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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3 |OT| The Embers of War
- Thread starter Vylash
- Start date
I'm liking chapter 4 dungeon quite a bit. Feels like a more engrossing and fleshed out version of the one in chapter 3. They'll never get as complex with dungeon design as I would like with this franchise, but I'm content with this, there's enough elements at play for it to feel more engaging than your regular dungeon crawl.
So I started chapter 3 and
Okay but seriously, at this point I am positive they don't show us Yun Ka Fai on purpose. I mean this just now was a classic "whoops you just missed him" - trope.
Also, whenever Rean thinks of people they usually show a picture of them to remind or introduce the player. Not so with Yun Ka Fai. All we ever see is a picture of young Rean and Ka Fai's back. Who the heck is this man? I mean he must become relevant at some point or another, since he is brought up so much.
Well he also said he'd return from the East in about half a year and teach Rean the rest then, so here's to hoping for CS4 (just assuming CS3 is gonna end before that judging by the usual monthly progression pattern).
Also, whenever Rean thinks of people they usually show a picture of them to remind or introduce the player. Not so with Yun Ka Fai. All we ever see is a picture of young Rean and Ka Fai's back. Who the heck is this man? I mean he must become relevant at some point or another, since he is brought up so much.
Well he also said he'd return from the East in about half a year and teach Rean the rest then, so here's to hoping for CS4 (just assuming CS3 is gonna end before that judging by the usual monthly progression pattern).
I think he'll only show up in the Calvard games since he's from there.
Yeah, if he doesn't show up in CS4, I a sure he definitely will then. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they introduced him at the end of the Erebonia Arc already. You know, just like they already introduced a few characters back in the Sky trilogy (Olivert, Mueller, Osborne, Lechter, to name a few). I mean you could argue Sky WAS more of Oliver'ts main arc when it comes to screen time, but he IS from Erebonia, so...
Still on day one of the ch.2 field exercise but I'm loving it.
So many people are here! We got Machias, Alisa, and best witch Emma on the way. We got Vita looking more stylish than ever, we got Sharon looking like she's gonna flip and rejoin the dark side, we got Crow lurking around somehow revived from the dead (just like Fie's old man???) and last but not least we got the most beautiful soul in Erebonia, Prince Olivert (without his dearest Mueller unfortunately, for which Osborne will pay dearly at some point, I'll make sure of it). If you can't tell, I'm excited to see where this is all headed.
Should've been one of the coolest boss battles in the series but was completely ruined by the broken mess that is Milliums battle order.
I almost got wiped out by the enemy's s-craft at the end of chapter 3 hah, but the support team came in and I managed to turn it around.
Yun Ka Fai sounds like Anguis material to me
Well CS iv has been out in Japan for awhile, the only thing left is to hope for a localization announcement. I don't know how many projects NISA has under its belt but do you think CS IV would take a year to localize? But then you also need to factor whatever collector / special edition they plan to come up with, marketing, manufacturing and distribution for a Western release.
Still don't know how well CSIII did. Hopefully well enough for incentivize CS IV being localized.
Still don't know how well CSIII did. Hopefully well enough for incentivize CS IV being localized.
Sen III CE is Sold Out in both European and American NISA store, so we know that at least this edition did well. I don't know how CS IV's script compares to III, I know that III is the largest so far (2nd one is Ao). Also all the work NISA has done to localize this one (and the work they will likely do to patch the game in order to fix text/consistency errors, considering they are accepting feedback in Discord) is work that they won't need to do again for IV.
I think that all the marketing NISA has been doing (bringing Kondo everywhere, lots of merchandising, working to keep as many voice actors as possible...) seems to much for a single game. It's true that they failed with Ys VIII and they want to have a good relation with Falcom, but all the efforts they are putting to both keep the old fanbase happy and to attract newcomers makes me think that CS IV has already been licensed by them, and that the translation is already on the works. Ys IX was released only a few weeks ago and it seems it has even more text than VIII, so I think that CS IV will be released on the west before Ys IX.
Finished Chapter 2 last night with nearly 60 hours on the clock. This game is so fucking long.
I loved getting to use Olivier in my party. It's been too long on that front.
Best part of CS3 IMO. Any game with them playable or at the forefront makes it 10x better
It's a big one for sure but I actually found it really lackluster due to the problem Falcom has with this trope as a whole.
I'm on chapter 2 Field Day, and one nitpick
It might get worse later, but so far, I feel they're doing a pretty good job exposing returning characters and their stakes, as well as past history, to people who have only played CS and CS2. It's obviously incredibly more rewarding if you've played every game leading up to that.
The Geofront fights would be 200% better if they had tweaked the fight theme to Get Over the Barrier.
Still, it's so good to see Crossbell in full 3D. Man, seeing the SSS building like that was such a guy punch. At times, Juna is really there as a stand-in for Crossbell players.
Still, it's so good to see Crossbell in full 3D. Man, seeing the SSS building like that was such a guy punch. At times, Juna is really there as a stand-in for Crossbell players.
It might get worse later, but so far, I feel they're doing a pretty good job exposing returning characters and their stakes, as well as past history, to people who have only played CS and CS2. It's obviously incredibly more rewarding if you've played every game leading up to that.
I'd argue The 3rd and Ao already did a lot of that for their respective times. But yeah, the scale is so much more massive here.
It's Infinity War/Endgame or the Smash Bros Ultimate of the series for sure.
EVERYONE IS HERE.
I am only just wrapping up the free day of Chapter 3, but I continue to love it.
One more thing I realized that makes this better than CS1 for me (despite the similar structure) is that in between field exercises, they discuss and think about what happened at length instead of... Just brushing over it way too quickly. Makes it feel more organic.
I have my problems with Musse's continued sexual harassment of Rean however (yes, that can be verbal too, especially if someone keeps doing it, and she crossed that line LONG ago), she is like Alfin cracked up to 11. I don't necessarily dislike the game for it, because they don't normalize it in the story, the characters keep calling her out over it and Rean isn't having it either (thank goodness he isn't) but it's not giving her sympathy points in my books. Call me prude, idc, this wouldn't be OK in real life so it's not OK in fiction either, as far as I am concerned.
edit:
Before someone points out Shirley's stunt on Duvalie or Angie's advances on the girls in CS1/2, yes, those weren't okay either. Though I don't think I am even supposed to like Shirley, she has more than one screw loose, which may make her interesting from a narrative standpoint, but I definitely wouldn't wanna be her friend. As for Angie, uuuh. Just as bad as Musse, but since Rean wasn't the target of it, and she wasn't in Class 7, I didn't have to hear it all the damn time, so it wasn't as grating.
105 hours later I'm finally at the final chapter.
Chapter 4 was insane, in many ways. Structurally, it's the most different of all, with its big dungeon right in the middle of the chapter instead of the end. And despite of the increased stakes, it's the most talkative and focused on character moments of the bunch.
I don't know if I ended up liking it more than chapter 3, but it is certainly up there.
Chapter 4 was insane, in many ways. Structurally, it's the most different of all, with its big dungeon right in the middle of the chapter instead of the end. And despite of the increased stakes, it's the most talkative and focused on character moments of the bunch.
I don't know if I ended up liking it more than chapter 3, but it is certainly up there.
Just finished it.
Holy shit. What the Fuck at that cliffhanger. And damn. The closing of that game. The wait for 4 is going to be brutal.
Argh.
I started my nightmare run, and within 2.5 hours, I'm already up to the end of the second chapter. I got 80% of the trophies in one go. I must have missed a single chest somewhere, and I only missed a single enemy scan.
Holy shit. What the Fuck at that cliffhanger. And damn. The closing of that game. The wait for 4 is going to be brutal.
Argh.
Fuck, Millium! I'm not sure if there's any way to come back from that... I don't believe Oliver is dead, but damn, Millium just got merked.
I started my nightmare run, and within 2.5 hours, I'm already up to the end of the second chapter. I got 80% of the trophies in one go. I must have missed a single chest somewhere, and I only missed a single enemy scan.
Can someone spoil me the permanent members majority of the game (not the one that only show up on final dungeon like CS2)? Also who's the best for Evasion tank? I read that Kurt isn't that good due to short range and i'm min maxing my party since i'm on Nightmare first playthrough
Yep I honestly think that the push and effort they're making with this one is more for the franchise as a whole (or even Falcom as whole) rather than just 3, i'm expecting that they have 3 and 4 contract at least. I have huge doubts with NISA with this one but they restored my faith and then some.
sure but uh spoilers obviously especially if you're not at ch 3 yet
rean, kurt, juna and musse are the ones that are with you until the very end. juna or musse are good evasion tanks since they both have ranged weapons.
Thanks, Kurt and Rean should be my breaker bros then
So about
Ash, he isn't a permanent character?
So there are a couple of girls you get the option of a friendly choice or romantic choice during the special bonding events. Seems like you can choose the romantic choice for each of them, is there any funny consequence like in Persona 4 if you choose to romance them all??
They should give a copy for review at ign,kotaku and so on. I did not read any review from major sites which i suppose many read usually.
Anyway 8 hours and the game really gets good
Pretty sure all the major outlets got it. They just aren't reviewing it.
Kotaku got it, but didn't publish a review because Jason is on leave and the other person stopped early on because he didn't play CS1/2: https://kotaku.com/i-want-to-play-trails-of-cold-steel-3-but-cant-force-my-1839260312
GameInformer published it day-one, but we know Kimberly Wallace is a known advocate of Trails. The day she leaves GI is the day they'll probably not publish a review for it too.
Trails just isn't notable enough for big outlets that lack an advocate among the staff to care.
There are some bosses that are quite difficult on hard if you dont abuse delay spam. Normal enemies aren't as punishing on harder difficulties as the sky games except for right at the very start
I like the introduction of Ash since we finally have the asshole trope in the game, hated that all around good guy cast of CS.
Orders are game breaking lol, they significantly nerfed delay but introduced another one
Orders are game breaking lol, they significantly nerfed delay but introduced another one
Pretty sure they did but the outlets just didn't release a review for it
im honestly struggling to play through this, and I beat CS2 in 3 days when it first came out
Its mostly the lackluster localization and milliums terrible new voice
But ive now met Fie and im starting to feel better about things
Also overworld movement feels oddly floaty, and the game has way too much motion blur (A common problem I have with console games, but at least some like Uncharted lost legacy let me turn it down)
Its mostly the lackluster localization and milliums terrible new voice
But ive now met Fie and im starting to feel better about things
Also overworld movement feels oddly floaty, and the game has way too much motion blur (A common problem I have with console games, but at least some like Uncharted lost legacy let me turn it down)
Too busy reviewing the annual rehashes of Call of Duty and Fifa.
Yeah. Despite how awesome the Kiseki series is, this is probably worst aspect of it. Musse's trope got old really, really fast and because of it brought her down as probably one my least liked characters in CSIII.
I thought Juna could escape Rean's clutches but nope... seriously can't they give the series some side ships at least, well at least there is Juris/Millium but that's more big bro/sis otherwise it would kind of skeevy.
Actually Musse is getting called out because of Rean, were she as aggressive to another dude, then you wouldn't have Juna/Altina going aggro on her ass, as they are pretty possessive of him, specially Altina.
Angelica is worse, but somehow she gets a free pass most of the time...
Actually Musse is getting called out because of Rean, were she as aggressive to another dude, then you wouldn't have Juna/Altina going aggro on her ass, as they are pretty possessive of him, specially Altina.
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Finally done with the game. I haven't looked my total playtime yet but it should be around 120 hours, with 3 or 4 of idle time. Longest in the series by quite a margin.
Anyway, the ending was very tame, very boring, nothing interesting happened, and certainly not emotionally engaging.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to buy Sen IV and play it with a spreadsheet because after all this I have zero self restraint.
Anyway, the ending was very tame, very boring, nothing interesting happened, and certainly not emotionally engaging.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to buy Sen IV and play it with a spreadsheet because after all this I have zero self restraint.
Pretty much yeah, in terms of clicks it's kinda hard to prioritize 100+ hours game with niche audience. I'm surprised that Easy Allies didn't have a review yet, they even interviewed Kondo