There's something to be said when I'm 200 hours into the series at this point and I'm still heavily invested in the story.

One criticism I will point out is that the Break bar has basically made all offensive Arts not worth doing unless you are under a Zero Arts or a zero cast-time Order. Knight/Soldat battles are getting more advanced through the series and are still very fun. Can't wait to get into IV.

great, excpet for the dlc stuff, but falcom's gotta make some money

the series is finally back(somewhat) to the peak it used to be.

Cold steel 3 is by far the best cold steel game i have played so far.

So many improvements. The story is more engaging and chock full with great callbacks and references to previous games. The characters are far more interesting than the old class VII. they actually have more personality than a single tropey archetype and they also have more in depth interpersonal relationships with each other which helps the writing feel a lot more believable and immersive than the first 2 cold steel games.

This game is not free from it's share of writing issues though. Some parts near the end felt kind of nonsensical and they made a retcon of a major lore event from a previous game which made it feel a lot less believable. This game also has an issue of quite predictable writing at times

QUEUE

"aw sheeeeet we're in a tricky situation"

"okay i'll call my massive robot and unleash my true power so i can protect my students"

"heed my call valimar the ashen kni-----"

*random party member from the previous game walks in*

"that won't be neccessary"

*sword of biting gale soundtrack starts playing*

i'm not joking this exact sequence happens like at least 5 times throughout the game and i've never seen an anime protag get blueballed this hard in my entire life and i've watched an episode of rent a girlfriend. so yeah it's certainly not perfect.

outside of writing the gameplay is pretty fun in this one and the new break and brave order systems are really enjoyable and add a lot of strategic depth to the gameplay

the music flip flops between being generic as ♥♥♥♥ and very mid to "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOH" insane metal guitar and some of the coolest jrpg battle themes i have heard in a while. My favorite tracks are probably "proud grudge" and "beyond the journey(instrumental)"

It's worth your time despite it's flaws and it's definitely worth playing if you are a fan of the cold steel games. I just hope the series continues on this upward trajectory so one day we will once again reach the super banger status of the Crossbell games.

8/10