Yes. The Trails fan is devoted and patient. We are talking about probably one of the JRPGs that together with Trails of Cold Steel more cor
relation exists between quality / ignorance on the part of the average user, even fan of the genre. If you have entered here without knowing what all this is about, do not keep r
eading: The 3rd of the title is precisely what you imagine. A third installment that has little or no meaning to play if you have not completed the previous ones. But since you’re here, research them. Read the comments on how much you like their fans and you’ll come back to this analysis when it’s time.
Because The 3rd is probably the strangest title of this “trilogy”. In quotation marks, yes, because the present delivery can be understood as
an addition that is not at all necessary for the main arc comprising the first two games. It is, in fact, one of those productions that make us understand how far the Japanese fan service is from the Japanese. The 3rd is built from the deepest homage to his ch
aracters, as if nobody, Nihon Falcom or his fans, wanted to let them go. And it’s completely true: we want more from Estelle, Joshua, Agate, Tita, Olivier (<3), Kloe, Zane (now Zin thanks to the great English translation that XSEED has done) and the rest of the classmates.
But it is also a game that, outside the fan service (and here I have to make many efforts to see it with perspective) is unnecessary. It is true that there was much to tell about some characters and about some organization, but the development of The 3rd is not u
nderstood if it is not based on making certain concessions to originality, even recycling environments that we already noticed in Second Chapter, for follow its history. Because a saga as prolific as The Legend of Heroes , the longest in the history of video games, which has several deliveries for each of the countries that make up the continent of Zemuria , had already shown us the entire region of Liberl and his story in full.
The infinite dungeon
Thus, Nihon Falcom converted and converted The 3rd into something different: a dungeon crawler with Father Kevin Graham , that priest who is slowly entering the history in Second Chapter, as protagonist with Ries Argent, the Church’s ambassador and friend of Kevin’s childhood. After a mission where Kevin rescues artifacts from the past for safekee
The Phantasma dungeon will occupy the largest playable percentage of the adventure. The result is reminiscent of Ys Origins: a great dungeon, but well designed.
Through a series of dimensional doorsthat we will find in our path, we will add to each one of the protagonists of the saga and all of them will have their moment, through the memories that we will unblock. A way to show the events that occurred after the previous game that makes The 3rd, in the background, an epilogue. One of the longest we’ve ever played.
And the funniest, because although this infinite dungeon breaks with the structure of the series, is built intelligently and efficiently, full of some of the toughest enemiesthat we are going to find in the whole trilogy. And when we say hard, we mean that at the normal level, where if we maintained a good level only in some cases we were put to the test, here we will have to demonstrate that we perfectly master all the rules of your combat system.
Trails in the Sky is finally complete, and that’s enough cause for celebration
The doors that take us to the memories (long and short) of each character are one of the most important reasons to keep moving forward, because we all want to know more, but it also supposes a very clear break between gameplay and story sequences
The stories of each of the characters is the greatest incentive to play The 3rd. We all want a closure at the height of each of them.
Did I like Trails in the Sky The 3rd? Of course. Even surprised with his dungeon crawler structure, he knew that after Second Chapter there was not much else to do in Liberl than to enjoy everything once again, for simple and pure recreation.
See these characters, enjoy their great combat system that even rescued in Cold Steel is still not the same, this isometric style that still looks beautiful as the first day … Have the opportunity to taste everything for dozens of hours, in instead of replaying it once more, it is an experience that any fan will deserve very much. A farewell and closing in style, giving you the hardest and longest dungeon of all you’ve traveled on the continent.
And for that reason, any Trails in the Sky fan that has come this far, does not really need a detailed analysis of all its aspects, because with more than 150 hours of adventure you already know what you are going to find. Rather, what he needs is to know that he is not alone, that like him there are other players who in full 2017 were still waiting for a game of which
we have luck that has crossed the Japanese borders and managed to be translated not into our language, but into English, and which we are still crossing our fingers to see someday those Trails to Zero and Trails to Azure , as well as the EVOLUTION versions of the present saga. It does not matter now. Trails in the Sky is finally complete, and that is enough cause for celebration.
