Well, Trails has finally truly impressed me. This is definitely my kinda series after all.

3rd has decent pacing of things happening the entire time, though that is partially helped by its shorter length. The dungeon structure is preferable to FC's and SC's for me, and there is way less backtracking. It has a complex main character and a personal character-driven story. The combat system is mostly similar to FC and SC, but the way it ties into the story here more often is cool. Most of the 3rd music is the best in the series so far for me, especially the final boss theme and the OP.

Every problem I had with FC and SC have been fixed. Nobody is annoying anymore; a lot of the story is a love letter to the Sky games in general. Hell, some characters are better in this game than the previous ones. I even care more about Joshua and Estelle in 3rd than I did in FC and SC.

It's also got the majority of the emotional and dark moments (especially that one door) of Trails in the Sky. I genuinely cried to a few of them, which hasn't happened with Trails so far.

I will be continuing onto Crossbell with high expectations.

So we put on our bravest face and promise to meet again--whether it comes true or not--and we go back to our lives and keep on going

After 200+ hours over 6 months I have finally completed the Trails in the Sky trilogy. In this review I'll talk about the trilogy as a whole, and will have a section about the 3rd game specifically, without any story spoilers. If you want to read my more spoilery thoughts on the games, check out my list ranking the games.

Yeah... man. Where do I start? What is trails most known for? The world. The world of trails is the most lively and intimately crafted setting I think I've personally seen in a video game. I like to consider myself a thorough explorer in games, but I've probably only seen about half of all the dialogue that the games have to offer. No matter how small your progression may be, every single corner that's accessible always has something new to see, whether it's people reacting to events, or simply living their lives, showing a snippet of a personal story. The most mind-blowing part is how some of these insights can be relevant to someone completely different, very far away, a long long time from now. It really is an extensive dynamic system that makes the environments and NPCs feel as real as they ever could and is, to me, the biggest sign of the developers' passion for the universe they've created.

Of course this theme doesn't stop at just NPCs, there are countless links between the games main plots that are clearly planned and intentional and so well thought out that's extremely commendable. There's nothing quite like getting planned payoffs from a something multiple games ago. No AAA studio would ever have the balls to try something like this today, obviously because it's not sustainable, but in 2004 Falcom was able to take a risk and it has clearly paid off very well for them resulting in the franchise still keeping on today.

My next favourite thing is the cast of characters OH MY GOODNESS I can not believe the amount of S-Tier characters that have popped out here. It's way too many to name, but I suppose Estelle is the star of the show, being such a fantastic protagonist, whose experiences so naturally shape who she becomes that you get the pleasure of seeing every step of the way. If you want to get the most out of the characters interactions with each other, and are playing on PC, PLEASE USE THE VOICE MOD (yes they are official japanese voices, just ported from a future version of the game that I've heard is otherwise inferior), they make the interactions 10x more memorable, funny, epic, whatever. Even the smallest conversations are a joy to listen to, amazing job from the cast.

The combat is very fun, I haven't played too many turn based games, but there's alot going on here that I enjoy that added more strategy compared to others that I have played. Be it the movement system, s-breaks and orbment system. A really fun way to make builds that reflect the characters' fighting styles and personalities.

The music from all three entries is awesome, a great mix of jazz, rock, and classical from many great composers that are extremely replayable. Oddly enough alot of the tracks didn't resonate with me when I first heard them, but as I heard them more and more they have become addictive and timeless.

There is a lot of talk about Trails being a slow burn, or the first game being setup, and the 2nd game is where things really happen. This is true to an extent, but my experience did not reflect that of others. For the most part, I found all parts to be equally enjoyable for all the different things that they offered, whether that's learning about the world through the protagonists in FC, pushing the narrative forward to crazy places in SC, seeing my favourite characters have epic or endearing moments, or having fun with the combat in 3rd, I truly have very very few issues and think of this as a borderline perfect trilogy of games with plenty to offer by my own standards. I am genuinely very sad to know that the journey with these characters has come to an end.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd

This entry in particular was a fantastic conclusion that shakes up the formula. Yes the story is not told as naturally as other entries, so I can understand thinking it might feel "lazy". But given everything that has happened, I believe it to be the best way to really give all the characters their chance to be fully realised, the best way to set up plot points for future games, the best way to tie up Liberl in a nice bow, all the while providing a more typical dungeon crawling experience with the most balanced and rewarding version of the games' combat yet. I was recommended to play 3rd on hard mode for this very reason and I'm very glad I did as it gave me multiple engaging challenges.

The main plot didn't make me feel things the way the previous games did, but I think this is down to my expectations based on those games. It was still a very good story overall that touches on a difficult theme, I really appreciate the different, more personal approach. The side doors were amazing, so many fantastic moments in them that have me feeling satisfied with everyone's development, and looking forward to what's to come in the Crossbell arc.

Coming back to this with context from the later games only makes me view this already masterful game in an even better light. Perfectly wrapping up existing arcs and storylines coming out of SC and setting up new conflicts, concepts, and storylines that carry on 5 games later, all while telling its own beautifully tragic story about a man stricken with grief and hellbent on punishing himself. I'd say Sky the 3rd, while not being my favorite game in the series, stands as the true testament to the genius of Falcom.

Trails in the Sky The 3rd : Diamond in the rough, don't skip



Previously on "Cani plays the Kiseki series", Cani was struck with how lukewarm he ended up being towards Trails SC the most hype entry in the sky trilogy, if you want some recontextualization refer to my Sky SC (and a bit of FC review)

With that said, let's talk about the 3rd and final entry in the Sky saga, Trails in the Sky the 3rd !

This one is kind of an oddball within the series, remember how I said that despite its flaws Trails SC still retained the same quality as FC in terms of writing and coherence ? Well this time it's a bit more complicated, Trails the 3rd doesn't really possess any of these qualities because it goes for a completely different thing, while the first 2 games were classic JRPG titles were you go around the world, talk to people and explore dungeons from time to time , Trails the 3rd is mostly a dungeon crawler where you go through different dungeons , beat up ennemies and get some random story content from time to time.

In a lot of ways, Trails the 3rd feels a lot less ambitious than its predecessor, the game is kind of a budget title and it's something that you can feel quite a bit. From all the reused assets, to the weird plot structure and doors, Trails the 3rd is a chimera Frankenstein monster of an entry that is so drastically different from the first two that one might not vibe with it if they liked the first two games much more than me.

Even the title kinda put a big emphasis on that, it's Sky "the 3rd" instead of sky "3rd chapter" that's because the game is the third title of the Sky series but not really a sequel to the Sky main storyline which is well over by now.

I honestly even doubt the game was even planned by any stretch of the imagination, it's like "Ok we have enough unresolved plot points and under developed side-characters to fill an entire game with it but the story is over ? What do we do ?"

"I dunno do you know about Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories ?"

Trails the 3rd has to bear on its shoulders three completely disjointed promises :

-Expanding on the already well developed cast and storyline of the first 2 games
-Setting the stage for future entries
-And telling a self-contained story of its own that's worth going through to not feel to justify this game being more than an anthology

So did it manages to do all of that ?

OH MY GOD THEY DID AND EVEN MORE, TRAILS THE 3rd IS ACTUALLY THE BEST ENTRY IN THE SERIES BY FAR

But how ? How does a game so drastically different ? So drastically cheaper on such a drastically smaller conflict can even achieve the status of being quite literally a masterpiece were the first two entries were alright but not above average ?

I'd say that the first aspect that Sky 3rd excels at is structure and general pacing, the game is much shorter than the first two entries but much more is going on in the story at literally any point, there's not a single dull or repetitive moment nor are their needlessly stretched out chunk of gameplay (except maybe chapter 6 but chapter 6 also possess some of the rawest boss fight in the trilogy) and despite setting its story in a world vastly different than the first two entry, it manages to have a superb vibe and atmosphere enhanced by what is easily the best soundtrack in the entire trilogy.

This is also served by probably the best gameplay the series has seen so far, while like the first two entries I still played on normal difficulty, Trails 3rd really does use the serviceable but still fun battle system of the original to its full potential here. This is due to how the game handles its difficulty and the different ressources you get throughout the game, unlike Sky FC and SC, getting access to Mira and new quartz is harder so the game pretty much forces to play smarter with the limited toolset given to you , that toolset grows exponentially larger as time goes on and the more party members you acquire and the more quartz you can get access to grows and the more insane the builds can be.

I actually enjoy the fact the game prioritize giving you characters you might've not used in the original titles meaning that you have a bigger time to experience with new and unique party combination , eventually you do get all the party members available in the previous games (which have also seen some changes in their gameplay with new or upgraded crafts) as well as two surprise party members which just happens to also be 2 of my favorite antagonist from the previous entries (and both are allegedly SUPER BROKEN) but that doesn't really change the fact that for most of the game you have to adapt yourself to what you have, and thank god investing on some of these characters is so worth it (Tita becomes a fucking MONSTER by the end of the game let me tell you)

Everything is served by the game having quite an upscale in difficulty, because of plot related reasons the monsters have new elemental weaknesses and resistance, so now you can't just spam time magic anymore and be gone with it, elemental weaknesses are even more important in this game than in the previous titles and boss battles aren't just about brute forcing your way through them trying to out-dps them, you need to manage buffs and debuffs accordingly, being cautious of your placement and general movement as well as managing your status resistance because this game will not forgive even random encounters can kick your ass without you noticing if you're not careful about that shit and if it's already this much fun on normal mode, I can't even imagine how amazing it would be on the other game difficulties, 3rd is the only game I'm looking forward to replay just for the gameplay , it's really that good.

The exploration is also vastly improved from SC, SC had the problem of having too much less new content, recycled areas with little to no changes and a fuck lot of backtracking

3rd changes that by doing three things :

-Having way more new environment and dungeons to explore
-Recycling areas but putting a twist on them to make them feel fresh and new to go through
-And little to no backtracking with the game having actual fast travel with a LOT of areas you can teleport to

Meaning that yes, Sky 3rd was clearly less of a pain in the ass than SC in that regard and all that I've mentioned above does make the game pacing quite buttery smooth for the majority of it.

But what's good gameplay and exploration in a JRPG if not tied to a good story ?

Well turns out despite its weird disjointed plot structure, Trails the 3rd is the perfect cap off to the franchise one could ever hoped for.

The main content of the game itself is quite straightforward and short, but the side-content is truly where the game truly shines and what make this the penultimate kiseki experience for any fan of the franchise.

Like I said the game has an anthology approach to its story, along your exploration of Phantasma, you'll get across different kinds of doors which ranges from short stories about random characters to longer more developed stories to minigames. Some doors even have the luxury to tease you on the rest of the franchise especially star door 8 and 14 which sets the stage for what I believe would be stuff happening later in Crossbell and Cold Steel.

These doors really adds a lot to the cast that was already pretty meaty in the original and helped me get an even better appreciation for them even the super minor ones, some of these are actually so good you actually wonder why these subplot weren't in SC to begin with (especially the Estelle and Joshua ones which would've hit even harder in the context of that game rather than a random substory in 3rd).

Of course the clear outliers of all these doors is clearly Star Door 15 which is to put it lightly the "PTSD arc" of the Trails series due to how brutal of a tone and atmosphere change it is from the rest of the game (note : therapy not included) and have put me in quite a bad mood after finishing it. It's so viscerally brutal and told so crudely while keeping the doubt throughout the entire thing where you're in a constant state of "No fucking way..." until it is "yes fucking way" and your heart is broken to pieces.

But what about the main story ? Well this time instead of Estelle and Joshua serving more of a support role this time, the story focus on a character from SC named Kevin, Kevin was already a pretty damn fun character in SC but more in a comedic side-kick kind of way well at least until the ending of the game when a new side of his character is revealed to us.

Trails the 3rd builds on that ending to develop Kevin from a funny sidekick to quite possibly one of my favorite protagonist in media, even surpassing Estelle in her own series despite having two games worth of character development herself.

The story of Kevin about dealing with his past traumas and trying to bear the pain on his shoulder to atone for his sins and how his destructive coping mechanism manages to hurt the people around him (metaphorically and literally through the existence of Phantasma) is one that deeply touched me and was so effective and told with such brillance, nuance and subtlety that it managed to even get little old me emotional.

Suffice to say that the final third of the game is truly where the game reaches its most climatic point yet, seriously this ending feels even more cathartic than the one from SC in many ways and yes it did made me cry like a little baby because despite all of the bumps in the road, I did got attached to these characters and that particular smaller story really emphasized how much seeing them grow over the course of three games truly was something few JRPG can manage to pull off.

The final farewell to the cast was probably the best way to cap off this series.

Trails the 3rd is quite honestly a masterpiece but one that truly holds meaning within the context of its own series and to think some people would skip it is absolutely unreasonable.

You got me Falcom hive, you got me DAMN well

TL;DR : SC is trash , 3RD GANG RISE UP !

This is the 3rd in a series of reviews and like the games themselves are intended to be experienced in release order, or at least read the preface of the first one here.
Feel free to let me know if you think I missed anything!

I really really want to love this game. I really do. I want this game to be a 10/10 I adore it. But it just has too much going against it. This is the first game I went into straight on nightmare which was honestly a mistake. That said this is still the peak of gameplay in the Sky trilogy.

First though let me get story out of the way first this time as it's much easier.
This game is a dungeon crawler. Gameplay is much more at the forefront in this one than any other Trails game thus far. I honestly think this was a bad idea. I don't think the dungeon crawler format mixed well with the story they wanted to tell. I don't think the game being a dungeon crawler in itself is a bad thing but I think that it was split too heavily between the dungeon crawler gameplay and the story focus of the Trails series. This game was very very clearly made as a bridge reusing assets and setting up for the future. Half the locations in the game are reused areas from the previous and the other half are featureless mazes or corridors.
The story itself, honestly great. I love Kevin's character and backstory and I love the doors which I'll get into a bit later. The problem is how it's split up. The format goes a bit like this once you get into Phantasma. You explore the dungeon layer a bit, collect a character, they go "wow this is crazy." you unlock the 2nd half of the floor, maybe clean up some doors you can now access, you fight the boss, you get the next chunk of story and repeat.
For fans who prefer the story there's a lot of busywork needed to get to the next story beat and there's nothing interesting or relevant about the areas you're going through.
For fans who just want gameplay, first of all how did you get to this point, secondly the doors are still pretty important on that end for money and gear and upgrades and they can be long with no skip other than turbo mode and mashing through dialogue. I don't think they hit a great balance between the two even for people who really like both aspects.
In terms of the main story too the side characters don't really provide much of anything it's pretty much all Kevin and Ries. they'll give you some comments when talking to them after story events and that's about it for the most part with the exception of 3 characters and their specially designated time to be relevant in chapter 6.
But again, the main story surrounding Kevin is great. It's a lot darker than the previous two games for sure but every part of his backstory and relationships is engaging and interesting. It's a shame how little he ends up being relevant in the future because this game provides Kevin with so much growth and character that borders on overtaking Estelle and Joshua
However where this game really shines is the Doors. As a quick explanation the Doors are split into 3 types. There are Moon Doors which provide a lengthy side story, star doors which give a shorter one or an expansion on an element of the world that's been left in the dark thus far, and the sun doors giving a minigame. The sun doors are pretty bad in all honesty but the Moon and Star doors give so much lore and background to characters who honestly desperately needed it and provide a look into where everybody's been since the end of SC. I don't think I'll ever forget Renne's backstory in Star Door 15 and how well such a sensitive subject matter was handled. Was it perfect? No definitely not, but it was far far better than I ever expected. There is very little from the Star and Moon doors that I would say is outright bad. They're absolutely the highlight of the game and possibly the arc as a whole.

As said before this game is a dungeon crawler and so you'd hope the gameplay is good and yeah, it is. I really liked this game's improvements on the Sky formula. It still has a lot of sky's issues but I doubt they'd completely upend the format for an epilogue like this. We're still with the same orbment and quartz as the previous game but we get a much faster and smoother progression of it this time. Along with that gear tends to be far more interesting. You have much more accessories that provide stats rather than just debuff immunities and a lot of them give both upsides and downsides, you have weapons that can provide Arts Strength or accuracy or evasion. Chest armour is mostly disappointing just being +def but there's a few interesting ones there.
The best part of building in this game however is the sheer scope of characters. Every single playable character returns (except kurt) plus 2 new ones. and for most of the game you're only locked to Kevin meaning for a good chunk you can take any 3 others you like, sometimes you're locked to Ries too but occasionally you're not locked to anybody at all and can take whoever you like. You can also select one character as a support member to provide modifiers to your stats or other bonuses
Trails in the Sky 3rd's gameplay is really a Sky playground and that's why I want to love it.

The game is unfortunately not balanced in the slightest. I hold some blame for this by playing on nightmare but it honestly really was just not tested in the slightest. Some fights were just not possible without some earth wall cheese or retry offset. It's a shame because I really really wanted to push the game to it's limit in this playground environment but when the required strategy for some fights is really unengaging spam of "i'm invincible" it sours the experience. And it's not like every single fight was like this either. Some felt almost perfect on this difficulty which only makes it sadder when I hit those walls because it could have been an amazing experience with all these tools to play with.
When it comes to the dungeon of Phantasma itself, shockingly the featureless mazes and corridors were actually the best parts. Chapter 2's turning Grancel City into a dungeon was really cool but the other reused areas were already dungeons and going through them again with little to no changes was really disappointing, especially after just coming from them in the previous game. 3rd was very clearly made on a tight budget and timeframe because half the areas were barely changed repeats of previous ones. You have the first dungeon of SC except now the water is lava and when you lower it to walk on it it hurts. You have a mid game dungeon from SC that is indentical in every single way even the boss fights except now it's flipped horizontally. I'd honestly rather the entire game be those featureless mazes than redoing the exact same thing again.

Maybe I'll soften on 3rd if I do a replay without coming directly off of FC and SC sometime but as it is it's a game that I really want to love but just can't.

The best game in the sky trilogy and one of the best trilogies alongside with Dark Souls.

Setting up future plot points for future games in the franchise, adding more characterization to characters in the sky cast to make them even better. One of the best games in the whole series still. A sweet farewell to the Sky Arc and an amazing send off to the rest of the series.

I love Kevin and Ries. Cradle Where Feelings Rest.

The third and final entry in the Sky/Liberl arc of the Trails/Kiseki series, Trails in the Sky the 3rd acts as a sort of epilogue for the trilogy while opening the doors for the future for other games to explore.

3rd once again changes little mechanically from the first two games, same battle system with the same orbment system for magic, etc. New turn bonuses such as Vanish (makes a character disappear when hit) and Death (one hit KO) have been added and these are great to encourage you to pay more attention to how you manipulate the turn order (you haven't felt true pain until you see an enemy hit all 4 of your party members with a Vanish bonus only to see your party disappear and Game Over pop up on your screen)
Other than those tweaks it's pretty much a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which is fine by me when I enjoy the battle system so much in these games and messing with my orbments to see what spells I get.

What has been changed this time round is the core structure of the game and our protagonist. Following on 6 months after the events of Trails in the Sky SC, this game follows everyone's favourite priest from SC, Father Kevin Graham as he's called to investigate a mysterious relic that he may need to claim for the church with newcomer Sister Ries Argent accompanying him as his new squire. Shenanigans happen with a mysterious cube object pulling Kevin and Ries, as well as many other familiar faces into the mysterious world of Phantasma, a world full of creatures that look like they're straight from Gehanna (hell) and seemingly under the control of a masked new villain who goes by the name Lord of Phantasma along with their masked underling who looks suspiciously familiar. This story setup leads to the biggest structural change to the series so far, making it more of a dungeon crawler.

The world of Phantasma exists on numerous planes that alternate between brand new unique dungeon like areas and returning areas from the previous games that have become more dungeon like in structure. For example, Grancel, a major city in the previous games, has many areas locked off, no NPCs and enemies roaming the streets with chests to loot, turning a once bustling city into a dungeon-like area. This change in structure does mean you lose a lot of the charm I loved about the first two games, exploring the world and falling in love with its NPCs, which is a shame. It's also somewhat understandable as exploring the same world for the third game in a row would've been a bit tiresome so changing things up is welcome despite the drawbacks it brings. The goal of these dungeon areas is to explore and make your way through to the end where you end up fighting a boss and ultimately gaining a Sealing Stone which can be brought back to the hub area where the seal can be undone and a new character will join your party, with up to 16 playable characters being available to choose from.

The change in structure also means sidequests undergo a revamp. No longer are you travelling Liberl and helping out with Guild quests, side quests are now handled by three different kinds of doors you can find during exploration of a dungeon. Moon doors that contain lengthy side stories, Star doors that contain shorter side stories, and Sun doors that are more minigame based. These doors have certain requirements to unlock them (usually having the right combination of characters in your party) and they end up holding some important backstories to characters as well very interesting developments towards potential future plotlines. Moon doors like giving you a deep dive into characters' pasts and will have playable sections in them to help break up what are usually around an hour long story experience. I did find them a bit too long at times, disrupting the quick paced story of the main game a little too much for me, but I did also love seeing the past of characters like Kloe, Estelle and Joshua. What was even more surprising was seeing a new character from Kloe's backstory show up in Olivier's side story in a much more wtf role showing just how much thought has gone into these stories and the interconnectivity of them all.
Star doors are more to the pace that fit this game for me, usually between 15-30 mins and are purely dialogue focused. These tend to offer a view on some events with characters that happened within the 6 months this game skipped over and are pretty fun stories that give closure to some characters' arcs. Some of the later star doors however offer very important insight to events that happened off screen during the games that set up plot threads for future games to tackle. Like one goes through a report the Empire wrote up when their Guilds were being attacked by Jaeger's and Cassius had to step in and help out and seeing how some people high up in the Empire viewed Cassius was a very eye opening moment.
Finally we have the Sun doors which hold little minigames that are nice breathers to the main dungeon crawling gameplay. These are mostly silly fun little stories like Estelle getting caught up in a fishing challenge. The first one in particular offers a really cool minigame that I will leave as a surprise but it caught me off guard.
So aside from some minor pacing issues I had from the Moon doors, these doors offered a lot of compelling narrative elements and character moments that I really appreciated and that were difficult to find somewhere to put them in the main story.

Moving onto the change in protagonist, as someone who became very attached to Estelle from the first two games, I knew leaving her behind for someone else was always going to be difficult for me to adjust to. At the same time I can appreciate that the core element of Estelle's story was wrapped up in SC so moving her to the background a bit and letting someone new take the protagonist role was a very wise decision. Kevin was an interesting choice as he had shown some particularly interesting elements to his character that needed exploring in the end of SC. Three games in and I think I can say now that Trails is an expert in the slow burn when it comes to their characters and story. Things take their time to unravel again and you get little bits of Kevin's backstory with Rufina and Ries at the start of every chapter and little by little you grow attached to Kevin the more you learn. Having Ries with him throughout the story is very helpful as she knows him well enough that she can see through his facade and call him out on his bs as he struggles to be open with the people helping here. It's really compelling stuff and it all culminates in some really hard hitting revelations surrounding why Kevin is the way he is and what exactly happened to Rufina and my gosh it shook me to my core. Kevin and Ries had a hard time matching up to the heights Estelle and Joshua had for me but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I cared about them by the end. There was a lot of moments in the last few chapters that got me to tear up and I think it shows just how well they do the slow burn in these games.

As I mentioned earlier, the game features a playable cast of 16 characters which is quite a lot for an RPG and yet somehow they still manage to find a way to get you to use every single one of them. Even outside of doors requiring specific characters to unlock, throughout the story you'll have one or two characters you are forced to use that changes up every so often and as you find more characters you'll find yourself swapping one or two in or out. Particularly the order you find them in is very clever, with some of the less available party members in previous games being early ones here allowing you to spend more time with characters you otherwise wouldn't have. The finale also finds a way to get you to use every single character which is incredible for a cast this size.
One other thing to point out is the continuation of character strength through level in this trilogy. By the end of Sky FC my party was around level 30 so I wasn't too surprised to see my party start off at level 30 in SC. By the end of SC however, my party was above level 90 so I was genuinely surprised to see Kevin start this game at level 90, particularly when I'm used to games capping my characters at level 99 or 100. What was even more surprising was seeing characters go past level 100 and still level up! By the end of the game my party was over level 130 which outside of the missingno glitch in Pokémon Red/Blue, I had never seen in a game before. That coupled with some returning enemies the characters had struggled to beat in earlier games now being much easier to take down really sells just how much these characters have grown throughout the three games. It really was a pleasant surprise not seeing my characters reset (outside of orbments) having seen the likes of Metroid come up with so many excuses to reset Samus' skillset. It's just really cool seeing that level of care being put into something so small for a lot of people.

Aside from my minor issues with the game being more dungeon focused and some small pacing issues I had, Sky the 3rd is another excellent entry in the series and does a fantastic job at offering its own compelling narrative as well as wrapping up character arcs and moving the pieces in place for future story arcs. The fact it manages to juggle all of these story elements with little issue is a huge testament to what they've been cooking in this series and it has me excited to see how they continue this overarching narrative. I've thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the Sky trilogy as a whole and have loved getting into the Trails series. It will be tough to say goodbye to Liberl and its incredible cast of characters but 3rd certainly did enough teasing for Crossbell to have me very excited and curious to see where these story threads go.

This game is kinda like the black sheep of the Trails family since it isn't structured the same way as any of the other games.

It's more like a traditional dungeon crawler mixed with a visual novel and a lot of people don't like the fact that it isn't as much of an RPG as the first two and the fact it's linear and there's no towns or side quests to really do.

Personally I don't mind this because all the story content is just as great as the first two games, especially seeing as how the main story focuses on Kevin Graham, a side character from Sky SC because he's the main character in this game and learning his whole backstory and motivations, the game is essentially a character study for him and that made me happy because I love him a lot and love him even more now after this game. One of my fave characters in the series.

All the side story content is also really great and either fleshes out other characters from the first two Sky games even more or shows some history and world events for areas we've yet to visit in Zemuria.

The gameplay in this one was probably the most fun to me since you have all the past playable characters from the first 2 games and then some extras, so there's tons of variety in team building.

Also anyone who says you can skip this game is a fool because even if you consider Kevin's story a side story and irrelevant to Joshua and Estelle, you learn so much more about events in the world that become important in the Cold Steel and Crossbell games, plus get tons of valuable character interactions and most importantly Sky the 3rd serves as the closer to the Liberl arc and you get a very touching 'goodbye' scene between all the characters at the end of the game and that's worth the price of admission alone to me.

If you enjoyed the stories and characters of Trails in the Sky and Trails in the Sky SC I highly recommend you give this game a chance too and don't let the haters persuade you otherwise because it's just as great as the first two as far as I'm concerned and my personal favorite in the Sky trilogy.

Hard to talk about this one. Really liked Kevin in SC, and a game entirely focused on him seemed like a great idea, especially since it's a pure dungeon crawler, one of my favorite genres. However, it didn't work out as well as I had hoped. There were many repetitive story beats, the structure wasn't good, and the pacing was really bad. There was just too much uninteresting information that buried the interesting parts of the universe, making this one the worst of the trilogy. The Kiseki writers could have used some editing to make the story more concise and interesting, and some parts could have been removed altogether (Kloe and school again? Come on). However, the OST is fantastic, and the gameplay is an improvement over the first two games. Thankfully, starting with Crossbell, the series returns to a more traditional JRPG structure.

"That brief hesitation was all it took to spawn a great evil. It crawled through the fields, ran through the hills, and spread disaster in the skies above. Book of Ezer, Verse 2, 'Disaster Unleashed.'"

An epilogue to a finale. The bridge which leads to the next story arc for this legendary series as well as one that is filled with context of the past, present, and future of this story.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd is massively different from its predecessors and ones that follow it. A dungeon crawler with Visual Novelesque side stories that are apart of its own door system. There is a requirement for every door and whoever fulfills it gets granted a flashback to the past. On how this is handled it is easily one of the best side story concepts I have seen in a video game. I am definitely going to miss doors like Moon Door 4, Star Door 8, and Star Door 15. Obviously there are more but those are ones that stood out to me or are the most memorable.

Although I have seen people who dislike the gameplay in this game, I personally love it. I think it was a very different change of pace considering how you're done with Estelle and Joshua's magnificent journey, and Kevin motherfuckin Graham takes over.

Kevin Graham's story is something that will stick with me for a LONG time. I thought Estelle would never be topped or let alone matched when it comes to a main character standpoint in this series and it did not take long for my expectations to be shattered. Now I don't know where I stand in the comparison between the two, but I can confidently say I love them both.

The soundtrack is somehow on par or arguably better than the last. I really don't know how this is even possible but man it is something special. When I first started the game and this track was the first thing I heard I knew we were in for something special.

Unlike SC, this game had me invested from beginning to end. There were several times where I just audibly said "wow." At this point I can just say that this is one of the best video game trilogies ever. Like each game of this trilogy just sets a high bar for the rest of the genre after experiencing it.

The Trails in the Sky trilogy has truly been an emotional and special journey and I just can't wait what future games has in store waiting for me.

Lastly although I was absolutely loving this game while playing, there was a line by Kevin himself that really stuck with me and solidified this game as an all timer.

"It's why it gave me the strength to move forward, even knowing how many hardships awaited. Because for every hardship, there'll be just as much joy waiting for me."

Terminar esse jogo foi lapidar algo que eu já sabia: eu amo a trilogia Trails in the Sky, de verdade mesmo. O SC é um dos meus jogos favoritos e um forte candidato a ser um dos meus JRPGs favoritos. E por mais que eu veja uma cacetada de problemas no SC e no primeiro jogo, ainda sim não consigo deixar de ter um forte sentimento de carinho por esses jogos, e agora pelo the 3rd também. Essa trilogia é uma daquelas coisas que eu consigo enxergar qualquer um dos três jogos sendo o favorito de alguém: o primeiro com sua simplicidade narrativa mas com uma atmosfera de aventura muito gostosa e com um final devastador que até hoje eu quase caio em frangalhos só de lembrar; o SC com sua narrativa muito mais expandida pra construir o mundo e dar mais camadas pra cada personagem e introduzir novos que mudam completamente a estrutura narrativa do primeiro. E agora o terceiro dessa trilogia tá num espaço meio estranho, porque muita coisa já foi resolvida no SC, então teoricamente esse aqui seria só uma tentativa falha de continuar o que não precisa ser continuado; ou pelo menos era isso que eu pensava antes de efetivamente jogar.

Esse Trails é um negócio muito único só de existir. Ele não usa a estrutura de cidades pra construir um mundo igual os dois anteriores e vai pelo caminho de um dungeon crawler linear, com uma mecânica meio estranha de se explicar que são as Doors. Cada Door é como se fosse uma "fase" separada que conta um pedaço de história que ainda não foi contado, talvez mostrando um pouco do passado de cada personagem pra aprofundar mais eles ou mostrar como eles tão vivendo depois dos acontecimentos do segundo jogo. Por causa disso, muitos momentos importantes pra entender a narrativa da série tão presos nesses pequenos segmentos, mas sinceramente eu acho que todo mundo que joga esse jogo tá minimante interessado pra saber mais de pelo menos um ou outro personagem, é um jogo grande de uma trilogia conhecida pelo pacing lento. Meus momentos favoritos do jogo provavelmente tão nesses segmentos, já que a história principal em si eu não me conectei tanto até quase o penúltimo capítulo.

Tudo que os outros jogos faziam esse aqui faz e talvez até melhor; soundtrack como sempre tá do caralho e uma gameplay deliciosa que pra mim já é uma marca da série. O que eu tenho pra falar desse jogo sem muito spoiler é isso, e se tu leu isso sem jogar os outros Trails faça-se um favor e vai jogar essa porra agora. Tô bem ansioso pra jogar o próximo e vou sentir bastante saudade dos personagens de Liberl e da química de cada um. No final dele todo mundo parecia uma família no melhor sentido possível, provavelmente uma das minhas party favoritas de qualquer JRPG por causa disso.

Obrigado Trails in the Sky por existir.