to be completely honest i don't think ive finished processing the ending properly still because wow! that was a lot to take in. im suprised i haven't started cs4 yet to continue off from that downer of a cliffhanger ending but im narrowly avoiding burnout rn. once again i was updating a note with my thoughts for the sole purpose of getting a review done so here it is i guess. side note but 120 hours in less than a week and a half (while juggling school and sleep. wow) is concerning behavior. but at no point in the game's runtime did it feel like it was being dragged out for too long- rather i think that was the ideal length and that enough time was given for everything. the final dungeon being refreshingly short and the "complete all [x]" trophies being staggered between shit not going and going down helped quite a bit.... chapter 2 and 3 were a bit too long though and i think that the sidequests at the climaxes of those were unnecessary padding and that going into the geofront in order to locate the aion was absolutely pointless and is the one point over the course of the game where i was actually bored. even then going back to crossbell and seeing it in full hd was really nice (i still wish they had reused more music from zero/ ao)... in fact this game definitely felt better having played the crossbell duology just because of how much the plot hinges on knowlege of it. the situation final dungeon puts the party in is even a direct parallel to the final dungeon of zero! i like getting references.

on the topic of field exercises (and story as a whole), i thought they were an improvement over cs1. aurelia's drive to one- up the main campus actually gave them a solid reason for existing, and getting to visit 2 cities in 1 go was nice as well. urban design is definitely falcom's graphics forte by the way... even if the highway areas looked passable at their best, the towns and cities consistently looked great. just like in cs1 and 2 there was a good range as well. my favourites were probably parm, ordis and raquel and getting to see places that group b went to in cs1 instead of revisiting the group a locations to save time designing them really made erebonia feel as big as it canonically is. the story outside of that was fine- it proceeded smoothly where it did, being in closer proximity to the bad guys meant that humanoid chapter bosses were a standard (and those ones are always better because of music/ difficulty). my favourites were arianrhod in chapter 3 and siegfried in chapter 4, they felt like cs1's hype cycle was back in full swing.... and getting to hear blue destination and unfathomed force again was just so. soooo good. story definitely had some dumb parts though... wheres the sense in letting an entire school go to the remains of hamel even though its been classified government secrets for years. i don't really have much more to say on the story that won't be covered elsewhere though because like cs1, it was a setup game.

character- wise, cs3 improved on 1 and 2 in so many ways just by going back to a small party.... not only was character bloat so much less of a thing throughout because i only needed to manage arcuses and equipment for a maximum of 6 characters, there was much better focus on all of them because there weren't people with minimum plot relevance consuming screen time. new class vii were a really lovable group! the original trio getting really close before ash and musse joined was really good to see because this time it felt like they were actually friends outside of rean... i liked them a whole lot, even if musse's hot for teacher bit got really uncomfortable at times and juna was a blatant retcon. kurt was a good character to be under rean's direct mentorship, ash being an asshole in a world of nice people was refreshing, altina's festival bonding event was one of my favorites in the entire series. i enjoyed single dad rean and his 5 children. on the topic of him by the way i think rean was at his best in cs3.... grief is actually affecting him and that makes the player feel bad, even if they felt nothing for crow's actual death. i could do a real deep dive into his mental state and character arc but we'd be here all day. i hope he goes to therapy at some point or something. outside of the core 6 i think the choice of returning characters (towa, randy, tita, aurelia) made for a really strong lineup (even if once again, the tita/agate stuff being pushed made for some really uncomfortable scenes! what the fuck falcom!), the class vii reunion was a really good moment, and all the npcs getting their own marked quests (great qol btw) made me want to talk to them as much as possible because that way i was able to get to know them. leonora best girl.

as for gameplay... i dont know what to say other than it's kiseki. battle system was as good as ever- mapping commands to buttons like a certain other jrpg really sped things up. orders were a nice addition though i didnt like them replacing party buff crafts... they very much trivialise the game (so does musse btw build 0 delay) as the only times i struggled on hard was when i wasnt using them. break gauge and sub master quartzes allowed for even more build diversity, which is always a good thing. all quests marked on the map was the best qol change and the fishing minigame was a lot of fun, even if it was easy once you get used to it. the horses and bikes were also welcome additions. the ost definitely took some time to grow on me but i think it ended up being pretty strong... brave steel is up there with get over the barrier as a contender for best battle theme, step ahead and spiral of erebos are other tracks that people seem to like and for good reason. sword of biting gale isnt as bad as people say and neither is beyond the journey. certain songs like stillness of night radiate comfort (realised i havent talked about leeves. leeves is a perfect home base)... and all the returning battle themes ive talked about but theyre some of my favorite falcom tracks ever so that speaks for itself.

overall a really solid trails game and a great video game. cold steel 3 is what cold steel 1 wanted to be and i love that! heres some more misc stuff that i didnt get the chance to include earlier;
- sepith grind is far worse than in the other games early on... quartzes are sooo much more expensive
- rean if you mention "him...." (wistfully) again i am going to stab you. i cant believe the 50 mira melties are real actual things that exist. what the fuck is wrong with you.
- tita shouldve been a permanent member of nu-vii
-the end of chapter 4 is literally everything i wanted for cs1's school festival
- i liked that the gral was corridors because the dark dragon's nest took me a long time

crow ;_;
so that epilogue was great actually for me to give me time to gather my thoughts because if i had written this review at the time of watching the first set of credits then i would not have had my shit together. not at all

that was. an experience! i have a very very long and wordy note that ive been updating with the good and bad stuff as i played because oh boy did i have a lot to say about both over the course of the game. some of the high points and low points were consistent with 1 but not all. the combat was still enjoyable and hasnt gotten stale yet.. the delay system is really fun to work around and the expanded list of master quartzes meant that build options were great to play around with. cant really complain about slot upgrades since it seems to be a series staple having played one of the older ones. free access to spirit unification and valimar AND overdrive felt like a bit much, so i went the majority of the game not using them, but i appreciate the gameplay/ story integration of the first 2 and the options provided by overdrive. the other thing that id compare to 1 is the soundtrack and i definitely think the majority of the new tracks were a lot weaker. blue destination goes hard but the use of it seemed cheaper as it was used more than necessary (should have been v crow and v testarossa w/ ordine only, very disappointed to see it and not inevitable struggle for the v rean and altina in the divertissement :( crossbell innit), and my second favorite track was probably transcend beat, the trial shrine bgm or the new highway theme.

re: characters, it was nice to see rean's arc getting somewhat resolved with him getting over himself (heard this is reversed in 3, not holding my breath), some of the others had good moments (jusis and his father was good stuff) in the story, some of the other others had great bonding events (machias celdic, millium, laura roer, jusis again, etc), some of the OTHER other others were just... there. the sheer size of the reverie corridor party is character bloat if ive ever seen it, worst offenders being gaius and elliot who had so little impact on the plot that i wholeheartedly believe you could cut them from cold steel 2 and nobody would notice. however the new characters were excellent. so great. 10/10 i like duvalie and altina and mcburn a normal amount (lie).. actually all of the villains were great this time round, the pantagruel intermission was a high point of the story and kind of forced me forward through the sluggish pacing of the first half(?) of the game because my god was it really in need of a hype moment. just one. the high points of most of the game were fairly medium, which i dont think worked as well coming out of 1 seeing as that one had a lot more and the cs formula works best with them (especially as this time youre at war wtf guys), but the ones towards the end? chef kiss. the victor v mcburn fight was awesome capital a and the vermillion apocalypse? so cool. AND THEN THE END with crow dying and the osborne reveal. rent free in my brain. i feel so bad for rean.

another thing that was cool was the courageous. complaints about pacing aside there is nothing in a jrpg like the feeling of the world map opening out to you and oh boy did erebonia feel open. all highways connected up- you could get from one place to another in tons of ways, and travelling from town to town after being taken around them by the plot in 1 felt very refreshing. the horses and orbal bike were neat additions too! i liked flying around and helping people and building the crew up with thors students you collected. though on the topic of field studies in 1, i vastly preferred having set teams there because it meant that party building was a puzzle to solve, not just a "be tempted to pick your favs no matter how unbalanced" type of thing (especially with up to 3 locked characters at some points).

that's pretty much everything from the note i can link together into a cohesive review, some other points i couldn't really fit in go here i guess;
-left some interesting things open ended (more knights, zephyr guy, black records, rufus and xbell etc)
-backwards difficulty curve
-certain parts didnt generate as much intrigue because the plot witch was there to explain stuff
-infernal castle was boring and way too long
-shitty romance integration
-is it just me or does it feel like something MAJOR was changed about rean (or the protag at least) in development. hmm
-lloydo

90 hours of setup. i can already tell that these aren't going to be good standalone games at all, but it was pretty enjoyable, all things considered. from a critical standpoint i'd put it around 3 or 3.5 on the out of 5 scale? but taking time to consider the soundtrack and the absolute blast ive had i bumps it up to a 4. the combat is some of the most fun ive had with a turn based rpg in AGES. spent quite a long time getting used to how debuffs, certain crafts, etc worked but the payoff was great! i'd like to experiment with builds a bit more i think. story + gameplay loop were whatever. do a day of sidequests, talk to some npcs, do 2 days of sidequests with lots of cutscenes in between. the worldbuilding that happened around that was great though, and left me very intrigued. i feel that the setting got a lot more development than some characters, but as it's 1/4 cold steel games i'm willing to let that slide. though a major nitpick i have is that the end dragged on for way too long and it couldve easily been finished with everything that happened in the game's last couple of hours ALL happening on the night of the festival afterparty, but i guess crow instead of C being set up as an actual threat had to happen somehow.

overall, a pretty solid game. i'd recommend if youre willing to at least play the sequel (ive heard that the first two are fairly contained) and reeeeeally like jrpgs