From what I can see so far (just got to Chapter 2), Trails in the Sky the 3rd feels like Persona 3 FES's The Answer done a lot better. You have access to all of the gameplay components that involved battle in FC/SC in this game unlike The Answer which was missing Social Links and a few other things that are in the main game. And there's WAY more story dripfed to you in this game than The Answer did with it's doors. But it's ultimately a more combat and dungeon crawling oriented experience than the first two games, just as The Answer was vs. The Journey. I managed to enjoy myself with The Answer, so since it's done even better here I'm having a lot of fun.
...TBH, I'm surprised I've never heard that comparison made between the two games, but maybe its because I tried to stay away from people talking about games I hadn't played yet.
For Hard on SC and FC at least battles rarely turned into a slog- usually they were over quickly. One way or another.
Like the problem with the Prologue SC battle was his speed was just so damn high.
This is true for all of SC on Hard actually, but in the Prologue you only have Estelle Analace with really limited orbment options, so you feel it a lot more. Plus the woman who sells food ingredients gets "kidnapped" after the 1st dungeon, making you unable to prepare more of the incredibly useful Surprise Cookie attack items. After this, your equipment and orbment options begin to grow and you have more abilities on tap with more party members, so while has its moments of initially seeming overwhelming, you almost never deal with a boss nearly as insane.
As for Hard mode on The 3rd, it's much more manageable so far. Nothings given me any major problems so far, having just finished Chapter 1. I may even want to play this one again on Nightmare, which I haven't felt strong desires to do for the other two games. It's only Chapter 1 though, I still have plenty of time to come crawling back with a broken nose and black eye.
