The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Review Summary

Enhanced Graphics and Visuals: The game has seen significant improvements in graphics, modeling, and visual quality. Players have noted better character models, animations, and an overall enhanced visual experience.

Excellent Soundtrack and Audio: The game features an excellent soundtrack with memorable tracks and high-quality audio. Players have praised the music and voice acting.

Charming and Distinct Characters: The game features charming and distinct characters that players have found likable and well-developed. Character relationships and interactions are complex and engaging.

Engaging and Emotional Story: The story is engaging, emotionally impactful, and features deep plotlines. Players have found the narrative to be compelling and well-paced.

Improved Combat System: The combat system has been polished and enhanced, offering more complexity and tactical diversity. Players appreciate the refinements and new mechanics.

Confusing and repetitive storyline: The storyline was criticized for being confusing, nonsensical, and repetitive. Players found it hard to follow and noted that it lacked progression and had repetitive events.

Disliked the ending: Many players expressed dissatisfaction with the ending, describing it as very bad, incomplete, and feeling like a cliffhanger. Some also felt it was rushed and seemed like a cash grab.

Tedious and unbalanced combat: The combat was described as tedious and not improved from previous entries. Some players found it too easy, while others noted it was unbalanced and could be abusable.

Poor character development: Characters were criticized for being poorly written, clichéd, and lacking depth. New characters, in particular, felt half-baked compared to older characters.

Excessive filler content: The story was criticized for having excessive padding, filler content, and being too long and slow-paced. Some sections, like the Fortress section, were noted to be particularly long and repetitive.

Story-focused and serialized narrative: The story progression and pacing are highlighted, with a focus on a serialized narrative that keeps players engaged.

Engaging and improved gameplay: The gameplay is noted for being fulfilling and improved compared to previous iterations, though some find it repetitive.

Enhanced combat mechanics: The combat system has been refined and enhanced with new mechanics, adding depth to the gameplay.

Detailed character builds: Players enjoy the detailed character builds and strategies, including equipment and quartz setups.

Character customization and development: Players appreciate the depth of character customization and development options, including appearances and progression systems.

Performance and optimization issues: There are mixed reports on performance. Some players experience good optimization, while others report frame drops, performance slowdowns, and areas not well optimized.

Mixed graphics feedback: While many players appreciate the graphics improvement and detailed character models, some criticize desaturated graphics and poor visual quality in certain areas.

New engine enhances graphics: The game features a new graphics engine that significantly improves visual quality and performance.

Smoother animations and visuals: The game offers more fluid visuals and smoother animations, though there are reports of bad animations in some instances.

Higher system requirements: The game is noted to be more demanding than previous titles, with decent PC requirements needed for optimal performance.

Play previous games first: Many players recommend playing the previous games in the series, particularly the Sky trilogy, Zero, and Azure, to fully appreciate the story and emotional payoff.

Recommended for series fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of the series and those who have followed the franchise.

Recommended for JRPG fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of JRPGs and those who enjoy story-heavy games.

Worth playing for story and improvements: Players find the game worth playing for its story, improved battle system, and visuals.

Mixed recommendations based on flaws: While many players recommend the game, some do not due to its perceived flaws.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $30.00.

Game completion: 130.0h.

Story completion: 110.0h.

The game starts slow and can be boring in the early hours, but the pacing and enjoyment improve significantly as players progress and unlock more tools and characters.

Reported time to anchor: 6h.

Friction: Slow pacing in the early game; Limited tools and characters at the start; Repetitive narrative and structure.

Unlock drivers: Gaining more tools and characters; Progressing through the narrative; Experiencing intense story beats and combat sequences.

Story-Driven Enthusiast: Immersive, completionist. Motivation: Engaging story and character development. Stance: buy.

Strategic Manager: Methodical, completionist. Motivation: Strategic gameplay and optimization. Stance: buy.

Challenge Seeker: Grinding, hard mode. Motivation: Overcoming difficult challenges. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The Steam Deck generally receives positive feedback for its performance and battery life, with users reporting smooth operation and long playtimes with minor adjustments. However, there are notable issues with the user interface, particularly concerning small font sizes, which can impact the overall user experience.