The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
North American PS4 cover art
Developer(s)	Nihon Falcom[a]
Publisher(s)	NIS America JP: Nihon Falcom[b]
Director(s)	Takayuki Kusano
Producer(s)	Toshihiro Kondo
Programmer(s)	Toru Endo Nobuhiro Hioki Noriyuki Chiyoda Atsushi Oosaki Shingo Maekawa
Writer(s)	Hisayoshi Takeiri
Composer(s)	Hayato Sonoda Takahiro Unisuga Yukihiro Jindo Mitsuo Singa
Series	The Legend of Heroes Trails
Engine	PhyreEngine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows Stadia
Release	show September 28, 2017 PlayStation 4 JP: September 28, 2017 NA/EU: October 22, 2019 AU: October 29, 2019 Nintendo Switch JP: March 19, 2020 WW: June 30, 2020 Microsoft Windows WW: March 23, 2020 Stadia WW: April 1, 2021
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III^[c] is a role-playing video game developed by Nihon Falcom. The game is a part of the Trails series, itself a part of the larger The Legend of Heroes series, and serves as a direct sequel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II. The game was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan in September 2017 and worldwide in October 2019. Ports for Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows were released in 2020. A direct sequel, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, was released in late 2018.

Gameplay[]

The gameplay of Trails of Cold Steel III is similar to the previous two Trails of Cold Steel games, being a traditional Japanese role-playing video game with turn-based battles. An emphasis was made on speeding up battles, including making transitions into battle scenes more seamless, and being able to map out more battle commands to specific buttons rather than various menus, though battles are still primarily menu-based.^[1] The game contains a new system called Brave Order which lets players "buff your party without expending a turn".^[2] A Break Gauge was added, where enemies with a reduced Break Gauge are unable to act.^[2]

Synopsis[]

The game is a direct sequel to the prior two Trails of Cold Steel games, picking up one year after the events of Trails of Cold Steel II.^[3] The story is centered around main character Rean Schwarzer, now a military professor, as well as his students, and the rest of his military school friends from the prior two entries,^[4] notably exploring subjects such as the mysterious origins of Rean's birth, and what others have been up to since the events of the prior games. The game also features appearances from Tita and Agate, characters from Trails in the Sky, a previous story arc within the Trails series, as well as Tio and Randy, characters from Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure.^[3] The game takes place in the aftermath of the "Northern War", which started over the Northern Jaegers' role in Noble Alliance atrocities during the civil war and ended in the annexation of North Ambria. While helping protect civilians during the war, Rean lost control of his Ogre powers and became unconscious for three days, making him afraid to continue using them.

Plot[]

Rean is now an instructor^[2] at the Thors Branch Campus teaching the new Class VII, consisting initially of Juna Crawford (a girl from the former state of Crossbell), Kurt Vander (whose family lost their duty to protect the Imperial family) and Altina Orion (an agent of the Intelligence Division and former foe of the old Class VII). Two other students of the branch campus, Ash Carbide (an orphaned delinquent), and Musse Egret (a noble student hailing from the Lamare province) would later join Class VII. His fellow instructors are former student council president and Thors upperclassman Towa Herschel, Randy Orlando from Crossbell's Special Support Section and Major Michael Irving from the Railway Military Police. The former Noble Alliance general Aurelia Le Guin is appointed the branch campus principal with Professor G. Schmidt acting as an advisor.^{[citation needed]}

While training the new Class VII, Rean is ordered by the Imperial government to resolve numerous conflicts arising all over Erebonia as part of the campus's field exercises, assisted by his classmates in the old Class VII. The incidents were instigated by Ouroboros in preparation to take back the Phantasmal Blaze Plan stolen by Chancellor Osborne at the end of the civil war. Also operating behind the scenes is an ancient group known as the Gnomes, now operating under the Black Workshop moniker, with their agent Azure Siegfried being present in each incident. Angelica Rogner, an upperclassman and associate of the old Class VII, investigates the possibility that Siegfried may be the late Crow Armbrust, and goes missing after discovering that the Crow in his grave is a facsimile, seemingly killed by another Class VII associate George Nome, revealed to be the Gnome Copper Georg.^{[citation needed]}

During the field exercise in Heimdallr and in conjunction with the Summer Festival, Ash is possessed by a curse and attempts to assassinate the Emperor, critically wounding him. Chancellor Osborne then assumes power as the interim leader and blames the neighboring Calvard Republic for the assassination attempt, creating a casus belli for war. Rean and his friends eventually come into contact with Roselia of the Hexen Clan, an immortal witch who had been watching over Erebonia for centuries. Roselia explains that over a thousand years ago, Erebonia's ancestors waged war on each other using the Sept-Terrions of Earth and Fire. Both Sept-Terrions eventually destroyed each other and fused to become the Sept-Terrion of Steel, the "Great One". Realizing the danger of this new entity, two groups, the Hexen Clan and the Gnomes, split the Great One into seven pieces and sealed them away in the seven Divine Knights, which include Rean's mecha Valimar.^{[citation needed]}

The Class VII group later discover that Chancellor Osborne, Ouroboros, and the Gnomes have allied together to unleash the Great One's sealed Curse across Zemuria, which would usher in the "Great Twilight" that will end the world. Rean and his friends attempt to stop Osborne, forced to fight their way through Ouroboros, the Gnomes' operatives, and Osborne's Ironbloods, causing Siegfried to remember his life as Crow in the process. However, after the Gnomes destroy the Courageous with Prince Olivert on board and Millium sacrifices herself to protect Rean and her sister Altina, Rean permanently loses control of his Ogre powers through rage and causes Valimar to violently murder the black beast containing the Curse, releasing it. Osborne then overpowers and prepares to capture Rean.^{[citation needed]}

Development and release[]

Intentions to create a third Trails of Cold Steel game were announced as early as December 2015, at Nihon Falcom's 2015 shareholder's meeting.^[5] Initial planning began in early 2016, though the development team was divided on which platforms the game should release for.^[6] On one hand, the PlayStation Vita was preferred, due to its larger installed base in Japan, and prior entries in the series being released there. However, the team also wanted to consider using the much more powerful PlayStation 4, which would greatly help with the game's scope.^[7] Full-scale development began around mid-2016.^[6] Like the previous Trails of Cold Steel entries, it was developed using the PhyreEngine game engine.^[8] The game was officially revealed in December 2016.^[9][4] Unlike the previous two entries, no Vita or PlayStation 3 versions were developed.^[10] It was mentioned in the shareholder's meeting that a deciding factor in developing the game for the PS4 was to help ensure higher international sales for the game as the PS4 had a much larger userbase in most countries outside of Japan at the time.^[10][11][12] This premise was reiterated by Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo:

"Foreign sales have reached a point with both the Trails and Ys series and where we can't ignore them from a development angle anymore. Ys: Memories of Celceta, for example, sold more outside of Japan than it did inside of Japan. Because Vita has kind of been on the decline for a while outside of Japan, and because the PS4 userbase is pretty established elsewhere, we have begun shifting toward PS4 development".^[12]

The Japanese release was initially scheduled for Q3 2017 for the PlayStation 4.^[13] It was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 on September 28, 2017.^[14] Localization into English and French was handled by NIS America rather than Xseed Games, who localized the first two Trails of Cold Steel games.^[15] The announcement that NIS America was taking over caused some concern among fans, due to the issues with the initial localization of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.^[16] Initially set for a September 2019 release for PS4 in North America and Europe, it was later delayed to October 22.^[17][18][19] A Nintendo Switch port by Engine Software was released in Japan on March 19 2020;^[20][2] it was released in North America and Europe on June 30, 2020, and in Oceania on July 7.^[21] A Microsoft Windows port by Engine Software and PH3 Games was released worldwide on March 23, 2020.^[22]

Reception[]

After the positive reception of the first two Trails of Cold Steel games, journalists were generally enthusiastic for the prospect of a third entry, though many lamented the lack of a Vita version.^{[9][10][31][13]}

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.^[23][24] Reviewing the North American release, Nintendo Life called it an "excellent addition to the series", although they said it had slow pacing at times.^[32] NintendoWire praised the "naturally brilliant" soundtrack, but did say it wasn't the easiest game for those unfamiliar with the storylines in prior games.^[33] Frontline Gaming Japan praised the "strong narrative and exhaustive worldbuilding", as well as a "fun battle system" and payoff for long-term fans. They criticized the dated graphics and thought previous soundtracks in the series were stronger.^[34]

Sales[]

Trails of Cold Steel III debuted as the best-selling game in its week of release in Japan, selling 87,261 copies.^[35] This was a significant drop from the 151,781 units Cold Steel II had sold in its first week.^[36] Media Create attributed this decline to the lack of a PlayStation Vita version.^[37] Despite this, Dengeki's sales reports still estimated that approximately 80% of the game's physical stock was sold at launch,^[38] and Falcom announced that the game had the highest digital game sales in the series, as of October 2017.^[39]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• NIS America portal