Topic: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3

@mcdreamer
Welcome, then. Most people who visit the site don’t frequent the forums, or at least, don’t post. Always nice to have more people to discuss a game with.

You’ve and BruceCM basically summed it up. Certain twists in the previous games will have less of an impact if you are already aware of those twists, but aside from that there’s really no disadvantage. I personally find that, even if I know a story before hand, I still enjoy experiencing it for myself. As I’ve gone back to the first game, I’m already aware of certain plot points and twists for certain characters, and admittedly, it would’ve made for a great surprise. But it’s still incredibly fun and enjoyable, and almost raises the tension knowing what’s inevitably going to happen, and seeing how it unfolds. So there are hidden pros among those cons.

But ya. Trails III is not the best jumping in point (obviously), but it is a reasonable jumping in point. I don’t think I could say the same for the 2nd game or 4th game, which both pick up after a cliffhanger from the previous game. It’s a 4-game arc, but the first 2 are kind of their own story and the last two kind of their own story, and they melt together with an over arching plot. But if you read the story summary for the second game, you’ll see that basically all the plot points from the first two games get wrapped up by the end of the second. I mean, not all. There’s still some more broad things going on that will get address later but the focus of those games gets addressed. So 3 kinda starts out fresh, or at least, as fresh as possible for being in the middle of a 4-game arc. It’s also a mirror of the first game in a lot of ways. You’re back at Thor’s, but at a different branch campus. You’re no longer the kid student, you’re the adult teacher. Even a lot of the smaller pot points from the first game get mirrored in the 3rd, I’ve noticed.

I’m glad to see more people being open to the idea of newcomers jumping in with Cold Steel III. I completely understand loving a series and wanting everyone else to experience it in its entirety, in the proper order. But most people are never going to do that if they don’t get into the series in the first place. And I think Trails III could be that gateway game for a lot of people.

Yeah & playing the previous games just isn't going to be an option for some, so ..... It is a bit of a shame but maybe this will do well enough to persuade Falcom to sort out the previous 2, at least

@JaxonH Yeah, I'm the same really. I can still enjoy stories even if I know them before hand too. Still worth experiencing these things first hand even if you know all the twists and turns. And yes, I think CS3 could well be my gateway into the series. As you say, 3 kind of starts out fresh too which does make it a suitable place to start.

I saw you mention Xenoblade, Final Fantasy and Persona in other post. I absolutely love Xenoblade and various FF games, especially X. If Trails is in the same league as these then I'm sure I'll love it too.

@mcdreamer
Ya I’d say it is. Even now I’d probably rank it just below Xenoblade Chronicles and just above Persona. Final Fantasy is kinda the oddball because, FFX and FFXII are kinda the last truly great entries IMO. Still a solid series but no longer masterpiece level. So I’m more referring to FFX, FFXII and the older entries that came before.

Lost Odyssey deserves a place somewhere up there too, but I haven’t beat the game so I can’t exactly say where, all I know is it’s one of the best I’ve played in the genre.

Getting pretty far in Trails of Cold Steel. Level 28 already.

And I gotta say, after picking up Switch Lite and then playing a bit of Cold Steel III, I got jazzed when I saw Laura come blazing in. I recognized her right away too. Hair to hips? Check. Sword that rivals Cloud’s? Check. Purple hair? Check. There’s only one person that could be. She looks so different now.

It’s a weird feeling because she’s just a novice schoolgirl in my group in the first game. Now she’s a certified bad*** but I guess all the original class has kinda grown up.

Heh, she's pretty good in the 1st, too, @JaxonH ... Where have you got to in that one now, then?

@JaxonH I really must try again with FF XII. I've gotten a few hours in a couple of times but something about it just doesn't click. I really want to love it as the battle system is great. I just can't quite get into the story and setting. One day hopefully it'll all click.

I finished reading up all the plot summaries, character bios and world information in the CS3 demo last night. It feels to me like they've done quite a good job with it all. I certainly have a sense of who everybody is, the events which have taken place and the world in which everything is set. Getting started on the game it was good not be totally lost when all of these things started coming up right away. Will blast to the end of the demo and if I'm still enjoying it will pick up the game.

@JaxonH hehe, Laura is a freakin atomic bomb, toward the end of CS2 if you buff her with all your STR buffs when first entering a battle, you can almost one-shot some serious bosses with her S-Craft (if you spec her that way). Oh yea, and Fie is equally as dangerous if you get her to 100% evade, with her SPD maxed as far as you can get it. Those two are an epic duo.

Fie's my favourite, @C-Chakra .... But most of them are pretty good or at least can be made so, especially as a team

@BruceCM awesome. Fie is my favourite of original class vii too.

There's some pretty interesting new characters in CS3 so far.

@BruceCM
For the first Trails game, I’m out in the Nord Highlands. Had to grind for a bit until Gaius caught up to everyone else, which was Level 28. The XP slowed way down at that level so everyone kinda catches up to it and evens out.

I got my butt handed to me so hard in the last Bossfight I had to use half my Zeram powders and capsules. I was fighting three super hard monsters at once and they’d just crit after crit after crit, resulting in KO after KO after KO. and by the time I could use Thelas to bring someone back, it was one of the enemies turn again and they would just KO them all over again, or KO someone else. It was a constant game of getting knocked out and bringing them back to life than somebody else getting knocked out and bringing them back to life, I wasn’t even getting to attack.

I don’t understand researching this game when people say, “rahr rahr this game is so easy, even Nightmare mode is a breeze”. And “Ya you’re totally right, even a baby could beat this game on nightmare mode on their first try, rahr rahr aren’t we so cool”. Can’t stand it. These people are so full of horse manure.

I’ve even done every side quest up to this point. And used 2 Shining Pom Baits. The problem is the game keeps mixing up who is in my party, and because I don’t even remotely have enough money to buy proper gear for all 9 people, or open enough slots and get good quartz in, I keep ending up in situations where I don’t stand a chance. Even if I had my best 4 that do have the best gear now, and almost all slots open and decent quartz, even then I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to beat those fights without relying on half my resurrection items. But by not having my best 4 by mixing the party up all the time I never stood a chance.

Like, fighting the Nobles from class 1. Says “choose 3 others”. So I do. But then it tells me oh you can’t use girls, choose again. Ugh. Ok. So I choose again and it tells me oh you can’t choose Jusis, choose again. Well wtf! If I can’t choose girls and I can’t choose nobles then I’ve only got three choices left. Why are you having me choose in the first place if it’s not really a choice at all! And of course my team was ill prepared because I don’t really use Mathias or Gaius. It was another fight where I had to use a few zeram capsules. And I’ve only got like half a dozen left so I can’t keep wasting them so early in the game.

I really want to turn the difficulty down but, you can’t. Trails III lets you change difficulty but not the first (but Trails III is MUCH more balanced on Normal, I haven’t had any issues so far in that game). I did use a graphics pack mod for the first two games on Steam that adds Ultra HD assets for a ton of stuff in the game like menus, eyes, quartz, etc. I was wondering if there’s some kind of tool that will change the difficulty for you but I couldn’t find anything.

@C-Chakra
Well I need some advice on what quartz to use for each character and any strategy for fighting bosses in the first game, cause this has been me lately

Hmm, I'm not sure I remember a boss fight of 3 in that area, @JaxonH .... There's several against 2 & a few against a boss with some grunts, so is it one of them? & I'd have to say it shouldn't be THAT difficult, so I think you must be missing something! What equipment do you have, then? Maybe you missed something there? What were your tactics?
For instance, in the battle against the nobles, Eliot has a good craft that restores some health each turn & Rean should have the one increasing attack. Machias has another healing craft, for more. I think some of those were relatively difficult but not as ridiculous as you seem to find them

@BruceCM
Well it wasn’t in chapter 3. Now I’m in chapter 3. The boss fight was in chapter 2. In the old schoolhouse.

And I was using Elliot’s craft that boosts DEF and restores health each turn, and I would have been using Rean’s Motivation craft, if I could ever actually manage to do anything besides heal somebody or bring them back to life.

There were three of them and they were all equally the same. And a lot of times when they would attack they would hit three of my party members at once, KOing one of them and putting the other two on the ropes. Which would mean I would then spend my next two or three turns healing and bringing back to life, and by that time two enemies would have attacked and the cycle would repeat itself.

I did eventually win the fight but it took using 3-4 zeram capsules and several healing items.

I can’t remember my exact setup at the time or even what students I had with me precisely. But I’ve got quartz in all the slots I’ve opened so far. None of them are particularly great at this stage of the game but, I make due with what I have. At least one of each of the 4 elements for arts and various others. The monsters were weakest to water but when I used my water art it still was such a small amount on their life bar, and since the monsters were spread out far enough and it only had a small area of a fact I could only attack one at a time. Once I whittled it down to one monster I was OK, but with 3 of them it was just too intense. I think only two of my members had a water art and because I was on the defensive so much I couldn’t really use but one of them (Jusis). The other three were grouped separately and just taking crit after crit from the other 2 monsters.

Which leads to my question of actual tactics in regards to positioning. A lot of times I would get hit it would hit three of my members at once because they were all grouped together. I don’t really use the move function at all... should I be? Maybe if they were around the enemy in a diamond pattern attacks could only hit one person at a time? On the downside the defensive buffs wouldn’t be able to reach everyone and would only be able to buff one person at a time.

Well, that's the balancing act with some things, @JaxonH .... Must be Cherubic gates! Of course, you'd try to keep your S-crafts for such battles? Anyway, I guess it's planning for the next ones, now, so have you finished the Highlands? How's that going now, better?

@BruceCM
S-craft was first thing I did. Barely took 10% of the one’s health away. And Jusis’s s-craft did the same for all 3, but I was still left facing two monsters with 90% health and another with 80% health.

So far it’s going fine but I haven’t gotten to the end boss of the chapter yet or anything. The difficulty started at the end of chapter one, and it just seems that every Bossfight gets even harder. Every Bossfight I’m having to use more and more zeram powders to get through.

I thought maybe I was under leveled but if I’m doing every single side quest and killing every single enemy along the way and even going back and killing a few extra... how can I be under leveled. So when I got to the highlands the first thing I did was spend an entire hour out in the field grinding. Now everyone in this group is Level 28. The XP slow down to a crawl once I hit 28. I hope that’s enough.

Definitely something a bit weird going on there, @JaxonH .... I didn't use Jusis much, other than those times I had to but it honestly shouldn't be that hard, all the time. Alisa has a craft that helps with party CP, for other crafts, for instance? There's so many little things you may have not noticed or tried out that it's hard to cover them all
There's basically days 2 & 3 of the Field Study there, since it takes almost all day one to get to the place! Day 2 has one hidden quest, an optional one, 2 side-quests & the 2 required! Done all those?

@BruceCM
I can’t remember if I found any “hidden quests” I do literally anything with a red or green exclamation. Anything in the list of stuff to do I do it. I scour every last inch until there’s nothing left to do and then I move on.

And I know it’s not just me because the third game is incredibly easy on Normal. It’s night and day between the two.

And I should add, most normal battles are pretty easy. It’s just the last few boss fights that have tested me.

edit
Just crafted 3 DEF 2 quartz and 3 ADF shield quartz. Going to try to squeeze them in. Problem is there’s so many characters and it’s constantly switching them up so anything I put on somebody ends up being useless an hour later because I am with a different group of characters. And that gets tedious having to reassign gems to different characters all the time.

Met G yet? He has some Jaeger dropouts fighting you with him .... Followed by a more difficult boss fight, which is the end of that chapter! Or still on day 2? Stone Golem yet, @JaxonH? Hidden quest involves a girl in the Cafeteria at Zander Gate, so a bit out of your way, potentially

@BruceCM
I’m in the highlands, headed to Zander Gate for a mainline quest.

@JaxonH it's been a long time since I did a CS1 playthrough but I do vaguely recall grinding a bit in Nord. Anyway i've got a few tips that can hopefully help you out of a jam. I'm currently playing CS3 on nightmare and when things get too rough I usually just do this.

First, make sure you've got all your characters equipped with the new weapons and armor for the area. If you need mira, exchange your sepith mass and sell off your ingredients (that are worth 100 each). Your gear makes a massive difference, if you can, even find the relevant person to upgrade them further with the u-material you've collected for an added boost. I always prioritise gear over cooking. On normal you probably don't need the customised upgrade but they will make it easier.

Best way to grind if you need to, is find an area that has a tough monster that you can beat that is close to an entry point into an area. (pretty much every area has a tougher monster variant somewhere). Run back and forth between the areas to respawn them avoiding all the weak monsters, they give a lot more xp. Once they give you barely any xp then it's a good indication that you are well prepared for anything ahead.

As for tactics. Some fights require a specific strategy, well important fights anyway. Keep note of what they do. If for instance, a boss has a wide front attack that hits your entire team, split up and surround them so that they will only be able to focus on one person per turn. If they use some kind of abnormality thingo like sleep or confuse etc. on your entire team, make sure to equip as many of your crew with the relevant accessory that prevents them being affected.

lastly, if you're really having trouble as a last resort, google search the boss name. There will always be some forum etc. that explains the best strategy. Also, there are plenty of pretty cool youtube vids of people defeating some pretty insane bosses on nightmare while taking no damage. They are always fun to watch and learn some tactics from.

hope this helps