#I have all 3 plus the first two cold steels on my vita

[foxghost]

I. FINISHED. COLD STEEL IV. (And then slept for 14 hours due to the utter sleep deprivation this required)

it is the feeling of having finished a really good book series. I need more of this, but not fanfic, because it is perfect. Even the normal (aka not true) ending was perfect. I just need more of it. Reverie doesn't come out for another 4 months 😭

k fine give me a couple of more days to 種蘑菇 grow mushrooms and then I'll go trudge through the rest of the SPL scripts

[monasatlantis]

Review of Trails of Cold Steel 3!

As you probably know… I am a fan and a player of Falcoms “Trails of Cold Steel” – Series and now, after what felt like ages, we here in Europe finally got the 3. Part of that series and there was no way that I would not buy this game XD Granted, I already spoiled the actual ending of the whole Series and everything in-between but as usual that only made me want to finish the series myself. So here I am, reviewing a game whos shocking ending made me cry long before I actually understood a damn word that was said in said ending XD

1. So how was the Prolog? I am not sure if Falcom found it funny to do the same thing they already did in the first Trails of Cold Steel game, despite the fact that it wasn’t a good start for that game, or if they just found it to nostalgic to not do it. But let me say this, I only will speak from the perspective of a player who played the previous two games here, because if I would speak out of the perspective of a new player who accidentally ended up playing Trails of Cold Steel 3 first, I would be screaming about that prolog because basically you pressed random Buttons with Characters you did not just simply don’t know, but also with names like “Blond-Haired-Boy” and so on, because they weren’t willing to reveal their names. So, with said unnamed characters I ran through a (fairly easy, I have to admit that) dungeon, fought random monster while pressing random buttons and had no idea why? Not to mention what they were talking about. Anyway… thanks to my knowledge and also the knowledge most players who have at least read the description of the game should have had, plus the experiences from the previous games, made it of course relatively easy to get a hang on the controls and know at least somehow what was going on. So instead of being confused I could enjoy them talking about my Rean-Bean who was not there for most part of the prolog. I laughed my ass of while they said he is a “glory-hunt” and that he is an “oblivious player” because this is so damn on point and is so amusing coming from his own students. Not to mention, when Rean finally did show up, he really once again stole the glory-moment XD I mean… okay… his kids would have died without him, but come one, the timing was perfect to claim all the glory.

Anyway… I definitely liked this prolog better than the one from the first Cold Steel Game. Less characters. More things that already made sense. Shorter. Just a nice “What the hell is going on and were the hell are we?” – Moment that might come in handy later. No deceiving you this time either. While in the first game, Millium and Crowe were purposefully left out of the prolog even tho when you finally reach that point, they are there – to hide that they will in fact later become part of your team – this time they didn’t hide Ashe and Musse even tho in the Introduction-Chapter, those two were not sorted into Reans new class 7. Pluspoints for this. Although they did hide Angelica and the Principal… but… uh… I think I let that slide. They are not that important.

 2. What was your favorite Chapter?

 My absolute favorite chapter was chapter 2. The pacing was great, the plot was interesting, the monsters not too strong and the maps not too big, the dungeons not too complicated and all in all did it provide a good mix of the old and new in the way it presented the new characters and included the old ones in the story without completely ignoring the new class 7 characters. Tio was (although unknown to most players do to the fact that this game has yet to come out in western countrys…) a nice addition and as a shipper, I couldn’t be happier about the Rean x Alisa reunion and how it was handled. All in all I really liked the Mix of Rean, Alisa, Machias and Emma together in a team. And I was also more than Happy when “Olivier” joined our team. It was also great to see Alfin again and also Vita. And Sharon of course. Crossbell as the place where we had our mission was great and I really loved the scene on the rooftop of that super tall building, when everyone was sad because of Junas understandable devastation while that asshole Rufus just walked away without a care in the world. This scene said a lot about every character that was present at that time. I would say chapter two was the best out of all of them. (The final chapter not included as it was too different to compare it with chapter 1 – 4.)

 3. What was your least favorite chapter?

 Definitely chapter 3. Although chapter 4 had its downsides as well, all in all it was still better than chapter 3. In chapter 3 the difficulty of the game suddenly rose a lot. The monsters became harder, the maps bigger and more complicated, do to that the very good pace of the game slowed down and the plot was a bit… too long and yet unsatisfying. While Kurts character-arc was in chapter 1 and Junas character-arc in chapter 2 (while Altina seemed to be having a huge background-arc over the whole game that didn’t really end yet) Musse and Ash had to share the spotlight in chapter 3 and that did the plot and the pacing no good. Musses story is obviously even bigger than it seemed at first, but even the bit we got than would have deserved its own arc, even tho Ashs arc was also just scratched on but it was still too much to put both of it in the same chapter. I also personally feel that the older characters all in all got the shorter end of the stick in this chapter. While in all other chapters the mix of old and new Class 7 was done really well, in this chapter it was done poorly. I love Jusis and it felt extremely wrong that he wasn’t there when we were searching for Millium. Not to mention that the map of that island was too freaking huge and when we finally found Millium she wasn’t even able to join us for the fights. The plot was really slow in the beginning and then got hectic at the end. While most of the time the chapter was rather boring, at the end all of the sudden hell broke lose and made us run through that fucking maze of a damn castle. And here, once again, the old members of class 7 did not get as much attention and “alone-time” as the others did, do to the “splitting the groups” – thing. (Tho the idea of that was not bad and worked very well in the 4. Chapter. It did just not fit in chapter 3.) So of all the chapters this was definitely the one I disliked the most.

 4. What can you say about the final chapter and the ending of ToCS3?

 Oh boy… after we had that semi-final dungeon in chapter 4 and fought that semi-final-boss there as well I was worried at first that they would threw us into yet another labyrinth with puzzles and such bullshit. Thankfully, they didn’t do that. And that makes a lot of a difference for me, I can tell you that. The plot of the final chapter was amazing from the beginning to the end. A bit shocking at times but really good. It started with a lot of lore but it was interesting enough to not make the game boring. Especially with who explained the lore and with us and the characters putting every given piece of the puzzle together so it would make more sense. I kind of also really liked how on both sides everyone was working together for their goals. The dungeon, as I said before, was good and it was also looking really good. For a final dungeon it was rather pretty… I liked how in the beginning, you could put together your dreamteam no matter if it included the new class 7 characters or not, but slowly but surely took those older classmates away from you but still gave them an important reason. No “We have too much characters so these what feels like 20 characters will only stand on the sidelines and watch you all get killed” – bullshit. Instead the members of the old class seven got their own important jobs and with them, they tried to solve their own personal problems. I really like that. Although fighting with the (in my case) weaker new class 7 against a dark holy beast was not that easy at first. But all in all I really liked how they managed those many characters in the final chapter. It was also funny how they slowly but surely took your dreamteam apart and forced you to go back to the routes of ToCS3…

Now… the ending. Boy… the ending… When I saw it the first time on Japanese I was crying my eyes out and I was shocked and speechless. So when I saw it a second time, this time with a language I understood I cried my eyes out once more, internally screaming and sobbing and despite the knowledge I had already I was still in shock. The ending was so good, spoilers didn’t do it justice. Literally going through the whole game on your own terms by playing it yourself makes it even worse (in a good way) than it is when you just watch the scene on YouTube (and in a language you don’t understand no less) and I also kind of already had tears in my eyes a few moments before shit got down because I knew what was coming and that it would break everyones heart – mine included – in a matter of seconds. And then when it happened, here I was, crying my eyes out. And without saying Milliums sacrifice and Reans reaction were bad, I still think what happened with the crimson wings was a tad bit sadder in a way. Because when the ship showed up, it gave everyone hope again and then, just a few moments later, that hope was crushed when the ship exploded. Of course, as I said before, Milliums sacrifice was nothing short of sad or dramatic, especially with the way Jusis feeling had been slowly but surely building up in the background. Reans reaction was nothing else but shocking. Here we are, after 4 hard chapters, an enormous amount of hard battles, betrayals, and lies and secrets and when we reach the point where we SHOULD be saving the world once again, everything goes down and we… fail? Rean going berserk was the moment everyone had to realize that we fucking lost that battle. We lost Millium, the Courageous, my beloved Olivert, Lauras father, Toval and now our last ray of hope, our dearly beloved boy Rean had gone into berserker-mood when we would need him standing strong and tall the most. What an ending… At that moment, all hope was lost.

So let me say this loud and clear, if this ending would have been the ending of the cold Steel-Saga then it would have been a bad, rushed and very unsatisfying ending. But knowing there is a part four, this ending was one of the best cliff-hanger-endings I have ever seen in a game. It was shocking, emotional and devastating. And yet… after we lost everything, after the credits gave us time to dry our tears the game itself tells us to rest, because there is still that light of hope and we will find it. It was great.

 5. Shippings!

 Oh boy! When I started Trails of Cold Steel I was shipping Rean and Alisa and that was all the game had to offer me. Now I enjoyed Agathe and Tita from Trails in the Sky and also had Millium and Jusis suddenly at my disposal and it was… great! I had so much fun with all the teasing for Tita and Agathe and also for Rean and Alisa and I enjoyed the rather subtle way how things had gone on Jusis and Milliums side of the story. It was wonderful to watch all those very different ships develop in their own way.

Nothing can compete (yet again) with the Rean and Alisa Reunion-scene. Or their final bonding-event at the summer-festival, while we are at it. I think Falcom did go all out once again in this game with their love for Alisa and Rean as a pairing. As you will notice that, even tho yes, Laura also got a hug, her hug was very different from Alisas, starting by the length of it and the palpable intimacy between Rean and Alisa that Laura and Rean couldn’t match. Also notice how Reans voice automatically drops to a more gentle tone when he talks with Alisa in their reunion-scenes. What is also worth noticing is that when Sharon made that command that  Rean couldn’t help the embrace because of Alisas beauty, he actually admits to it after a rather questionable attempt to deny it at first. This is the only time Rean openly admits to be drawn towards any girl, besides the scene with Claire were he thinks he is dreaming after she gave him a kiss on his cheek were it admittedly also could be more meant as a “I am a lucky bastard that such an amazing woman likes someone like me” and didn’t have to mean that he is also drawn to her, especially since you can not officially dater her. There is also worth mentioning, that Alisa is the only girl of the old class 7 that he danced with at the ball, and once again the game seemed to pay special attention to them in that scene. Not to mention how their first-bonding-event is extremely romantic without you as a player having any chance to choose if you want it to be romantic or not. There is also the thing that Alisas gift is a ring for the pinky-finger… Agathe and Tita managed to made me smile so often. After liking that ship already in Trails in the Sky, I was happy I could enjoy it in Cold Steel 3 as well, not to mention how much I laughed about all the times they got teased because of their close relationship. There are also two changes that you have to take note of. First off all, Tita is by now much more conscious of her feelings for Agathe then in Trails in the sky, were she didn’t get a thing when everyone was teasing him about not doubting that that bizarre world he was in was real because of her embrace. She was subconsciously drawn to him without giving it much thought as to why or what it could mean or lead to. Now she is aware of her own feelings, blushing and doing things like trying to keep in mind how to approach a stubborn man after the principal told the girls. While Agathe on the other hand, very clearly stated Infront of Rean and the other that he sees her as a little sister and is more concerned about her safety because of a promise he made to her parents… while later in the game he stops denying anything and was even able to tell Tita in the light of all the bad events of the ending that she will be save as long as they are together which was – by all means, not a moment between a brother and a sister, but between to people deeply in love with each other. I will be eternally grateful that they gave me that moment, because in all my sadness and despair, in the middle of sobbing, they made a smile show up on my face.

I won’t go into more details when it comes to Millium and Jusis, because as I said, that was a little more subtle and gets its greater and more clear moments in the next Trails of Cold Steel game.

 6. All in all, how many points are you giving this game?

 I give this game a great 9 out of 10 points.

 I really enjoyed playing it. The plot was very good, pacing was very good, so was the music, the beloved characters were mostly handled really well and so were the newcomers. The characters from the older Trails games were a great addition to the game. And extra plus points for being allowed to play this game on the difficulty “very easy”. Minus-Points are for the NPCs as they didn’t bother to try to at least use different looking NPCS for different missions. I don’t know how often that guy that looked a bit like Machias with the lilac hair and the glasses was part of a mission, despite being a different character every time. In a crowd they had 3 people and copied them over and over again instead of trying to put all the few different NPCs they had together. They even got as far as to make the mother of a child in saids childs-picture that a girl has drawn for her father in one mission, to look like Towas aunt, same Haircolor, same clothing and all. Girl also looked like that one girl-child-NPC that runs around in every town. They literally have drawn two characters in what looked like a picture from a child, that were never shown in the game as they were from a different far away country, look like all the other damn NPC-Characters. WTF?! All in all seemed it was too expensive to make all the character-models they would have needed. Because it was mentioned that along Agathe there was another A-Rank-bracer from Liberl but even after it got finally revealed that it was Oliverts Girlfriend Shera, she didn’t show up. Not even in the final fight. Same goes for Mueller. I am sorry but I have to take points away for that. I get that a game like Trails, which is not half as popular as Final Fantasy for example, has a lot more money-issues then the guys from Sqaure Enix have with their Masterpiece, but seeing that in Trails of  Cold Steel 4, all those characters from the previous two games, including Shera and Mueller, are there and it is on the same console with hardly different graphics I don’t see why they didn’t just do the models for part 3 if they had to make them for part 4 anyway.

 Besides a few minor  things, that was all the bad stuff I find worth mentioning. The rest was really good. I have to especially mention the pacing one more time, because that was something I had a huge problem with in a lot of the JRPGs I played in the last 3 years. And I am talking about big games like Final Fantasy 15 or Kingdom Hearts 3, were you would expect that they did their homework and wouldn’t struggle with the pacing. In Trails of Cold Steel 3 the pacing was splendid. It was a bit hard in chapter 3, but just because they spoiled us in the previous chapters. So I just had to make it clear that the pacing of the whole game was really, really good in Trails of Cold Steel 3. In the end I would say this is by far the best game of the series (for now).

 7. What else? Were the hell did Towas “I think Angelica and George have feelings for each other” – thing come from? Girl! You yourself have been fallen victim to Angis totally crazy love for Girls and Woman more often than not, why on gods earth would you think a woman who likes cute girls would fall for George of all people?

I get that Alisa as the main girl of the previous games and Falcoms chosen Girlfriend for Rean has to show that she is pretty as fuck and all, but they had to put her into that machine where she had to sit with her legs spread apart, so why did they gave her that extremely short skirt AND gave her damn dark red panties? Seriously?

There was a huge ass-problem for everyone who hasn’t played Trails in the Sky in this game. It might be okay to not know much about Joshua and Estelle or Agathe and Tita or even the whole Hamel-Incident as they tried to explain at least the basics of it all… BUT if you haven’t played Trails in the Sky 3 you have no fucking idea about the Grahlsritter. You don’t know who they are, what they are doing or how their Stigma actually works and with not just Thomas Lysander and Rosi being part of this messy story, but also Gaius becoming one of the more powerful people of that group it would have been better to give us a more intense summary about all that stuff in case people haven’t played Trails in the Sky 2 and 3 yet.

Abendtime! I was laughing so hard when basically every character in this game was happy Abendtime was back, despite the circumstances around Vita aka Misty. Lector, while explaining that they try to use Abendtime to find Vita, who is part of Ouraboros, casually mentioning that he is also a fan of the show… XD I could so relate to that. Well partly. I always loved Vita, so I didn’t really mind her being part of that society. But I definitely missed Abendtime so much. I loved how she gave us small clues to what would happen on our next fieldtrip. “Watch out for changes in the weather” she said and then, one day on your fieldtrip you leave a building and suddenly the sky is all cloudy and you are like: “Uh-Oh…”

Do to Rean being the oblivious glory-hunt player that he actually really is, he is of course part of a lot of flirting and teasing and I mostly enjoy it, even if it has nothing to do with Alisa, but Musse has gone too far with her trying to put Rean under a magic spell to actually trick him into kissing her. Musse per se is not a bad character (although also not one of my favorites) but she got a whole lot of minus-points for that trick from me. Tho I liked that when Rean pulled out of the spell last second he was all like “Puh, that was a close one…“ XD

I love how after in the first two Trails of Cold Steel games, we actually only had to deal with Olivert, the Prince of Erobonia, we finally get to meet Oliver again, the traveling bard who helped save Liberl in Trails in the Sky. He jumped back into his old clothes and just nailed it. Teasing Tita and Agathe on the way too XD Boy did I miss this guy through most of the game, no matter if Oliviert or Oliver, he is THE BEST Character in this game. I can’t even imagine playing any other game of Trails without him being part of it in some way.

Poor Claire. She had it rough from the start. As an Ironblood she is having trouble doing what Osbourn asks her to do and still kind of don’t get in Reans way, as she has been in love with him from the start – and don’t give me that “little brother” – excuse bullshit. It didn’t work with Agathe and it certainly won’t work with Claire. I love how she is also connected to Juna. She might be an Ironblood, but she is a person that does the right thing if she gets the chance to do it and that is why it is so hard to see her suffer through most of the game.

I am torn between liking and disliking the fact that in this game, there are rarely any “normal” familys. Like, per se I like it that we have kids who have been adopted, raised by just one parent, or grandparent or aunt or something like that. It gives us a great variety and with that in some way, there will always be a character you can relate to somehow. It also gives those characters more depth. But sometimes it’s a little bit too much. I get that this is a game that plays after a great war and in a world where many dangerous things have happened for many, many years and I understand that it makes sense that they have lost people in the war and though accidents. I really get that. But there is hardly a person with a normal family in this game. And this doesn’t even just start with Cold Steel. Its not very different in Trails in the Sky either. And it starts to… you know… get boring in a way. I mean, look at Musse, who obviously is more then just a dukes niece. She is basically playing the role of Kloe from Trails in the sky, although her character is mostly different from Kloe, she still is the “hidden princess” somehow, with the fake name AND who also lost her parents do to a sinking ship. Its like they wanted to copy Kloes story as much as possible. I find this is a bit unnecessary. But its not the only “copy” of complicated and hard family-circumstances in this game. Although I have to say that I am proud that Trails barely uses the “Bad stepmother” – trope at all. On the contrary. In Olivierts case his stepmother helped him get better after his real mothers dead.

Speaking of which. The emperor of Erobonia got a Girl pregnant while he was still in Thors. Rean was 17 or so when he entered Thors and so  was almost everyone else. And they leave after not much more then two years. So… WTF kind of rolemodel is that Emperor? And why the hell did it take Rean almost until he was 21 before he slept with Alisa? That feels totally wrong now! XD

They could have answered at least a FEW of all those Questions we got so far in the Trails of Cold Steel – Series in this game, if you ask me.

Campanella saying “Was that really necessary?” when the Crimson Wings with Olivert on Bord exploded while Cedric (Oliverts little brother) basically saw it as a necessary price to archive their goals? Campanella got good points for that one. Like… the bad guys (not just him) standing there in shock and wondering if that was really something that had to be done to their enemies while Oliverts own brother just stands there and shrugs it off. Hell, do we have great villains. They do shit for their crazy goals, but at the end of the day, they are still humans… mostly.  Anyway, I found this scene really great.