I'm okay with a total number even if I don't always have access to them moment to moment.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3 |OT| The Embers of War
- Thread starter Vylash
- Start date
Then 16 I think is the absolute max. There are a few guest characters at various points outside of that count.
Okay cool, thanks!
It's the only thing I was okay with having spoiled haha. I was wowed by the count in TOCS2.
I'm finishing day 1 of chapter 2's field trip. One thing really reminded me of two older games.
Sharon's backstory and the way she tells it sounds a lot like Joshua's tale at the end of FC, with the twist that Ouroboros destroyed that society, like they did with that D:G Cult cell when they rescued Renne.
Also, they apparently recruited two unknown Anguis from that society.
I think this is the first time I've seen something resembling a timeline of Ouroboros, as Sharon mentions (I'm paraphrasing) these were the early days of the society. I assume this is relative to its current incarnation, because I could swear someone (Cassius in SC I think) said earlier that they've been around since the Dark Ages.
Also, they apparently recruited two unknown Anguis from that society.
I think this is the first time I've seen something resembling a timeline of Ouroboros, as Sharon mentions (I'm paraphrasing) these were the early days of the society. I assume this is relative to its current incarnation, because I could swear someone (Cassius in SC I think) said earlier that they've been around since the Dark Ages.
I left off on the first field day of Chapter 4 before bed last night so will resume from their shortly. I'm loving this game and it's a weird feeling want to get to certain parts after people in this thread keep hyping the ending of certain chapters but at the same time, not wanting the game to end haha All the more so after hearing the game ends on a major cliff hanger and they haven't yet announced IV for the West yet.
Going into this game, I've played the first two Skies games and the other CS games. It's neat having Tita a regular character here and her voice is adorable. It'll be pretty neat to see Estelle and Joshua in 3D if they enter the game which I assume they will by the end. I don't feel like I'm missing out much not having played the Crossbell games prior. It would have been neat to see the town in 3D after playing it in 2D and I'd care a bit more about Randy and other characters from those games but it's not a big deal not having experienced the crisis from those games when hearing them referenced. When I hear the Gospel plan brought up, it doesn't do anything special for me, just oh yeah I dealt with that in Skies. So them giving the context and background plus the relation to what's going on with events in this game are plenty enough. It's namely just fan service of getting characters you're familiar with together which admittedly can be cool but at least it doesn't matter too much story-wise given what they cover in this game.
Anyway, so many mysteries and I'm wondering how many will be solved before the game ends versus what's carried over to the next game. Definitely a nice carrot to keep you excited and motivated for what comes next. It feels kind of weird not really using artes in this game and it being all about crafts but I prefer that I suppose since you don't have to 'waste' a turn starting a cast and then waiting to finish the turn. I'll save my thoughts on story occurances until I beat it but there have definitely been hype moments.
The one thing annoying me is I keep barely missing out on S rank for a chapter because of some stupid mini-game. Chapter one because I didn't want to deal with fishing and chapter three because of that damn card game I don't like. I could have done it in Chapter 2 but I somehow had one less recipe than I needed to milk one more AP point from the cooking sidequest. Grrr no room for error at all. Chapter 4, so help me god I will get S rank. No fishing and no stupid card game for AP please! I'll do literally anything else :p
Going into this game, I've played the first two Skies games and the other CS games. It's neat having Tita a regular character here and her voice is adorable. It'll be pretty neat to see Estelle and Joshua in 3D if they enter the game which I assume they will by the end. I don't feel like I'm missing out much not having played the Crossbell games prior. It would have been neat to see the town in 3D after playing it in 2D and I'd care a bit more about Randy and other characters from those games but it's not a big deal not having experienced the crisis from those games when hearing them referenced. When I hear the Gospel plan brought up, it doesn't do anything special for me, just oh yeah I dealt with that in Skies. So them giving the context and background plus the relation to what's going on with events in this game are plenty enough. It's namely just fan service of getting characters you're familiar with together which admittedly can be cool but at least it doesn't matter too much story-wise given what they cover in this game.
Anyway, so many mysteries and I'm wondering how many will be solved before the game ends versus what's carried over to the next game. Definitely a nice carrot to keep you excited and motivated for what comes next. It feels kind of weird not really using artes in this game and it being all about crafts but I prefer that I suppose since you don't have to 'waste' a turn starting a cast and then waiting to finish the turn. I'll save my thoughts on story occurances until I beat it but there have definitely been hype moments.
The one thing annoying me is I keep barely missing out on S rank for a chapter because of some stupid mini-game. Chapter one because I didn't want to deal with fishing and chapter three because of that damn card game I don't like. I could have done it in Chapter 2 but I somehow had one less recipe than I needed to milk one more AP point from the cooking sidequest. Grrr no room for error at all. Chapter 4, so help me god I will get S rank. No fishing and no stupid card game for AP please! I'll do literally anything else :p
Is there a design reason you get even less quartz slots now? Why was 1 taken away?
It gets harder to dedicate slots to arts now because I have so little room to maneuver and other shit takes priority.
It gets harder to dedicate slots to arts now because I have so little room to maneuver and other shit takes priority.
Anybody here playing the game without having played the previous ones at all? Any feedback? I'm particularly curious if you're feeling left out of the loop and if so, how much it impedes your enjoyment of the game?
I can only guess, but maybe it's because you now can equip two master quartz. That + the heavy emphasis on upgrading your quartz to R/SR versions.
If you're already playing Cold Steel, might as well finish it. It's not all that important to play the Sky games before the first two Cold Steels.
If you're already going to play Sky, then the only thing I recommend is going through them before CS3.
If you want, but it can work well going back, too. Definitely play Sky before CS3.
Cold Steel 1-3 will last your 150-200 hours and are easier to enjoy due to being more modern. The previous Trails series' are referenced a often, especially in CS3, and it's cool when you see that and you're like "oh yeah I remember that person/event." So playing Sky will certainly enhance your Cold Steel playthrough, but it's not needed at all. The story will still make sense to you. You just won't have the full background of past events that get references.
So basically, stick with Cold Steel, it's already a huge undertaking. If you loved it and want more, play Sky after.
I played Trails in the Sky, but skipped the sequels. I enjoyed Cold Steel 1 and 2 just fine, and I'm having a good time with 3 right now, even without playing Sky 2 and 3.
Chapter 2 done! I'm basically playing the game as slowly as possible since I'm terrified of reaching the cliffhanger I've heard others mentioning. Plus I just don't want it to end. I have many thoughts so I'm just gonna vomit them out below.
*Feeling badass after spamming s-crafts to beat McFireBro and Fool*
McFireBro: Lmao you thought we were done?
Phew! That was close!
I'm glad I at least watched some summary videos on the Crossbell games before this to help fill in some of the blanks. The amount of characters being juggled is insane but somehow they're pulling it off well.
I was worried about Campanella's voice at first but I actually thought he wasn't too bad. I loved Juna suddenly yelling at him to shut the hell up though lol. I thought her meltdown was a great moment. This chapter was really necessary for her. At times she seems excessively grumpy but once you see how the annexation has only put Crossbell in a more uncertain and dangerous position, it's not hard to understand her stress and resentment for the empire.
Rufus is one stone cold, shady bastard but his scenes are always flawless. I'm kinda surprised that he and Jusis apparently haven't spoken at all since the war, though it's not hard to imagine why they're not on good terms.
Olivier blessing the party with his presence is pretty much as good as it gets. Well, aside from fellow legend Estelle joining as well.
And yet another mysterious group has entered the equation! As if things weren't complicated enough, now we got Gnomes y'all! Clearly they're responsible for Crow's and Rutger's resurrections somehow. Their divine knights look too similar with that ghost-like aura.
Also! I'm extremely suspicious of Professor Lughmen or whatever his name is. Maybe I'm just paranoid but there's gotta be more to him. I'll never trust a nice wandering professor again lol.
McFireBro: Lmao you thought we were done?
Phew! That was close!
I'm glad I at least watched some summary videos on the Crossbell games before this to help fill in some of the blanks. The amount of characters being juggled is insane but somehow they're pulling it off well.
I was worried about Campanella's voice at first but I actually thought he wasn't too bad. I loved Juna suddenly yelling at him to shut the hell up though lol. I thought her meltdown was a great moment. This chapter was really necessary for her. At times she seems excessively grumpy but once you see how the annexation has only put Crossbell in a more uncertain and dangerous position, it's not hard to understand her stress and resentment for the empire.
Rufus is one stone cold, shady bastard but his scenes are always flawless. I'm kinda surprised that he and Jusis apparently haven't spoken at all since the war, though it's not hard to imagine why they're not on good terms.
Olivier blessing the party with his presence is pretty much as good as it gets. Well, aside from fellow legend Estelle joining as well.
And yet another mysterious group has entered the equation! As if things weren't complicated enough, now we got Gnomes y'all! Clearly they're responsible for Crow's and Rutger's resurrections somehow. Their divine knights look too similar with that ghost-like aura.
Also! I'm extremely suspicious of Professor Lughmen or whatever his name is. Maybe I'm just paranoid but there's gotta be more to him. I'll never trust a nice wandering professor again lol.
OP
OP
Yeah this, cs3 doesn't give a damn and openly spoils sky and crossbell so if you're planning to play sky (which you should be) play them before cs3
I've been meaning to ask, how do you give gifts to party members? They never get sent at night or end of chapters like with other people you buy them for. For instance, how do I give Juna and Altina gifts I bought that are for them?
This is way overstated. It doesn't really spoil any of the real meat of those games and you're fine playing them later.
OP
OP
it doesn't spoil as much of sky as it does of crossbell, but it does spoil the mastermind of sky and other important plot points
Spoiler osmosis is part and parcel of entering a franchise/media late. Anyone who is watching Star Wars for first time this decade knows who Vader is.
chapter 3 end..........
Chapter 3 ending
Fucking George Nome. G. Nome, they played me like a damn fiddle.
i don't see anything harmless in joking about pedophilia
that's one of the things that people don't seem to talk about here yet when it kind of is a huge bomb changing the perspective of their higher ranks a lot
you get your arts stuff from using master quartz now tbh
i can only speak for myself but i played at JP release without playing crossbell and i played now after playing Crossbell and for me Chapter 2 feels a lot better after, it fell flat for me the first time because i had no personal affection for the locale and characters
The weakness of Chapter 2 of CS3 was that it was ultimately trying to sell the underbelly of post-annexation Crossbell, where it appears to be 'all things are fine, normal and dandy" even though they're now part of Erebonia, only to see that things like
But the choice of having that theme be driven by
meant that it's less about the city of Crossbell itself, but more so the characters from the Crossbell games, and it can be a much more flat feeling compared to Chapter 1.
Imagine if Chapter 1 hammered on
it's basically Hong Kong prior to protest, where there are tons of invisible pressure all over the place - state-pressured media, ban of Verne Company products, 24/7 surveillance and pressure of basically the ones who are dissenters of the current regime
But the choice of having that theme be driven by
Birdcage, SSS, etc
Imagine if Chapter 1 hammered on
Hamel, but non-stop references Karin, Loewe, and Joshua's suffering instead.
So I got the Black Record where
No real game spoiler, just for the themes.
it talks about Dreichels and his musings/thoughts on his death bed and... Well if that isn't worrying I don't know what is.
No real game spoiler, just for the themes.
So I wasn't the only one thinking about HongKong. I thought it was only because even as a westerner, the developments there are closer to me than most westerners, seeing how I have friends there - that I also happened to visit this June when the whole mess started, so I witnessed it first hand, partly.
Really? Interesting. As a German myself I got the Erebonia-Germany connection if only for the fact that a) German names, duuuuh. And b) People do view us as a military country, even though by now we are anything but. I mean we have a military but the funding is, by comparison to other countries, non-existential. But i get why. History and all. Oh and I guess c) it seems that the notion of Germany being the country of fairytales, aka where witches and the like exist, is a thing. You don't really notice it as a German tho.
It's mostly Bismarck's Prussia, and a lot of Ring des Nibelungen references
I am a sorry excuse for a German, considering I know nothing about Ring des Nibelungen aside from the fact it exists. At least I know about Bismarck, thank you history teacher.
From what I've heard, they have not done super important New Game+ exclusive scenes after CS2, so no need to worry about that.
Finished the game just now, haven't watched my final time but it should be just over 100 hours. Missed a few quests and stuff, still got the instructor S rank at the least.
I felt pretty satisfied as a whole with all the game had to offer and the way it did was more suprising than any of the stuff it uncovers.
I felt pretty satisfied as a whole with all the game had to offer and the way it did was more suprising than any of the stuff it uncovers.
The hard cut probably would have hit me harder if
they didn't do it before in chapter 4 already
So while I wasn't sure where it happens I knew it would have to happen. Like I do wonder how CS4 follows up on it as I don't have much of an idea here, but I'm not an emotional wreck.
I'm more relieved than anything else lol.
Chapter 5 Ending
I knew things were about to get REALLY real when
I knew things were about to get REALLY real when
a battle started and I saw this face in the corner
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Chapter 5 Ending
I knew things were about to get REALLY real whena battle started and I saw this face in the corner
I love... No adore every single aspect of this post.
KEEP THE CS3 ENDINGS COMING EVERYONE!!
McBurn feels so quotable at times.
Playing only a couple of hours at a time, I'm progressing at a snail's pace, but the events of chapter 2 - day 1, later in the day keep giving great perspective.
Checking the wiki, I was mistaken, and that's one Anguis and one Enforcer, not two Anguis, but still.
Playing only a couple of hours at a time, I'm progressing at a snail's pace, but the events of chapter 2 - day 1, later in the day keep giving great perspective.
I like that Emma spells things out about the "backside" of the world. We've always known it was there, that the higher elements, magic, actual monsters or divergent law were all related to another aspect of the world, another stratum. But I don't think I've ever seen it spelled out this clearly. She even says something to the extent of "the Society comes from that back side".
The backstory explaining how Sharon essentially set up Cassius's absence is FC was another really nice touch.
Props to Juna for standing up for Crossbell. I loved that uncomfortable scene on the roof exposing how fucked up things are in Crossbell. I found it really emotional, but I think this scene's appreciation will really depend on having played the duology and being invested in, and attached to, this place and its people.
The backstory explaining how Sharon essentially set up Cassius's absence is FC was another really nice touch.
Props to Juna for standing up for Crossbell. I loved that uncomfortable scene on the roof exposing how fucked up things are in Crossbell. I found it really emotional, but I think this scene's appreciation will really depend on having played the duology and being invested in, and attached to, this place and its people.
Someone could clarify something for me.
In TOCS3 there's a womanizer character named Sidney. Just now in my game he said this in regards to Rean because his chick magnet ability: "I'm burning with jealousy! That damn Chad needs to backflip onto a landmine already!"
Isn't "chad" incel terminology? or does it predate that? Why would the people localizing put that lmao.
In TOCS3 there's a womanizer character named Sidney. Just now in my game he said this in regards to Rean because his chick magnet ability: "I'm burning with jealousy! That damn Chad needs to backflip onto a landmine already!"
Isn't "chad" incel terminology? or does it predate that? Why would the people localizing put that lmao.
Does anyone have a particular strategy they are following for bonding events? I'll put the rest in spoilers:
I've been following that psnprofiles guide linked around and from what I understand i have to get "new" class Vii members(juna/kurt/etc) to 2.5 stars and "old" class vii members(jusis/alicia/etc) to 3.5 before a festival toward the end of the game. I guess my question is how do I best go about making sure I can get all the bonding trophies at the end? I have been prioritizing bonding events that add updates to the character profiles so far.
LMAOOOO i feel like such an idiot i didn't realize this until this moment
Somehow I knew, from the moment I saw that "Student Store, Open: TBD" sign, that it was meant for Becky. I'm surprised she hasnae defeated Hugo and taken over the wee bam's company by now, but I'm sure she's gonnae get there eventually. Yasss!
If you're just interested in the trophies, I don't think it will be very hard to do. Each old Class VII member only has one bonding event before that point, so probably prioritize those before spending any points on new Class VII. Buy all of the gifts for the characters each chapter too. Then once the festival comes, you can spend a bunch of festival tickets on a character > get trophy > reload and repeat.