The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

This review is intended for people who haven't bought the game and are unsure whether they want to purchase it yet. The best advice I can give is, if you think you will like this game don't worry about the reviews just play and enjoy. My negative review is just a guess on how the majority of people reading reviews for advice might end up feeling if they bought and played it. 1) If you're new to the genre or video games in general, don't start here. This game is a big time sink and also not among the best of it's genre. Play the persona series, pokemon, or maybe some dragon quest. 2) If you're new to the series but are familiar with the genre, don't start with this one. The story is the main draw here and you will be missing all the context the series has built up over many games. Play the crosbell duology or the trails in the sky trilogy. Ideally both before tackling any of the cold steel games. 3) If you have played all the other games (or at least cold steel 1 and 2) I honestly think this game isn't worth your time. Your time is precious and honestly the game does not earn your money. Here is where I'm going to start breaking down the game for people (SPOILER FREE) Audio: The game has fine sound effects, fine music, the voice acting is usually ok although some of the lines and the hammy acting can kind of be distracting. I don't blame the voice actors tho I think anime is cringe and reading translated works in english is just insanely hard to get right. There isn't a ton of new music original to this game (that I noticed) and nothing stood out to me. I won't be looking up any tracks to listen to on my own time at least. Visuals: The visuals on display are fine. Definitely a step up from previous titles in the cold steel games, but it lacks a lot of personality. The game has a basic cookie cutter art style and I doubt me or most other people would be able to distinguish art in this game from other anime/anime style games. Characters occasionally have drip. The game throughout it's runtime will often repeat camera movement in a pretty irritating way. To me it feels like a lazy "We'll just copy and paste this camera movement 100 times" type of design that I really don't like. Occasionally the settings can be nice but they are all really similar. There are a few levels and towns that are a nice change of pace and I really appreciate them. Gameplay: This game has 3 "modes". Visual Novel mode where you are reading through a combination of dialogue and inner thoughts. Free Roam mode where you are walking around the world and going to either battle or talk. Finally Combat mode where you are fighting things in your turn based format. This all funnels into gameplay but I think they represent different aspects of the design of the game so I'm gonna discuss each. Visual Novel/Narrative: This story is (in my subjective opinion) overall not very good. I like anime and while I struggle to really love jrpg stories, this one stands out to me as a particularly poor experience. I have had worse, but not many. This game is designed as an "infinity war" vibe bringing in characters from previous games in order to have a really bombastic feel, so to pick up on all the intricacies you need to have 7 whole other games in your memory. I'm not gonna pick on it for that because the audience that is continuing to play it are likely going to meet that requirement. That said, I do think the story plays so hard into tropes and contrivances that it is legitimately hard to take seriously. I don't mind some tropes, but I really hate the harem aspect of anime and this plays into it a lot. That said there are some moments or reveals I really enjoy. There is a particular plotline regarding the main characters family that actually is gripping whenever two characters share a room and it's exciting to watch that get teased. Those moments however are way too few and far between to earn it's 100 hours of SPED UP gameplay. Free Roam/Exploration: The game has some fun hidden side quests that necessitate exploring the world and the world has a lot of lore. We actually get to read about it's lore and even see how it's rich history is reflected in the fiction of the world. Awesome. I also like the strategic elements of equipping your characters with different loadouts. This game is actually at it's best when you are challenged by the future combat encounters to the point of deliberately equipping your characters with specific move sets to allow you to overcome the challenges ahead. It can be meticulous but it's very rewarding to hit on a few fun builds or strategies. The game has also increased it's strategic arsenal by allowing for Brave Orders (Party wide buffs that require certain characters to be in your party) and secondary master quartz, allowing you to mix and match master quartz abilities in a way that inspires creative build diversity. Characters tend to be suited for specific playstyles but this is still engaging and you have a lot of flexibility. The game inherits most of these good elements from the previous titles, but they make the game more fun and it does expand on it so cool it is nice in this way. Combat: I have the least to say about this. They have really not innovated that much on this element of play since way back in the first trails of the sky title. They have made next to no changes since the first cold steel title. This is honestly a little one not. Combat will slowly become a chore as you progress through the game. The strategies are fun to execute, but you really only need to do that a few times, and third of this game if not more is spent in combat. This is what you sign up for when playing a turn based game, but yes there is not a whole lot of variation or excitement in this aspect of play. Overall I think if you care about the story, watch a video breaking it down. Read about what happens. Don't get sucked into a 100 hour game where the moment to moment story telling and are a drag to get through for way too little payoff. Also if you think you would like this game, or you have already played it and enjoyed it, Awesome! I would much rather people like this game than not. It's just that I don't have that expectation for most players. That said if you've made it this far in the trails series maybe you love the story telling and the gameplay. My personal experience was that I got bored of the gameplay and the story telling feels worse than the other games and it's not like they masterpieces before.

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i hate this game it has some of the most amazing moments in the series mixed with some of the most boring or straight up BAD moments in the series. for every high, an equal low happens and vice versa

Daora, to morrendo de vontade de dar spoiler do final, mas não sou tão mal assim XD

very fun

great follow up in the series. Less hidden quests/events that previous entries, making it a bit friendly for new players to dive in