If you've made it to Trails of Cold Steel 3, then you probably don't need a review. If, for some reason, you're new to the series and reading a review of the third entry, there's a lot to think about before you jump in.
TLDR: It's the platonic ideal of the JRPG, with every positive and negative connotation of that term.
I am not a massive fan of Japanese role-playing game series. I enjoy a JRPG once in a while, but I'm not a fanatic about it. I picked up Trails of Cold Steel on sale on a whim and enjoyed it. I knew nothing about the series, but it was (mostly) full of charming characters and I liked the story. It had all of the things that I like about JRPGs. Then I played the sequel, and I enjoyed it much less. It had all of the things that I dislike about JRPGs. Then, I got to the third game, and it started throwing character after character at me that I was clearly supposed to have some preexisting connection to, so I looked up the history of the game.
Oh, good grief, The Legend of Heroes has 2 complete series of games prior to Trails of Cold Steel, and Trails of Cold Steel 3 starts to bring in a lot of crossover. They provide only the barest backstory for most of them - enough to remind you who they are if you already knew, but not enough to make me care. Then, those crossover characters do almost nothing in the story, making them just more noise in an already extremely cluttered narrative. Maybe if you've played all 5 of the prior games this is a good thing. I found it to be an endless annoyance.
The Legend of Heroes series is the most JRPG series I've ever played. Quirky characters are everywhere. Some are cute, some are annoying as hell. Japanese social values abound, even when the game is trying to pretend that there are multiple societies. If you take a drink every time someone says "We'll give it everything we've got!" or "Don't hold back!" you'll be dead before you finish the prologue. Player agency begins and ends at "you can choose to do this optional side quest". You have zero ability to impact the plot of the game. It's much more of a visual novel with combat.
Speaking of combat, it's OK, but the game has a lot of systems. Like, a lot. Arts, crafts, regular attacks, S-breaks... Managing your spells, er, "arts", through the use of "quartz" that you acquire constantly and need to pay careful attention to if you want to be at maximum effectiveness is practically a game unto itself. If you like micro-management you'll love this game. Weirdly, there were far less upgrades to the actual weapons used by the characters in this game. Many JRPGs follow a constant cycle of "new town, new weapon", but not Trails of Cold Steel 3.
All of that is pretty much a given for the JRPG fan. Where your enjoyment lives or dies in any JRPG probably comes from the story. Remember, you're not helping craft the story, just discovering it as you go. I would suggest that, even among a group of nerd enthusiasts such as gamers, there are 2 primary reactions to a JRPG story. The first group goes, "This is so cool!" and just dives in head first. The other goes, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me." I am very much in the latter camp. My experience with all Japanese stories (games, anime, manga) is that they get more and more ridiculous with time. The Trails of Cold Steel story starts off at a relatively low key, but by game 3 we're dealing with world ending cataclysms and a curse that's lasted for more than 1000 years. Every layer is a quantum leap more ridiculous (or awesome, if you are so inclined).
The other make or break aspect is the social relationship of the characters. It is, once again, utterly Japanese. For most Americans (and possibly Europeans, I don't know) the idea of a teacher romancing a high school student is fairly horrifying. It's worth remembering that Japan raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 in 2023. 2023! When one of the student characters is constantly hitting on the protagonist, everyone just (literally) goes "Hah hah, isn't she cute!" Um, wow. Or the horny grandpa, a staple of Japanese stories, talking about how sexy the students are. Or the guy who is in a "will they/won't they" pseudo-sexual relationship with his adopted sister, another staple of Japanese stories. The game is both extremely horny and totally chaste. It is, again, completely Japanese. When a close friend gives the protagonist a hug every character reacts like they're basically having sex. But, despite the pervasive sex talk, there is no actual sexual content. The protagonist is courted by nearly a dozen women, but it never goes further than a kiss on the cheek. That same thirst trap character is, naturally, totally oblivious to the effect that he has on women.
The author absolutely refuses to apply any sort of negative judgment to characters that are friends of the protagonist, even if they do horrific things. If they're your friend, that's all that matters. I can't say more without spoilers. It's also a big part of Trails of Cold Steel 2.
I often wished that the author would just pick a tone and stick with it.
My comments may come off as universally negative, but I generally enjoyed the game. If you liked the first game there's very little chance that you won't enjoy this one. This is the point where I stopped playing Trails of Cold Steel, and went back to play the earlier games. It's obvious that I need to develop some knowledge of the dozens of preexisting characters and history to fully appreciate Trails of Cold Steel 4.
I will give it this - I think this game is better than any Final Fantasy game. Imagine if every Final Fantasy was in the same world, took place in a 10 year time-span, and had complete internal consistent of character and world building from game to game. That's the type of complexity you get with the Legend of Heroes series.
