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.