LogFAQs > #968220133

Part of (but definitely not the entire) appeal of the series to me is that all the games take place in the same world, which allows them to develop the setting and large-scale plot in a way that other series really can't. But I definitely think it's possible to have that without overloading your games with cameos of old characters or cryptic references to past events that don't serve any real purpose besides "hey remember when you [maybe] played this other game???" I should mention that I only really think Cold Steel 3 and 4 are guilty of this though, out of the games through Cold Steel 4.