Witch & Hero III (2017)

It's more of the same, really. It's not as oppressively grindy as the first one, nor as streamlined as the second, feeling like more of a middle ground (though admittedly, it's been a while since I played either of those).

Instead of being able to control the witch like in the second game, you can now use the other half of the face buttons to control a second hero who can also be set to automatically protect the witch or follow the main hero around; while nicer than the first, this does feel like a step down from the second as far as prioritizing skill over grinding. The now-expected increase to 40 levels (though some of them are along optional routes) makes it all but guaranteed that you'll notice this, especially with the addition of a couple pre-endgame boss levels that largely serve as beef gate level checks, though even these can feel easier than some of the regular stages. The ones that have lots of ranged attackers can be very annoying, especially if they happen to show up in droves to toss a barrage at the witch while one or both of the heroes are down. The stages that are mostly covered with slippery ice are awful. The addition of a new rapidly-recharging powerup that can knock away groups of enemies that are very close to the witch (but can't be used if either hero is KO'd) alleviates things somewhat.

Critically, the final boss level is probably the least groan-inducing in the trilogy. There are three phases, none of which are super long or hair-pullingly bad. The gimmick in the final phase is the most frustrating to try to figure out on your own, since that one has a fixed timer before you just die, but once you know what to do it's not too bad. Like in the second game, there are some postgame levels and a code for a more difficult NG+ mode, but having finished the main game I think I mostly just feel satisfied with putting this series behind me.