The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

Good map/quest markers, text/dialogue history, autosaves, fast travel and difficulty can be changed anytime

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.

Combat has been made a bit more snappy with mapping actions to buttons, not to mention the graphics overhaul giving it a true HD look (albeit some areas are prone to frame drops).

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).

I can't talk about how the visuals have improved, because Ys 8 looks better.

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.