Sky 3rd is an interesting game.

You're right, it's completely different from the usual Trails game - it's shorter, faily linear and focused asides from the side-stories in the Moon/Sun/Star doors. The main story does get better IMO when it's done with the introductions and it starts to focus on Kevin's backstory, but it remains a very different experience until the end.

I had very a similar opinion of the game when I first played it, but the more games of the series I played, the better my opinion of Sky 3rd becomes in retrospective. One of the issues I have with Trails is that the games are too formulaic, and it's very easy to burn out playing many of them in sequence. This type of "breather" is something I feel is sorely needed in the series, and one of the reasons I'm liking Reverie so much - it takes a lot of ideas from Sky 3rd and improves upon them.

Also, the memory doors add a ton of cool lore and worldbuilding, including what is likely the darkest section in the series.

So I realize this post is over a year old but this is the only(!) Trails/Falcom community I could find on Lemmy. Maybe we can revive it lol!

Maybe you've already found your answer and moved on. Maybe you finished and loved it. Maybe someone else will stumble across this. I see this kind of question come up a lot.

Sky the 3rd is a very different game. It's much more linear, it's smaller in scope, it's a focus on different group. It was a big shift to go from Estelle, Joshua and co. to Kevin and Ries.

There's also no exploring the world and everything comes back to the hub world. I also found it to be very unbalanced. Most of the game is incredibly easy until the final dungeon. I breezed through until I got there and then was forced to grind because some of my party members were under leveled.

I also didn't like it at first but as willing to give it a chance. And I'm glad I did. Kevin's character arc and story paid off. This is very much a story about Kevin, the Church, and the Gralsritter. Some other characters do have their moments but this game by and large is about Kevin.

That's mostly what the Memory Doors are about. Giving the rest of the cast their moment in the spotlight.

There's also a certain boss fight in chapter 6 that was just so amazing. The way the boss just approaches, the music comes in and then the fight starts. I won't spoil it but that was probably one of the best fights in the entire trilogy.

Speaking of music it's also top quality here.

With all that said though surely that must mean I rank it highly? Well no.

My rankings would be this so far:

1. Sky 2nd
2. Zero
3. Sky
4. Sky 3rd

That's not to say I didn't like it, I did, but it's definitely the weakest game so far but is by no means bad. But I can totally understand why someone would drop it and not come back.