LogFAQs > #975179328

I made a little review, if anyone cares to read it:

They did it! They made a Trails game without the dumb stuff that hampers most games in the series from being true classics! Or without most of that stuff, at least. There's still some silly harem antics, and a few parts of the story are nonsensical, but the pacing and high points are good enough that none of that matters. Reverie adopts a different format form previous games. Rather than following one protagonist, there are three routes, focusing on Rean, Lloyd, and the mysterious C. Each of them has their own party of characters, preventing party sprawl from being quite as much of an issue as it is in some of the later Cold Steel games. Swapping between these groups at regular intervals keeps the pacing feeling brisk, since they always have something new and interesting going on. Oddly enough, despite this game being a sort of culmination of the previous 6 games' stories, it's the new crew headed by C that's the best. They're less of a goody two shoes group than Lloyd and Rean have. Lapis and C are both mysterious, while Swin and Nadia have a fun vibe with each other. The old Trails characters who get added to their group are among the best in the series too, so their advantage only grows as the game progresses. Everything comes together for a suitably epic conclusion, too. I enjoyed the story to the end.

Gameplay-wise, they've continued to refine the system they've been using for the series. The difficulty's a bit higher - it's still easy enough to become totally broken, but the enemies have a few more ways to counter you. Areas and dungeons are well-designed, with plenty of quality of life bonuses to make the experience more smooth. The big cast still feels unique, too. A large chunk of the gameplay is taken up by the Reverie Corridor, where the party comes together to take on a bigger dungeon, and for whatever reason, it's an enjoyable experience. Maybe the biggest thing I have against the game is that it basically doesn't have any real side quests, since I love Trails side quests, but there are mini quests you get in the Reverie Corridor that are gameplay related, and fulfilling those is pretty enjoyable. It's where you can play the card game and the Puyo Puyo ripoff too, both of which are super fun, along with some other minigames I don't care about.

Reverie also delivers some story through its Daydreams, which are similar to the Doors in Trails the 3rd. You get little vignettes in the characters' lives, most of which take place between CS4 and Reverie, though some of them are from further back (and a couple are in the future). These are generally awesome, since most of them don't focus as much on the main character of each series. They get better as they go along, too - the last few are particularly amazing. One of them focusing on a loser character is unnecessary, but I can't complain too much about there being a couple duds.

I do have a few other problems with the game. The lack of new environments to explore is a bit lame, going back to Crossbell for the fifth time is a bit much, Rean and Lloyd's power of friendship antics are pretty old at this point, the post-game goes on a little longer than I would've liked, etc. Overall, though, this is still a heck of a game. Its best moments are awesome, and even its worst moments are still fine. If the Darkness games can keep this quality going forward, the series has a bright future ahead of it.