Yet another post talking about things I don't like in story telling, this is actually a result of my playthrough of Trails of Cold Steel 3 (which I've completed, I won't do a "review" of it but I will go through what I did and didn't like about it) as well as a pic of Storm.

So Trails 3, here's the aforementioned list of things I did and didn't like.

I liked:

• The UI once I got used to it, it didn't take up as much space as the old one from 1 and 2
• Some of the new characters, I found Ash (one of the members of new class VII) to be pretty entertaining.
• They played up Rean's overprotectiveness of his sister, doesn't stop him from still being a block of wood though
• They didn't overuse the above trait to the point where it stopped being funny
• You got to visit the half of the empire you didn't see in Trails 1&2
• The music is much better than in the first two games, I especially liked the branch campus' theme
• The fishing minigame was improved and you could fish with any member of the nu class VII

I didn't like:

• That Rean was the main character again, he should have filled the same role Sara filled in 1 imo
• The overly formulaic nature of the story, will explain this in detail later
• It felt like it was referencing side games I never got the chance to play
• The overall length, it felt too long and resulted in me feeling like a lot of stuff was just extra padding
• The cliffhanger ending, this really pissed me off but I'll go into more detail later.

So yeah 7 good points and 5 bad points (although two of those good points can be rolled into one) however I feel like a lot of the bad points are bigger problems then the good points make up for (seriously I'm docking  points off the game's score for how formulaic it was and for that fucking cliffhanger) and overall I hope IV doesn't continue in the same vein. I just want Rean's story to be over so the series can move on and focus on a new main character.

But anyway I mentioned how Trails 3 is too formulaic, so what do I mean by that? It meant that after the second chapter I pretty much knew how every other chapter was going to play out since they played all their cards way too soon, now don't get me wrong formula in video games (and just about every other form of entertainment except books) is good and somewhat necessary as it allows you to construct something to form your story around it's when it's too obvious and doesn't change at all that makes it bad. For example in the Pokemon anime almost every episode has Team Rocket trying to capture Pikachu, this is the formula for the show so you know it's going to happen but what changes episode to episode is how they try to capture the yellow rat and what other Pokemon they try to capture along with it in Trails 3 just about every chapter has you go through the motions of doing school teacher stuff then going on a field excercise then doing some tasks on the first day and meeting up with the old members of class VII only for something to happen to result in Rean calling his mech only for it to get interrupted by other members of old class VII then for him to go with the old class VII members to solve a problem only for nu class VII to show up and help and then he has to call his mech for a mech fight. That goes on for 5 chapters of the game's story with no change resulting in each chapter getting incredibly predictable, but what's even more insulting (to me at least) is how they writers don't even try to cover it up with anything interesting once you've played the first chapter you've essentially played them all and then it's just a case of going through the motions to get through the story. Yes the previous two games had a formula as well but they at least had enough meat around it to make it seem interesting and take your mind off how predictable it was.

And then we have the cliffhanger, the only thing that pissed me off about the game more than its overly formulaic writing. now don't get me wrong cliffhangers can be good hell Trails 1 had a pretty good cliffhanger that setup the next game nicely and gave some wriggle room for a potential timeskip to happen and ways to explain how the other members of class VII escaped the predicament they where in at the end of the game. 3 does none of this. It, and mild spoilers for the end of Trails of Cold Steel 3, literally ends with the BBEG suddenyl spawning a mech (no foreshadowing or explanation, he jsut pulls it out his ass) and grabbing Rean's mech by the neck before shouting a line about the black ink of despair and the game cutting to black. I hate these types of cliffhanger endings because unless IV's prologue picks up seconds after (seconds of in game time) 3 it's going to have to spend way too much time explaining things resulting in the game being far longer than it needs to be (a complaint I had about 3, seriously 1 and 2 took me a combined total of 80 hours to complete, 3 alone took me 60 odd hours) and potentially risking fatigue. Like I said I don't mind a cliffhanger if it's done right but when one gets done wrong it's an immediate dislike for me.

Sorry about the wall of text complaing about an above average JRPG series that very few of you probably care about but I just wanted to get it off my chest. Just be glad I didn't include my impressions of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 remaster in this as well, I've got my issues with that game as well (though not as many as Trails 3) but anyway here's Storm being all flashy enjoy.