Cold Steel 2 was a disappointment and gave a glimpse of the upcoming disaster, Cold Steel 3 is the full display, a clusterfuck whose only achievement is a graphical overhaul but fails in every other department.
There are many reasons for this failure, one of them is that Nihon Falcom decided that the so titled Cold Steel number 3, should be an entry point for the series, meaning this game is a soft reset, what have been explained and developed in Cold Steel 1 and 2 is now obsolete. The consequences are pretty obvious, Cold Steel 3 does not have enough time to recap 2 whole games and to develop its own story. The worst part is, even with the adequate amount of time, I highly doubt this new story could even be decent. Simply put, Cold Steel 3 is a copy paste of Cold Steel 1, but a cursed one which doesn't match Cold Steel 1's greatness even on a single point.
In that regard, I will enumerate a few examples.
Cold Steel 3 begins the exact same way as Cold Steel 1, Rean once again joins a military academy in a town located on the outskirt of the capital, he arrives there on a train and despite being in a town he never visited before, guess who welcome him into the new academy ? The exact same person who welcomed him into Thors in Cold Steel 1. Rean is assigned to a class named Class VII, just like Thors this new school appears to have a remote building that serves as dungeon purpose, during the prologue in that remote building, class VII will also do an exercice which causes class VII to fall into a floor trap, and somehow 2 students fall into each other and end up in the same position as Cold Steel 1.
The game structure is also the same with an alternation of field studies which allow the plot to advance and free days allowing the player to do bonding events, some quests and use the remote building as a mini dungeon. Similar to the OG class VII this new class needs some sort of rivalry, once again it will be a bunch of nobles and the same exact pattern occurs, after an exam and the academy sharing the class ranking, the nobles defeated by Rean's class will decide to crash the party. Just like Cold Steel 1, during the middle of the year, new students will join the class, though this time Nihon Falcom didn't even bother to make that a secret as the two supposedly surprise characters are playable in the introduction section which litterally spoil everything.
Honestly I could carry on and on, but you get the gist of it, Cold Steel 3 is an uninspired mess, even its ending is similar to Cold Steel 1, and the rare things Cold Steel 3 bring to the table are horrendous.
Starting with the gameplay which now includes a break system, the typical gauge that needs to be emptied before being able to apply real damages. To be fair, Cold Steel never had a wide variety of strat or build, but this new mechanic limits the player to an even more reduced amount of possibilities, every fight look the same.
What's even more asinine is the new main cast, among a total of five new characters, only one stands out in a positive way, one is a despicable mistake, the others are unapologetically dull, bland and they go through developments so non existent that their recap might as well fit on a post-it. Irony at its finest, the only decently written character is actually not a brand new one, it was actually introduced in Cold Steel 2. As for the one qualified as despicable mistake, this character manages the inconceivable, so badly written you actually forget its a character.
Since Nihon Falcom desires to create a grand crossover, starting with a meeting between the original class VII and the main cast of Crossbell Arc namely SSS, they ruined Cold Steel 2's ending, but afraid that some people would not have played the Crossbell games to ensure players would fully enjoy this brainless fanservice, they included one character who's only goal is to promote and talk about SSS. Like a living commercial, this character follows Rean around explaining how lame he is and how great SSS are. A stupid idea, especially considering this character's backstory would suggest a different behaviors toward Rean, Falcom justifies very poorly as to why this character would hate Rean for reasons and a certain logic, but those same reasons and logic are not applied to the rest of the cast.
But a badly written character is still a character, right ? Well, cherry on top, this character is actually a retcon, meaning it actually never appeared in the Crossbell arc, the SSS don't even know who is that character, but will act as if they know because fuck the logic says Nihon Falcom. From this moment, it is hard to consider this character even canon, and yet Falcom decided that it would be the face of new class VII.
Meanwhile, the old class VII is relegated to the mere role of cameos, and despite being actual Valimar's secondary contractors, no one will get the chance to play a role in mech battles, instead they will just be caricatures of themselves, as for Rean he has now a sister complex, I guess that's comedy peak according to Nihon Falcom, ah sweet home Erebonia...
In conclusion, Cold Steel 3 is a shit show, through and through. In this title, Nihon Falcom strives into an even greater creativity to ruin everything, from a plagiarized story that do little to nothing in the grand picture, all the while mocking the very story it tried to copy without matching its greatness even once, with a new cast so badly written, you actually start thinking that any fanfiction writer would do a better job, to an impoverished gameplay. This game simply is a wretched pile of shit.
There are many reasons for this failure, one of them is that Nihon Falcom decided that the so titled Cold Steel number 3, should be an entry point for the series, meaning this game is a soft reset, what have been explained and developed in Cold Steel 1 and 2 is now obsolete. The consequences are pretty obvious, Cold Steel 3 does not have enough time to recap 2 whole games and to develop its own story. The worst part is, even with the adequate amount of time, I highly doubt this new story could even be decent. Simply put, Cold Steel 3 is a copy paste of Cold Steel 1, but a cursed one which doesn't match Cold Steel 1's greatness even on a single point.
In that regard, I will enumerate a few examples.
Cold Steel 3 begins the exact same way as Cold Steel 1, Rean once again joins a military academy in a town located on the outskirt of the capital, he arrives there on a train and despite being in a town he never visited before, guess who welcome him into the new academy ? The exact same person who welcomed him into Thors in Cold Steel 1. Rean is assigned to a class named Class VII, just like Thors this new school appears to have a remote building that serves as dungeon purpose, during the prologue in that remote building, class VII will also do an exercice which causes class VII to fall into a floor trap, and somehow 2 students fall into each other and end up in the same position as Cold Steel 1.
The game structure is also the same with an alternation of field studies which allow the plot to advance and free days allowing the player to do bonding events, some quests and use the remote building as a mini dungeon. Similar to the OG class VII this new class needs some sort of rivalry, once again it will be a bunch of nobles and the same exact pattern occurs, after an exam and the academy sharing the class ranking, the nobles defeated by Rean's class will decide to crash the party. Just like Cold Steel 1, during the middle of the year, new students will join the class, though this time Nihon Falcom didn't even bother to make that a secret as the two supposedly surprise characters are playable in the introduction section which litterally spoil everything.
Honestly I could carry on and on, but you get the gist of it, Cold Steel 3 is an uninspired mess, even its ending is similar to Cold Steel 1, and the rare things Cold Steel 3 bring to the table are horrendous.
Starting with the gameplay which now includes a break system, the typical gauge that needs to be emptied before being able to apply real damages. To be fair, Cold Steel never had a wide variety of strat or build, but this new mechanic limits the player to an even more reduced amount of possibilities, every fight look the same.
What's even more asinine is the new main cast, among a total of five new characters, only one stands out in a positive way, one is a despicable mistake, the others are unapologetically dull, bland and they go through developments so non existent that their recap might as well fit on a post-it. Irony at its finest, the only decently written character is actually not a brand new one, it was actually introduced in Cold Steel 2. As for the one qualified as despicable mistake, this character manages the inconceivable, so badly written you actually forget its a character.
Since Nihon Falcom desires to create a grand crossover, starting with a meeting between the original class VII and the main cast of Crossbell Arc namely SSS, they ruined Cold Steel 2's ending, but afraid that some people would not have played the Crossbell games to ensure players would fully enjoy this brainless fanservice, they included one character who's only goal is to promote and talk about SSS. Like a living commercial, this character follows Rean around explaining how lame he is and how great SSS are. A stupid idea, especially considering this character's backstory would suggest a different behaviors toward Rean, Falcom justifies very poorly as to why this character would hate Rean for reasons and a certain logic, but those same reasons and logic are not applied to the rest of the cast.
But a badly written character is still a character, right ? Well, cherry on top, this character is actually a retcon, meaning it actually never appeared in the Crossbell arc, the SSS don't even know who is that character, but will act as if they know because fuck the logic says Nihon Falcom. From this moment, it is hard to consider this character even canon, and yet Falcom decided that it would be the face of new class VII.
Meanwhile, the old class VII is relegated to the mere role of cameos, and despite being actual Valimar's secondary contractors, no one will get the chance to play a role in mech battles, instead they will just be caricatures of themselves, as for Rean he has now a sister complex, I guess that's comedy peak according to Nihon Falcom, ah sweet home Erebonia...
In conclusion, Cold Steel 3 is a shit show, through and through. In this title, Nihon Falcom strives into an even greater creativity to ruin everything, from a plagiarized story that do little to nothing in the grand picture, all the while mocking the very story it tried to copy without matching its greatness even once, with a new cast so badly written, you actually start thinking that any fanfiction writer would do a better job, to an impoverished gameplay. This game simply is a wretched pile of shit.