And yes, the Ashen Chevalier remains a magnet for affections, and there might be moment when you wish the writers didn’t have to remind us. As such, Cold Steel III is poised to evoke recollections of Rean’s younger days, when many of classmates recognized his concern for other and his potential for leadership. After graduating from Thors Military Academy, protagonist Rean Schwarzer is recruited as a Class VII instructor for a branch campus. Naturally, the content is assessed by a multitude of key players. While the plotline could have easily descended into preachy finger-wagging, Falcom’s scenario writers are too clever for that. With the seeds of resentment planted, Cold Steel III surveys imperialism from a multitude of perspectives. Like any respectable epic, Cold Steel III’s post-civil war situation draws comparison to the past and establishes context for conflicts to come, with Erebonia’s annexation of Crossbell and North Ambria, dwarfing the landmass and population of once-rival, The Republic of Calvard. The Ashen Chevalier Still Makes Hearts Flutter As such, you’ll need to own at least one other hardware platform to get the complete experience with this iteration of Cold Steel III. Publishing rights to these predecessors are still presumably held by XSEED, but so far there’s been no mention of Switch ports. Another issue emerges for players who don’t own a PlayStation 4, PC, or PS Vita, the trio of systems that hosted Cold Steel I and II. But given that Western players still aren’t privy to localizations of Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki, even diehard Trails followers will likely miss a few references. But synopsis is necessarily reductionist, and you’ll undoubtedly miss many of the gratifying details and callbacks if this is your starting point.
Sure, the title does it’s best to acclimate players with encyclopedic summaries of characters and setting. Set a year and a half after the events of Trails of Cold Steel III, the follow-up eludes the extraneous feel of ‘middle-chapter’ syndrome, with the delight of seeing returning characters, the introduction of a new cast, the gradual escalation of tension, along with muted reminders of the first two Trails of Cold Steel games.įamiliarity with the two preceding titles is a near-requisite. Sure, Cold Steel might have ended on a cliffhanger that delivered scant closure, but the follow-up presented a tender pay-off that absolved the developers.Īs the third entry in a quartet, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is faced with telling an engaging tale while setting things up for the final installment, which would be precarious undertaking for many studios.
Entries in the Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel metaseries function as absorbing standalone chapters while also revealing pieces of Zemuria’s complicated, conflict-prone history. Nonsequential releases and some shoddy localizations aside, The Legend of Heroes series has been progressively increasing in quality since its inaugural outing, 1989’s Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes.Įncompassing five distinct arcs with multiple games across each sub-series, Falcom has repeatedly demonstrated adeptness with dual-function storytelling. Undoubtedly, Tachikawa-based Nihon Falcom seems to have a handle on the apparently arduous undertaking. Save for some of the work of the Russo Brothers, the industry hasn’t quite mastered the art of simultaneously contributing to a larger lore while weaving its own compelling story.
Occasionally, these resources go unrewarded, with efforts like 2017’s The Mummy, which was so preoccupied with launching spin-offs for Universal Pictures that it forgot to deliver a compelling narrative.Įven power players like Disney have struggled, with 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story blemishing the beloved property with an empty backstory based on one of its most interesting characters. Hollywood invests extraordinary amounts of time, talent, and wealth to sustain their film franchises. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III