April 30, 2018
What I’m playing right now – Sen no Kiseki III
I zoomed through Cold Steel 2 and have moved on to Cold Steel 3/Sen 3. I basically played it all weekend.
Almost all the reasons I like the game go into spoiler territory but one thing I do like that isn’t a plot spoiler is a battle system change! A new feature has been added to battles – the ability to issue orders using break points. Also the system for breaking enemies, which is important too for winning some boss battles. I struggled a bit with the first major boss until I understood those systems. In general normal difficulty is harder so far than the equivalent point in the previous games. But not too hard; just have to do a little more thinking.
Since the rest of the reasons I like the game are almost all plot reasons, I have to highly advise that you don’t just jump into this game. It is super text-heavy at the beginning and you really won’t care a bit unless you have played the previous Cold Steel games. I think it’s too late to recommend playing Zero and Ao before Sen 3 if you’ve already played Sen 1 & 2. So far all the relevant Zero & Ao stuff has been explained, though I have been told that later on Sen 3 might be confusing without knowing Zero and Ao. However since Zero & Ao overlap with Sen 1 & 2, you won’t be getting the full enjoyment of Zero & Ao that you’d get with fresh eyes. Also there are major Trails in the Sky series spoilers too. Basically this was a series meant to be played start to finish if you wanted to see it the way the directors envisioned you seeing it. Of course I don’t think knowing what happens will make the games less enjoyable. Actually I think it improved my experience of Trails in the Sky FC playing it the second time because I knew there was a payoff…eventually. Sen 3 starts slow enough that I wonder if others were turned off a bit by that if they weren’t living up all the references to previous games. Then again I don’t know anyone who has played Sen 3 without playing Sen 1 & 2 at least.
I think overall the setup for the game is okay? Yes, some things seem to be convenient for gameplay/plot reasons, but it’s not like the series hasn’t relied on convenient facts/plot fillers before. The biggest selling point of these games is the characters and the world-building, and those are still strong so far in this game. Liking all the new characters so far, and Rean is still growing on me which is good. I’m probably going to play a lot of this game very quickly; stupidly I also have a job that I am returning to but I enjoyed my vacation and I will enjoy my games!
April 8, 2018
What I’ve been playing – Trails of Cold Steel 2/Sen no Kiseki 2
Sometimes it’s nice to be behind in an epic series, because you don’t have to wait!
And thus I have rolled straight from Cold Steel 1 into Cold Steel 2. The goal is to pick up Sen 3 in Japan (which I leave for very soon) and roll straight into Sen 3 after Cold Steel 2 is finished. Which shouldn’t be too long because I’m already 50 hours into Cold Steel 2. Which means I have anywhere between 10 and 50 hours left? I guess you never know for sure in a Kiseki game.
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