The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Reviews
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.
Legend if heroes : Trails of Cold STeel III is a good JRPG with good fights, but the story is like a giant prequel to the fourth episode, with poor main issues, and the graphisms are one generation late.
Review in French | Read full review
It has some solid mechanics, tells a great story, and is really well structured. It’s just not for me.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is difficult to recommend for Trails newcomers, though there are in-game resources to help bridge that gap. If you liked Cold Steel I and II, then there’s a very solid chance you’ll enjoy III, though plenty of scenes or lines probably still go over your head if that’s all you’ve seen. With that said, Cold Steel III is incomplete by itself. Despite its excesses, its narrative builds slowly into something that isn’t fully resolved until the next game, and it has shortcomings of its own. I still find Cold Steel III to be the best game of the four narratively overall, but it’s also held back by significant pitfalls in combat. Nonetheless, I still got a decent amount of enjoyment out of the game thanks to the better aspects of the story and the core fundamentals of the Trails battle system. It’s a high-maintenance game to get the most out of, with rough edges, but I still found it enjoyable more often than not.
The long lasting story of the Empire within the Trails of Cold Steel series is passing the midpoint and hastily advancing towards the climax. In this game, there are various plot thickening events that may seem unfamiliar unless you’ve played the prequel. The game’s story is well known to commonly have tables flipping, plot twisting events so for the new players, it may be difficult to adjust to the pace of the main storyline. If you want to purely enjoy the gameplay, this iteration of the game has one of the best Falcom style JRPG user interface, thus you won’t have any issues with clearing the encounters you’ll face long the way. Lot’s of content to discover and various minigames will keep you seated until the end.
Review in Korean | Read full review
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III the third 80-hour RPG in a series of equally lengthy games. If you're a newcomer, it's a daunting and probably foolish task to try and play this game. If you're a die-hard fan of the Cold Steel series already, you'll get plenty of satisfaction out of the continued plot development and engaging combat. Even the most dedicated of fans, though, are likely to be turned off by the dated visuals and confusing Legend of Heroes crossovers that mar an otherwise impressive story-driven JRPG.
A few unfortunate backsteps make the first native PlayStation 4 entry something of a disappointment, but Trails Of Cold Steel is still one of the best old school JRPGs around.
Overall, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III brings us a very solid game and a clear improvement in the franchise. With a wide variety of personalization of our characters, both in equipment and combat sets, it gives a feeling of a game with a healthy amount of game time to experience everything we have at our disposal. It will certainly be a game for any fan of JRPGs if you have played your predecessors, but if that is not the case it can be difficult to fit in, such is the dimension and complexity of the story presented. Even so, the producer did a great job of bringing a title of this dimension to Switch, for the port presents solid features and performance.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III drops JRPGo fans into the middle of a massive story arc and then has a tendency to meander. However, it provides more than enough thrills and compelling moments to make this an adventure worth taking.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III successfully shows Rean Schwarzer's growth and new adventure to reveal the true darkness surrounding Erebonian Empire. But Fans of "Trails of Cold Steel Series", who already met shocking endings two times at former works, would face a third impact. The series was believed to finish as a trilogy, but fans should do watch up to the fourth episode.
Review in Korean | Read full review
When a decent combat system has undergone adjustments and refinements over decades, one would expect an easy victory for a third entry. Indeed, Trails II had it made; a turn-based JRPG style of combat that was host to a wealth of tactical options, with multiple types of attack, intelligent enemy AI and cross-party link skills. Trails III doesn’t simply phone it in as there are a few extra elements to dig into.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III not only continues the journey of Rean Schwarzer but also that of the iconic series.
GREAT - Trails of Cold Steel III is a lengthy and fun JRPG that’s bound to get lost in the sea of competing titles. It doesn’t help that Switch owners have to jump in with the third in the series, especially since the story and characters are directly connected to the previous games. However, if you stick with it you’ll be rewarded with a fun combat system, endearing characters, and an entertaining adventure.
All in all, Trails of Cold Steel III is an excellent Legend of Heroes game that brings the series to a more modern standard. The graphics are a lot better, the battle system is a lot more in-depth if not easy to break and the story is intriguing throughout. If you’re new to the series or have only played the previous Cold Steel games however, you’ll find yourself lost at times with the overall plot and many of the new areas and characters introduced here.
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.
Trails of Cold Steel III is a fine sequel, although the game often seems to struggling beneath the weight of its growing cast of characters and intersecting stories. As a continuation, it’s a game strictly for existing fans, who’ll get a lot out of it even if they haven’t consumed every last tidbit of Trails content.
Trails series is quite possibly the best modern JRPG series we have today, and Trails of Cold Steel III finally gives us some more, and more is exactly what we needed.
JRPG fans who can look beyond the dated graphics will discover a tremendous wealth of characters, gameplay, story, and an overall world that you can happily dive into for dozens of hours.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3 is still an exceptional RPG after all these years, even if its PS5 port doesn't offer many enhancements.