The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

Minus needing an entire further game to get to the saga’s full conclusion, Trails of Cold Steel III is everything I want from an RPG with a world that fully sucks players in, amazing music and locations in which one can just sit and relax, and a twisting and fascinating story involving incredibly deep characters that are easy to get attached to. Erebonia once again gets some fantastic attention to detail that really brings its complex story and people to life, as the many threads that have been introduced throughout the series further intertwine and begin coming to a head. Combined with a further improved combat system and further quality-of-life improvements, it marks yet another step up for the rightly beloved series. Now all that’s left is just the agonising wait for the fourth and final part of the Cold Steel saga to see how it all ends.

Trails of Cold Steel III is the best game in the series so far. You're going to have to play the first two titles to get the full picture, but you'll be rewarded with one of the most enjoyable RPG sagas in modern gaming. This latest entry strikes a near perfect balance between story and gameplay, all while juggling an ever-growing cast of great characters and an in-depth, hugely rewarding battle system. Cold Steel III is JRPG joy from start to finish, and it sits alongside the likes of Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI as one of the PS4's finest.

Trails of Cold Steel III is an important title for both Falcom and NIS. For Falcom, it's the penultimate entry in a story arc half a decade in the making - and an incredibly engrossing one, at that. For NIS, it's a step in the right direction after Ys VIII, and proof that The Legend of Heroes' localization is still in good hands moving forward. This is a continuity-heavy RPG with 13 years of video game history, and seven titles building up to it, but the combat and world are strong enough where even newcomers can enjoy the ride. Trails of Cold Steel III is the Erebonia arc at its best.

With its solid gameplay mechanics, excellent world-building and character development, The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel III is an excellent Japanese role-playing and a more than worthy new entry in the long-running series. Some small flaws like slow pacing do not impact the experience as much as the lack of knowledge about the entire series do, which lessens the impact of several events and plot development. This makes Trails of Cold Steel III a game that must be played only after the previous two entries in the series have been completed.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is more of the same and that's not a bad thing. People who have yet to sample the delights of the series should start at the beginning but fans of the series, and JRPG genre, are sure to be drawn back in to Rean's tale before eagerly awaiting part four.

Trails of Cold Steel III is a must play if you enjoyed the first two games in the series. The game is not radically different from the previous titles, so if you didn’t love them or just do not like JRPGs in general, it won’t change your mind. If you’re a newcomer to the franchise, I strongly recommend playing the first two games in Trails of Cold Steel series before getting into this one.

If you are already into the series then it is likely you will already know whether or not you’re getting this game. If you are not, I wouldn’t recommend you start here unless you like hours of frustrating dialogue with no pay off.

This is one of my favorite rpg series, great story, great turned based battle, great characters, it has it all

Thanks to how amazing the second game was, I was excited to continue. At first glance of the intro, this feels much like the first game which made me be like oh no, here we go with a cheap sequel. However, despite this feeling like a retread of the first game, it’s actually a well made sequel that deserves to exist. It helps progress the characters passed their teen years & now they are grown up trying to figure out their adult roles. This is like them graduating from happy teenage drama to mature adulthood themes. This game despite being a bit redundant is a great story & introduces new characters that you’ll care about. The graphics are improved but the soundtrack is rather bland at times.

What to say about this game? Well the best of this game is its soundtrack (although they become a bit repetitive), voices and battle system. I didn't play the two previous games but I read about the plot and even with that you'll get lost with so, so many characters that appear. Honestly, this game would have improved so much with just a few characters and much less dialogues. About the graphics let's say they're not great. This is a classic rpg so they don't focus on such things. The actor that gives live to the main character is good but I would have chosen a more juvenile voice. Also, it's very funny seeing Rean talking and behaving as a 30-year-old when he is a couple of years older that his students! lol About the ending, it's such opened that I was about to give this game a 6. I honestly could not rate this game with more than a 6 or 7. Although I have to say that when I was close to the middle I thought of quitting the game but I forced myself to keep playing it because I liked the battle system (although I avoided as many battles as I could) but I started to skip more and more dialogues. After 88 hours of playing this game I've finally have beaten it but I'm sure it should have taken me 120-140 hours (or even more) if I had read all the text. I only recommend to buy this game if you have played the previous ones and you liked them or if you are curious about this game and you find it for a cheap price but I have to tell you: it's better to buy any "Tales of". They are average games, shorter and cheaper than the Trails games. So yes, quite disappointed but because I bought it for a good price I'll probably get my money back. P.S: I've also loved to see mechas in a game for a change.

Poor repeated main story, even not finished, too easy combat without any balancing effort, one generation late graphics and animation. 1/10.

Why do Falcom & XSEED Games continuously put out games with heavy undertones and straight up scenes of sexual assault in their games and brush it off as comedy? I've seen people call this Japanese humor and what not, but cultures and mindsets should always be challenged and made more accessible to all groups of people.