The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
This review contains spoilers
General thoughts on the game:
- This is the best Cold Steel so far.
- The gameplay improvements are subtle (I like having two master quartz, for example), but remains largely the same. Not much to say there.
- The length is the big thing. This is not unique to Trails but I don't think games really need to be this long. I mainlined the story, only really doing bonding events and the like since I like the characters, and I was at least 75 hours (with some moments where I left the game running), playing it on EASY most of the time. Yet there's little I'd change. There was a part before the finale where it slipped some. You ended up having to go fight a dragon, and it gave final dungeon vibes with splitting into 3 teams, and I wasn't a huge fan of that. Then having to go back into the underground passage for like the third time to chase down one dude (and fighting a few cryptids) was kind of meh. But then the finale hit incredibly hard so it's easy to overlook. So in CS3's defense, I wasn't bothered by the length.
- To tie into that, as always, turbo mode is a must. I don't think I'd be able to play this series without it. The storytelling, characters and world-building NEED to be experienced but if I had to sit here and watch the battle animations and whatnot I don't know if I'd be able to do it. But as I always say, it's hard to criticize the games for that when they purposely include a turbo mode now.
- Soundtrack is probably one of the better ones as a whole so far.
Random thoughts:
- Didn't realize until this game how much I prefer the female cast. When I was able to pick my team at one point I realized it was Rean and then all girls.
Though I do enjoy Elliot and Rean's friendship. I like their dynamic.
- Campanella's probably my favourite Enforcer. There's a part where
you're fighting him, and the game is playing the excellent track "Step Ahead," which is a little more upbeat for a battle theme, and he does this move where he exchanges himself for one of your characters. So I ended up hitting my own teammate and he just goes, "Haha, that's messed up!" I laughed. He's such a little shit.
- Old Class VII still slaps. Always going to love those people. I've commented on them before.
- Of new Class VII, Juna's my favourite in terms of personality. I love Crossbell and so her ties to it were deeply personal. When she breaks down and grabs Rean and goes, "Why are you trying to kill our pride???" it hurt. Musse is the most down bad character so far, and I just sat there like, "Rean, you just have to give it to her man, she needs it." That's how down bad she was. But she was also a powerhouse magic user so she had a spot on my team. Altina's funny because she's so deadpan but I only used her when I had to. Ash is a tragic character and I liked his story but in terms of using him in battle, he was one of the 4, but I don't like him as much for my powerhouse as I did, say, Laura. Kurt is forgettable to me.
Here's what I'm trying to say. Top 6 (yeah this is my review I do what I want) Cold Steel playable characters right now, not counting Rean because he's a must.
1: Sara (#2 favourite Trails character in terms of personality, though as a party member I sometimes swap her out)
2: Laura (Like her character and mainstay party member when available)
3: Emma (Same as Laura. Become a fan of the Witches)
4: Juna (actually probably #2 in her personality/arc, and I did like how I built her. I would consider swapping Sara out for her for battle.)
5: Musse (Personality wise she amused me but didn't have the depth. But as a magic user she was a good replacement for Emma so I'm fine with her being there)
6: Fie (I've really enjoyed her character arc, and I like her as an unhittable machine, but unfortunately she doesn't usually get in my part since space is limited. Always in the support though!)
The final dungeon/ending:
- One of my favourite final dungeons in the series. It's not that the environment was especially memorable. You just go down, down down. Follows the same formula as most of the other ones: go a bit, fight some bosses, continue, rinse, repeat. Fight the final boss, then fight him again with Valimar.
- It's that it felt so personal. Right before we are dealt a bunch of betrayals.
Sharon's made me butthurt. So much so that when I fought her I specifically targeted her first. I love deeply but hate just as deeply. She's a great character though, that's why it hurt. With Millium's betrayal I just felt sad as I beat her up, and then she sacrifices herself and that hurt. Millium was not one of my mains but I liked her quite a bit and she always amused me with her excessive hugging and childish humour. She was legitimately one of the funniest members.
- It handled old Class VII passing the torch well. So, basically, they slowly get phased out as you continue down. So you fight some of the bosses and a couple old Class VII people stay behind to continue the fight, leading you to use new Class VII for the final battle. But every fight feels personal because it isn't JUST Enforcers or whatever, sometimes you're fighting people who were your friends. Just done it was done well. Felt less like a boss rush, which I'm not a huge fan of usually.
- Even fighting the Holy Beast was kind of sad because it was tainted and unless I'm misunderstanding the plot, they're really just there to protect Sept-Terrions. So we HAD to fight it and kill it but we didn't want to.
- Which leads me to the plot reveals. There are doozies here.
1. Rean loses his shit and kills the Holy Beast, then stupid-ass Chancellor ends the game by grabbing him/Valimar and being like, "We got shit to do buddy." (No, those aren't his exact words)
2. This is after Rean's actions unintentionally pushed the Erebonian curse out to the entire land, making the set-up for the next game infinitely intriguing and tragic.
3. George/Georg set explosives that killed Olivert, Victor S. Arseid, and Toval and blew up The Courageous. THE HELL. Don't spoil this for me but I do suspect they will return because Trails--and lots of other media--do tend to wimp out, but if they don't... shiiiiiiit. Still a fantastic moment regardless.
4: The aforementioned Millium sacrifice. Poor girl.
5: The reveal of the Erebonia Curse. It could be used as a cop out, like, "Oh, this person only did this because of a curse." I mean, that's MOSTLY why Ash did it, though he was influenced by the fact he was from Hamel and survived the massacre, but still. And yet I'm okay with it. I like the idea that this whole nation is under an actual curse.
6. We see the other Divine Knights.
In terms of finale, this is one of the best for sure, which is saying something because I'm pretty sure I've loved every single ending, even if it was something simple like Chapter 3's.
I need to start taking notes while I play because there are so many things I would probably comment on if I remembered. I love this game. This isn't a surprise to me at this point. I cannot wait to play 4, even though I hear it's not as good. I'm okay with that. I'm sure I'll love it.
My final remark is this: Cold Steel 3 gave me SERIOUS Infinity War vibes. I'm not saying it copied it because it came out in Japan before Infinity War, but it left me feeling the same. It's a compliment. You know the good guys will come back but it felt like we lost.
- This is the best Cold Steel so far.
- The gameplay improvements are subtle (I like having two master quartz, for example), but remains largely the same. Not much to say there.
- The length is the big thing. This is not unique to Trails but I don't think games really need to be this long. I mainlined the story, only really doing bonding events and the like since I like the characters, and I was at least 75 hours (with some moments where I left the game running), playing it on EASY most of the time. Yet there's little I'd change. There was a part before the finale where it slipped some. You ended up having to go fight a dragon, and it gave final dungeon vibes with splitting into 3 teams, and I wasn't a huge fan of that. Then having to go back into the underground passage for like the third time to chase down one dude (and fighting a few cryptids) was kind of meh. But then the finale hit incredibly hard so it's easy to overlook. So in CS3's defense, I wasn't bothered by the length.
- To tie into that, as always, turbo mode is a must. I don't think I'd be able to play this series without it. The storytelling, characters and world-building NEED to be experienced but if I had to sit here and watch the battle animations and whatnot I don't know if I'd be able to do it. But as I always say, it's hard to criticize the games for that when they purposely include a turbo mode now.
- Soundtrack is probably one of the better ones as a whole so far.
Random thoughts:
- Didn't realize until this game how much I prefer the female cast. When I was able to pick my team at one point I realized it was Rean and then all girls.
Though I do enjoy Elliot and Rean's friendship. I like their dynamic.
- Campanella's probably my favourite Enforcer. There's a part where
you're fighting him, and the game is playing the excellent track "Step Ahead," which is a little more upbeat for a battle theme, and he does this move where he exchanges himself for one of your characters. So I ended up hitting my own teammate and he just goes, "Haha, that's messed up!" I laughed. He's such a little shit.
- Old Class VII still slaps. Always going to love those people. I've commented on them before.
- Of new Class VII, Juna's my favourite in terms of personality. I love Crossbell and so her ties to it were deeply personal. When she breaks down and grabs Rean and goes, "Why are you trying to kill our pride???" it hurt. Musse is the most down bad character so far, and I just sat there like, "Rean, you just have to give it to her man, she needs it." That's how down bad she was. But she was also a powerhouse magic user so she had a spot on my team. Altina's funny because she's so deadpan but I only used her when I had to. Ash is a tragic character and I liked his story but in terms of using him in battle, he was one of the 4, but I don't like him as much for my powerhouse as I did, say, Laura. Kurt is forgettable to me.
Here's what I'm trying to say. Top 6 (yeah this is my review I do what I want) Cold Steel playable characters right now, not counting Rean because he's a must.
1: Sara (#2 favourite Trails character in terms of personality, though as a party member I sometimes swap her out)
2: Laura (Like her character and mainstay party member when available)
3: Emma (Same as Laura. Become a fan of the Witches)
4: Juna (actually probably #2 in her personality/arc, and I did like how I built her. I would consider swapping Sara out for her for battle.)
5: Musse (Personality wise she amused me but didn't have the depth. But as a magic user she was a good replacement for Emma so I'm fine with her being there)
6: Fie (I've really enjoyed her character arc, and I like her as an unhittable machine, but unfortunately she doesn't usually get in my part since space is limited. Always in the support though!)
The final dungeon/ending:
- One of my favourite final dungeons in the series. It's not that the environment was especially memorable. You just go down, down down. Follows the same formula as most of the other ones: go a bit, fight some bosses, continue, rinse, repeat. Fight the final boss, then fight him again with Valimar.
- It's that it felt so personal. Right before we are dealt a bunch of betrayals.
Sharon's made me butthurt. So much so that when I fought her I specifically targeted her first. I love deeply but hate just as deeply. She's a great character though, that's why it hurt. With Millium's betrayal I just felt sad as I beat her up, and then she sacrifices herself and that hurt. Millium was not one of my mains but I liked her quite a bit and she always amused me with her excessive hugging and childish humour. She was legitimately one of the funniest members.
- It handled old Class VII passing the torch well. So, basically, they slowly get phased out as you continue down. So you fight some of the bosses and a couple old Class VII people stay behind to continue the fight, leading you to use new Class VII for the final battle. But every fight feels personal because it isn't JUST Enforcers or whatever, sometimes you're fighting people who were your friends. Just done it was done well. Felt less like a boss rush, which I'm not a huge fan of usually.
- Even fighting the Holy Beast was kind of sad because it was tainted and unless I'm misunderstanding the plot, they're really just there to protect Sept-Terrions. So we HAD to fight it and kill it but we didn't want to.
- Which leads me to the plot reveals. There are doozies here.
1. Rean loses his shit and kills the Holy Beast, then stupid-ass Chancellor ends the game by grabbing him/Valimar and being like, "We got shit to do buddy." (No, those aren't his exact words)
2. This is after Rean's actions unintentionally pushed the Erebonian curse out to the entire land, making the set-up for the next game infinitely intriguing and tragic.
3. George/Georg set explosives that killed Olivert, Victor S. Arseid, and Toval and blew up The Courageous. THE HELL. Don't spoil this for me but I do suspect they will return because Trails--and lots of other media--do tend to wimp out, but if they don't... shiiiiiiit. Still a fantastic moment regardless.
4: The aforementioned Millium sacrifice. Poor girl.
5: The reveal of the Erebonia Curse. It could be used as a cop out, like, "Oh, this person only did this because of a curse." I mean, that's MOSTLY why Ash did it, though he was influenced by the fact he was from Hamel and survived the massacre, but still. And yet I'm okay with it. I like the idea that this whole nation is under an actual curse.
6. We see the other Divine Knights.
In terms of finale, this is one of the best for sure, which is saying something because I'm pretty sure I've loved every single ending, even if it was something simple like Chapter 3's.
I need to start taking notes while I play because there are so many things I would probably comment on if I remembered. I love this game. This isn't a surprise to me at this point. I cannot wait to play 4, even though I hear it's not as good. I'm okay with that. I'm sure I'll love it.
My final remark is this: Cold Steel 3 gave me SERIOUS Infinity War vibes. I'm not saying it copied it because it came out in Japan before Infinity War, but it left me feeling the same. It's a compliment. You know the good guys will come back but it felt like we lost.
Mini Review: Even mainlining this game, it was 70+ hours, and I think that's too long for any game. However, at the same time, I was hugely invested almost the entire time, and the last little while made up for the times where the game faltered a little. Ending is fantastic. The gameplay is improved. The soundtrack is up there with the best of Trails so far. Still love old Class VII. Don't love Kurt but dig the rest of new, especially Juna.
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