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.

"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."

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.

Definitely a substantial improvement from the earlier games. Decent pacing for the most part and some strong moments. Kevin is a really good protagonist. Can't believe star door 15 was even allowed to be put in. That shit was crazy.

However, while still better than the earlier games, it still has things holding it back dramatically for me. My main issue with the game is that it's fairly underwhelming for most of it as everything that it does is done better in other games or stories I've experienced. 3rd is a standard execution of its ideas that brings nothing new to the table nor does it in a way that feels very impactful for me.

Another problem I have with it is that while the pacing is decent and for sure better than the earlier games, it's still not very good for me. Not much actually happens for most of the game as it mostly just repeats a similar formula, barely deviating until the very end, which by then the story is immediately about to end. The combat and dungeon crawling do not really circumvent this issue as they're fairly unimpressive for me overall, and by this point in the series, I'm burnt out and want to see a major shake up to the combat. I'm also fully burnt out on the setting and cast of Liberl, which further accentuates this problem for me. Hopefully the crossbell games deliver on these fronts.

For a series I have spent more than 150 hours at this point to be this underwhelming, it's such a shame and also a bit annoying. Especially when it is a hyped up entry such as this one.

Having at last finished the Sky trilogy with the completion of Sky the 3rd, I can confidently say this is the best entry in the series thus far, in spite of the baffling decision to turn the game into a dungeon crawler.

The writing here is a marked improvement over the writing in the first two games, and this is in large part thanks to the Doors. The Doors are technically optional, but you’re really missing out if you don’t do them, as they’re easily the best part of the game. I didn’t do all of them, but of the ones I saw, nearly all of them added something of note to the characters they focused on. It’s an impressive feat, considering how between the first two games, the writers already did a good job fleshing out everyone in the main party, and yet somehow, they managed to develop them here even more. There were even a couple of Doors that focused on NPCs from the past two games, and those also did a good job expanding on those characters, despite their relative unimportance to the overall narrative. Trails’ commitment to getting me to like characters I was indifferent towards or outright hated at first is astounding.

It’s not just the side content that saw an improvement though, I would say that the main narrative of Sky the 3rd, minimal as it is, still manages to reach for more adventurous heights than Second Chapter. I appreciated how they opted to go a somewhat darker route with the story and I also appreciated how they decided to include some honest-to-God plot twists in this one (the main one is a bit predictable, but there are some smaller ones that are more interesting).

For some final one-off positives, I thought it was really cool that they brought back every party member from the first two games and how party construction was overall a lot more freeform than in the first two games. I also appreciated the relative lack of Cassius Bright in this game. Sure, they still fill the annoying character quota here with Gilbert, a character who has way too much screentime considering how his whole schtick stopped being funny towards the end of Second Chapter, but I will take “overstayed his welcome” Gilbert over “walking deus ex machina” Cassius any day.

As previously stated though, the main problem with the game is the dungeon crawling structure it decided to adopt. From a writing perspective, while it technically manages to connect all the disparate elements of writing that make up this game, it doesn’t do them any favors either. It feels like Phantasma was the first idea they came up with and they just decided to roll with it without considering better alternatives. I understand that as an epilogue game, they didn’t want to go all-out with the world design, but the whole thing feels a bit slapdash for my liking.

In terms of gameplay, while seeing alternate versions of areas from the first two games was neat at first, it ended up becoming a bit of a drag to explore by the end. Chapter 6 in particular is such a slog; it took up 14 hours of my 55 hour playtime and mostly consisted of barely-modified dungeons copy-pasted from the first two games but now populated with overly tedious combat and boss encounters. The fact that the game is a straight-dungeon crawler also makes it so that you can’t fit the Doors nicely into a play session. Many Doors feature anywhere from 20-40 minutes of uninterrupted cutscene, and as there are few natural story breaks in the middle of any given chapter, there never really felt like there was a good time to casually pop into a Door and watch. For me, I usually had to sit down and commit to watching a few at a time.

Normally, I would say that the general structure of any given game feeling a bit iffy would count as a rather large flaw, but thankfully it’s my only real complaint with Sky the 3rd, and the writing largely makes up for it. To reiterate something I said earlier, it really felt like the writing was reaching a little higher than it did in the first two games, something I mentioned that I was hoping for at the end of my Second Chapter review. Now that the Sky arc has concluded, I’m really excited to try out the next two arcs, both for a chance at a stronger overarching narrative, and also because I’m a sucker for callbacks and returning characters.

I think this is the best out of the three Trails in the Sky games. Yeah, it can be argued that SC has a better or more important story, but SC was too repetitive for my liking. I thought SC was going to be a completely new journey so I was disappointed when most of that game's journey consisted of revisiting the same handful of towns as in FC. There's also reused content in Trails in the Sky the 3rd, but the experience felt new enough that it didn't bother me.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd takes place in another dimension called Phantasma. This place operates kind of like a dungeon with multiple floors, except sometimes the floors are pieces of the overworld from the previous games. Phantasma has a strange and ethereal atmosphere that helps even the reused content feel new. I much prefer the atmosphere of Phantasma to that of Trails FC and SC. Those games felt too cheery without any sense of danger or intrigue. Trails in the Sky the 3rd was a lot more mysterious. I really appreciate the developers changing up the atmosphere here.

The thing that really made the atmosphere more enjoyable for me was the music. Like I mentioned before, Trails in the Sky FC and SC were a bit too cheery for me, and that extends to the music. In FC, every track from the town themes, to the battle theme, to the boss themes were just too happy and had no sense of drama. Thankfully in Trails in the Sky the 3rd every track has a certain amount of either intensity or mystery to it. I knew from playing Ys that the Falcom sound team is capable of creating magnificent soundtracks. I didn't feel that strongly about FC or SC's soundtrack, but with this game in particular it feels like Trails has found its musical identity.

The combat is pretty much the same as before, but I was a lot less frustrated with it here for some reason. It may be because the boss fights in this game were more fair (unlike a certain white-haired gentleman in SC who likes to make copies of himself at random). I'm still not completely in love with the combat system but it's easier to see its merits in this particular game. The fact that this game gives out new party members like Halloween candy probably helped a lot with keeping combat fresh as well.

The Trails games have a habit of treating every character like the main character. Now that Estelle has retired from her position as a protagonist, it becomes really clear how much of a strength that approach is for a multi-part series like this. Giving every character the depth of a protagonist means they can instantly fill the protagonist role when need be. Kevin, this game's protagonist, is an example of that. He was given a big spotlight in SC which made it easier for him to become a protagonist in this game. But even smaller characters are allowed to have some time as a protagonist in Trails in the Sky the 3rd - in the side stories.

This game has multiple side stories that can be found all over Phantasma. These take the place of sidequests and they're a much better way of handling side content. These side stories allow the player to play as some of the less prominent characters and discover more about them, which is way more interesting than doing random chores for NPC townsfolk.

The overall story was more of a self-reflective journey of a specific character than a series of important events, but I'm fine with that because this series has good characters.

I am really starting to understand why people like Trails now. The large ensemble cast that evolves over the course of multiple games is something that works incredibly well, and I can't wait to see where the story goes next.

Best of the trilogy. Do have issues but thought Kevin and his whole thing was pretty decent and definitely related to certain aspects of his character, Reis was a nice addition also, nothing extravagant or big but did well, don't have anything to say on any of the other characters as they felt like bit parts. Kind of was expecting a bit more after the starting bit but was underwhelmed just a bit, but still overall was decent. So far in the series, seems to always have one section of the game that's either stale or padded out for length which really throws off the pacing at times and something I really don't appreciate and wanes my interest, iirc it was ch. 5 or 6 in this game where I got that feeling which was kind of a blow cuz as I said earlier, was expecting a good bit based off how the game started.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd is easily my favorite of the Liberl Arc. Yes, the game is not the conventional Trails game since its more of a dungeon crawler rather than exploring a nation with a grand story and full of named NPCs. Despite it being different, Sky the 3rd still is an amazing game in its own right. The gameplay is still solid, with the big thing being you can basically use a lot of the major characters from the first Sky games and use them in anyway you want. The dungeons (or Corridors) were fun to do and raising a team of about 16 playable character is easy due to level experience gains being easy for low - level characters. The biggest things to note about the game is specific - colored doors in which there are three - Moon, Star, and Sun Doors. While Sun Doors are simply minigames, the Moon and Star Doors are significant is they provide more moments of characterization between the main playable characters, as well as giving focus to side-characters, and setting up plot points for future games. They are all great in quality, though I do admit the Moon Doors do take long (thankfully only five doors are in the game). As for the story, while it isn't a grand tale that doesn't reaches the highs of SC, it still is a well-told story that focuses greatly on Kevin and newcomer Reis. Maybe that fact that the game is shorter in length and didn't have problems with being split unlike FC or SC, the story's pacing is well-done and there is barely any padding at all in it's execution. Music is still great with my favorites being "Fighting Right On" and "Determination to Fight". The only negative I can really think off is the lack money (which even that isn't a problem since you get ample amount of quartz to trade in for mira), the Sixth Corridor does pad out with too many fights, and the game being more of a dungeon - crawler (which is still more on preference than anything). Overall, Sky the 3rd is an excellent game that made Kevin a top-five favorite character and is a game that should NEVER be skipped, even if the game structure is different. Easy 4.5 / 5.

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.

A great epilogue to the liberl arc of trails. When I first started the game I was thinking about how this was one of the mixed games due to its difference in the gameplay loop as there was no exploration which I think was a good choice since it would have been boring to have to explore liberl for a 3rd time. Also the change of protagonists was an unexpected but welcome change due to Estelle having been an already well developed character and 3rd does a good job of having her be part of the story without having to create another character arc for her. Instead of Estelle being the protagonist it expands more of the backstory of Kevin which in SC had a minor role but definitely had a lot of mystery from him which 3rd expands on. The best part and the main part of this game is the memory doors which works as side stories of where the characters are now and for some backstory which gives characters more time to shine. It also shows what they are doing post SC which gives some closure to the liberl arc but also opens up the next arc with expanding the constantly growing world of trails which im excited to continue playing through

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.

I had a feeling this was going to amaze me in some way but damn I was not expecting some of those moments, especially Star Door 15.
Trails in the Sky the 3rd is a significant improvement compared to FC and SC, primarily because of how well-written the Protagonist is in this game. Kevin Graham is a really interesting character about whom I was inquisitive by the end of SC and he didn't disappoint at all.
Ries the female Protagonist is also really fleshed out and has a strong dynamic with Kevin that makes the pair work (unlike Estelle and Joshua).
Most of the other characters were just returning from previous games with very little to offer and the side stories didn't make them any better for me as I already don't like those characters and one backstory isn't enough for me to suddenly start liking them (except some).
Another fact I noticed in this game was how good Estelle and Joshua are as a supporting cast. I liked Estelle and Joshua here a lot more than I liked them in FC and SC. I am now excited for how their roles are gonna play out in the next couple of entries.
Still, I've got my issues with the game, the first half of the game can be very boring as very little is going on other than Kevin's backstory at the beginning of each chapter which keeps me intrigued to know what's to come. But the chapters themselves are not very well done until the second half of the game.
Also, this is supposed to be a Love Letter for the Liberl arc, while also wrapping the remaining plot points left after SC, but it's hard to enjoy this since I never really got into the characters in the first two games so another miss for me.
Another problem might be a personal one, but I'm not a fan of the dungeon crawler aspect of this game, it got boring real quick and I just didn't enjoy much of my playthrough because of that.
Finally, Trails delivered something that I had expecting from the series since the very first game. And while it took its sweet time, if they are gonna continue with this level of character writing and well-done backstories, then I am really interested in what's to come from the later games. Hopefully, they don't disappoint me as the First two games did.

after playing sc, the second game in the trails in the sky trilogy, I thought it would be hard for it to be topped for something better sort of until I finished the 3rd. SC was so good but I think I like this game a bit more.

trails in the sky the 3rd kind of drifts away from the style of the first 2 games, the gameplay is more like a dungeon crawler and this change might've annoyed some players but it defo didn't for me, I found this gameplay very fun although it might take a chapter or 2 to get used to the style of the game.

my favourite part of the game is the doors feature, such a unique way to present side stories into a game, these doors helps you to understand the lore and story of the game but also helped the cast individually, all of the main cast got drastically better due the stories within these doors. Other than story, certain doors have minigame features and actual objectives you need to meet which was so fun for me I enjoyed it a lot, it really helped me to immerse myself into trails the 3rd. The moon doors really felt like I was playing a VN tho. My favourite door was star door 15 by far, Renne is the most interesting character for me so far and I cant wait to see her later arcs as I play through the trails series

Kevin being the MC really paid off since his journey is beautiful and the whole arc revolving around him was just greatness. Kevin's arc is pretty much relative too Estelle and Joshua in my opinion.

i also think, unlike the first 2 games, trails in the sky 3rd had the best starting point and stayed the most consistent, this helped the flow of the game better. I cant really think of bad segments in this game due to how consistent it is. Overall this game was something else, it was so good

An amazing finale to an amazing trilogy, what an experience and I'm looking foward to the next arc which is crossbell

"so we put on our bravest faces and promise to meet again -whether it becomes true of not - and we go back to our lives and keep on going"

What a Journey through the Liberl arc of trails games. Trails in the sky the 3rd is what I call a great conclusion to this arc. The game is a departure from the first 2 games focusing more on the dungeon crawler and battling aspect of Trails and it did pretty well. Kevin is also such an underrated protagonist you want this guy to smile and succeed to what he has been bottling up. I am glad to be on this journey with Trails in the sky FC all the way up to the 3rd and I'm looking forward to finally getting to Crossbell soon. I've done a handful of the memory doors but I'm going to go back to the game on my spare time to do them. The Trails/Kiseki series is now in my top favorites I can now consider myself a fan!!

Absolutely brilliant entry in The Legend of Heroes series. Everything is absolutely of high-caliber: the story ties up all loose ends in the Liberl arc extremely well, the music is a meticulous masterpiece, and the tweaked gameplay from the two prior games make this game’s combat the very best rendition of them.

The usage of the Moon, Star, and Sun doors and the dungeon running theme of the game were an excellent way of tying the whole story together. Each of the doors had a certain memory that explored the other important characters from the past two games, giving you insight to what exactly happened to those characters, all while not getting in the way of the story for the main protagonist, Kevin Graham, which made sense within the dungeon-based world.

There is no way a type of game stylized around the first two games in the arc could’ve done this idea justice; there are just too many mysteries surrounding too many characters. It would require too much jumping round between characters to uncover the unresolved tidbits from the first two games. Another approach would’ve been an episodic-styled type of game where each episode concentrated on a certain set of characters and their story was told.

For me, Trails in the Sky the 3rd is just the perfect conclusion for the Liberl arc. This game was really just that good !!

A trilogia como um todo é incrível, mas este em particular se tornou o meu favorito. Diferentemente dos dois jogos anteriores, que começaram com uma abordagem mais slowburn no gameplay e no ritmo da história, este já inicia com intensidade total. Momentos que normalmente seriam reservados para mais adiante nos jogos anteriores se desdobram logo no início deste. O impacto é imediato, marcando uma mudança significativa no design do jogo em comparação com seus predecessores, que adotavam uma abordagem mais lenta, introduzindo primeiro o cotidiano comum dos JRPGs antes de mergulhar nas partes mais intensas da narrativa. Aqui, a trama começa com um caso envolvendo Kevin, seguido por grandes revelações e uma incursão quase imediata em uma espécie de dungeon crawler. Exploramos diferentes planetas em locais novos ou conhecidos dos jogos anteriores. A surpresa dessa mudança brusca na narrativa desde o início foi cativante, proporcionando um novo fôlego à série. Entendi isso quando um amigo explicou que este jogo serve como um elo entre os arcos, funcionando como epílogo e prólogo para a próxima fase da história.

Nos dois primeiros jogos, havia inúmeros personagens pelos quais nutrimos o desejo de ter na party, mas muitas vezes eles permaneciam por pouco tempo. Neste jogo, esses personagens surgem como uma espécie de "dream team" dos jogos anteriores, o que adorei. Isso tornou as trocas de party mais dinâmicas, especialmente considerando a nova abordagem de exploração deste jogo. Com 16 personagens jogáveis, utilizamos todos eles, e a possibilidade de criar inúmeras estratégias para diferentes times proporciona uma ampla variedade de combates. Richard é OP e DERAM UM MECHA PRA TITA, foi genial. Achava ela bem inútil nos jogos anteriores, aqui tá maravilhosa, tanka pra caramba.

A ideia de explorar mais a fundo os personagens por meio de grandes ou pequenas sidequests encontradas em diferentes pontos da aventura pela extensa dungeon ou planetas é um acréscimo bem-vindo. A exploração de locais antigos de uma maneira renovada e a reutilização eficiente de recursos não são aspectos negativos quando bem executados. Deu oportunidade de conhecer mais do particular dos personagens da franquia, e quando falo isso, não apenas dos personagens da party, outros do universo são explorados de forma muito bem executada também.

Uma das grandes novidades é o Teleporte, algo ausente nos jogos anteriores, e embora nunca tenha sentido falta disso anteriormente, neste jogo faz todo sentido. A cada novo jogo, houve melhorias na qualidade de vida, e este certamente segue essa tendência.

O universo compacto deste jogo se aproxima mais da alta fantasia do que os anteriores, apresentando inimigos diretamente inspirados em contos de fadas, em contraste com a abordagem mais tecnológica ou de animais com elementos distintos dos dois jogos anteriores.

Enfim, trata-se de um jogo com um ritmo dinâmico e uma história fascinante que evoca emoções desde o início. Se você apreciou o universo e seus personagens, é absolutamente essencial explorar meticulosamente cada aspecto deste jogo.