So I just finished CS3 and tbh I think the whole CS series has some serious, serious issues and I'm not sure I want to see them through to finish the saga in CS4 or CS5.

First up is the biggie. The protagonist is such a drag it's impossible to like him. I pretty much prefer any character to Rean, even Schmidt or McBurn. He is such a corny goody two shoes with basically no faults besides being too nice and too good to be true that it makes me gag. Estelle and Joshua were such nice characters and were so well written and rounded, even though, just my feeling, they got like half the lines that Rean got in between the two of them. I accept that Rean would have always been a hard sell compared to the two of them, especially Estelle but damn. He is just soooooo boring and soooooo corny it just sucks all the fun out of the game. His friends by contrast are such a great bunch of characters (minus Elliot) and most of the supporting cast is well written I just can't understand how they could stick with his writing. I mean... he was alone at Thors for a year so could they have not just given him a personality transplant? There is zero personality growth even after he fought in two basically three wars (Noble war, Invasion of Crossbell and the Northern Wars).

He basically has no conflicts to deal with. All the chicks love him, even Juna, who should hate him, is indebted to him and sort of horny for him, his sister should be jealous and pissed that he basically has 500 girls around him that want to get his clothes of just sort of rolls with it, the girls themselves should be pissed that he doesn't pick any of them etc. It's annoying as hell and his character only gets worse.

Storytelling wise those games just suck compared to Trails. Beginning with, for me, the most obvious idiotic decision: Crow Armbrust. Here is a guy who basically is with the class for 3 days, chases them out of their home, helps to plunge the whole country into chaos, murders someone (well not really but you get my drift) but the motivation for the group isn't: "Let's kick is lying ass all over Erebonia" but "Hey he tought Rean a cool trick and was a loveable tramp so let's show him he is wrong and then make him graduate with us, that should be enough of a punishment for a war criminal!" My god what bullshit. I get that's it's anime sort of story telling but Jesus... give me a break.

Same goes for death. I mean for crying out loud besides 1 main character nobody fucking dies, except for people off screen years ago that we don't know. How about after winning a fight against some of the badasses of the other side the crew has to come to terms with having to actually kill them because they won't be taken alive? How about having a class member die when you stupidly pick a fight with someone who is basically a god or at least get badly injured? I mean for crying out loud Sharon got burned badly (at least that is what they say) and Victor S. Arseid get's injured against McBurn, even though they both are at the top of their respective fields and have been doing this stuff for years and years but when Rean and his group of loveable tramps take on McBurn, Duvalie or whoever all they do is huff and puff a bit after but no one is taken out of the rotation or injured? How hard would that have been to write in? Besides that basically everybody comes back from the dead. Franz Reinford, Osbourne (twice), Crow etc. What's the point? Also nearly all of the wars end without casualties apparently and even attacks on a massive scall on a 880.000 metropolis just sort of happen and are forgotten soon after.

That brings me to my next point. The writing in general. Abysmal. Now I know that JRPGs tend to be long winded and discussions and talks and cutscenes take half a year because apparently after playing for 5 hours Japanese people need a half an hour toilet break which needs to be filled somehow. But my god... could we stop with the inspirational BS before every boss fight, dungeon, adventure, day? Could we stop having everybody say "Yes for my [insert reason for fighting here]!" 50 times per game? Could we stop having everybody say "Rean we're with you!" For the 50th time in 2 hours? Could we please stop that? Those games are bloated as they are and it's just seriously annoying having to sit or scroll through another conversation of "We're with you! We need to fight! Let's fight! I will help you! I will bring back peace on earth and make you a pb and j sandwich!". We KNOW you are with Rean. We know you are Class VII, we know you need to stop whoever is the bad guy this time, we know you all stick together, we know you are about to prepare for battle, everyone can see that so no reason to tell people to prepare for battle every time. Could we also stop with the constant name drops? I mean even after characters have already been introduced they drop their name like 50 times a game. Best example? The chancellor making a speech in radio and on TV. Now that guy has been the chancellor for ages, has spoken publically time and time again, everybody knows his face and his voice yet he still feels the need to begin his speech with "I'm Giliath Osborne, the chancellor of Erebonia." Are you for real?

I never felt like there was this much extra and stupid writing in Trails. Yes there were a lot of conversations but most of them felt either important for story telling reasons or where just sort of normal talk not this level of BS.

Gameplay wise these games just get on my nerves too. Why oh why do I still have to scan monsters with everything the ARCUS provides? Why oh why do we still have duct passages, stupid switches and eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeendless corridors? Why oh why do I still need to cheat to get every bond maxed unless I want to drag myself through NG ? Why oh why does it feel like such a fucking chore to finish these games? Honestly by far the best part are the free days and little expositional side quests. The rest just gets old quick. Loooong corridors, boss fight, Rean talks for 15 minutes, 30 minute cutscene, next day, 30 minute cutscene, Rean talks for 15 minutes, more corridors, rinse and repeat, point accumulation, free day, free day, and begin again. Why oh why do I still need to scan enemies that I have fought 5 times? It never felt this shitty in Trails.

I'm not going to talk about the ending. It's just plain weird and it doesn't make any sense so far tbh. It just gets more convoluted for the sake of being convoluted. It just never feels like you have accomplished anything of note. Playing as Estelle I felt I had done something in both games. Like my character grew up, became more mature and achieved something. Playing those games it feels like you have done a years worth of chores 3 times now and you still haven't gotten your pocket money and now they want me to do a fourth when the last time I didn't even get to take my Alisa Romance into CS3 and further it properly. This sucks. I heard Estelle is back for CS4? I hope they don't do a Rean on her.