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[Bebpo]

Been pretty busy with work this week and was kinda burnt out after the massive ch.2, so taking it slow and relaxing, just exploring the ch.3 city now. Looks nice, but what's with every town in the game having the same BGM? A lot of fields too. I feel like it takes away a lot of the unique character of each town/field when they don't have their own unique track.

In general, kinda disappointed by the soundtrack in this game so far. It doesn't feel like there's very many tracks and most are just low-key slice of life tunes that are shared for school/towns. The main battle theme is also really forgettable. I like a couple of the slice of life simple day tracks and the final non-mecha boss of each chapter's battle song (which is also shared and the same song each chapter) with the battle piano, but for a Falcom ost so far this is the most forgettable one I've heard from them.

Maybe they're saving all the good unique tunes for Sen 4. I remember Sen 2 having better music than Sen 1.

 

[preta]

Been pretty busy with work this week and was kinda burnt out after the massive ch.2, so taking it slow and relaxing, just exploring the ch.3 city now. Looks nice, but what's with every town in the game having the same BGM? A lot of fields too. I feel like it takes away a lot of the unique character of each town/field when they don't have their own unique track.

In general, kinda disappointed by the soundtrack in this game so far. It doesn't feel like there's very many tracks and most are just low-key slice of life tunes that are shared for school/towns. The main battle theme is also really forgettable. I like a couple of the slice of life simple day tracks and the final non-mecha boss of each chapter's battle song (which is also shared and the same song each chapter) with the battle piano, but for a Falcom ost so far this is the most forgettable one I've heard from them.

Maybe they're saving all the good unique tunes for Sen 4. I remember Sen 2 having better music than Sen 1.

Generally I agree with you, but every town does not have the same theme, that's just blatantly false. Each one is unique.

 

[Bebpo]

Generally I agree with you, but every town does not have the same theme, that's just blatantly false. Each one is unique.

Really? I'm pretty sure the theme for Ordess or whatever the ocean city is called has been in the other parts of the game before? Maybe they all just sound really similar.

 

[preta]

Really? I'm pretty sure the theme for Ordess or whatever the ocean city is called has been in the other parts of the game before? Maybe they all just sound really similar.

That one is used a couple of times before then, but not as a town theme. Keep playing, I think you'll be pleased with some songs coming up soon. Also - I'm told that Sen 3's soundtrack is extremely backloaded, with new songs coming in rapidly from chapter 4 onward.

 

[Bebpo]

Walked around Ordis more and I guess it is a new track, it's like the first half is the normal slice of life day track used for school stuff, but then the back half is a little different. Idk, it's nice music just all kinda similar.

What a nice looking town though. First area in the game to me that feels like a step up in visuals from the PS3 Sen 1/2.

 

[Bebpo]

Well the soundtrack just got announced for 11/15/17 release. 4 cds, 90 tracks. So guess the new tracks are more backloaded after all since 90 tracks is a hefty amount.

https://www.falcom.co.jp/mailorder/category/cd.html

 

[Shouta]

Yeah, it seems like Chapter 4 is going to be pretty big so it wouldn't be surprising to me if it was backloaded.

 

[Cruixant]

Finished chapter 1. Some brief thoughts so far:

Spoiler

I'm really, really liking the pace of the story so far compared to most other kiseki games. Starting by introducing some major figures like the Jaeger King (together with the Purple 騎神!) right off the bat is so, so welcome. Likewise, visiting Hamel Village was a nice surprise. It was namedropped at the end of Sen 2 when Osborne appeared and I was wondering if it would be important to Sen 3, and it seems like it is. If this was any other kiseki, it probably would have been introduced like halfway through the game.

Another thing I like is that significant (and interesting) events and cutscenes happen way more often than in any other kiseki. The prologue + ch. 1 of Sen 3 have already been more exciting than most of Sen 1 and 2 for me.

Gameplay-wise I'm really liking some of the new additions. The orders system adds a new layer of depth to battles and it can be really useful in some encounters. The 騎神 battles, I'm still not sure how to feel about. The 神機 boss fight was so awesome yet so fucking hard because I'm terrible at EP management lol. I'm guessing this will become less of an issue as you progress in the story and you get more abilities + EP.
Another cool feature is that now you have a few sidequest chains related to some of your old classmates that span through chapters and are quite different from regular quests, which I find more interesting. I'm guessing the Black History books quest is kind of like the usual books sidequest you had in the previous games, so I'm guessing we'll be learning more about the history of Erebonia in Sen 3.

Onward to chapter 2!

 

[Stuart444]

Just finished Sen III and well... all I can say really is...

When is Sen IV ;_:? I want it now ;-; (Major Endgame spoiler stuff below)

I did like the second last dungeon,

Spoiler

it was cool doing the split up thing. I also liked the atmosphere of the final dungeon despite no real puzzle or any special mechanics and instead just runs from boss to boss.

I hope Millium survives ;_: (I did go wut at the ship blowing up but we know the prince will survive. He's too good to die.). Rean just went nuts on that dragon, I couldn't help but laugh (and cheer for him cause fuck that dragon)

Unless I missed something as well, I'm still wondering WTF at Crow. we SAW his body with this new Crow looking at it. So how? - Also until I see Angelica's body, I refuse to believe she is dead regardless of what George said. - though even seeing the body doesn't mean anything if Crow is to go by >_<

Yeah, the wait for Sen IV is going to be hard.

 

[encephalon]

The wait for Sen IV has been hard as of Ch. 3.

 

[Stuart444]

(again, end-game: final final cutscene spoiler)

It almost does feel like it was literally cut into two (Sen III and Sen IV) - I mean the final chapter feels like the type of chapter a Kiseki game would have with a cliffhanger and all but the very last bit where

Spoiler

Osborne holds up Rean by Valimar's neck before cutting away. Well it cuts away almost instantly, not even a fade to black moment. It makes it seem even more like it was split into two.

I hope if it was split into two, that means Sen IV is coming along quickly and willl be out by end of next year/start of the year after.

 

[Cruixant]

So Sen 4 is definitely confirmed? =/.

I don't really like how they've been handling the Erebonia arc at all, although I guess this was to be expected. Anyhow, if this is another Sen 1/2 situation, then I'm expecting Sen 3 to have the bulk of the story and then 4 to be 3's final chapter stretched into a single game. I would like to be proven wrong though, but after how Sen 2 turned out storywise I'm not particularly enthusiastic...

 

[encephalon]

So Sen 4 is definitely confirmed? =/.

I don't really like how they've been handling the Erebonia arc at all, although I guess this was to be expected. Anyhow, if this is another Sen 1/2 situation, then I'm expecting Sen 3 to have the bulk of the story and then 4 to be 3's final chapter stretched into a single game. I would like to be proven wrong though, but after how Sen 2 turned out storywise I'm not particularly enthusiastic...

The thing to remember is that where Sen II might have been an expansion of what should have been the final arc to Sen I, Sen IV should be the culmination of build up starting with Zero no Kiseki.

 

[Shouta]

Erebonia is massive and they've had a lot to cover in it.

Sen 2 still had revisits to each of the areas and dealt with the back half of the stories there as well so it's not like it was totally devoid of story. Sen 2 falters at making its central thread as interesting for a few reasons.

 

[Stuart444]

End game spoilers:

Spoiler

When the darkness spreads across Erebonia, it was pretty cool to see the whole map of it. Place is huge indeed.

 

[Jiraiza]

Final chapter:

Spoiler

FUCK YOU FALCOM

 

[CEJames]

FUCK YOU FALCOM

Uhhhh.....what?

 

[Jiraiza]

Uhhhh.....what?

ok there

 

[PK Gaming]

Final chapter:

Spoiler

FUCK YOU FALCOM

I was waiting for this

Spoiler

Suffer

 

[Grim Patron]

Cancelled my LE at the last minute. Too much in October to get to play. Ill buy it if I can find it on amazon end of the month. Any news about NISA localizing?

 

[preta]

Cancelled my LE at the last minute. Too much in October to get to play. Ill buy it if I can find it on amazon end of the month. Any news about NISA localizing?

No, thankfully. I think there's a good chance Falcom understands the importance of consistency in localization within the series, considering they licensed out the whole Sky arc as one object (I think?) and CS1 and 2 together. And after even JP sites have been reporting on how bad Ys VIII's loc was, I don't imagine there's much left of their relationship with NISA.

If it were to be localized by NISA, I doubt I'd even buy the English version.

 

[Jiraiza]

I was waiting for this

Spoiler

Suffer

Literally dying inside.

Spoiler

Why is Erebonia such a shithole? And Jusis' scream was absolutely fucking painful. That was definitely the strongest scream across all three CS games so far. Special mention to omega edgy ALL OF ME Rean voice acting in the final fight.

Will post my thoughts on the entire game soon.

 

[Holundrian]

Reposting from the community OT here too.

Careful to anyone playing on their second playthrough in Sen III there is a bug where you lose one of your masterquartz if you play with the inherit MQ option.
It happens in chapter 2 upon the character with the Titania MQ joining. If you block off Titania by equipping it in a mainslot the quartz you lose will change.
You can basically at most control between losing Titania, Kaguchi, Skuld, Sirius or Diva.

Also they buffed dodge tanks insanely hard. Now you aren't just immune to normal physical attacks you counter for 10k+ dmg too.

 

[Balfour]

Just finished Sen III and well... all I can say really is...

When is Sen IV ;_:? I want it now ;-; (Major Endgame spoiler stuff below)

I did like the second last dungeon,

Spoiler

it was cool doing the split up thing. I also liked the atmosphere of the final dungeon despite no real puzzle or any special mechanics and instead just runs from boss to boss.

I hope Millium survives ;_: (I did go wut at the ship blowing up but we know the prince will survive. He's too good to die.). Rean just went nuts on that dragon, I couldn't help but laugh (and cheer for him cause fuck that dragon)

Unless I missed something as well, I'm still wondering WTF at Crow. we SAW his body with this new Crow looking at it. So how? - Also until I see Angelica's body, I refuse to believe she is dead regardless of what George said. - though even seeing the body doesn't mean anything if Crow is to go by >_<

Yeah, the wait for Sen IV is going to be hard.

Spoiler

Siegfried is implied to be reanimated from Crow's corpse in a similar way to how they gave life to Altina and Millium. The body in the grave was just a fake

They brought him back because the needed Ordine to be active. No one else can pilot it. It is probably the same with Rutger, but who knows. He just seemed like a Zombie

 

[AledyHauser]

Final chapter:

Spoiler

FUCK YOU FALCOM

I just finished the game and I so wholeheartedly agree with you.

Spoiler

The cliffhanger is worst than CS1 and FC

 

[Stuart444]

Spoiler

Siegfried is implied to be reanimated from Crow's corpse in a similar way to how they gave life to Altina and Millium. The body in the grave was just a fake

They brought him back because the needed Ordine to be active. No one else can pilot it. It is probably the same with Rutger, but who knows. He just seemed like a Zombie

Spoiler

I was speculating the other day that he's similar to Altina/Millium like that.
Though it makes me wonder how/when were they able to do that between the games.

I just finished the game and I so wholeheartedly agree with you.

Spoiler

The cliffhanger is worst than CS1 and FC

Spoiler

I loved the way CS1 ended but I have to say it's on par with FC for me.
FCs cliffhanger was pretty bad and if I hadn't waited til SC was out before playing,
I can imagine being pissed about the long wait. Both CSIII and FCs endings were just bad/good haha

 

[sungahymn]

I just finished the game and I so wholeheartedly agree with you.

Spoiler

The cliffhanger is worst than CS1 and FC

I just watched it on Youtube.

Spoiler

Man, that is some bullshit.

Guess I know how players of FC felt when it first came out.

 

[encephalon]

The wait has felt "real" ever since it became clear that

Spoiler

the &#24187;&#28814;&#35336;&#30011; didn't seem like it was going to be revealed in Sen III.

No matter what cliff hangers await me (I'm almost there!).

 

[Bebpo]

You know, since Kiseki games are pretty story-heavy and we're all mainly talking about story here, let's talk about the battle system/gameplay for a bit.

I think the battle system is good, about on par with Sen 1&2 levels though I liked Zero/Ao's more and Sky's was simple, slow but more felt strategic. Zero was an evolution (har) and by Ao it started getting kinda ridiculous OP broken but was fun. In Sen 3 the order system is neat, but is it just me or is Altina's BP3 all reflect order way too OP'd? If you can manage to break the enemies enough to obtain 3 more BP during the turns before it runs out you can basically keep activating it and be invincible to everything. I try to only use it for emergencies but it seems super OP. If you ditch that one, the rest all seem pretty reasonable although Rean's 6 turns of instant cast for only 2BP is pretty amazing too. To balance it I'd make it last 4turns and cost 3BP or 6 turns/4BP so you can't just instant cast non-stop through battles. Certainly great for buffing all party right at the start and instant heals when needed.

Been playing on hard btw and the boss fights feel just about right for normal on previous kiseki games. Regular fights are pretty much all a joke and just quick xp/item/sepith gets and building BP points and CP for prep before bosses.

One thing that's kinda hmmm, is that in previous Kiseki games before Sen you'd actually need to use magic attacks sometimes. Like certain normal enemies would be almost immune to physical and you'd need to use magic on them. Here, even on hard I can just use craft/craft/craft/craft every turn and break/beat every enemy without every using magic. I basically never use magic outside buffs/healing in this game which is weird because there's still a ton of attack spells but there's not much point. It's like they dumbed down the balance so you don't have to differentiate between magic/physical and can just spam crafts - the end. Even though Sen 3 has some strategy and tactics, I do feel like a lot of the strategy that the older battle systems had is gone and it's mash mash mash crafts now. Bosses are the only place where there's still some strategy in Sen 3 imo.

Ok, so outside of battle I want to talk about Quartz/Master Quartz/Accessories.
...there's way too fucking many at this point lol

Like in the older Kiseki games I remember spending time micro-managing all my equipped quartz and equipment to keep my team good and strong for normal enemy fights + bosses. Like I remember how even something like Speed2 or 3 would make a huge difference in turn order and I'd want it on everyone and how the quartz that makes spell casting take less time was essential for casters, as was attack1/2, seishi 1/2. I remember when you needed accuracy 1/2/etc... quartz because otherwise you're physical attackers would miss semi-often and you'd get countered. And critical 1/2 was important too. Like quartz and accesory management used to be important.

But then there didn't used to be a 100 quartz with 50+ available from the start and probably 50+ accessories. And half of those 100 quartz give huge stat bonuses and half of those accessories do to and it all gets to a point now that everything is OP and there's such a huge leniency for your builds because of it and nothing needs it challenge-wise.

I'm ashamed to say but I haven't updated any of my equipped quartz since like ch.1 now almost 60 hours in, in the middle of ch.3. And the only character I bothered updating accessories with is Rean to just have the quick CP gain stuff.

I just feel so overwhelmed with the crazy amount of available quartz & accessories that I don't want to spend the time micro-managing my team build because it's a pain in the butt and since hard mode is easy for normal fights and boss fights are fine because of orders and stuff without it, there's really no reason.

My only recommendation for a solution to this is instead of just adding quartz after quartz to the lists, it'd probably be good for Falcom to go through and ditch a lot of stuff and thin out the quartz so only actual major useful ones remain. Same with accessories.

But I guess this is just a side effect of a Kiseki game last 4 games so they keep adding to the quartz/accessories and adding battle sub-systems and balance ends up out the window a good deal and there's just so many options for builds it's messy. 3rd was sorta like that but was also a lot tighter balanced because Sora just didn't have so much stuff in the battle system so it was more focused imo. At this rate if they keep everything and keep adding to the battle/sub-systems I expect Sen 4 to be incredibly broken with everyone insanely OP all of the time (which Sen 3 basically already is anyhow).

(Btw, I mentioned in the other thread but my hope for the next & last battle system addition in Sen 4 is team s-crafts from Ao.)

One nice thing about Calvard afterwards is that it'll be a chance for them to pair down everything to its roots and hopefully this time they wont flood so many quartz.

Anyhow that's just some of my thoughts on the battle system at this point. It's fun and it works and there's some interesting tactics especially with the order system, though playing it at the same time as DQXI which is a very basic traditional battle system it feels like DQXI's fights/bosses are a lot more balanced and exciting challenges because you have much fewer options and things aren't crazy OP broken. Though to be fair the bosses in Sen 3 can be OP broken too to counter that so you have to use cheat stuff like reflect orders to survive instant kill bullshit. It's broken v broken lol very strange.

 

[encephalon]

I had the same experience with arts. I just dont use them that often because Crafts are so much more important. Though I might just not realize how effective arts are at break damage.

I get "zero damage" almost every battle these days. At least 80% of the time (hard mode). I'm okay with this to a degree, because I feel like it's in part because of the choices I make at the beginning of battle, my equipment, and my orbments. I also feel like it's okay for there to be a bit of a difficulty imbalance like in Sen III, because fights in Kiseki games are often as hard as the narrative makes them out to be. Easy fights are easy, but hard fights often do put up a bit of a challenge, even on normal. Ao's final boss required several tries for me to get the timing right.

Personally I think that a lot of the changes made to Kiseki through the Sen series are designed to make each character feel unique. Having spells tied to combinations of orbments is a fun idea, but in practice, I found that my characters often had access to the same spells or I found myself relying on key orbments for every character. For me personally, the pros of the new approach outweigh the cons. There could be better balancing, but it's more interesting this way.

 

[Erheller]

I didn't mess around with arts in CS1, but in CS2 NG Nightmare, arts were easily the best way to clear dungeons. Get a strong spell-caster, stack the arts damage quartz on them, equip the quartz that regens EP when you walk around, and you can outright wipe most encounters with a single cast.

I had the same experience with arts. I just dont use them that often because Crafts are so much more important. Though I might just not realize how effective arts are at break damage.

I get "zero damage" almost every battle these days. At least 80% of the time (hard mode). I'm okay with this to a degree, because I feel like it's in part because of the choices I make at the beginning of battle, my equipment, and my orbments. I also feel like it's okay for there to be a bit of a difficulty imbalance like in Sen III, because fights in Kiseki games are often as hard as the narrative makes them out to be. Easy fights are easy, but hard fights often do put up a bit of a challenge, even on normal. Ao's final boss required several tries for me to get the timing right.

Personally I think that a lot of the changes made to Kiseki through the Sen series are designed to make each character feel unique. Having spells tied to combinations of orbments is a fun idea, but in practice, I found that my characters often had access to the same spells or I found myself relying on key orbments for every character. For me personally, the pros of the new approach outweigh the cons. There could be better balancing, but it's more interesting this way.

That was my experience as well in the Sky games. The CS games made me actually diversify my characters, and each character played very uniquely. I posted a longer writeup on that somewhere in the Kiseki thread, I think.

 

[Bebpo]

Hmmm, in Sky I'd have very clear "caster" characters like Kloe and Olivert and would have them split the attack elements between each other and heals, whereas everyone who was a physical attack would stick to crafts. I'm generally ok with how the spells aren't attached to making lines of quartz now, I just think maybe there should be about half as many quartz/spells because there's so many and most seem kinda useless at this point.

In Sen I feel like all my characters have the same spells generally because they get so many spells thanks to master quartz and the crafts are the only thing that make unique. I mean mostly the same as the previous games where it's always the unique crafts that make the character in battle.

 

[mikezilla2]

So this Looks Pretty but im not sure i want it given its probably not that accessible

 

[nivorae]

So Sen 4 is definitely confirmed? =/.

I don't really like how they've been handling the Erebonia arc at all, although I guess this was to be expected. Anyhow, if this is another Sen 1/2 situation, then I'm expecting Sen 3 to have the bulk of the story and then 4 to be 3's final chapter stretched into a single game. I would like to be proven wrong though, but after how Sen 2 turned out storywise I'm not particularly enthusiastic...

It is not going to be like CS2. With 1 and 2 it was very apparent they struggled so much with developing the world to the point of having to cut content and split the game due to vita space while still having mediocre graphics. While the ending with 3 makes it look like it is going to be a similar scenario it is very apparent to me that they have a lot more to tell and show. The bigger issue right now is that we have no indication on what is going to happen whatsoever.

 

[Holundrian]

So Sen 4 is definitely confirmed? =/.

I don't really like how they've been handling the Erebonia arc at all, although I guess this was to be expected. Anyhow, if this is another Sen 1/2 situation, then I'm expecting Sen 3 to have the bulk of the story and then 4 to be 3's final chapter stretched into a single game. I would like to be proven wrong though, but after how Sen 2 turned out storywise I'm not particularly enthusiastic...

It's pretty much confirmed yes.
Sen 3 to me is the usual kiseki quality but it made me like the first 2 sens even less(I still like them though just they're overall def the weakest in the series).
The feeling I got after finishing sen 3 was that it was a great middle chapter of an arc which again makes it more obvious that sen 1/2 should have been one 1 game.
I think the expectations and after taste after the first two sens might have negatively affected sen 3 impressions. I feel like people would talk very differently if Sen1/2 was one game.

Also def think Falcom should have been very forthcoming about Sen 3 not being the end of Erebonia during marketing. I think in this case having expectations be all over the place might have hurt them in the end reception wise.

 

[encephalon]

Okay so I played a little farther and I was half expecting the game to

Spoiler

end with chapter 4, but that didn't happen. I'm curious to see if anything depicted in the opening animation happens, though.

Things have gotten a little Xenogears/saga.

Regarding Sen II, I feel that Sen II was better at cinematics than Sen III - even if Sen III has better models.

 

[Novel Mike]

Literally dying inside.

Spoiler

Why is Erebonia such a shithole? And Jusis' scream was absolutely fucking painful. That was definitely the strongest scream across all three CS games so far. Special mention to omega edgy ALL OF ME Rean voice acting in the final fight.

Will post my thoughts on the entire game soon.

Yep, look forward to your thoughts on the entire game.

 

[encephalon]

Oh, and why 90 tracks? The game reuses a lot of tracks from older games. I wouldn't be surprised if over 30 percent of those might be from the Liberl and Crossbell games. Maybe a bit more than Sen I & II.

Edit:

Spoiler

Ok, so the game went from Osborne "stealing" the Phantom blaze plan from the society to working with them? Or rather,
The society taking part in this other "dusk" plan??? What is going on?

 

[nivorae]

Oh, and why 90 tracks? The game reuses a lot of tracks from older games. I wouldn't be surprised if over 30 percent of those might be from the Liberl and Crossbell games. Maybe a bit more than Sen I & II.

Edit:

Spoiler

Ok, so the game went from Osborne "stealing" the Phantom blaze plan from the society to working with them? Or rather,
The society taking part in this other "dusk" plan??? What is going on?

Spoiler

After Osborne's announcement of him stealing the plan the Anguis voted if they would work with the Gnomes or the Hexen clan for the plan. Every anguis except Vita voted for the Gnomes aka Nebula and Osborne so for now they are working together towards the common goal. This also is the reason Vita is not participating anymore despite being the initial leader of the plan.

 

[Shouta]

Not a lot of enemies getting physical resistance in the game is definitely an oversight, or at least not enough anyway. Arts do a lot of damage though, especially once you can boost their strength and specialize in certain elements.

I really like the massive flexibility in CS3 in regards to character roles because of quartz and accessories. It's more so than even CS2. If you want to run a team with the major physical attackers, you can definitely do that and have one person still be the healer easily. With the addition of the break system, you have more possible roles on the team as well.

The game definitely could use some retooling in accordance with all of these new things though. With Breaks and Orders, it's gotten a lot easier to take no damage or to lock a boss down. More difficult or tricky bosses would be pretty interesting with this much tactical power.

 

[AledyHauser]

Spoiler

After Osborne's announcement of him stealing the plan the Anguis voted if they would work with the Gnomes or the Hexen clan for the plan. Every anguis except Vita voted for the Gnomes aka Nebula and Osborne so for now they are working together towards the common goal. This also is the reason Vita is not participating anymore despite being the initial leader of the plan.

Spoiler

To clarify, the anguis voted whether to continue the phastasmal plan or support the twilight plan by Osborne and the gnomes.

 

[Cruixant]

Gameplay talk

Yeah, Rean's spell casting Order is pretty overpowered, I'm definitely expecting it to get nerfed in Sen 4.

On the arts talk, I remember finding them pretty useful in Sen 2, especially in the later half where you could do some massive damage and wipe regular mobs quickly. I kind of agree with your assertion that Sen 3 doesn't really make them seem very useful when you can spam crafts instead, but you shouldn't underestimate their power with enemies that have a 150%+ weakness to one element. I find that in those cases (particularly on bosses) it's more effective to use arts, as you deal more damage and break their guards more easily than you would with physical attacks. Speaking of which, I just fought a certain annoying boss on Geofront and I basically spammed water arts because it just kept buffing itself up. Anyway the thing is that at one point after receiving a wave of consecutive water arts, the boss just kind of stopped moving and my members got unlimited(?) turns, so I ended up cheesing him out. I'm pretty sure this was a bug, but I wonder if it had anything to do with me mainly using offensive spells.

Regarding Quartz and going overboard with the micro-managing, I pretty much agree with most of what you said. I feel that with them introducing unique quartz that have special bonuses, they tried to switch a bit the focus towards being a little more strategic about how your quartz equipment might compliment your master quartz abilities. Depending of said bonuses, you could end up being pretty overpowered or give you a good advantage at the start of encounters. I was mostly fine with this through Sen 1/2 because ultimately, sometimes it was more efficient to equip quartz that gave you certain benefits than prioritizing multiple stat buffs. But Sen 3 feels like it's really pushing it because now you also have to consider sub-master quartz, and there's just too much stuff going on.

.

.

Sen 4:

Hmm, so it seems from your posts this is a different situation than from what happened with Sen 2. I'm ok with this then. My problem mainly with splitting Erebonia into 4 games is the potential fatigue and the fact that it creates a precedent for how the Calvard arc could develop. Buuut... taking into account that Sen 1 was Falcom's first full 3D game, maybe they will be able to tell the next story more efficiently in 3 games rather than 4.

Anyway, I shouldn't be worrying about this too much. Right now Sen 3 is hitting all the right notes for me and could end up among my favorite Kisekis.

 

[nivorae]

Sen 4:

Hmm, so it seems from your posts this is a different situation than what happened with Sen 2. I'm ok with this then. My problem mainly with splitting Erebonia into 4 games is the potential fatigue and the fact that it creates a precedent for how the Calvard arc could develop. Buuut... taking into account that Sen 1 was Falcom's first full 3D game, maybe they will be able to tell the next story more efficiently in 3 games rather than 4.

Anyway, I shouldn't be worrying about this too much. Right now Sen 3 is hitting all the right notes for me and could end up among my favorite Kisekis.

Pretty much yes, it really sucks that it happened like this but sen3 feels more like the intended second game of the trilogy than the third game. I bet 4 is going to be an even bigger feast on so many fronts further setting things up for the future.

 

[Bebpo]

Really like the graphics/art in ch.3, every locale looks a lot better with more character than the first few chapters.

Pretty much yes, it really sucks that it happened like this but sen3 feels more like the intended second game of the trilogy than the third game. I bet 4 is going to be an even bigger feast on so many fronts further setting things up for the future.

The only thing is if Sen 4 is gonna be huge and not just an expanded final chapter this time...expect at least a 2 year wait ;_;

 

[preta]

Oh, and why 90 tracks? The game reuses a lot of tracks from older games. I wouldn't be surprised if over 30 percent of those might be from the Liberl and Crossbell games. Maybe a bit more than Sen I & II.

This is just simply not true and I don't know where you're getting this idea. There are almost no tracks in the game that are reused from any prior game in the series. In the whole game so far (I'm nearing the end of chapter 4), I think I've heard three or four reused tracks (

Spoiler

Roer, Bareahard, Between Forgotten Visions, and maybe one other - not sure

). And one of those - the only returning Crossbell track - is a new arrangement. Sen III has much less track reusage than SC, 3rd, Ao, or CS2.

 

[encephalon]

This is just simply not true and I don't know where you're getting this idea. There are almost no tracks in the game that are reused from any prior game in the series. In the whole game so far (I'm nearing the end of chapter 4), I think I've heard three or four reused tracks (

Spoiler

Roer, Bareahard, Between Forgotten Visions, and maybe one other - not sure

). And one of those - the only returning Crossbell track - is a new arrangement. Sen III has much less track reusage than SC, 3rd, Ao, or CS2.

I'm unfortunately not too familiar with the names of tracks and can't go back to check which ones I've heard, given that the soundtrack hasn't been released yet, but I've been cognizant of track reuse throughout the game. Of course, a lot of them make sense.

Spoiler

The Hamel theme plays because Hamel plays a part in the story.

I fully anticipated

Spoiler

unfathomed force

to make an appearance and it did (I believe there are at least 3 Crossbell tracks that make an appearance, but I can't confirm one of them right now). And of course it makes sense for Sen tracks like &#32854;&#22899;&#12398;&#12450;&#12522;&#12450; to come back. Then there are things like a sora theme being reused for

Spoiler

Claire's

backstory. I'm pretty sure I've heard at the very least 15-20 tracks from previous games, even if they're arranged.

Maybe they just stand out because they're often better than the new tracks that surround them.

 

[preta]

I'm unfortunately not too familiar with the names of tracks and can't go back to check which ones I've heard, given that the soundtrack hasn't been released yet, but I've been cognizant of track reuse throughout the game. Of course, a lot of them make sense.

Spoiler

The Hamel theme plays because Hamel plays a part in the story.

I fully anticipated

Spoiler

unfathomed force

to make an appearance and it did (I believe there are at least 3 Crossbell tracks that make an appearance, but I can't confirm one of them right now). And of course it makes sense for Sen tracks like &#32854;&#22899;&#12398;&#12450;&#12522;&#12450; to come back. Then there are things like a sora theme being reused for

Spoiler

Claire's

backstory. I'm pretty sure I've heard at the very least 15-20 tracks from previous games, even if they're arranged.

Maybe they just stand out because they're often better than the new tracks that surround them.

Right, I forgot about

Spoiler

Unfathomed Force and Aria of the Saint for a minute. I was counting Hamel as a new song because it's a sufficiently different arrangement compared to the original, as opposed to the new Between Forgotten Visions which is 90% identical. I don't remember a Sora song for Claire's backstory.

That's still nowhere near 15-20.

 

[Bebpo]

Lots of good music in the middle of Ch.3 fwiw. The

Spoiler

Canyon

area has the best field music yet.

I can agree and see what's people are saying about Sen 3 being the middle game of a sorta Erebonia trilogy where Sen 1 just had problems in development and was split in two. Where I'm at right smack in the middle of Ch.3 feels not only like the middle of Sen 3, but pretty much the middle point of the Erebonia arc.

Sen 3 feels like the middle story in a trilogy where Part 1 sets things into action, and then Part 2 slows down considerably to flesh everyone and every subplot out and move the pieces around and then part 3 is the finale. Sen 3 is the long slow talky chapter, but it's doing it great.

I feel like every single hint or subplot from Sen 1/2 and earlier Kiseki games is moving in exactly the direction I expected them to move, which makes sense because that's the whole point of hinting/foreshadowing is seeing it come into fruition. I'm really enjoying the backstories and fleshing out of the characters. Some of the best since Ren's backstory.

Sen 3 kind of reminds me a lot of Song of Ice & Fire's A Feast for Crows/A Dance with Dragons. It's all setup, development and moving pieces with cool and interesting events along the way, and it's long and slow and really good.

Speaking of hints/foreshadowing in Kiseki, it's interesting and kinda odd that

Spoiler

They're starting to talk a lot about Eastern Zemuria in here. I'm assuming it's setup for Calvard's arc which will deal with immigrants from their eastern side and the state of Zemuria to the east of them.

Because if it's trying to setup it as if we're actually going to visit that wasteland one day, see you there in 25 years of development at this rate lol.

Also the one part where Rean and Towa go "hey after we take care of the Empire's problem, there's no reason we can't go to other countries in the future and help theirs as well" I was thinking REAN WILL NOW BE THE MAIN CHARACTER FOR EVERY KISEKI GAME FOREVER NOoooooooooooooo

There isn't really anything bad about the game, but I still think at this point midway through Sen 3 that Rean's the weakest link. He's not dumb or annoying like Sen 1/2, but he's still the player substitute and has very, very little personality. He's mostly just there for other people to talk and tell their stories to. Also he's way too polite & follow the rules which has always annoyed me a bit. I'm looking forward to where he ends up at the end of Sen 3 and if they'll finally make him have a strong personality in Sen 4.

I really like Ash at this point, it's nice having a character that's a bit of a bad boy and doesn't have to play by the rules. I'd actually be down for a more grey area MC like him in the future Kiseki games. The new Sen 3 cast is all good, but he's definitely my favorite so far of the team.

Anyhow, game is definitely a much better game than 1&2 already at this point. Probably gonna be one of the best games I play this year and it's generally living up to my expectations (especially since I expected a Sen 3 & 4, so I wasn't expecting all the finale stuff here, though I was definitely not expecting a 120+ hour game either ^^

 

[encephalon]

I'm at the final dungeon. It doesn't seem too long - I should post impressions of the game tomorrow. Reading psmk2 reviews out of curiosity, I was surprised to see this from a Japanese review:

(BAD)

&#12295;&#12473;&#12459;&#12540;&#12488;&#12392;&#19968;&#37096;&#22899;&#24615;&#12461;&#12515;&#12521;&#12398;&#26684;&#22909;
&#20197;&#21069;&#12363;&#12425;&#12473;&#12459;&#12540;&#12488;&#12399;&#30701;&#12363;&#12387;&#12383;&#12391;&#12377;&#12364;&#12289;&#12388;&#12356;&#12395;&#26412;&#20316;&#12391;&#12399;&#36208;&#12427;&#12384;&#12369;&#12289;&#24231;&#12427;&#12384;&#12369;&#12391;&#12497;&#12531;&#12481;&#12521;&#12377;&#12427;&#12424;&#12358;&#12395;&#12394;&#12426;&#12414;&#12375;&#12383;&#12290;&#12373;&#12377;&#12364;&#12395;&#12420;&#12426;&#12377;&#12366;&#12290;
&#26412;&#20316;&#12399;&#12371;&#12428;&#12414;&#12391;&#12392;&#27604;&#36611;&#12375;&#12390;&#12418;&#37325;&#12417;&#12394;&#12473;&#12488;&#12540;&#12522;&#12540;&#12384;&#12392;&#24605;&#12356;&#12414;&#12377;&#12364;&#12289;&#12471;&#12522;&#12450;&#12473;&#12392;&#12456;&#12525;&#12399;&#35328;&#12358;&#12414;&#12391;&#12418;&#12394;&#12367;&#30456;&#24615;&#26368;&#24746;&#12391;&#12377;&#12290;&#20316;&#20013;&#12391;&#12462;&#12515;&#12464;&#12461;&#12515;&#12521;&#12289;&#12354;&#12427;&#12356;&#12399;&#38957;&#12364;&#12362;&#12363;&#12375;&#12356;&#25201;&#12356;&#12398;&#12461;&#12515;&#12521;&#12394;&#12425;&#12393;&#12435;&#12394;&#12405;&#12374;&#12369;&#12383;&#26684;&#22909;&#12375;&#12390;&#12390;&#12418;&#25991;&#21477;&#12394;&#12356;&#12391;&#12377;&#12364;&#12289;&#12471;&#12522;&#12450;&#12473;&#12434;&#12420;&#12427;&#12461;&#12515;&#12521;&#12395;&#12399;&#12414;&#12392;&#12418;&#12394;&#26684;&#22909;&#12434;&#12373;&#12379;&#12390;&#12411;&#12375;&#12356;&#12290;&#12393;&#12435;&#12394;&#28145;&#21051;&#12394;&#22580;&#38754;&#12391;&#12418;&#22793;&#12394;&#26684;&#22909;&#12375;&#12383;&#12498;&#12525;&#12452;&#12531;&#12364;&#12356;&#12427;&#26178;&#28857;&#12391;&#12300;&#20553;&#12381;&#12358;&#12394;&#12371;&#12392;&#35328;&#12358;&#21069;&#12395;&#12414;&#12378;&#12399;&#12362;&#21069;&#12398;&#26381;&#35013;&#12434;&#20309;&#12392;&#12363;&#12375;&#12429;&#12424;&#12301;&#12392;&#30333;&#12369;&#12390;&#12375;&#12414;&#12356;&#12414;&#12377;&#12290;&#29305;&#12395;&#12450;&#12522;&#12469;&#12290;&#12405;&#12435;&#12393;&#12375;&#12473;&#12540;&#12484;&#12391;&#24754;&#21127;&#12398;&#12498;&#12525;&#12452;&#12531;&#12406;&#12425;&#12428;&#12390;&#12418;&#22256;&#12427;&#12290;&#12371;&#12398;&#12466;&#12540;&#12512;&#12364;&#65328;&#65331;vita&#12392;&#12363;&#12391;&#12424;&#12367;&#20986;&#12390;&#12356;&#12427;&#12362;&#27671;&#27005;&#12362;&#39340;&#40575;&#12497;&#12531;&#12484;&#12466;&#12540;&#12394;&#12425;&#12394;&#12435;&#12392;&#12418;&#24605;&#12431;&#12394;&#12356;&#12391;&#12377;&#12369;&#12393;&#12289;&#12473;&#12488;&#12540;&#12522;&#12540;RPG&#12392;&#37528;&#25171;&#12387;&#12390;&#12356;&#12427;&#20197;&#19978;&#12289;&#12381;&#12358;&#12376;&#12419;&#12394;&#12356;&#12435;&#12391;&#12377;&#12424;&#12397;&#65311;

It basically says the sexualization of the characters has gone too far, particularly in terms of "serious" characters. The next review complains that you can see under the skirts of female characters when you run. Is there hope for Japan yet!?

Lots of good music in the middle of Ch.3 fwiw. The

Spoiler

Canyon

area has the best field music yet.

I can agree and see what's people are saying about Sen 3 being the middle game of a sorta Erebonia trilogy where Sen 1 just had problems in development and was split in two. Where I'm at right smack in the middle of Ch.3 feels not only like the middle of Sen 3, but pretty much the middle point of the Erebonia arc.

Sen 3 feels like the middle story in a trilogy where Part 1 sets things into action, and then Part 2 slows down considerably to flesh everyone and every subplot out and move the pieces around and then part 3 is the finale. Sen 3 is the long slow talky chapter, but it's doing it great.

Sen III does go somewhere. Or at least it seems to. The plot moved farther than I thought it would, at least in terms of what is revealed to the player. Keep playing.

Ch. 3/Final Chapter spoilers

Spoiler

I thought Chapter 3 would be the end of the society's appearance in the game, but I was wrong. I'm not quite sure to make of their reappearance though.

 

[nivorae]

Really like the graphics/art in ch.3, every locale looks a lot better with more character than the first few chapters.



The only thing is if Sen 4 is gonna be huge and not just an expanded final chapter this time...expect at least a 2 year wait ;_;

i don't think it would take them two years. Falcom always has one major release in September right before they close the fiscal year and we have no indication on any other game whatsoever besides Sen4. They also have most assets and direction anyway so i don't expect it to take more than a year. Especially not with the ballsy ending.
It also depends how true the rumour about Chinese publishers asking for a split is true though .