the ending stunlocked me
edit: to elaborate further, this series is AMAZING and this game did not disappoint. because i played CS1-CS2 first and then went back to Sky, there actually was around a 2 year gap for me between CS2 and CS3, which made the time jump feel much more real to me lmao. i guess that's a benefit of that play order. needless to say, getting back into cold steel was extremely satisfying and reuniting with the old class VII hit super hard, not to mention all the guest appearances from liberl/crossbell and the new class VII are no slouches either. the character cast in this series is immaculate and it really shines in this game. they really stepped it up with the gameplay too, adding fun new mechanics like Break and Orders to the already good combat system present in the previous CS games.
if I had to name any gripe whatsoever it would be that the late game is a bit too easy once you get access to really broken resources like the domination quartz / hades gem etc... makes some key fights near the end pretty anticlimactic when you can kill them all before they even have a chance to attack. naturally though if i wanted more challenge i could've just played on nightmare difficulty or not abused the game to its core lmao, for what it's worth i think this is only a problem later in the game and that the difficulty curve through the early-mid game is fine
furthermore the ending, while crazy, IS a cliffhanger ending that leaves many loose ends untied which is fine as a stylistic choice for the series but does knock it slightly for my overall opinion of this game specifically personally since it's not the complete package.
all in all, to this point I would say this is currently my 2nd favorite game in the whole series just behind trails to azure. lots of potential for CS4
edit: to elaborate further, this series is AMAZING and this game did not disappoint. because i played CS1-CS2 first and then went back to Sky, there actually was around a 2 year gap for me between CS2 and CS3, which made the time jump feel much more real to me lmao. i guess that's a benefit of that play order. needless to say, getting back into cold steel was extremely satisfying and reuniting with the old class VII hit super hard, not to mention all the guest appearances from liberl/crossbell and the new class VII are no slouches either. the character cast in this series is immaculate and it really shines in this game. they really stepped it up with the gameplay too, adding fun new mechanics like Break and Orders to the already good combat system present in the previous CS games.
if I had to name any gripe whatsoever it would be that the late game is a bit too easy once you get access to really broken resources like the domination quartz / hades gem etc... makes some key fights near the end pretty anticlimactic when you can kill them all before they even have a chance to attack. naturally though if i wanted more challenge i could've just played on nightmare difficulty or not abused the game to its core lmao, for what it's worth i think this is only a problem later in the game and that the difficulty curve through the early-mid game is fine
furthermore the ending, while crazy, IS a cliffhanger ending that leaves many loose ends untied which is fine as a stylistic choice for the series but does knock it slightly for my overall opinion of this game specifically personally since it's not the complete package.
all in all, to this point I would say this is currently my 2nd favorite game in the whole series just behind trails to azure. lots of potential for CS4