Is Trails of Cold Steel III Worth the Hype? - The Game Collection!
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- In this comprehensive review, we journey back to Erebonia to uncover the 3rd layer of this beloved series. From the intricacies of its narrative and character arcs to the revamped combat mechanics and mini-games, we leave no stone unturned. Is "Trails of Cold Steel 3" truly the masterpiece fans claim it to be? Or are there hidden challenges that mar its shine? Join SuperDerek as we break down the highs, lows, and the unexpected twists of this RPG gem.
#trailsofcoldsteel #jrpg #trailsofcoldsteel3 - Hry
Cold steel 1 got me hooked
Cold steel 2 got me crying
Cold steel 3 got me eager after the cliff hanger
Cold steel 4 left me with the most satisfied feeling I’ve ever had after finishing a game.
All them games slap
Reverie was a great way to close up all the loose plots and leave the way open for calvard
I didnt enjoy CS4 at all. That is until I played Reverie. Thats when I understood the Nuances of CS4 Characters That I totally missed before. I simply love Reverie
@@pianissimo7121 i thought reverie was pretty pointless besides just showing crossbell finally getting independence.
The gameplay is always great but the way how they split up the stories made it bad for me. Every time the story starts to get good and you want to keep playing it’s like no fuck you, you can’t do this yet go play another story and it ruins the pacing. I absolutely hated that. I did like the reverie corridor but after so long it got repetitive but that’s probably my own fault cuz I grinded out every costume you could get by using not a glitch but probably an oversight on how they are obtained lol. Did that for days straight lmao
The game cleared up a bunch of leftover things but i thought it was the worst game out of everything so far that I had played.
@@vOrbZv edit:
I think I need to point out that i rushed through CS4 like anything. I don't even remember the story properly. So i think that adds to why i liked reverie.
(I did get 100% quest competition in CS4, but even then I was speed reading and skipping all fight in normal mode)
we have opposite issues. I hated the reverie corridor, I liked the minigames and daydreams but the corridor itself was annoying to me.
About the stories shifting action. That's tough to argue about.
The pacing did crumble when u get locked out of the route but it always blasted through when reaching the climax as we had climax for multiple groups at once.
The reason I liked it more was because of no quests. I got burnt out from CS4. I am kind of a completionist, so getting into reverie was scary but the story was short and crisp which is why I liked it.
Especially loved C route and his team's stories.
It being a fanfare for Crossbell is true. There was nothing much about Erobonia at all.
@@pianissimo7121 lol my one and only play through of cs4 was 247 hours and I streamed the whole thing in my channel so that may be another reason I thought it was fun cuz I interacted with ppl while playing it lol. I streamed reverie on my channel too but I am still trying to push myself to finish the final boss of floor 0 cuz I had been too busy to play recently but also too bored with it to try harder to play it but I’m literally at the final boss and did every other thing in the game.
I probably should’ve said I like the idea of the corridor rather than the corridor itself because I did say that it got boring after a while but it was also half the reason you were locked out of certain things in the story and that was lame.
The part you said about the quests I guess were like polar opposites besides being completionists because I loved doing all those different quests and I wanted more but reverie had none so I thought I was forced to continue a story that I didn’t like and had nothing on the side to help flesh it out. I don’t count daydreams either because half of them have no major relevance to the plot and the ones that do should’ve just been implemented into the normal story in the first place
Did you see Altina's final bonding event? It's my favorite example of character growth ever. I love seeing how her relationship with Rean has grown since CS2. It's also the only time I've ever let out an audible "aww 🥰"
It's close to midnight Pacific time, as I finish watching this video, and I have work tomorrow morning, but I couldn't not watch SuperDerek review Trails of Cold Steel 3, like the video and leave a comment, before going to bed. Cold Steel 3 is a fantastic game, and is a perfect set-up for the JRPG version of Avengers Endgame that is Cold Steel 4.
Every time I hear Osborne's last line in the game "now Rean, let us begin. Together, we shall write the end to this wretched fairy tale, in ink, black as despair." I just get chills.
I didn't realize I accidentally scheduled a midnight release. 😳
Loved this game, but I remember the wait for Cold Steel IV being tough. That cliffhanger ending had me tempted to import, but I held off. You're only a few games behind now and probably have a shot of catching up sometime around the NA release of Trails Through Daybreak. You'll have some good times ahead going through Cold Steel IV and Reverie.
thankfully i didn't play cold steel until all 4 were already released, so i just played them all back to back. reverie was the only one i had to wait for, and after playing through all the cold steel games that was the most excited i've ever been for a game.
I'm speechless with Cold Steel 3. I finished it last night and must say this is the best entertainment experience I've had in my entire live, from a narrative and its execution perspective. This game is a masterpiece and I'll definetlt buy the PS5 update when it's released because there's so much going on at the same time during the ending, that inevitably there are some small loading times with every scene jump, so it would be great to experience this ending without any loading time.
Once I ended Cold Steel 3 I felt the need to start Cold Steel 4 inmediately in order to see what came next, and I managed to play the entire prologue of it and what I saw is amazing... I mean, WOOOOW... the masterminds at Nihon Falcom are genious!
Every person that enjoys reading a great story, discover new complex fantasy worlds and get to know and care for great characters, must play this games... they're the best there is in the entire enrertainmet industry (books, movies, series, etc)... but in order to better understand and enjoy Cold Steel 3 and 4, it's necesary to play the prevous 2 archs of the franchise (Liberl and Crossbell)... but don't worry about it, because even if those games are RPG classics, they're still amazing masterpieces that will surprise you... for instance, up until last night, Trails In the Sky SC was my favorite game of all time, and that's the second game of the entire franchise, surpassing games such as The Witcher 3 GOTY edition (which I love), Persona 5 Royal, etc... I can't imagine what Trails in The Sky SC would be like with a Remake of the level of Cold Steel 3&4, while preserving its escense intact (I have to say this because of what SQUARE did with its bastard child named FFVII Remake, which is disgraceful).
Cold Steel 3 is a freaking masterpiece! And yiu shoukd play it with the voices in Japanese to experience the origibal concept of its ceeators because the english dubbing is missed completely the spirit of the characters and delivers something different from tve original idea.
Thabk you, Nihon Falcom.
Cold Steel III was such an incredible ride for me. I hadn't played the Crossbell duology at the time of playing it yet, unfortunately, so I didn't get the full impact that I would have gotten had I played them prior, but my experience with the Sky trilogy was absolutely paid off with some of the characters in CSIII and it made me very happy. And that cliffhanger ending, man. Such an insane ending. I love it so much.
I haven’t played any of the Trails games yet but your reviews and mentions of this series always gets me excited to try them out.
what are you waiting for!!!!!!
they now have the 2 crossbell games on modern consoles, so if you want a better understanding of the story and characters you should at least play those 2 before cold steel.
and i just saw an article recently talking about how trails games have been sold better than expected in north america, so there may be a good chance we get the sky trilogy in the near future. i hope so, because i never got to play sky 3 yet. i played 1 and 2 on my phone with a psp emulator and ps4 controller, but 3 is the only one that has no english translation on psp.
anyhow, they're amazing games. very slow paced and not for everyone, but because of that slower pace the story and characters have more depth and get you more immersed than any other rpgs. it still amazes me that they crammed so much detail into these games. every time the main story advances every single npc in the game has new lines of dialogue, and most of them reappear in every game, so even many npcs have a lot of depth to them.
Cold Steel 4 is actually the 'longest' you could play with minimal effort, there's a lot more arcs and if you wanna get the true ending, you gotta put a bit more work in it.
It also throws you in for a loop because you are so used to Rean and his brave order and movesets for so long, they take it away from you for a little less than half of the game in CS4 lol.
The nice thing about CS4, is if you are gonna 100% it, you will have a tooooon of characters to customize and max out, as most characters from previous titles even from the Sky trilogy makes a return.
And Trails to Reverie takes that and cranks it to 11, so you'll likely burn out from having to mentally juggle so many character builds to adapt to the battles.
Something about your videos keep me coming back, even if im not into all the games you show case.
These games are no joke. 3 and 4 took me over 200hrs for each game and I am currently working on the 5th game. I was gonna take a break from this series but as I was taking my break, all I would think about was how the next game would be and how could there even be a 5th game.
It really is hard to put these games in the back of your mind once you started the long journey of playing though most of the games.
Seeing you said "5th". It's mean that you haven't play Crossbell duology right?
Crossbell duology is essential part of the 5th game since half of the story is involving Crossbell. Totally recommend to play it first before playing said 5th game
@@witwong oh no, I have. I'm currently playing reverie.
Cold steel is just the label of the ark in the trails series. Reverie is actually the 10th game.
I'm completely with you here. While Cold Steel 1 works okay as an entry point, Cold Steel 3 is best enjoyed after having played all of the previous Trails games due to bringing back characters from the Liberl and Crossbell arcs as well as most of the characters from CS1 and 2.
Wow.. was just finishing up the Trails of Cold steel 2 review when this popped, talk about timing
And oh yes... the ending of Cold Steel 3.....the most painful cliffhanger i have ever seen in gaming
"Writing an end to this 'wretched fairy tale', in ink, black as despair"
thankfully when i played the cold steel games 1 through 4 were already out, so after that cliffhanger i just went straight into 4. the only game i had to wait for was reverie.
Thanks for the great video. I loved the Cold Steel series. Looking forward to your review of part IV.
Great review as always!
I loved Vantage master card game, it felt cool.
I agree that Cold Steel 3 started off with quite the gut punch seeing what Rean had been doing.
This was a pleasant surprise to wake up to. Great review.
Thanks Seth! :D
I too, was surprised to see this out when I woke up. xD
I played thru Cold Steel 1 and 2, but stopped to play Trails in the sky 1 and 2. I'll move on to Zero and Azure before finishing up Cold Steel 3 and 4
Not a bad choice! You'll be glad you've got some Crossbell Experience by the time you play CS3
Probably don't skip Sky the 3rd. The best part about people who tell you that you can or should skip Sky the 3rd is that you don't have to listen to their opinions ever again.
@@youtubesucksbutts Ill try and download the patched version of Sky 3rd on my OG ps vita but I'm not to savvy with that type of stuff. I wish I knew how to mod a vita, I tried a while ago but it was just to much for me to comprehend.
After only finding these games in 2021 I've 100% entire catalogue except for trails to Azure, that dam dancing practice!!!!!!!!
thanks for the great review. it makes me a lot of hunger for the game :)
Hey Derek just wanted to let you know you're looking really good lately big ups! I've been watching you since the Earthbound review keep it up man!
Thanks Mooks! Appreciate it! :)
that ending gets me every time
Easily my favorite entry in the cold steel saga for good reason
Finished 1-4, crossbell, and now on the second Sky game 😊
This is probably my favourite of the Cold Steel series, although 2 is a close second. Dean's maturation and relationship with students, especially Ash and Altina was fantastic
Taking my time like fine tea when it comes to III.
I have Been waiting for this
I missed you Derek.
As you did with the reviews of Zero and Azure, with cold steel 4, wear the dark/gray coat (Rean's). That would be awesome.
Asking for using red contact lenses is too much? 😜
Trails of Cold Steel is a great series!
what a cool set! btw coldsteel3 is still in my backlog. ill play it after i finish persona5R maybe. im midway to finishing coldsteel4, should i stop and backtrack and finish 3 first? its coz i got 4 first
I probably would, but I haven't started Cod Steel 4 yet :)
Trading card game in here is actually great, so great in fact, that I was eager to find a similar type of game. The game happen to be a RPG called Shadowverse on the Switch. Try it out, if you liked the one from Cold Steel 3.
I've held out for this long on the Trails series and you're making it extremely difficult!!!
So excited for this legendary review! And 1st comment 😁💯
Just wait till you get to Reverie. Might be the best RPG I’ve ever played in my life. That being said you must play all the games that lead up to it or at the very least starting with Zero to CS4. I honestly didn’t think they could top CS4 but….they did. CS4 was very good but Reverie is godlike.
Aw man that's awesome to hear! So far I've played and reviewed each of the mainline Trails titles (haven't finished Nayuta yet) up through Cold Steel III, and I can't wait to embark on IV! :D
The fishing minigame actually _is winnable_ with no upgrades, you just have to quickly tap the a button instead of let go when the fish gets feisty. (So the meter doesn't gain momentum in either direction) It does take some experimenting to discover but I still discovered it real quickly without outside help.
It may have been the added latency from my capture card setup at the time, but I was definitely attempting to employing this strategy at the beginning of the game, and it was _rough_. Once I bought a different rod though it was legit night and day, and I never had trouble catching a single fish after that point. :)
Yeah it's pretty precise when the catch is barely winnable.(Or at least precise enough that latency would make it difficult) You have to go back and forth with the fish 2-4 times. And the rod upgrades make such a big difference it's wild! @@SuperDerek
Forgot to comment last night but man I really liked CS3 back then. Granted, at the time I still didn't *love* the school sections (something I warmed up to ln my recent replay lf CS1 so same might happen here.)
This game has probably my favorite plot of the entire CS series, and what you said about Rean was pretty spot on. Man went through a lot and you definitely can see him sliding back from his growth in CS2. Man needs a hug.
Overall my biggest issue with Cold Steel 3 is that the new combat mechanics might be a little too unbalanced? There's like 2-3 dominant strategies that aren't really hard to figure out lol.
Reverie can be similarly broken but I feel it does that better lol.
Anyways great video! Interested in what you think of CS4 :)
Tldr yes
The Trails series gives me life.
Best game of the arc
Did anyone else like the mech battles to I miss them it’s a bit weird to play some of the later games without them for me?
They were fine, but it's clearly not because of them that I really like Cold Steel 1-4. 😁
Not really. I'm kind of glad they are gone. They didnt really add that much to the gameplay. And on the harder difficulties, they were a nightmare to get through.
@@princeroan that’s the point of higher difficulties. If anything I wish it were harder
@@vOrbZv you are crazy lol. That's cool though. I wish I could take that kind of punishment in games but I cant. If I'm not having fun with the so called "challenge" I'm good. Kudos to you and anyone else that can handle these games in nightmare.
@@princeroan yeah I beat both cold steel 3/4 with no armor or weapon upgrades and items on nightmare too but those games were mad easy compared to part 1 and 2. Reverie was a bigger challenge on nightmare but still not as hard as the first 2
My favorite part was when they revealed Towa's grandfather to be an astronomer. I immediately jumped off my chair and shouted "that's my boy NAYUTA!"
When was this? I don't wanna miss pointing it out for a streamer I watch who might not make the connection on his own, and has played Nayuta before this game!
Towa has a weapon in Trails of Reverie ( I can't remember if it's her ultimate weapon or not) but it's called " Boundless Trails " .. if that was not a confirmation I don't know what is then
Yes
i am tripping or is this a re-upload i swear I've seen the thumbnail before on his videos
I let people know this review was around the corner about a week ago with this thumbnail. And channel supporters got early access about a week ago. :)
Great review! I started playing the Trails series back in February, and, after playing 8 games nearly back-to-back (starting from Sky FC), I finally started Cold Steel 4 a few weeks ago. While I had to dive in immediately after finishing CS3 (that cliffhanger....), I've finally slowed down a bit. I adore the new Class VII, and, while I do like the original Class VII quite a bit as well, I'm starting to get a bit fatigued by the sheer number of characters they're having reintroduce in every single game.
But that could also just be an effect of playing through the first 8 games in such quick succession. 😅
Overall though, I love the series, and at least of the first 3 Cold Steel games, CS3 was definitely my favorite! (though I think Azure and Sky the 3rd manage to just beat it out in my overall rankings) Really curious to see where CS4 goes from here!
I bet if I had a milium and one guesses I could figure out the character you had previously written off that the game made you care about
🙂🙂✨️🎆🎇
I'd say this game is the best of the CS series. It's CSI but with a better class dynamic and pacing. At the cost of making the class ridiculously small. But it's worth it. Playing the first two games is a must though (and probably the two Crossbell games for full context) and that's it's biggest negative. Fortunately they're good too so no big deal. Also probably start at least Hard once you get used to the break mechanic because unlike its sequels it is kinda broken. Oh and spend time with Vantage Masters there's a major plot point that involves it (though you can skip it, it's more personally rewarding to beat a certain Vantage game).
CS3 was my least favorite game in the series, hardly any of it has to do with story though, mostly gameplay and UI stuff. Still, one of my favorites none the less and still prefer CS3 over most games that I play or have played, at least in modern times.
I will say that CS3 undoubtedly hits the highest of the highs when it comes to the series, the last third of the game is seriously some shit I've hardly experienced in video games, if ever. I was an emotional wreck by the end of CS3 there's so much I didn't see coming it almost made my head spin. The shock value was through the roof, and nothing prepared me for that. Again, least favorite of the entire series, but a damn near perfect game, and for whatever it's worth, it's worth starting Cold Steel just to experience CS3.
Note to anyone looking into the series, for anyone who didn't get the memo, you need to play these games in order if you want to feel the true impact of CS3. If you go straight to CS3 and beat it, it won't be the same, context of previous games matter and alot. If you want full impact, Play all or as many previous titles as you can then boot up CS3. It's worth every second
is there spoilers in this video? I hope not.
This is really going to depend on your definition of spoilers. Some people have gotten mad at me before for spoiling music. But generally most people regard my reviews as spoiler free.
Trails Of Cold Steel voice acting was good until pandemic happened and it affects on the next game CS4.
Some of the VA didn't return, and the voice acting were "meh".
Hopefully they can redeem again in Trails Through Daybreak.
This game was a little lackluster for me. Mostly down to the characters, really. I just didn't vibe with the new class 7. Altina was the only one I liked, and even that was mostly down to knowing her from the previous games and wondering how she would pan out as a party member.
The gameplay is still great, and I still love playing it on nightmare difficulty (it's very doable, by the way). But I spent most of my time just waiting for Rean to hang out with the old crew again.
Of course it didn't help that I played the first two games on their original PS3 release, so a lot of time had passed for me by the time 3&4 came out. So I kinda fell off the wagon with this game and haven't gotten to 4 yet. At this point I just need to start the whole series over again. Especially now that the older games finally released on platforms I own.
Considering you love playing on nightmare, I'd suggest playing the Cold Steel series on PC (if your PC is capable). Softbrilliant's difficulty mods really make the most of the battle system. It's a lot harder, but in ways that actually make it feel lore accurate. He didn't just make turn the enemies into HP sponges either. You REALLY have to strategize.
trails in the sky > cold steel > crossbell
Liked the game a lot but this is the one where I couldn't stomach the english voices anymore and switched to jp.
The way the went overboard on the squeakiness of child characters was too much.
My least favorite Trails
Hey man. Miss your stream, but I understand. Glad you finally finished up CS3 and hope you're enjoy CS4 when you get to it.