I’ve almost completely abandoned those super long games for that reason. There’s too many other games I want to play and they take too damn long. Shit has to be reaaaaalllllly good.
Trails is definitely one series I'd drop every other game for.
I'd say that and I'm doing that, but as of right now I'd only say that for Sky 1-3 and Crossbell 1-2 haha. Trails in the Sky is an awesome series that really pays off by the end of SC and 3rd and Crossbell's 2nd half is exciting as hell and the high point of the franchise so far. Really hope Crossbell comes over at some fucking point.
I like Cold Steel sorta, but it's really a big step down from those 2 arcs. Especially and mostly in pacing/story. Although story-wise everything has been building up to this 4th game for like 300+ hours now between CS1-3, so now that I'm like 50 hours into CS4 it's time to see whether it pays off or not for all the buildup. Gameplay-wise it's fun and the slice of life stuff is all good, but story will either pay off and be awesome or be like damn this whole arc was a waste.
Even at this point it's incredibly apparent that the inherent problem with the Cold Steel games/arc is that it should have only been 2 games like Sky FC/SC and Crossbell FC/SC. Stretching it to 4 games really fucked up the pacing and dragged this arc out ridiculously. Apparently this was all because making their first full 3d rpg with CS1 was VERY HARD LEARNING so instead of doing the CS FC as one game they had to split it into 2 which just fucked it all up.
If the series is still alive after this game, which isn't a sure thing as the sales are not great for Kiseki right now and these full 3d jrpgs aren't dirt cheap to make, the next arc absolutely needs to be a 2 game & done arc to get the series back on track. If they try to pull another 4 game arc with FC Pt1 & Pt2 and then SC pt1 & pt2, I think pretty much their entire fanbase is gonna bail. A lot already did after CS2.
