The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

Obra prima

new class felt wierd at first but a couple became mainstays till the end of the series. new polish with menus, and graphics overhaul made this a pleasure.

One of the weaker Trails entries, but still a great JRPG nonetheless. Main issue is that it's too long and the pacing is very slow for the first half. The new Class VII cast are great, as is seeing the old Class VII return with nice new visuals. One other annoyance I have with the entire cast is that they only really develop a relationship with Rean on an individual basis, and not much with each other (at least not in any deep and meaningful way).

One of my new favorite games. Trails clears almost every other jrpg story at this point. Onto game 9.

This made me fall in love with Trails again!

altina my daughter

In general, I found this entry to be an improvement on Cold Steel 2; which was the low point in the entire Trails series for me. I quite enjoyed the instructor angle with Rean although he still is a bit of a blank slate. The new class 7/branch campus is a wonderful cast and I liked all of them. Free of the nobility/commoner issues of 1/2, they can focus on developing the personalities of the characters in more detail/in a natural manner. Plot wise, I'd say it's generally an improvement and it seems to be building up towards a significant end (finally). However everything to do with the writing still has the Cold Steel drawbacks. Hard to care as deeply as the Sky/Crossbell games. Further on, the execution of some story events or how some characters are being built up will still make you roll your eyes a bit. Though, going back to Crossbell in one of the chapters particularly hit very hard and I found myself getting quite emotional during those events. Gameplay wise, everything is solid (I played on hard difficulty). Though the new order systems and access to some good items early on really make this the easiest Trails game by far. You really can break the game Chapter 1 onwards. Visually, the character models are a big upgrade from 1/2 and finally can be enjoyed properly. The soundtrack in Cold Steel 3 for me has been the best of the Cold Steel games. Some really enjoyable tracks in there, notable mention to the Einhel Keep and the mech fight tracks. Overall, the game still has the same Cold Steel complaints of old. I'd just say make your peace with it and enjoy the good parts of the game.