Introduction
Trails In The Sky The 3rd is the final chapter in the Sky trilogy for the Trails series. It was developed by Nihon Falcom and was released in Japan in 2007. It didn’t see a western release until 2017.
Review
It’s been 6 months since the wild events of the Liber Ark came to pass. Life in the region of Liberl has all since gone back to normal, and the rag tag group that stopped the floating city have since moved on in their lives. Some went back to their work, while others decided to travel the world. But there’s still the lingering question of “when will the society of Ourobouros strike next?”.
In this installment, the main focus is taken from Estelle and is instead placed on Father Kevin, where his work as a Gralsritter continues in the Liberl region. The story for this entry acts as an epilogue to the entire Sky arc, and sets up the story to progress in the other arcs of the Trails series. Though everyone told me the story in this entry was the shortest, it certainly didn’t feel that way when I put 70 hours into this entry, making it the second longest for me. Especially with all the side stuff. But the main story answered a lot of my questions about Kevin that I’ve had this whole time.
The side stories in the game end up showing you what most of the characters were doing in the 6 months between the events of the last entry, and this one. There were a few that I wished were covered in the main game, and one BIG one that should’ve been put in the main story itself, and it talks about the Society and it’s plans. Why that was ever locked behind a side story requirement is beyond me. These side stories usually require you to have a specific character in your party to unlock them, and that usually means that it’s all about them. I will say that the story is way more streamlined in this entry though, as there’s no real sidequests, besides the doors. But you’d have to be crazy to ignore those! Some of them even have little minigames. Like an on rail shooter, or a quiz show! These were all tied to stories in their given side story door, so they’re not completely out there for gameplay, but it was a great change of pace.
The gameplay is very much the same as the last two entries. The only real change is that you get a plethora of characters to pick from, and I mean a plethora. By the end of the game, you have 16 party members that you can take into the turn based battles with you! That means leveling up everyone, having good gear for everyone, having the right Quartz for everyone so they can do magic. It was honestly a bit too much at the end of the day. It didn’t help that at the end, I had to use everyone! So I had to make sure everyone was perfectly set up the way I wanted them to be.
The battle system is basically the same as it was in the last two entries. Turn based gameplay, and when you win you just get experience and sepith, which is used to make the Quartz to be able to get magic abilities. The only real difference is that the enemies were actually given affinities for some of the magic elements. Those being time, space, and mirage magic. It really helped me pay attention as to what magic I was actually using against enemies, considering the last two entries, I just steam rolled with time element magic.
The one thing I really disliked about this entry though, is that the boss battles stretch on for so long. Whether it was because the bosses had so many phases, or they were so strong, my party got killed so many times, so I had to restart the battle, making it easier each time. Which thank god that offset option is still here, or else I wouldn’t have been able to beat the last boss and his ridiculous damage output! My strongest fighter had forty thousand health, and the last boss was able to one hit him at one point! Here’s hoping in later entries of the series, the bosses are a touch easier.
Rating
Pros:
- Kevin Is A Great Main Character
- Side Stories Are Fantastic
- Fun Mini Games
Cons:
- So Many Party Members
- Long Boss Battles
- Important Story Scenes Locked Behind Side Content
Summary
This was a fantastic end to a fantastic story arc. It answered burning questions, set up events for the next entries, and it even made me tearful. I hope I get to see this cast in later entries to the Trails series, but if not, it was an enjoyable ride that every RPG enthusiast has to play.
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: Nihon Falcom
Developer Socials: Twitter
Publisher Website: XSEED Games
Publisher Socials: Twitter
Images – https://www.igdb.com/
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