Game:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (2007)

Category:

Vlog

Duration: 3:31:22

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Originally recorded: October 3, 2022
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I'm actually shocked that I managed to knock out three sections of this game in three sessions. Granted, The 3rd is supposedly the shortest game of the entire trilogy: HowLongToBeat says that the average times for a standard playthrough is 40 hours for FC, 51 for SC and a mere 34 for 3rd. And I'm not even sure if any of those estimates are factoring in the fast-forward feature XSEED added to their English PC releases.

Of course, the main reason for 3rd's shorter length seems to be that the game is less focused on delivering a traditional narrative and is serving as more of a lore drop for the Trails series in general. The one-two punch of FC and SC told a proper story, while 3rd is essentially setting the stage for the next arc, with more of a focus on world-building this time around. And frankly, I am *all* for that. When it comes to video games, lore and world-building are substantially more important than plot.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the story of the first two games. But video games are an interactive medium... so immersion is a necessity if you want to make me care about whatever story is being told. Trails has done a pretty good job of that from the start, but leaving Estelle and co. behind with the next arc was something that worried me since I wrapped up SC. But given my general apathy towards Kevin in that game, compared to just how interesting he is now... well, I'm no longer worried about the Crossbell arc. Jury's still out on Cold Steel and beyond though: telling me the story gets worse in exchange for making the gameplay better isn't encouraging when I'm more than willing to overlook the latter for the former when it comes to Trails in general.

The Chapter 2 boss... was substantially easier than the first one. Like, to a ludicrous degree, honestly. Literally beat it on my first try. Considering how much trouble I had with the first one, it just feels a little wrong. Maybe I was underleveled back in Chapter 1? Either way, got enough characters to do some Star doors this time around. The story sequences were definitely shorter than the ones behind the Moon doors... but calling them "short" feels like a misnomer. Can't wait to get Estelle back though, if only for that fishing mini-game that's awaiting me.

Chapter 3 looks like it's going to be pretty exciting too. I think one of the things that bugged me about SC was the fact that I had so many characters, that I just felt like I was neglecting many of them. Giving me the ability to split into multiple parties to tackle different portions of a dungeon sounds like a really cool gimmick. I'm actually already trying to devise exactly how I'm going to break up the group, to make sure I end up with two teams capable of doing everything I need.

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