It was the summer of 2020, it was in the middle of the pandemic, and I see a game on sale on the steam store titled 'The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III'. Yeah, not what you were expecting me to say, but let me tell you, when I first saw the gameplay and trailer for that game, I think that's when I became a trails degenerate and decided to go to the beginning of the series, with Trails in the Sky.

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. The main thing that got me hooked into the series was the wordbuilding of Zemuria, I just thought of it as being so sick and cool and I needed more.

The beginning of the game was pretty slow and chill, sure, but I loved it. I'm also used to these types of games so that didn't really kill it for me. Estelle and Joshua bounce off of each other so well that I started to fall in love with them as a duo, Joshua especially. I could tell they were going to plot something with Joshua, just wasn't sure what it was going to evolve into. The rest of the cast is also pretty cool, with the main highlight in my opinion being Olivier. You can't top Olivier in terms of personality I'm afraid. As far as I'm concerned, HE'S PEAK!

The battle system also drew me in and probably became one of my most favourite battle systems ever. Idk there's just something that hits different about being able to interrupt the turn order and steal bonuses, guess it's just a rush. I love the orbment system and the different types of arts you could cast with the different quartz setups.

Regarding the plot, it felt like we were going on an adventure around Liberl (well that's what it was literally so I guess they hit another bullseye). I enjoyed how after every chapter we would rotate characters and be introduced to new ones. The chemistry between some of the party members was amazing. You got Estelle and Scherazard, Estelle and Agate, Estelle and Joshua, Estelle and Tita, honestly Estelle just bounces off of everyone really well. The party dynamics and chemistry was amazing and it just made the game that much more enjoyable. Honestly kind of lit how a pair of two teenagers had to put a stop to a coup that could've potentially toppled the entire kingdom. Overall, I was satisfied with the entire plot, and the Joshua plot reveal was probably the best part of the game imo. It definitely got me interested in Ouroboros as an organization, and judging by the fact that this is only the first game in like a twelve, soon to be thirteen, game series, I am beyond excited for how they expand on them.

Great game, would recommend, will be replaying it. Just play it please and give it a chance, you'll love it, unless you don't, then that's also an opinion!

All I have to say is that this game is PEAK PEAK PEAK.

Anyways second Trails game review. I didn't know what I was getting myself into after the cliffhanger of the first game but I definitely needed to play this game for some closure.

I'll actually talk about the gameplay first. Maybe I'm just an idiot but I actually decided to use the food we cook in recipes for this game! Especially the food where you can use it to damage enemies in battle. Also, I'm glad that they finally incorporated actual attack arts for space, I was really annoyed that the first game didn't have any. Most of the gameplay remains the same, but they incorporated Chain Crafts (I think that's what they were called, it's been a while since I played this game). Now coming from someone who completed this game on Nightmare, I didn't really use them (maybe I should've, might've made this game way more forgiving on the hardest difficulty), just never really saw the need to when most of my characters had no CP to use anyways. But EP will always be king in these games.

Like I said in my last review, the worldbuilding is phenomenal, and only continues to get better in this game. The grave importance of the Non-Aggression Pact between Liberl, Erebonia and Calvard made the situation all the more tense. On top of all of that, you had Ouroboros being snakes around the entirety of Liberl and trying to cause chaos, and they're just really weird. And Hamel, that stuff got my blood boiling when I found out about it. I think if a game is truly able to get my blood boiling for fictional content, I may as well just resign myself to the entire series, it's seriously that great.

I love love love the story in this game. Estelle goes on a double mission, to gather intel on Ouroboros, and to find Joshua. Dammit Joshua, why'd you have to leave, you carried me in the previous game. Anyways, I enjoyed going back to each city in different order, as well as being able to use the old squad, but also new characters like Anelace and Kevin. I enjoyed getting to discover the different Enforcers of Ouroboros, with many having relationships with other party members. Ouroboros in a whole is just mysterious, but I think it's better that way, as we aren't really meant to know how they operate. Oh yeah, did I ever mention how much I hate Weissman? Well, I hate him, he sucks. The one part of the game that I disliked was where you had to climb the four Tetracyclic Towers, it felt so repetitive, but I enjoyed each of the boss fights (even if I had to restart on each of them a bunch of times until I figured out a strategy). Now, the endgame was truly when this game became peak. Olivier being royalty, yeah sort of saw that coming, but the Liber Ark and how they essentially just eliminated our orbments for part of the final chapter. Brilliant incorporation of the story into the gameplay, even if it was annoying to deal with. The Liber Ark felt like a true boss rush, fighting some of the strongest members of Ouroboros to stop their Gospel plan. The Joshua and Loewe scene kind of got me near the end there. The final boss, honestly not that memorable, all I remember is Weissman summoning a bunch of ads that just kept deleting my Earth Wall.

Kevin killing Weissman was the cherry on top, and really got me interested in Kevin's character and backstory. I felt that Estelle and Joshua's arc was handled great, and I just love a lot of things about this game. That last part of the game where Joshua and Estelle are about to 'die' didn't have as much of an emotional impact on me, as I knew they would survive due to there being another game after this one, but nonetheless, it still did hit me. And of course, Cassius had to ride in on his dragon and rescue us.

A great game, and a great game to end Estelle and Joshua's story, but only beginning their adventures as senior bracers.

BLORF.

While FC had a smaller scope and executed that very competently as setup for this game, SC aims for a greater scope and ambition, with what I think is more flawed execution. It turns into Trails in the Backtracking: Padding Chapter at times, though it generally didn't bother me (yes, even in chapter 8, turn on turbo), other than the final dungeon which was backtracking incarnate in identically looking hallways across multiple floors.

When in FC the game's main villain was most present right at the end and didn't have a very strong dynamic with the cast, though it was serviceable, the FC antagonist group, Ourorobos, are present throughout all of the game. Each member of that group serves as a foil to most people in the main cast, such as Renne for Estelle, Leowe for Joshua, etc. When in FC you had initially episodic stories that didn't connect until the end, you have a central plot from the get-go here. When in FC Joshua's backstory wasn't revealed until the end, it is front and center here. And when in FC the moral/themes of the story don't really come into play until the very end, they are pretty clear here from early on.

So what's the issue? Well, I think it spread itself thin despite having plenty of time to deeply develop all of these things.

I felt like Joshua's exile arc had too little screen time to hit hard before his return. And while Estelle is insanely charismatic and likable, more than my favourite protagonists across fiction, and I like her, I would resonate with other types of protagonists more than pretty much an all-good person. Well-adjusted, hopeful, "bright" protagonists have their place, and I generally like them, but they don't leave a long-lasting impression beyond their personality being charismatic for me. I get that there's a cool dynamic between Estelle and Joshua in the way that she brings him back into the light in a sense, and their romance is fine for me, but I dunno, I just don't care for it that much. Her connection with Joshua and Renne of trying to bring them back to the human side and tell them how to join in on the warmth of human connection is neat, but it doesn't really wow me. The ending was cool, but yeah. Joshua himself seemed to have more potential when he was in his edgelord arc, and his dynamics with Leowe and Weissmann are cool, but again, not enough screen time for them to truly resonate with me.

The supporting cast is much better in this. They all get deeper dynamics, and most of them have their backstories explored more, such as Agate, Schera, and Joshua, of course.

The theme that Weissmann discusses is very interesting, but unfortunately I feel like it was not featured enough to truly resonate with me. The game definitely did have the runtime for it, so I don't know what happened.

Also, what's up with the OST in this game? While some songs, like the opening, are great, I overall felt that the first game's soundtrack had both better and more atmospheric tracks on average, as well as higher highs. The final boss themes in SC feel a little more lowkey and for the worse, in my opinion. Still cool, though.

Overall though, just like FC, definitely a good game, but it didn't blow my mind. I am however excited for 3rd, as Kevin was really cool in what little screen time he had in this game, and Azure, which everyone is excited for at the point in my journey anyway. I think I prefer SC to FC for sure.