System: Swap
Launch Date: July 7, 2023
Developer: Falcom
Writer: NIS America
Following the regular drip of titles from Falcom’s Legend of Heroes collection, Trails into Reverie is the newest installment coming to western gamers. As earlier than with Trails to Azure, our newest recreation can be interwoven right into a storied timeline. This time, we’ll be following up after the occasions of Trails to Azure and the Nice Twilight occasions of Trails of Chilly Metal IV. With these tales being so linked, there aren’t any methods to utterly keep away from spoilers for the earlier video games, however we’ll do one of the best we are able to in case that is your first introduction to the collection. With this specific entry first launching in Japan, the Swap port will see the world of Zero/Azure in HD for the primary time, and observe up virtually instantly after the occasions of Trails of Chilly Metal IV – the interwoven timeline for each traces of video games lastly converges, and each protagonist teams of Lloyd and Rean are joined by a 3rd protagonist – the black-clad and mysteriously masked “C.”
Because the tenth recreation in The Legend of Heroes story, Trails into Reverie appears to behave like a approach to tie up all of the unfastened ends of the Crossbell arc in addition to the story of Chilly Metal. Regrettably, this makes it fully a tough promote for newcomers, however for gamers of earlier video games, its the epilogue that they might have been craving since sharpening up the opposite arcs. Contemplating that the current releases of Zero and Azure are the one supported western releases for these video games, it’s extremely advisable to go forward and end these out earlier than diving into Trails in to Reverie, because the opening sequences alone will comprise large spoilers for Lloyd and his group’s story – however in case you occur to not care about these types of issues, then be happy to proceed.
For gamers which have performed a number of of the linked video games, there shall be bonuses for having save knowledge for the titles in your Swap. Varied objects shall be granted to gamers, increasing whether or not or not the video games had been fully cleared. Moreover, bonding ranges can even carry over so your hard-earned bonds will nonetheless be current inside your groups. That mentioned, even in case you didn’t have save knowledge or clear a title, there would be the capacity to pick bonds to max out, and there’s no actual penalty for choosing all of them. The one factor newcomers will really miss out on are the bonus objects for having the carryover knowledge.
For full disclosure, despite the fact that I’ve devoured the Crossbell video games and totally loved them, I did discover problem in stepping into the Chilly Metal collection. That mentioned, I don’t maintain any distaste for the characters or story, however I’ll lean somewhat bit biased in direction of Lloyd and his buddies. As in previous titles, Trails into Reverie is a story-driven and turn-based RPG – the battle system that has continued to evolve all through the epic collection has a pair extra bells and whistles as typical, together with just a few new additions to gameplay that really feel not solely at dwelling, however completely improve the core expertise of the sport and provides gamers somewhat bit additional to stay up for at finish recreation.
For fight, the largest addition is the United Fronts function. A number of celebration members can use a particular assault in tandem to deal large harm to no matter unfortunate enemy you occur to be dealing with. These assaults are so robust that in early recreation you’ll be able to fully wipe out even the essential story-related enemies and monsters in case you play your playing cards proper. Burning these talents all of sudden will expend your whole celebration member’s Assault Gauge (AG) and also you’re not simply restricted to assaults however may also make the most of expertise and therapeutic talents, which got here in helpful in a couple of occasion when I discovered myself in a pinch. There have been some intermittent audio bugs the place sound would minimize out throughout particular assaults, however hopefully a patch or replace will deal with that at launch. Curiously, the utilization of United Fronts does restore customers’ BP – which identical to in earlier titles can be utilized for Courageous Orders, Bursts, and Rush assaults. The battle system actually appeared to come back collectively for this title, and I discovered myself fairly glad with the quantity of instruments I had in my arsenal.
Whereas the three events in Trails into Reverie begin individually, their paths will ultimately converge. Earlier than that occurs, gamers can swap between the groups utilizing d-pad and choosing who they’d like to select up the story from the menu. At occasions, you’ll not be capable of progress with one group or extra till you progress with the others, so ensuring to swap between them every so often is completely integral by way of development. Story occasions will ultimately tie the events collectively and you may freely equip the characters as you want, and alter their MQ and quartz, leading to numerous customization for play and opening up facet content material which will actually be one of the best factor about the complete recreation – at a sure level within the story, you’ll get entry to a spot known as The True Reverie Hall.
I really feel like I can’t not broaden on this, because it rapidly grew to become my favourite factor to do, and in case you’ve learn any of my earlier opinions of the Trails video games, normally my favourite factor to do finally ends up simply being senseless fishing for the myriad rewards at stake for slapping the Fishing Guild with all of the trout you find yourself holding in your pockets. This time, although, I used to be totally impressed by the True Reverie Hall, which is a little bit of a carryover from Trails of Chilly Metal II’s authentic Reverie Hall. Like its predecessor, it’s a big and sprawling dungeon situated in an extradimensional area and consists of a number of flooring – that is the place you’ll be able to combine and match your celebration throughout the varied routes and purchase sealing stones by defeating extremely robust Guardian Beasts.
Sealing stones are a little bit of a wierd foreign money, and can be utilized to unlock a wide range of content material within the recreation. Because the stones are available a number of varieties, farming them out will will let you alternate them for various issues, with some permitting you to unlock extra playable characters, mini-games, merchandise assortments, and even small facet episodes that happen earlier than the principle story. The quantity of additional content material obtainable to those that spend time on the True Reverie Hall is actually fairly expansive and made it properly well worth the grind for my part. This simply grew to become my favourite approach to spend time and I rapidly tried to gather each extra character that I may.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie ended up being a recreation that I merely couldn’t put down. With three separate paths to discover, an unbelievable quantity of facet content material to unlock, in addition to the ever-exhaustive checklist of facet quests to deal with and locations to discover, I by no means appeared to expire of issues to do. Whereas I positively may take a break to fish or just grind out just a few ranges if I selected, I used to be far more engaged with the story and facet content material than I’ve been in previous video games. Personally, I feel this one has formed as much as be one of the best Trails expertise that I’ve had thus far, and has actually lit a fireplace below my tail to return and choose up the Chilly Metal collection once more and provides them one other shot.
The Verdict
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie ultimately converges three separate paths into a beautiful finish level for 2 unbelievable storylines, including a bit extra thriller and increasing upon the unfastened ends left on the finish of its respective arcs. Whereas the collection remains to be ongoing with extra video games on the horizon, this title proves to be an excellent endpoint for each Lloyd and Rean, organising for extra future cameos that I’m positive we’ll see in subsequent releases. The addition of the mysterious “C” additionally appears to setup for much more content material, so followers will seemingly be scouting for him in upcoming titles. With the ever-changing True Reverie Hall’s distinctive manner of giving us extra characters and content material, the ever-reliable fishing, and unbelievable world constructing, there’s lots to do and see for any Trails fan. When you haven’t picked up the previous titles, positively attempt to take action beforehand in an effort to maximize your enjoyment. Heading in blind will certainly impression the enjoyment of its predecessors in case you ever select to select them up, and for a collection as storied and fantastic as what The Legend of Heroes collection has to supply, you positively don’t wish to miss out.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie copy supplied by the writer for the needs of this evaluation.