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Jannyish

Member
Dec 16, 2017
803
Skimmed through some reviews in hopes of finding more info on the turbo function (with little luck) and sheesh, the character designs seem to just keep getting weebier with every entry. It's all getting way too horny for me, so I hope they tone that stuff down again after Cold Steel arc.



Considering that CS1 just sort of stops in the middle of a cutscene that sounds like an achievement.


Hahah I guess. Though from what I understand, it's worse in terms of the amount of open questions and where it leaves you in the story... Not necessarily in presentation (aka, just cutting off a cut scene abruptly). If a story intends to end on a cliffhanger, usually you realize they are planning and building towards a cliffhanger before the credits actually happen. That wasn't the case with CS1, that came totally out of left field. Not sure if that will actually be the same in CS3.
 

preta

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,491
I've heard the same thing, that it's the Zero Time Dilemma to the Trails series. If true it kind of kills my motivation to try and continue with the series.
I haven't played ZTD but I have played CS4 and it is not remotely as bad as people make ZTD sound. I do think it's significantly worse than CS3 though. The main issue is the pacing, which is easily the worst of any Trails game. There's also a major plot point that's conveyed a bit poorly, to the point where Kondo has admitted to it in interviews and tried to explain...which only made things more confusing as he seemed to be directly contradicting what explanation the game did have.
 

preta

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,491
Hahah I guess. Though from what I understand, it's worse in terms of the amount of open questions and where it leaves you in the story... Not necessarily in presentation (aka, just cutting off a cut scene abruptly). If a story intends to end on a cliffhanger, usually you realize they are planning and building towards a cliffhanger before the credits actually happen. That wasn't the case with CS1, that came totally out of left field. Not sure if that will actually be the same in CS3.

CS3 has the worst cliffhanger in the series by far, by every possible metric.
 

Jannyish

Member
Dec 16, 2017
803
CS3 has the worst cliffhanger in the series by far, by every possible metric.

Ooookaaay... Haha I guess it's confirmed now that I will be staring at the title screen with a blank expression and having lost all my vocabulary aside from "What?" and "How?" for even longer than I did after CS1. Too bad usually I am alone when playing video games so nobody gets to see that comedy unfold, but alas.
 

Nightengale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,708
Malaysia
CS4 is fine.

Honestly, CS4 is a year or so out - there's no need to overthink whether or not CS4 will be bad/good/somewhere-in-between. If you're skeptical, wait for more impressions/reviews in a year's time.

Does the game have its issues? Of course. But just as people can easily get soaked into a narrow perspective of things like hearing about fanbase gatekeeping of how CS3 has too much connection with previous games in the series that you shouldn't play it, ( even though reviewers who are less attached to it can find the game/story plenty fun - and made him wanna play CS1/2 ) - you end up often seeing the side of the argument that is perhaps too heated.
 

occ86

Member
Oct 30, 2017
527
Looking good!
I really want mah boi Jusis to have a bigger role, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
 

Jannyish

Member
Dec 16, 2017
803
CS4 is fine.

Honestly, CS4 is a year or so out - there's no need to overthink whether or not CS4 will be bad/good/somewhere-in-between. If you're skeptical, wait for more impressions/reviews in a year's time.

Does the game have its issues? Of course. But just as people can easily get soaked into a narrow perspective of things like hearing about fanbase gatekeeping of how CS3 has too much connection with previous games in the series that you shouldn't play it, ( even though reviewers who are less attached to it can find the game/story plenty fun - and made him wanna play CS1/2 ) - you end up often seeing the side of the argument that is perhaps too heated.

Don't worry, I won't let it deter me from wanting to play it at all! I'll maybe just go in with slightly lower expectations than I am for CS3. And I wouldn't dream of another game stopping me from playing this game... We only have the luxury of even having information on the quality of the next game due to the localizations being behind, but technically, I would be judging (to stay on Zero Escape series terms) Virtue's Last Reward by the quality of Zero Time Dilemma, and that just doesn't make sense.

That being said you seem very confident in CS4 being a year out for us... Did I miss any sort of announcement or tease or are you making an educated guess here?
 

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
11,319
I really need to catch up on this series (I've only played Sky FC & SC). Own Cold Steel 2 on PC thanks to a contest. I figure by the time I catch up, there's a really good chance that this will be on PC.
 

Nightengale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,708
Malaysia
Don't worry, I won't let it deter me from wanting to play it at all! I'll maybe just go in with slightly lower expectations than I am for CS3. And I wouldn't dream of another game stopping me from playing this game... We only have the luxury of even having information on the quality of the next game due to the localizations being behind, but technically, I would be judging (to stay on Zero Escape series terms) Virtue's Last Reward by the quality of Zero Time Dilemma, and that just doesn't make sense.

That being said you seem very confident in CS4 being a year out for us... Did I miss any sort of announcement or tease or are you making an educated guess here?

Educated guess. Falcom has hinted continued partnership with NISA, realistically a CS3 deal will have CS4 as part of the localisation deal. And CS3/4 are such big games that realistically it's not ideal, both from marketing and localisation standpoint to rush the product out. I'm thinking a year partly due to the fact that too long would also be annoying.
 

Shining Star

Banned
May 14, 2019
4,458
If anything Cold Steel 1 and 2 (probably 2 mostly) are the most divisive games in the series. At least among western fans. And CS4 might be divisive, I've seen some iffy impressions on it that made it sound like a step backwards from CS3.

I love Cold Steel and I'm not really a fan of the three Sky games, though I have played them all. I didn't play the Crossbell ones but I think it'll be fine.
 

Holundrian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,136
CS3 had great impressions from folks who played the Japanese version.

And Sky 3rd is great, but there is a split between the Japanese and western fanbase. It's a lot more popular in the west.

If anything Cold Steel 1 and 2 (probably 2 mostly) are the most divisive games in the series. At least among western fans. And CS4 might be divisive, I've seen some iffy impressions on it that made it sound like a step backwards from CS3.
4 might be quite a bit more divisive because it has it's position as an ending of sorts so people don't need to pull their punches anymore because they can't judge without the full picture.

I don't think it's like the Zero Time Dilemma. It's maybe more like the age of ultron of kiseki? There is still good stuff you appreciate but it does not stick the landing on all story telling fronts except the most essential ones. The narrative pacing of the cold steel saga has been quite messy.
 

Jannyish

Member
Dec 16, 2017
803
Educated guess. Falcom has hinted continued partnership with NISA, realistically a CS3 deal will have CS4 as part of the localisation deal. And CS3/4 are such big games that realistically it's not ideal, both from marketing and localisation standpoint to rush the product out. I'm thinking a year partly due to the fact that too long would also be annoying.

Thanks for the reply! I thought I missed something.

But it makes sense. If I read you correctly, you assume they might already be working on CS4 as we speak? Much like Xseed did with CS1/2? Again, makes sense. It would certainly make me happy to have confirmation though, after finding out that the wait for 4 will probably be excruciating thanks to a cliffhanger. Oh well. I am sure it will happen eventually, anything else would just be cruel.
 

dojo32161

Member
Sep 4, 2019
1,897
How are CS I and II divise when most people agree they are the weakest entries in the series? Specially true for CS I.
You could make a case for FC, but I think I've never seen somebody rank CS I or II above SC, The 3rd or the Crossbell duology.
To be honest, I put CS2 only below SC and CS1 above FC and Zero main series wise, though I might need to revisit CS1 to see I'd put it even higher since it's been a while (and for context, I did Sky trilogy, then Cold Steel 1 and 2 since I heard Crossbell's translation was bad, then I did Crossbell anyway since it wasn't going to make it in time for CS3 and the translation was just as bad as I feared, which might explain why I wasn't as invested in those characters as I was with the other games).


Nayuta (gameplay wise) > SC > CS2 > 3rd > Azure > CS1 > Zero > Nayuta (story wise) = FC
 

Apollo

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,090
I would probably rank the series as 3rd>Ao>Zero>FC>SC>CS1>CS2. It feels wrong to rank CS1 so low because I actually really love that game lol. CS2 is really the only one I'm particularly critical of (but gosh if it doesn't have the best character designs for Class VII).
 

Korigama

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,482
Good, gives me something to look forward to. Story and characters are important (which is primarily why I've been sticking with FC), but what keeps me playing is the combat mechanics, and it's really dated with FC, although it's not so bad that I can't bring myself to play it. Just want something slightly more engaging. I even started over about six hours into playing on the Normal difficulty and changed it to Hard. I think I get more out of the orb combinations than the actual combat itself so far. The game definitely has its charms though.
To note, there's less to think about with orbment setups in CS, no longer needing specific quartz combinations to make specific arts available. Though element-locked slots are still a thing, every quartz is quite direct in regards to what it does when you set it, so that would just leave considering what Master Quartz is best to use according to character/stats/bonuses.

Crafts/S-Crafts are also considerably less underpowered compared to FC, and CP builds more quickly.
I haven't played ZTD but I have played CS4 and it is not remotely as bad as people make ZTD sound. I do think it's significantly worse than CS3 though. The main issue is the pacing, which is easily the worst of any Trails game. There's also a major plot point that's conveyed a bit poorly, to the point where Kondo has admitted to it in interviews and tried to explain...which only made things more confusing as he seemed to be directly contradicting what explanation the game did have.
Meanwhile, I have played ZTD, yet find it impossible to picture any given Trails game as being as awful as that turd (even with being alerted to lower my expectations for CS IV).

... Seriously though, ZTD sucks so much that it makes Zero Escape a significantly worse overall story retroactively.
Review weighting. I don't know anything about Opencritic but I know Metacritic weighs reviews depending on the outlet so some have more influence on the score than others.
Which is why Metacritic is worthless and I have no idea why anyone ever listens to it for anything.
 
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lightning16

Member
May 17, 2019
1,763
I really need to catch up on this series (I've only played Sky FC & SC). Own Cold Steel 2 on PC thanks to a contest. I figure by the time I catch up, there's a really good chance that this will be on PC.
I'm at the same spot as you. Kinda hoping by the time I get through the third Sky game that there will be some word of an official localization of the Crossbell games. Sounds like it could happen from what Falcom has said in the recent past, but will probably still be quite a wait.
 

Naha-

Member
Feb 6, 2019
987
I'm so happy CS3 it's getting a lot of positive reviews. Kiseki games are such a amazing story that deserves more recognition.
 

Raza

Member
Nov 7, 2017
1,565
Ohio
I liked 1 and disliked 2. I was actually surprised at how much I disliked 2. I'm hoping this one is better, I'll pick it up down the line.
 

Mgs2master2

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,861
I'm so happy CS3 it's getting a lot of positive reviews. Kiseki games are such a amazing story that deserves more recognition.
They always go overlooked too. Despite being a long-running franchise, they are overlooked games, and still considered a niche franchise. Its awesome its getting the attention it finally deserves.
 
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Ekid

Member
Dec 21, 2017
1,638
And here I am having just started Third Chapter now than Zero translation is close to completion. It will take me a while to catch up.
 

deathsaber

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,097
Can't wait to play this. As for CS4, I'm guessing its all to do with how Cold Steel 3 sells for NISA. Since this is a pretty niche audience, I'm guessing a lot of the sales action will be front loaded with preorders and day one pickups (maybe with stragglers grabbing it digitally later when its discounted on PSN. But I wager if its doing well for NISA standards, which shouldn't be too lofty, we'll see a pretty quick pickup of CS4. From there its just the time factor for them to actually localize it. Looks like they sold most if not all of the special edition on NISA's store, so that's a good sign.
 

Dust

C H A O S
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,168
Remember to watch CS2 NG+ Black Record ending, I have idea why they hid that behind mode 99% of players won't play.
It's a significant story reveal that's canon.
 

Mgs2master2

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,861
Remember to watch CS2 NG+ Black Record ending, I have idea why they hid that behind mode 99% of players won't play.
It's a significant story reveal that's canon.
Agreed with this, but CS3 does a good job actually giving the main idea of it from CS 2

CS 3 has it part of the plot as you said, plus you are collecting them again as well.