The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon Reviews
More than anything, it’s great to see Trails Beyond the Horizon take steps to answer some of the series’ longstanding questions, and set the stage for the grand finale of the entire epic. There’s still nothing else out there quite like Falcom’s series, and Trails Beyond the Horizon is a strong reminder that those hundreds of hours it takes to play all these games is well worth it. And perhaps more importantly, picture proof that Falcom is willing to learn from its past, and I’ve more hope than ever that it might truly be able to stick the landing for the wild experiment that Trails has become.
Trails Beyond the Horizon is a solid sequel to a saga that showed great potential in its first outing. The stakes are wildly impressive and goes places I simply didn’t see the series reaching. While the non-critical elements of the story do drag on, with several pointless and boring side quests, the core narrative told across three different paths, each with several of the series’ best characters, results in a climactic finale that shows why this series is one of the best JRPG’s out there.
Trails Beyond the Horizon finally moves the series’ main plot forward in a satisfying way, despite leaving off with a massive cliffhanger. With fantastic combat refinements, not even a slow first Act can dull our excitement about where the series goes from here.
Trails Beyond the Horizon is a game that feels like it's setting up the foundation to pay off the fandom with a conclusion that's set to surprise people, for better or for worse. Five years ago, I likened Trails of Cold Steel IV to Avengers Endgame. Trails Beyond the Horizon might as well be Avengers Doomsday, and there's no telling what to expect when the sequel comes out.
Trails Beyond the Horizon paves the way for the end of the Trails franchise. It's not a perfect game, but it incorporates everything good and bad about the series, resulting in the most Trails game possible. Combined with more polished combat, it was the right recipe to make it one of the best games in the series.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon comes out swinging after a largely divisive previous entry in Daybreak 2, where so much of the story was tied up in time travel shenanigans. However, the main narrative is compelling despite a slow start.