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

Ya, not one item used! And only one KO, easily remedied with Thelas.

Just needed to level up a bit, equip some DEF +20 and ADF +20 quartz, make some changes to which characters I use, and learn which buff arts/crafts to keep in active rotation.

It was still a good fight, but not overwhelming.

Lol lol, “what’s wrong you two? ...”

“I challenge you to a dual”

Wait, what?

“I accept”

It’s just a dual. We’ll determine the victor tonight. That’s all”

Oh, “that’s all”.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THATS ALL!

Hahaha lol lol this game, hohhh this game 😁

Lols, yeah .... So, you're back in school now?

@BruceCM
I'm in Heimallr on my Field Study. Just beat the monster under the hotel. Now I woke up, had breakfast at Elliot's and just accepted the tasks for day 2.

Cool, so no problem with the Old Schoolhouse bit this time, then .... @JaxonH ? Your next boss should be relatively easy, after the last fight

anyone know if they are releasing the fouth on the switch, played first two on ps4 but if the 4th is coming to switch will play last two on switch

@suikoden
Yes, Trails of Cold Steel IV is already announced for Switch and a collector edition is up for preorder on NIS Store.

@BruceCM
No issues. I have 50% Evasion on Rean and like 45% on Fie now. Would have liked to buy the evasion armor for other characters but ran out of money. Bought other armor first at some other shop not knowing a different shop had armor with evasion stats. At least I got Rean and Fie though.

That and Shining has made the game so much easier.

Ah, yeah, I remember those shops, @JaxonH .... It'd slipped my mind or I'd have let you know! Fie is awesome, btw, especially if you do get her evasion up Keep us posted

@JaxonH

Thanks

I finished up the demo over the weekend and ordered the game last night. Can't wait for it to arrive so I can keep going! I can tell there's a fair chance I'll end up getting sucked in to the entire series...

Looks like there's quite a bit to get into with the battle system. The tutorial dungeon was pretty good I thought. Will be fun to get more experience with its various elements as the game goes on.

The only thing which is a bit of a shame is that the text in the UI looks quite pixelated. It would have been nice if they'd tweaked this to match the lower resolution of the Switch version. By no means a deal breaker of course and really the only negative I saw. The character dialog text doesn't seem to be suffer the same problem (because it's larger I suspect). I probably shouldn't have watched a review with footage from the PS4 version or I'd have never noticed Outside of the text (which isn't really that bad) I think the graphics in the Switch version look great!

It's missing AA, but I'm playing the first Trails and the geometry is SUPER simplified. Legs are straight lines, with an angle line for a kneecap. Women's breasts are like 3 straight sharp lines to form a curve. Faces are just straight lines connected. The earlier entries were super simplified, and thus weren't nearly as demanding.

This one doesn't look too different than the previous games at a glance, but once you actually take a look at the geometry you'll notice it's much more modern and elaborate. I couldn't get the game running on my Win 2 with parity to the Switch version, which surprised me. Even at 600p and no AA, to the point it looked identical to Switch in handheld mode, the framerate was like 20fps tops. And that was running at 8.5 watts with turbo boosts to 10W. Switxh handheld runs at 7W max.

So, I really can't complain I guess. It could always look a bit better but, it tops my PC handheld which has more power.

On the Lite, the jaggies are hidden pretty well. That's how I play the game. Exclusively on the Switch Lite. My TV has the first Trails running via Steam on my gaming PC, while I have the third game on Switch Lite in my lap.

In fact, I'm playing Trails of Cold Steel III on Switch Lite at work right now 😁 Gotta love having this game portably

@JaxonH Yeah, the character models look really nice. As you say they're a big improvement over the previous games. CS1 and 2 don't look bad either, just a different aesthetic I guess based on the capabilities of the hardware. It reminds me of the difference between Persona 4 and 5.

One thing I noticed in the demo is the expressiveness of the character's faces. I also like the fact they use a 3D model of the character's head alongside dialog rather than a static image.

Lol, my physical copy just arrived in the mail today, but i've been playing the digital version anyway. Just hit Chapter 3 last night, where are you all up to?

I’m still on chapter 1, thanks to most of my time being spent in the first game. I’m headed to the secret area leaving Parm. Just got Hyarms to sign off on it.

In the first, I just made it to Heimdallr and am on my second day’s field study tasks.

Played a bit of Death Stranding on PC tonight. I didn’t get into it on PS4 but, having recently migrated to the master race I bought the game again as I’ll be selling all my PS4 games. Ended up playing 2 hrs. Love everything about it... except the actual gameplay. I mean, it’s fun for a bit, but gets old after half an hr. The rest of the game is good enough to carry it though. It’s definitely unique, that’s for sure. May not be my favorite, but I really do enjoy the cutscenes and story. The traversing kinda feels like work I have to put in to earn it though.

Then spent some time in Doom Eternal with Steam Controller and gyro. Muah. Haven’t spent much time playing anything other than Trails, so I feel like tonight was a much needed breather. Didn’t even have a chance to touch Story of Seasons on Switch or Mr Driller Drill Land which also arrived. And Space Invaders, I imported from Play-Asia only to learn it’s releasing in the west with all games on cart, even the bonus downloads from the JP collector edition. Sigh. Will be listing on eBay and rebuying. So I didn’t end up playing that either.

So ya, didn’t make much progress this evening. I realized my quartz sucks in Trails 3 compared to what I have in Trails 1. I need more U-materials. Not just for quartz but also upgrading accessories. I have green and blue pendants on all 4 characters in the first, but only Rean in the 3rd.

@JaxonH woah, that's a pretty busy gaming line-up you've got there. I've just been solely playing CS3 since I downloaded it. Ah, the secret area is pretty cool, especially for those who have played the Sky arc. Oh yea, and gotta say, they really nailed the VA for Bloody Shirley, it's worth a mention.

Made it through chapter 1 in Trails 3. It says I’m 30 hours in already on my save file! It took a while to get through the prologue and chapter 1.

Well, it's 'only' 5 chapters, so each is longer than in previous games .....

Still playing Paper Mario, though I’m about 65% done.

Will be quickly returning to TOCS afterward. I haven’t abandoned it!

Trails of Cold Steel III on sale at Amazon for $41.99
Trails of Cold Steel III Switch

Finished CS3 yesterday. lol, that ending. Anyone else finished it yet? Loved the new characters, new class vii is great. Didn't think I was gonna like Musse from the demo, but she ended up being my favourite. Not sure how I feel about some of the plot though. Need CS4 badly. After finishing it, I do strongly believe CS1 is the much better starting point, I felt CS1 is just much more satisfying entry. CS3 at times feels like it doesn't quite get the execution right, which is a first in the series for me. Not sure, might just be me, and some things were spoilt for me going in, so a lot of it felt very predictable and a tad underwhelming.

@JaxonH since i'm done with CS3 I ended picking up FFX and FFXII as they are 50% off atm. Starting to really enjoy FFXII now that I have a party. Wasn't sure about the combat before but now I'm liking it. It's a very different FF game but it's pretty darn cool so far. As for FFX, that's purely for nostalgia, loved that game back in the day.