Originally Posted by
Val the Moofia Boss
I'm currently 26 hours in, finished chapter 1 last night. I've been writing notes as I go long, will probably publish them once I finish the game.
I have... mixed opinions. It's right now suffering from Trails part 2 syndrome, ie where the first part of a Trails arc is usually consistently good all the way through (FC, Zero, CS1+2), but then you reach part and the quality is all over the place, with high highs and low lows (SC, Ao, and right now CS3).
I've elaborated more in my notes, but I feel like the dialogue is heavily padded in CS3. There is a lot of regurgitation of information that was already established a few hours earlier. The writers are throwing out fanservice references to characters and events to prior games that have no relevance to the situation at hand, whilst inexplicably failing to recall the characters and events from prior games that are actually relevant (and important!) to the immediate situation. There is also a lot of badly written "as you know" dialogue. Ouroboros is also dominating the story again, which sucks given how terrible that organization that continues to haunt this franchise (the great thing about the part 1's of Trails arcs is that Ouroboros is either sidelined. such as in FC and Zero, or the writers realized how absolutely stupid the whole idea of Ouroboros was and decided to make them as entertainingly hammy as possible, such as in CS2). Powerlevel bullshit is worse than ever before. The end result is that CS3 feels very sluggish. I feel like more happened in the first 25 hours of FC, Zero, CS1, and CS2 than in the first 25 hours of CS3. I think CS1 had a far stronger first 25 hours than CS3.
The music changes also baffle me. CS1+2 had an amazing soundtrack, one of the best Falcom ever produced. So many iconic character themes that resonate with people. And yet... CS3 ditches pretty much all of those songs for a new OST. I've only heard two CS1 songs thus far and none from CS2. Why? Falcom had no problem reusing FC and Zero songs for SC and Ao. It's more infuriating when previously iconic songs, like CS2's Awakening or Law of the Battlefield, were ditched for far less memorable songs (such as Lift Off and Imbroglio).
Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the game. The new character models and the lighting looks absolutely fantastic. I love the new battle theme, Brave Steel, and the new victory theme. They are now tied with CS1 and FC as my favorite battle and victory themes respectively. Being able to visit every student's dorm room is nice. I also like how we get to visit two towns every chapter instead of just the one (though CS3 only has four chapters instead of CS1's 6, and many of CS3's locations are places that we had already visited in previous games). The lack of Overdrive aside, CS3 has a great battle system.