The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Experience an epic story developed across three titles, and crafted for new and old fans alike. Also includes an interactive introduction to catch up new players to the ongoing story so anyone can dive right in to the world of Trails of Cold Steel.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is a rpg, jrpg and story rich game
developed by Nihon Falcom, Engine Software BV and PH3 GmbH
and published by NIS America and Inc..
Released on March 23rd 2020 is available only on Windows
in 3 languages: English, French and Japanese.
It has received 2,940 reviews of which 2,689 were positive and 251 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.8 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 59.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Instant Gaming.
The Steam community has classified The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III into these genres:
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit
- Processor: Core i3-2100 3.10 GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Geforce GTX 650 Ti
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 25 GB available space
- Sound Card: Onboard
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
A huge upgrade graphically from the first two games, also lets you look up skirts. Anyways all four games are great. Cant give anything but 10/10.
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☆ 100% Completion Review ☆ 100% achievements cleared after 147 hours – 1 playthrough on Nightmare. (+) Continuity‑rich story for series veterans . Cold Steel III really cashes in on years of setup from Sky, Zero/Azure, and the first two Cold Steel games - cameos, political developments, and answers that feel earned. The scale of the conflict, the sense that the entire continent is now in motion, and the way old and new threads intersect are easily among the strongest parts of the game. This was the entry where I thought “man, I am so happy I played every other Trails before this”. (+) New Class VII mostly works, and Rean’s new role is compelling . Shifting Rean into a mentor/instructor position was a smart angle that reframes his relationships with the cast and the world. Rean’s personality lends itself to a mentor role in a way that he wasn’t working for me in the first two Cold Steel games where he was somehow the undisputed leader to classmates who were his same age. New Class VII members are also better integrated into the main plot and many of the best bonding events are about how they bounce off the existing cast and Erebonia’s political climate (i.e. Juna). (+) Production values are a major step up from CS1/2 . Even if the underlying models and animations still show limitations, Cold Steel III makes a big leap with more voiced scenes, better framing in cutscenes, more dynamic camera work, and stronger use of the soundtrack. Several late‑game sequences in particular land because music, pacing, and staging all come together in a way that earlier entries couldn’t consistently achieve. You notice that there was a 3 year development cycle between Cold Steel II and III. (+/-) Combat system refinements . The Brave Order system, reworked crafts, and link mechanics create a flexible combat loop that rewards planning and system mastery without feeling as front‑loaded or fiddly as older quartz setups. It is extremely easy to break the game on higher difficulties once you understand how Orders, delay, and certain quartz combinations interact. This is simultaneously praise and criticism because boss battles can become very formulaic in strategy but it does feel good to destroy enemies because you understand the combat loop. (+/-) The structure is still very formulaic, just with higher stakes . The “field exercise” loop is an improvement over Cold Steel I’s monthly academy reset, but it still produces a strong sense of routine. Each chapter can blur into: arrive, talk to everyone, check boxes in the field, dungeon, boss, big story cliffhanger, repeat. The narrative has more forward momentum than CS1, yet the structural sameness undercuts the escalating tension the plot is going for. Many people think “why would you have a problem with Cold Steel 1’s pacing but feel better about Cold Steel 3 when both have the same structure?” but that is where I emphasize the difference in stakes. A Cold Steel 1 main chapter will close with a Boss Battle against a Goomba where Cold Steel 3 will close with a Boss Battle against a genuine threat. Tier List: Azure > Sky the 3rd > Sky SC > Cold Steel III > Sky FC > Cold Steel II > Zero > Cold Steel Completionist Notes By Cold Steel III, achievement sets are very formulaic: tracking AP, filling out all the characters notes, books, fishing, recipes, enemy/battle notes. 100% runs without avoiding missable quests, bonding choices, and being aware about optional content seems impossible without a guide because of how tight achievement requirements are. If you miss a few optional side quests that are not marked on the map, you’ll have to try again on NG+. I did not try NG+ but you cannot carry over character levels. Usually, I have carried over characters levels in Cold Steel 1 & 2 so I can speedrun the game within a dozen hours while doing cleanup on doing anything I missed. I still hate achievements like “Do 100 Rushes in Battle”. I know this is supposed to organically happen in battle but because I played on Nightmare, I was very reserved with using battle points and saved them for Brave Orders so I rarely used Rushes and had to grind out a few after already beating the game. I lean towards achievements focused on tracking that you did all the content or maxed out in-game systems (like getting max bonding ranks with characters or filling out all the notebook).
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If you've made it to Trails of Cold Steel 3, then you probably don't need a review. If, for some reason, you're new to the series and reading a review of the third entry, there's a lot to think about before you jump in. TLDR: It's the platonic ideal of the JRPG, with every positive and negative connotation of that term. I am not a massive fan of Japanese role-playing game series. I enjoy a JRPG once in a while, but I'm not a fanatic about it. I picked up Trails of Cold Steel on sale on a whim and enjoyed it. I knew nothing about the series, but it was (mostly) full of charming characters and I liked the story. It had all of the things that I like about JRPGs. Then I played the sequel, and I enjoyed it much less. It had all of the things that I dislike about JRPGs. Then, I got to the third game, and it started throwing character after character at me that I was clearly supposed to have some preexisting connection to, so I looked up the history of the game. Oh, good grief, The Legend of Heroes has 2 complete series of games prior to Trails of Cold Steel, and Trails of Cold Steel 3 starts to bring in a lot of crossover. They provide only the barest backstory for most of them - enough to remind you who they are if you already knew, but not enough to make me care. Then, those crossover characters do almost nothing in the story, making them just more noise in an already extremely cluttered narrative. Maybe if you've played all 5 of the prior games this is a good thing. I found it to be an endless annoyance. The Legend of Heroes series is the most JRPG series I've ever played. Quirky characters are everywhere. Some are cute, some are annoying as hell. Japanese social values abound, even when the game is trying to pretend that there are multiple societies. If you take a drink every time someone says "We'll give it everything we've got!" or "Don't hold back!" you'll be dead before you finish the prologue. Player agency begins and ends at "you can choose to do this optional side quest". You have zero ability to impact the plot of the game. It's much more of a visual novel with combat. Speaking of combat, it's OK, but the game has a lot of systems. Like, a lot. Arts, crafts, regular attacks, S-breaks... Managing your spells, er, "arts", through the use of "quartz" that you acquire constantly and need to pay careful attention to if you want to be at maximum effectiveness is practically a game unto itself. If you like micro-management you'll love this game. Weirdly, there were far less upgrades to the actual weapons used by the characters in this game. Many JRPGs follow a constant cycle of "new town, new weapon", but not Trails of Cold Steel 3. All of that is pretty much a given for the JRPG fan. Where your enjoyment lives or dies in any JRPG probably comes from the story. Remember, you're not helping craft the story, just discovering it as you go. I would suggest that, even among a group of nerd enthusiasts such as gamers, there are 2 primary reactions to a JRPG story. The first group goes, "This is so cool!" and just dives in head first. The other goes, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me." I am very much in the latter camp. My experience with all Japanese stories (games, anime, manga) is that they get more and more ridiculous with time. The Trails of Cold Steel story starts off at a relatively low key, but by game 3 we're dealing with world ending cataclysms and a curse that's lasted for more than 1000 years. Every layer is a quantum leap more ridiculous (or awesome, if you are so inclined). The other make or break aspect is the social relationship of the characters. It is, once again, utterly Japanese. For most Americans (and possibly Europeans, I don't know) the idea of a teacher romancing a high school student is fairly horrifying. It's worth remembering that Japan raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 in 2023. 2023! When one of the student characters is constantly hitting on the protagonist, everyone just (literally) goes "Hah hah, isn't she cute!" Um, wow. Or the horny grandpa, a staple of Japanese stories, talking about how sexy the students are. Or the guy who is in a "will they/won't they" pseudo-sexual relationship with his adopted sister, another staple of Japanese stories. The game is both extremely horny and totally chaste. It is, again, completely Japanese. When a close friend gives the protagonist a hug every character reacts like they're basically having sex. But, despite the pervasive sex talk, there is no actual sexual content. The protagonist is courted by nearly a dozen women, but it never goes further than a kiss on the cheek. That same thirst trap character is, naturally, totally oblivious to the effect that he has on women. The author absolutely refuses to apply any sort of negative judgment to characters that are friends of the protagonist, even if they do horrific things. If they're your friend, that's all that matters. I can't say more without spoilers. It's also a big part of Trails of Cold Steel 2. I often wished that the author would just pick a tone and stick with it. My comments may come off as universally negative, but I generally enjoyed the game. If you liked the first game there's very little chance that you won't enjoy this one. This is the point where I stopped playing Trails of Cold Steel, and went back to play the earlier games. It's obvious that I need to develop some knowledge of the dozens of preexisting characters and history to fully appreciate Trails of Cold Steel 4. I will give it this - I think this game is better than any Final Fantasy game. Imagine if every Final Fantasy was in the same world, took place in a 10 year time-span, and had complete internal consistent of character and world building from game to game. That's the type of complexity you get with the Legend of Heroes series.
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Not much to say, just play the Kiseki series if you're into turn-based JRPGs with massive world-building. It took me 130hrs just to finish this one XD.
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I have no words to describe my feelings right now as I play this latest installment, the amount of plot twists and unexpected events has surpassed everything, but I can say that it is one of the best games in the series, thanks to Falcom and everyone involved in creating this masterpiece, Legend of Heroes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is currently priced at 59.99€ on Steam.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 59.99€ on Steam.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III received 2,689 positive votes out of a total of 2,940 achieving a rating of 8.77.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III was developed by Nihon Falcom, Engine Software BV and PH3 GmbH and published by NIS America and Inc..
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is playable and fully supported on Windows.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is not playable on MacOS.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is not playable on Linux.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is a single-player game.
There are 79 DLCs available for The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III. Explore additional content available for The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III on Steam.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III supports Remote Play on Phone and Remote Play on Tablet. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 17 January 2026 04:06 |
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| SteamSpy data | 27 January 2026 01:35 |
| Steam price | 28 January 2026 20:29 |
| Steam reviews | 26 January 2026 19:47 |
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Game modes
Features
Online players
111
Developer
Nihon Falcom,
Engine Software BV,
PH3 GmbH
Publisher
NIS America, Inc.
Release
23 Mar 2020
Platforms
Remote Play
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