The latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation has an interview with Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo on the newly revealed The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, due out for PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2017.

Get the tidbits below.

Where does the story of Trails of Cold Steel III start from?

“It starts a year and a half after the end of Trails of Cold Steel II. The members of Class VII, including the protagonist Rean, have graduated from the military academy and are each walking their own path. While the situation where Rean is being used by Osborne in Trails of Cold Steel II continues, he takes a new step at the beginning of Trails of Cold Steel III.

“This time, we’ll depict the western side of the empire, and you can also go to Byronia Island where there is a giant god statue similar to the one in Nord.

“The Trails in the Sky characters from Liberl Kingdom will appear again and join the party, and you’ll link up with a certain person from Trails in the Zero. The mystery of Rean’s birth will also be revealed in this game.”

Regarding Battle Scenes

“The fundamental parts will not change, but one of the issues of command battles to be dealt with is that the battle progression seems slow. Since we’re on PlayStation 4 and have buttons, we thought why not directly assign [actions] to each button, so that’s what it became. It’s still in development, so it’s not yet fixed if it will be as you see it, but we’re shooting for something intuitive that progresses with the simple push of a button.

“Also, we’re thinking about a format that seamlessly shifts to battles from the map. Movement is as it was before, and your positional relation is important. We’re trying to properly preserve the idea of distance, such as being surrounded, at times you’re back-attacked.

“A new special command called ‘Brave Order’ is also being prepared.”

Regarding the Divine Knight System

“It’s still in development. It was a strong element of event battles in the previous game, but this time it will be incorporated as one of the game systems. We’re thinking about battles against several enemies.”