The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Reviews
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie has a great story with an engaging turn-based battle system. While it does have issues with a bloated cast of characters, impeccable pacing makes every interaction manageable.
Trails into Reverie is a fine epilogue for Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs, offering necessary closure and clear hints about the series' future.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is not your average game; near decades of world-building, character arcs, and detailed lore have led to this culmination. The franchise isn’t perfect, but this series is wholly one-of-a-kind. It is a monolith that should be recognized alongside icons like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Persona. The details of the continent of Zemuria are unlike anything else I have experienced in gaming, and its cast now has several of my favorite characters in the medium. Reverie has the intimidating task of closing the page on three arcs that expanded across almost twenty years of characters and storytelling. Even if the narrative in this chapter falls short compared to past entries, it still stands above most other games in the genre. If Trails into Reverie is the last time we see most of these beloved characters, it serves as a terrific send-off.
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.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is a game that long term fans of the series will love, but newcomers need not apply.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie serves as the grand conclusion to the Crossbell and Cold Steel story arcs, tying up loose ends with an all-star crossover cast of characters. It does very little to catch new players up to speed with the narrative and context, and ultimately is not a good place to start for newcomers. However, Reverie features an incredibly in-depth gameplay experience to keep even the most hardcore of fans engaged for hours on end.
As an epilogue to cap off a series spanning a whopping NINE games, Trails into Reverie delivers in all the areas that makes this one of the best RPG series on the market, featuring impeccable world building, compelling, nuanced characters and an enjoyable combat engine with plenty of room for experimentation. In a way, this entry feels like a reward for all those who have stuck with the series thus far and as we look towards Calvard and the future of the series as a whole, we can rest easy knowing that we’ve sent the heroes off in style, without any regrets.
Trails into Reverie is an all-star excursion that feels like one big franchise festival; your more traditional Trails campaign being the spine of what can be a brilliantly robust RPG, complete with more than enough gameplay depth to keep even the most hardcore players happy. As an epilogue to the Crossbell and Cold Steel games, it can seem a little tired in terms of creativity, but its faults are easily overlooked when you're back in the saddle with all of your favourite heroes.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Reverie is not a good place to start the Trails series. This is not a short game, it starts very slowly, and it’s effectively a sequel to every previous game. If you’re a fan, however, you can’t miss this. Especially since it has enough replay value to keep you busy until the Calvard games are localized.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie may not mark the beginning of a new narrative arc, but it serves as a celebratory culmination of a beloved RPG series. With its well-crafted characters and intricate political storytelling, it offers a final chance to revisit the rich Trails universe. While visual aspects may show their age, the engaging gameplay and memorable interactions make this a worthwhile experience for dedicated fans. For newcomers, starting with earlier entries in the series is recommended for a proper introduction.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Trails Into Reverie should have been the best sendoff one could ask for in this great franchise. Unfortunately, it's the complete opposite. The duality of its story takes away from the narrative, and the introduction of every gotcha mechanic present in most mobile RPGs hurts more than it should. Though its combat and writing remain stellar, the rest of the game fails to capture the greatness of the titles that came before it.
Landed on our markets three years later than the land of the Rising Sun, from a technical point of view The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is a cross-gen title that is not exactly avant-garde.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With a “yuge” playable cast and homages aplenty to past games, Trails Into Reverie represents a love letter to fans of the Trails series. Admittedly, the large cast can be a bit challenging to manage and the decision to split the story into three playable parts also makes the game feel less cohesive. It also isn’t the most newcomer friendly game and is better enjoyed by those who have played the previous games. The combat, however, remains a great example of classic turn-based battling and the production values are also quite improved. It’s a nice bookend to the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs overall.
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.
While Trails into Reverie does serve as a strong epilogue to multiple in-game story arcs, it also spends a significant amount of time spinning its wheels.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is a solid addition to the series, serving as an excellent epilogue to the Crossbell and Erebonian arcs.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is everything I wanted from the Trails series. We get a huge cast of playable characters, a ton of emotional beats and world building, and finally some great turn based gameplay. The three routes do tend to slow down the pace of the overall narrative but overall it is still extremely well written and executed.
A feature-rich (at times astonishingly so) package of content - major, minor and entirely optional alike - Nihon Falcom have proven once again with Trails into Reverie why they remain one of the best and most renowned RPG developers still going.
We would really like to see the crew at Falcom get a bigger budget to give full speed to this world, this characters and this combat system. Trails into Reverie is a tremendously solid JRPG and a worthy follow up to the Erebonian tetralogy. Just beware: you need to have played some of the previous titles to really appreciate the story.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Reverie is the epilogue players deserve after Cold Steel 4. It's a strong send-off for many of its characters and sets up the future well, even with its flaws.