This review contains spoilers
cold steel 3 is fun on a replay because 95% of it is so relatively normal compared to the 4th game, and i can better appreciate how this game sets up and solidifies new character dynamics that will be carried over as the focal point... its amazing how much more depth reans character has when hes around his students and how little the original class vii members contribute to his character growth, at least imo.
going into cs3 the first time, i was really attached to the original class vii and took a good amount of time to warm up to the new class vii cast (except for altina who is perfect). the new class vii cast is a lot smaller and i definitely think it benefits from that, the new characters get more sustained focus and confront their own issues more organically as a cast of 5 compared to a cast of 10. saying that, i would expect all 5 of those characters to be better written and more interesting considering they get more screen time and can be fleshed out much more, but imo at least: juna and altina are significantly better than the og class vii, ash is also pretty good, kurt is not the most interesting to me and i really think they couldve done more with him + his dynamic with his classmates, and musse is....... musse is musse... so overall i think they could have done a better job honestly.
the bond between rean and his classmates is obviously very special and very important and i do always love seeing their reunions and how much they all genuinely care for each other, but feels like it all hit a wall during cs2 and ever since then it just comes off as there being very little point in them showing up and being involved in the plot. there isnt room for growth because basically all of cs1 was focused entirely on character relationships (i like this btw) and no meaningful conflict is ever going to happen between these characters now. this is very apparent when compared to the bond between rean and his students, who are new characters and all have their own issues with him/themselves and challenge each other. the main thing i love about the new class vii is that rean is constantly adjusting to them. in cs1 his classmates know hes got his own issues and this comes up a fair amount, but the focus is always on him helping solve other peoples problems. this is true in cs3 as well, but it feels better in cs3 where theyre teenagers and hes their teacher so theyre more like, fundamentally opposed to listening to him or liking him LOL. its challenging for rean to help them through their issues because he has to in his own way prove himself to them. he has to genuinely connect with them in a way that forces himself to be way more open than he has been in previous games. rean has been Going Through It his whole life but had that turned up like crazy during the ending of cs2, so its not just good for his relationship with other characters, its also useful for the audience who gets to see how much trauma hes dealing with, how badly hes handling some of it, and how much hes working on himself because he takes his duties as a teacher insanely seriously and knows that he needs to be in a good place if he wants to set a good example for his students.
i also just think the group dynamic is inherently funnier - these kids have the most popular man in erebonia teaching them but to them hes just their exasperating teacher. they poke fun at rean a lot and get frustrated with him easily, but they do admire him very much. and rean has wildly poor self esteem and these teenagers are going 'ugh instructor rean back off!!!' so its funny seeing him go from taking it kind of personally (kicked puppy look) to understanding them more + growing more comfortable and confident in his role as an instructor.
another thing - generally speaking, reans students are more connected to the plot than his classmates are. this can sometimes be a detriment since their most of their backstories have been kind of just fucking.. hamfisted into already established lore/events/etc but the benefit is that their presence feels significant and important. reans classmates fade in relevance because there isnt that much they can do with them. fie and emma (and jusis i guess?) have stuff going on thats related to the plot, but they dont interact with it in a meaningful way and if they werent in the game nothing would change. obviously millium is extremely relevent and necessary; while i wish it wasnt mostly at the very end of the game, the build up to it throughout the game is well done and especially noticeably good on a replay. the rest are like, ok you have a fight/reveal or two thats somewhat relevant to you for whatever reason i guess. generally speaking their individual plotlines are very removed from rean/the player and theres no significant interaction between what they have on their plate and what the player has going on. the new class vii (mostly) have plotlines that are relevant to rean as a character and their class as a group.
the setting is also really good - thors military academy was done so well that i would have expected any other setting to fall flat in comparison, but the branch campus manages to have its own weird charms without relying on the previous setting, and rean + the player are able to get just as comfortable and attached to the school/students/village in cs3 as in cs1. the cast of students follow the points ive said above, its overall smaller and more individualized and feel like they interact with each other + rean more. im probably more attached to the student cast in cs1/2 but id say that the new cast is done better
i will say that i think bonding events are worse across the board. altinas are always good, yuna has a good one... uh... that might be it for me. i guess its hard to say they were ever all that great? but i think cs1/2 had a wider range of bad to good while in cs3 90% of them are weird or forgettable. oh, heres something i didnt realize on my first playthrough: i originally romanced alisa (going through a no romance run for this one) and i didnt realize how many of her events/dialogue are Exactly The Same regardless of if youre dating her or not? like oh my god its bad. its like the game doesnt understand that youre not romancing her??? every default interaction with her is CRAZY romantic. nearly every woman character is into rean and its badly written and uncomfortable, but they are so easy to brush off in comparison to alisa, who if you arent dating her is literally just being strung around by rean and it makes him come off as an absolute dick about it LMAO. it is just so so so pushy. just make a canon romance if youre going to do this....
i dont want to get into the whole 'everyone has the hots for rean' thing since its not unique to cs3 at all and gets worse/more unavoidable in cs4 but it continues to be bad here, does nothing to make the women more unique or interesting or add anything to their characters via it, makes rean worse whenever he interacts with them because hes not allowed to have any feelings in particular about it other than going 'jeez' or ignoring it, makes their friendships with rean much worse written, claire and sara are creepy, etc.
this is such a character driven game that all i have to say about it really is in relation to that LOL. other small thoughts i have: the pacing isnt always my favourite but it tracks with the cold steel series; the power scaling of the characters in this game reaches the peak of being nonsensical; some big character moments are delivered in a way that doesnt always work for me and leaves it feeling comical instead of impactful; the soldat battles are the best as always; I HATE THE KEEP GET ME OUT OF THERE WHY DO WE HAVE BONDING EVENTS IN THERE EVERY MONTH!!!!; copper georg is the FUNNIEST thing to ever happen in a video game and that entire scene with him and angelica is so so fucking insane that i cant it seriously at all but in the best way possible; I Get It but the reluctance to use valimar really hurts me in my feelings; azure siegfried is even more nothing than i remember him being and i wish there was more drama going on there or that more was done with the mystery of it.
tl;dr i love this game especially coming off the incredibly miserable ending of cold steel 2 and i love how things get worse forever. i love drama!!!!
going into cs3 the first time, i was really attached to the original class vii and took a good amount of time to warm up to the new class vii cast (except for altina who is perfect). the new class vii cast is a lot smaller and i definitely think it benefits from that, the new characters get more sustained focus and confront their own issues more organically as a cast of 5 compared to a cast of 10. saying that, i would expect all 5 of those characters to be better written and more interesting considering they get more screen time and can be fleshed out much more, but imo at least: juna and altina are significantly better than the og class vii, ash is also pretty good, kurt is not the most interesting to me and i really think they couldve done more with him + his dynamic with his classmates, and musse is....... musse is musse... so overall i think they could have done a better job honestly.
the bond between rean and his classmates is obviously very special and very important and i do always love seeing their reunions and how much they all genuinely care for each other, but feels like it all hit a wall during cs2 and ever since then it just comes off as there being very little point in them showing up and being involved in the plot. there isnt room for growth because basically all of cs1 was focused entirely on character relationships (i like this btw) and no meaningful conflict is ever going to happen between these characters now. this is very apparent when compared to the bond between rean and his students, who are new characters and all have their own issues with him/themselves and challenge each other. the main thing i love about the new class vii is that rean is constantly adjusting to them. in cs1 his classmates know hes got his own issues and this comes up a fair amount, but the focus is always on him helping solve other peoples problems. this is true in cs3 as well, but it feels better in cs3 where theyre teenagers and hes their teacher so theyre more like, fundamentally opposed to listening to him or liking him LOL. its challenging for rean to help them through their issues because he has to in his own way prove himself to them. he has to genuinely connect with them in a way that forces himself to be way more open than he has been in previous games. rean has been Going Through It his whole life but had that turned up like crazy during the ending of cs2, so its not just good for his relationship with other characters, its also useful for the audience who gets to see how much trauma hes dealing with, how badly hes handling some of it, and how much hes working on himself because he takes his duties as a teacher insanely seriously and knows that he needs to be in a good place if he wants to set a good example for his students.
i also just think the group dynamic is inherently funnier - these kids have the most popular man in erebonia teaching them but to them hes just their exasperating teacher. they poke fun at rean a lot and get frustrated with him easily, but they do admire him very much. and rean has wildly poor self esteem and these teenagers are going 'ugh instructor rean back off!!!' so its funny seeing him go from taking it kind of personally (kicked puppy look) to understanding them more + growing more comfortable and confident in his role as an instructor.
another thing - generally speaking, reans students are more connected to the plot than his classmates are. this can sometimes be a detriment since their most of their backstories have been kind of just fucking.. hamfisted into already established lore/events/etc but the benefit is that their presence feels significant and important. reans classmates fade in relevance because there isnt that much they can do with them. fie and emma (and jusis i guess?) have stuff going on thats related to the plot, but they dont interact with it in a meaningful way and if they werent in the game nothing would change. obviously millium is extremely relevent and necessary; while i wish it wasnt mostly at the very end of the game, the build up to it throughout the game is well done and especially noticeably good on a replay. the rest are like, ok you have a fight/reveal or two thats somewhat relevant to you for whatever reason i guess. generally speaking their individual plotlines are very removed from rean/the player and theres no significant interaction between what they have on their plate and what the player has going on. the new class vii (mostly) have plotlines that are relevant to rean as a character and their class as a group.
the setting is also really good - thors military academy was done so well that i would have expected any other setting to fall flat in comparison, but the branch campus manages to have its own weird charms without relying on the previous setting, and rean + the player are able to get just as comfortable and attached to the school/students/village in cs3 as in cs1. the cast of students follow the points ive said above, its overall smaller and more individualized and feel like they interact with each other + rean more. im probably more attached to the student cast in cs1/2 but id say that the new cast is done better
i will say that i think bonding events are worse across the board. altinas are always good, yuna has a good one... uh... that might be it for me. i guess its hard to say they were ever all that great? but i think cs1/2 had a wider range of bad to good while in cs3 90% of them are weird or forgettable. oh, heres something i didnt realize on my first playthrough: i originally romanced alisa (going through a no romance run for this one) and i didnt realize how many of her events/dialogue are Exactly The Same regardless of if youre dating her or not? like oh my god its bad. its like the game doesnt understand that youre not romancing her??? every default interaction with her is CRAZY romantic. nearly every woman character is into rean and its badly written and uncomfortable, but they are so easy to brush off in comparison to alisa, who if you arent dating her is literally just being strung around by rean and it makes him come off as an absolute dick about it LMAO. it is just so so so pushy. just make a canon romance if youre going to do this....
i dont want to get into the whole 'everyone has the hots for rean' thing since its not unique to cs3 at all and gets worse/more unavoidable in cs4 but it continues to be bad here, does nothing to make the women more unique or interesting or add anything to their characters via it, makes rean worse whenever he interacts with them because hes not allowed to have any feelings in particular about it other than going 'jeez' or ignoring it, makes their friendships with rean much worse written, claire and sara are creepy, etc.
this is such a character driven game that all i have to say about it really is in relation to that LOL. other small thoughts i have: the pacing isnt always my favourite but it tracks with the cold steel series; the power scaling of the characters in this game reaches the peak of being nonsensical; some big character moments are delivered in a way that doesnt always work for me and leaves it feeling comical instead of impactful; the soldat battles are the best as always; I HATE THE KEEP GET ME OUT OF THERE WHY DO WE HAVE BONDING EVENTS IN THERE EVERY MONTH!!!!; copper georg is the FUNNIEST thing to ever happen in a video game and that entire scene with him and angelica is so so fucking insane that i cant it seriously at all but in the best way possible; I Get It but the reluctance to use valimar really hurts me in my feelings; azure siegfried is even more nothing than i remember him being and i wish there was more drama going on there or that more was done with the mystery of it.
tl;dr i love this game especially coming off the incredibly miserable ending of cold steel 2 and i love how things get worse forever. i love drama!!!!