amazon The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III reviews
Trails of Cold Steel III – When it comes to Japanese role-playing games, people often refer to the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest with a considerably large number of games.
However, there is still a long line of role-playing games that have already earned a loyal fan base.
One of those that must be mentioned is The Legend of Heroes of Nihon Falcom, more specifically, the sub-game series: Trails.
Unlike Final Fantasy where each version is completely different in character, setting, and storyline, the games in Trails are set in a continent called West Zemuria and tell parts of a big story.
So what will the next sequel of this series, Trails of Cold Steel III, bring us?
Trails of Cold Steel III is the next title in a storyline that has spanned… more than a decade, and is set in the post-Erebonian Empire Civil War.
In the previous installment, Trails of Cold Steel II, the protagonist Rean Schwarzer and the class VII friends, ended the civil war together after a long, arduous journey in exchange for blood and tears. In the end, they were able to find their own path, leaving Rean at the Thors Military Academy.
A year after the Civil War, the Erebonia Empire wasn’t weakened at all, it even expanded and “swallowed” the state of Crossbell (the location where two unreleased games Zero no Kiseki and Ao in the Western market) along with the North Ambria region.
This “rampage” of the Erebonian Empire was in fact Rean Schwarzer’s great merit, as he was able to wield a Knight, namely the Gray Knight Valimar, a war machine with tremendous strength that could only be countered by another Cavalry.
Now, Rean graduated from the Thors Military Academy, and he was immediately recruited to be … a teacher of this Academy, but not in Trista but in a new branch in Leeves, a suburb of the capital Heimdallr.
Rean was assigned to the new Grade VII, but this time there were only three students: Juna Crawford, a beautiful girl from Crossbell state with a determination to revenge, Kurt Vander, from the Vander family known for the elite sword-fighting skills, and Altina Orion, the mysterious girl that Rean had encountered while on a subterranean quest for the Empire.
If you have played previous parts of the series, you will be surprised by the appearance of many familiar characters at Thors Academy Leeves branches, such as little girl Tita Russell and the guerrilla guy Agate Crosner from Trails in the Sky, or the red-haired “playboy” Randolph Orlando from Zero no Kiseki.
Adding characters from the past to the current game is quite a “dangerous” job, as they are easy to create “plot holes”, gaps in the storyline were built in previous versions, but thanks to the careful planning of the scriptwriting team, the fact that these characters appear is not only in harmony, but their flashbacks of past events also help players become familiar with the long history of the game.
Not only that, players will both experience a new atmosphere with characters with brand new personalities, but also somewhat similar to the old characters in the two versions I and II.
In order to avoid spoiling too much plot content, the writer will only talk about the generals, Nihon Falcom still retains its form throughout a decade, with an attractive storyline following Rean and his students discovering terrible conspiracies, and even though the war was over, but discovering its consequences, from the perspective of both the winner and the loser, still gives us an enjoyable experience.
NOTE: Trails of Cold Steel III is a direct release of Trails of Cold Steel I and II, so although this game has a “Backstory” section so new players get to grip the series’ plot quickly, I still recommend you to experience the two predecessors to fully grasp the storyline, and if possible play the entire series starting from The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky to have the clearest view.
As the third version set in the Erebonian Empire, it would be easy for Nihon Falcom to reuse the cities that had been heavily built for the previous two versions, especially the large cities like Roer or the capital Heimdallr.
But not! We will not be “bored” just because we go to the same cities from previous versions, we will also discover brand new cities, each has a fascinating story within it.
As with previous versions, through the quests of the main and secondary types, we will learn more about the land and people living there, and with many memorable characters, it is not difficult for us to become attached to this great Empire.
Throughout the game, Rean will lead his students on “field combat” trips, because Thors is, after all, a military academy and the students also need to fight to enhance their skills.
Each field trip is carefully set up, making them look like mini-adventures inside the bigger one, and all ends with an epic boss battle, leaving players unable to let go of the keys to discover the next part of the game.
With the experience of … 7 previous versions, it is difficult for Trails of Cold Steel III to make a mistake in this clause, and of course, players will still experience a tactical combat mechanism that is equally … monumental.
The game retains the turn-based combat system with the division of Skills (Craft) using CP and Magic (Arts) using separate EP as previous versions.
Although it is called “turn-based”, it does not mean that the player does not need to choose the position, but in fact choosing the optimal position is extremely important: you will need to choose the position to execute the Skills the area of effect affects as many enemies as possible, you won’t want to fall into an enemy position where you can’t hit the enemy due to the reach of the weapon, or clump the characters in place to then the boss monster “cuts” all the way with a technique that has a certain range of effects.
Not only that, but players also have to carefully base their turns, when some turns in combat will have some extra effects, and you will definitely not want boss monsters to use the ultimate skill when there is a “critical” response.
There are many options for turn-based, such as using Spell (each spell is not cast immediately, but has a different cast time) that allows it to be cast correctly on the desired turn, or simply “steal” turns by using S-Craft, a very powerful technique that can only be performed when you have more than 100 CP, and the ability to execute at any time during the battle helps you take over the turns with the effect that you need.
Due to this system, it is essential to calculate turns and use the Skills appropriately: you always need someone with 100 or more shares to “steal” turns when necessary, and at the same time use Magic spells appropriately so that when they cast, they both get the turn in their favor and prevent that from the opponents.
In addition to the mechanics that appeared in the previous two versions such as Link Attack (which when you play, you will know more clearly), there are also interesting new mechanisms.
The first mechanism is Break when in addition to the health bar, the enemy now has a green armor bar below, and when the player attacks the enemy, the enemy will lose both health and armor.
When the enemy’s armor drops to 0, the enemy will fall into a “Break” state, at which point they will be stunned and discard their next turn, and all attacks will cause a “critical” effect.
This is very important since you can “Break” the enemy then unleash all of your strongest hits to deal fatal damage or even prevent the boss monster from using a “landslide” move by “Breaking” him before it is his turn to cast the ability.
Next is the Order system, a skill that can increase the team’s well-being in a few turns.
Every time you critically attack an enemy or hit an enemy’s weak spot, you will receive a Brave Point, and you can use this Brave Point to activate an Order to increase the stats for the whole team, maybe even turn defeat into victory with just one Order at the right time.
Thanks to both new and old mechanics, you will enjoy the most flawless gameplay of the game series ever, with a high strategy level and equally beautiful.
And if you are bored having to think a lot?
Trails of Cold Steel III integrates into mecha battles, as you ride giant robots slashing each other.
Actually, these battles … their main purpose is their eye-catching effects. The fighting mechanism is more like … rock-paper-scissors, but they still bring an interesting and thrilling experience for players.
A “half plus half minus” point of Trails of Cold Steel III is the User Interface system, which now ditches the command rotation method that assigns commands directly to the buttons, making it easier to use commands and fighting much more convenient.
However, in return, the numbers seem to become … tiny, making those who have eyes close to or sit far away from the screen sometimes see the numbers want to dazzle.
With the power of the PC (or consider the PlayStation 4, like when the game came out), the graphics of Trails of Cold Steel III could have been better.
Although the game is beautiful, colorful and relatively detailed, if you are someone who has played many new JRPGs (Japanese RPGs), you will find it quite difficult to tolerate with the model of the characters.
It must be said that the 2D character drawings of the game are extremely beautiful, but when it comes to the 3D character model, everything … is not as expected.
The characters in the game all have rough movements, sometimes the moving joints look like robots, and facial expressions are also demonstrated quite poorly, except for obvious actions like laughing or crying. Other than that, it was difficult to detect other expressions on the faces of the characters.
This is probably an “inherent” weakness of the Trails series when the speed of the storyline is slow and erratic and can be annoying for players.
For example, when Rean and his teammates have just discovered a key plot detail that is extremely thrilling, the player is looking forward to what the next part will be like, the group decides … to ignore and go to work, causing players to suddenly feel empty!
Fortunately, on the whole, Trails of Cold Steel III is better than the previous installments, when the dramatic details come more steadily, and unless the player is too detailed, it doesn’t affect the playing experience that much.
where can you get a The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III online
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III – Extracurricular Edition – Nintendo Switch: Buy it now
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III (Extracurricular Edition) (Nintendo Switch): Buy it now
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III (Early Enrollment Edition) (PS4) (PS4): Buy it now
