After the Tragedy of Cold Steel II, I was close to believing that it was but a phantasm of my mind after III started weaving back all the best parts of the series back together in a blazing fashion.
The main party feels like a return to form of Sky. By cutting down on the size, everyone gets full attention on their development and their interpersonal dynamics, while also not requiring the protagonist to be the center of solving everyone's troubles all the time. The conflicts feel more natural as they aren't immediately resolved and forgotten about like Old Class VII, instead naturally evolving through the entire story. I enjoyed every party member and the variety they brought to the table, especially the ones that aren't particularly cordial, or are obviously using us and aren't shy to be aggressive.
Somehow the overstuffed box of shounen tropes that is Rean was also morphed into a very compelling protagonist. With how he has to take different approaches to teaching between his students, along with how they parallel his own troubles, and how he has to deal with his status and notoriety and how it weighs on him, in the backdrop of increasing political tensions, elevates this iteration of Rean to near top of the protagonist list.
The overarching plot shows its true strength over the main story by working together so many different threads that you can't help but be excited to see how all kinds of plotlines and characters start intertwining together. It really feels like a reward for being attentive for the entire road leading here.
They couldn't have rewarded a freak such as myself for being a Serial-NPC-Talker more than this game. All the locations you visit are far more interesting and dense in relevant information to the main overarching story, along with plenty of connections to other characters and side quests across the series, and seeing how the school of misfits we're assigned to is getting by: I basically ended up talking to everyone.
This is also the first game where'd I'd say I really enjoyed the gameplay, adding more to the experience rather than feeling like a chore most of the time. For the first time, arts and crafts builds both feel viable, leading to far more build variety. But by far the best addition is BP and Orders which brings together the teambuilding, and needing to balance using the resource offensively and defensively at the right moments, with bosses punishing you brutally if you don't balance your offence and defence right.
There are some parts that I can't believe still aren't getting improved, like the ever increasing amount of quartz without a filter to sort through them, or needing to go to 3 different stores/menus to get normal, upgraded and unique quartz. (And the mecha fight at the end of chapter 1 on Nightmare is indeed just that: nothing in the series comes close to how long this fight took me.)
That phantasm is easily stolen away as all the worst parts of Cold Steel are still here, with long existing problems of the series all the same.
Nothing, ever, happening. You already know you're strapped in for swathes of no plot progression when booting up a game in this series.
The templated chapters, which for some reason have to hit same-ish plot beats in the exact same order, with them finding ridiculous ways to force it to go by that template. (Ahem, Rean? Why are you putting your sword away in-front of Jaegers when you specifically taught your students to always be wary? MULTIPLE times in a row. Just to force the exact same entrance scenes for the old party members? Why?)
The main masterminds, who can only spew their incessant spiel about "plans" and "predictions" that also somehow always have every detail go their way without any notions of a plan B, no matter how little they know about the people involved or how little they're directly involved themselves.
The shounen schlock, which is a ceaseless avalanche of all kinds of "not at my full strength" and other reasons for losing in cutscenes after winning, whilst never having the losses amount to anything when most of them just up and leave. There's also absolutely no kind of consistency to power levels, as anyone can beat anyone at any time, no matter their proficiencies.
The harem elements, especially bad with Old Class VII, where they can't decide on what kind of a relationship most of them have with Rean, but still enough to be a harem.
Despite all the glaring flaws, this is easily a contender for my top favourites in the series. I don't even know whether that's because it's after the worst game in the series, or because all the connections with seeing how my favourite characters' stories are continuing, and the main party, were actually that good.
Unfortunately, I've already resigned to the fact that it will not continue like this in IV. Along with all the worst parts mentioned earlier that will most definitely end up being the focus, they furthermore have to do a conclusion for 8 games' worth, when the track records shows they usually can't even do it for 1. In addition, they've introduced [spoiler] resurrections, prophecies and curses [/spoiler] into the mix, all the elements perfect for removing all stakes, taking away characters' agencies, and trivializing plotlines.
[strike]The real worry is them putting Tita and Agate in a romantic relationship like they keep trying to spur on. Please... please don't... it's fine if it's one sided from Tita, but I'm sending this whole series straight to Gehenna if they go through with it. The series has already had some rancid vibes when it comes to kids, propelled majorly since Zero. (Outrageous for a series that has an Epstein island equivalent, with two of its victims as some of the best characters.)[/strike]
[spoiler]Me! Me! Musse! Try hypnotizing me next!
...I'm just a worthless chud.[/spoiler]
