The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

It's actually pretty neat.

Nice third game

8/10

some boss fights are very unfair and require some retries due to RNG nice ending from build-up with Cold Steel 1 and 2

A tentative recommendation. It's definitely better than the previous Cold Steels, but is nowhere close to the heights of Sky or Zero/Azure. The school setting is a lot more tolerable in this entry since you're a teacher rather than a student, and combat isn't as horrendously cheesable as CS2, at least until chapter 3 or so when you get Scorpio. Then the game devolves into Sledgehammer -> Chrono Burst/AT Accelerate spam to kill basically every boss before they get a chance to act a 2nd time. Still manages to be more engaging than CS2's click 1 or 2 juiced up s-break to win tho. Not a fan of Rean as a protagonist but Juna is my goat for basically straight up saying Zero/Azure were goated and Cold Steel sucks LMAO. The majority of the old Class VII redesigns are pretty good, even if there are a few stinkers like Alisa and Fie (granted I've never been a fan of either to begin with). Overall I did like story, but at the same time am feeling character/plot thread bloat. There are a lot of QoL additions to this entry as well, being able to trade for high rarity equipment is nice even if a bit too costly. Most quests and events are marked on the map this time around, which lessens the need for a guide substantially even if you'll still want one for character notebook entries. The addition of Break and Orders to the combat system do make the loop more engaging and satisfying compared to CS1-2's barebones BP system, although they are a large factor in being able to break the game rather easily (the other being the aforementioned Chrono Burst now being able to chain into itself for some reason to give infinite turns with enough EP recovery). Divine Knight battles still suck, but are better with the addition of more playable mechs. And finally, a big negative on Chapter 4 requiring so much inventory management with so many playable characters being used simultaneously. Overall a mid experience, but an improvement over the past 2 entries.

Trails of Cold Steel 3 is the 8th game in the long running Trails series. It continues the Erebonia Arc and the story of Rean Schwarzer as he becomes an Instructor of the “new” Class 7. This game marks the start of pulling together several elements from the previous games/arcs as we head towards some kind of epic finale. That means it’ll be awesome. Right? Positives: ++ The Cast. A lot of returning characters show up and some new ones are introduced. And for the most part, they’re all pretty good. The New Class 7 gets some good development and even some of the Old Class 7 get some new reveals. Rean continues to grow, embracing his new role while struggling with his own past and the future of Erebonia. Good stuff. ++ Music. While overall not quite as memorable as prior games, there are several good tracks and the quality continues to be high. +++ Combat Gameplay. The system just keeps getting better and now we have the Sub-Master Quartz, Break and Brave Order systems added in. These all add some new layers to the combat (and even if they do come a bit overpowered) that synergize well into a nice flow of combat. +++ Mech Combat. Not too different from CS2, but still just as epic and satisfying when those moments come up. +++ Vantage Masters. Say goodbye to Blade, and hello to the newest card game. This one actually surprised me to how fun and in-depth it can be. One of the better mini games in the series. ++ Quality of Life. Good map/quest markers, text/dialogue history, autosaves, fast travel and difficulty can be changed anytime ++ Voice Acting. It’s overall pretty good. You can tell a lot of the old cast of Class 7 has grown into the roles now and really shine in a few scenes. The new cast isn’t bad either and has their moments, especially with Juna and Altina ++ Saves. Save anytime, anywhere and tons of slots. ++ Turbo Mode. Best feature ever. And you will need it here. ++ Bike and Horse options for most field areas if you so wish to use them. + Autobattle. It’s a dumb, attack only system but it’s good for dealing with trash mobs. + Standard difficulty options. + Quick load at game launch + Cutscenes can be paused/skipped ++ Cooking. Still good and now you can use characters that aren’t with you (as long as they get introduced yo you first) +++ For the high highs in the story, plot and character developments. Not going to spoil things but a lot of the good moments of this game come at the ends of the Chapters… +++ And the Finale. Yes, it’s a cliffhanger, a lot happens, a lot gets dumped on the player but it’s all (mostly) good stuff with some solid stakes and consequences. ++ New Game Plus. Solid NG+ with options to carry over what you want along with a few bonuses. Thankfully it’s no longer restricted to unlock points, so you can go all out on a second playthrough. Negatives: --- First off, the pacing of this game and it’s narrative is atrocious in how unbalanced it is. It has the weakest/slowest start to any game of the series thus far. The first three Chapters of the game are extremely formulaic to the point where you can predict what is going to happen. Chapters, 1, 2 and 3 are just the INTRO and while they do have good endings, I’m not sure the slog to get there is worth it. The real plot doesn’t start to kick in till Chapter 4 and that can easily be 60-100 hours in depending on how you play and when do you get to the end, the player gets dog-piled with infodumps to explain everything. Prior games have had this issue to a degree, but this is the worst I’ve experienced. -- So much padded, repetitive, dialogue. This game is long enough as is, do we really need to hear about the thing everyone already knows for the tenth time? Does every character need to chime in? Do we again need to speak of Rean’s relationships that has nothing to do with the plot? --- The over reliance of anime tropes and memes to drive the narrative. I'm just lumping all this together here. Dear god, what in the world were the writers doing with this game? Rean’s harem, beating bosses only to find that they weren’t using their full power and win anyway, being saved at the minute by someone else, “That will not be necessary”, Musse’s incessant harassment of Rean, characters knowing things but not saying anything, heehees, haahaas, etc. There’s too much to list. Tropes and memes aren’t inherently bad in and of themselves, its how you use them and they work best in moderation IMO. This game takes too much and dials it up to 11. So much of this comes off as a distraction and is irritating when there really are much better things the plot can focus on and not waste/pad the game time out with irrelevant nonsense. -- Speaking of memes, Musse. I was sincerely hoping there was more to her bizarre behavior in sexualizing Rean in almost every conversation, but nope, that’s just her whole personality, so take those negatives. - The Rim Lighting Effect. While I like the graphical glow up from CS1/CS2, that rim lighting on characters is just awful. It’s like someone is holding flashlight up next to their faces and whenever they turn away from the camera, their brightness levels get blown out. This is just bad. No two ways about it. - There’s a few spot of performance hitches in this game; Isthmia Forest and some of the final dungeon. The latter is more due to an engine limitation but you’ll notice it when you get there. - Bug. In the few dungeons where you have multiple parties, there’s this issue where combat links get randomly undone when switching groups. -- Alt-Tab issues. Game can’t be minimized, mouse locked in, pauses when tabbed out and most annoyingly, alt is the auto-skip button for cutscenes which makes it very easy to hit when alt-tabbing out. - Limited bonding points. Still an issue, still not a fan. - No quick way to just exit the game. You have to go the options from the camp menu, go back to the title, then exit. Would it had been so hard to have the game exit right in the options menu? - Inconsistencies between artwork and the 3D models in game. Yeah, I’m talking boobs on some of the female cast and why some of them are artificially enhanced. Sara is an obvious example of this as her artwork in game has the same proportions as her CS1 and CS2 self, but in game her boobs are massive now. And this isn’t just about that either, some props are too big too such as Claire’s handgun. Its too damn big and barely fits in her hands and when you notice it, it’s very hard not to see that it was scaled up. This whole issue just reeks of immaturity on the roles of the 3D artists for this game. That’s enough. This game is a real test of endurance. The single biggest problem is that this game is way too long and padded for what it is. It does have it’s moments, don’t get me wrong, and the gameplay is actually quite good and engaging. It just feels such a shame that what could had been a truly great game to bring everything together merely becomes an okay one due to how bogged down it is with poor pacing and an over reliance on tropes. I know tolerance of memes and tropes varies from player to player and maybe this works for you, if so, great, but for me, it feels like the quality has taken a step back in favor of quantity here. But, I do still consider it a good game and it does merit a recommend. Just consider getting it on sale and have some ibuprofen handy for the amount of facepalming you'll be doing. I give a 7/10

This really feels like a grand mix of some of the best elements of Cold Steel and Crossbell, story wise, character wise, and mechanics wise. I really appreciate this game so far. To start with, this game is a massive leap in graphics and visual flair, probably the largest in the series. The original graphcis style moved to 3D in Cold Steel 1 and 2, but both of those games had genuinely terrible looking graphics and low quality UI, even for a handheld title. This is a true next gen trails experience, from the character models, to environments, to lighting, to everything. My issue still remains with maps kinda being boring to navigate, but there is more going on there than Cold Steel 1 and 2. Gameplay wise, the link system from the first two Cold Steel games makes a return, and they add even more broken functions with brave points. Orders basically free buffs that use brave points and last a certain amount of turns. These can absolutely carry you through the game with their versatility and how OP they are. But, even with how OP they are I think the added functions to combat make it more interesting. They also added a 'subsection' master quartz slot to use a second MQ with reduced abilities that also makes character building more diverse. However, I have some issues with some new mechanics in this game. Orders, while cool, basically make all other uses of brave points obsolete. You can make an argument for rush on a low hp enemy... but is using all 5 brave points on burst really worth it over refreshing an absolutely bonkers buff to save the fight? Another nitpick I have is it can be seriously difficult to tell when a character is at critical hp, while in old games it felt really in your face if someone was in danger. There were a few times in this game where someone died without me even realizing it until I saw them fall to their knees. Story wise, the writers went "what if we took aspects from Crossbell games and the first Cold Steel games and did them better?" The game follows a format of a brand new Class 7 visiting locations and solving problems, with Rean being an instructor this time which really turns the plot on it's head. Each of the trips also have higher stakes and there are more diverse environments than the original two games in my opinion. This also continues a massive overarching plotline from the Crossbell games, and there are a lot of callbacks and parallel themes to those old games that are interesting to follow. My only real large issue is that chapter 4 storywise is a real slog with a random left field twist with zero setup, and an absolutely horrible dungeon. Other than that, it's solid overall. I can't wait to see where Cold Steel 4 goes. This is a great game that builds upon all the other Cold Steel games effortlessly and delivers a pretty good story. This fixed my issues with the first two Cold Steel games, and I think this is a solid 7/10, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of Trails to Azure.

La nueva Clase VII, en contraste con la basura de la anterior, es bastante buena y tiene una capacidad para volver a tomare interés en la historia. Todo el grupo nuevo tiene su construcción y evolución muy interesantes. No necesitan del protagonista para tener presencia. Los bonding events fueron bastante buenos, los personajes interactuan entre si sin llegar a ser idiotas donde el único con algo de cerebro es el protagonista. Todos fueron para aumentar los lazos entre ellos y no por mero fanservice (que me veo que va a ser todo lo contrario a CS VI) El sistema de combate sigue siendo igual que en los juegos anteriores, pero introduce nuevas mecánicas como las Brave Orders y Breaks, que añaden mas juego a las peleas. Dentro de todo la innovación fue buena en este aspecto. El final del juego es satisfactorio, pero se otra vez tiene mucha repetición de ciertos elementos de la trama, que te llegan a desgastar. Van 7 juegos, hay que cambiar un poco. La historia otra vez se beneficia de su atención al detalle, donde incluso los personajes secundarios tienen sus historias y diálogos que evolucionan con el tiempo lo cual consigue mundo gigante y coherente. Lo mejor de toda la franquicia es como esta marcado el paso del tiempo y la causa-efecto que toman cada personaje, esto es muy dificil encontrar en otros juegos. Pero aqui viene el mayor problema, contradictorio a lo anterior, no es una experiencia completa. Tarda demasiado en arrancar, y todo el desglose lo tienes casi al final. Dedica mucho tiempo a construir su mundo y sus personajes, pero no mucho tiempo a contar la historia real. Hay horas y horas de diálogo, la mayoría de los cuales no contribuye a la trama, sino que se centra en desarrollar a los personajes o el mundo del juego (lo cual ya lo hicieron, que hay varios juegos anteriores por el amor de dios, dejen de repetir lo mismo). Erebonia es gigante en construcción, esta lleno de personajes y tiene sentido que el juego quiera tomarse su tiempo para construir este lugar.A mi me gusta, pero llega un punto en el que, después de 40/50 horas, no ha pasado nada. Tienen que llegar a encontrar el punto medio, ya que tienes 2 juegos de 80 horas antes que se desarrolla en el mismo lugar, no tiene sentido perder tanto tiempo en el tercer juego. Podrías ir mas directo. Aun asi, juego un poco mas consistente y muchísimo mejor que sus predecesores. El elenco nuevo es bueno y bien caracterizado, siendo a mi modo de ver Ash el mejor, los gráficos penan un salto que para alguien que viene jugando desde el Sky es como ver en 16K. Otra vez sientes que estas jugando un trails y no un simulador de citas. No se como algunos dicen que puede ser entrada a la franquicia, ni locos hagan eso, hay muchas referencias a todo lo anterior que enriquecen la historia. Recomendado? si no estas cansado de tener la misma trama repetida 80 veces,si. 7/10