+ Interesting story and characters. + Excellent dynamic turn-based battle system, with a lot of customizations possible. + Good OST. + Graphics have gotten better than in previous games. + Awesome port, got to run it very well and stable even bellow system requirements using a GTX 550 TI. - Pacing with some "filler" moments at the academy and training sections. The full review can be found here (it's in brazilian portuguese, automatic translation is available): https://shin-reviews.com/2020/10/11/review-tutorial-the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iii/
I did not know where I was getting into until I started playing. Being a Falcom fan for some years, that played to now nearly every english released game, I can say this one was a hidden-gem until Xseed decided to localize it. Gameplay-wise, it is close to Nayuta no Kiseki, that is one of the best ARPG that I played. The game's plot is good, nothing extraordinary, but good, and will slowly turns from “unpretentious” to “more interesting”. But what shines here is the gameplay and the characters. The game features some very interesting characters, as the “exotic” church's nun or Pokkle and Pipiro, the previous games protagonists. I found one of the antagonists interesting too, and the game features some surprises. Journeying through Granvallen, Zwei's world, some characters will grow, as Alwen and Ragna, personally and with their bond. The dungeons are varied, and have an structure where the player explore segments, are evaluated by some metrics and given a medal according to their performance. It has several extra contents, big bonus dungeons and optional content. The game is easy, first dungeons pose nearly no challenge, but the difficulty will increase on the fourth dungeon forth, but with the abundance of food (that heals and is the source of EXP), it will not really be high. The game has a “New Game +” feature, where you carry your data and has some extra contents for the new journey. A highly recommended Action RPG, fun, with likeable characters, good OST and colourful graphics. It has some good voice actors (like Alwen and one person that I will not mention here). Thanks XSEED for bringing this Falcom game to us!
The definitive version of Ys VI - Ark of Napishtim is here, with widescreen support and several art images as extras. It was one the first games on the series that got an english release, not officially available on PC until today. This version from XSEED is the better english release, as it retains the original videos from Falcom, that were replaced on PS2 by not good CGs. And for the people that tried it on PSP, rest assured, this is a perfect release, different than Konami's PSP version that had several problems. The Ark of Napishtim shares the same engine of Oath in Felghana and Origin and in my opinion, it's overall a better game than Oath in Felghana, with excellent art, soundtrack and ambientation. As it's older, the gameplay is less polished than on the successors, but great anyway. And for the hardcore gamers, it comes with a new mode where you can't use potions, that goes more in line with the subsequent games. This is one of the best Action-RPG games ever made.
Trails in the Sky FC is the first part of Legend of Heroes 6 trilogy and features a great (and long) story slowly developed through the game, dosing serious moments and humour. Trails in the Sky features an major evolution in every aspect (dialogues, character construction, gameplay), comparing to the previous Gagharv games. The characters construction is one of the strenghts of the game, that features several main characters, all with their strong personalities. The gameplay is good, you can rotate the camera freely on the major part of the time and the combat is interesting, mixing a turn-based system with strategy-RPGs features. On the graphics side, the art is greatly done by Falcom, as in every game of the company. Characters portraits show their emotions on the dialogues (happiness, boredom, ...), contributing to the characterization. Music too is good, and although I would like to hear some more musics featured, the ones played are generally good. Also, XSEED's efforts on the localization shall be mentioned, as this version has widescreen support, on the contrary of the original PC version, has the voice acting featured on the PSP version, along with the retry feature, that lowers the difficulty of a lost battle and gives the player a immediate battle-retry option (for all this enhancements, praise Sara, XSEED's one person development area). Althrough I disabled the retry feature, because I like difficulty, some people might like it.
