
Yeah, if it boils down to someone hating anime games for the tropes and cliches often associated with them, then nothing about that's going to change (especially if everything about it annoys them rather than specific instances, things like the repeat of the Alisa and Rean gag with Juna and Kurt along with a certain later scene with Duvalie and Shirley being examples of what I could've done without).
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If I hadn't done 95% of my playthrough of CS at work, this gameplay loop would have driven me crazy.
I think the fatigue hit me only during CS4 so I was more resilient to it than others I've heard talk about this around before CS3 released in Japan. But yeah I def hope that even beyond Hajimari(unless the whole structure change was just me imagining info) that we'll get more longer staying changes to the loop.
It's a relatively small thing, like I'm sure I can put up with it but I think it would be healthy to have some change up to keep the series fresh.
I somehow just fast forwarded through a bunch of dialogue and I have no idea how I did it.
Cold Steel 3. Any ideas? I don't want it to happen again lol
Cold Steel 3. Any ideas? I don't want it to happen again lol
Having made the same mistake once myself, which required me to reload and go through those scenes again, I forgot what I ended up pressing. Probably one of the shoulder buttons triggered it.
It's not just that, though. It's that they even recycle their old ideas (which were bad to begin with). CS2 at least had a different take on the gameplay loop. CS3 so far is CS1 all over again, down to the same patterns, story beats, gags, even the same school clubs... like, what the fuck. Shonen clichés are bad enough but when you recycle your own clichés you've truly lost the plot.
I'm still early and I hope it'll at least come into its own game soon, but this is not a good start for sure.
If you bring up the message log in scenes with unskippable dialogue in Cold Steel 3, the character currently speaking will stop and the scene will skip to the next line of dialogue as soon as you exit the message log. If you hit up on the D-pad and immediately cancel, you will fast forward through speaking lines that cannot normally be skipped. I abused this trick a lot after I learned it, since I read much faster than characters speak.
That said, I was annoyed that I even had to resort to this dumb trick.
It's one of the shoulder buttons, I'm pretty sure. I did the same thing by accident two or three times. You can see what text you missed with the message log, so a little bit of fast forwarding shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Oi, this is relevant to my interests!
So, if I understand correctly, in those moments, I hit R1 or L1, which will skip the entire scene, but I can then just read the message log?
L1 quickly fast forward through scenes. Pressing start gives you the option to skip them entirely.
I finished Chapter 1 of CS3. This shit is already getting wild with the story and set pieces haha. So many characters, I can see why you would be very confused if you hadn't watched/played Sky and Crossbell now. I still think you could get by but my god....so.many.characters.
I'm digging that the games pacing is basically CS1, I loved CS2 but something about CS1 was just so homey and I loved getting to know the characters, and that's what I'm getting all over again with this game.
The graphics for the areas is so much nicer in this game as well, I'm excited to see some more of the towns and such.
(Also am I safe to assume there are 4 chapters and a finale type chapter?)
I'm digging that the games pacing is basically CS1, I loved CS2 but something about CS1 was just so homey and I loved getting to know the characters, and that's what I'm getting all over again with this game.
The graphics for the areas is so much nicer in this game as well, I'm excited to see some more of the towns and such.
(Also am I safe to assume there are 4 chapters and a finale type chapter?)
Beat CS3 this past weekend. Thankfully, the final battle(s) went by super painlessly, CS2's final boss gauntlet (with a few game freezes in there for good measure) made me want to throw my controller through the TV.
Didn't like the direction of the story, the changing of alliances, etc that happened during chapter 5, and from what I heard, CS4 falls a bit short in tying everything together. But overall, CS3 probably my favorite rpg of the gen, I love the subtle tweaks to the battle system... wish we saw a bit more of Erebonia, like the southwest, or
tho.
Didn't like the direction of the story, the changing of alliances, etc that happened during chapter 5, and from what I heard, CS4 falls a bit short in tying everything together. But overall, CS3 probably my favorite rpg of the gen, I love the subtle tweaks to the battle system... wish we saw a bit more of Erebonia, like the southwest, or
Jurai and North Ambria
I didn't have too much problem with the CS2 boss gauntlet except for...
The final fight against Testa Rossa where it decided that I would have to use two parties to fight the fucking boss. Most of my class was pretty high level but I had a few people I hadn't used at all that were still like level 114 and I got my fucking ass handed to me because of it.
Crow and Vita
Also, one question my girlfriend wonders about Trails... how come whenever something important happens, or whenever a big fight is about to begin, every party member needs to get a say (usually with throwaway lines)? I didn't really notice it till she mentioned. Like, I love the series, but there's a lot of padding in the dialogue and gameplay that could certainly be trimmed...
That'a a very popular Japanese/Anime trope. It's not something unique to Trails at all sadly lol. The Tales games are super bad about this too. The boss and characters spend 15 minutes discussing their motivations before fighting lol.
It doesn't bother me much, but I still notice it.
A lot of the dialogue in these types of games are just characters restating what the previous character just said in different words. "We need to work together to get stronger!" --> "I will continue to support you so that we can grow our skills!"
It can be a bit wordy haha.
Because this is a Japanese game. Never watched any anime? Every time an anime villain appears, all the "good guys" need to say some line (usually the same shit) and most of the times they keep talking until the bad guy does the bad thing, because their etiquette mandates that they can't try to impede the enemy to do something bad, they need to wait and then fight. Of course this also means that when a fight is needed, it doesn't matter if the rival is a friend, has good intentions or shares your same goal, the JRPG laws mandate that some fights between party members at random are absolutely necessary.
Sean Chiplock posts long thread about Trails of Cold Steel 5 forward memeing about how Rean will never die.
😂😂😂😂
EDIT: Put the picture into a spoiler tag cause it might be considered one I guess.
Also Sean Chiplock:
😂😂😂😂
Also I am grasping at straws at this point but does this mean we will get 4?
EDIT: Put the picture into a spoiler tag cause it might be considered one I guess.
You mean Hajimari?Sean Chiplock posts long thread about Trails of Cold Steel 5 forward memeing about how Rean will never die.
Also Sean Chiplock:
😂😂😂😂
Also I am grasping at straws at this point but does this mean we will get 4?
EDIT: Put the picture into a spoiler tag cause it might be considered one I guess.
I have a very important question - is there a story reason why Alisa is so pissed on the cover art for Cold Steel IV?
Yes, they're even giving him a sprite in the upcoming PS4 version.
Yes, they're even giving him a sprite in the upcoming PS4 version.
Ah, okay that is pretty cool.
It's an age-old JRPG tradition, perhaps magnified by how many party members there are in Cold Steel.
After I finish CS3 I have to decide if I want to try and mess with the importing and translating of Crossbell or just go play Sky the Third......
Geofront going live might, just might, make me sway towards Crossbell.
You should play 3rd before Crossbell. Zero isn't really a "fresh start" like Cold Steel, it carries over more characters and plot elements from Sky than CS1 and 2 do from the prior games.
I've watched summary videos of all the games. So it doesn't matter. ( I played Sky 1 and 2 however, and all the CS games out in the West, working on 3). I've even seen the videos for Zero/Azure already.
Also I'd say Third is the least important game to play as it's basically never mentioned again in any other game haha. I often joke that it's like it never happened. Some of the Doors had cool little scenes from CS and such but that's about it. I guess the....
Renne scenes would be important for Zero, but even then I think you'd understand having played Sky 2
I would argue the Third is the most important game (at least form the ones I played), since I enjoyed it the most.
To be fair, it only works as well as it does because it can build of the many hours of character building that FC and SC provided for it, but it's nevertheless the most satisfying game of the entire Sky trilogy for me.
To be fair, it only works as well as it does because it can build of the many hours of character building that FC and SC provided for it, but it's nevertheless the most satisfying game of the entire Sky trilogy for me.
Actually
no she doesn't make an appearance in Zero but it continues the plot line of Joshua, Estelle & Renne
3rd is directly and indirectly referenced in both Zero and Ao to varying extents. I wouldn't skip it, especially since it's a great game on its own.
3rd is very important for both Zero and Ao, not to mention Calvard and Cold Steel's conflicts. Given what we know after CS4, the 3rd really is the game that sets the foundation for why Zemuria is the way it is, and the relation that Ouroboros and the Church have with one another.
Don't skip it.
Don't skip it.
I mean it's probably super fun to play but you can definitely watch a summary and be good lol
as much as I rag on the gameplay choices for 3rd, its moments still wouldnt hit nearly as hard if you lets played it. And my contention that its the worst playing game in the series still puts it above the vast majority of games.
How would I know it's acceptable to watch a summary to understand the newer games?
Well one, I've played them so...yeah.
Second, the summary is basically everything that isn't combat or walking around the dungeon. It hits all the story beats, it's nearly 5 hours long for gods sake.
It even covers the optional "doors" and all the story behind them.
Kind of an odd question. The entire purpose of the summary video (which are incredibly well done, go check them out) is to give you everything from the game that isn't combat or "oh I seemed to have lost my kitten can you find it?" side quests that are meaningless to the over all story. (Not that I think any of these exist in 3rd).
It's pretty widely accepted that the summary videos are very good and work at giving you everything you need to know. This isn't something I just made up my guy.
Oh I WANT to play 3rd. But my backlog of like 100 games and all the games coming out this year means I have to pick and choose haha.
you'll watch a five hour recap but won't just play the game? It's only like 20-25 hours lol
the disrespect to third chapter never ends...I don't know how people don't have time to play it but suffer through crap like cold steel 2 chapter 2 scattering a handful of quests across like seven towns and multiple roads over and over. If there is any part of trails that earned a recap video it's that padded bullshit
the disrespect to third chapter never ends...I don't know how people don't have time to play it but suffer through crap like cold steel 2 chapter 2 scattering a handful of quests across like seven towns and multiple roads over and over. If there is any part of trails that earned a recap video it's that padded bullshit
HLTB has Sky the Third at 32-45 hours to beat. And I tend to be higher than the average on games as I meander a lot. (For instance HLTB has CS1 at like 56 hours and it took me 83).
Also at 1.5 speed on Youtube I can watch the 5 hours of videos in closer to 3 hours, and I can watch them on my breaks at work, when I got a 30 minutes to kill etc.....
It literally took me like 2 days of random watching to finish it. I'd have to play 3rd on PC which isn't exactly conductive to short bursts of time.
I'll never understand why the Kiseki fanbase is so personally butt hurt about people not agreeing that playing all 400 hours of the series is some sort of crime.
Not butthurt, just confused that so many people, particularly those that started with cold steel, seem to gloss over one of the best games in the series, esp in comparison to cs 1 and 2. People want to share experiences that they cherished with others. I don't understand how people will run around talking to dozens of NPCs and then decide an entire game just isn't worth playing.
There's no rush to beat these games. Not like geofront is out or something lol. So I just don't understand why someone wouldn't just savor the experience of an amazing soundtrack and farewell to a beloved cast. Third chapter has some of the most poignant moments in the entire series. I just wish you would experience them too, as Falcom intended.