The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3 coming to Nintendo Switch in Spring 2020 [US/Europe; later in Japan]

[Jannyish]

The Trails Community needs to seriously put the brakes on that gatekeeping. I do understand and agree playing all games in the series is the ideal way to play them, but I am living proof you can start with CS1 and enjoy it, and others are living proof you can start with CS3 and enjoy it (there aren't many who have done that, but that is mostly courtesy of said gatekeeping....).

Seriously guys. It's not helping the series. Anyone would be scared by the commitment of playing so many long games, some of which not even localized, so all you are doing is keeping people from enjoying it at all. It's like you're trying to keep this niche at all costs.

That aside, let us not forget that the series is spread over multiple platforms as it is, and as far as gamers are concerned I am sure the Switch is not the only platform they ever owned, so they might just have played the other games elsewhere.

Also I am sorry but I giggled at the people judging NISA for not porting the other 2 CS games first without having a clue. XD

I'll be in, vastly prefer this on a handheld to console. Even if it means that I can't transfer my game from Vita to Switch.

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There is no save file transfer between CS2 and CS3 anyways, even if you play all of them on PS4, cause CS3 was built for PS4, so a transfer from Vita or PS3 wouldn't have been possible in the first place.

I more mean collab with NISA for a western switch release.

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This seems highly unlikely. But then again Ori and The Blind Forest and Cuphead are on Switch so at this point, anything is possible.

 

[TK_Shrodes]

Not to be port begging, but no PC port? Did NISA abandon Steam after the disastrous Disgaea 5 stuff?

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We'd never abandon PC. We currently have The Alliance Alive in development for PC as well as the Langrisser I & II and Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (not to mention our titles released since Disgaea 5 Complete including killer7 and The Caligula Effect Overdose). Disgaea 5 Complete was a singular aberration that is basically impossible to replicate with our current process.

Also, you just said you weren't going to port beg!

 

[leesmapman]

This enlarges the chances for the localization for ToCS4 :-) Make it happen (and Ys 9)

 

[Naha-]

Well, i'm glad more people have access to play Trails games. Even if CS3 is not a good place to start but still. Maybe there are some players that played the first 2 Cold Steel games with a Vita.

Hopefully this could mean that a eventual Crossbell localization for the West would be available in the Switch too, as I don't see myself replaying those games with my PS4.

 

[Arcana Wiz]

Is there a story reason?

Either way, that makes me feel better about playing the first two on PC and then going to Switch.

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No. CS1 and 2 were originally ps3/Vita games. CS3 is a PS4 game. Its very hard to do save transfer between different platforms.

 

[momerath]

The Trails Community needs to seriously put the brakes on that gatekeeping.

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Agree 100%. It's some of the worst I've seen in any fandom.

 

[Blackie]

Depends on what you play JRPG's for. Some people just like playing through an RPG for the gameplay. Others care more about the plot and getting maximum emotional impact out of story scenes. Certain scenes will have a lot more impact on the player if they spent 80+ hours around certain characters versus 2 hours. (and the games kind of assume that kind of attachment on behalf of the player) But that kind of impact is not important for everyone.

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There's a backstory for the first two games.

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You can always just watch the cutscenes on YouTube or read a summary, I suppose. You really shouldn't go into this without being familiar with at least the previous two games though.

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Era keeps telling me this series is so great, but I am usually too lazy to play anything on PC. Now that it's on Switch you guys have me thinking maybe I should buy it, watch previous games recap on Youtube, and/or...? Gah! I don't know. Maybe I will actually just get 1 and 2 first 0.o

 

[Busaiku]

Anybody who said that you can't start from Trails of Cold Steel is definitely wrong.
Unless this game drastically changes things, I have never once felt lost in the first 2 games.

 

[Apollo]

You can definitely play CS1/2/3 without Sky or Crossbell. I think they're better with them (most notably in the case of 3 and Crossbell), but you can definitely just stick to Cold Steel. But I'll always strongly advise playing CS 1/2 before playing CS 3. I don't view that as gatekeeping so much as giving good advice. This is a game with a massive cast of playable characters, the significant majority of which are returning characters who are continuing arcs that are already ~150 hours development deep. To say nothing of the country the game takes place in which is itself deep in the middle of an arc of social upheaval. If CS3 did more to make these arcs understandable for newer players, that would have been great. But unfortunately that's just not the case. If knowing that, you still want to go in? That's definitely your choice to make. But I don't think we should just pretend that it offers a good onboarding experience, because it absolutely doesn't. Individual tolerances to this will vary wildly, so I think it's good for prospective players to know before they dump money into it.

 

[Champion]

A niche 3rd party game and the narrative around the series is that you need to play previous installments.

Let it flop.

 

[Delusibeta]

Ultimately, I don't think Xseed will fund Switch ports for Cold Steel 1 & 2, since that would basically only really benefit NISA in the long run. However, if a third party (read: NISA) funded said Switch ports, then I doubt Xseed will completely rule out licensing their English translation and/or the English dub. Bigger problem would be the French, since I think it would be reasonable for them to assume that if NISA is going back to Cold Steel 1 & 2, they would also take the time to roll out a French localisation to match Cold Steel 3 & 4. And, well, that's going to cost a chunk of change.

 

[Thuddert]

The Trails Community needs to seriously put the brakes on that gatekeeping.

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We can dance around it all we want, the fact stays this is the third game in the Erebonia arc and the eight game in the Trails series. The one that keeps upping the barrier is Falcom by not taking care of the back catalogue with each entry.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to start with this game (from a player's perspective). Like yeah it's possible and they do a good job of introducing and reintroducing characters as well as supplying material to read backgrounds, but it's certainly not something I'd recommend doing.

If new players enjoy it enough to dive back, then that's a plus. However this is definitely a game made with the fans in mind. So if players drop out because it gets too confusing, while that's one extra sale, it's essentially a net loss for the fandom.

Nobody can stop people from trying of course and that's their choice. The community is there to help guide players as well as provide a place to exchange their thoughts and opinions.

This is just my take on it as someone that's been active in this community and also as someone that has played previous games.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

Yes! It is included (though you have to click in the left stick rather than the PS4's touch pad activation).

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Will it be on the Switch version as well?

 

[Pedro]

We knew at the time of CS3's release that typos and other little mistakes in the script were being collected to maybe be fixed with a future patch. Are there any news on that/will the Switch version have such fixes built in?

 

[Deleted member 49438]

The Trails Community needs to seriously put the brakes on that gatekeeping. I do understand and agree playing all games in the series is the ideal way to play them, but I am living proof you can start with CS1 and enjoy it, and others are living proof you can start with CS3 and enjoy it (there aren't many who have done that, but that is mostly courtesy of said gatekeeping....).

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I feel like the vast majority of the fandom on Era at least has said that it's fine to start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 . I know when I was looking into this series multiple people said Cold Steel is a fine place to start, but to be aware that Cold Steel 3 address a lot of the stuff in the Crossbell games. I recently bought the Trails in the Sky games, so now I'm going to work my way through those, but I was able to start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 without feeling like I missed much to this point.

 

[Flame Lord]

The Trails Community needs to seriously put the brakes on that gatekeeping. I do understand and agree playing all games in the series is the ideal way to play them, but I am living proof you can start with CS1 and enjoy it, and others are living proof you can start with CS3 and enjoy it (there aren't many who have done that, but that is mostly courtesy of said gatekeeping....).

Seriously guys. It's not helping the series. Anyone would be scared by the commitment of playing so many long games, some of which not even localized, so all you are doing is keeping people from enjoying it at all. It's like you're trying to keep this niche at all costs.

That aside, let us not forget that the series is spread over multiple platforms as it is, and as far as gamers are concerned I am sure the Switch is not the only platform they ever owned, so they might just have played the other games elsewhere.

Also I am sorry but I giggled at the people judging NISA for not porting the other 2 CS games first without having a clue. XD

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I would think higher of people who tried to lead people to the best experience than just telling people to buy whatever for my benefit. The Sky games are all on PC and can be ran on nearly any PC from the last decade, maybe even earlier, so I don't think telling people to start there is asking too much. I also started with the Cold Steel games and went backward, but I have a lot of time on my hands and was able to playthrough them again with that new knowledge, but others might not have that chance.

 

[Mgs2master2]

I started with CS 1 and 2 and it was the perfect entry point. sure you might miss some minor things but the CS games do fine as they ar their own contained stories. CS 3 is where things include other stories/characters, but its nothing immersion breaking. it flows really well.

 

[Tohsaka]

The Trails Community needs to seriously put the brakes on that gatekeeping. I do understand and agree playing all games in the series is the ideal way to play them, but I am living proof you can start with CS1 and enjoy it, and others are living proof you can start with CS3 and enjoy it (there aren't many who have done that, but that is mostly courtesy of said gatekeeping....).

Seriously guys. It's not helping the series. Anyone would be scared by the commitment of playing so many long games, some of which not even localized, so all you are doing is keeping people from enjoying it at all. It's like you're trying to keep this niche at all costs.

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It's not gatekeeping to tell people it's a bad idea to start a story-heavy series in the eighth entry. Would you recommend someone to start reading a novel series in the sixth or eight book, or randomly pick up a TV series in the eighth season? I know I wouldn't. One of the main appeals of the Trails series is the overarching plot and setting in Zemuria, it's not something like Final Fantasy where almost all the games are unrelated to each other.

 

[Nightengale]

Stop worrying about the 7 games in the franchise that you've never played.

If CS3 on Switch interest you, just give it a shot.

 

[Nightengale]

It's not gatekeeping to tell people it's a bad idea to start a story-heavy series in the eighth entry. Would you recommend someone to start reading a novel series in the sixth or eight book, or randomly pick up a TV series in the eighth season? I know I wouldn't. One of the main appeals of the Trails series is the overarching plot and setting in Zemuria, it's not something like Final Fantasy where almost all the games are unrelated to each other.

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No I wouldn't. But if they are even remotely interested in a product that I feel has enough of a 'there's a summary included, there's enough of a main story to follow, etc etc' then I wouldn't actively dissuade them from giving something a shot.

They can always go back and give CS1 or Sky or Zero a shot if their experience with CS3 expands their interest in Trails. Different people have different sense of weight and attachment to overarching lore and the importance of knowing the full story beforehand.

 

[jacks81x]

If people want to play this as their first Trails game, by all means. I do wish CS 1-2 could be on the Switch too so Switch-only owners can at least play through the CS series in order as there are some major plot points in CSIII that would have little emotional impact to them if they never played CS1-2, but I suppose getting one CS game is better than getting no CS game at all.

 

[ChaosSaga]

Well the longer the Trails sub series get, the worse Falcon will be with the series.

And since they don't have the manpower to modernize the old trails games... things will start to get even worse for newcommers.

 

[TK_Shrodes]

Will it be on the Switch version as well?

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Yup! That's what I meant by left stick rather than touch pad.

We knew at the time of CS3's release that typos and other little mistakes in the script were being collected to maybe be fixed with a future patch. Are there any news on that/will the Switch version have such fixes built in?

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Yup!

 

[Łazy]

Era keeps telling me this series is so great, but I am usually too lazy to play anything on PC. Now that it's on Switch you guys have me thinking maybe I should buy it, watch previous games recap on Youtube, and/or...? Gah! I don't know. Maybe I will actually just get 1 and 2 first 0.o

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Get it. At this point it's getring to complicated to pmay all kn order even if you read japanese.
Just don't play in order if ever but wait and experience yourself the games that eventually come out.
That's my advice.
Not o mention the more it sells, the more it will make people realise the series needs to come.

It's not gatekeeping to tell people it's a bad idea to start a story-heavy series in the eighth entry. Would you recommend someone to start reading a novel series in the sixth or eight book, or randomly pick up a TV series in the eighth season? I know I wouldn't. One of the main appeals of the Trails series is the overarching plot and setting in Zemuria, it's not something like Final Fantasy where almost all the games are unrelated to each other.

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The thing is each arc have their own stories and each game has its own too.
I also used to think it was bad to begin in the middle but I'm changing my mind seeing how hard it can be to do so anyway.

I think it might still be interesting to try it in a sifferent way and actually have "flashback" gaming for past events basically.

It's probably better than never experiencing at all.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

Yup! That's what I meant by left stick rather than touch pad.

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Perfect! Your responses have all been great! Can't wait to play it!

 

[Hero of Legend]

Yup! That's what I meant by left stick rather than touch pad.



Yup!

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My question is since the Switch version is 720p and 30fps in both docked and portable modes, what advantage does docked have over portable in performance if any at all.

 

[Łazy]

Again, surprised no one calls me out to answer questions around here, *huff*.

We're really excited to be working with Engine again. They are doing a terrific job on this version.

Whoever said that Switch is basically where the Vita fanbase went (and then some), cookies for you.

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Hi, sorry to bother you.
Do you have any idea (can you answer if you know) when the game will come to Japan ?
I'm one of these portable player of the series and play the me whole in japanese so I'm waiting for this one.
And I'll wait as much as I have to. Just curious.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

excellent idea to bring it over to the Switch.

Horrible idea to bring it over without any of the other LoH games

 

[Sgs2008]

Wow coming to switch before pc ?

 

[TK_Shrodes]

My question is since the Switch version is 720p and 30fps in both docked and portable modes, what advantage does docked have over portable in performance if any at all.

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I'ma just say that we'll likely cover this in an upcoming update.

 

[Hero of Legend]

I'ma just say that we'll likely cover this in an upcoming update.

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Works for me. Thanks! :)

 

[Terraforce]

Not really, I'm sure there's a lot of people like me that already played most of the franchise and would prefer the handheld version.

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Some, sure. "A lot" I doubt. We didn't even know it was coming to switch until several months after release

 

[TheThirstyPrisoner]

I'll be in, vastly prefer this on a handheld to console. Even if it means that I can't transfer my game from Vita to Switch.

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Agreed.
I bought the game on PS4 despite the fact that I don't recall ever completing an RPG on a console. I've finished every other Trails game (even Zero and Ao) on a PSP or Vita—I'll definitely double dip on Switch just so I can actually continue with the series (assuming IV will also come to Switch).

 

[Jawmuncher]

A shame about the NISA and Xseed wonkiness of licensing impacting everyone but PS4 players from either getting into the series or continuing it all on one platform when it comes to specifically cold steel.

 

[Jannyish]

We can dance around it all we want, the fact stays this is the third game in the Erebonia arc and the eight game in the Trails series. The one that keeps upping the barrier is Falcom by not taking care of the back catalogue with each entry.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to start with this game (from a player's perspective). Like yeah it's possible and they do a good job of introducing and reintroducing characters as well as supplying material to read backgrounds, but it's certainly not something I'd recommend doing.

If new players enjoy it enough to dive back, then that's a plus. However this is definitely a game made with the fans in mind. So if players drop out because it gets too confusing, while that's one extra sale, it's essentially a net loss for the fandom.

Nobody can stop people from trying of course and that's their choice. The community is there to help guide players as well as provide a place to exchange their thoughts and opinions.

This is just my take on it as someone that's been active in this community and also as someone that has played previous games.

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I feel like the vast majority of the fandom on Era at least has said that it's fine to start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 . I know when I was looking into this series multiple people said Cold Steel is a fine place to start, but to be aware that Cold Steel 3 address a lot of the stuff in the Crossbell games. I recently bought the Trails in the Sky games, so now I'm going to work my way through those, but I was able to start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 without feeling like I missed much to this point.

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I would think higher of people who tried to lead people to the best experience than just telling people to buy whatever for my benefit. The Sky games are all on PC and can be ran on nearly any PC from the last decade, maybe even earlier, so I don't think telling people to start there is asking too much. I also started with the Cold Steel games and went backward, but I have a lot of time on my hands and was able to playthrough them again with that new knowledge, but others might not have that chance.

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It's not gatekeeping to tell people it's a bad idea to start a story-heavy series in the eighth entry. Would you recommend someone to start reading a novel series in the sixth or eight book, or randomly pick up a TV series in the eighth season? I know I wouldn't. One of the main appeals of the Trails series is the overarching plot and setting in Zemuria, it's not something like Final Fantasy where almost all the games are unrelated to each other.

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All of you are right but this is not what I am getting at. It's fine, especially if someone asks, to tell them that starting with the third game in an Arc might not be the best of ideas, but that it's possible to enjoy it that way, it's just not ideal.

What is not okay in my books is coming into a thread about a port, and the only thing you say is "Wow they really fucked up with this one, there is no way in hell anyone who hasn't played the first two CS games/all Trails games could possibly enjoy this so what is the point?"

Cause a) that is not true. You can enjoy it and people have. If you wanna help people decide at least be nuanced about your information and tell them it might not be the ideal way, but it's entirely possible to enjoy it. Just straight up telling them not to do it is gatekeeping in my books.

And b) nobody asked. If someone asks, and you reply to them, it's fine. But the topic of this thread is not "Should I start playing CS3 first?" but simply a port announcement. If people don't asks this in here (which some have, replying to those is fine), they don't come in here to discuss this question. Some may come in here to just be like "hey that is great I have always wanted to try this series!" but see the wall of posts telling them not to even try, it's a bad bad idea. Then they look up what they may need to do to be able to start at the right point and I guarantee you, 50% decide against playing it at all. Like I said, if someone gives context and nuance when telling people about how to play this series then that is fine, but if it's just "no don't do it!!!" that ain't helping anyone.

Oh and Flame Lord, I know this is mostly just the choice of words and you don't actually mean it that way, but just in case: You can't ask anyone to do anything when it comes to games. They don't owe you or anyone to play any games. Even if it is super old ones that run on pretty much any PC. Guess what. I didn't play the Sky games cause this is 2k19 and I don't even have a PC (that doesn't need 2 hours just to even boot up), because you don't need it anymore nowadays. So yeah.

 

[duckroll]

A shame about the NISA and Xseed wonkiness of licensing impacting everyone but PS4 players from either getting into the series or continuing it all on one platform when it comes to specifically cold steel.

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The only shame is Falcom caring more about nepotism than consistently of publishing in the west.

 

[Pooroomoo]

Well I'll buy and play the game without having played the previous ones.

I might watch cutscenes from CS1 and 2 on Youtube first - if people watched and enjoyed Game of Thrones on TV without reading the books (with the TV series being definitely a lesser experience as far as I am concerned if you haven't read the books), I seriously doubt I will need to actually play CS1 and 2 to enjoy CS3. Cutscenes should be more than enough.

 

[Salmander]

So I played the first trails (FC) years ago and then was waiting for SC to come over and just lost interest in the sequel. I tried to pick up CS on my vita since there's no way I was going to go through the hassle of emulating the never-localized games to get the "full story" but it started off so slowly that I lost interest. I do have both CS I and II on vita so honestly with this announcement it's maybe time to power through all the games? Such a backlog though why does Falcom do this...

 

[ChrisD]

This should be awesome but without 1 and 2 it's really... not, lol

 

[Deleted member 9746]

Well I'll buy and play the game without having played the previous ones.

I might watch cutscenes from CS1 and 2 on Youtube first - if people watched and enjoyed Game of Thrones on TV without reading the books (with the TV series being definitely a lesser experience as far as I am concerned if you haven't read the books), I seriously doubt I will need to actually play CS1 and 2 to enjoy CS3. Cutscenes should be more than enough.

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[sanhora]

I wonder where the PC fanbase will go.

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[Pooroomoo]

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Thanks! That's the first part of an entire walkthrough though, right? Maybe I'll go through the prologue (if it is more important as an exposition), but then I think I will look for an "only cutscenes" version or something like that, and skip through that (since that would be long as well, just not as long as a walkthrough). Incomplete, sure, but so is watching Game of Thrones without having read the books, which is what most people did. So much is lost if you haven't read the books, yet lots of people still had a great time just watching the TV series.

 

[lucancel]

Really It Is like others explained.
If you can play previous games It Is Better.
But di not let this stop you to play this One.
It Is like watching only the Avengers movies vs watching all Marvel movies (antman, doctor strange and so on) and than Avengers infinity ward. The plus Is in Avengers characters are not introduced that much compared to cold steel 3 which details every new face coming. So my advice Is not to take seriously the gatekeeping of some (many) falcom fans here and in other places.
More reasons to Jump imho Is that
1 this a jrpg franchise with consistent quality and with a constant flow of releases and entering new fresh arcs in the future years so of you enjoy It you are ready for many hours of gameplay
2 you will not find a world as detailed and characters detailed like this elsewhere.
They do not do jrpg like this anymore.
dq and xenoblade are similar but cannot compare because the plot in this franchise Is growing with each release.

that aside what size will this be on switch?
should i buy and sd looking also forward cs 4 ?

 

[Erpy]

Thanks! That's the first part of an entire walkthrough though, right? Maybe I'll go through the prologue (if it is more important as an exposition), but then I think I will look for an "only cutscenes" version or something like that, and skip through that (since that would be long as well, just not as long as a walkthrough). Incomplete, sure, but so is watching Game of Thrones without having read the books, which is what most people did. So much is lost if you haven't read the books, yet lots of people still had a great time just watching the TV series.

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That's not really an accurate analogy. It's actually more like starting the Game of Thrones TV series with Season 4 while having watched the summaries/recaps on the DVD's, rather than watching the series without having read the books. The TV series was created to be followed on its own without knowledge from the books being required, but emotional impact still depends on people having experienced what came before, rather than merely knowing the events in general. (like Arya Stark repeating Pollivers words back to him and him comprehending their meaning just before getting shivved in the neck)

2 you will not find a world as detailed and characters detailed like this elsewhere.

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The ironic thing is that people who jump in with CS3 are unlikely to appreciate this until they actually get around to experiencing the full picture. Until then, running into NPC's like Becky isn't really likely to strike a chord if you didn't spend 50+ hours getting familiar with their lives and one of the best aspects of the Cold Steel arc, the Thors students and their mini-plotlines, will be completely lost on late arrivals since summaries and cutscene walkthroughs completely skip them.

 

[Zedark]

Trails of Cold Steel games have great gameplay, so it's worth it for that alone. I don't know if you can make heads or tails of the story without TOCS1 and 2, but you should still be able to enjoy the game even if story comprehension is sub-optimal I think.

 

[Pooroomoo]

That's not really an accurate analogy. It's actually more like starting the Game of Thrones TV series with Season 4 while having watched the summaries/recaps on the DVD's, rather than watching the series without having read the books. The TV series was created to be followed on its own without knowledge from the books being required, but emotional impact still depends on people having experienced what came before, rather than merely knowing the events in general. (like Arya Stark repeating Pollivers words back to him and him comprehending their meaning just before getting shivved in the neck)

The ironic thing is that people who jump in with CS3 are unlikely to appreciate this until they actually get around to experiencing the full picture. Until then, running into NPC's like Becky isn't really likely to strike a chord if you didn't spend 50+ hours getting familiar with their lives and one of the best aspects of the Cold Steel arc, the Thors students and their mini-plotlines, will be completely lost on late arrivals since summaries and cutscene walkthroughs completely skip them.

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Have you actually read the books, especially the first three? Because the kind of things you describe in your second paragraph (starting with "the ironic thing") are exactly the type of things that people who only saw the series missed. And that's part of it, there is so much missing from the tv series it's not even funny (and some things that are covered are done so in like a mili second, so if you blink you miss them). What I am saying is, if people were fine with the series while (unbeknownst to them) they were missing a lot of plotlines, events, extra characters, character interactions and character buildup from the books, they should also be even more fine if they spend several hours catching up on CS1 and CS2 and then start CS3.

 

[Deleted member 26768]

Well I'll buy and play the game without having played the previous ones.

I might watch cutscenes from CS1 and 2 on Youtube first - if people watched and enjoyed Game of Thrones on TV without reading the books (with the TV series being definitely a lesser experience as far as I am concerned if you haven't read the books), I seriously doubt I will need to actually play CS1 and 2 to enjoy CS3. Cutscenes should be more than enough.

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[Deleted member 5596]

People can enjoy the media however they see fit, if you want to watch only the last hour of the Irishman because is too long for you, whatever makes you happy.

But there's a thing that irks me: fans of the game aren't gatekeeping anything, the very own concept of the series it's what gatekeeps it.

If someone tells you that "maybe you should really start from the first book instead of checking the last one" is not gatekeeping you, is the fact that's how the author of the book series wrote it's books.

You can play CS3 without playing 1 and 2? Of course. Without playing the original trilogy? Yeah, why not. Is playing those games too much time or are on platforms you don't own? Hey try the game and maybe you'll enjoy it.

But when people says "You should try to play the whole series" is not trying to force you not play starting from CS3, cuz ultimately that's your choice.

What those people are saying is that the main appeal of the series is that is a continuous storyline that sprawls 9 games and counting. Is almost a unique case on the JRPG genre, if not unique (KH continuity is just a bunch of mumbo jambo terminology). The series on its own is nothing that special, yeah the battle system is fun, music is very good, etc... But overall it would be just another decent JRPG, one of the many (specially the last games, original trilogy are better written games).

Honestly, if I played starting CS1... I probably wouldn't be here telling all this. What hooked me was the original trilogy, it's characters, it world building and that s what keeps me on the train, because sure is not the constant adoption of the worst recent Anime tropes the series has been getting since CS.

Meeting old characters and seeing it's story arcs be completed, getting new nuggets of knowledge of the overarching plot, the dim political themes that are still there, etc...

Those are the things I play for and I think it's what make the series that special and unique in gaming. So, if you want to watch a 10 hour video of PSone level of cutscene animation and production to play CS3, be free to do so, but my recommendation? Play the series from start if you can and enjoy the ride many (well... The dozens of us) people like me made, if it resonates on you like it did on us, it would be something special and you will miss it if you start on this game.

 

[Dragon1893]

I mean, the game has a 3 in the title. Unless anyone things that these are self contained games like Final Fantasy, they're perfectly aware of the fact that they're jumping into a story halfway through. It's their call.

 

[Jannyish]

I wonder where the PC fanbase will go.

Click to shrink...

Well.... If we were to look at this seriously, Switch seems to be THE secondary system for PC players (because it is different enough in what it offers from PC to warrant it). So.... 💁‍♀️