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

@JaxonH Yeah, this game is certainly full of story and lore. I've played for an hour and 20 minutes now and most of it have been scripted scenes loaded with dialogue. A lot of talking! But I bet it picks up some speed eventually.

I think I'll enjoy this game.

@JaxonH I did go through the story recap after I had completed the demo and decided to pre-order! They did a really good job encapsulating what came before.

OMG I just unlocked the card game! So reminiscent of Gwent. This game is huge.

I’m just now starting to dive back in.

Had to beat Xenoblade and Future Connected, then get the Xenoblade theme for Tetris 99, which I suck at and took me like 14 rounds to achieve.

But now everything is squared away now. I see my brother also bought the game on Switch. Been a long time since we were both playing the same Switch game at the same time.

Man, the battle system in this game is brilliant! Seems basic at a first look, but it's very tactical.

@Quarth
It really is good. Solid turn based games are a rarity nowadays. There’s Persona, Bravely Default and Trails. That’s about it. And Final Fantasy X (king of turn based battle systems- I adore FFX as the gold standard which all other turn based games should be built upon- Bravely Second has potential to relive that greatness with a few tweaks). Xenoblade isn’t turn based, neither is YS, neither is Tales of Vesperia, or Ni No Kuni, and Fire Emblem is SRPG. I suppose there is Octopath Traveler but that feels very retro (in a good way, but still retro).

I’m glad at least Final Fantasy X and Trails III is on Switch (and Bravely Default 2 and Trails IV on the way). We need more turn based JRPGs on the system. And there’s just not many great ones left.

@JaxonH I agree. I prefer turn based most of the time, as it's not as stressful as more action oriented battle systems.

And don't forget Dragon Quest XI. Very basic, but classic!

@Quarth
Ah, you’re right! I guess there’s more than I was giving credit to. Just on Switch, we have:

Turn Based
Bravely Default II
Trails of Cold Steel III
Trails of Cold Steel IV
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Octopath Traveler
Dragon Quest XI S
Shin Megami Tensei V

Non-Turn Based
Xenoblade Chronicles + Future Connected
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 + Torna
YS VIII Lacrimosa of Dana
YS IX Monstrum Nox
Ni No Kuni
Tales of Vesperia
Final Fantasy XII

That’s a pretty hard bangin’ RPG library for a handheld. 3DS has been usurped!

Ah, looks like it won't be arriving til sometime next week. How's everyone enjoying it so far?

@JaxonH FFX was also my favourite of the FF series. I never played 7 though, which i'd say most people would regard as the best. I never played it because I watched my older brother play almost the entire thing at the time and so never saw much point lol (hehe, and he told me about everything I didn't watch). I totally dropped off FF after X though, although I never got to play XII because (might be wrong) but I don't think it got a release here in Australia, it looks pretty decent.

Anyway, got great memories of playing X, I really feel they nailed the formula there and then just lost the plot afterwards... haven't played the latest one though as XIII just really made me lose interest in the series. I would give XIV a go though if I had a system that could run it. Not too interested in the weird mobile version we got, just dosen't look like you're getting the proper experience to me.

-Edit- ah, wait a minute... XIV is the online game right? Guess I mean XV.

@C-Chakra
FFXII was great. Not as good as FFX, but still great. It started off strong but kinda fell off into 8/10 territory for the second half.

FFX is so good though. Played on Vita as my first ever JRPG. I’d just had my eyes opened to the wonders of turn based games with Fire Emblem Awakening, and immediately picked FFX back up to give it another go. I never understood the appeal of turn based games before that, but FE changed everything for me. Once I went back and played Final Fantasy afterward I absolutely loved it and I’ve been loving turn based games ever since.

Final Fantasy has fallen off though. FFXV was mediocre and frankly, the series just isn’t what it used to be. I still like FFXIII but, again, it’s not anywhere near the brilliance of the Sakaguchi era entries. I hear FFXIV Online is good but, mmos aren’t really my thing. Which btw, FFXIV is the online mmo, and FFXV is the open world FF with Noctis, which we got the mobile version of. And no, you’re not getting the whole experience with it but I still think it’s worth playing if you don’t have the other option. It’s not like it was that great anyways (partly due to the camera, which you don’t have to worry about in the mobile version).

Replayed FFX on Switch when it released too. So I’ve played that game all the way through twice now. I love it so much. But I have to say, Xenoblade Chronicles tops it. Xenoblade is unbelievably good. And frankly, Trails is gosh dang good too, I’m really getting into Cold Steel III. It’s legit.

@JaxonH Switch has become my favorite gaming device of all time! One of the reasons is the fantastic JRPG support.

There are more games to be added to your list:

• Trials of Mana remake (non-turn based)
• The Alliance Alive HD (turn based)
• World of Final Fantasy Maxima (turn based)
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (turn based)
• Rune Factory 4 Special (while not a 100% JRPG, I think it's close enough: non-turn based)
• The World Ends With You (non-turn based)

And you can also add classics like:

• Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX (tb)
• Collection of Mana (n-tb)
• Dragon Quest I, II and III (tb)
• Romancing SaGa 3 (tb)
• Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3 and 4 (tb)

And if we add strategy-JRPGs to the mix it becomes even more interesting:

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses
• Langrisser I & II
• Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4

And of course less essential JRPG titles:

• I am Setsuna
• Oninaki
• Lost Sphear

Add the huge support of western RPGs and we have gaming experiences that can last a lifetime.

Back to Trails! 😅

@C-Chakra "Ah, looks like it won't be arriving til sometime next week. How's everyone enjoying it so far?"

I like it so far!

I admit it's a bit hard to keep track of all the characters and the over-arching plot, though the summaries helped a lot. But I will check out the videos recommended earlier in the thread.

As I mentioned, the battle system is excellent. Very strategic.

The graphics are kinda hit and miss. It looks good when the character is freely moving around and in the battle animations, but the flaws are more apparent in the cut scenes. While the character designs are good, the movement is kinda stiff. A lot of characters have a "hand on hip, elbow out" pose when standing still, making it look a bit silly when they move and suddenly stop. But these are minor complaints. The world looks good and I like that it's not the typical fantasy setting.

I'm just a couple of hours in so the story hasn't picked up speed just yet, but I think it will be eventually, based on what I've read in reviews.

@Quarth heheh. "hand on hip, elbow out". Yea lol, that pose is pretty common, I never paid it too much attention until you mentioned it, pretty funny. Lol, let me know if they crack out the line "I/we should be the one/ones thanking you." They love to crack that one out .

@JaxonH hmm.. might have to pick up FFXII then, had my eye on it just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. I'm sure at some point I'll grab X too, would love to revisit it and have been pretty close to buying it a few times now, just got way too much of a backlog. Also keen to give Fire Emblem a go, never played an FE game still.

@C-Chakra Haha, will keep an eye out for that!

@C-Chakra
Oh, Fire Emblem is so good. If you grab Three Houses I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Btw, I’ve already seen at least one “I should be the one thanking you” lol.

@Quarth
I think the game looks incredible in handheld, and even on the TV it looks good, but strangely, in the menus the character models look crazy pixelated. The m2 cable helps (I turned it on pass through for comparison) but ya, I don’t understand that because the models look way better in game.

Have you made it to unlocking the card game yet like @scoobdoo or still in the “demo area” or the tours you do around the branch campus and Leeves?

@JaxonH Will try it out in handheld!

It being a very dialogue heavy game and me having had an exhausting week at work, have made me a bit unfocused, so I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm just at chapter 2, walking around campus. Fell asleep on the sofa, just woke up, controller in hand. 😣

@C-Chakra
Question.

What quartz should I be putting into my Arctus slots? There’s SOOOO many to buy. Idk where to even begin. I did open some slots up, but also it seems your party is going to change throughout the game, so opening slots for like a dozen characters seems overwhelming, as does figuring out what quartz to buy.

Any advice?

There's quite a bit of quartz around in the game, without buying much, @JaxonH .... There's not really any one that's OP or anything Keep the 'upgrading' slots spread between as many people as possible, prioritising whomever your healers are, since they rely on theirs more I'm sure others will chime in with more specific advice, too, though

@Quarth yes there’s definitely something going on with the graphics when played on a TV. The text is particularly egregious. You can see it pixelating and unfocused, as though they never optimized the font for anything above handheld resolution.

@scoobdoo Yeah, some parts are not so good. As JaxonH pointed out, the characters are a bit pixelated. My TV isn't good, but I've noticed it in the conversation pictures.