Board 8 > The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://opencritic.com/game/12562/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-into-reverie

After what seems like forever since Cold Steel IV came out thanks to our necessary detour into the older Crossbell games (go play those if you haven't), we finally arrive at the Trails into Reverie. Similar to how Sky the 3rd was like an epilogue to the first two Sky games and helped to set up the next arc, this game exists to wrap up both the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs and get us set up for the upcoming Calvard arc (which already has 2 games releases in Japan)

Unlike Sky the 3rd though the game doesn't take place entirely in a single dungeon. While there is a dungeon you keep returning too over and over again and you have access to 51 playable party members, you're also doing things across Erebonia when you're not in that dungeon. The story is also split between 3 protagonists. Ya boi Lloyd Bannings and the SSS is back to deal with more Crossbell shenanigans. Everyone's favorite Ultra Instinct harem leader, Rean Schwarzer, of course is doing his thing. Then there's the MYSTERIOUS new character C and his cast of all new characters who have their own story to tell. You can switch back and forth between routes and they cross over from time to time and like Sky 3rd there's a ton of goofy minigames along the way.

So far early on we're at an 82 through 17 reviews which is about in the range of all the other Cold Steel games. You know what you're getting with this game if you've played any of the others.

TheSixthAxis - 9/10
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is a crossover epic over a decade in the making - and it sticks the landing so well. Longtime fans of the franchise are in for an almost overwhelming level of callbacks, story conclusions, and narrative fanservice. In-between all of that, the endless Reverie Corridor provides an addictive way to dig just as deep into the combat mechanics as the story digs into the furthest reaches of Trails lore. This is a massive ending to a massive saga, and as long as you've kept up with every entry so far, you're guaranteed to enjoy it.

Spacenerd.it - 8.7/10
Trails into Reverie represents the grand conclusion of the events of West Zemuria and a fitting tribute to the heroes who have accompanied us all these years. Behind fantasy, politics and artificial intelligence, Falcom has once again managed to portray the humanity of its protagonists in a masterly manner, leaving us moved by the threads of destiny that intertwine as we watch the credits.

NintendoWorldReport - 8.5/10
It's also very enjoyable to spend a couple hours with one group in one area of the continent and then shift over to a different group to catch up on how their mission is going. The stopping points where the game forces you to pick up another protagonist's journey are natural and work well, and the combat and music are as engaging as ever. Any RPG fan who hasn't played a Trails game needs to find time to remedy that glaring oversight, and know that you'll have a captivating reunion-like experience waiting for you with Trails into Reverie. Even if it takes finishing a collection of 40-plus hour RPGs to get there.

Eurogamer - 4/5 Stars
I've previously called world-building the series' biggest strength and reaching the end of Reverie reminded me why. Witnessing the foundations for each nation's future slowly forming shows how far this series has come and you can see why Falcom considers this the end of Trails' first half. I'd call it a long goodbye, were I not aware of some returning faces in the next arc. Several moments provide clear foreshadowing for what's coming next in Calvard, usually within the Daydreams, and I'm certainly intrigued. Given Falcom's penchant for returning characters, I don't believe for a second that Rean's return isn't being planned but I'm relieved both arcs ended with such a strong conclusion. Thanks to the strong character writing, refined combat and improved pacing, revisiting these locations one last time was lovely. I couldn't have hoped for a much better epilogue and I'll patiently await Kuro No Kiseki's inevitable appearance next.

RPGamer - 4/5 Stars
While some of the deeper world-building feels increasingly convoluted, and it's time for the series to move on to new pastures, it is great to have one final episode of glory with most of the cast as the game celebrates the series's combat evolution and at least partially ties up some of its numerous unresolved plot points.

NintendoLife- 7/10
Capping off the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs with a nice little bow, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie hits some high highs � such as with C and the True Reverie Corridor � and when it does, it's an RPG fan's paradise. But as an overall package, it feels like an easy excuse to get a huge number of characters together rather than do something meaningful with them. It's far from the series' best, but fans will find a lot to love here, even if we'd recommend seeking it out on another platform for the best experience, or waiting for a patch.

Siliconera - 7/10
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie, ultimately, doesn�t feel like the most required game in the series. Despite pushing the world and its characters forward into a new direction, its scope is a bit too large at times. The gameplay remains as sharp as ever and the Reverie Corridor is a fun new addition, but it would have benefited more from a tighter story about C and his group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1iFUT8L-_g

The 3 year wait is nearly over. This is the first Trails game i get on release that's not a Cold Steel game.

IGN - 8/10
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is one of the best games in this almost 20-year-old franchise and a great RPG. While its overall story is a bit of a retread, its amazing pacing, and in-depth battle system, make it a satisfying conclusion to the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs. It also makes good use of its admittedly way-too-large cast of playable characters. That said, newcomers who are unfamiliar with the series will certainly be lost without having played the previous games. However, it's well worth doing so in order to experience one of the best RPG universes ever crafted.

Amazing pacing??? That'd be great! Well, I guess CS3 had solid pacing, but the other CS games were a bit of a mess as far as pacing goes.

I might jump on this. I feel like CS4's ending was really good, so I find myself wishing Rean and Class 7 just sat this one out. I obviously already had the game's story spoiled for me also, so.

This totally snuck up on me.

Between finishing XVI and playing Rain Code it's going to be a minute, though.

Excited for this but probably won't be able to play it for a bit.

https://twitter.com/ETiredTweets/status/1674965044432605184

awesome!

Excited for this,

does anything carry over from the other games? (Save data wise i mean)

Colegreen_c12 posted...

Excited for this,

does anything carry over from the other games? (Save data wise i mean)

CS 3+4 and the 2 Crossbell games on PS4 give you items. If you get it on PS5 you get all the stuff without having to own the games though.

Hmm, was planning on doing PC for this one after doing PS4 for CS4 and PSP for the Crossbell games. Wonder if there's a way to get saves to get the bonuses...

shane15 posted...

CS 3+4 and the 2 Crossbell games on PS4 give you items. If you get it on PS5 you get all the stuff without having to own the games though.

Aw yeah

suddenly trying to finish CSIV after a two-year hiatus

looks like i'm in late chapter 3

it's pretty overwhelming to try to remember which characters have good crafts and orders and which master quartz do what!

The game is that easy even if you give characters the worst MQ you'll probably still destroy everything.

Eh, it's easy to kill bosses before they get a turn, but wasn't CS4 the one where if you let a boss get a turn they get annihilate you? Or was that CS3?

I only really struggled a bit in the first 2 games. First one was my first Trails game so i didn't really know what to do and the second had some pretty challenging bosses.

shane15 posted...

CS 3+4 and the 2 Crossbell games on PS4 give you items. If you get it on PS5 you get all the stuff without having to own the games though.

I'm assuming pc is same as ps4 but nice. I will have to figure out how to get the crossbell saves in right location since i played the fan translations

MacArrowny posted...

Hmm, was planning on doing PC for this one after doing PS4 for CS4 and PSP for the Crossbell games. Wonder if there's a way to get saves to get the bonuses...

There definitely is, should be able to just download them

Was hoping my copy would arrive today but nothing. Looks like the PS4 version is sold out everywhere here as well.

I'm waiting for NISA to give me some sort of tracking for the limited edition

Usually I get them a day early because I live so close to where they ship, but I haven't heard anything yet.

shane15 posted...

The game is that easy even if you give characters the worst MQ you'll probably still destroy everything.

I actually remember CSIV being hard early on but I might just be thinking about optional bosses / scripted fights

i still have so many of these damn games to play

whats the best one to start with?

TomNook7 posted...

whats the best one to start with?

the first one

I mean you could theoretically jump to the beginning of any arc and figure it out as you go but it's not recommended

Yeah you could just start with the Cold Steel games and go forward if the older style isn't your thing. But you will have a lot of wtf are they talking about moments from CS3 onwards.

For me personally starting with Cold Steel probably made me not really care much for the Sky trilogy at all. I liked Crossbell a bit more but it was still a bit of a slog.

Cold Steel is a fine starting off point if you want a game that feels modern at all and want easy console accessibility. I've only played those games to completion and was completely fine through the entire quadrilogy having never played another game in the series at the time.

Still haven't managed to force myself through Sky 1 very far yet because the combat is so meh.

I've also burned out about 15 hours into the first Crossbell game because I'm just so bored with it <_<.

In both of these cases my problems apparently aren't uncommon and are much improved later, just gotta keep trucking.

Actually yeah you're right. If you don't know any better it's ok to just play the CS games. I played the first 2 without even realising there were games before it and all the references just went completely over my head.

Holy shit theyre all connected by the story? Thats pretty intense

I have Trails in the Sky on PSP is that the first one

If it's Trails in the Sky FC (First Chapter), then yes. Then there's Sky SC and Sky the Third.

I reckon trying to play this series back to back would be like trying to play something like Yakuza in one go. You'd get burnt out real fast.

Definitely start with Trails in the Sky

shane15 posted...

I reckon trying to play this series back to back would be like trying to play something like Yakuza in one go. You'd get burnt out real fast.

iunno i played Kiwami 1 in January and just beat 5, and my friend has additionally platinumed all of those plus 0 in that time and we're still going strong

of course yakuza games have less filler

Just start with Sky. Starting with CS is a bad decision, especially since majority opinion says Sky > CS. The PC version Sky has quite a few upgrades over the PSP version though. Combat especially is much better, the script is improved, etc. I played on PSP and kinda regret it.

shane15 posted...

I reckon trying to play this series back to back would be like trying to play something like Yakuza in one go. You'd get burnt out real fast.

I played Yakuza 2-6 in 3 months.

Yeah ive been slowly but surely working through the yakuza games. Theyre so good

but aight ill start with trails in the sky for sure

Fair play to you guys powering through everything that fast.

MacArrowny posted...

especially since majority opinion says Sky > CS

While I agree with Sky > CS, CS is actually the most popular subseries in Trails by a country mile. If you're hanging out with more small cliques of fans you might lose sight of the overall big picture.

(No I don't understand those people either but they are in fact the undeniable majority.)

I do recommend starting with Sky though because of course starting from the games that came first is the logical choice

Then00bAvenger posted...

While I agree with Sky > CS, CS is actually the most popular subseries in Trails by a country mile. If you're hanging out with more small cliques of fans you might lose sight of the overall big picture.

Are you sure about that? For people who've played both Sky and CS, I usually see them rank Sky higher.

I recall there was a poll for favorite series on the Trails subreddit and Cold Steel came in first. I'm not sure if there's a bigger fanbase out there for a sample size than that, but if you travel outside standard "Trails fanbases" the opinion definitely skews toward things besides Cold Steel being irrelevant lol.

I think it's kind of like FE Awakening vs the games before FE Awakening. Awakening was the most popular FE game by far but you'll always run into the subset of fans that hate that direction.

Well yeah, but that's due to sales reasons. It's often a bit different when you adjust for people who've played all the games. CS winning a poll from everyone only tells us that more people played CS.

Then00bAvenger posted...

I think it's kind of like FE Awakening vs the games before FE Awakening. Awakening was the most popular FE game by far but you'll always run into the subset of fans that hate that direction.

In fact, someone who just recently marathoned the entire franchise may be inclined to say Awakening is the worst FE.

....I think understand why people may not like me saying just start with Cold Steel.

Since i got into the series i've always felt Sky fans are like that tuxedo Winnie the Pooh meme. Their arc is best and Cold Steel is just anime trash.Thankfully this site is chill about it all though.

my order shows up now in the Shop app which the email NISA originally sent me told me to use

yesterday it wasn't there, but it still just says Order Placed

The true tuxedo Winnie the Pooh meme is us Crossbell chaps. Well it was back before it was officially translated, now I guess it's not as tuxedo anymore

My copy still hasnt shipped from Amazon yet

Personally I definitely think Cold Steel at least seems like anime trash in comparison to Sky/Crossbell, but also people are free to like what they want to like so whatever

yeah but Towa

The gameplay is a big part of the reason I like CS better than Sky, not how anime it is. Though adding Persona elements in CS1 was a great choice, IMO.

This might have been obvious before but I guess I should clarify that I do think the Cold Steel games are good, and good enough that I was willing to spend almost 400 hours in the games and still plan on playing Reverie and the rest of the games. It's just they end up looking bad when Sky and Crossbell I basically consider the best jrpg's ever made.

I do like the gameplay in at least Cold Steel 3 and 4 a lot better, yeah.

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

yeah but Towa

honestly this is the best argument Cold Steel has

and it's pretty good

Mini moes no thanks

I love Cold Steel 1-2, but havent played any of the other Trails games yet. Cold Steel is pretty good even with the anime tropes, but some of them are definitely dumb and deserve to be made fun of.