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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

2017

Audio: English, Japanese · Subtitles: English, French, Japanese

  • role-playing (rpg)
  • strategy
  • turn-based strategy (tbs)
  • adventure
  • action
  • fantasy
  • science fiction
  • comedy
  • drama
  • party

The story

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is the eighth installment in the main Trails series, serving as a direct sequel to the events of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II. The game follows Rean Schwarzer, now a military professor, as well as his students, and the rest of his military school friends from the prior two entries, notably exploring subjects such as the mysterious origin's of Rean's birth, and what others have been up to since the events of the prior games.

What it’s like

Bright, painted anime portraits sit over softly lit 3D towns and campus grounds, with warm afternoon sun on stone courtyards, lantern-lit evenings, and wide green fields under big skies. The soundtrack moves between gentle string-led themes and brisk, synth-tinged battle music, and the cheerful chatter of classroom and dormitory life often fills the quiet gaps. Turn-based battles play out with flashy special moves and bloodless hits. Exploration happens on foot through visible roaming enemies, and the pace is unhurried, built around long dialogue scenes and slow accumulation of small moments. Its tone is warm and earnest, with easy comedy between friends giving way to heavier political and personal drama. Violence is stylized and largely bloodless, though war and betrayal come up in grave scenes. This suits long evenings with a controller, weekend marathons, and comfort replays, and it is best for players who want a dense, character-driven story and don't mind a lot of reading.

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