It would’ve been easier had this game followed the lead of its predecessor down into the gutter. Yet it miraculously does not, instead ending up better than the first game in the series by combining elements from both prequels into a far more focused/streamlined product reminiscent of Xenosaga.
This puts potential players in a bind, leaving them the choice of either starting the series here (effectively playing from Juna’s PoV and missing out on all the reunion content) or having to force their way through the first two games in order to see things from Rean’s perspective. After thinking about it a bit, I think the best course of action (if you haven’t played any Cold Steel games before) is to play the first normally, and then play through the second on the lowest difficulty while avoiding all side-content (make sure to pick up Mint, Alan, Hugo, Becky, Munk, and the twins though). You’ll still be in the dark on the Crossbell references of course… but since those games don’t have official translations there’s not much to be done on that front.
Speaking of translations: That’s this game’s one weak point (aside from the cliffhanger ending). Similar to the second installment, the character interactions here more often resemble a rewrite than a translation. It’s thankfully not character assassination-level (looking at you Neptune), but it’s pretty noticeable if you’re playing with the original voice actors and I had hoped that using a different localization team would’ve resulted in a more faithful adaptation. Oh well.
The DLC situation is the same as previous games, which is to say there’s little reason to buy it aside from supporting the developers, and the gameplay progression is quite smooth on normal difficulty. There’s no need for grinding, or going particularly out of the way to find all the sidequests if you simply want to beat the game; just kill the various monster spawns at least once and you’ll be fine.
Now comes the long wait for the fourth and final Cold Steel game, which was announced for release sometime next year… but may end up delayed due to the whole global pandemic issue.