Posted on: September 11, 2023
dd4279
Verified ownerGames: 68 Reviews: 17
There are better "Trails" titles...
As a fan of Falcom's Trails series for several years now, who's enjoyed many of the other games, I was pretty disappointed with this one. The entire plot feels like a long, drawn-out side-quest that doesn't add much of anything to the overall story arc built up in games that come before and after this particular title. Though it pains me to say it, I got the distinct impression this installment was a shameless money-grab that used the popularity of the previous two games as a selling point. This becomes painfully clear with all the recycled assets (i.e. 80% of the game has you trudging through the same old locations introduced in Trails 1 and 2. You even fight a gauntlet of the SAME EXACT bosses you dealt with in the prior games!) One of the strengths behind the Trails series is its penchant for good story-telling and character development. While Trails in the Sky - The Third does add some background to major and minor characters from the first two games, it does so mainly through 'memory doors', a ham-handed flashback mechanism that makes the added story elements feel fragmented and out-of-context. Much of these stories could have been explored in the previous two games, in my humble opinion, and to be quite honest, many of them just...aren't...that...gripping. Some deal with minor NPCs that I didn't particularly care about to begin with, and some are simple slide shows with some background text on in-world people, places, and events. Only the combat mechanics kept me from giving this 1 star. The battle system is polished and intuitive, and you can employ some decent strategy with orbment combinations. Thank God that underlying system was still intact. In conclusion, if you're a die-hard Trails fan and can't get enough in-world lore and character tidbits, no matter how small, you'll probably be okay with this game. Otherwise I'd just skip the 40+ hours it'll take to play through and just watch a 20-min youtube video summarizing the plot and key events instead.
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