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I was hyped for Trails of Cold Steel 3: But according to fans I shouldn't play it...

Is it possible to play and understand Cold Steel 3 having only played Cold Steel 1/2

  • Yes

    Votes: 109 43.6%

  • No

    Votes: 78 31.2%

  • Yes but..... (explain)

    Votes: 60 24.0%

  • No but.... (explain)

    Votes: 3 1.2%
  • Total voters
    250

Deleted member 437

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,039
Here is my experience as a newcomer to this series.......

I was VERY interested in diving into a new JRPG.

I saw cold steel and knew about the previous games.

I really REALLY tried to play trails in the sky, but I just absolutely loathed the art style and graphics. I couldn't get past their chibi plastic ugly bodies and faces. And I really didn't like the constant top down camera angle.

So......

I watched the entire story summary of trails 1, 2 and 3.

I then played cold steel 1 and put 80 hours. As of this typing, I am nearly done. On the final chapter.

Now........what am I going to do next?

In an ideal world, I would power through and play those unappealing crossbell games. But I can't. I know myself. Plus I don't have the patience to put in another 110+ hours. I got other shit I want to play and I really loved my time with cold steel 1.

So as soon as I'm done with cold steel 1, gonna watch story summaries of crossbell 1 and 2 and then thats it. In my mind, I am fully caught up at that point.

Yeah, its not the best solution, but ehhh, I know myself. I wasn't going to play ALL the trails games. There is way too much.
 
Novel Mike

Novel Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,553
Velezcora said:
oh quit with this bullshit already. People said the exact same thing abour CS 2 and it was fine. If you really needed to have played Crossbell Falcom would have ported them along with CS 1 and 2.
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It's not bullshit, obviously I'm not going to go into details to avoid spoilers but seriously this isn't like the Cs1/2 where things are just referenced and unimportant. CS3 deals with major plot points from all of the previous games including FC/SC. I don't think you absolutely need to play every game to understand the story but the broader context of what is actually going on? Yeah you should play all of the games, no question.
 
Niks

Niks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,299
Mikey Jr. said:
In an ideal world, I would power through and play those unappealing crossbell games. But I can't. I know myself. Plus I don't have the patience to put in another 110+ hours. I got other shit I want to play and I really loved my time with cold steel 1.

So as soon as I'm done with cold steel 1, gonna watch story summaries of crossbell 1 and 2 and then thats it. In my mind, I am fully caught up at that point.

Yeah, its not the best solution, but ehhh, I know myself. I wasn't going to play ALL the trails games. There is way too much.
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You'll be fine.
I also watched the story summaries for Ao and Zero, and Im ready for CS3.
Chapter 4 of Ao is amazing and extremely relevant to CS3.
 
tokkun

tokkun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,409
I bet there are people out there who say that you need to watch Star Wars in episode order, too.

"If you watched Episode 4 first, you wouldn't get that Luke was Vader's son, or that R2D2 and C3PO were his droids. You wouldn't know how the Emperor gained his power. You wouldn't be grossed out when Luke and Leia kiss. You would be missing out on all these important plot points!"

People tend to be way too precious about needing to get every reference or completely understand everything the first time they experience it. It really isn't so bad to not understand everything on the first go. Especially when media is so intent on explaining everything to the viewer as if they were a child, it can actually be kind of refreshing to have to use your imagination to piece together the details.
 
psynergyadept

psynergyadept

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,643
EDIT: You're fine OP, you'll miss some key points and backstory of characters but you'll understand most of the plot in the Cold Steel storyline.
 
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Grimmjow

Grimmjow

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,543
I'm in the same boat OP. I've beat Cold Steel 1 & 2 but haven't played Sky or Ao and Zero. I'm gonna keep going and then play the other games later.
 
Admiral Woofington

Admiral Woofington

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,892
psynergyadept said:
You can if you just watch a video summary on youtube but Why do you want to jump into the 3rd entry? it isn't going any where, take your time and get caught up. I'm buying CS3 but I probably won't play until I'm done with Zero and Ao.
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If someone is excited to play it, loved one and two and has been waiting for it to be localized that's ultimately the reason. If you loved 1 and 2 and can't wait to jump back in with the cast of characters both new and old only to be told you need to spend x amount of hundreds of hours playing previous entries where you didn't feel you need too much knowledge in the other two titles you just played, it deflates the hype when you just want to continue the story with the characters.
 
Tolby

Tolby

Member
Sep 24, 2019
692
Eastern Europe
I played all the officially released English ones and can only hope that's enough. I loved Cold Steel 1 & 2, but did not like the Sky trilogy.
Zero and Ao seems more of that.
 
SephLuis

SephLuis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,343
I finished CS3 a few months ago (jp version) and my conclusion is that it's much better if you could play all the games before it, but I don't think that's necessary.
If that will change in CS4, I still don't know because I haven't started 4 yet.

Taking an example of the first or so hour of the game. Rean meets his colleagues and a few students from the Academy.
One character is from Liberl. If you played the Sky trilogy, meeting this character again is great.
Another character is from Crossbell. Again, meeting that character again is great.
Both have personal situations that are easier to understand if you played their games, but they are not totally unrelatable even if you did not played them.

So, my current stance is that you can play those games by only playing CS1and CS2, but you will enjoy it more if you have played the whole series.
 
demi

demi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,837
I played Sky 1&2 and CS 1&2 and I still have no idea what's going on in the world - but at least I'll know who each recurring character is, I guess. Still excited!
 
noyram23

noyram23

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,372
I even have to finish and platinum ToCS2,
which i'm having a hard time with due to how dated it looks sometimes. I wish they stuck with Crossbell aesthetic, it looks better than current Falcom games
 

Deleted member 12186

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,467
Admiral Woofington said:
If someone is excited to play it, loved one and two and has been waiting for it to be localized that's ultimately the reason. If you loved 1 and 2 and can't wait to jump back in with the cast of characters both new and old only to be told you need to spend x amount of hundreds of hours playing previous entries where you didn't feel you need too much knowledge in the other two titles you just played, it deflates the hype when you just want to continue the story with the characters.
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Well to be fair, if a player is really serious about just going to TOCS3 because they managed to enjoy TOCS1 and 2 despite not playing prior entries, they shouldn't come and seek approval and validation from other users and get mad when they get told some "right" way.

For those that feel conflicted, just go play TOCS3, no one is or should stop you. Ya'll are in this far so forget what other people think, don't let them effect your hype(besides what kind of hype is that? you're making strangers the boss of your independent experience).
 
DeejayDoom

DeejayDoom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,006
Can you play it? of course, but you will be lost on several plot points and character motivations. Can you enjoy it? sure, but you will not get the same experience as someone who played everything (especially Zero and Ao). That's it, you just need to decide if you care about that or not

But the thing that amazes me on these posts is people wanting to skip a 9 and 10/10 games (Zero and Ao) to play a worse entry (Cold 3. doesn't mean it's bad, i thing it's better than Cold 1 and 2).
 

Deleted member 12186

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,467
SephLuis said:
I finished CS3 a few months ago (jp version) and my conclusion is that it's much better if you could play all the games before it, but I don't think that's necessary.
If that will change in CS4, I still don't know because I haven't started 4 yet.

Taking an example of the first or so hour of the game. Rean meets his colleagues and a few students from the Academy.
One character is from Liberl. If you played the Sky trilogy, meeting this character again is great.
Another character is from Crossbell. Again, meeting that character again is great.
Both have personal situations that are easier to understand if you played their games, but they are not totally unrelatable even if you did not played them.

So, my current stance is that you can play those games by only playing CS1and CS2, but you will enjoy it more if you have played the whole series.
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Agreed, It's just a question of are you trying to maximize enjoyment. Some people don't have the time or energy to do that(which is okay). I'm personally glad I listened to fans because without prior games I'm almost certain the series wouldn't be as impactful to me as it is now. I dig that stuff though, makes all those hours and learning more meaningful since it didn't get dropped or ignored. A lot of the moments I thought were so cool were ones that were enhanced by knowing prior game events.
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
You have to have played, at the minimum, CS1 and 2. Preferably Zero and Ao, since CS3 is the sequel to those games too, but considering how hard those are to get legally, I think it might be okay to watch recap videos on youtube. You should also play Trails in the Sky at some point, because of how interconnected they are, but they aren't as necessary as CS1/2 and even Zero and Ao.

Tldr: Plays CS 1 and 2 first. This is mandatory. You'll miss out on a lot not having played Zero and Ao, but you could probably muddle through. You miss out on a bit not having played the Sky trilogy, but you don't have to have played those to enjoy CS3.
 
Tibarn

Tibarn

Member
Oct 31, 2017
13,370
Barcelona
As you may know CS III is both the sequel to CS II , Ao and the Third.

I have only played the officialy localized games, but my 2nd run of CS 1 after playing the Sora trilogy was far better experience than the first one, and I always recommend playing all the games as much as possible.

I mean, this series is all about a big overall story plot, if you can't play the PC games sure, go and play III, but if possible playing everything is by far the best option
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
King of Dreamland said:
I decided to look up Trails in the Sky for the PSP after reading this thread only to see the game is kind of pricey now.

Really regretting not picking the game up now all the times it's limited edition was available for $20.
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Buy them on the PC. There's no reason to play them on the psp, unless you hate yourself. The op's raspberry pi could run the sky trilogy.
 
Niks

Niks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,299
TLDR

- Starting with CS3 is doable but not optimal, since you will probably miss a lot of stuff.
- Having played CS1 and CS2 is the recommended way to enjoy CS3. You will get most of the story.
- Having played the Sky trilogy and Crossbell arcs will give you the complete experience.

* Watching story summaries for the Sky and Crossbell games is valid, if you just dont have the time to play them.
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
Bomblord said:
Someone ported it? That could be interesting to try to get working.
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The Sky games have been released in english on steam. Zero and Ao have also been released on pc, Zero in japan, and Ao in China. You can buy zero digitally from a japanese site, and then apply the english patch (and if prefer to enjoy playing the game, the voice patch which patches in the voice acting from the Evo version released on the vita, which was only avalible in japan (and probably the rest of asia))

If you don't want to do all that, and as it's impossible to get Ao on pc legally, and you're not going to import the japanese psp or vita game, because why would you, I suggest watching these videos instead:


That's her Zero game recap. It's quite involved, and hits all of the plot points from Zero


That's Ao. Currently ongoing, as it goes through the end of Chapter 4 (best chapter in all of Trails, imho) I hope she'll finish it before next tuesday, as I think there's one more part to go.

Extra credit:


Trails in the Sky the Third. Finished. If you decide to watch this, do so before Zero. You don't have to, but it will give you some context for stuff that happens in Zero and Ao.


Sky Second Chapter. Included just to have a link for it. Since she doesn't have First chapter, I wouldn't watch this. You won't get the relationships of the third without playing fc/sc, but you should be okayish.


This is a video about a canon part of the game that's only avalible in CS2 ng+. It's mentioned in CS3, and you can watch it or not.
 
OP
OP
Bomblord

Bomblord

Self-requested ban
Banned
Jan 11, 2018
6,390
Sandstar said:
The Sky games have been released in english on steam. Zero and Ao have also been released on pc, Zero in japan, and Ao in China. You can buy zero digitally from a japanese site, and then apply the english patch (and if prefer to enjoy playing the game, the voice patch which patches in the voice acting from the Evo version released on the vita, which was only avalible in japan (and probably the rest of asia))

If you don't want to do all that, and as it's impossible to get Ao on pc legally, and you're not going to import the japanese psp or vita game, because why would you, I suggest watching these videos instead:


That's her Zero game recap. It's quite involved, and hits all of the plot points from Zero


That's Ao. Currently ongoing, as it goes through the end of Chapter 4 (best chapter in all of Trails, imho) I hope she'll finish it before next tuesday, as I think there's one more part to go.

Extra credit:


Trails in the Sky the Third. Finished. If you decide to watch this, do so before Zero. You don't have to, but it will give you some context for stuff that happens in Zero and Ao.


Sky Second Chapter. Included just to have a link for it. Since she doesn't have First chapter, I wouldn't watch this. You won't get the relationships of the third without playing fc/sc, but you should be okayish.


This is a video about a canon part of the game that's only avalible in CS2 ng+. It's mentioned in CS3, and you can watch it or not.
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Raspberry Pi runs arm linux (Debian Buster is the default to be specific) it can't run x86 apps natively and if attempting x86 emulation the performance is so poor you'll never get a full game to run on it.

Thanks for the video links I appreciate the option.
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
Bomblord said:
Raspberry Pi runs arm linux (Debian Buster to be specific although there are several others) it can't run x86 apps natively and attempting x86 emulation the performance is so poor you'll never get a full game to run on it.

Thanks for the video links I appreciate the option.
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Huh,I thought it'd be able to run a 15 year old pc game in wine. Hope you enjoy the videos. I've been watching them to refresh my memory on them before CS3.
 
StarStorm

StarStorm

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
7,600
Uhh, just play it? From what I hear, it just spoils the Crossbell games a bit. If you're not going to play the Crossbell games, it shouldn't stop you from playing CS III.

I'm currently going through the Sky games. Just need to pick up the 2nd and 3rd once I finish TiTs again.
 
Admiral Woofington

Admiral Woofington

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,892
Sandstar said:
The Sky games have been released in english on steam. Zero and Ao have also been released on pc, Zero in japan, and Ao in China. You can buy zero digitally from a japanese site, and then apply the english patch (and if prefer to enjoy playing the game, the voice patch which patches in the voice acting from the Evo version released on the vita, which was only avalible in japan (and probably the rest of asia))

If you don't want to do all that, and as it's impossible to get Ao on pc legally, and you're not going to import the japanese psp or vita game, because why would you, I suggest watching these videos instead:


That's her Zero game recap. It's quite involved, and hits all of the plot points from Zero


That's Ao. Currently ongoing, as it goes through the end of Chapter 4 (best chapter in all of Trails, imho) I hope she'll finish it before next tuesday, as I think there's one more part to go.

Extra credit:


Trails in the Sky the Third. Finished. If you decide to watch this, do so before Zero. You don't have to, but it will give you some context for stuff that happens in Zero and Ao.


Sky Second Chapter. Included just to have a link for it. Since she doesn't have First chapter, I wouldn't watch this. You won't get the relationships of the third without playing fc/sc, but you should be okayish.


This is a video about a canon part of the game that's only avalible in CS2 ng+. It's mentioned in CS3, and you can watch it or not.
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this might be what I have to do so thanks for the links. I'd like to have the energy and time to devote hours into finishing SC, starting Skies TC, and playing both the crossbell games but I am also avidly playing various modern games all with a job I'm away from my house 12-13 hours a day. I just can't find the time to squeeze in back to back long ass RPGs and also maintain everything else I devote time to.

And yes this is me convincing myself it's for the best :P
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
Admiral Woofington said:
this might be what I have to do so thanks for the links. I'd like to have the energy and time to devote hours into finishing SC, starting Skies TC, and playing both the crossbell games but I am also avidly playing various modern games all with a job I'm away from my house 12-13 hours a day. I just can't find the time to squeeze in back to back long ass RPGs and also maintain everything else I devote time to.

And yes this is me convincing myself it's for the best :P
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I totally get it. The videos are a bit long, but don't take nearly as long as playing the game. If you just want to know the plot for those two games, then that'll work out okay for you. (i recently played through sc, the third, Zero and Ao, and it took me 300 hours. I totally get people not being able to put that much time into it, just to get the context for the game they actually want to play.)
 
Kensuke

Kensuke

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,411
Netherlands
Reading import impressions of CS4 unsold me on continuing with the CS series. I finished 1&2 and thought were mediocre compared to the Sky games. CS3 apparently is quite good, but CS4 is said to butcher most of the setups and 'negates' a lot of stuff that happened in the game before. In CS4 almost every single woman in the game is in love with Rean, something I really got tired of. It was fine for the first game kind off, but now it's becoming a little creepy. I hope the next game in the series is a fresh start and is not as anime trope centric.
 
SatelliteOfLove

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,964
South Carolina
Yes but, well there's your "no PC" problem. Someone linked some lets plays/rundowns. That'll suffice, especially the LPs so you can really GET it beyond the bare plot 'n character points.
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
SatelliteOfLove said:
Yes but, well there's your "no PC" problem. Someone linked some lets plays/rundowns. That'll suffice, especially the LPs so you can really GET it beyond the bare plot 'n character points.
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I mean, if you don't have the time to play a game, watching a walkthrough isn't that much better. Thinking of it, tho.....the rundowns I gave were kind of sterile. When I hit chapter 4 of Ao, and I got to the one scene, I burst into tears. I burst into tears when I was watching the video of it I linked. I'm not sure you'd get that kind of emotional attachment watching the rundowns. But watching those is better than going in cold.
 
Mgs2master2

Mgs2master2

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,862
Embargo reviews end midnight PST today. however, the game does include a pretty good past games history section which provides everything needed to know.
 
Skyfireblaze

Skyfireblaze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,257
I was in a similar boat at one point, I'm a huge JRPG nut but I couldn't get into Trails in the Sky when I tried it, then a few years later I saw CS1 on sale for Vita and bought it. I knew I should play Trails first but curiosity got the better of me and I started CS1 up and unlike Trails it hooked me right off the start! People urged me to really not play it before Trails so I didn't and yeah here I am still :/ I guess I should try to get into Trails again whenever I have the time!
 
Xavi

Xavi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,773
Lightning for Smash
There was some reddit post from a long time ago that I very much agree with: It's the same kiseki fans that keep pushing away potential sales by saying stuff like " oh noooo, go play the other 5 games, and THEN come back or you'll be ABSOLUTELY lost". Like, I get it, of course you have to play CS1 and CS2, and I very much agree that he'll miss some stuff by not playing the sora trilogy and the Crossbell duology, but it's not like the game will be literally unplayable
 

Deleted member 9746

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,406
Skyfireblaze said:
I was in a similar boat at one point, I'm a huge JRPG nut but I couldn't get into Trails in the Sky when I tried it, then a few years later I saw CS1 on sale for Vita and bought it. I knew I should play Trails first but curiosity got the better of me and I started CS1 up and unlike Trails it hooked me right off the start! People urged me to really not play it before Trails so I didn't and yeah here I am still :/ I guess I should try to get into Trails again whenever I have the time!
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You should just play CS1. Unlike CS3, it actually is the perfect place to start.
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,744
Xavi said:
There was some reddit post from a long time ago that I very much agree with: It's the same kiseki fans that keep pushing away potential sales by saying stuff like " oh noooo, go play the other 5 games, and THEN come back or you'll be ABSOLUTELY lost". Like, I get it, of course you have to play CS1 and CS2, and I very much agree that he'll miss some stuff by not playing the sora trilogy and the Crossbell duology, but it's not like the game will be literally unplayable
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No, you're right, it won't be unplayable. I don't think anyone should skip CS3 (unless they haven't played CS1 and 2) But I do think it's important to say that they will miss out on stuff if they haven't played Zero or Ao, and give them alternatives to actually playing the games if they don't feel like they want to invest the time into buying a game digitally, applying a fan translation, adding the voices, and who knows whatever voodoo you'd have to do to play Ao legally.

I will say this: I got into the series with CS1. I didn't get a lot of the things that were talked about, like Rixia's picture that the one teacher had, or the stuff about Liberl, or Crossbell. I still managed to enjoy it. I played Sky FC, and found it to be incredibly slow, so went on to CS2. There's stuff that happens in CS2 that is directly affected by what happens in Ao, but I actually liked that I played CS2 first, because there was some mystery about what the fuck was happening. Recently, I got caught up with the series, and.....Just playing the demo of CS3, there's at least 3 characters you're not going to have the faintest clue who they are (Randy, Agate, and Tita). Does not knowing who they are ruin the game? I don't know, it's just the prologue, but they wouldn't mean as much to me if I hadn't played Sky and Z/A.

All that to say: Does someone need to play the Sky Trilogy and the crossbell games to play The Cold steel series? No, but they may find it unsatisfying. In the end, I want people to enjoy the games, and become fans of this incredible series. I will try to give them the best advice I can given the parameters they give me. If they don't care about the crossbell stuff, and they've played CS1/2, go ahead, play cs3. If they want to know what's going on, but don't have time to play? Check out the videos I posted. If they want to play the games, here's how. If they're enjoying CS3, then they've done it right. That's what matters.
 
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Deleted member 4090

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,053
RPG fans are often too willing to assign a 100+ hours of homework, but fuck that. Whatever additional enjoyment you'd get from a game from having more context is almost certainly less enjoyment than digging through the rest of the top of your backlog.

The real extra enjoyment comes from playing other good videogames, not the marginal benefit they add to another gaming experience. That upgrade isn't worth hundreds of hours of investment.

Anyhow, for CS3, Rean is still the main POV character, so if it is new to him and relevant to what you are doing and his motivation, they'll explain it. A lot of the writing in the demo is super on-the-nose, too, like Juna being from Crossbell and grousing about the occupation in nearly every line, as text or subtext. Or when you get introduced to Randy Orlando, and Rean has already read his file and basically goes through bullet points of who is and where he is from.

Admiral Woofington said:
Trails 3 will have turbo mode on ps4? I have little reason to wait for pc version then lmao. Well regardless I have plenty to play in my limited time so no rush. Thanks for the heads up though, quick Google searches weren't providing the answer.
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You can just try the demo. The touchpad activates a system-wide Turbo Mode. You can toggle it back and forth at any time.
 
MrCinos

MrCinos

Member
Oct 26, 2017
740
Bomblord said:
Edit: I personally have no direct way to play the PC versions as of now.
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What about watching LPs instead? I'd recommend it over watching summaries for anyone in the same predicament. Echo Six on YT has a really good series of LPs in a well-edited format that cuts meaningless running around and most trash fights. He also started playing the series from CS1-2 so going into his Sky FC>SC>3rd>Zero>Ao LPs you'd have the same context. Some of the comments to his videos also have interesting characters/lore bits that he missed on their own and/or in the relation to CS games.
 
Ryengeku

Ryengeku

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,663
Georgia, US
My special edition is just going to be sitting in a corner until I beat the Crossbell games. I'm too traditional to skip to CS3 without going the recommended path.
 
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