Trails of Cold Steel III is the very definition of a mixed bag. To enjoy it, you have to come up with a strategy to approach the game. It’s a good game underneath its flaws, and from what I’ve read, several fans of the Trails series think this is the best one yet. If you can’t tell yet, I’m not one of those people.
Pros
Trails has never looked this good
Good story, good charactersTrails of Cold Steel III is the very definition of a mixed bag. To enjoy it, you have to come up with a strategy to approach the game. It’s a good game underneath its flaws, and from what I’ve read, several fans of the Trails series think this is the best one yet. If you can’t tell yet, I’m not one of those people.
Pros
Trails has never looked this good
Good story, good characters
Connections to past games
Cons
Pacing problems
TMI
Lacks its niche
I’ve been hooked on the Trails games. It took a bit for Trails of Cold Steel to grow on me, but this one is a little rough around the edges. You can add two points to this review if you decide to skip the parts that are boring. I was always so worried I would miss something, I’d patiently sit through a monologue—only to realize that Rean was just reminiscing…don’t let the voiced dialogue fool you. Chances are, nothing’s gonna happen. The plot’s not thickening and characters aren’t developing. It’s just…there.
This game has a lot going for it. I like the references to its past games—they are obvious, yet they aren’t alienating. Agate was my favorite character from Trails in the Sky and I was happy to see him here. At the same time, despite the turbo button (which is mandatory to cut down on time—60 hours is a long time), the game takes its sweet time panning across buildings and scenery, even on turbo. Yes, the game looks better than ever, but let that speak for itself. Oftentimes, there are pointless conversations and small talk. Small talk in video games should only be done as necessary—to smooth out conversations. It should NOT dominate the experience as a whole. Sometimes the characters discuss orbments and science. Rean regularly has to go dungeoneering for science. Characters react to Rean’s exploits. Rean talks about the good ol’ days with several of his classmates—each at different points in the game. Tita designs stuff. Characters try to act like a normal person oftentimes by asking “you still doing ______?” and forcing you as an outsider to watch small talk occur between NPCs that doesn’t really matter. A whole bunch of things were required for me to read this game, but not a lot of it was interesting or relevant. 100%ing this game would be a real chore because I didn't want to immerse myself in this game longer than I needed to.
A part of me just wants this to be a new pair of games—separate from the previous two Cold Steel games. I didn’t really feel the need to get to know the new characters, but the old ones basically went poof, “we got other lives now.” The guys are too macho this go-around so I found the female characters to be much more enjoyable. There are less characters than Cold Steel I but it’s just as long of a game.
What bothered me most about this game was two things:
A) The game took twenty irl hours turboing for it to amp up its speed past a snail’s pace. And, B) The game’s plot strays too close to Trails in the Sky while maintaining the same formula for unraveling the story as the first Cold Steel game (a game that had almost twice the number of characters you had to meet).
I can’t elaborate more because I don’t want to spoil either plot, but you can easily draw parallels between the plots of Liberl and Erebonia and how they play out. It’s nothing short of disappointing. Maybe they’ll be able to explain why in a future entry, but for now, I’m disappointed. Many of the plot twists were ones I saw coming a mile away. Like…it’s starting to get a little corny. Bracers knocking people unconscious I get. But military personnel charging armed terrorists and nobody gets hurt most of the time?? It’s not like I want people to get hurt, but it’s hard to feel immersed in the story when I have to pause for an eye roll.
Orders are an interesting way to shake up the pace. Trails of Cold Steel outshines its predecessors in graphics and in combat. The game has its moments—but they are diamonds buried in the rough. This game is not what drew me into Cold Steel, or Falcom’s games in general. If this had been the first entry, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with the series at all.
You have to find the game behind a wall of reminiscence. I’m not talking about the mentions of previous series of games, I’m talking about Trails of Cold Steel’s references to itself. Do yourself a favor and skip each one of those unless you felt attached to said referenced character. What sets Trails of Cold Steel apart from other JRPGs in general is the way it tries to develop secondary characters. It has a lot of them, and it tried a little too hard this game to keep up with Cold Steel I/II characters while developing a new batch. It was enough to make me take breaks from the game, but not enough to turn me away from the series as a whole. It was too much information, and not enough heart.… Expand
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IIIYour Score0 out of 10User Score
