The Legend of Heroes series.

[Gref]

Falcom announced a PS4 rerelease of the Crossbell games at the end of last year. These ports will have new, updated lore retconned into them. Characters introduced in the Cold Steel games will also be retconned into the Crossbell games.

ahhhh ok, so i wont be missing some major story details. only retcons.
I would be disappointed if they were major stuff like renne's story. Still if they come to pc I would be happy to play it.

[Tech614]

nice nice, i started so late to the series. I am at the last boss fight of zero now.
fuck me for not playing this game way before but i think it s better now. I mean i dont need to wait a year or 2 for the next game as they are all here already. I think I will have finished cs series around june. I am also very happy to see cs4 coming to pc.

on a side note, i follow nihon falcom facebook page and i see there is another new game but it seems like a remake of ao and zero? couldn't find detailed info on it in ENglish so can anybody enlighten me?

As stated above the PS4 is getting updated releases of the crossbell duology. There is also a brand new Trails game releasing this year in Japan.

[Gref]

As stated above the PS4 is getting updated releases of the crossbell duology. There is also a brand new Trails game releasing this year in Japan.

I live in japan and I wish I knew a few otaku circles so that I could celebrate all this excitement.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I live in japan and I wish I knew a few otaku circles so that I could celebrate all this excitement.

Well, there is the r/Falcom Discord, which has an active channel for people who are playing the latest games in Japanese. However, the r/Falcom Discord is descended from... r/Falcom, which is descended from... r/JRPG. As a result, the discord is a highly polarized community, mostly made up of people who are nostalgic for old PS1/PS2 games and are killjoys when it comes to discussion appreciating anything after. I stopped interacting there months back when I realized I just simply wasn't going to have any civil, productive discussions with anyone there. Similarly, the r/JRPG Discord isn't of much help either.

I guess you could browse 2ch boards, who knows what kind of culture you will find there.

[Gref]

@Val the Moofia Boss thanks for the info, i will definitely take a look when i get back home.

[blackpink]

Nah, not even that, character appearances and such i don't really qualify as spoilers.
The announcement trailer shows (CS4 spoiler) Rufus being the awakener of the golden divine knight

I say that as someone who thinks the intro sequences aren't even particularly spoilery. It's all either just characters that appear in the game (like i said, don't really consider that spoilers) or things with no context, such as CS3's intro having (CS3 spoiler) the courageous blow up, except if you don't freeze-frame it and know it happens, it's just a random explosion in the air

O i didn't...even notice that..im gunna go watch it again lol. But honestly...it was kind of obvious lol. At the end of cs3, in the final dungeon when all the awakeners come together, it shows Rufus and he's like "as for the last awakener" or something like that...

- - - Updated - - -

ahhhh ok, so i wont be missing some major story details. only retcons.
I would be disappointed if they were major stuff like renne's story. Still if they come to pc I would be happy to play it.

Renne gets a lot of backstory in the crossbell games. One of the major reasons I was so interested in playing it as I was very curious about her. Another one I'm super interested in in Mcburn, can't wait for some backstory on him.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Trails of Cold Steel III - Chapter 3 spoilers

Spoiler: 

I hate it when the plot only happens because characters forget that they have powers that would be extremely useful in the current situation.

The Azure Siegfried mystery plot could have been immediately dispelled if, upon Rean seeing the Azure Siegfried at Stargaze Tower, asked Valimar to report the locations of the secondary contractors. With new Class VII (5 people), Alisa, Machias, and Emma all right at Stargaze tower, Valimar should only report eight contractors in the immediate vicinity. 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 8. If he picks up a ninth right in front of him... well that would basically confirm the identity of the Azure Siegfried. Seriously, why didn't Rean do that? Rean could've used that ability to track the Azure Siegfried back to his master, thereby getting the opportunity to jump on the true bad guys while they were unprepared. If only Rean, Valimar, and Celine had remembered that they could do that! They used that ability three times in CS2! It's how they found the rest of Class VII!

I'm in chapter 3, and the characters are trying to find a missing Class VII member. Except Rean, again, Rean could immediately find that character by asking Valimar where the secondary contractors are. "Well, we know Jusis is to the west in Ordis, Sara is to the East in Raquel. New Class VII is here with me. No one else from Class VII is in Lamare. That's 7 people accounted for. The 8th contractor detected in Lamare should be that person".

... Huh, Rean could've used Valimar's ability to scan for the secondary contractors to locate where Gaius was all this time, and then go meet up with him. This is a seriously useful ability that could have resolved so many plot points had Rean, Valimar, and Celine not forgotten they had access to it! Seriously, why did they forget it!

This is just a few instances in which the writers had to lobotomize the heroes in order for the villains' plans to go off without a hitch. I mean, come on. Why didn't nobody check Crow's grave right after seeing the Azure Siegfried? Rather than spending a whole month wondering "oh yeah, I wonder how that guy who is working for an unknown actor affecting global events is". Dudes, your national security is depending on this information and it'd only take you a couple hours to verify this.

COME ON PEOPLE! THINK! COME ON!!!!!

[blackpink]

Trails of Cold Steel III - Chapter 3 spoilers

Spoiler: 

This is just a few instances in which the writers had to lobotomize the heroes in order for the villains' plans to go off without a hitch. I mean, come on. Why didn't nobody check Crow's grave right after seeing the Azure Siegfried? Rather than spending a whole month wondering "oh yeah, I wonder how that guy who is working for an unknown actor affecting global events is". Dudes, your national security is depending on this information and it'd only take you a couple hours to verify this.

COME ON PEOPLE! THINK! COME ON!!!!!

Ok so Idk where you are and what happens when, but someone does check. I'm not gunna spoil it though. Also if you think that's weird, you're gunna love cs 4 lol. So many weird shit in there that I didn't understand...

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Ok so Idk where you are and what happens when, but someone does check. I'm not gunna spoil it though. Also if you think that's weird, you're gunna love cs 4 lol. So many weird shit in there that I didn't understand...

Entire CS3 spoilers

Spoiler: 

Yeah, I already know that Angie checks. A WHOLE MONTH LATE!!! That's just unacceptable.

[Tech614]

Ok so Idk where you are and what happens when, but someone does check. I'm not gunna spoil it though. Also if you think that's weird, you're gunna love cs 4 lol. So many weird shit in there that I didn't understand...

CS4 is the moment where a long running narrative meets the point of no return. They are on Dragonball or Bleach pace for it, so my hopes for the future of the franchise are minimal as falcom seems to think they need to 1 up the "plot twists" in every new trails game and it's just leading to a lot of stupid moments that exist for not other reason then to "be surprised guyz!". Doesn't help when most of these are deaths and the fanbase is already numb to taking deaths in trails serious. This severely impacts when they actually do decide to kill off a character and it's not bs anymore.

Trails of the Begining could get the series back on track but idk, they need to ignore CS4 shit if they want that to be the case and distance themselves from the overarching narrative for now.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

CS4 is the moment where a long running narrative meets the point of no return. They are on Dragonball or Bleach pace for it, so my hopes for the future of the franchise are minimal as falcom seems to think they need to 1 up the "plot twists" in every new trails game and it's just leading to a lot of stupid moments that exist for not other reason then to "be surprised guyz!". Doesn't help when most of these are deaths and the fanbase is already numb to taking deaths in trails serious. This severely impacts when they actually do decide to kill off a character and it's not bs anymore.

Trails of the Begining could get the series back on track but idk, they need to ignore CS4 shit if they want that to be the case and distance themselves from the overarching narrative for now.

I began to realize it when I played the Crossbell duology (CS4 spoilers), when there was pretty much zero plot progression whatsoever and the bad writing stuck out like a sore thumb.

I think CS4 is the culmination of problems that have plagued the franchise since the first game. It comes down to Falcom's inability to plan a satisfying experience around the realities of the development schedule they have set for themselves. Falcom has promised their shareholders to release at least one game a year, which means that a game is going out the door regardless of whether or not it is complete, regardless of whether or not it is a polished, high quality experience. So what ends up happening is you get FC, a half game. Which then leads into SC... which is still unfinished and doesn't have an actual ending, requiring yet another Sky game to retroactively provide closure it for it. Ao doesn't have a proper ending, forcing the next arc to get bogged down trying to not only tell its own story, but also trying to provide closure for the prior arc, and it ends up tripping up at both. Pretty much half the reason we're getting Hajimari is because CS4 - like SC - didn't managed to properly close the CS arc, so they need another game to give it an actual ending. It's just a pile up.

It's especially telling that after 9 games, each at least 50 hours long (we're around 600 hours deep into this series), we've had pretty much zero main plot progression whatsoever. We don't even have very basic plot and character information such as the motivations, the goals, the methods, and the backstory of the big bad ensemble. The only thing we know is that there is a big bad ensemble and they do things for... reasons.

You have villains who commit heinous acts, are soundly, utterly defeated by the protagonists at the end of an arc... but then the protagonists refuse to kill the villains while they're down, allowing them to just waltz off to haunt the next arc. It's like Falcom can't let go of their villains, like in their mind their villains are too marketable for them to kill off (can't market dead characters afterall, if they can't show up in the next game and be used as advertising material to hype up the next game). We have... what? Two dozen villains still walking around? And then we're going to have a dozen more by the time we reach the final arc. Is Falcom going to kill off three dozen villains in a single game? Or are we just going to get more, idiotic, unsatisfying karmi houdinism?

Hajimari no Kiseki if C turns out to be who we think it is, then the karma houdinism will have reached all new low, with Falcom straight up glorifying a murderer by building a cool game around them as the protagonist. Then again, they already let Rixia waltz off scott free without her ever repenting for being an assassin (guess she got a free pass for having a pair of boobs and ass) so who knows.

CS4 spoilers Ao has really screwed things up by straight up telling you what happens in a couple years, which made the next five games a foregone conclusion. I guess that could make it feel like there was no plot progression being made if you feel like nothing is happening that you didn't already know, but if Ao's ending didn't straight up tell you that, then I suspect the backlash to the hard reset to the status quo would have been even louder.

At least Kondo has said in interviews that they plan on actually hurrying up. Hajimari will probably give us a long overdue exposition dump on basic plot information we've been missing for decades, and he has said that they are really going to try to keep arc 4 self contained and keep it from spilling out past two games. But then he went ahead and said that there were three more arcs planned, so IDK anymore. Even if those other two arcs were single games, that's still four more 50+ hour long games. I suspect that's going to be a lot of nothing. Realistically, it's probably going to at least 6 more 50+ hour long games.

[Velshin]

I began to realize it when I played the Crossbell duology (CS4 spoilers), when there was pretty much zero plot progression whatsoever and the bad writing stuck out like a sore thumb.

I think CS4 is the culmination of problems that have plagued the franchise since the first game. It comes down to Falcom's inability to plan a satisfying experience around the realities of the development schedule they have set for themselves. Falcom has promised their shareholders to release at least one game a year, which means that a game is going out the door regardless of whether or not it is complete, regardless of whether or not it is a polished, high quality experience. So what ends up happening is you get FC, a half game. Which then leads into SC... which is still unfinished and doesn't have an actual ending, requiring yet another Sky game to retroactively provide closure it for it. Ao doesn't have a proper ending, forcing the next arc to get bogged down trying to not only tell its own story, but also trying to provide closure for the prior arc, and it ends up tripping up at both. Pretty much half the reason we're getting Hajimari is because CS4 - like SC - didn't managed to properly close the CS arc, so they need another game to give it an actual ending. It's just a pile up.

It's especially telling that after 9 games, each at least 50 hours long (we're around 600 hours deep into this series), we've had pretty much zero main plot progression whatsoever. We don't even have very basic plot and character information such as the motivations, the goals, the methods, and the backstory of the big bad ensemble. The only thing we know is that there is a big bad ensemble and they do things for... reasons.

You have villains who commit heinous acts, are soundly, utterly defeated by the protagonists at the end of an arc... but then the protagonists refuse to kill the villains while they're down, allowing them to just waltz off to haunt the next arc. It's like Falcom can't let go of their villains, like in their mind their villains are too marketable for them to kill off (can't market dead characters afterall, if they can't show up in the next game and be used as advertising material to hype up the next game). We have... what? Two dozen villains still walking around? And then we're going to have a dozen more by the time we reach the final arc. Is Falcom going to kill off three dozen villains in a single game? Or are we just going to get more, idiotic, unsatisfying karmi houdinism?

Hajimari no Kiseki if C turns out to be who we think it is, then the karma houdinism will have reached all new low, with Falcom straight up glorifying a murderer by building a cool game around them as the protagonist. Then again, they already let Rixia waltz off scott free without her ever repenting for being an assassin (guess she got a free pass for having a pair of boobs and ass) so who knows.

CS4 spoilers Ao has really screwed things up by straight up telling you what happens in a couple years, which made the next five games a foregone conclusion. I guess that could make it feel like there was no plot progression being made if you feel like nothing is happening that you didn't already know, but if Ao's ending didn't straight up tell you that, then I suspect the backlash to the hard reset to the status quo would have been even louder.

At least Kondo has said in interviews that they plan on actually hurrying up. Hajimari will probably give us a long overdue exposition dump on basic plot information we've been missing for decades, and he has said that they are really going to try to keep arc 4 self contained and keep it from spilling out past two games. But then he went ahead and said that there were three more arcs planned, so IDK anymore. Even if those other two arcs were single games, that's still four more 50+ hour long games. I suspect that's going to be a lot of nothing. Realistically, it's probably going to at least 6 more 50+ hour long games.

I agree with most of what you wrote except the SC sky is not being complete. The Sky series was focusing mostly about the small kingdom of Liberl and at the end of SC they solved the Gospel phenomenon and destroyed the Liberl Ark. Everything else is secondary, the main focus is the kingdom of Liberl and its problems and it was done.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I agree with most of what you wrote except the SC sky is not being complete. The Sky series was focusing mostly about the small kingdom of Liberl and at the end of SC they solved the Gospel phenomenon and destroyed the Liberl Ark. Everything else is secondary, the main focus is the kingdom of Liberl and its problems and it was done.

Spoiler: 

When SC, a variety of plot lines had yet to be given proper closure:

• - Kloe's feelings for Joshua

• - a proper epilogue like FC saying goodbye to the major NPCs

• - a proper send off to the main characters, finding out what they will do next

• - Ouroboros council explaining what happened and what's next

• - Osborne/Olivier scene that justified Olivier's actions and set up the larger scale story. The tanks felt like an out of nowhere plotline that was forgotten as quickly as it came.

Half of 3rd was about retroactively giving closure to SC.

[Velshin]

Spoiler: 

When SC, a variety of plot lines had yet to be given proper closure:

• - Kloe's feelings for Joshua

• - a proper epilogue like FC saying goodbye to the major NPCs

• - a proper send off to the main characters, finding out what they will do next

• - Ouroboros council explaining what happened and what's next

• - Osborne/Olivier scene that justified Olivier's actions and set up the larger scale story. The tanks felt like an out of nowhere plotline that was forgotten as quickly as it came.

Half of 3rd was about retroactively giving closure to SC.

Well tbh those things are super secondary and not the main things really? Kloe while an important supportive character for sure but she is not one of the main characters really. Joshua and Estelle are the main ones. The Ouroboros stuff well it is clear that they are setting them up to be a long run villains for the franchise and not just the Sky series I treat them like the Joker to Batman for the series.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Finished at 129 hours (as per Steam).

My thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel III as I played through it.

Spoiler: 

SPOILERS FOR ALL TRAILS GAME UP TO AND THROUGH TRAILS OF COLD STEEL III

Note: due to jerks on r/Falcom and the r/Falcom Discord server PMing me spoilers (bonus points for renaming their usernames to spoilers), and due to Gematsu putting spoilers in the thumbnails and titles of their Trails news posts, I've already been spoiled on the major plot twists in CS3 and CS4. I cannot discuss the plot or speculate without relying on all knowledge available to me. Just like with my Crossbell playthrough, I will be playing through the game and speculating on how everything will fit in with the later developments.

Initially, I thought that I would post my thoughts as I completed each chapter (so people who were playing the game as well could discuss as they went through it), but I then quickly realized that was a terrible idea, as I would have to either spoiler tag or omit so much content that it would actually spoil by virtue of people noticing that I am trying not to talk about something that they would have noticed or suspected. Thus, I have gone ahead and removed all spoiler tags for any information that does not come from CS4 or prerelease info and speculation for Hajimari no Kiseki. That means I will be openly talking about ending CS3 spoilers while in the prologue and chapter 1, for example.


IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED CS3, DO NOT CONTINUE READING!!!




Prologue

Spoiler: 

Main menu screen is just a still image? What? Why did you drop the fantastic main menus from CS1 and CS2, which featured inengine scenes depicting where the characters were in the story?

Going in on hard mode. The r/Falcom Discord sure likes to complain how "easy" the Cold Steel games are, but my personal experience has shown that the hard modes of CS1 and CS2 were already difficult enough on a first playthrough.





FLASHFOWARD

Another flashforward action opening? Okay, sure, it made sense for CS1 because Falcom needed to assure newcomers that yes, the game would be building up to a violent and intense climax, but this is the third game. We already know what to expect. This feels spoilerly to me. If you were going to have an action opening to catch people's attention, why not have done the Imperial invasion of Haliask? Pull a XBC1 opening: have Rean, Altina, and a couple evilish Imperial soldiers invading Haliask, taking fire from Archaisms and Northern Jaegers. We get to see the Imperials and Northern Jaegers alike comitting war crimes against the refugees in the city. Then, when the massacre happens, the camera pans or cuts away as Rean unleashes his ogre/demon power, leaving the audience in suspense as to what had happened, and hyping them up for the answer to that question at the end of the game.

RIP those guards

Woah the voices are loud. Turned the voice volume down four notches.

Not digging Kurt and Juna's character designs. Kurt has... blue hair, on top of blue hairs, on top of a bland face, on top of a blue uniform. And he dual wields swords. Juna has... pink hair, with pink eyes, on a bland face, on top of a blue uniform. At least it has a miniskirt to break up the monotony of the character design.

Oh wow, Kurt actually cuts Rean some slack. I guess its just Juna and Ash who are going to be assholes for the whole game?

The music is pretty great. Is it a Sonoda track?

Why did they invert the horizontal camera control? How do I reverse it?

OH NO THEY TOOK MY ABILITY TO ZOOM THE CAMERA IN AN OUT AWAY! Now my camera is always at a fixed distance from the current character! I liked being able to zoom in close and get a better read on people's faces when I went around talking to NPCs.

It seems they took away Overdrive (unless we get it back for CS4)

Huh, so Brave Orders use Link Attack points as well.

What did they do to the rest theme? CS1+2's rest theme was iconic!

Going in on hard mode seems to have been the right choice, as the boss battles are already damage spongey enough as is.

The music has been pretty great thus far.

Annnd they're now playing the instrumental OP theme. It's... meh.

Wait, all of my guys were up and we got Ennea down to 50% HP. Why are my guys panting like they lost while Ines and Ennea are standing up straight?

Why are we having a conversation from feet 50 away?

And the best cast has arrived.

Spiral of Erebos was overhyped.

In retrospect, this flashforward was pretty hype. Great music. Stakes. Teased with seeing Aions in the CS arc. Teased with Arianrhod. Teased with seeing the gang back together and KICKING ASS.





PROLOGUE

Feels great to see Rean, Patrick, and Towa again, like seeing your good friends again after a long time.

Wait, if this train is going to Leeves from Ordis, then what were Tita and Agate doing in Ordis?

So Principal Vandyck stepped down as principal of the main branch. Who is the new principal?

Leeves and and the Branch Campus look laid out almost exactly like Trista and the main campus. They even have a dungeon off to the side in the same place as the Old Schoolhouse.

Ah, so this is the former Capua estate.

I wonder how Randy got transferred over to Thors. Was it by choice? Is he trying to climb up the Erebonian hierarchy? Or is it just Osborne wants to keep an eye on dissenters while also making use of their abilities?

Who is the special advisor? Lechter? I know that Aurelia is the principal, but I don't know who is the advisor.

Oh, its Schmidt.

I'm guessing once Osborne realized where Rean was headed, Osborne had Schimdt assigned to the Branch Campus to try to still extract knowledge out of Rean and Valimar. But shouldn't that be unnecessary, since Osborne already has source information on how Divine Knights work via Ishmelga? I guess maybe this is just a cover so that Osborne can provide official sources within his government as to where this knowledge is coming from without letting loose the secret about the other six DKs under his control.




I really like the loading screen logo. The default black and fire-orange logo for CS3 looked too... cheap. Too on the nose. This one, with the black surrounded by steel reflecting golden light, with a tinge of fire, looks very elegant.

I'm guessing Altina was about to tell them how Rean is essentially being blackmailed into all this crap.

CS4 spoilers

Spoiler: 

The interior of Einhell with the jagged lines on the wall reminds me of the location Rean was chained up in. It even has doors with red gemstones/eyes like the doors in the Old Schoolhouse and in Lohengrin Castle. Was this place built by Black Alberich? Or, at the very least, uses his tech released through through his secret Reinford 5th Division/Black Workshop?

Why can't Rean use his Force MQ from his ARCUS I and use it in the ARCUS II? Are NONE of the ARCUS I quartz transferable? That's some pretty terrible backwards compatibility. Trails in the Sky SC did the same thing. It's even more puzzling because the upgraded versions of the battle orbments in these games (SC, Ao, and CS3+4) use quartz with the exact same names and properties as their originals. For example, in FC, you can equip a Cast I quartz, and in SC you can equip a Cast I quartz. Are they different quartz with the same names, for different models of battle orbment? IC, this is an extremely convoluted and inefficient system, but I digress.

On the topic of battle orbments and quartz, who will be maintaining our gear on the Branch Campus? At the main campus, we went to George and him fix up our stuff. Will it be Schmidt and Tita?

Juna, Arios isn't "a wanted man" because of "muh evil empire". He is an accomplice to mass murder. The police you revere so much should have arrested him when they had the chance.

Gosh, I hope we see Zechs again. He was cool! I didn't see his name in the opening credits, which has me worried. He'll definitely show up for the revolution to overthrow Osborne... right?

Screw you Ironbloods! I hope you all die horribly! *shakes fists angrily*

First off: disappointing animated opening. Looks flat, cheap, and uninteresting. Falcom's old, simple panning shots across still images with a ton of adobe after effects applied looked great. According to an interview with Kondo shared on the r/Falcom Discord, it seems their artists only work on the openings after the game is finished, but since they were working on CS3 up until the last minute, they didn't have time and instead had to outsource it. Um... what!? Dude, this company has an obligation to its shareholders to put out at least one game a year. Why isn't there people in the company set aside to specifically work on your trademark openings?

Anyway, the song is decent. Reminds me of one of the Assassination Classroom OPs.

Chapter 1

Spoiler: 

Screw you too Ash!

Hm... I wonder if I will be able to actually influence which clubs the students join. In CS1, Rean having no club interests and preferring to dedicate his spare time to helping the student council was a part of his overarching character's storyline, so it made sense you couldn't join a club. Then again, here New Class VII aren't the main character. It's not like the PoV is going to switch to them and we are going to have free days doing club activities from their perspective, and since the Cold Steel story is about embracing life and seizing your own destiny... I'm guessing it will all be scripted then. I won't be going to them to pick clubs for them, but it will instead just be Rean giving them the motivation to pick a club and they will pick their club.

So Osborne has prohibited trade with Calvard, and they hold Crossbell. Oof. Given how dire the economic situation in Calvard was only a couple years ago, you'd think that Calvard's economy would have collapsed by now.

"Arc en Ciel has cut back performances while their star actress recuperates" - it's still bulllshit that Illya survived. No, I will not let that go.

Huh, so Imperial Chronicle and Crossbell Times are working together. Does that mean Grace, Norton, Rex, and Vivi are all going to work together and BOTH get Pulitzer prizes for covering the events of CS3+4?

I'm rocking the Tokyo Xanadu music. Hm... I wonder if Josep thinks that this is a leftover TX track.

Oh, I think this is the first game in the Erebonia arc that has an actual clock! Let's see... right now it's late afternoon, with the sun setting outside. I'm guessing that it's 5:10 PM? Will the clocks update as the story advances? Or is it just frozen in time?

Who is our nurse?

Huh, when talking with NPCs, the camera cuts to a close up of them now. An improvement in NPC presentation. In CS1+2, you had to zoom in the camera close, and sometimes had to try to angle it in front of a nearby object to move it closer, so you could see people's faces when going around talking to NPCs. This problem helps solve that (but only when you interact with them; if you are trying to look at two people posed in a conversation with each other without the ability to zoom in... oof), but will it apply to all NPCs in the game? If it only applies to hub NPCs, then the removal of a zoomable camera is going to remain a negative for me.

You know, it doesn't seem like this school building was built with the prospect of scaling up in mind. There are only three class rooms, and the Class VII classroom only has space for two rows of students, and has no storage room. Given the explosion of applications to Thors Military Academy after the Civil War, you'd think that they'd be trying to accomodate more students. What, are they just going to build a third campus that also can only house 50/60 students max? And a fourth? That is grossly inefficient.

Gina, I already had a notebook filled with receipes of food I fed to Thomas and Margarita a couple years back. Unless, ofcourse, Rean lost it or threw it away...




*feels*

Rean even kept the fishing rod Kenneth gave him!

Towa has telescopes in her room... I didn't know she was into astronomy or stargazing. Maybe she took it up within the last year? Then again, I was never able to visit the commoner or noble dorms in CS1+2.

Haha Aurelia sensing me from outside her room, just like when she sensed us peeking at her and Wallace from the kitchen.

Apparently Aurelia is a drinker.

Speaking of which, it's nice that I have access to every student's room. Ofcourse, the game devs had to condense the dorms into a single building, and I'm probably not going to be able to go into all of their rooms, but the immersion is nice.

On the topic of Randy's past, we never did get the name of Randy's bro before Lloyd, did we? Wish we found out more about him.




ELLIOT MY BOY!!!

My gosh we have straight up modern day android/iPhones now.

Yeah... about that fancy ARCUS communication feature? It's probably being monitored by Osborne. The ARCUS was developed by the Reinford Corporation, after all... which is in actuallity a front for Black Alberich's Black Workshop. When it comes time for us to rebel against Osborne, let's not broadcast important information over these channels, okay? We need to come up with codewords, or at the very least, agree to meet up somewhere and then plan our seditious activities in person. That way, at least we will be able to sense any unwanted company.

I can enter every room in the dorm! Nice!

Oh gosh, why is there so much scandalous material in this dorm?

Oh gosh, Musse is rooming with Tita. I think I've found Tita's new source of... encouragement regarding Agate...

Oh wow, the Leeves town clock actually says 9:00!

Radio Trista... in Leeves? Did they get kicked out of Trista? I'm guessing because Trista and the Thors main campus wants to clean up their reputation now that they have all of this attention placed on them.

MUNK MY MAN!

What happened to Michael and Lala, from the OG Radio Trista? Are they managing the Radio Trista franchise? Or did they just hand it off to Munk entirely and just quit? Maybe they got hired by Imperial Chronicle or Crossbell Times to do broadcasting?

Well anyway, we're going to need Munk for when it comes time to revolt. We'll need him to broadcast our declaration of war on the Chancellor and unveil all of the crimes he committed.

Wait, is Rosine here in Leeves? Can't be Thomas. Gralsritter are too busy doing anything us than being out and about on business, and there isn't any business to be had here in Leeves ATM.

Hm... it seems that Leeves is a rapidly expanding town. Four of the six businesses in Leeves opened within the last year (the import/general goods stores, the exchange branch from Crossbell, Radio Trista, and another branch bakery store from Heimdallr, not to mention the newly opened branch school). Really seems like Erebonia is experiencing an economic boom. Poor Calvard, left in the dust. I'm guessing that's going to be a huge contrast when we visit Calvard in arc 4, as we will see how an economic depression, an immigration crisis, and rampant crime has hit Calvard hard.

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Why didn't they do that? Why didn't we get to go back and revisit Eastern Erebonia!?!? Why!?!? Why do you tease us like this!?!?

No Rean, you did not play all the time against Machias... unless it happened offscreen in between the playable days and it was never mentioned.

Oh gosh, it's going to be Lechter... not this dude...

Well at least he brought Millium.




NO! GET AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE! THEY ARE capital 'E' EVIL!




Can't you see it Millium? Can you not see him for who he truly is? HE IS GOING TO BE AN ACCOMPLICE TO YOUR MURDER!!! They're going to trick you into a hoax curse plot! Kill him Airigetlam! Kill him right now!!! Grind his head into paste!

Millium, don't act like this is your first time meeting the Golden Rakshasha. You met her back in CS2, in Legram. Then again, given that we can't import saves, I guess that isn't going to be acknowledged in this game. Hm... does CS3 have a canon of who were present for what events?




Knock it off with the lies, Lechter. You already admitted to Randy that the Red Constellation was actually hired by Osborne (and even given the Beowulf to boot!) to go into Crossbell and stir up controlled trouble so that Osborne could then justifiably swoop in and save the day. Just like how Osborne had Rufus hire Zephyr to help the NA stir up controlled carnage during the Civil War, so Osborne could then justifiably defeat the NA, confiscate their assets, and emerge as the moral victor in the public's eye. That's Osborne's modus operandi: antagonize people he wants to conquer, drive them into desperation, then covertly hand them tools to lash out (but not effective enough to actually threaten himself), and then when they do lash out, he's got his cassus belli and can easily crush them and take their stuff.

Given how Reinford was already working on the Derflinger as of CS2, Osborne has been planning this for years.

Hm... why is Schmidt interested in Rean's ogre power? Schmidt is an engineer who likes to build interesting things. Sure, his curiousity might be piqued by Rean's ogre power, but what can he actually do with the knowledge attained from studying it?

CS4 spoilers

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Is Schmidt going to be the one who comes up with a plan to save Rean and cure him of the curse?

Welp, looks like we're going to Sutherland this chapter. Is this where the Florald estate is located? Or are we going to find the Floralds in the Lamare province in chapter 3?

Speaking of Schmidt, where does he sleep? He doesn't stay at the dorms, and I've heard no mention of him staying at Barney's. Is he staying in Heimdallr?

I knew Black Alberich could mind wipe people, but I didn't realize he could also mind control them. Is he using his pal Weissman's fingersnap magic? We never did get an explanation for where Weissman got his fingersnap magic or what it was, and yet Weissman's stigma and combat shells were explained, and I know that Black Alberich created the demon eye technique. Could he have created the fingersnap magic as well? That doesn't make much sense, though. If Black Alberich created the fingersnap magic and taught it to Weissman, and Weissman was using it as early as 1192, then that means Black Alberich was walking around being evil as early as 1192. Is that when Franz died/faked his death? How did Black Alberich and Weissman becomes BFFs in just a year? They had to have been friends before that. Perhaps Weissman knew Franz? Or perhaps Black Alberich used his fingersnap magic into making Weissman think he was long time best buds with Black?

Claire, don't play the pity game. Don't try to equate Rean with yourself. You are WILLINGLY CHOOSING to help Osborne in his evil. You are unrepetent. Rean is being blackmailed into this and is going to rebel once he can.

CS4 spoilers

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I'm guessing Valimar just detected a Divine Knight traveling through the spirit path. AFAIK Osborne doesn't use Ishmelga that much, besides when he used his DK to "casually swing by" the Schwarz Auction House by using the spirit path to travel to one of the ancient ruins nearby (probably Stargaze Tower). I don't think Rufus has gotten El Plado yet, and even if he did I don't think he'd be overtly using it for combat, lest the secret would spill out. Cedric is at Trista and isn't going anywhere yet. That means it's either going to be 1. Ordine, as per the Azure Siegfried, 2. Zector, Rutger's DK, or 3. Argeion, Arianrhod's DK. Valimar's wording and Rean's surprise seems to indicate that this is the first time Valimar has detected another DK using the spirit path, so does the mana disturbance caused by it have a falloff range? If true, then those three DKs could have been teleporting around and Valimar may have never noticed because he was too far away.

Welp, I'm glad that they hadn't discarded all of CS2's innovations. Remember how in CS2, they gave you a vehicle that acted as a secondary hub to transport your student NPCs from Trista with you anywhere you went? Welp, now we get another such vehicle from the get go. Even cooler is that the student NPCs actually come out of the vehicle and show up to do stuff, rather than just being couped up in the airship.

Hm... increasing monster activity. This is a couple years after the first Cryptid appearances in Erebonia and Crossbell, and a year after Valimar talked about a disturbance in the Septium Veins at the end of CS2. Are more Cryptids spawning?

Oh look, the company that made Joshua's harmonica. (Hm... did the Rieveldt's go bankrupt? Or did Claire's family die, decapitating the company's management and leading to it closing down? You'd think that Claire, as the inheiritor, could have sold the company off to someone else. Looks like it just went defunct. Why hasn't anyone else bought this lot? Is it in a trust held by Osborne for Claire?).




Take a nice, long look at her, Juna. This women is a mass murderer who burned your hometown, shot up a theater full of people, and tried to kill your friends and your family. The SSS you worship defeated her... but rather than killing her or at the very least, arresting her, they instead shook their heads and went "oh well" and waltzed right past her. Because of their incompetence, this woman is back, and she is going to continue killing more people! Well, at least the SSS will get a second chance to kill her in CS4. Let's see if they take it. (Let's be honest: they won't. Because Falcom loves to create cool, marketable franchise supervillain characters and milk them past their welcome, shoving them into games they have no business being in. A dead character isn't a character that can be brought back to sell new games, after all!)

So we can't visit the Saint Arkh airport. In CS1, we couldn't visit the airports, but in CS2 we could go to the Bareahard and the Roer airports because we landed the Courageous there as a part of the story.

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but with our airship being a huge flagship, we can't possibly land it in the airport. Unless we are going to use a smaller yacht that goes from the flagship to the airports, will even get a ship that can land at an airport? If not, then I guess we will never get to see these airports. What, are we just going to beam to and from the flagship to the town? Or can the flagship land outside of town?

Hm... why is Roselia involved in this Ouroboros/Osborne curse plot? Red Moon Rose depicted her as a rather heroic character (unless that's Church propaganda, but given how Carnelia was literally just the truth but with the names swapped, I'm inclined to think that Red Moon Rose is a truthful account of Roselia's character). I don't see how the Roselia depicted in Red Moon Rose would willingly go along with these evil folks' plans. Also, why is Roselia in the hidden witch clan's forest? Is she apart of the Hexen Clan? Sure, she's a vampire, but how does that make her a witch? Did she join the Hexen Clan?

ELLIOT MY MAN!




Haha

Okay, so Elliot heard that Rean was going to Saint Arkh, and since Elliot hadn't toured there yet, he decided to go there. Fie is here because she is tracking down Rutger. What about Laura? Why is she going to show up here? Is it because she is tracking Arianrhod and McBurn? If true, then wow. Zephyr, Red Constellation, Stahlritter, McBurn, and Ouroboros all congregated in one place. The branch campus might be able to take on one of those groups, but all of them at once? This is looking like a bust to me. We should probably call in some backup. Hope those bracer buddies Fie was talking with show up to help us. If Agate is in the area, great, but he's a drop in the bucket compared to sheer number of high level adversaries we are about to face. We need like... a half dozen more elites on our side AT LEAST, unless we decide to go for a defeat in detail strategy in which we somehow manage to be REALLY SWIFT and take out each supervillain one at a time.

Time to go out on to the Northern Sutherland Highway.

Oh no, it's going to be Rutger, isn't it?

I told you so.




Remind me not to rely on you when it comes to character judgements.

Well first off, this is narrative cheating. Those remains are still smoking hot, meaning that they were destroyed a few minutes ago. We would've heard gun fire/explosions/loud clangs of a metal greatsword on metal robot. Second, writers you already pulled this trick with the introduction of Sigmund in Ao. Not a very impressive introduction, as Baldur was supposed to be the War God and Sigmund's boss. Rutger and Baldur were supposed to be tied in strength, so introducing Rutger by having him accomplish a feat first done by a lesser warrior is not impressive. Well, I guess the monsters Sigmund massacred were made of flesh and dropped dead after a couple slices (whereas robots can have anything hacked off and keep going as long as it's not their CPU or power system), and monsters don't shot undodgeable bullets and explosive rockets with shrapnel flying everywhere, so I guess the impressive part is that Rutger apparently emerged from this battle unscathed? He fought, what? 13 or 14 robots armed with dual machine guns? Alright. Inexplicably evading every single bullet from 28 machine guns firing on you at once is extremely impressive. He must be using top end quartz and casting Shining or Crest to evade or tank all of those bullets. But TWENTY EIGHT MACHINE GUNS!?!? We absolutely would have heard that. Narrative cheating!

Oh, Celestin is going to drive us to Parm?

Ah, horses. Nice.

There was no reason to bring up the derailment in Ao. This is an accident. The Ao derailment was part of that story's convoluted plot. Stop Crossbell wanking, please.

Well Pablo, once the revolution begins by the end of this game, I'm going to need you to hijack this train for me. We'll need to use it to invade cities and installations held by Osborne's loyalists without our airships being shot up by anti-air guns or Erebonia's mobilized air force. That, and denying Osborne one of his cool toys. Only question is, where do we stash the train? It'll have to be in a territory loyal to us, so I'm guessing either somewhere in Kruzen or Sutherland (the Albareas and the Hyarms can use their vast lands and their resources to conceal the train from the loyalists). Only other thing to watch out for are any transponders in the train reporting the train's position to Osborne. Pablo, I hope you know where it is, so you can rip it out!

Saving lives isn't manly?

Or, the rock could have been pushed over the edge by a soldat, a DK, or an Aion, but you'd probably see big giant footprints in the dirt indicating such a giant machine. Or, a DK or an Aion could have used their flight capabilities to carry the rock. That being said, I doubt Osborne and Ouroboros are going to waste their time using their handful of almighty machines to try to delay a passenger train for a few hours... unless they just don't want enemy reinforcements arriving at whatever area they are congregating in, in which case the point is moot since they could just come by airship anyway. It's a natural landslide.

Not higher priority. Osborne just wants to keep his public image clean. If Claire were to arrive, she'd deduce the plot and figure out that Osborne was working with The Red Constellation, Zephyr, and Ouroboros. As I understand it, the only people completely in on Osborne's plan are Black Alberich (who is the instigator of the whole plot, having approached Osborne in 1192, healed Rean of his injuries, and mind wiped Rean so Osborne could engage in politics without worrying about Rean, and gave Osborne Ishmelga), and Rufus (who hired Zephyr and brought in Ouroboros in the first place). I'm guessing the rest of the Ironbloods will be filled in a little bit on the curse plan later on, only enough information to make them think that they are saving the world or something, but by this point the Ironbloods already know well enough that their boss is evil and entrenched in some deep shit. If they wanted to stay in the moral right, they should have abandoned Osborne long ago. The events of the Infernal Tower should have made that pretty clear to all present.




I like this. Falcom could have gone the cheap route of doing the cliche "he has no eyes, only a darkened face over underneath the hat", but instead they just angled the hat just enough so that it obscures the lights in his eyes, leaving us with a creepy dull eyed expression (but when you use your camera outside of the cutscene you can see that he's just a regular guy, with light reflecting in his eyes). Those, indicating to the audience that he is unwittingly working for the bad guys, without being a bad guy himself.

Lady, we're EIGHT GAMES into this saga and I still don't know what the motivations, backstory, goal, and plan of the big bad organization even is. Do you even know what it is?

CS4 spoilers

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with Vita and Duvalie defecting to our side in CS4, you guys better spill the beans.

If there is one thing this series has been consistent about, it's that it doesn't matter how powerful you are. Even the greatest warrior can be brought low by a single bullet. Speed is everything. Doesn't matter if McBurn can incinerate entire city blocks when you have people like Joshua, Rean, Fie, and Duvalie, who can canonically flash step across a 50ft distance in the blink of an eye and stab you before you even get a chance to launch your building smashing attack. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: given how fast Joshua can move, there is no canonical reason why he shouldn't have been able to flash step up to every 'Sky villain and shiv them before they had a chance to move. Same with Rean and Fie in the Cold Steel arc. Given how Duvalie was traveling so fast in the Infernal Castle that she was visually appearing to be in multiple places at once, there is no reason why she couldn't just blink up and stab Cassius, Victor, and all of the other good guys before they had a chance to react. Alas, powerlevels are bullshit and characters consistently forget the powers they have at their disposal for the sake of drama.



Oooo, I can see Parm in the distance. Is another comfy market town, like Celdic?

Damn. If I could pick where to live in Zemuria... too many comfy Erebonian towns to choose from! There's Trista, Celdic, Legram, Ymir, Leeves, and now Parm. Hm... well if I wanted to learn a martial art, I'd want to attend a training hall, so that'd leave Legram (Arseid school) and Parm (Vander school), and wherever the Schleiden School of Spearmanship is located. Spears are REALLY COOL though and more useful than swords. Swords are overrated, so I'd want to go with the Schleiden School of Spearmanship, but I don't know where it is located. Then again, didn't I see spear users at the Arseid training hall? And Legram has a Bracer branch. Parm is also located near the Liberlian border so I can cross down there easily. Hm... decisions...

It's the colors, namely 1. the bright red quilts hanging from buildings with 2. bright blue roofs, surrounded by 3. lush green plants. The cobblestones and the wood is also nice.




Nooooooooo! We must reopen it! Tell me your family issues Kurt! Let the goodness of the protagonists resolve them!

It's going to be Mint, isn't it?

YUP!

ORVID!!! The one NPC (non portrait) I remember from Liberl, and he has a unique character model to boot now!

So Laura and Fie are working together to track down the big bads. They must realize that the Red Constellation, the Stahlritter, and Zephyr are here, and probably Ouroboros too. If Fie saw us arrive in town, then why didn't they call to give us a heads up?

Oh, Bertand was talking about Duvalie and Shirley. Nevermind.

Ah, now that I remember it, Zechs did say in SC that parts of Erebonia were being affected.

On the topic of Zechs, where is he now? After refusing to go along with Osborne's plan to invade Liberl, he was transfered to Zendar Gate, leading the 3rd Armored Division. According to the Imperial Chronicle, the 7th Armored Division is now stationed at Zendar Gate, so where is the 3rd? And is Zechs still in charge of it?

Hey, going on a JRPG adventure brings you into contact with a lot of people. You're already in contact with... what? 24 great people at the Branch Campus? And that's not even counting the new people you're about to meet on your adventure!

Three shadows flying... I take it that they are either Aions or Divine Knights.

Oh let me guess, the temporary instructor is going to be Aurelia. She wants to be on hand nearby just in case something goes horribly wrong, but she also wants to relax, and wants to continue the Vander tradition.

YUP! Unless it's going to be a suddenly new badass Ms. or Mrs. Vander we have never heard of before. Well, if it was a Vander, the disciples would probably just straight up tell them. Actually, shouldn't the disciples know who the Golden Rakshasha is? According to Rean in CS2, Aurelia LeGuin was a name renowned among all martial artists.

Alright game, you're teasing me with a road leading to Legram. I better be able to go there again! And hopefully explore ALL OF EREBONIA in a single game!




Hm? As I understand it, there was minimal warfare in the East. The NA used their surprise attack to quickly secure control over their provinces and pin down the armored divisions within their installations, with the only real warfare being in the Lamare province. We didn't see any evidence of destruction in the East in CS2.

Now that I think about it, just why did the East remain undamaged? The NA launched their assault two weeks after the destruction of Garrelia Fortress, and on the same day that Osborne declared war on Crossbell. The Imperial Army should have been moving it's forces East, as that was where the war front was going to be with Crossbell and possibly Calvard. If anything, it should have been the West that had the least amount of Imperial Forces, and therefore should have been the easiest for the NA to secure, and therefore had the least fighting. But instead, we are now in the paradoxical situation where two weeks after an attack by a foreign nation and on the cusp of a war, the Eastern border is undefended, but the heart of NA territory, Lamare (with Ordis being the most populous city in the Empire after Heimdallr, I believe, with 300,000, followed by Roer at 200,000, will have to double check my CS1 numbers) had the most fighting? What is going on? Why would the majority of Imperial Army forces be stationed in Lamare? Is it because the Imperial Navy's presence on the West Coast? Is that fortress we saw in the flashforward an Imperial Navy base? Well, that kinda makes sense, having the Imperial Navy's largest base near the most important port in Erebonia, Ordis, but then why was it being held by Lamare Provincial soldiers in the flashforward?

Hm... this monument... is it Hamel? Can't be. Kernviter isn't here.

Given how observant Altina is, I'm surprised she forgot about the third Archaism.

SEE? We have people walking around in this setting with superpowers that can canonically enable them cross 50 foot distances and attack multiple times in the blink of an eye. There is no reason why Joshua, Rean, and Fie shouldn't be able to just flash step up to McBurn, Arianrhod, and Rutger and just stab them before they even knew what had happened. Well, at least Rean has the justification of his Ogre/Demon power being dangerous to use, but he was still flash stepping using regular ELOB skills.

ANNABELLE!!!

Or, we could have whipped out our pocket watch battle orbments that shoot fire balls, but hell a laser beam from a shell works too.

Ah, the road past this gate must lead to Hamel.

LAURA MY LADY!!!

Ah, I should have known, what with Legram just being across the lake.




You either have never faced Ouroboros at all, or you're intentionally trying to sabotoge our efforts on behalf of Osborne so that the Red Constellation/Zephyr/Stahlritter/Ouroboros collaboration can succeed.

Huh, I can't S-craft on the first turn to steal a turn bonus?

Way too much talking in this battle. Also, this song has been playing for fifteen minutes. It's time for it to stop.

Considering you lost to the SSS, I think not. Rean and Randy can certainly kill you.

Fie somehow managed to get an even MORE awful outfit than her CS2 one. Your CS1 casuals + shades were the best!

You can stop playing dumb, Lechter. In Ao, you admitted to Randy that you were setting up the Red Constellation in Crossbell on orders from Osborne. Come on Randy, you're not a forgetful person. You remember.

Again, controlled destruction. Osborne only wants enough pressure on these criminals to maintain the pretense of fighting them. He can't have his pawns stopped before they accomplish... whatever it is Phantasmal Blaze.

Guys, you shouldn't have come in right after Lechter blackmailed Rean into this. This will only signal to Osborne "hey, Class VII is helping out Rean when I blackmail him. I can blackmail ALL OF THEM into doing what I want!". You should've waited until Lechter had left, or had called Rean to meet you away from the train to join up with him. Way to reveal your hand guys.

STOP BABBLING THIS INFORMATION IN FRONT OF OSBORNE'S LOYALISTS! YOU MORONS!

Well, at long last. After two years and 19 hours of playtime... We're back. Damn, it feels so good to be back together again with my pals. Go Class VII!

WTH why are we waiting for Freddy to cook us a soup? We've got psychos to kill! What, was I supposed to turn the plant bits and the bee larva in during the prior day? I guess the horse ride back to Saint Arkh to do the dye sidequest might have been an opportune time, but I did that sidequest the moment I entered Parm and didn't get the bee larva until after. Lemme reload to see if it can be done.

Oh wow, I did apparently do it out of order. Huh. That being said, I stand by my prior statement: they should've had you get the bee larva before you got the dye quest that sent you back to Saint Arkh, so you could drop off the ingredients at Freddy's while you were at it.




You and me both pal.




Sure is! How about you give "NOT killing your little sister" a try, eh?

Huh, I'll have to pay attention to the Nortia provincial guards the next time I replay CS1+2. Also, WHERE IN NORTIA!?!? WHY DIDN'T WE GET TO VISIT YOUR TRAINING HALL? Well, if it's close to Ymir or Celdic, or even Zendar gate, I guess it could be a cool place.

And yet it was never mentioned prior to CS3. Not once. Then again, Arseid wasn't namedropped until CS1, but we have consistently heard about the Vander school, ELOB, and Taito throughout the entire Trails saga.

Ah, I take my prior statement back. Huh, well I guess having a legendary superman (Cassius, Victor, Arios) or a renowned soldier (Cassius, Zechs, Aurelia) does make the name of the school pop up more often. I'm guessing Schleiden hasn't had either within the past few decades.

Having a different track playing would've hammered home the change in atmosphere, like CS1's Preparation for War. Why aren't you using CS1+2 tracks?

Sounds like an extension of the ARCUS' link feature. So now, our ARCUS II units can link across vast distances, with anyone we have a strong bond with, and draw upon their MQ?

Wait a minute, if Laura, Elliot, and Fie can access Kurt's and Juna's MQs without having a strong bond with them, then this isn't a link feature. It's the wireless communication capability of the ARCUS II, which means... anyone in the network can access our ARCUS IIs and our MQs. And since Osborne controls the network, then at any time he can just disable any ARCUS II he wishes. Oof. When it comes time to revolt, we'll either need to somehow take control of the network, jailbreak our ARCUS IIs, or switch back to our ARCUS Is.




Holy crap the assassination of Eugent was an inside job. I thought what had happened was that Rean busted Hercules team, and Ash took one of their guns, and used it to shoot the Emperor in revenge for covering up Hamel, and then Osborne jumped on the opportunity to say "We caught Calvardian spies and their gun that was used to shoot the Emperor" as his cassus belli, but I never thought that his assassination was planned from the get go. Holy crap, Eugent appointed Osborne as his chancellor and then Osborne killed him. Feels bad man. Damn, that was an absolutley terrible judgement call, Your Majesty.

Oh, hey Toval.

Ah, so this is actually a jury rigged system, where our ARCUS II interface with Olivier's artifact as the master server.

Which means that we will lose access to our communication and long distance sub master quartz once the ship blows up... unless the artifact somehow survived the explosion, which I doubt because being able to use the features dependent on his artifact which he carries on him at all times would give away that he survived... unless he put the artifact somewhere else? Or there is a backup system that ARCUS II's are programmed to access in case connection with the artifact is lost?




Dude, everyone who isn't an antagonist is in the dark about the plans of the big bad organization. We're eight games in and we don't have basic info like their origin, their motivations, their goal, or their plan to achieve that goal.




Toval, no one can ever detect airships in this setting. How did everyone in Liberl not notice a giant, red block the length of three football fields in the sky? In CS1, Class VII (in Trista, CS1 chapter 6) and the people of Heimdallr (CS1 chapter 6, CS2 act 3) are able to hear the roar of the Courageous' engines from over a mile away. Class VII was able to hear the Pantagruel from inside the Phoenix Wings. There is no possible way for anyone to not know that the Glorious is invading Liberlian airspace. How does a nation renowned for pioneering the use of airships in military endeavors fail to send airships to check it out? Don't forget that time when a Noble Alliance carrier loaded up with an entire army just casually flew over the capital of the empire and deployed its army in the middle of the city, and apparently the military had no idea until giant robots were rapelling out of it onto the streets and stabbing tanks. Literally the one and only time a military has been able to detect an airship within its airspace was when the Merkabah decloaked in Ao, and that was to deliberately draw the enemy's attention. Unless you're TRYING to get caught, trying to detect airships in your airspace is futile.

... Miles? IS IT MILES?

Oh. It's Agate.

Which incident? There have been multiple "incidents" in Liberl within the past five years.

They're not going to say no when the Hero of the Empire comes knocking with papers saying "MISSION FROM CHANCELLOR OSBORNE HIMSELF".

So Craig and the 4th was reassigned to Dreknor? Hm... wait, then is Zechs and the 3rd up in the Lamare Province? If true, then I'm beginning to sense a pattern here. Craig and Zechs keep being assigned to regions where Osborne's "enemies" (actually being controlled by him) will show up. Guess he doesn't want the divisions which fought fiercly in the West during the civil war to end up destroying Osborne's "enemies" before they managed to accomplish their task.

FINALLY! I'm playing Trails of Cold Steel again. Exploring Erebonia with my goods buddies. THIS is the Trails of Cold Steel 3 I wanted!




But the Gnomes vanished hundreds of years ago. If there were Gnomes around within the past 50 years handing out amulets to Orbal Workshops, we'd know a lot more about Gnomes.

Aww, I thought it'd be Ron, Morris, or Kalinka. Maybe we'll get a chance to see them again later in the game?




NO! Mary is going to marry Makarov!

I went back to Rieveldt & Co, hoping to see if Elliot would comment on it (since it's the company that made Joshua's harmonica, among other musical instruments) but nothing happened.

Nooooo I can't fish with Laura, Elliot, and Fie.

Come on guys, stop with the "as you know" exposition.




I have never heard of a rank called "Senior Bracer" before. The ranks are on a D-A scale, with S being an unofficial, honory award. In CS1, it was established that Sara was the youngest Bracer to attain A rank, at around 20 or something.

What "certain pair of young Bracers from Liberl"? Are you talking about Grant and Anelace? Nacht and Chloe? There are a lot. Seriously guys stop with the wanking and get on with it!




Dude, Elliot, come on, you knows what's up. You were there at the Infernal Tower when Osborne and Rufus revealed themselves for what they truly were. The Empire has been going capital "b" BAD for years.

My gosh it's like you guys completely forgot CS2.

Oh well now, NOW they're acknowledging CS2 happened?

Getting wrecked by the second hunt mob. Going to need to cap everyone's CP so I can burst it down during it's powerup phase.

Killed it by breaking it ASAP, popping Valiant Heart, and then popping Rean's 200 CP S-craft on a crit turn. I got lucky.

I love how your reward for that brutal boss fight was a fishing spot

*claps* Alright. Here we go again!




Oh wow, the canonical damage was far more devestating than what we had seen ingame. We were only shown a couple demolished houses and a few market stalls overturned, but this makes it look like the entire town was straight up razed.

Oh look, a military base that actually has anti-air guns. Hm... I'm guessing Garellia Fortress was supposed to look something more like this, but due to the technical limitations of the Vita, they couldn't put all of the details they wanted (ie, anti aircraft guns, hundreds of tanks and soldiers). I guess Aurochs fort might be canonically bigger than what we had seen in CS1+2, perhaps the size of that Lamare Navy Base seen in the flashforward.

Oh my gosh, is that Alan?

IT IS!

Is that Neithardt's voice?

IT IS!




That's the wrong attitude to have. Yes, Rean does need you but for different reasons than you might think. To take down Osborne, we need people within the system AND outside of it. For those working within the system (like you, new Class VII), you can't be getting expelled over going AWOL and violating orders just to win the battle. We need to win the war. That means not getting discharged or imprisoned over the little things. That's what the people outside the system are for. We overtly violate our orders when it's time for the revolution and we have the most momentum we're ever going to have.

(Also, hopefully Ash and Musse don't listen in and decide to invite themselves to this party...)

Damn it she overheard and now she's about to invite herself in

Damn it not him too

Musse, you did not "notice a certain spot" you already knew




Vivi, I don't think your average joe knows what "the Society" is. It's hardly reported in the papers... though given how overt their movements have been for the past four years, there really is no reason why "the terrorist organization called Ouroboros" shouldn't be public knowledge. Alas, Ouroboros remains conceptually ridiculous and continues to plague this franchise.




I just realized that he is painting invisible art, just like Gaius!

The fact that Michael knows makes me once again think that he's not an idiot but instead one of Osborne's loyalists, possibly a new Ironblood, who is purposefully obstructing our efforts.

Huh? I thought they just dipped across the border illegally to put Kernviter there and then left.

Looks like this is going to be the end of chapter boss battle sequence. Hard mode has been pretty hard, so I'm expecting this to be absolutely brutal. Trying to refine my quartz to the best stats, outfitting my guys with the best gear and quartz. Also taking a look at my recipes.

Hm... the recipes seem pretty useless. They only restore a few hundred HP, and they either only apply one stack of a single buff for one or two turns.

Welp, I'm not satisfied with my setup, but I've done the best I time. Welp, here goes nothing.

Oof. If I'm fighting the Jaegers, then who will the students be facing? The Stahlritter? They're pretty manageable.

Agate, why on earth are you using a MQ for arts users?

Feels like I'm going through Nebel Valley again.

This is not an opportune time to be throwing out fan service references. We are in the middle of hostile territory held by dangerous bastards who need to die folks.

Also, how did Agate get an ARCUS II? The ARCUS project is supposed to be controlled by Osborne, with units being parceled out to those who will advance his agenda. Lloyd and Rixia were only able to get a couple ARCUS Is through Heiyue, who looted them from the NA as the NA's assets were liquidated in the aftermath of the Civil War.

For goodness sake STOP PLAYING THE PRONOUN GAME AND REPEATING THE SAME INFORMATION OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND JUST SAY IT AGATE!!!




THANK YOU! FINALLY!

Oh my gosh the Yetis from Nebel Valley are here too. I guess mid-Western Zemuria is Yeti country.

Dude you just said that for the fourth time in a row

Yeah you said that three times in a row too.

Agate, you don't need to recap the Hundred Days War. This is common knowledge.

"Genocide"? Wrong word. This wasn't ethnic, nor were there people hunting down the survivors of the town to kill them. It was simply a massacre.

"The Imperial Officer who planned it was executed" well this is another retcon from Trails in the Sky. Loewe specifically said "war hawks", as if there were multiple higher ups who planned the op.

Rean, you don't have the Echo. You can't see Trails in the Sky flashbacks, unless the writers are about to retcon you in as being from Hamel with his memory having been wiped by Black Alberich, which I guess might happen since they're about to retcon in Lechter and Ash being from Hamel too despite there having been zero foreshadowing prior to CS3 and the fact that the one and only other Hamel character that had been mentioned prior to CS3 was Karin. The Black Alberich twist was actually set up in SC, when Weissman referenced him when he talked about his combat shells, but Weissman being apart of some never before heard of prophecy is also going to count as a retcon. *sigh*

*sigh* and ofcourse, the only three personal belongings we find in the village belonged to the main characters.

Did they take Kernviter away?

Ah, no, just couldn't see it from this distance.

For the love of... can we PLEASE STOP WITH THE WANKING? JUST GET ON WITH IT!




No if you win they'll be dead. We don't take prisoners. Please follow Kevin's example. Then again, given that this is Trails, we're either going to 1. defeat them in battle, but we don't kill them and they just run away to continue murdering, or 2. we'll defeat them in battle but lose in the cutscene, and they will just leave to continue murdering. (Seriously, I'm going to be pissed if this arc ends and Kevin STILL remains the one and only protagonist who actually just straight up killed one of the bad guys).

Hahahaha, very funny Rean. After eight games of "vagueness", I don't think the writers know what Ouroboros is trying to do.

Step Ahead is a great song.

Welp, we beat them. Rean/Laura/Agate/Fie, quick! Lop their heads off before they have a chance to run off! Oh who am I kidding. They're gonna chat and chat until Zephyr comes and bails them out.

LOL they're still standing and laughing like I had just bashed their faces in at all. Seriously, this absolutely no sense. The SSS were able to straight up KNOCK OUT SHIRLEY on their first try, and the only powerful warriors they had were Randy and Wazy. We have Agate, Rean, Laura, and Fie. Vegeta was right! POWERLEVELS ARE BULLSHIT!!!




Oh hey, it's Garret

Seems like they're localizing his name as Gareth now. (Unless I'm misremembering from Ao, which I doubt because I'm pretty good with NPC names)

See guys? Your enemies know what's up. Stop being idiots and kill these assholes from the start!

Altina you moron! Remember when in CS2, Sammy locked Cayenne to the floor in a moment? You could have decloaked right behind Shirley and had done the same thing! Or pulverized her into mush before she had a chance to react! Or, you could have carried to Juna, cloaked, flown right up behind Shirley, and then had Juna shoot Shirley in the head before she would have had a chance to react. Just ask Guy.

Why are we having another conversation from over 50 feet away from each other, while we're surrounded by our enemies?

The power flowing through the Aion shouldn't feel too different from that of the power flowing through the Divine Knights. They're both powered by Sept-Terions, after all, just of different elemental affinities.

Where are my secondary contractor abilities?

Awww Awakening isn't playing.

Lift Off isn't bad per say, but it's just not a great track like Awakening.

I thought you had to have a strong bond with someone for the resonance effect to become this powerful, as what had happened right before the final dungeon of CS1 when all of Class VII's ARCUS units resonated with each other. Why then, is Ash's ARCUS unit resonating just like the rest of Class VII? He doesn't have their bond. Agate would link with us waaaayyy before Ash at this point. Another continuity violation.

finally downed the aion after four tries.

Seriously, why are we having conversation from over 100ft from each other?

Fie, stop acting like this was totally unexepected. Xeno and Leo straight up told you at the Infernal Castle that they were trying to bring the boss back, and that's why you set off in search of Zephyr after you left the academy. Game, stop acting like CS2 didn't happen.

Looks like I was right: each Divine Knight appears to have a unique power or ability. Seems like Zector is capable of becoming a "ghost" or "phasing" through things. Ordine has a generic supermode powerup. Testa-Rossa can conjure weapons (or is that the result of the blood of Zoro-Agruga corrupting it?). As for Valimar... we saw at the end of CS2 Valimar's tachi glowing a golden hue, but I believe that was not due to Valimar, but instead either due to Rean's spirit unification, or the ARCUS resonance effect from having the entirety of Class VII present for the battle. Wait, does that mean we are going to eventually unlock Valimar's power?

The situations are not comparable, Fie. Let's examine the circumstances, shall we?
- By the year 1204, Thors Military Academy was a "military academy" in name only. By that point, it had evolved into a general college with a lightweight military curiculum attached, that being of a 1-2 hour long lecture from Neithardt on military history and strategy. Only Class VII went on field studies, and only Class VII had combat training with shells (actually, that not be true: Sara might was ostensibly the combat instructor for the whole school, but such classes were never mentioned by other students in CS1). It was not operating like it was a military operation.
- Class VII was explicitly created to be an official, nationalized Bracer operation. Rean figured that out by the second day of his first field study. Olivier explicitly said so, and even went out of his way to his to hire Sara, an A-rank Bracer and a former jaeger, specifically because she'd cultivate a Bracer/do-gooder/paladin mentality among the students.
- The board of directors who oversaw how Class VII ran also implicitly encouraged Class VII's actions during the field studies. Class VII had to write up a report after each field study which the board reviewed. At no point did the board say "stop going paladin". In fact, the directors themselves even subtly encouraged Class VII by endorsing their actions. Ofcourse, it'd later be revealed that the board was actually loyal to Osborne and that they were trying to use Class VII as their pawn, but nonetheless, all indications pointed to Class VII's actions being accepted by Thors.

Let's look at new Class VII:
- It is the year 1206, a year and a half after an attack by a foreign nation wiped out a military installation and a military installation, a civil war broke out, and skirmishes with Erebonia's rival superpower began. Thors Military Academy has been explicitly overhauled to actually be... a military academy. The way the school is operated is meant to cultivate obedience and conformity in how it is run, and the field studies are explicitly run in the style of military operations, not casual Bracer jobs taken at your leisure.
- During the Sutherland expedition, the Branch Campus was being treated as an armed, national force by all other government bodies involved. They were treated as such by the people of Sutherland, by the Sutherland provincial government, by the Railway Military Police, by the Imperial Intelligence Division, and by the Imperial Army. There was no illusion as to what was the Branch Campus' role in this expedition. There were rules they were expected to abide by in this hierarchy.
- Furthermore, the internal hierarchy of the Branch Campus was being run as a military operation. The instructors were treated as commanding officers leading different divisions of troops with set roles. Major Michael is pretty explicitly running the show like an op. He is counting on his students on obeying the chain of command, not going AWOL and paladining on their own. When people start paladining, those are students he and the rest of the Branch Campus cannot count on.

It's not that new Class VII did wrong. They were right to help Rean. However, to imply that Rean and old Class VII did the same as new Class VII is incorrect. Old Class VII was not relied upon in the same way as new Class VII, and they were explicitly encouraged to go paladining. New Class VII was explicitly told not to. When Class VII went paladining, they were doing the right thing and it was not against any orders handed down to them. When new Class VII went paladining, they were doing the right thing explicitly against their orders.

No, they botched their surprise attack. Had they succeeded, Shirley would be dead, at least.

You should do that right now. The next 12 months is going to be a total cluster.

STOP RECAPPING WHAT JUST HAPPENED!





Welp, I am 26 hours into CS3 and I have mixed opinions on the game. Oh don't get me wrong; it's a Trails game, which means it's good. I can't think a Trails game I'd give anything less than a 7/10. However, I do have a few gripes.


The Writing:

CS3 has a lot of filler, heavily padded dialogue and character interactions where characters just reiterate the same basic information over and over again, particularly information that they already know. In CS3, you have a character who will exposit "X happened" or "Y did this", and then a few minutes later they will say once again exposit a variation of the same "X happened" or "Y did this", and then a few minutes later they would AGAIN expost another variation of the exact string of information, with barely anything new of importance, as if they were just telling this information for the first time. Notably, this usually happens when a character is referencing another character or an event that took place in a prior game. it's even more infuriating when this reference has little to no actual relavence to the situation at hand. It is flagrant self-aggrandisement. The writers are saying to the audience "Remember that cool character! Remember when that happened!" over and over and over again. It's even worse when there are multiple characters and every single character has to react to that same line of information whenever it's brought up. This leaves me dreading whenever a legacy character appears onscreen, as I know that the pacing is about to slow down to a crawl. God forbid if you have to actually travel with them in your party.

In Trails in the Sky, you certainly didn't see Zin or Olivier constantly stopping to reference characters and events from his past adventures that were irrelevent to the plot at hand. Information was only brought up when needed and it was only exposited once. In prior Trails games, characters would quickly and offhandedly say one line, and then the other characters would remember that line dozens of hours later and connect the dots to it. The same basic information wasn't regurgitated multiple times. They said it once and moved on to the next thing. They didn't wave that piece of information in your face repeatedly.

Another problem is that characters are forgetting crucial information that they had explicitly learned in prior games. For example, in Ao no Kiseki, one of the main characters explicitly learned the true motives behind one of the antagonists, and yet here in this game that same character is acting like he doesn't know what the motive of the antagonist is. Similarly, CS1 and 2 was all about Class VII slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy, with CS2 ending with the protagonists realizing who the true threat is and how he is behind almost everything. Then, in CS3, they are acting as if they don't have a clue about any of this, and then they are shocked when they learn that exact same information again in this game. THIS is information that the writers should have had the characters reference from prior arcs.

The writers have misplaced their priorities, preferring to focus on fan service and calling out "cool" things from past arcs, rather than properly referencing what is relevent from those past arcs to the situation at hand.




The pacing:

Let's examine CS1's pacing. Each day lasted for a couple hours of playtime. In CS1, you started a chapter at school in the afternoon, and talked to NPCs for half an hour. Then, you had your free day, and spent an hour or two interacting with NPCs, doing quests, reading books, etc. Then you spent an hour in the Old Schoolhouse dungeon, which was meant to break up the pace by giving you faster paced gameplay and to challenge your brain a little bit. Then, it became evening, and you talked to NPCs for half an hour. Then an hour of cutscenes hits you, and then you arrive at the Field Study destination, and spend half an hour exploring and talking to NPCs. Then you spent one to three hours doing combat in the field interspersed with cutscenes until the end of the chapter, which was more cutscene heavy. Then the chapter ended.

Notice how in CS1, you are constantly alternating between different activities: cutscenes, talking to NPCs, cutscenes, combat, exploring the new area and talking to NPCs, combat, cutscenes, end of chapter. No section lasted for more than a couple hours at a time. CS1 chapters last about 10 hours on average, with the latter chapters lasting 15 if you are slow like me and like to explore everything, talk to everyone, max out my character's RPG progression, etc. You experienced multiple days during a single chapter and each day lasted only a few hours.

Then, in CS3, it feels like everything has slowed down, like it became a slog. You have an hour and a half of cutscenes... then an hour of combat. Then another hour of cutscenes. Then three hours of talking to NPCs in the hub. Then a couple minutes of combat. Then two more hours of cutscenes. Then half an hour of talking to NPCs. Then another two hours of cutscenes. And then FINALLY you can explore the new zone and do combat for a few hours uninterrupted. Then it's back to cutscenes... and they just keep going. And then you get a little bit combat and exploring... but wait! ANOTHER FULL HOUR OF CUTSCENES! Now, you are able to freely explore, talk to NPCs, and battle for a couple hours uninterrupted. And then another two hours of cutscenes (seriously, from the time of the last save point in Chapter 1 to the next time you can save, at the end of chapter 1, two hours of cutscenes fly by).

So, during this 25 hour long chapter, how much actually happened? Did more happen in CS3's first chapter than the first chapter of CS1? Maybe a little, but by the time I was 25 hours into CS1, I had already finished chapter 3. Did more happen in CS3's first 25 hours than CS1's first 25 hours? ABSOLUTELY NOT! By my 25st hour of CS3, I had explored four zones, seen tremendous character growth in Rean, Alisa, Machias, Jusis, and Fie develop, and that's just the main characters, as well as had established the MC's main conflict (and by extension, the point of the CS arc).



Anyway, with that out of the way, let's talk about the next chapter. I am both dreading chapter 2, and optimistic for it. Dreading it because 2/3rds of the chapter is going to take place in Crossbell, which means the pacing is going to slow to a crawl as I have to slog through a ton of irrelevent fan wanking. It's going to be even more infuriating when the Crossbell cast begins congradulating themselves for their utter incompetence in Ao no Kiseki and then begin playing the victim card. Maybe I'll have to keep a counter for Crossbell apologism in that chapter. Ouroboros is going to be there too, vague and unsatisfying as always as they continue to haunt this franchise. Their experiment plotline will not advance one bit, as we will just confront them, fight them, watch them stand up and waltz off and summon another Aion that we smash, and that will be the end of the chapter, with us having learned nothing on their end. On the bright side, we will begin to see more of the actually interesting plot begin to develop, that of the resistance fighting the Ironbloods and uncover more on their end about Osborne. Plus, catching up with Machias, Alisa, and maybe Emma, and if Emma is there then we might uncover more of Erebonia's rich lore which has been fueling the entire plot in the background.

I think once we hit chapter 3, the game will be better, as we will be past all of the fanservice for prior games and we will just be focusing on the actual Trails of Cold Steel story, the only caveat that Ouroboros is still going to be here filling up precious screentime. At worst, it will take until chapter 4 for the game to swing into full gear and this game will just turn out to be an exacerbated Trails in the Sky FC (which remained an absolute slog until late chapter 3).

Speaking of which, it seems like we may be back to one of the problems that plagued Trails in the Sky SC: that of supervillains showing up, fighting pointless battles where there are no consequences, you and then waltzing off for no reason, having accomplished pretty much nothing. Another poster touched upon this:



Currently, the Red Constellation suffers from this. The game is trying to treat them seriously, but their motivations make no sense, and it's utterly unsatisfying to see such unlikeable characters continue to dominate the storyline. Contrast that with Zephyr, who have been handled very well thus far, in the same manner as how the excellent supervillains of CS2 were handled. They don't hog the spotlight. You don't know that they are there until they show up, and then when they show up, they are a pleasant surprise. They show up for a bit, be awesome, and then leave. They don't overstay their welcome. They don't dominate the story. The game treats them as lighthearted frenemies, rather than a truly serious "do or die" threat. Keep it up CS3.

I'm also not a fan of the overt introduction of Shirley in the story. In CS1+2, we were more subtly introduced to the antagonists before we found out that they were antagonists. In CS2, if you walked into the Legram inn, you could fine Duvalie sitting there eating. She was dressed like a background NPC, so it was a pleasant surprise when she turned out to be much more than that. Meanwhile, here we get introduced to Shirley as her straight up approaching the protagonists in a voiced cutscene with his wacky outfit on. Not very tactful. Rutger's wasn't as heavy handed.

I think it would have been cooler if they had left it more up to the player to figure out. For example, have the player enter the Parm inn, see Rutger eating at the table, think he's a special NPC, later on hears about him having left for the Northern Parm road from optional NPC dialogue, and then the player can come across the pile of archaisms if they go to the cliff and look over the edge. It's much more fun when the game allows the player to put the pieces together, rather than just having the facts handed to them.



Otherwise, I have to once again reiterate that I am enjoying the game. Right now I'd place somewhere in between 3rd and Zero/FC (my ranking: CS2 (10/10 absolutely amazing) > CS1 (9/10 great) > 3rd (8/10ish great but with some lows) > Zero = FC (7/10, consistently fine but nothing standout) > SC (7/10 high peaks and low valleys) > Ao (high peaks and low valleys). Right now, CS3 is usually fine/good, with some high peaks. I was smiling a lot for the first ten hours, but then the valleys hit and they stayed for a while. Peaks showed up but then I forgot about then when it was back to valleys.

Chapter 2

Spoiler: 

Question for modders: how do you get replacement tracks to work? I tried replacing the CS3 Divine Knight battle theme, "Lift Off!", with the CS2 DK theme, "Awakening". However, when I loaded up my save and got back to the chapter 1 DK fight, no music played, as if the game didn't recognize my track. Yes, I exported it as an opus file and named it ed8460.opus, just like the original CS3 track. Sigh. Guess I will just have to stick with Lift Off. I'll ask the r/Falcom Discord's music and #ColdSteelIII channels if they know how to fix it. In the mean time, back to playing.

Would have been cool to have seen a Musse cameo in CS1 when we had visited Saint Astria's to meet Olivier. However, IIRC, according to a post CS3 interview, New Class VII wasn't planned and the characters were created when development for CS3 began. Thus, why every New Class VII character just awkwardly shows up as if they had been there all along despite having never been mentioned before (Kurt being an up and coming young Vander and the future bodyguard of Cedric, of whom Olivier, Cedric, Alfin, Muller, and Zechs never mentioned before. Juna lived in the same apartment as Cecil's parents, next to the SSS building, and yet we had never seen or heard of her in the Crossbell duology. Ash being retconned in as another Hamel survivor (along with Lechter, and possibly Rean - don't know about him) despite only Loewe, Joshua, and Karin being the only characters ever associated with Hamel up until now.

OH ROER OH YES YES YES!!! I am so very glad we are getting to see old CS1+2 locations in CS3 again!

If Alisa wanted to rigorously test the ARCUS II, wouldn't she be better off closely working with Toval and Olivier, the two best arts users in Zemuria? Sure, Tio is good, but she is the exception. She was augmented with superpowers. Toval and Olivier represent what normies can do with arts.




your love and loyalty to whom, Sharon? You're certainly not loyal to Alisa, otherwise you wouldn't be working with Black Alberich, Ouroboros, and Osborne to destroy that which Alisa loves so dearly.




Ah, so Olivier isn't carrying the artifact on him anymore, so the network should continue running after the ending.

Hm... so Emma made a Shrine appear. Does that mean, during CS1, Vita was going around making the Shinres appear after our field studies in that region had concluded? (Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think we were able to visit the locations of those Shrines during CS1, as they were on roads we could not access. So theoretically, if we had gone just a little further during our field studies, we could have come across the Shrines, and if Emma had been there, she may have figured out that Vita and her chosen Awakener were completing trials to gather Zemurian Ore for a weapon, though I suppose that could have been taking place in Western Erebonia. Crow did obtain Ordine at Byronia Isle, off of the coast of Ordis, the NA's capital.

INSTRUCTOR CELESTIN!!!




The good folks at Dining Bar F in Roer might have a story to tell about a certain clandestine rendezvous with an older, mature woman. Then again, perhaps the staff of that fine establishment are too classy to gossip.

LOLOL everyone else gathered around when they weren't looking

Hm... well we know that the Roer Institute of Technology (and probably the Reinford Corporation's HQ), Thors Military Academy, and the Branch Campus are connected via the Orbal Network to the IBC and the SSS building. I wonder if the ZCF and the Verne Coproation HQ are connected as well.

If the Black Workshop is also connected to to the orbal network, then holy crap everyone else is vulnerable to an attack. Black Alberich and Osborne could be monitoring everyone. Oh who am I kidding. Black Alberich probably helped create the network in the first place.

Haha I just noticed that Aurelia too has the Crossbell Times best seller, "Christ, who's gonna die first?"

(reading the library book on Reinford)

Cayenne and Albarea haven't been executed yet? Don't forget, Osborne invaded North Ambria over the Northern Jaegers burning Celdic (not to mention that they partially burned Ymir), and it was Duke Albarea who hired them and ordered them to burn those two towns. Not to mention that Cayenne was the ring leader along with Rufus.

If the five divisions had been fully unified and under the control of Irina, then I suspect that the NA would have offered Irina peerage in an attempt to get her to join the NA, though she would have inevitably refused (and without the Reinford corporation, the NA wouldn't have been able to research and mass produce the Soldats, which means they would have been unlikely to rebel, and Osborne wouldn't have been able to kick down his enemies nor confiscate the NA's assets).

I really hope Celestin is one of the many playable characters in CS4, so we can have our righteous battle butler fighting against the traitorous ninja maid Sharon. Even if it was just a cutscene, it'd be nice. We already saw his moveset in CS2.




In other words, it's the space warping powers of the Aureole that is either holding up the Aion or strengthening it's materials, and it is mitigating the force of our blows. Why then, was Rutger able to one shot the Aion? Is it because Zector's ghost-like powers are enabling it's attacks to bypass the Aureole's shields? Perhaps Zector is phasing its sword on the other side of the Aureole barrier? Also, was Zector wielding a Zemurian Ore Weapon? Half of CS2's act 2 was all about us going around the entire Eastern half of the Empire trying to find what little specks of Zemurian Ore we could find, and that was after Crow had found the ore for his weapon. Unless there is an untapped source of Ore we haven't heard of yet, or there are actually dozens upon dozens of Shrines in Zemuria, there really shouldn't be enough Ore left to make a third DK sized weapon, especially not one the size of Rutger's cleaver (which was over 2x the volume of Ordine's double sabre and Valimar's tachi combined. On the other hand, I think only the edge of Valimar's Tachi is actually made up of Zemurian Ore, so who knows).




Is that the elder Hyarms brother?

haha let me guess: Tatiana lost Dorothy's yaoi magazine?

Rachel x Marcus FTW!

So there are farms surrounding Leeves. Interesting. I had thought that it was more developed suburban region. So Leeves is actually pretty rural.

Okay, going out to eat now. I noticed I haven't seen Randy around, and this is the Crossbell chapter. I'm guessing he's going to come in and eat with me too?




stop making me sad


INSPECTOR REGNITZ!!!

You know Falcom, there is such a thing as running a joke into the ground, particularly when 90% of all of Musse's lines in this game (both in cutscenes and in NPC dialogue) has been a variation of "I want to seduce instructor Rean".

Reading Imperial Chronicle #3. How on earth did they rebuild a fortress that massive in only a year and a half? Also, will we get to see it again on our way to Crossbell?

Welp, the Altina bonding event was pretty much just a repeat of the Sara bond event in CS1. Rean catches his friend walking out of town by herself to fight monsters, they have a chat about how bad she felt and how she needed to train to become stronger, etc.




While the SSS were jobbing to overrated Red Constellation jaegers, Jingo's mama was casually punishing a thirty foot tall demon gangster with her rocket launcher!

Wait a minute, how did new Class VII become secondary contractors? As I understood it, only people who had fought with Rean in the Old Schoolhouse to complete the trial were imprinted upon Valimar. (Then again, there are holes with that theory, as Patrick should have been imprinted as well). Hm... I guess it's just the ARCUS link resonance phenomenon?




Huh? Liberl didn't have a special kind of battle orbment. They had no national program like Reinford's ARCUS program. The Sky characters just used regular battle orbments you could buy from general stores, and in SC they upgraded to new Epstein Foundation models.

Oof, Pablo, Gustaf, and Valerie are rocking out in the arts room... right over the principal's office. Good thing the principal isn't in her office right now!




What's that green stuff in your tea?

Honestly, Kairi, the tea ceremony club seems like a big waste of time for you. You're not really learning anything here or becoming "manlier". You're just being the girls' boy toy. If you had joined the swimming club, you could have built up your physique, become stronger. If you had joined the cooking club, you could have learned a valuable life skill. If you had joined the chess club, you could have honed your mind with strategy and planning. If you had joined the modern music club, you could have learned to play an instrument, or refine your voice for singing.

Also, this chapter we're going to Crossbell. Kairi, if you want to become mannlier, don't drink Lake Elm water! Only drink from the water tanks on the Derflinger!


Well Sidney, what do you enjoy doing? What do you spend most of your time doing? That's what you're skilled at.

Shooting 20 feet down range isn't going to help you get better with a sniper rifle.

... Huh, now that I think about it, when Teo said he took Rean hunting, he probably meant that they were using rifles, not their swords. Dummy me.

OH WOW, Vainqueur Street in CS3! And Claire's CS2 outfit!

This is going to be a horrible misunderstanding, ain't it?

Millium, if we're going to follow Claire inside, let's do it while on Airgetlam's arms and cloaked.


Wait, you didn't know!?!?




Lady, I was kicking your ass! Btw, here is my setup: (equipment, quartz). I didn't break her so you mind as well swap out the break quartz with something else, either more STR, more SPD (if you have SPD quartz besides action), or some DEF so you can get an extra turn without needing to heal). Start the battle, use Divine Song brave order for instant casts. Cast Chrono Drive on yourself twice to double stack speed, so you get more turns than her. If you are low on health, heal using an art or a teara balm. Then you need to start buffing strength, using either the forte art, a power potion, or food. Remember to keep your 50% SPD up stack maintained at all times, which means refreshing it with another Chrono Drive as needed, and heal. Once you have high health, the 50% SPD buff, and the 50% STR buff, it's time to start attacking. Switch to Iron Will brave order to mitigate damage. Use Crescent Flash, which deals a lot of damage and uses your CP but not enough that you can't immediately get back to 200 CP. Steadily wear her down, maintaining your buffs and your health. Once you get her down to around 85%, hit her with a basic attack to fill your CP bar, pop your 200 CP S-craft and you're done.




Welp, at this point I need start a list keeping track of everyone who went to Thors:
- Chancellor Osborne
- Emperor Eugent
- Prince Olivier
- Principal/General Vandyck (who is the new principal of the main campus?)
- Captain Claire
- Aurelia
- Wallace
- Muller
Is that everyone? Who am I missing?

Oh, they changed Cedric's voice actor.




Cedric's age makes no sense. He looked 12 or 13, MAYBE 14 years old in CS2. It has only been a year since the ending of CS2. At MOST, he should be 15 years old. The average Thors first year is 16-17 years old. Fie entered at 15, but she was the exception, not the norm. Prince Olivier, the chairman of the academy, personally scouted Sara as an instructor, and it was Sara's recommendation that brought Fie in. Even if Cedric was not sick, there is no way he would have become Rean's classmate. He'd enroll at least one year after Rean graduated. Do you really believe that THIS manlet in CS2 is actually 15? He was barely Fie's height and sounded like a kid.




... Huh? CS2 heavily implied that he was being mindcontrolled or drugged. His eyes were covered by blindfolds inscribed with runes by Vita, and then he was shoved into a DEMONICALLY CORRUPTED machine (and we know that the DKs are capable of acting autonomously against the will of their pilots, as per the CS1 ending when Valimar fled against Rean's commands). There is literally nothing Cedric could have done. Crow's death was 100% on Cayenne (with some culpability on the Rufus, Altina, and Osborne for apparently standing right outside the door rather than intervening). Cedric has nothing to blame himself for. It's not going to make Rean's trauma go away, though. He's always going to look at Cedric with a tinge of sadness, but he can get over it after a few weeks of working together face to face as comrades.




Dude, you were a scrawny little kid. If you tried to escape, you'd only be restrained by Cayenne's soldiers. Vita needed you to enact the ritual and would've used her magic to mindcontrol you to her, just as she mindcontrolled the Northern Jaegers at Ymir.




Congrats on breaking that oath spectacularly. How do you rationalize killing your kind brother, a noble bracer, and one of your country's most wise leaders and strongest warriors as "not hurting" anyone? You are weak! Rather than standing up to true evil and trying to find another way to lift the curse, rather than trying to stand up for righteousness, you took the easy path and just tried eliminating all of your opposition.




I see you are not used to hearing the word "no".




Great word play.

Sounds like you only want Rean - the great hero who saved you and Erebonia - as your instructor because you wanted your specialness to be confirmed. You want to follow in Rean's footsteps and lead another Class VII across field studies, saving the Empire, and gaining glory. Seems like you completely overlooked the reality of the circumstances and the motivations of all who were involved. Class VII never entered for glory, and the class was only formed to be used as pawns to advance a great game. If you want to go heroing, just go heroing, okay? Don't try to dress this up as trying to fulfill some noble tradition.

That tone of voice is no way to address your comrade and your sworn brother, Prince.

... You either haven't been paying attention at all, or you know what's up and you came here in the first place to gloat.




I'll be glad to teach you the meaning of the word "no"!

I wonder how drastically the story would have changed had Rean accepted Cedric's offer, though I suppose that this was actually a decision made as far back as last year, with Rean deciding that he had enough of advancing Osborne's agenda after the Northern War. His motivation for becoming an instructor at Thors in the first place was to try to escape the hands of Osborne, but alas, he was transferred to the branch campus to be used as a pawn yet again. Rean has tremendous will to resist temptations of power, glory, or to seek easy shortcuts. During the Civil War, Duke's Cayenne's reasoning that Rean should join them because they were going to win and with his power, the war could be shortened and casualties minimized was sound, but Rean adamantly held to clung to his morals, determined to fight in face of a hopeless situation. Rean certainly could have decided to yield to Osborne, believing that there would be no point in resisting, and yet last year his conscience won out. This decision probably wasn't hard on Rean at all. Sure, he feels nostalgic for Trista, and isn't a fan of these violent, life threatening escapades, but at this point he has galvanized his resolve to see his path through to the end.




I went back to Einhell Keep to farm more sepith so I can unlock slots and refine my quartz, and I was reminded of something unusual. When Kurt's Blade Dance ends, he audibly grunts and begins grasping his shoulder. Is this a sign that he is overworking himself when he uses his Sword Dance, or that he has not perfected the dual blades Vander style?

Oh, I thought that the Orbal Gear would've been shipped here from the ZCF, not that they were building a new one here.

Oh Schmidt, you think Makarov would come? Hahaha very funny.

Stark, you're talking about Blade. Yeah, too bad it fell out of style. Vantage Masters is a great game and all, but I'd love to be able to sit down and play Blade again.

Haha the dog actually mans the exchange.




WHY? You're the one constantly accusing me of being a pervert. What, are you going for entrapment now?




Oh geez, I wonder where your planning on going to. TBH I'll be glad to reunite with a fellow comrade against Osborne.

I knew it!




Dude, what is your problem?

The dude really just wants to stroke his own ego.




Damn. It just hurts to see the name the main campus - the name of Trista, that beloved home of mine - being dragged through the mud but these hotshots. Hopefully these are just a few bad apples and not representative of the culture at the main branch, given how the government has been going out of it's way to "tidy up it's image", such as kicking out Radio Trista and booting "undesirables" to the second branch, I am not hopeful. I wonder how instructors Mary, Makarov, and Beatrix feel. We really need to visit Trista again before this saga is over, set things right.

Oh wow. It's really nice of Michael to show the students how the train is controlled. Is he growing a heart?

Interesting how Randy keeps getting stuck with non-alcholic, good-hearted to a fault dudes as his BFFs.

Awwww we didn't get to see Garellia.

Ugh, not Campanella. He is one of the worst Ouroboros characters (not bad as in "love to hate", he's bad as in "he actively detracts from my enjoyment of the game whenever he's onscreen, as with a lot of Ouroboros characters).




You made an exception for Celine.




This has been something that has kept coming up in this series. No one addresses people from Eastern Zemuria by their ethnic group. They just call them a generalized term like "Easterner", as if there is only one mono culture. You certainly wouldn't hear anyone say "my mother was a proud Asian and loved her people's culture". They'd say "my mother was a proud Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese/Okinawan/Japanese/etc woman". We know for a fact that ethnicities do exist in the setting, as CS2 established that the people who would become the Erebonian Empire were various tribesman who were united by a chief who became the emperor, whereas the people of Liberl are descended from from a group of people who rebelled and escaped from the Liber Ark prior to sealing it away.

Kurt, how do you not know who Dieter Crois was? He and Arios wiped out Garelia Fortress. He induced mass terror into the Erebonian population for a whole week before Osborne's address. Crois' actions kickstarted the very Civil War that tore apart the country for the first time in 150 years. In 1943, every American knew who Emperor Hirohito was after the bombing of Peral Harbor. In 2003, every American knew who Osama Bin Laden was after 9/11. The name Dieter Crois should be just as infamous in Erebonia.




How is Arios managing to evade capture while in Crossbell state? There are only four settlements outside of the city: Mainz, Armorica, St. Ursula's Hospital, and Mishelam. There are no buildings outside of those four settlements, so if the Imperial Army is on guard there, then Arios can't be hiding out in a building. He'd have to be surviving out in the woods, in which case he'd be pretty easy to track from the air using airships, or by sending out one of Erebonia's many archaisms confiscated from the NA after the war. There are just so few hiding places in Crossbell that there really is no reason why the Imperials shouldn't have found him by now. Honestly, if Arios really wanted to evade capture, he should have left Western Erebonia altogether and had gone to a country in the East. If no readily available transportation is available, then at the very least he should have crossed the Calvardian border and blended in with the mass civilian unrest in that country.

Lloyd cannot singlehandedly kill Cryptids.

Dieter was well regarded throughout the entirety of Crossbell. A few NPCs had doubts about him, particularly when he attacked Erebonia and Calvard, but the people who opposed him were in the minority. He was most certainly not regarded as a "dictator" by the populace at large.




A fugitive for damn good reason: he let mass murderers walk free and he passed up an opportunity to reverse all the damage done by Dieter and Arios. He could have reversed the deaths of thousands of people. He is a mass murderer by inaction, along with the rest of the SSS.




Juna, he enabled Crossbell's occupation in the first place by refusing to reverse the timeline. That's entirely on the SSS you idolize.




I don't see how he can help people out when he is cut off from the rest of the Crossbellian population.




Oh girl, if only you knew the story of Ao no Kiseki...




*laughing*



The real heroes were Kevin, Ries, and the Brights, for destroying the Aions they were assigned to, while the SSS let their assigned Aion go free (along with all of the mass murderers who perpetrated the mess).




Probably forever. Only a mary sue could evade Osborne for more than a few weeks.




MACHIAS MY MAN!

You can tell Reiner is going to turn out to be an Osborne Loyalist based off of the color of his coat.

The only characters I want to see again are Shin, Jona, Harold, and Madam Imelda.

Huh, Heiyue lost their lakefront property.

Ha! Glad to see Rufus being the man and shutting down Heiyue! (Oh lemme guess: Lloyd is going to welcome Heiyue back into the city during the liberation of Crossbell).




... Huh? It was explicitly stated in the Crossbell duology that there were multiple Bracer branches in the city. How could five Bracers have serviced a city of 500,000 people, plus the thousands in the surrounding settlements?




Why hello there... Franz Reinford, or should I say Black Alberich. I thought you were going to be, like, a chapter 4 reveal, but here he is. Also, his eyes are blue (instead of red) and his hair is brown instead of white? Ah, does he have the ogre/demon power too? Hm... or maybe the Gnomes have access to illusion magic? Well, the dude is hundreds of years old, and he did create the Demon Eye Technique, so illusion magic seems probable. Also, Rean, why don't you recgnoize this guy? You saw him in the photo in the watch that Alisa fixed in CS2. Come on Rean! Recgnoize him! Kill him before it's too late!

Hm... wait a minute, Irina has purple eyes. Franz has blue eyes right now. Alisa has red eyes. That means either Alisa's red eyes are a recessive gene, or... Franz' true eye color is actually red, which again, leads me back to the theory that he is using illusion magic to disguise himself and make himself not look so obviously evil.

Also, LMAO the dude is literally pulling a Weissman, being a sneaky little NPC hiding out in plain sight early in our adventures before his inevietble "I am the mastermind" moment. Hope this guy gets salted too (or in Rean's case, decapitated).

Redevelopment of downtown? I hope Trinity isn't demolished.

My gosh they have slim laptops now.

Was that Fie's VA voicing Wendy?

BECKY! LINDE!

Oh no, don't tell me that the old Ost District is gone!

PATIRY! Where's Kargo?

Tio's VA sounds very stilted. I don't think they should have tried to replicate the Japanese VA's one to one. It just doesn't work in English.

FFS we're going into the Geofront again, aka the most monotonous dungeon in the franchise.

Gosh, they retained the terribly designed layout from Zero!

Now is not the time to stop for five minutes to fan wank about the prior games, guys. We have problems to fix and monsters lurking around down here with us.

Stop wanking.

The hell, why is a magic knight spawning in Crossbell State?

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

Are magic knights spawning in Crossbell due to their proximity to the resting place of El Plado?

Gosh, this boss theme is so great. Adding to my playlist.

What on earth, Alisa isn't THAT powerful.

... Volgryph? But I defeated him in CS2. Are Cryptids not truly killed in this plane, able to return from their world? Or when we kill them, are we only dispersing their mana, and they are somehow able to reform again?

Yup. Volgryph.

ORBAL BIKES HELL YEAH!

... Huh? Sharon is 25 years old? But she joined the Reinford family as their maid 10 years ago. So that'd mean she's been an Enforcer since she was 15. How did that happen? Now I'm really curious.

YEAH putting Sharon in my party!

Awww Sharon doesn't have unique victory interactions with the rest of new Class VII.




holy crap

Did Black Alberich plant the red flower? He was asking the fisher's guild for a guide around the region earlier. Is he trying to incite septium vein activity? Or is it the other way around? The flower growth the result of septium vein activity?

Hm... did they change McBurn's VA?

Hm... interesting. Ouroboros seems to have a MO of swallowing up criminal organizations and absorbing their assets and members. In 3rd, we found out that Loewe had crushed the child prostitution ring in Crossbell. In Crossbell, we found out that they were using the Cult before letting the Cult be destroyed. Then they absorbed the Red Constellation.




Interesting! So Ouroboros wasn't an ancient conspiracy or a branch of the Church due to a schism as I had thought. Why did the Grandmaster decide to start trying to change the world now?

So McBurn has been a fire demon/mixed for ten years - since he was around 15ish - as well.




Hm... well that makes the theory of the 4th Anguis (who was described as a traitor in the 3rd) being a Gralsritter less likely.

Hajimari no Kiseki prerelease spoiler And Enforcer III is Abel? But Abel in Hajimari looks like he is 15-18 years old. If we are generous and say that he is 20, then he was an elite assassin at the age of 10...

Yes yes, we had long suspected since CS2 that Sharon killed Franz, because she joined the Reinford family as their maid around that time and has been devoted to them, likely out of a guilt complex. WHY did she feel guilty, though?

BUT WHY DID IRINA TAKE HER HUSBAND'S MURDERER IN?!?!

This is making the theory that Franz and Sharon faked his death so he could work undercover as Black Alberich less likely. Doesn't sound like Irina was in on the plan either.

Are the VIPs the royal family and the Chancellor? Are they coming on the Pantagruel? The last time we heard airship engines while inside a building, it was when the Pantagruel was flying near Ymir in CS2.

Yup.

SHIN MY BOY!

Why is the Azure Siegfried in Crossbell?

Hm... one cryptid left. Considering that Volgrpyh and Unsurtr came back, I'm guessing they will be other CS2 Cryptids as well. I'm guessing either Agnagarn the wolf or Heidrun the horse/dragon.

Where is the coated man now?

Juna, stop throwing a hissy fit over every single freaking thing. "Muh Erebonian oppressors" what oppression lady? Goodness woman!




You will have to wait a few hours. Boohoo. Go read a book.

*claps* good job Altina.




Oh, the horror of retailation after your country incited a war. Oh, the horror of history's least oppresive occupation! Oh, the horrroooooorr!!!

Why did they localize Shin's name as "Xin"?

That was an awkwardly worded introductory line.

After screwing up the world this badly, those so called "heroes" needed to be pushed away from the wheel immediately. It's unfortunate that it didn't happen before it was already too late.

I love being able to fast travel to any building and location in Crossbell. It was just way too exhausting to travel everywhere in the Crossbell games whenever I wanted to check up on a location or buy something.




Juna: Waaaaggghh! Waaggggh! The big bad Erebonian's are building fortifications to defend themselves from and to deter a rival superpower. Oh, the horror! Waaaaagggghhh!

We wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for your precious SSS.

KENNETH MY MAN!




OH NO NOT YOU BLACK! Kenneth! Get away from him! GET AWAY!

So they're localizing his name as Lughman, huh?

NO REAN! DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHING! HE'S GOING TO USE THAT INFO AGAINST YOU!

STOP! KILL HIM!!!!

Geology, huh? So you are trying to stir up activity in the septium veins underneath Zemuria.

Oh, he doesn't need help Rean. He's got a shell of his own! The biggest and baddest of em all! He was going to tear that Cryptid apart on his own just fine.

Damn. He didn't talk to Altina for more than five seconds. HOW!? How could you create these children, raise them, and then just so casually throw them away and sacrifice them! SCREW YOU!!!

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

"Thought waves" hm. I suppose that is additional evidence towards the "Zemuria is a computer simulation" theory, as it'd explain why Rean could use telepathy with Valimar from anywhere, apparently using no magic at all.

Oh wow, we just barely missed Black. If Emma had gotten even a couple minutes earlier, we could have intercepted Black and stopped the entire plot.




I wonder if he will be so sworn after he finds out about what happened at the end of this game. He knew Rean, Crow, Millium, Olivert, and Victor. The news of their demise would be shocking, not to mentiong finding out the depths of Osborne's evil.

I guess Rufus wants to speak with Rean, try one last time to bring him into the fold before writing him off as a lost cause and an enemy of Osborne.

Hm... if Rufus became an Ironblood two years after Hamel, this would have been... 1194, or 12 years ago. So Rufus must've been... what? 15? 16? Possibly 14? Except Rufus seems like he is in his late twenties/early thirties. Hm...




To defend against and to deter our mortal enemy? Think woman! This isn't rocket science.

CS4 spoilers

Spoiler: 

I guess Lechter and Claire's little "mission" is to locate El Plado, unless Osborne is also treating it like a test and is going to entrust it to the first Ironblood who can locate it and overcome the trial.

McBurn's VA is really good.

... Wow, the Gospel Plan was even more stupid than I had previously thought. "We want to obtain a Septterion. Sure, we have a wide variety of mind control powers that we could use to reach it, but nah, we are going to START A FIGHT WITH THE PEOPLE SITTING ON TOP OF IT! But those people are really strong, have a lot of resources, and have excellent leadership, so we are going to start ANOTHER FIGHT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY to distract their leadership (rather than helping out with the heist and getting over with as quickly and as discreetly as possible before anyone has a chance to properly stop us). But oh, wait. The distract enemies are still too strong! So we will start YET ANOTHER FIGHT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY to distract the reinforcements of the reinforcements! All the while antagonizing literally every single relevant faction on this side of the continent, galvanizing them against us, forsaking our element of surprise for future operations, and losing crucial assets in the process! Isn't it such a brilliant plan?

How on earth are you supposed to dodge a surprise shotgun blast?

"Shut up!" LOLOLOL

The fan wanking is strong right now. They are really trying to hard retcon her in as being hard BFFs with the SSS.

LOL Rufus' face as he's looking at Juna. He's the only one reacting sensibly right now.




What are you getting all riled up for? Keeping violent, dangerous dissidents on lockdown is standard procedure. Besides, why do you care now? You didn't care when Sara told you about how the Bracer Guilds in Erebonia were bombed and how the government was putting pressure on the remaining Bracers to clear out. Oh, that's right: Sara, Toval, and Miles didn't go on a self victimization rant like Juna and the SSS. Are you really that much of a sucker, Alisa?

... Seriously? Why is there sad music playing? Why does the game think that this is a dramatic moment I'd be invested in?

That's... a very good thing! Especially after how they [delsaved[/i] ruined the day in Ao no Kiseki!




... Huh? The SSS were barely footnotes in the pages of the Crossbell Times. They weren't famous or regarded as state wide heroes. Their deeds were known to only a few people.

Who let the Princess come out onto a battlefield without prior confirmation that it was safe?




Who is trying to take away your pride? The people of Crossbell haven't been made into slaves or had their culture demolished. Hell, it's your pride and your arrogance that created this mess in the first place.




No lady. YOUR CROSSBELL started this. YOUR CROSSBELL choose the path of a destructive shortcut to independence, destroyed the security of it's surrounding nations, held weapons of mass destruction over the continent. Crossbell started this fight, and they lost. Fortunately for you, this is the least oppressive "occupation" (if you could even call it that) of a country I've seen.




Juna, what do you think will happen if Erebonia just ups and leave? Do you really think Crossbell is going to return to being an independent state, with everything returning to the way it was before you guys pulled your stunt? Hell no! Calvard's desperate, and they were made even more desperate after the IBC shut off their funds. They're in a cold war against Erebonia. President Rocksmith is just as pragmatic as Chancellor Osborne. Calvard is going to grab ANYTHING they can get their hands on. If we leave, you'll remain under occupation, under a different flag. And, oh, a Calvardian occupation isn't going to be anywhere near as luxuries as the status quo. Calvard doesn't have the resources to invest in Crossbell. They don't have the resources or the technology to build up a massive military fortress to defend Crossbell and deter an invasion. When a world war breaks out between Erebonia and Calvard, Crossbell is going to become a battlefield (whereas under the Empire, the war may very well never even come to Crossbell, and it won't be in ruins). Crossbell under Calvard won't have the excellent leadership of Osborne's administration. You'll be dealing with a government already stretched thin enough as is, with rampant corruption, scant resources, and massive civil unrest. There is no situation in which everything goes back the way it was. If you want to keep believing in that fantasy of yours, you are more than welcome to take off your uniform and go join your great SSS down in Mishelam, and protest in silence.




And why should they stop, Rean? What, because of one delusional girl's whining?




I see you too haven't been paying attention.




Great response.

FFS stop with the fan wanking and GET ON WITH IT!




Huh? Class VII and the SSS never had the same roles. Class VII's role was to Olivier, to bring cultural change to Erebonia by starting with its institutions, and to Osborne it was to advance his agenda. The SSS was founded the aid public relations with the general public.

Stop excusing Crossbell's actions. They're not innocents victims of muh evil empire. You started a war and you lost, and thanks to your stunt you have upset the balance of power and relations between two superpowers, bringing a world war ever closer. Be thankful the occupation isn't harder than it is.

Haha Shin's loyalty to Ellie wasn't as strong as he had said it would be.




YAY!!!

For the bus attack hidden quest, it's unfortunate that it didn't have the bus as ingame unit during the battle. As I said in my Zero thoughts, seeing the yetis rattle the bus on their first turn with that health bar deplenishing lent a tremendous amount of urgency and immersion to the fight.




Is that a member of Hercules team? Have I seen Humphrey before?

Knock it off with the SSS wanking.

How Rean has been reacting to Freddy's cooking after chapter 1 has been bothering me. Yes, anyone would be skeptical of Freddy's insect grub food, but once Rean gave it a try in the chapter 1 quest, Rean apparently thought it was surprisingly great. But here, in chapter 2, whenever I talk to Freddy, Rean keeps going "uhhhh, well, that's nice Freddy...", as if that quest had never happened. Even if Rean isn't in the mood to try out new food, he should at least be more positive about the dishes.




I would have very much preferred your assistance over these two.




Hm... I'm guessing that this is our first monster overtly related to Ishmelga. It certainly wasn't here in the Crossbell duology, so this monster must have arrived after. Probably sent by Ishmelga to watch over the plan? Then again, there was also the demon eye of Ishmelga that was inscribed in the moon temple, so I suppose it's possible that Ishmelga or his agents, such as Black Alberich, could have been here and had done something to the tower in the ancient past.

I'm guessing Olivier noticed that the time around when the scarlet flowers began popping up coincided with Cedric's change in behavior. Could it be that - once Osborne got an Arnor to begin cooperating with his plans - that the grass began growing? It was the Arnor blood that activated the Infernal Castle, which sent tremors throughout the septium veins.




Oh yes PLEASE tell us! The Grandmaster declared the commencement of the "Phantasmal Blaze Plan" in the 3rd Trails game. Six games and 400 hours of playtime later, we still know jack all about the motivations, objectives, and methods of the big bad organization. Come on dudes, this is very basic plot information. Come on already!




I'm guessing that's Black Alberich's observation orb.

Yup.

Wait, how is Ordine ghostly like Zector? Huh, is it possible that the ghost ability isn't Zector's unique superpower, but an enchantment cast by Black?

Stop with the Crossbell fan wanking.



















End of chapter thoughts





The writing really needed an editor.

The padded dialogue remains a major issue. Around 2/3rds of the way into the chapter, I began fast forwarding through conversations because there was simply too much meaningless fluff. Scenes with over a dozen characters (such as on the Orchis Tower rooftop, or when everyone meets on top of Stargaze Tower, or when everyone is saying goodbye at the end of the chapter) take an eternity to complete, as every single character has to get their word in whenever someone says anything. 90% of the conversations are inconsequential fluff. Characters just have to spend several lines introducing themselves. When a character meets another characters, they have to drop a few lines analyzing that character or drawing some irrelevant parallel to a prior character or situation. Then there are the formalities. Then people can actual start freaking talking, but oh wait! When it comes to the antagonists, they have to play the pronoun game, where they go on and on about fluff that is meaningless to we the audience. The climax of a chapter should be when the bombshells are dropped, but instead we get blue balled by a lot of meaningless tripe such as "we are running an experiment" (WHAT EXPERIMENT? WHAT IS THE EXPERIMENT FOR? WHY SHOULD I CARE?), "it seems he wants us to reach the core" (TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IT IS! WHY DOES HE WANT US TO REACH IT!?!?), "the story has just begun" (WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT? TELL US WTF IS GOING ON!). It's SC and Ao all over again, where literally 80% of the game was running around like a clueless chicken while the antagonists dangle important info in our faces without any payoff. And, just like with SC and Ao, it didn't matter if the answers eventually came at the end. By the end came, I had long since stopped caring and just wanted that plotline to end.

As I've touched upon in my post about Ao's atrocious ending, this is a problem that plagues the series as a whole. The series keeps setting up questions... and then either never freaking answers them, or drags them out for so long I don't give a damn about them anymore (or even forget that it was even a plotline in the first place). How on earth can we be EIGHT GAMES and 500 hours into this saga and still not have very basic plot information such as the goals and motivations of the main antagonists? This is unacceptable, and quite frankly, I don't care anymore.

Ouroboros has far outstayed their welcome. They are an iconic franchise element that continues to haunt this series for the worst. Every single game they take center stage in (SC, Ao, CS3) has me spending most of my playtime wishing I was playing a much better game, like their predecessors (FC, Zero, CS1+2). In those games, we actually had payoff for almost all of our questions. We got the answers to basic plot information such as their backstories, their goals, their motivations, their methods to achieve those goals... a complete character arc. We got payoff. But then we have miss Shirley Orlando still hanging around wasting screentime after I beat her ass in Ao, like the SSS' triumph over Shirley didn't happen.






Crossbell apologism

Look, I don't hate the SSS or Crossbell. You know from my Zero and Ao thoughts that I was having a good time. Sure, I didn't fall in love with the SSS, but there werel likable and for the most part I enjoyed following them around. Sure, Zero had problems, but I finished the game overall liking it and looking forward to Ao. Sure, Ao had atrocious pacing problems, but I wouldn't have continued playing it unless I was genuinely enjoying it (and you know how I quickly I drop things if I'm not enjoying it).

It wasn't until the last 5 hours of Ao that my opinion of the SSS and the Crossbell games really soured, what with writing being exposed for how truly terrible it was, the protagonists making inexcusably awful decisions, and so on. Your last impressions of a game are usually what you remember, and I remember the SSS becoming unbelievable morons, and I do mean unbelievable (seriously, did no developer at Falcom stand up and say "hey, guys? This... makes no sense whatsoever"?). Sorry, but I'm not on the glorification of stupidity train.

I do wish the SSS well. I, like most people, want to see my heroes get a happy ending in the end. It'd be cool to see the SSS kick ass in 3D too. However, this is the wrong place to start worshipping the SSS. This isn't a Crossbell game. This is Trails of Cold Steel. The game isn't about the SSS. It's about Rean and Class VII. Don't give me any of that "but, uh, that's the appeal of the franchise!" crap. A game's first and foremost priority is to tell it's own story as best as possible. Fan service to prior games should never come at the expense of the current story being told. Falcom has apparently forgotten that, as they would rather dedicate their limited development resources and precious screentime wanking to Crossbell fans rather than trying to best tell the story of Cold Steel.

Falcom screwed up. Their promise to their shareholders to release at least one game a year, every year, has negatively impacted their art. We get games that fail to adaquately tell their story, requiring the developers to realocate their resources for the next game to try to fix/resolve/close the previous game. Ao's ending was hot garbage, but rather than sucking it up and moving on, or waiting until after the Cold Steel arc was over to return to Crossbell and to properly close it, we instead get a half assed resolution that upsets everyone. Crossbell fans get half assed representation and people who wanted to a good Cold Steel game get their game sabotoged.





Bad fanfiction writing and railroading

Yes, I know that fans of the Trails franchise want to see the protagonists of each game meet. Ofcourse Falcom wants to do that. Fans fantasize about how their favorite characters from each game would meet up. The problem is how Falcom did it. They are writing preestablished characters as acting out of character in order to facilitate a forced conclusion. They are now writing the characters from the perspective of a fan fantasy, rather than writing how the characters would naturally act. For example:

Why is Alisa so infuriated when Rufus confirms that he is holding the SSS in Mishelam? She's not BFFs with the SSS. She's never even met them. She has a business relationship with Tio, who... wait a minute, why on earth is Alisa friends with Tio? If she wanted to test the ARCUS II and the Orbal Staff, she already knows the best people to do so. Emma, Elliot, and Edel tested the Orbal Staff at Thors. All three are going into occupations where they will have to fight monsters (Emma as she tracks Vita and fights the magical side of Erebonia, Elliot as he travels the country as a performer, Edel as she manages a nature preserve and needs to clear monsters on it). To get more testers, simply continues Reinford's partnership with Thors, where students can get Orbal Staves and regularly use them in combat. If she wants to test the ARCUS II's arts capabilities, then Toval and Olivier are the best arts casters in Zemuria, and, ofcourse, Reinford would be happy to hand out ARCUS IIs to Thors Students, Imperial Officers, and Bracers. With an overabundance of more than qualified candidates to test the ARCUS II and the Orbal Staves, Alisa has little reason to go around trying to find unknown quantities and filtering through them. In fact, why is Alisa the one managing this, spending her time interacting with testers? She is the vice chairman of a mega corporation. Collecting test feedback is far below her paygrade. So tell me: why is she BFFs with Tio? The answer we are given (because Tio tested Epstein staves and has a unique power called the Aeon system) does not override the qualifications of the prior candidates. There is still no reason why Alisa would spend her time searching outside of her contacts for yet another tester when she already has plenty as is.

Even IF Alisa knew Tio as the tester of the Reinford staves, there is STILL no reason why Alisa should feel personally offended when she hears that the SSS are being held in Mishelam. Sure, Alisa knows that Tio was apart of the SSS, but why would she care? She never met the rest of the SSS. What, is Alisa supposed to feel angry because Tio told her a couple stories about the SSS over dinner? Alisa sure didn't feel any such powerful feelings when she heard about much worse fates that had befallen the friends of her freinds in CS1+2.

Falcom is writing the character's reactions as if they are the fans, rather than writing the character's reactions as if they were themselves. WE, the audience, know the SSS and (with better writing, would have) felt anger when we heard what had befallen them. But that's US. Not the characters. Alisa doesn't know the SSS like we do, yet she is acting like a fan. She isn't reacting like Alisa would. She is acting like a Trails fan. With better writing, Class VII could have met and have come to think of the SSS as their friends, and the angry reaction to the revelation that they were surrounded could have felt natural.

Alisa's reaction to Rufus is just one of many, many utterly out of character interactions that plagued this chapter, but I digress. I've made my point. It's just downright bad fanfiction writing, and it's inexcusable. I've already listed the fank wanking as a negative, but I will have to add it as another negative for being a continued problem that is dragging this game down.






Show, don't tell, Falcom.

Falcom keeps flirting with the idea of darkness, but they are never able to actually go through with it. We hear about rape and murder in the Hamel backstory, but we certainly never see anything like that happen in the current story. We hear about how Randy baited his enemies in to a village which he then bombed, but we certainly never see the protagonists never do anything like that in the story.

• In SC, when Loewe crushes the Bose market and burns Ravenue village, not a single person dies. Not one. We are treated to a dramatic death scene for Lilia, but then it turns out that oh, she was just bruised and will be back up in no time. People were picking their orchards when Ragnard incinerated them, and apparently no one was singed. People have just lost their shops and their orchards (which also affects the economy at large and Liberl's food supply), their livelihoods, and yet when we see Bose again in the 3rd, we see that everyone is acting like this devestation event didn't happen.

• In Zero, the entire premise of the game is that crime is so rampant in Crossbell City that the police can't solve all of the cases, and public opinion of the CSPD is at an all time low. The SSS are established not really to help (their assistance is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. Crossbell's crime rate can't drop without changing Crossbell on a fundamental level, which the SSS ignore their chance to do at the end of Ao), but to instead try to make the CSPD relatable and approachable to the masses. And yet, when you walk around Crossbell, you can find absolutely no indication that this is a crime ridden city at all. NPCs walk around in broad daylight smiling and all happy. No one ever comments on crimes that have taken place (unless they are apart of the plot). We see no one on the lookout for theives or such. We don't see police officers running everywhere. It looks like just an idyllic place as any Liberl and Erebonian city. When I finished Ao, I didn't feel like the SSS had changed anything. Actually, they made the world worse off than it was. They were presented with a chance to maken an objectively better world with zero consequences, and turned it down.

• In Ao, we are treated a dramatic scene of Red Constellation jaegers shooting into masses of civilians, hacking down the doors to police HQ, bombing banks, and setting fire to the city. We even have Wald transforming into a 30 foot tall demon and trampling over buildings in downtown. We even get a dramatic death scene of Illya dying. But NOPE! We find Illya in the hospital with non-fatal injuries, no brain damage or amputations or anything. When we walk around Crossbell, not one single NPC had died or mentions someone having died. Only a couple of buildings have been crushed. By all accounts, the raid was inexplicably non-fatal and undestructive, and yet the narrative keeps insisting that this was a horrible tragedy that must be avenged, which is completely at odds with what the game presented us with.

• In CS2, we are treated to the destruction of Celdic. I've praised CS2's handling of Celdic before for not trying to make it out to be than what we see (looking at you, Ao). The Cold Steel games have gone out of their way to establish the controlled destruction employed by Osborne (and by extension, Rufus and the rest of the NA). Celdic suffering minimal damage and Otto being the only fatality was consistent with what the narrative was trying to tell us. I even cried at the death of Otto. But then you reach CS3, where they have retconned the Civil War into a very bloody affair in the East. Apparently, there were mass refugees waves in Kreuzen. We neither saw nor heard any indication of such widespread refugees in CS2. CS3 makes the destruction of Celdic out to be wholesale burning and massacre, but this is completely at odds with CS2.

• Finally, this brings us to CS3, where the game is TELLING US that "oh no, the occupation of Crossbell is so horribly!" when we don't see anything horrible about the occupation at all. Oh, what horrors have befallen the people of Crossbell? Let's see... people coming from Mishelam are treated to a bag check that stops them for all about 30 seconds (not unique to Erebonian occupation, the CSPD did the same thing when checking for terrorists at the Arc en Ciel event and the Trade Conference). Civilians couldn't use the trains for a few hours while large amounts of VIPs and security were arriving (again, happened at the Trade Conference). And... huh, yeah, that's it. Oh, what a horrid occupation! The horrrroorrr! The only visible indication that there even is an occupation is that the CSPD officers standing on the streets now where uniforms with Erebonia's cross symbol on it. If anything, it seems like Crossbell has actually improved under Imperial occupation: we certainly haven't heard any mention of the rampant crime in the city like we heard in the Crossbell games. Sounds like Rufus has done a good job clamping down on crime. Not to mention that Crossbell is about to become even more prosperous with all of the wealth the Empire is about to invest in it. The people of Crossbell are now full fledged Erebonian citizens who can vote and travel about the Empire (whereas when they were independent, their votes didn't actually change anything and they were restricted to Crossbell). If this is what an occupation looks like, I'd be fine living in Erebonia occupied Crossbell. You want a real, brutal occupation? How about having occupation soldiers take their rage out on the civlians with their officers ignoring their actions? How about food shortages? How about families making so little money that they pressure their daughters into becoming comfort women? How about discussing certain topics (such as speaking fondly of life prior to the occupation, or about what the occupiers have done) being a crime?

Now, I know why they Falcom won't commit to darkness or ambiguity. They won't commit because they want Trails to be a comfy, lighthearted adventure setting, where players feel relaxed walking around town, talking to NPCs, laughing at goofy situations, etc. They want the Trails world to feel inviting. Falcom doesn't want to destroy that feeling. When towns or cities are "burned" (Bose, Ravennue Village, Crossbell), no NPCs die, and there are no visible lasting consequences. It's as if the consequences only exist when exposited in the main plot. The plot requires stakes for us to care, so the plot retroactively retcons the non-existent consequences we saw ingame to being truly calamitous events, which leads to the dissonant feeling that the plot is disconnected from what is being shown to us.

I think you can have darkness and that comfy feeling. The answer is not to overdo the darkness. Just kill off one or two NPCs. Otto's death in CS2 was heartbreaking. We knew him, but it didn't stop making the Trails setting less comfy to me. It made me care even more about Celdic, seeing how the lives of the NPCs had been affected. It made me want to return to Celdic after CS2, so I could see how life has changed since then, see how they had overcome it, see how the community came together in the aftermath to rebuild, see what new arrivals they have in town. That'd still be a comfy setting I'd like to explore, one with a history I would be personally invested in, and one I'd look forward to seeing the next chapter of.





I am also not a fan of how when Rean is about to use his ogre power or call Valimar, he gets interrupted. Okay, sure, the first time with Laura was cute, but three times is now obnoxious. Let the man be awesome for once.





Anyway, now that we've gotten the garbage out of the way, I'm hoping it's only good from here on up. We've already done Hamel and Crossbell, already met our Sky and Crossbell characters. The awful fan wanking should be done. That should leave us to focus on the actual story and characters that I bought this game for: the story and cast of Cold Steel. Now they can get the last three chapters dedicated to themselves, albeit with more Ouroboros crap. I guess the only other thing I have reservations about is the chapter length. The first 1/3rd of a chapter, the school section, is great. Perfectly paced. Then we hit the field study and everything starts falling apart, and it just goes on for way, way too long. Well, at least it's not more fan wanking, and the ACTUALLY INTERESTING antagonists, the Ironbloods and Erebonia's ancient history, should be taking center stage, so that's something to look forward to.

Chapter 3

Spoiler: 

BAREAHARD!!!

JUSIS!!!

MILLIUM!!!

Haha

GAIUS MY MAN!!! HYPEEEEE!

We're going to go to two brand new Erebonia settlements! Our first time ever in Lamare Province! Raquel looks like the place Ash was hanging out in the CS3 Famitsu pre-release scan, which means we will get to see some Ash backstory!

RUTGER!!!

SARA!!!

Haha Sara is being a cuckoolander

HYPE!!!

Oh, the Byronia Isle statue, aka the other fragment of the Great Power. Hm... is it the corpse of a Divine Beast? I'll read the CS3 Black Records later.

Yay Becky is back with us!

And Linde too! And Celine from last chapter!

This is going to be a great chapter I can feel it! HYPPPPPEEEEE!!!!

Why couldn't Jessica transfer into Class VII too? Or Leonora?

Wait a minute, after seeing a guy that looked like Crow, talked like Crow, and acted like Crow, NOBODY went over to Crow's grave just to check that the body was still there? A whole month went by and nobody thought to do this?

Hm... Stark is from Jurai, and Crow's grandfather was the city council president. I'm guessing Stark recgnoized the Azure Siegfried as Crow? Well, Stark's hesitation to bet on it seems correct. After all, Crow left Jurai six years ago, I believe, when he was 12/13ish, and in the CS2 flashback, Crow looked like a boy. Ofcourse it's going to be difficult to recgnoize him all grown up, but I think Stark knows.




I just noticed that there are no doors to acces the balcony in the pool room.




Found a typo on the Solar Gyre quartz. Reminder to self to submit it later

I love how we just don't even care whether or not people know that Celine can talk anymore.

Barney's Inn has upstairs inn room, but no one has stayed in them yet. At least, not during when I can explore Leeves.




... He's smiling! He likes to read poetry and literature! Finally! The man's facade is cracking!




Hahaha

TRAITOR! Stay away Rean! I bet he has come here to sabotage Valimar again, just like when you wiped Valimar's memories in the old schoolhouse near the end of CS1!

Wow, Rean and Towa are in denial, and Celine isn't speaking up and being the sensible one.

(Teo's letter) Wow. Some actual good plot progression here. So the nobles, jealous of Osborne, targeted Hamel... because it was home, hoping to tear down Osborne and rise to greatness by standing on top of his grave. That makes sense. Wow. That's a payoff that took 8 games to finally come, and in this game we're about to get even more with the true story of why Weissman really egged the nobles on (due to the prophecy and Ishmelga). But why did Osborne agree to have Erebonia's evil, Erebonia's curse, sealed inside his son? If Black Alberich had told Osborne about his plan, wouldn't Osborne know that one day, he'd need to get Rean back again? Also, is Rean even his real name? Is Rean a name given to him by Teo? It doesn't sound like Teo knew Osborne's child's name.

I'm also noticing parallels between several characters:

• Osborne and Loewe. Both lived in Hamel, had a lover and took care of a young boy (Osborne's son Rean, Karin's young brother Joshua in Loewe's case). Both lost their town and their love, with only a young boy left to take care, with hardly anyone left to help them out. Both were galvanized by that event into action. The difference was that Loewe didn't hand off Joshua to someone else, but instead kept him with him. Well, I guess there is yet another parallel in that both Osborne and Loewe had their boy experimented upon by a sorcerer (Black Alberich placing Erebonia's evil/curse in Rean's hart, Weissman placing a stigma upon Joshua). But Loewe didn't abandon Joshua like Osborne did. Furthermore, Osborne and Loewe pursued different forms of power. Loewe joined Ouroboros to spite the world with his righteous anger for covering up Hamel, whereas Osborne became a Chancellor and went full blown machiavellian to try to create a perfect world by force. Loewe never got over what had happened to him until the end, when he finally realized that Hamel was over and it was never coming back and how stupid his revenge was, but that there was still so much good he could do, so he turned around and fought against Ouroboros. Had he lived, he could have become a Bracer. I wonder... is Osborne over Hamel? Sure, he acts all detached, but is he really? Is there a point at which he will snap?

• Osborne and Cassius: military heroes, both lost their loves, left with their only child to tend to. Both had their perspectives on life changed after the Hundred Days War and sought to change the world. Cassius decided to drop out of the military and sought to try to promote global unity and prosperity by being a bracer and helping everyone, and leading by example. Perhaps he also left the military to escape the bad memories of war, but his time among the Bracers rehabilated him. He only returned to the military when he realized that he could do so much good as apart of it. Meanwhile, Osborne left the military so he could become a Chancellor and start eliminating all of his opposition and everyone who had ever wronged him, as well as trying to create his perfect world.

• Rean and Rufus. Both are "sons" of Osborne. One by blood, one in spirit. Right after Hamel, Osborne was still good natured enough to leave Rean in the hands of Teo, but a couple years later he began scooping up children with the intent of reshaping them into his loyal followers. Rean and Rufus both grew up in noble households, but Rean loved his family and had no grand ambitions, whereas I suppose Rufus grew up in a dysfunctional family (no mom around to speak of, dad is an asshole and a terrible rolemodel, no close family or friends left to rely upon). Rufus was frustrated with his life and yearned for something more, when he stumbled upon Osborne. Rufus threw away his life to follow Osborne, whereas Rean would never do so, already content with what he had and too moral to follow such an evil man.

• Osborne and Rean. Both are war heroes who have experienced a meteroic rise. Both became big enough that they began attracting attention from lesser than stellar characters. However, whereas Osborne had hardly anyone to rely on to help him in his time of need, Rean has made many, many, many good friends. Rean's entire character arc revolves around himself learning to stop trying to take everything alone and just ask his friends for help.

Hopefully we get to meet her!

I suppose the next most insidious thing Osborne can do is to try to establish public schools for children and instate a law requiring mandatory attendance by Erebonian children (instead of letting people homeschool their kids or allowing them to attend Sunday School). That way, he can indoctrinate them with his agenda, make good loyal soldiers.




Hahaha




My sides!

Oh my gosh this sidequest

Bracer Franky sounds pretty good. Let's head on down to the store, get you a battle orbment, walk out into the field and kill a few wolves and see how you like that.




Wait, hold up. There are high schools? As in, public high schools? I thought education in Zemuria was pretty primitive, where people were homeschooled/Sunday schooled, and then if they wanted to go into an advanced profession, they attended a college like St. Astria's or Thors.

Tan skin and silver hair... why is Schera in the Empire right now? I thought she only came to Heimdallr after she heard what had happened to Olivier.

Hm... well seeing a T-rex for the first time in your life when you've hardly faced any monsters would be absolutely terrifying. Franky problably wouldn't freak out as much if he had more confidance facing monsters. Give him a weapon and have him fight wolves along the road, and then he will be less likely to completely freak out.

Even if most of the branches in Erebonia are closed, Franky can always go elsewhere. The Legram branch doesn't even have a receptionist (it was just Toval, and Miles only came in when the Civil War began and they needed more help). He could go to Reimferia or Liberl as well.

Hm... so Musse went hunting with her father using powder rifles. I'm guessing that traditional powder rifles are not obsolete, but are actually pretty common, though I have no idea why people would choose them over orbal rifles now.




... There were? I've played CS1 four times over and never heard of any rifle classes.




What the hell Kurt? Why would you abandon your friends to join that twerp's posse over a chess match?

Oh wow. It's disappointing to see Hugo fall like this.

Hm... I wonder what Verne's gimmick will be.

• - ZCF: straight forward honest corporation. Builds airships and orbal guns. Invented the anti-Gospel generators that was used to restore power during while the Liber Ark was sucking up orbal energy, and has been tinkering with mini mechas in the forms of the Orbal Gear.

• - Reinford: a mega corporation that has grown so large no one really knows what it really is anymore. Known for making airships and weapons. The secret 5th Division is the Black Workshop that made the gnomes, the Divine Knights, is involved in Ishmelga crap, dealt with Ouroboros, and is subserviant to Osborne and Ishmelga. Made the ARCUS and Soldats.

• - Verne Company: makes cars. What else?

Kurt and Ash remind me of Yuki and Kyou from Fruits Basket.




^^^

So what happened to the pendant at the end of the game? Since Rean loses control and becomes permanently trapped in that form. Did he feel enough rage that it broke the pendant? Or was he using the form too many times in a short period and it broke? Or did he lose it?

OHHHHHHHH what if George didn't actually betray us? What if - just like how Black Alberich mindcontrolled Crow and Rean - what if George was caught investigating the Black Worskhop, and then Black mindcontrolled him, and the mindcontrolled George used his knowledge of the Courageous to blow it up? Ahhhh, okay. Hm... well actually that wouldn't make sense. It wouldn't explain why George mind wiped Valimar's memories at the end of CS1 to prevent Rean from finding out the truth, so I guess George had to have been against us the entire time anyway.




I believe that this is a first for the Trails series. Never before have we been given exact troop strength before. Falcom really shouldn't be throwing out hard numbers like this, as it only draws attention to how ridiculous the scaling of the Trails world is. I believe it's going to get even more ridiculous in CS4, when we start getting numbers like hundred thousand Liberlian troops thrown around (Liberl being able to send 100,000 troops? Lololol).

So the escalation with Cedric continues.

• Saved by Rean Schwarzer, who is now hailed as the hero of the Empire.

• Wants to become a hero of Erebonia as well. Wants to go to class with his hero, but arrives a year too late.

• Osborne whispers sweet nothings into his ear about only he can save this country.

• Finally goes to the academy the Empire's hero and his savior went to. Constantly hears stories from the faculty and the townsfolk about Rean and Class VII.

• Hears that Rean has become an instructor at Thors... at the branch campus.

• Tries to convince the Empire's hero and his savior to become his instructor. Is refused.

• Tries to gain validation he is desperately seeking by trying to one up Rean's class. Fails.

• Months past and Rean and his new Class VII go on to continue heroing. Cedric can't hear anything except that.

So now Cedric decides to seek validation by trying to go on adventures like his hero too. Maybe he's hoping he will beat Rean and Class VII to the punch, push back Ouroboros, and gain all the glory. Even if he does beat Rean and Class VII to the punch, he just simply doesn't have Rean's support network of good and reliable friends, nor does he have said support network's knowledge and experience with what's actually going on. Besides, Osborne isn't going to approve of field exercises by the main campus unless they advance his agenda. This seems like a xanatos gambit on Osborne's part.

• The main campus accomplishes nothing while Rean and friends save the day as usual. Cedric becomes even more agitated, more desperate for validation, which Osborne can easily take advantage of.

• The main campus beats the branch campus to the punch and reaps all the glory. Cedric's actions are validated and he feels like he should continue heroing. The papers report what happened and he receives acclaim, even further encouraging him to continue.

• The main campus operations go disasterously. Casualties. Nothing achieved. Cedric feels vindictive, possibly suicidal if his friends were hurt. Anything could happen.

It seems like the first outcome is the most likely, as in the flashforward we only see new Class VII and old Class VII fighting Ouroboros while provincial soldiers are being slaughtered left and right by Red Constellation jaegers. Either the main campus was relagated to a non-glorious role, or they will arrive long after the party started.




Wait, hold up. How does that make any sense? The orbal network was invented in Crossbell two years ago. THEN a handful of Erebonian institutions like Thors were connected to that same orbal net. How can Erebonia have it's own? It's the same network. How can Erebonia's be older? The orbal net in Crossbell was the first of its kind. This is another retcon.




Reminds me of Nosferatu from CS1 and 2.

Haha Mint is still trying to get Makarov and Mary together. For the OTP!

Interesting. So Becky's dad, Lymon, succeeded Otto as the market manager of Celdic. Nice! Would be nice to meet him again.

So we finally get to see the painting a character has been working on. Well, we did get to see Gaius' works when they were exhibited at the school festival, but whenever I came over to him before in CS1 his canvas was empty.

Cheryl's right. Jingo would look gorgeous in a dress with all of that fluffy hair.




I do too, Rean. Within the past two months, we've gone from it just being Taitana and Musse to including Maya and Lousie. Who's next? Tita? Oh no... OH NOOOOOO PLEASE NOOOO STAY AWAY




So Ouroboros is already powering up the third aion. Hm... were the other two aions being powered up for several days before we fought them? The second aion was being powered up for at least one day prior to us fighting it atop Stargaze Tower. Wait, is this how Osborne is detecting where Ouroboros is located? Is Roselia or Black Alberich tracking the flowing of mana through the septium veins under Erebonia, and when they detect a large surge of mana, they then issue the assingment to the Branch Campus? Why is Ouroboros powering up each Aion EXACTLY one month after the last? It seems like it always happens around the 10th or the 11th of the month. Which would mean that the Aions were being powered up for at least a week before we fought them.

I'm guessing Father Henry is beginning to notice something is up with Rean and Rosine.

So Rutger shopped at Neinvalli, huh? Sounds like Neinvalli is actually more known than I had thought. Well, figures, given how business was booming enough to open up a second store.

Honestly, I have to ask: how on earth are jaeger corps even able to operate? These are criminal groups near the top of the most wanted list. This is a world in where jaeger involvement in a war can apparently decide the outcome of wars and the fate of nations. If they are THAT influential, THAT important in warfare, then jaeger corps must be huge. Like several thousand strong. How is such a large movement of troops going undetected? They don't have capital ship carriers that can load up an entire army and fly them like the Pantagruel. The largest jaeger airship we've seen thus far was the Beowulf, and that could fit maybe 50 people. 100 at the absolute max. If jaegers are using that, then they'd have to fly their ship back and forth hundreds of times to ferry all of their men to their destinations. They'd be undoubtedly notice be air patrols, radar, or anyone who hears the roar of their engines or looks up at the sky. If the jaegers are traveling by sea, then they run into the navy. If they travel by land, then WTH is the border patrol doing? Furthermore, any congregation of people larger than 100 is going to leave a significant logistics supply train that the authorities WILL pickup on (hence, why Ouroboros building top secret airships the size of the Glorious, thousands of archaisms, and deploying hundreds of jaegers is unfathomably stupid).




This really tugs at my heartstrings. Reminds me of the court of honors my Boy Scout Troop used to hold every few months. We the Scouts would arrive about half an hour early to set up tables, put on tablecloths, set up chairs, decorate the hall, find the box of candles, light them, prepare the food and drink. The whole family was invited. Hours of sitting around with everyone with food and drink, laughing. People got up on stage and performed skits. The games the scoutmaster held. The songs. The sermon from our chaplain. This feels very nostalgic to me.

Why Musse why

Hahaha Aurelia just waltzes in and takes over the bath

Welp, guess the scene of Musse demanding Rean's heart in the Sen 3 PV from 2017 was exactly what it looked like. No vampire shenagains involved at all.




... We have a hangar basement? How do I access it?




Hm... why isn't the main campus headed to where the action is? Is something happening on North Ambria?

Wait a minute, then how does Olivier get the Courageous back by the end of the game? I don't think they hijacked it, did they? IIRC, Olivier hugs Cedric before taking off in the Courageous, and George and engineers did checkups (to sabotage it) on the Courageous before it took off, so it sounds like they had enough time for preflight checks and weren't in a rush from say, pursuing authorities.





How is this even possible? You have the largest and the best military in the world! How is this even possible? What is the national guard doing? What is the air patrol doing? What are your sentries doing? What is the intellgience division doing? Honestly, you guys suck at your jobs, RMP and Intelligence Division.

Oh, is Claire coming to Lamare? Is this where the kiss happens? And why would Claire kiss Rean anyway? I thought Michael thought that Claire thought of Rean as a replacement for her dead brother? Unless Michael was wrong?




Hahaha




Why is Rocksmith being an idiot? The Republic is teetering on economic collapse. They need all the help they can get. Now is not the time to get stingy over politics. If they don't jump on board, they're going to be left behind and they'll be at an even bigger disadvantage. Can't hurt to send at least one representative to at least hear what's up and be able to possibly get a word in. Welp, their loss.

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

The Lamare road looks like the place Joshua and Estelle were in, in the CS4 pre-release Famitsu scan. Why is Joshua and Estelle here? How did they get here? If they crossed the Liberlian-Erebonian border, how did they make it so far deep into the interior undetected? Or did they come by ship, leaving Ruan/Grancel and touching down along the Lamare coastline? No way they came by air, what with the Erebonian military on full lookout with air patrols everywhere and radar.

That's a cool monster design!

Too bad we can't use Patrick as a party member.

BTW, what did happen to the old orbal bike? IIRC Rean gave the bike back to Angelica for her trip. Then she bit the dust. What happened to the bike after that?




Hm... I thought Bleublanc wasn't in this game? Well, I suppose they could be pulling a FC, where he is supposed to be in the game... at a later point, and due to the game being split into two he actually doesn't show up until the second half (SC, CS4). That said, I think it'd be more interesting if the thief wasn't Bleublanc for a change.

I hope we see the Floralds at the conference.




SPEAK OF THE DEVIL!

I think I've seen this view of Ordis before, in one of Huri's fanart for CS3.

Just did the ship inspection side quest. You know, playing as FBI agents would be pretty cool. Investigating fraud, tax dodgers, money launderers, smuggling, counterfeiting, etc. Then again, given how Zero and Ao were ostensibly about police detectives and there was barely sixty seconds of police work in the entire duology, I rather doubt a Trails game about FBI agents would actually about being the FBI.

Jaegers... who are grateful towards Rean? Perhaps they are Northern Jaegers?

JUSIS MY MAN!!!

MILIUM!!!




Is that... Ambassador Crainagh? The Erebonia-to-Liberlian ambassador? I think Crainagh had red or orange hair, though.

Wait, oh, nevermind. Crainagh didn't talk like that. He's got to be Marquis Ballard.

Yup.

(Arianrhod disappearing behind a godray) Nice camera trick.

Hm... the jaegers could be Zephyr in disguise. The reason why they'd be thankful towards Rean would be for taking care of Sylphid. That said, the purple jaegers explicitly cited Rean's allegiance to the Imperial government as their beef with him. Zephyr is currently working for Osborne, so Zephyr is out.




No, you will not. Who do you think you are talking too, Ash?

The dragons? Sounds like Nidhoggr.

I'm guessing either Gaius or Sara will swoop in to save the day. Would be pretty funny if Gaius saved us from Nidhoggr... again.

Wait a minute, Angie is riding a new mass produced orbal bike. What happened to THE old orbal bike?




"Honary elder sister" hahaha




hahaha




Again what is this senior bracer rank? It's a D to A scale. Well, I guess Joshua and Estelle were junior Bracers in FC, with them becoming full fledged Bracers at the end of that game, but they were 16 years old, and they weren't cited as being the youngest people to become Bracers (in fact, IIRC the minimum age requirement to be a Bracer is 16, with Joshua and Estelle only starting their journey in FC because they reached the age requirement). Fie was 16 by the end of CS2, March 1205. Even if she had immediately become a Bracer, she wouldn't be any younger than Joshua or Estelle when they had become Bracers, so what gives?




Oh, this is new.

New Class VII! Dudes! Stop going AWOL! This isn't even an urgent situation!




Huh. I thought that Leonora's escort fleet was more like a local militia sea patrol, not a straight up jaeger/mercenary fleet that was being contracted.




Wait, hold up. Now Hugo may have become somewhat immorally greedy, sure, but to suggest he's fallen as far as hiring mercenaries and is resorting to violence to get his way? Are you serious? If true... damn. That really hurts.

Huh, I just saw Humphrey's model being used as a dealer at the casino. Hm... I guess Humphrey isn't going to be that important of a character, besides being arrested along with the rest of Hercules team. Was hoping he'd turn out to be an interesting character in arc 4.




That's... fatal, isn't it? Or it a drink that can only be consumed by martial artists who have learned the secret technique of purifying their livers. I actually wouldn't be surprised if that was an actual Taito ability, given that purifying chi/qi and poisons is a common wushu/xianxia ability.

Lemme guess: Osborne had Alfred assasinated to precipitate the conditions needed for his civil war to happen? If true... wow Osborne is playing the long game.




Oof.

In CS1, I had just assumed that the man Sara was talking about as her "first love", and the dead guy she poured out a drink for, was Rutger. It made sense to me that she'd take in Rutger's surrogate daughter, Fie, if Sara had good feelings or a close relationship with him.

The colonel looking like Cassius can't be a coincidence. I'm guessing he's supposed to represent how bad things can get. "What if a country like Liberl got utterly screwed over? This is what could have happened to Cassius. He could've lost more than his wife. He could've lost his children... his friends and neighbors... his whole country... his pride. Rather than emerging as a world renowned hero, he could have become an obscure name associated with criminal mercenaries in the public eye and remembered only by a handful." There is a lot of implied backstory here. Damn. Just makes me sad.






Ahhh, I think I remember him now. Just checked the opening to TitS 3rd to be sure, and indeed, Ballad does appear there on the Lusitania and is called by name. His model there bares a somewhat similar appearance.




He wasn't charged with insider trading?

Aleister... didn't I see him before in Saint Arkh? At instructor Mary's home. IIRC, Elliot said that he was the most talented musician he knew.




There is an actually pretty easy way to find Millium. Go to Valimar and have him scan for the location of the secondary contractors, as in CS2. We can rule out New Class VII (5 people), who are standing right in front of Valimar. We know that Jusis is in Ordis, to the West of Valimar. Sara should be to the East in Raquel. 5 + 1 + 1 = 7 known contractors. As far as Rean knows, no other secondary contractors besides Millium are in the Lamare Province, so if Valimar detects an eighth contractor, it's probably her. Ofcourse, using this strategy should actually reveal three unaccounted for secondary contractors: Millium, Gaius, and the Azure Siegfried...

If only Rean, Valimar, and Celine had remembered that they could do that! They used that ability three times in CS2! It's how they found the rest of Class VII!

I'm in chapter 3, and the characters are trying to find a missing Class VII member. Except Rean, again, Rean could immediately find that character by asking Valimar where the secondary contractors are. "Well, we know Jusis is to the west in Ordis, Sara is to the East in Raquel. New Class VII is here with me. No one else from Class VII is in Lamare. That's 7 people accounted for. The 8th contractor detected in Lamare should be that person".

... Huh, Rean could've used Valimar's ability to scan for the secondary contractors to locate where Gaius was all this time, and then go meet up with him. This is a seriously useful ability that could have resolved so many plot points had Rean, Valimar, and Celine not forgotten they had access to it! Seriously, why did they forget it!

This is just a few instances in which the writers had to lobotomize the heroes in order for the villains' plans to go off without a hitch. I mean, come on. Why didn't nobody check Crow's grave right after seeing the Azure Siegfried? Rather than spending a whole month wondering "oh yeah, I wonder how that guy who is working for an unknown actor affecting global events is". Dudes, your national security is depending on this information and it'd only take you a couple hours to verify this.




Crap he's back. I bet he sent out a signal to Millium, subconsciously summoning her to the island so he could interrogate her/reprogram her before mindwiping her.

Hm... maybe he was actually there meeting with Ouroboros and messing with the septium veins to set up the plan? Maybe planting flowers too?




Hahaha




Hm... looks like soldiers and their titan of earth fighting against mages with their titan of fire. As the CS2 black records said, the two titans fought each other, died (their carcasses hurled across the land, becoming the statues seen today), and their two powers combined into the Great Power. Since the mages are shown witnessing the birth of the Great Power, I'm assuming that they survived the conflict. What happened to the soldiers, the people to which the titan of earth belonged to? Were they wiped out?

If Byronia Isle has the sol shrine, then is there a moon shrine located at the Nord statue? But there is already a wind shrine nearby.

Wait... a sun shrine in Erebonia and Stargaze tower in Crossbell... is there a moon shrine counterpart in Erebonia to Crossbell's moon temple?

How did they get that huge aion down in there? There is no entrance wide enough for it to fly through. Did they teleport it in?

GAIUS MY MAN!




Come on dude, give me a bro fist.

I guess Gaius coming along to Kreuzan isn't canon, then.

I wonder if Black Alberich stayed in town for the festival, or if he just bailed. Proably bailed to go working his plan. Well... the dude has had hundreds of years to prepare the plan, and it's been 14 years since he began working together with Osborne. Shouldn't all of the ducks be in a row already? Well, the ducks he can align RIGHT NOW. The dude can't seriously be working every hour of every day of week up until the Great Twilight, right? He's gonna have SOME DOWNTIME where there isn't anything he can work on ATM even if he wanted too. What does he do then?





Yup. This is the scene and the location Huri drew that fanart of.




Oh my gosh can we knock it off with this long winded crap

Musse is a terrible person. Yes, she's already gone way too far with her incessant "please bang me instructor" mantra, but here she is listening to Rean pouring his heart out. She just found out that the man she supposedly "loves" - a man who has gone out of his way to try to be kind to her and support her in school - is under immense pressure from a government he dislikes, and chose this job as an escape. Rather than contemplating that, she just immediately jumps in to try to seduce him.

Where is Ouroboros going to point those guns at? Duke Cayenne's mansion, while all of the leading nobles are gathered, or at Juno Naval Fortress, where the provincial armies are garrisoned?




Uh, no. It can't control space. The Aion Type A was only capable of teleporting after it was empowered by the Septerrion of Zero. It was the Septterion of Zero that could control space. Without the Zero's power, it's just a giant robot.

I love how when Aurelia levels up, she goes "I can get even stronger? Huh..."

Yay you finally managed to save a homeless jaeger from comitting suicide this time. (Well I guess he saved Scarlet, so this is the second time?)




*tears*

That was very sad.




It's Agate and Randy vs Shirley! Shirley should be super-duper dead by now. COME ON! Powerlevel bullshit! BULLSHIT!

While we're at it, the scene of Randy, Agate, and Toval fighting the bad guys is how I want my Trails fan service. No in your face references or pandering; just a quick scene that shows our guys being AWESOME together. A cool scene of our favorite characters doing cool things.

(beat Ariarnhod) Well at least she has the good grace to not go "but ACKSHULLY" I was holding back the entire time!"




FINALLY! HELL YEAH!



WTH did he do to my glorious tachi? The tachi I spent hours and hours adventuring to collect the pieces for? THE GLORIOUS TACHI THAT SCHMIDT AND GEORGE WORKED ON DURING THE CIVIL WAR? WTH DID YOU DO!?!?!??

MY FRIENDSHIP POWER SWORD BUFF FROM CS2 IS BACK!!! Except it's blue instead of gold?




Ah, so that's a triple meaning to Valimar's line in CS2. Not just the power of life sacrifice to create the Zero Sword, but also the power of friendship conjuring a blade even stronger than Zemurian Ore.

You'd think that Schmidt would be more interested in the ARCUS resonance phenomenon he just witnessesed, a power that overcame the Aion's armor that deflected Zemurian Ore weapons, rather than a just simple "hmph".




FINALLY! Someone brings up what I had been asking for hours!

The hell? I thought Musse being Duke Cayenne's niece was a CS4 reveal.




Invading Calvard? With the intent to occupy/conquer it? Unlikely. Obviously, it's in Erebonia's long term strategic interest to take out their rival superpower, but actually trying to absorb Calvard into the Empire? Absurd. To do so would make Erebonia overall poorer. It's like trying to justify the US conquering Mexico. Yes... America COULD do it, but your talking about expending huge, massive resources to annex a relatively poorer state, bordering on a failed state, where the law holds the little sway, crime and corruption are rampant, there is a lot of ethnic trouble, and a huge population to absorb. Erebonia's economic boom would come to a dead halt, and the Empire might even get hit with a depression worse than Calvard's.




No, you did not. Your name was never mentioned in reference to the Bracer guild up until now.




SERIOUSLY? WHY DID IT TAKE YOU OVER A WHOLE MONTH TO GO CHECK HIS BODY!?!?! I TOLD YOU TO DO ASAP AT THE END OF LAST CHAPTER!

Oh wow, Black himself came out to silence her.

I have to ask: why is Black Alberich dressed... as Black Alberich, and not as Professor Lughman? What, when Black heard from George what Angie was up to, did he really stop to spend five minutes changing out from his Lughman attire to his dark and obviously evil Black Alberich clothes? Well, I guess he must've been using illusion magic for his hair and eye color, so I guess it could've been as easy as snapping his fingers. I still find it hilarious that even bothered, given that he was going to have Angie killed anyway.

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

So... what? How did Angie survive? Did George shoot her in the shoulder or something? If she didn't die instantly, she'd probably be screaming in pain or shouting at George "WTH why'd you shoot me?", and Black Alberich is right there so he'd just turn around and use his shell to turn her into paste. What, did George use a traquilizer?

I also find it pretty funny that - when CS3 came out - George held the crown for having killed the most named characters in the entire franchise. Then CS4 came out and all of the deaths were retconned, so I guess we're back to Ian and Kevin being tied at one.

Welp, time to read the new CS3 Black Records. I guess I'll do it during the night in the dorm section of the next chapter.




City design

One of my pet peeves about the series is that the towns suffer from your usual playset city syndrome, where canonically the settlements are supposed to be these huge, realistically sized settlements in lore, but ingame they are just a couple dozen houses at most and MAYBE a hundred NPCs. I praised Heimdallr when I played CS1 for being the first Trails game to actual depict a city that FELT like an actual city, with you being able to go to Vainquer Street and see down the main road, with rows upon rows of buildings for miles. It was so big, you had to take a cable car tram to get around. You saw people walking on the other side of the street. Heimdallr felt huge.

Ordis feels like a real city, like Heimdallr. You can see the city extending for miles in the background. You can see rows and rows of houses below the business district and above the harbor, and docks in the far distance. Very refreshing. Also, the color palette (white and blue) reminds me of Ilios, the Overwatch map based around Greece, though obviously the architecture is quite different.





Pacing

The first two chapters were pretty atrociously paced, but this chapter was paced very well. Exciting opening hook. Great school section as usual. Got to meet up with interesting CS characters I wanted to see more of, like Bardias. Got to explore two new Erebonian locations, plus the great city of Ordis. Got to see more into the jaeger world. Got some pretty heavy North Ambria stuff (Sara's backstory and the scene at Juno was very, very sad). Pleasantly surprising formula shake up with his going to Raquel and Rean entering casinos to meet up with Rutger to play cards, and then waking up at 4 in the morning to artillery being fired. Finally got some main plot progression as the Great Twilight conflict comes to the forefront of the narrative. Cool battle that shows our favorite characters being awesome. FINALLY got to see Rean and Class VII being absolutely AWESOME just like in CS2.

Only thing I didn't really like was 1. the Stahlritter holding back crap that happened at Byronia Isle, and 2. the Juno Fortress dungeon, which suffers from the fact that it's a Trails dungeon. Trails has terrible dungeon design. The Juno Fortress segment was carried by the momentum of the story, but after an hour I was just tired of it and wanted to move on. The best Trails dungeons are short dungeons, just long enough to spruce up the pacing by engaging your brain with combat, but short enough that the mediocre dungeon design doesn't come to the forefront.





"Holding back" and stakes

It is unfortunate that CS3 has fallen into the same trap that SC and Ao did with antagonists showing up, being impervious to your attacks, and saying that they were holding back, as if everything you did counted for nothing.

As I've said before, Falcom handled false victories right in CS2 and handled them wrong in SC and Ao.

In CS2, the false victories were okay because it wasn't serious. In CS2, the antagonists you fight are your good frenemies. Xeno and Leo jump down because they want to check up on their sister, Fie, and see who these people she is hanging out with are like, and because they want to have a fun battle. Similarly, Bleublanc shows up at the watchtower because he wants to check out Class VII and have a little fun roughousing. Similarly, McBurn only shows up because he wants to have some fun. The "holding back" in CS2 was fine because everyone was enjoying their lighthearteded battles, so there wasn't much at stake. The actual fights that mattered were against nameless NA soldiers, such as the soldat battles and raiding Kreuzan Fortress, which the frenemies are not involved in. Those has strategic objectives at stake, and were serious, and no "holding back" was involved.

The holding back in SC, Ao, and here in CS3 are aggravating because the battles in which they happen are supposed to be serious, high stakes affairs. They aren't just killing time by having a fun little duel with hardly anything at stake other than being delayed; they're straight up trying to murder you and trying to accomplish their evil plans. You have Walter trying to cause a devestating earthquake that would kill hundreds, if not thousands of people in the region, just for the hell of it. You have Shirley and Sigmund leading an mercenary army as they butcher innocents. You have Wald trampling houses as he goes on a revenge killing spree against anyone he perceived as having slighted him. As such, when I give my all to kill them in return, even getting bonus AP, only for my guys to be keeling over while their guys are still standing up straight and talking about how they weren't even giving it their all, it feels like disrespect towards me, the player. When the serious villains beat me, I die and they win, but when I manage to defeat those same serious villains in gameplay, my guys didn't win and the bad guys just waltz off and continue their plans. It feels like the heroes are blatantly not allowed to actually accomplish anything serious. It's simply unenjoyable to me as the player.

There are also only so many times you can have the same villain go "I was holding back". It made sense in CS2, because you were playing as novices going up against pros, but this is CS3. Old Class VII should be pros by now, AND THEN SOME with the powers and skills certain old Class VII members have acquired. There is really no reason why the Stahlritter should still be standing after facing off against the Ashen Chevalier - a war veteran, skilled practitioner of ELOB, wielding an ARCUS II, empowered by his Ogre power, and linked with his students, who are no slouches either.

Worse, is the feeling that the villains have franchise plot armor. The villains won't be defeated for real until the final dungeon of the arc, and even then, 90% they just waltz off anyway, because they are popular and Falcom can't milk dead characters (unless they resurrect them). So you have scumbags like Walter, Shirley, Sigmund, and Wald who VERY DEFINITELY SHOULD HAVE DIED instead inexplicably surviving to haunt the next game. And the next game. It's just not fun at all.

Fortunately, Ariarnhod had the good grace to not go "ACKSHULLY, I was holding back!", power up, trip us up, and then waltz off like whatever. Even though she did waltz off like whatever without telling us anything, but hey, at least it wasn't aggravating like the other two dozen times it has happened in this franchise thus far.

Chapter 4

Spoiler: 

Shouldn't you be resting, Lord Arseid? Or receiving treatment from the Seiland Company's facilities?

Sounds like Michael McConnohie was replaced by Jamieson Price as Victor's VA.

Just looked it up. I was right on the money.

Hm... Victor sounds fine. Does he really have lung damage? Or was that misinformation?




Is this Hercules team? Is RAMDA the Verne's company's secret battle orbment?

So Vita is trying to go around, exorcising each and every flower she can detect. Sounds like a losing battle if they are springing up on a macroscopic level, appearing far faster than she can exorcise them. Sounds like either the energy in the septium veins needs to be tampered with or something ASAP.

Stop with the "as you know" exposition. We actually already know this!




Wait a minute, Eugent arranged for his own assassination? Osborne didn't backstab the Emperor by allowing him to be shot?




Take a wild guess who ALSO has 17 loyal followers? Let's see... he has Elliot (1), Gaius (2), Machias (3), Jusis (4), Alisa (5), Laura (6), Emma (7), Fie (8), Millium (9), Crow (10), Altina (11), Kurt (12), Juna (13), Ash (14), and Musse (14)... wait... that's 14, not 17. Huh. We're missing three. I guess if you include Sara that's 15, so missing two. Towa and Angie? That's 17. Well, okay. That's a tremendous stretch, so I digress.




Since the CS3 canon is that Rean spent the night at the dorm alone in CS2, this is the first time Rean has heard Alisa confess her love for Rean. Why doesn't he have anything to say about this?

Oh. She was kidding. Cruel!

I really hope we can visit the Ost District again, get to stop by Gamgee's pub, say hi to Kargo and Mr. Tiddles.

I'm equipping my characters, and I just realized that I've apparently already maxxed out a couple of MQs at level 7. I guess I should equip other MQs so I can level them up then. Hm... I don't know how I feel about this. I liked how in CS1+2, you were still leveling up MQs right up to the final boss. Sometimes, your MQ might not even be capped by the time you finish the game. I guess just knowing I hadn't reached the cap yet incentivized me to use my favorite MQs, whereas now I feel like I'm missing out on exp and leveling up the other MQs if I just stick to my favorite, so I should only use my favorite setup for hard boss fights (like end of chapter fights).

Alright, this has been my setup:

First 2/3rd of a chapter, for easy trash battles and item farming:
- Rean: Kaleido, jacked up on SPD, Impede (to delay enemy turns and make battles easier and faster), and STR.
- Kurt: Kaleido (sub MQ. I switch it as the main MQ between Rean and Kurt, depending on which party I am playing as. If I am playing as the students, I want Kurt to be the highest level so I have him main it. if I am playing as Rean, I have him main, but if Rean is facing mobs in say, the first half of a chapter, he is probably overleveled for the mobs, so I just give it to Kurt anyway). Jacked up on speed and STR.
- Juna: SPD, Break, and STR. Has the septium vein quartz and the piggy bank equipped so we get more drops.
- Ash: Thor/Scorpio, with attack and status inflicting quartz.
- Musse: Virgo/Titania. jacked up on ATS, cast time, and the first art damage bonus quartz, so I can nuke trash battles with a Blue Ascension.

Last 1/3rd of the chapter, when I'm facing a lot of story fights which aren't a walk in the park, and where my farming gear like Kaleido, Septium Vein, and the piggy bank aren't going to get me enough drops to be worth the hassle:
- Rean: Brigid, STR, SPD, Impede
- Kurt: Brigid, STR, SPD, Impede
- Juna: Keeper/Skuld, STR, SPD, Break
- Musse: same setup as before: Virgo/Titania, Ocean Bell, Cast 3, max out the rest on ATS.
- Ash: Sirius/Aegis: his weapon has a range of 2, unlike Kurt who unfortunately has a melee range of 1, meaning he will almost never counterattack. Stack EVA until he hits 50%, after that he just needs to have Shining cast on him during battle for the other 50% EVA and there you go, he dodges all physical attacks. Rage for crit counter attacks. Stack STR for the rest. Send him out to the side of the battlefield so that enemy AoE's don't hit the rest of the team.

The only real problem I'm having is trying to figure out what to do with Altina. In chapters 1 and 2, she was my mage. However, Musse fulfills that job better. I guess Altina is a swiss army knife that I can bring in every now and then to scan an enemy, or pop her CP on an S-craft if the whole party is out, or heal in a pinch, but otherwise I can't think of way for her to contribue to battle as effectively as the other characters. I've just stacked DEF and HP on her so that, in the off case that my entire party wipes, she can still live long enough to revive everyone.

I guess she has a melee attack range of 3, making her better than Ash at counterattacking, but her quartz grid of two Mirage and one Time isn't really optimal for that setup. That leaves one quartz for the Rage, two for evasion, and one for Shining. Nothing else. Maybe I'll try it in the upcoming Einhell Keep section. Dodge tank Altina? Yay, looking forward to trying that out.




Wait, so the main campus busted one of the 13 Factories? Is Ouroboros down to 11 now?




Haha

I'm predicting that Cedric will not be number 1 (that'd probably be Stark), and more than likely New Class VII will be ranked above him. I'm guessing Kurt and Ash, since they are the most school smart. Ada will probably be higher ranked than Cedric.




... Isn't that still lethal?

CS4 spoilers

Spoiler: 

Sounds like the second half of CS4.

... How did he find out about that one?

Liza's quest was sad.




Yaaaaasssss!!!

Yeah... the orbal gear simply isn't useful at the moment. If I need a tank, I already have Altina. Altina can already heal, just like the Orbal Gear. Tita will sure be nice in CS4, but right now she is redundant in my party.

Actually, the one thing Tita has going for her is that she has a STR of 1120, which means I can just brute force get trash battles done faster. Throw on the gladiator belts and let her spam crafts.

Tita, knock it off with the Sky wanking.




Considering how Irina said in CS2 that Franz just had to deck out anything he made with a ton of features, like his watch, I'm guessing this watch was made by him as well?

Yup.

Game, you don't need to give me a flashback to 30 seconds ago.

Telling the Bracer guild that they can come back and resume business as usual? Woosh. A whole empire of opportunity for Bracers to do business in. Hundreds of Bracers are going to surge in. When the bracers help catch Hercules team, and Hercules team's gun is used to assassinate Eugent, that's going to be rather damning. So, what? Are Liberl and Reimferia going to declare war on Erebonia in spite of the apparent evidence? Or are they going to wise up and realize that the guild was manipulated (which they have no evidence for). Obviously, we know that Reimferia and Liberl are going to fight Erebonia but I'm trying to understand how they are going to justify it when, in the public's eye, Calvard are the aggressors.

I take it that Matteus is Kurt's father?

I don't think I've said it before, but I LOVE how the Cold Steel arc has all of these friendy duels, where people just fight each other not to kill each other, but for FUN!




... What's horrible about it? Barring people who would act against the interests of your country from entering your country is a perfectly valid precaution.

Lemme guess: we're going to be fighting against a Goliath. How would they even be able to transport one here? It's too big to fit on the train, and there are no pathways to the academy field wide enough for the goliath to traverse. It'd have to be shipped in parts and then assembled... unless it's going to be transported by airship?

Yup. I was right.

Why did Black Alberich wait until NOW to check to see if he had an appropriate candidate to sacrifice for the Zero Sword? He's only a few weeks from the deadline, and if it turns out that neither Altina nor Millium can do it, then they're screwed. In fact, if your whole plan to save the nation from a curse depended on sacrificing an artificially created child, you better have a lot of spares in case a few of them bite the dust or otherwise lose their powers during the ten years leading up to the execution of the plan. If Millium and Altina were killed on their missions (and they were sent into a ton of combat situations by Osborne, I might add), then what are they going to do? Does Black have a bunch of Orion children on standby in test tubes?

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

Also, how did Millium survive being sacrificed? Was her soul transferred into the sword, and then transplanted into a new body? How was that body created? If it's just another human grown in a vat like Millium and Altina, then wouldn't Millium's soul being moved into that body effectively kill or suppress the native soul of that host? Or was that Millium's original body, put into a regeneration machine? Wait, is that how Black Alberich was able to bring back Rean/Arianrhod/Osborne/Crow/Rutger? I thought Black was using some sort of magic to bring them back.

Hahaha




If I had to guess, Osborne is trying to use the main campus as his "hero" pawns, just like how he used Class VII as his "hero" pawns in CS1+2. Given his pawns the tools they need and align their paths so that they come across Osborne's enemies. Put the spotlight on them so they become the new national heroes and to put public pressure on them to conform to Osborne's whims. Ofcourse, the branch campus exists to fulfill Osborne's goals, but so far it definitely seems like the main campus is the one he is going to hype up as the new national heroes since old Class VII and Rean Schwarzer are uncooperative.




No execution? Feels like Erebonia has gone soft. Remember way back when in SC, when Olivier said that Dunan would have been executed for what he did had he been an Erebonian noble? Remember way back in SC, when the government had everyone involved in Hamel executed? Again, it feels like people only ever die, or dark things happen only ever happen in the backstory, not during the games.




Yay! Time to fortify Zendar and Haken gates as well, in case the anti-Erebonian coalition decides to invade via a less suicidal route than through the Crossbell valley.

When using the +1 stat droplets, I wish I could use them all at once, or at the very least in batches. It's very tedious having to use all 49 magic droplets, one droplet at a time, with each using requiring four button presses.




Given the civil war a year and a half ago, and what you're about to start over the next week, that grisly moniker will definitely be appropriate for you.

I just want to say that Governor Regnitz looks absolutely fantastic.

Hm... percussion music for Heimdallr? I don't know. The CS1 Heimdallr theme was great. The CS3 theme sounds like it'd be for an African, a South America, or some South East Asian city. Sounds like the opening of the animated Ghost in the Shell movie.




An Imperial Academy? That isn't Thors? I don't believe I have heard of this before. Hm... it feels odd that it would be called a prestigious, official name like "The Imperial Academy", when historically the nation's most prestigious school has been Thors, which the Imperial family and the nation's elite send their children to.

Oh wow, it's Kalinka from way back when in CS1.

You know, if Matteus Vander is supposed to be this uber legendary martial artist - the body guard of Emperor Eugent III - why hasn't his name been brought up before CS3? You'd think that when Dorothy and Nial met Muller in SC, they would have said "oh, you're last name is Vander? As in, related to Matteus Vander, the Thunder God? The Empire's famous swordsman and bodyguard to the Emperor?".

Hello Dorothy.




Hahahaha




Above images: CS1 view of St. Astraia's
Bottom image: CS3 view of the same school.

RETCON! There was no cathedral next to St. Astria's Girls School in CS1! Nor was it ever mentioned being near the school!



CS1 view of across the street from the school.

RETCON! There was no embassy right across from St. Astria's Girls School in CS1! Nor was it ever mentioned being near the school!

See? No cathedral or embassy in CS1. In fact, I think the whole neighborhood to the North of the school was retconned out.






Hahaha

Oh, it's a rearrange of the Crossbell Cathedral theme.

Is that Thomas' voice?

Yup.

Dude, why are you faking being helpess against a monster?




I love that face.

Welp, I've been putting it off for this long. Time to read the CS3 Black Records.



BLACK RECORDS

"Adjudicator Arnor"? Does that mean that the Arnors - like the Ausleses - were actually from the ancient Zemurian civilization? Whereas the Ausleses were from the ancient Zemurian civilization located in Liberl, the Arnors must be from the civilization in Erebonia.

So the two Holy Beasts confirmed Arnor in front of witnesses. What have those two beasts been doing all this time? I know Rean is going to kill one of them (The Nameless One, IIRC) and release the curse. BTW, How did The Nameless One become the Nameless One? Did the curse make him forget his name or something? Why haven't the other holy beasts, like Ragnard and Zeit, stepped in to help their fellow protectors?

Wait a minute... was Zoro-Agruga one of the two holy beasts in Erebonia?

Wait, I was under the impression that Ishmelga had been corrupted or otherwise evil since the nearly the beginning. Also interesting to know that El Plado was actually being used up until quite recently.

Wait, why would the Gnomes - who built the DKs and created the cycle in the first place - help build magic knights to destroy the DKs and interrupt the cycle?

Ah... so that's why the magic knights kept chasing Rean wherever he went in CS2, and chasing him in CS3. It's because they're programmed to hunt down awakeners.

Oh wow. Huh. Now that I think about it, Thors was where most of the friendships in this arc were forged.

Ishmelga? Or the Nameless One? Ishmelga can turn into an amorphous blob so I'm thinking it's the former. AFAIK the Nameless One may actually be trapped, wherever it is (IDK what the final dungeon is supposed to be. Is it underneath Heimdallr? Doesn't seem to be the Infernal Castle again. Actually, IIRC, it's called the Gral of Erebos?).

Hold up. When I played CS2, I had presumed that the Black Records were written by an unknown historian who was in on the cycle and the curse. Since the most recent event recorded in the books were of the cycle during Driechels' time, I had assumed it'd have been a gnome or a witch who was knowledgeable about ancient history and had been present during the war. However, these new CS3 Black Records describe very recent history, as well as conversations between people and their thoughts know one could possibly know. There is no way that the CS3 Black Records could have been written ICly. The CS3 Black Records don't feel like an ancient account; they feel like an exposition dump from an omniscient narrator.




ROFL




Oh gosh

Same airship as Lloyd's parents?

I'd like to visit Heimdallr University (where Machias attended) and the Music Academy (where Elliot and his friends attended, and where Olivier taught at).

Well if I was Rocksmith, I'd want to try to analyze Erebonia's military ability. Locate their manufacturing facilities, find out what they're building. Find out how many railway guns, soldats, and airships they have and project how many they can pump out over the next couple years. Gather up intel on their Divine Knights (as far as everyone who isn't one of the CS main characters is aware, the Divine Knights are Erebonia's top secret project, and literally nothing else. Every power in the setting would be extremely interested in trying to figure out WTH a divine knight is, and how to get their own, and deduce their weaknesses). That will help Calvard's long term strategic situation. Sabotage only really works in the short term, and once you've blown your cover, you can't really do anything else, so in Calvard's case it'd be best to have their guys not stir up and ruckus and just continue gathering what intel they can. Ofcourse, Rocksmith and Kilika are somewhat idiotic, as they damn well know Osborne's MO at this point: antagonize his opponents, open up a juicy opportunity for his opponents to lash out at him, and then trap them, use that as his cassus belli to go "they attacked first! They're the aggressors! I am waging a war of self defense!".




What on earth

So Calvard's battle orbment is called Ramrod?




Oh.

COME ON I OVERTOOK YOU GUYS IN THE TIMED RACE! DON'T YOU TELEPORT AHEAD OF ME IN THE CUTSCENE!




Stop with the fan wanking.




Wow

At long last. It's felt like ages






Hahaha




HELL YEAH GIVE ME A HUG MY MAN!




My sides!




YOU SAID THIS, AND THEN YOU BETRAYED US TO HELP KICKSTART THE APOCLAYPSE!!!

Can we knock it off with the "you have grown" line? I think that this is the 30th time I've heard it this game.

GWYN!




Seriously, what is your air force and radar control doing?

Wait, how was George able to transform his appearance? I know he has a combat shell, but that doesn't explain the illusion magic.




I do too...

Lemme guess; Black Alberich is going to tag along with us down into the underground and then give us the reveal and a big fat exposition dump.

Oh wow, is the bell in the back activating? What on earth do the bells of Crossbell made by their alchemists have anything to do with Gnomes and the Witches of Erebonia?

BTW, where is Beryl? We haven't seen or heard from her at all during CS3.

The OP theme is most certainly not appropriate for this battle.

Okay, time to spend half an hour equipping everybody.

Very nice to see iconic CS1 and CS2 enemies return, such as Nosferatu and Ginosha-Zanak, Ol-Gadia, etc.

Kinda disappointing that old Class VII does not have any unique victory interactions with new Class VII. It's just generic victory lines.

I just want to say, I love how the past 20 hours were about heavy political intrigue, and then we catapult straight into EVIL CASTLES and DOOM DEATH DRAGONS and ZOMBIE APOCLAYPSE, and it's still just as awesome as before.

That dungeon was waaaayyy too long.

Holy crap that was a very, very hard boss fight, took me 45 minutes or so.

HELL YEAH DO IT ASH!!!




*feels*

Hm... where is Humphrey? Was he one of the agents captured? Did he evade capture? Or was he not apart of Hercules team?




Sounds like Black Alberich met Osborne first and brought Osborne into his plan. Then Osborne - using Vandyck to meet the Emperor - revealed his knowledge about the Black Records and the Arnor bloodline, thereby gaining Eugent's trust, then brought Eugent into the plan.

I have 7 festival tickets, so I'm thinking:
- Laura (mishy event)
- Gaius
- Kurt
- Jusis
- Millium
- Altina
- Alisa




Oh, is this going to be Jona?

LOLOL I found an amazing strategy:
- Equip Chrono Burst on Rean
- Break an enemy
- Link Rean with a character who has the link ability, EP Charge (such as Lechter)
- Cast Chrono Burst
- Rean's linked character will refund the full EP cost of the Chrono Burst, allowing Rean to get infinite turns.




WTH are you talking about? Rean clearly killed at least a couple Calvardian air force pilots during the CS2 Divertissement, when he sent that airship crashing towards the ground at terminal velocity. No way the men inside survived. And, what Tio? Have you been reading Rean's reports? How'd you get your hands on classified intelligence division documents?

Knock it off with the apologism folks.




... Huh? It was Zechs who led the invasion of Liberl during the Hundred Days War. Another retcon. (EDIT: My bad. Zechs led a different armored division during the war).

Well I have two more tickets now. Hm...




THEN WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME AND JOIN THE BAD GUYS!?!?!?

I wonder how Ash snuck his gun through a pat down.

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

I also wonder: when did Ouroboros get to Cedric? Was he turned during CS4, as the Osborne regime collapsed? Or was he turned before then?

Alright. The dude is completely in on the Zero Sword sacrifice plan. Apparently Claire doesn't know though, and maybe Lechter too? Sounds like only Black, Osborne, Rufus, and Cedric are the conspirators. BTW, where is Rufus? Is he actually here, ready and waiting for the plan to go off tonight/tomorrow?




Seriously, why wasn't Matteus the Thunder God mentioned before CS3? His name should have been brought up by either Sara or Rean on the Courageous during CS1, when Rean, Sara, and Toval were talking about high powerlevel characters like Victor and Cassius.


CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

Then what was Matteus doing during CS4? If he was loyal to Osborne, then why didn't Osborne call him to deal with the heroes as everything fell apart? If he wasn't loyal to Osborne, why didn't he show up to help fight him?

The other greatest Erebonian swordsman is standing right behind you. No, Mr. "I never existed until now and haven't done anything" Thunder God doesn't count.




See? Exactly my point about Reinford testing their orbments.





Hahaha




That's not how S-rank works. S-rank is an informal rank, an award given to those who went above as a Bracer. Cassius wasn't awarded S-rank for saving Liberl or being a great warrior. He was awarded S-rank for years of trmendous service, resolving many situations and leading operations. Likewise, Arios wasn't offered S-rank for being strong; he was offered it for years of tireless work, and, again, resolving many crisis.




I wonder if Ada, Fritz, and the rest of Class I will turn against Cedric once they realize the depths of his and Osborne's corruption.

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

I'm guessing that once they see Cedric associating with Shirley of Ouroboros, Class I is going to go "nope", especially since they had been fighting against Ouroboros and had seen how their archaisms had harmed innocents first hand during the field exercise in North Ambria.

OH NO IT'S RUFUS OH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!




Think boy! It's because you make up the core of the Crimson Wings, their arch enemy!




... Huh? Well when you're comparing a country with a realistic history to that of a happy mary sue fantasyland like Liberl where nothing bad ever happened there, ofcourse Erebonia comes out looking worse.




OH YES PLEASE DO TELL US OSBORNE! I'm 530 hours into this sage and I still don't even know what on earth the big bad ensemble is trying to do. We should've gotten this very basic plot information years ago.




FFS you told me jack all.

Lol the chapter ends exactly the same way as the end of the game: the heroes are in a dire situation surrounded by hostiles they cannot overcome. Music fades out. Big bad makes a dramatic statement. Cut to black. Hell it even has the same "thump" sound effect!

Welp, I'm guessing Osborne and Rufus will use this opportunity to have us all arrested I bet. Oh, and there goes the branch campus' reputation down the gutter too. I'm guessing we won't see our vindication until the end of CS4... nay, probably not until the epilogue for the Cold Steel arc in Hajimari no Kiseki.

Final Chapter

Spoiler: 

Oh, now would you look at that. Black Alberich has a front row seat. He's probably overjoyed at seeing his 1000 years of machinations finally pay off.




... That's standard wartime procedure folks. If you think that's horrifying, I see you don't know what real warfare looks like.




Easy! Just walk to Valimar in the back of the train and spirit path to a nearby concentration of mana.




Sure is! If only we hadn't forgotten about that we could use it before! Sure would've been useful during... I don't know... the last four chapters?




Uh, I don't know. Her boss? Pretty sure a boss has authority over their subordinates.




Wait a minute, how could a master quartz be passed down a family? Master quartz have only been in existence for two years!

Spent a couple hours looking at the quartz and equipment I had and rearranging my party:
- Rean: Brigid/Minotarus. Stacking as much STR as possible. Using the Domination quartz. Pop a Gale and end battles on Rean's first turn.
- Kurt: Zephyr/Scorpio. Stacking SPD, Impede, and Attack. Meant for long term high DPS.
- Gaius: Keeper/Tempest. Stacking high HP, DEF, and STR. Since the damage boosts is a percentage of HP lost, stacking high HP and DEF allows me to get the most out of the damage boosts without putting myself in danger of dying. The avg HP of the party is 7,000. Gaius' max HP is 16,000. For the average party member, 10% of their HP would be 700 HP, but for Gaius it'd be 1,600, and with a DEF of 1800, he's just not going to die so easily. With Wild Rage, it's very easy for him to get down to the useful low HP percentage values.




Wait a minute, the ancestors of the witches were holy beasts of fire? So a Sept-Terrion may not need have a single holy beast guarding it? Interesting.

Nevermind.




Wait a minute, is the Realm of the Great Shadow, where we fought the Shadows of the Great Power, Loa Erebonius and Loa Lucifera, actually a vision of what the devastated land looked like 1,200 years ago? Why haven't we seen any evidence of this immense destruction in the current day? Sure, the mages and the Church probably went around rejuvenating the land with life, but that's not going to cover up geological damage from two titans battling day and night for 1,000 days.

Okay, wait, hold up. The holy beast of fire is the only one alive? If the curse escaped/spread across Erebonia after the fire beast was put down, then does that mean that the earth beast was also holding down the curse until it died, leaving the fire beast as the last safeguard? Or did the curse come into play and infect the fire beast after all that?




Blood of the holy beast? Okay. But why sacrifice the Orions? Why go out of your way to invest a huge amount of time and resources into engineering 70 children, with all but two presumably dying, just so you can sacrifice them? What makes them so special? Why couldn't Osborne have grabbed a convict sitting on death row and used him instead? As I understand it, the Zero Sword doesn't care about what body you have; it only needs a human soul.




Wait, I thought you just said that the holy beast of earth had died? Or when you meant by "the gnomes lost their holy beast", you meant it had disappeared? Why would the gnomes be trying to kill their own deity? The deity they are supposed to be protecting? Then that means that the beast of fire is still alive? Where is it, and what has it been doing?




Hahaha




Wait, what happened to the Testa-Rossa? We didn't destroy it! We only removed the cockpit! It should have been easily repairable by Black!

Man, I'm going to be staying up until 3 AM in the morning trying to finish this game, aren't I?

PATRICK BEING AWESOME HELL YEAH!!!

HELL YEAH JINGO SHOOTING GIANT 30 FOOT TALL DEMON MONSTERS WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER, JUST LIKE HER MOM!

Oh wow, Michael is actually on our side? I thought he was going to turn out to be a loyalist in the end.




I love that smug look on Thomas' face.

AGATE MY MAN! RIDING IN ON A MOTORCYCLE!




Ah, that must have been when the beast of earth was corrupted by Ishmelga. That begs the question: what is Ishmelga, then?




I knew that Weissman was somehow involved in the curse. Was him encouraging the nobles into sacking Hamel simply destiny? Or did Ishmelga and/or Black Alberich push him to do it?




Read: "We're going to kill tens of thousands of people for... reasons."

CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

I have bad feeling that in the next game, we're going to end up with the opposite problem Ao had. In Ao, when the villains FINALLY told the protagonists their motives and their goals, it turned out that the villains were right. As in, there was absolutely no reason for the protagonists to NOT up and join their side right then and there. If the villains were successful, absolutely no one would have died. In fact, everyone who died would have been brought back, and an objectively better status quo than the current one would have been established. The protagonists looked like idiots for not joining them right then and there.

Here, if Osborne's goal was to truly lift a curse off of Erebonia and create a truly better world, he should've just straight up told Rean "hey, son. This is why I'm annexing these countries and causing bloodshed. It's because if I don't THIS is the alternative, and it's far uglier. Better that we break a few eggs now so no more eggs have to be broken ever again." Hey, apparently Millium comes back, so it's not like she even died! He should've just tried to TALK.

It's also going to make the fact that most of these monstrously evil people are going to survive just more agonizing.

WHY!?!?!?!? SOMEBODY SPEAK UP DAMMIT!!!!




NO IT'S NOT! This isn't a friendly test of skill against frenemies like the Infernal Castle fights of CS2. THE LIFE OF YOU'RE STUDENT - YOUR BELOVED FRIEND - AND THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD IS ON THE LINE!!! PEOPLE ARE DYING RIGHT NOW ON THE SURFACE! DYING!!! TENS OF THOUSANDS MORE - PERHAPS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE - WILL DIE IF YOU FAIL!




YES YOU CAN YOU CUNT! HE IS EVIL! YOU ARE HELPING HIM COMMIT EVIL!




THEN TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW GOSH DARN IT




^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^




^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^




wtf




Wow. You may actually be one of the most moronic characters in the entire setting, and that's really saying something.




No you're not bitch, or otherwise you'd be standing WITH US.




Don't give me that crap. I'm THIS CLOSE to chopping your head off faster than you can pull that shell out of invisible space.

So the curse began when Great Power was formed? Is there something fundamental about combining two Sept-terrions together that creates this "curse"?




Haven't you heard? The industrial revolution only began 50 years ago. No way society has transformed into a "modern culture" in so little time.

Wait, so Ishmelga, or "the curse" can just randomly compel people into comitting acts of evil?




Well so far we are eight games into this franchise and the Church's thaumatology hasn't failed to purify people yet. I'm pretty confident had we found out about this "curse", we could have taken Ash to the Church and they would have fixed him up or had found some work around, a way to suppress it.




WTF are you smoking. I thought you were trying to lift the curse and make the world better, NOT FREAKING CAUSE WORLD WAR 1 AND LEAVE THE WORLD A SMOKING RUIN!!!


CS4 spoiler

Spoiler: 

You find unprecedented mass murder and suffering "inspirational"? No wonder you get along so well with Shirley. Please, allow me to chop your head off before you run away and become the protagonist of Hajimari no Kiseki (jury is still out on that one, but, come on. Who else could that "C" be?)

^^^^ what he said




So the fire beast is alive and uncorrupted? Where has it been all this time? Why hasn't it been helping it's fellow guardian out? Why hasn't it shown up to help us stop all this crap?

WTH Jusis how were you able to hear all that from 1000 feet up there?

Is Aurelia hijacking the Pantagruel?

Why are the battles above still as they were when I had left them? Pretty sure it's been over an hour since we left the surface and it seems like no progress was made whatsoever.

Final thoughts

Spoiler: 

Wow.

Despite having been spoiled on the endings of CS3 and 4...

Wow

The last twenty minutes were so intense. When the Nameless One jumped Rean and destroyed Valimar's armor, and Rean was screaming in agony due to his neural link with Valimar... when the chorus began to climax with Cedric choking Altina - holy shit that was intense. Olivier and Toval saying their goodbyes... Jusis' screaming. I was glued to the screen.


Oh! If the Sept-Terrions react to the will of the people, then perhaps it isn't that the Great Power has been corrupted, but that at the time of its formation, the people across the land were filled with hate and violent feelings, and thus it shaped its inclination? Perhaps that caused a feedback loop, where the now malevolent sept-terion caused chaos, creating negative emotions in the people of the land, who in turn feed the sept-terion, which then causes more chaos... well in that case it's pretty much the Sha from Mists of Pandaria. The people will need to culturally change to adapt to the presence of the curse, so as to not allow their negative emotions to manifest themselves, and thus deprieve the curse of negative emotions to feed on, until the curse eventually just fades away. But I guess that doesn't really matter if the curse can just straight up compel people to do things against their will, no matter how hard they try to resist.

Also, how was the Testa-Rossa purified of its corruption? IIRC, we didn't purify the DK. We only cut out the cockpit, and without its awakener, the Testa Rossa simply shut down. How was Osborne able to purify it for Cedric to use? Why can't that method of purification be used on people?

I'm going to need a bit to stew on my thoughts on the game, to write a proper review. I pretty much binged from the last day of chapter 4 to the end of the game in a single sitting. I'm going to bed.

- - - Updated - - -

My review for Trails of Cold Steel III.

Spoiler: 

Battle system

Spoiler: 

I loved being about to run around with large parties towards the end of the game. It is very fortunate that the non main characters have had their equipment setup locked and that they come with solid quartz grids from the get go, as otherwise equipping every single character would have ground the game down to a screeching halt, especially when you were given a ton of party members during high intensity sections and just wanted to see what happens next.

I've already praised Cold Steel's master orbment system before in CS1 and CS2. Allowing the player to equip another MQ for it's first effect was a brilliant idea, and opened up many more possibilities. Also very convenient to allow the player to equip the same MQ on two different characters at once.

At first I was disappointed with the absence of Overdrive, but then I realized it had become redundant with the inclusion of the Lighspeed Flash Brave Order, which had made the BP system more interesting. In CS1+2, there wasn't really anything interesting about BP. You filled up the bar and you dealt damage with it. You always saved up for 5 BP unity attack, or otherwise used the 2 BP attack. The link attacks were fun because they were a QTE that helped break up the turn based gameplay with a split second decision for the player to make, which is now even more interesting as the player has to consider whether or not to save BP for Unity attacks to break the enemy, or save them for Brave Orders. Brave Orders also add a new decision to consider when choosing which characters to bring into your party, as you can only use Brave Orders from characters who are in your party.

The break bar added an additional layer of gameplay: "Do I try to break their armor ASAP? Or should I build up my CP and BP and wait for the boss to powerup, and then break them? Or should I not concern myself with the break bar and instead just try to whittle them down gradually while playing defensively?"

As with CS1+2, the four different weapon damage types are a conceptually good idea, but as before, they just aren't memorable because visually each damage type is no different from the other. Look at how in FFX, Tidus' sword bounces off of armored enemies, while Auron cleaves right through them. The different damage types are visually represented so they don't come across as gamey damage modifiers.

I'm a little disappointed that Lost Arts did not return. They added a new layer of decision making during the party building process. They were effectively superpowerful, one shot S-crafts that took up one of your seven precious quartz slots. Hopefully they return in CS4 (IIRC they do?).

They've refined the DK battle system, namely by adding additional units you control, rather than just Valimar. In CS1+2, the DK system was a great gameplay system that was HYPE in short bursts during the climatic moments, but the gameplay was quite dull. With you only controlling Valimar, it fell into the age old RPG problem of tediously attacking -> defending -> -> healing -> attacking, etc. By adding adding additional party members, and with the enemy mechas usually only targeting on of your guys at a time, you have more leeway in the battle outside of defensive gameplay.

Dungeons

Spoiler: 

The dungeons are pretty boring as usual for a Trails game.

I talked about this in my notes, but the chapter 3 dungeon went on for too long. The excitement was carried by the story that had built up to it and the music, but the length really should have been cut in half.

The second to last dungeon was exhausting. It went on for three hours. Two hours of running around trying to solve an arbitrary puzzle while running into hard boss fights. The end boss of the dungeon was very hard, took 45 minutes to complete (I kept wiping over and over again on the second phase).

The final dungeon was actually pretty well paced. Took less than an hour. It's about 5-10 minutes between each boss fight and the fights aren't overtuned like the prior dungeon.

The game world

Spoiler: 

Despite the higher fidelity art and the higher asset count afforded by the PS4, most of the towns in the game still suffer from JRPG tiny town syndrome, where towns that have canonical populations in the thousands are instead represented as a couple dozen buildings at most. I praised Heimdallr in CS1 for being the first settlement in the Trails franchise that actually felt HUGE, mainly due to the artists showing the city extending in the far background of the small areas you visit. Here, they did the same thing with Ordis, where it actually feels really big, as you can see the city extending into the background beyond the playable area. I wish more of the towns had been done that way. This would have been an excellent time to show off Crossbell as the true, dense metropolitan center it canonically was, but instead we just get the exact same layout from Zero and Ao, which made Crossbell feel like a tiny condensed playset city the size of a couple blocks.

It's also disappointing that the highways remain barren and empty. There has always been this disconnect between towns and highways in Trails, where it feels like the towns are immersive, real places, but the highways feel like gamey JRPG hallways filled with monsters that exist only to pad time between plot points. I really wish they took a cue from FFX's Mi'ihen Highroad and populated the highways with a wide variety of NPCs as well. In that game, the highroad didn't feel like "the place where you go grind monsters on the way to the next town"; it felt like just a real of a place as the towns. There were merchants walking to the next town who were happy to sell their wares to you. There were other people going on pilgrimages and would challenge you to a friendly fight. There were bishops who were healing people, and would tell you about the ancient lore behind a statue alongside the road. There were inns along the road to stop and rest at, and talk to fellow travelers. There were highway patrolmen to talk to. It felt real.

It's especially jarring when you see NPCs right outside Heimdallr's gates, as if Falcom was dipping their toes into this idea. This is the only time they tried that in the game. You don't see other NPCs coming and going outside the gates of the other towns, not even Crossbell's, and it really calls attention to how barren the game world outside the towns is.

I would have liked to have visited more old CS1+2 locations. Part of the appeal of successive games in a Trails arc is seeing how the towns and the people in them have changed since last time. It's especially puzzling that we visit Heimdallr, but don't get to visit Western Heimdallr for the Summer Festival. Would've been nice to stop by the Ost District and by Fiona's house, or walk through Mater Park again. That said, one thing CS3 does right is actually taking you to new locations. One of the most exciting things about Trails is going to new locations and seeing more of the world. There is that feeling of discovery. SC and Ao had the problem where you didn't go to any new locations; there was no feeling of discovery, which led to a feeling of "staleness" as you spent 60+ hours in those same locations without anything new to break it up.

I liked how they kept CS2's innovation of using a vehicle (airship in CS2, an armored train in CS3) as mobile hub to bring campus NPCs with you wherever you went, so even when you leave the hub of Leeves, you still have a community of familiar faces to talk to.

Art and sound

Spoiler: 

The characters of CS3 look gorgeous, though the new lighting also plays a huge role in that. That sexy rim lighting! With higher fidelity models and great lighting, the animation quality - which remains about the same as previous entries - stands out now, but it's still perfectly serviceable.

I liked almost all of the new character designs... except Fie's. Somehow, Fie's outfit became even worse than her CS2 outfit. I really wish that old Class VII had casual clothes in CS3, which is puzzling because they already went through the effort of remodeling Rean's CS2 outfit in CS3. IMO, Fie's best look was her CS1 casuals with shades on.

Due to the bad word of mouth about CS3's soundtrack in the r/Falcom Discord, I went in expecting it to be bad. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a very good soundtrack! Not a single bad track in the whole game (except maybe Beyond the Journey, which is just okay). I've added many CS3 tracks to my favorites playlist. I am still disappointed that they did not reuse more iconic CS1+2 tracks, but I can see CS3's soundtrack becoming just as iconic to me, especially if it is reused in CS4.

English dub voice cast is overall great. All returners are great. A few new VAs, like Millium's, Michael's, Shirley's, and Rutger's, were great. Some new characters like Agate and Randy, were extremely rough at the beginning, but by the end they had settled into their roles and their voices were good. For Tio's voice, they shouldn't have tried imitating the Japanese VA, as it just comes off as distractedly awkward and stilted in English. The branch campus student VAs which had one off lines were all over the place.

Story

Spoiler: 

I'm glad that the northern war happened offscreen in between CS2 and CS3. It felt unimmersive how a whole year went by between the end of the Trails in the Sky and the start of Crossbell/Cold Steel and nothing happened in between. I like when the world is progressing even outside of what the player sees, as if the events of the story we are following aren't the only things happening.

Osborne is evil. No one is disputing that. However, the motivations the heroes declare as to WHY he is evil are wildly off mark. They cite trivial or non-evil acts as their reasons for fighting him, when there are numerous other explicit acts of evil they could point to. No, Tita and Juna: keeping out powerful people who would try to work against the government isn't horrible nor unique to Osborne. It's standard government practice. No, drafting and confiscation of property during wartime is not horrible nor unique to Osborne. It's standard wartime practice. Why not point to Osborne deliberately pressuring people into attacking him, so he can then retailate in "self defense" and then crush them? Why not point to all of the people Osborne has killed so that he can march on unimpeded?

In general, there is a massive disconnect between how people act, and the actual world they live in. The characters are acting horrified at very basic, no brainer actions such 1. strengthening your defensive border against a hostile superpower, 2. drafting soldiers for the inevitable war, 3. building up a military infrastructure for the inevitable war, 4. keeping violent dissidents who would try to sabotage your country out of your country or on lockdown, and so on. The characters are acting like 21st century Japanese pacifists when they should be acting like late 19th century/early 20th century Prussians/Germans who are in the middle of an era of nationalism and war, on the brink of yet another war. In that world, no one in the right mind would protest any of this. Again, the characters are throwing a moral hissy fit over perfectly sound logic and reasoning, when they have better hills to die on right in front of them.

There is a tremendous amount of padding in the dialogue. A lot of it feels copy and pasted from other scenes with the nouns changed. Whenever characters meet each other, someone just HAS to say "well well, it's bee X_months since we last saw each other!", even when the two characters had seen each other just a couple months ago. Characters just constantly have to say to each other "you have grown so much". There is a lot of gratuitous fan wanking, where characters will reference prior games even when those references are utterly irrelevant to the situation at hand. There is a lot of "as you know" exposition, where characters will explain information to each other that they had already learned in prior games, or had even experienced!

There is far too much gratuitous fan wanking. Already went into great detail about this in my chapters 1 and 2 ending thoughts.

EDIT: In retrospect, I'm fairly certain that the discrepancy in the dialogue between prior English localized Trails games and CS3 can be chalked up to the more straightfoward localization of CS3 by NISA. Having played the TLs of Zero and Ao (didn't play the Geofront patch of Zero) in 2018, and having seen many examples in the r/Falcom Discord, it seems to be that the dialogue didn't just immediately bloat up; it's always been this way. It's just that XSEED made heavy changes and edited this bloat out, something that NISA didn't do).




Frenemies holding back. Already went into depth about this in my "the problem with Ao's ending" breakdown. TL;DR: what was alright in CS2, when you were engaging in friendly, lighthearted tests of skill against your cool frenemies, but here in CS3, when you're jobbing to people who should be below your powerlevel in a high stakes situation, it's just not fun at all.

Same problem as SC and Ao, where nobody ever explains what's going on, probably because once they reveal their motivations, everybody will look absolutely stupid. Villains act irrationally, where they go around antagonizing every single relevant player in the setting, fight them for... reasons, and then just waltz off for... reasons. I finished the game after 130 hours and I still don't know why on earth 90% of the boss battles took place. Pretty sure all of this could have been avoided if people actually fessed up and TALKED about WTH they wanted to achieve. There are pretty blatant instances towards the end of the game, where the protagonists directly ask the villains "WHY ARE YOU DOING ALL THIS" and the antagonists just refuse to answer.

I think there is a recurring problem in the second half of Trails arcs. It's usually when Ouroboros takes center stage and when the plot becomes less about political intrigue and more about magic and ancient conspiracies and the like. It's at this point when the antagonists stop becoming constrained, and they become powerful enough where there really isn't a reason why they can't just simply beat everyone and win, but because the plot keeps going the antagonists have to make irrational decisions so that they just don't crush the protagonists. You end up with situations like SC and CS3, where Ouroboros goes around antagonizing every single relevant power, blatantly shows their hand by unveiling their new technology and their agents, fights people for... reasons, and then after a little fight, they just waltz off for... reasons. In the end, the "reasons" for why they started up the ruckus turns out to be... they're testing something. Well, alright. If you wanted to test the capability of your new technology, there are many ways off of the top of my head you could have done that without alerting every power that is antagonistic towards you towards your presence or what you're doing, without them requesting backup so they can crush you and possibly stop you. It feels like Ouroboros often only shows up and does dastardly stuff for the sake of doing dastardly stuff so that the players have a reason to fight the villains, but the villains have absolutely no reason to be doing any of this stuff in the first place, and it's almost always to their detriment.

In SC, you had five chapters of Enforcers running around, wrecking havoc, all in the name of... testing the Gospel. Dudes, there are ways to do that without getting every force in the world trying to stop you.

It happened once in CS2, where Ouroboros' entire involvement was to... get two DKs to fight each other a top the Infernal Castle for... reasons. Yeah, 130 hours later and CS3 didn't explain that one yet.

In CS3, you have three chapters of Enforcers running around, wrecking havoc, all in the name of... testing Aions without the Septterion of Zero to power them? Dudes, there are ways to test their abilities getting everyone trying to stop you. If you wanted to test them against Divine Knights, you already have Arianrhod's DK. You can do that discreetly in the middle of nowhere. Why did the Red Constellation hijack the railway guns and start shooting at Ordis? For the lolz? To draw out the garrison from Juno? Why did they need to draw out the Juno garrison? What's so special about Juno that they had to perform their "test" there? Why?

It also feels like there is very little plot progression until near the very end of the game. In CS1, we were finding out little bits and pieces about the plot every chapter. Likewise, in CS2, Rean was slowly uncovering Erebonia's history with each spirit shrine flashback, before the plot dump at the top of the tower. Here, we learn pretty much nothing until the late chapter 2, when Rufus explains how he became an Ironblood, and then at the start of chapter 3, when Rean read's Teo's letter and finds out about Osborne. Then we don't get any plot progression again until Thomas and Rosine finally give us crucial plot information we should have had a hundred hours ago in the Cathedral. It feels like the game moves at an abysmally slow pace.

I think CS3 is at it's strongest when you're chilling out in Leeves with the townsfolk and the students, when you get to see Rean hanging out with his old Class VII buds, and when Rean and friends are out adventuring during the field exercises. Otherwise, when it comes to actual serious plot that revolves around Osborne and the Ouroboros mystery box, it just really falls flat (though at least Osborne remains far more interesting than Ouroboros).

Characters

Spoiler: 

I have mixed feelings on new Class VII. Kurt was good. Atlina was fine, started becoming somewhat good towards the final few hours. Juna was really brought down during the first two chapters as she is an author mouthpiece for Crossbell fan wanking. Starting with chapter 3, she was fine, but not interesting. I hated Ash for the first two chapters, but by the end of chapter 3 I liked him. Then by the end of the game, I was sorta ambivalent towards him. The real stinker is Musse. I know a lot of people complain about Gaius' "muh wind" joke, but Gaius was still an interesting character outside of that. Unfortunately, except for the final chapter, Musse never really is anything else besides "bang me instructor Rean". The way she acts during the final chapter piqued my interested in her, but it was too little too late. Perhaps CS4 will salvage the character for me, but she was really a "get off my screen" type of character who actively detracted from my enjoyment of the game whenever she was onscreen.

I am disappointed that old Class VII does not have unique victory lines with new Class VII. Given how everyone is going to be mixed together in CS4, hopefully we will get unique victory lines there for each Class VII pairing. Come on Falcom; it's only five additional lines for each old Class VII character anyway, and only 9 for each new Class VII character.

FULL CS3 SPOILERS

Spoiler: 

Lughman was too overtly evil.

Professor Lughman was presented as too overtly evil. When you first meet him in the Crossbell Fishing Guild, that's good! He's an NPC who doesn't stand out too much, and his curious timing can become interesting in retrospect. Had he continued to appear in that manner as an NPC you may have overlooked up until chapter 4, the reveal could have been mind blowing. Alas, the very moment you meet him at Kenneth's fishing lodge, and the camera focuses on his eyes, and you hear his menacing voice, the game is up, and it becomes blatantly obvious he is going to be important, and that he is probably an antagonist.

Weissman worked because there was very little attention drawn to him. The camera did not zoom in on his sinister eyes; you saw his face in a small dialogue box and 99% of the time it was his gleeful, benign face. You only saw a hint of those sinister eyes during "blink and you'll miss it" lines that you probably clicked past. His presence at certain areas at certain times became interesting in retrospect. When he finally unveiled himself at the end of the game, it was mindblowing. That said, I suppose Falcom could be forgiven for trying not to pull the same trick twice, as after Weissman the fandom began scrutinizing every single NPC (hence, the "Dorothy is the Grandmaster" meme, or the "Nielsen and Andre are Anguis" theories).

CS3 isn't really trying to keep the identity of its characters a secret. The game constantly cuts away to the bad guys plotting and revealing their identities all the time, so I suppose they're trying to go for dramatic irony? Or maybe trying to make the player feel tension as they know that the protagonists are being hoodwinked by this seemingly benign professor? Or the game is trying to puzzle the player by contrasting the seemingly genuine Lughman with the evil Black Alberich persona? IDK. I feel like I'm getting mixed signals here, as if they were going the Weissman route at first, and then they just gave up half way through the game.

They did a fantastic job making you hate Osborne's faction, who are the main antagonists for the arc. It's fortunate that Zephyr and McBurn are still written as your cool frenemies. I was rather aggravated with the rest of Ouroboros, who fell into the "serious stakes but they powerup and beat you and then waltz off" trap. Also, powerlevel bullcrap, with the Stahlritter and Shirley inexplicably being able to stand up to you.

Each Trails game ranked:

Spoiler: 

CS2 (10/10) > CS1 (9/10) > 3rd (8/10) > CS3 > FC = Zero (7/10) > SC (6/10) > Ao (5/10)


Trails of Cold Steel II (10/10 Masterpiece)

• + Fantastic cast of likable and interesting characters. Cool frenemies are cool.

• + Great pacing, fun classic adventure story. Hype moments. Never a dull section.

• + Tight plotting, everything makes sense and fits together.

• + NPC hubs in the form of Ymir and the Courageous.

• + Great battle system

• + Great soundtrack

• + Has a proper ending

Trails of Cold Steel (9/10 Great)

• + Fantastic cast of likable and interesting characters

• + Good pacing, comfy slice of life story juxtaposed against social upheaval and political intrigue.

• + Tight plotting, everything makes sense and fits together.

• + NPC hubs in the form of Trista.

• + Very good battle system

• + Great soundtrack

• - Pacing slogs a little bit in the second half of the game, particularly chapters 5 and 6.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd (8/10 very good)

• + Overall good cast of likable characters

• + Retroactively provides a satisfying ending for Sky that was missing in SC.

• + Format of the game tells a wide variety of stories. Chances are there will be a few doors you will really like, even if not all of them land.

• + Great battle system

• + Good soundtrack

• +/- The main story starts off really interesting, then becomes dull in the middle, then picks up again towards the end. The ending is great.

Trails of Cold Steel III (7/10 Good)

• + Overall good cast of likable and interesting characters

• + NPC hubs in the form of Leeves and the Derflinger.

• + New locations to visit.

• + Great battle system

• + Very good soundtrack

• +/- Didn't get to revisit prior CS1+2 locations.

• +/- new Class VII is made up five characters, which makes it very important that each one stands up to scrutiny. Unfortunately, Ash and Musse are simply unlikable for most of the game, and since they get so much screen time, it really detracts from my enjoyment of the game. I didn't enjoy the main cast as much as I enjoyed CS1+2's or FC's. That said, Kurt, Juna, and Altina are good. Still better than the SSS by a country mile.

• - First two chapters really slog in the second half.

• - Too much gratuitous fan wanking. The narrative and the characters are twisted in unnatural ways to pander to the older games.

• - Wonky villain writing. Villains show up, antagonize everyone, fight, powerup and defeat everyone, and then waltz off, for... reasons. Same problem that SC and Ao faced. Villains interrupting Rean, feels like a cheap subversion.

• - Padded dialogue. There are scenes where upwards of a dozen characters are involved and every single character has to wait their turn, with everyone having to react to anything another character says. Lots of "as you know" exposition. Lots of "you have grown so much" or "it's been X months since we last saw each other" and irrelevant references to older games. (To be fair, this might actually be a result of the localization. XSEED edited out a lot of the fluff from the Trails games they localized, and I've heard from numerous people on the r/Falcom Discord that Falcom games are just like this. If NISA didn't edit this out, then this might actually be a representation of what the games truly are like. IDK). (Again, the extensive dialogue crap may be unfair to criticize, as these problems were present in all the other Trails games, the difference being that XSEED edited this crap out. NISA didn't with CS3. I guess I'm this a dig on both the localization and the original writing, then.)

• - Numerous retcons that make the game feel very inconsistent with prior games, even Trails of Cold Steel II.

Trails in the Sky: First Chapter (7/10 good)

• + Great cast of likable and interesting characters

• + Tight plotting, everything makes sense and fits together.

• + Good soundtrack

• + Has a proper ending

• - Battle system is very dull, battles are tedious on higher difficulties.

• - The first 30 hours of the game are huge, massive slog. Doesn't become interesting until late chapter 3.

Zero no Kiseki (7/10 good)

• + A few really hype moments like the bus attack, the escape scene, or the hold the line last stand.

• + Good soundtrack

• +/- Cast is okay.

• +/- Plot is okay. It wasn't a slog, but it was pretty forgettable.

• +/- Battle system is okay.

• +/- Having a consistent hub of NPCs for the player to call home in the form of Crossbell city is a great idea, but poor NPC placement and the sheer number of NPCs make it too exhausting to actually talk to everyone after every NPC update.

• - The Geofront mega dungeon and the final dungeon are huge slogs and want me to never walk through those places again.

• - Most forgettable villain in the series. The villain has absolutely nothing to do with the cast or the themes of the story. He just exists for the sake of having a villain.

• - Climax is hijacked from the protagonists of the arc by the protagonists of the previous game, even when their story had already been resolved in the 3rd.

Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (6/10 fine)

• + A few really hype moments, like the Ragnard arc and the final boss battles.

• + Good soundtrack

• +/- Okay cast of characters. The villains are awful.

• - Battle system is very dull, battles are tedious on higher difficulties.

• - The entire game is a huge, massive slog, except for chapter 5 and the final boss battle sequence.

• - You don't get to visit any new settlements, so the world feels rather stales.

• - Wonky villain writing. Villains show up, antagonize everyone, fight, powerup and defeat everyone, and then waltz off, for... reasons. When their motivations are finally unveiled, they look like morons.

• - The heroes finally defeat the bad guys (who are evil, heinous murderers), but rather than killing them or capturing them, the protagonists just leave them on the floor. Predictably, the villains wake up and then continue to kill more people in the next games. There is no accountability whatsoever. The characters even try to recruit two of the bad guys, despite them being heinous mass murderers.

• - Doesn't have a proper ending. You need to play 3rd to get closure to several storylines and characters that were left hanging.

Ao no Kiseki (5/10 average)

• + First half of the final chapter is amazing.

• + Proper execution of fan service, where characters from the prior games pop in for a few minutes to be AWESOME, without stealing the spotlight or the game devolving into gratuitous fan wanking.

• + Good soundtrack

• +/- Battle system is okay. Master quartz are a good idea, but the sepith count needed to use arts really holds back the customization.

• - Horrible cast of characters. The cast is actually okay for most of the game, but then you hit the end and everyone's IQ drop 50 points. I want everyone shot except Randy, Wazy, and Dudley.

• - The entire game is a huge, massive slog, except for the first half of the final chapter.

• - You don't get to visit any new settlements, so the world feels rather stales.

• - There are no stakes. Crossbell is sacked by jaegers, a pscyho shoots up a theater full of people, and a 30 foot tall demon tramples over houses. Afterwards, absolutely no one is shown or heard to have died. Not one. Even THE ONE DEATH we saw turned out to be a fakeout.

• - Absolutely horrendous writing after the confrontation on Orchis Tower halfway through the final chapter, and it only gets worse from them. I've gone to great lengths about this.

• - The heroes finally defeat the bad guys (who are evil, heinous murderers), but rather than killing them or capturing them, the protagonists just leave them on the floor. Predictably, the villains wake up and then continue to kill more people in the next games. There is no accountability whatsoever. The characters even cry when the mass murdering big bad declares she is leaving, rather than trying to kill or capture her.

• - Doesn't have a proper ending. Storyline and characters are left hanging, spilling over into the next arc, which plagues that arc as it has to divide it's limited resources and screentime to not only trying to tell its own story, but also trying to fix Crossbell's.

• - The ending straight up spoils the outcome of the Trails of Cold Steel arc, making fans feel as if the storyline isn't advancing as the Cold Steel games are simply catching up to an outcome we already knew years ago.

[Velshin]

Whaaat! SC only good sound tracks for you!? how dare you!!! Hamel sound track from SC makes up for every single song in the Sky series!!!!!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

More Black Records and Ouroboros motives speculation

Ao no Kiseki and Cold Steel III ending spoilers

Spoiler: 

I am confused as to the timeline of events.

Okay, so the general backstory of the Trails series goes as this: there once was an Ancient Zemurian Civilization, which wielded high technology in the form of artifacts. However, an event known as The Great Collapse brought about the end of said civilization. The Great Collapse is marked as year 0 of the Septian calendar. Following The Great Collapse were The Dark Ages, of which we know little.

Now, we find out in Trails in the Sky SC that the Liberl region was once host to a grand metropolis in the form of Liber Ark, which wielded high technology and was built around the Sept-Terion of Space, the Aureole. We know that the Liber Ark fell due to the people's vanity and ignorance, as they allowed the Aureole's power to destroy their lifestyles (by satisfying them so much that people became so lethargic that the just allowed themselves to die of thirst and starvation, too satisfied to even bother trying to eat or drink).

Here, in Cold Steel III, we find out that Erebonia was once host to two clans which were centered around their Sept-Terions, and that their conflict and the formation of The Great Power occurred about 1,200 years ago.

So we have two (three, if you count the two ancient Erebonian clans as different civilizations) ancient Zemurian civilizations that apparently "collapsed" about 1,200 years ago. This makes it seem like there wasn't as singular Ancient Zemurian Civilization as usually described, but instead that the civilizations that were built around the Sept-Terrions all seemed to collapse around this time, and for the same reason: their Sept-Terrions were reacting to the will of the people and began destroying the people. Given that the civilizations wouldn't have emerged around the Sept-Terrions if they were destructive to the people, it seems like there was a long time when the Sept-Terrions weren't reacting to the will of the people and causing destruction.

So the Great Collapse began when all of the Sept-Terrions began reacting to the will of the people, and consequently causing the destruction of the people.

So the question is: what caused the Sept-Terions to go haywire?


Another observation:

We do know that the Septian Church was established very early. We know that the Grancel Cathedral was completed in year 82 (even though the Church wasn't officially founded until around year 500?). That means there is about an 80 year gap between when the Ancient Zemurian Civilization fell and when the Septian Church began to become a dominant force in people's lives.

Now, here in CS3, the first CS3 Black Record says that the Septian Church was already a powerful organization by year 81.

We are eight games into this saga and so far I haven't found any indication that the Septian Church existed prior to The Great Collapse. At least, if they were as powerful as there were in year 81, they would've had a notable presence in the histories describing the Ancient Zemurian Civilizations and their collapse.l

So the Septian Church somehow went from a non-presence to a world power within 80 years or less.

Combined with the fact that they wield pre-collapse powers (the Merkabahs are artifacts, and the Church's Thaumatology is apparently a remnant of ACTUAL MAGIC. Apparently, before the collapse, people could straight up wield magic, but lost the ability to do so after the collapse. Orbal Arts are based off of Church Thaumtology). Combined with the name, Septian (as in Sept-Terrion), it seems like the Septian Church is actually a Pre-Collapse organization, or was founded by powerful Pre-Collapse people to guide the normal and ignorant humanity.

I had previously theorized that Ouroboros was an off branch of the Septian Church. In the ending of SC and in Star Door 14, it seems like Ouroboros and the Gralsritter considered each other to be their archenemies, as the Anguis talked most about the Gralsritter and how they got a jump on them. The Gralsritter is a tightly kept secret, and yet Ouroboros was very interested when they found out one of their seats were filled. Furthermore, only the Church and the Gralsritter seem to be very knowledgeable about the Sept-Terrions. I had suspected that Ouroboros was an off-branch from the Church, led by a Grandmaster who was unsatisfied with the slow rate at which the Church guided humanity, and thus had spun off and instigated violent action to hurry up the process.

However, as we learned from Sharon, it seems like Ouroboros is barely a decade old.

So the question becomes: why did the Grandmaster found Ouroboros now? Why did she show up now of all times to start building this organization and it's infrastructure and start embarking on all of these heists? This does not feel like a carefully orchestrated plan, but a hastily thrown together emergency action. What is the emergency? Why is Ouroboros being so hasty?

I can't think of a satisfying answer. In Ao no Kiseki, Mariabell had in her possession an artificial Sept-Terrion which could straight up alter time. Ouroboros wasn't interested in the Sept-Terrion of Zero's time altering powers at all; they were only interested in 1. using that Sept-Terrion to power their aions, and 2. recruiting Mariabell for her ability to craft artificial Sept-Terrions. When everything falls apart at the end of Ao, Mariabell just shrugs and waltzes off. To me, this indicates that Ouroboros must have even grander plans than altering the timeline.

During the finale of CS2, Vita says that Ouroboros intends to "save the souls of all". Sounds like they're fine with killing people if it means everyone will be back in some way later. Sounds like rewriting history to save people won't be necessary because the GM's plan involves resurrecting everyone anyway, or some sort of Human Instrumentality Project.

So about 10 years ago, the Grandmaster found out something that is going to kill everyone/end all existance/etc, and has hastily thrown together an international terrorist organization that is brute forcing everything in an attempt to prepare for this oncoming threat as quickly as possible.

There are numerous issues with this. If the world is facing an impeding existential threat, it would be far easier to TALK to the major players - the Church, the Epstein Foundation, the Bracer Guild, world leaders, etc - and get their help and organize a concerted effort to stop this threat, rather than trying to clandestinely build up a new infrastructure from scratch (the 13 Factories is still bullcrap btw) and antagonizing every single world player into opposing them. Folks, if the world is ending, you don't go around wrecking havoc, and then shrug when you are questioned by the cops/bracers/army as to your motives. You explain to them what's going on in the hopes that they might help.

Anyways, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what Ouroboros is trying to prepare for, much less how. They don't seem interested in collecting all 7 Sept-Terrions. The Sept-Terrion of Mirage, the Demiurgos, is long gone, and they didn't give a crap when the Sept-Terrion of Zero was lost either. They seem to be trying to obtain a Sept-Terrion in Erebonia, but they don't seem interested in taking the Sept-Terrion of Steel, as they are going along with Osborne's plan to apparently lift the curse (presumably by reforming the seven DKs into the Sept-Terrion of Steel, and then either destroying the Steel or splitting it back into Fire and Earth). The question then becomes: do they want Fire, or Earth, or both?

I also find it interesting that the Sept-Terrions have different forms. The Sept-Terrion of Mirage - the Demiurgos - took the form of a woman. The Sept-Terrions of Fire and Earth took the form of titans. We aren't given any information of what form the Aureole looked like back in the day. In SC, we only see it as an amorphous blob of energy hovering in the air (like the Great Power is depicted in that one CS3 flashback?).

Then again, Kondo did say "I don’t think their aim is to gather all Sept-Terrion", so IDK. They have the Aureole, which has dominion over space. Maybe they're going after the Sept-Terion of fire, because it's power? Earth doesn't seem like it'd be conducive to powering up something, more like building and fortification.

[NightZero88]

Just finished CS3 and dang, that ending was nuts. I need CS4 right meow!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Just finished CS3 and dang, that ending was nuts. I need CS4 right meow!

Favorite characters? Favorite moments and chapters? Reveals? Characters you didn't like? Theories going forward?

[NightZero88]

Favorite characters? Favorite moments and chapters? Reveals? Characters you didn't like? Theories going forward?

Well that's deep, haha. I don't know about all that, I generally liked everything about the game. It's similar to movies and books for me, I don't really dislike anything or get into what is or isn't bad writing, etc. I enjoyed Musse's character quite a bit and her reveal was interesting. No idea what will happen moving forward.

Endish spoilers Very curious who "she" was when they launched the Pentagral (was it Musse, the grandmother?). I want to know more about Ash as well, hopefully the explanation we got wasn't everything.

In so far as the game, I did like that I could do all the romance options in my first play through. I wish however that there were more romance options available besides Laura, Emma, Alisa. It was also nice that you could do them all without anything extra and very easily. Very sad that part 4 isn't until 2021.