

- #Legend of heroes trails in the sky the 3rd full#
- #Legend of heroes trails in the sky the 3rd series#
#Legend of heroes trails in the sky the 3rd full#
Players begin the game already at level 90, and the battles are all designed to make full use of the combat system’s features. The combat system of 3rd is, by now, readily familiar to Trails in the Sky fans, but it’s at its most intense in this latest entry. Most of the game’s best moments come from the doors, but the main story has its moments as well, particularly in its final chapters. A few are nothing but non-interactive short stories that go on far too long for their own good, but others are brilliantly designed and even include their own dungeons and battles. All of the doors are structured a little differently, for better or worse. A few of them are little more than mini-games, while others introduce characters fans of Trails of Cold Steel will immediately recognize.

#Legend of heroes trails in the sky the 3rd series#
Some of them serve as a “where are they now” style epilogue to the events of Second Chapter, while others provide additional backstory to the series as a whole. Each of these doors contains a short side story about the various characters throughout the Trails in the Sky series. If this sounds somewhat monotonous, the game breaks it up with the inclusion of mysterious doors that can only be opened once certain conditions have been met, usually by having the correct characters in the party. Thankfully, the level design is quite good and includes a number of twists and turns, with lots of treasure to be hunted down. There are no towns or sidequests during the main adventure, just a straight route towards the end. The world is divided into seven planes which Kevin must traverse, defeating bosses and saving trapped comrades along the way.

Rather than exploring the Kingdom of Liberl and completing quests for the people there in traditional RPG fashion, 3rd takes place entirely within the confines of the aforementioned otherworld, and is structured entirely as a dungeon-crawler. While the story of 3rd is tied directly to the events of the prior Trails in the Sky games, the entire structure of the game is radically different. The Trails in the Sky combat system is at its best in 3rd. Together with friends old and new who have become trapped alongside them, they have to unravel the mysteries of this world and find a way to escape. During one of his missions, Kevin and his squire/childhood friend Ries find themselves trapped within a strange otherworld, taunted by a masked figure who calls himself the Lord of Phantasma. Those familiar with the previous games may recall the group appearing within the in-game novella Carnelia, and in fact this novella ties into the events of 3rd in many important ways. Trails in the Sky the 3rd breaks away from the previous games by placing players in the shoes of Kevin Graham, a priest of the Septian Church and a member of the Gralsritter, a special organization within the church dedicated to hunting down artifacts from a long lost civilization.

This in no way makes it a bad game, but it’s likely not what you’re expecting. At the same time, in many ways it feels like more of an afterthought: a bridge between the now-completed story of Estelle and Joshua Bright and the future entries of the Trails series. Trails in the Sky the 3rd is a fun, surprisingly challenging RPG that gives players a welcome final journey with the characters they’ve grown to love over the previous two games. So was it worth the wait? Well, yes and no. Despite the final entry being a decade old as of this July, the entire Trails in the Sky trilogy has finally been released in English. It’s been a long time coming, but with the release of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd, XSEED Games has accomplished something that many people believed would never happen. Kevin Graham the Archaeologist Assassin Priest
