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Trails into Reverie | Review Thread

Thief1987

Member
screenshot_2023-06-30vzim7.jpg



IGN 8/10
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.

Eurogamer 4/5
Trails into Reverie is a fine epilogue for Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs, offering necessary closure and clear hints about the series' future.

TheSixthAxes 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.

Nintendo Life 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.

RPG Fan 8.7/10
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 Outerhaven Productions 4.5/5
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.

Hardcore Gamer 4.5/5
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.

Noisy Pixel 10/10
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is an amazing JRPG that expertly handles its extensive cast to conclude this arc. The pacing respects the long history players have had with these characters to deliver a narrative that respects fans. This isn’t a game for those who haven’t played the previous titles, as it addresses overlooked plot points and relationships that could spoil those games. It doesn’t bog down progression with feeble recaps and instead marches ever onward with confidence. Trails into Reverie is a reunion among reunions, a capstone among capstones, and a soul-stirring special experience you won’t find in any other game.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Those are some pretty good reviews !

This is a week 1 ~ ish for me.

Hopefully the game comes with a recap tool for the last couple of games in it.
 
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graywolf323

Member
Those are some pretty good reviews !

This is a week 1 ~ ish for me.

Hopefully the game comes with a recap tool for the last couple of games in it.
I’d be there day 0 but NIS oddly doesn’t seem to be big on digital pre-orders

definitely week 1 though since they constantly do launch period bonuses for the PC versions and then rarely ever make that stuff available later on
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
I already chopped through Zero and Azure. Looking forward to this. What are the odds they release Kuro No Kiseki next year?
 
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killatopak

Gold Member
It really is, arguably more ambitious than the MCU. 3~4 different sub-franchises converging with an interconnected story, each made up of ~100 hour RPGs. It's no easy task to get into.
I really want to play it and I’m a sucker for such kind of games. However I’m the type of person who want to read all the dialogue. Trails in The Sky was already a practice in patience as I go to each town and talk to people every time an event happens. Doing it for all the games seems very tiring hence my apprehension.

Then I saw old posts about the series how npcs who are recurring in the series has their own separate continuing story and I just become stumped. If only I had taken notice and played earlier and not let it build up.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Honestly, I only played TiTS. This series is just too daunting for me.
I quit TiTs shortly after the scene where stepbrother and stepsister accidentally see each other naked at a hot spring and realize they wanna bone each other.

I probably would’ve loved this series if I played it as a teenager but man, I can’t handle a slow-burn shounen anime “cinematic universe” spread across multiple 60 hour games.
 

Pallas

Member
Say I was going to play this series on the switch, which game would chronologically come first, out of those on the switch and could a new player jump in without feeling lost? I also got a ps4 pro too.
 

Thief1987

Member
Say I was going to play this series on the switch, which game would chronologically come first, out of those on the switch and could a new player jump in without feeling lost? I also got a ps4 pro too.
Chronologically it will be Trails from Zero, then Trails to Azure. After that is Erebonia arc, which include four Trails of Cold Steel games, and first two of them are not on Switch, so you need PS4 or PC. Skipping Trails in the Sky trilogy won't hinder your understating of the current events, but of course you will miss on some fanservice like returning characters and references to the events of the past.
 
Chronologically it will be Trails from Zero, then Trails to Azure. After that is Erebonia arc, which include four Trails of Cold Steel games, and first two of them are not on Switch, so you need PS4 or PC. Skipping Trails in the Sky trilogy won't hinder your understating of the current events, but of course you will miss on some fanservice like returning characters and references to the events of the past.
Or a PS3.
 

Thief1987

Member
I already chopped through Zero and Azure. Looking forward to this. What are the odds they release Kuro No Kiseki next year?
I want to believe that this is the case. We already went backward from ToCS 3 and 4 with 2 years delay, to 3 years delay with Reverie, hope it won't become even worse.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I already chopped through Zero and Azure. Looking forward to this. What are the odds they release Kuro No Kiseki next year?

They'll need to announce it before the end of the year to meet this kind of a release window, I doubt it but I also doubted this ever getting a Western localization so ..
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
That is great seeing all these good reviews. I love the Trails / Kiseki games. My only issue with those games is the fan base. Most of the fans just seem to be really arrogant but otherwise it's a great series that I would recommend to anyone.
 
That is great seeing all these good reviews. I love the Trails / Kiseki games. My only issue with those games is the fan base. Most of the fans just seem to be really arrogant but otherwise it's a great series that I would recommend to anyone.
Only issue I've ever had with some of the fans is when they get very aggressive about demanding people play TitS before Cold Steel.
 

WoJ

Member
Man, this series has always interested me but I've never dove in.

What's the best way to play? Trails in the sky series followed by Cold Steel?

My tolerance for anime fluctuates. Sometimes it drives me batty. Sometimes I love it. What is the anime-ness of this series? Or does the post above about the stepbrother and stepsister in the hot spring sum up the anime-ness of the games?
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Man, this series has always interested me but I've never dove in.

What's the best way to play? Trails in the sky series followed by Cold Steel?

My tolerance for anime fluctuates. Sometimes it drives me batty. Sometimes I love it. What is the anime-ness of this series? Or does the post above about the stepbrother and stepsister in the hot spring sum up the anime-ness of the games?
I would say if you are able to, start playing Trails in the Sky first. But you can just go ahead and jump right into Trails of Cold Steel and you could always go back to the trail in the sky series afterwards.

Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. You just need to realize the game is very thick on lore and the setting. That's because each game is part of an ongoing arc and all takes place on the same world.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
Say I was going to play this series on the switch, which game would chronologically come first, out of those on the switch and could a new player jump in without feeling lost? I also got a ps4 pro too.
Chronologically it will be Trails from Zero, then Trails to Azure. After that is Erebonia arc, which include four Trails of Cold Steel games, and first two of them are not on Switch, so you need PS4 or PC. Skipping Trails in the Sky trilogy won't hinder your understating of the current events, but of course you will miss on some fanservice like returning characters and references to the events of the past.

Actually, CS1's story takes place between Zero and Azure and CS2 begins prior to the end of Azure. The end of Azure leads into the Divertissement chapter in CS2.
 
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Man, this series has always interested me but I've never dove in.

What's the best way to play? Trails in the sky series followed by Cold Steel?

My tolerance for anime fluctuates. Sometimes it drives me batty. Sometimes I love it. What is the anime-ness of this series? Or does the post above about the stepbrother and stepsister in the hot spring sum up the anime-ness of the games?

Start by asking yourself if you have at least 500 hours to play them all. No, i’m not exaggerating. If so, start with the Trails in the Sky Series. They are all excellent games but extremely time consuming. My biggest gripe is that some of the latter games require you to follow a guide if you want the best endings. Also, I’m not really an anime fan and i found the games enjoyable. Nothing insanely over the top in my opinion.
 
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Does the game require you to stick to the guide or risk missing out on the best ending? As much as i loved TOCS 3 i found it really annoying that I wasn’t able to miss sidequests. Haven’t really continued with the series for that reason though i really want to.
 
Does the game require you to stick to the guide or risk missing out on the best ending? As much as i loved TOCS 3 i found it really annoying that I wasn’t able to miss sidequests. Haven’t really continued with the series for that reason though i really want to.

Cold Steel 4 is the only game with alternate endings and it only requires 1 sidequest. Reverie has 1 ending, but you have you progress quite a bit past what most would assume is the games ending.

You can miss as many sidequests as you want in CS3, it makes no difference
 
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Paltheos

Member
As I've said many times before I want to be optimistic. The community really believes in this game, and they're... usually right.

They'll need to announce it before the end of the year to meet this kind of a release window, I doubt it but I also doubted this ever getting a Western localization so ..

Likewise want to be optimistic. Even discounting all the work Geofront did already on Zero and Azure, NISA still managed to bring over 4 Falcom games in a year. On the flip side, Kuro doesn't look as short as Reverie.

Man, this series has always interested me but I've never dove in.

What's the best way to play? Trails in the sky series followed by Cold Steel?

My tolerance for anime fluctuates. Sometimes it drives me batty. Sometimes I love it. What is the anime-ness of this series? Or does the post above about the stepbrother and stepsister in the hot spring sum up the anime-ness of the games?

Opinion is split. As someone who's played all 9 English-release games (over 1000 hours, btw, from a guy who does everything), I generally recommend Trails of Cold Steel I & II --> looping back to Trails in the Sky 1-3 --> Trails from Zero & to Azure --> returning back to Trails of Cold Steel III & IV. The primary reason is that the original Trails in the Sky, for however immediately snappy and fun the dialgoue is, is just not a fun video game to play. Even within the Sky series, the games get better to play as they go along but the original starts you off with too few options and abilities are too stringent in their demands. Worse, the game doesn't really coalesce until nearly a third of the way into its runtime, and the major plotlines up to that point are punctuated by some dumb shit. I like Sky 1 allot after that, maybe even more moment-to-moment than the fan favorite Sky 2, but that doesn't change that I still bounced off the game twice before I played Cold Steel, returned, and powered through what I considered the bad stuff.

Cold Steel on the other hand is allot easier to recommend. The clearly Persona-inspired format the game borrows from is probably familiar to allot of people looking at this game but is still distinct and sets itself apart. This game has a ramp-up time too, but it actually being fun to play makes it easier to recommend as a jump-in point. A common criticism of the first Cold Steel game is that the whole thing is too slow but I don't agree. It's a slow burn, but the framing of the game, a school adventure where a bunch of kids travel to a bunch of different places learning about the world and themselves, is higlighted by so many moments of learning about the various factions around the country. The adventure is fun in its own right because of how well-packaged it is and because of how interesting it is to piece together the political landscape.

You asked about animeness. Anime is baked into the series' DNA. That said, the stepbrother/sister hotspring is not indicative of the series as a whole. For Trails in the Sky in particular, as initially weird as that kind of attraction being played straight is, the uncynical approach to just about everything else lets me give it a pass. My impression is that the writers had a story they wanted to tell and that particular dynamic served their end best.

The later games get worse about it. The first hour of Cold Steel 1 includes accidentally grabbing a tsundere's boobs and her being mad at you for the next couple chapters of the game which is just... really bad? There are more power of friendship speeches and anime-tropey archetypal characters. It permeates the experience but generally does not dominate it. Through it all, you know there are machinations under the surface and the reveals are (usually) satisfying.
 

cireza

Member
I really want to play it and I’m a sucker for such kind of games. However I’m the type of person who want to read all the dialogue. Trails in The Sky was already a practice in patience as I go to each town and talk to people every time an event happens. Doing it for all the games seems very tiring hence my apprehension.

Then I saw old posts about the series how npcs who are recurring in the series has their own separate continuing story and I just become stumped. If only I had taken notice and played earlier and not let it build up.
Hope you didn't forget to check a second time every single chest :)
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
I’m still at Cold Steel IV. So far my ranking is

I > III > II

Really didnt like that III pushed a buncha new characters on you after spending so much time with the already-bloated cast of I and II. But III has some very hype moments and the graphical improvement was much needed. Banger soundtrack too, Final Fantasy-tier music.

I like Part I because its just about goin to school & on field trips. Its like a Hogwarts simulator. I didnt mind that the ‘main plot’ barely moved at all because frankly these are 16 year old kids they shouldn’t be savin the world or whatever. Which they do in part II which I found ridiculous and hard to take seriously lol
 
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Sleepwalker

Member
Ive always felt somewhat attracted to these games but then remember it's gonna take like 1000 hours to play all of them and go back to just staring from a distance lol
 

Sleepwalker

Member
PS4 versions have turbo mode. So it's a lot easier to get through them.
What does the turbo mode do? is it like in old emulators where you could set up the game at 2x speed or is it different?

I feel I would prefer to play this kinda stuff on a portable device, stupid ass project Q why are u streaming only. (rip vita)
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
What does the turbo mode do? is it like in old emulators where you could set up the game at 2x speed or is it different?

I feel I would prefer to play this kinda stuff on a portable device, stupid ass project Q why are u streaming only. (rip vita)

Increases game speed 5X.

The best part is that you can use it in cut-scenes as well and it does not skip over the dialogue, it just skips the animation to the next line of dialogue, so you can still hear/read all of the dialogue before proceeding to the next line.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
What does the turbo mode do? is it like in old emulators where you could set up the game at 2x speed or is it different?

I feel I would prefer to play this kinda stuff on a portable device, stupid ass project Q why are u streaming only. (rip vita)

Yea basically. When you toggle turbo mode, you move around much faster and the battles are also sped up.

I recently replayed CS4 on my phone using the backbone. It was perfectly fine. Since battles are turn-based, it's perfectly playable streaming from a PS5.
 

Komatsu

Member
There are more power of friendship speeches and anime-tropey archetypal characters. It permeates the experience but generally does not dominate it. Through it all, you know there are machinations under the surface and the reveals are (usually) satisfying.

Very thoughtful post and I agree with your playing order. That said, I think the anime-ness of the franchise explodes after Cold Steel. It was always there, but the harem and shounen tropes get more and more intrusive as the series goes on. It's all rather ironic, really, as early Falcom was all-in on producing very bare, plot-heavy dungeon crawlers in the western mold.
 

Vlodril

Member
Honestly, I only played TiTS. This series is just too daunting for me.

It is my problem with the series too. I played and finished Tits, Cold steel 1 and was halfway into 2 when other games took my attention. Each game is huge and there are so many of them. I feel there is no way for me to catch up. Which is too bad because i liked all the ones i played. I just can't do multiple 80 hour games especially at the rhythm they have going.
 

WoJ

Member
As I've said many times before I want to be optimistic. The community really believes in this game, and they're... usually right.



Likewise want to be optimistic. Even discounting all the work Geofront did already on Zero and Azure, NISA still managed to bring over 4 Falcom games in a year. On the flip side, Kuro doesn't look as short as Reverie.



Opinion is split. As someone who's played all 9 English-release games (over 1000 hours, btw, from a guy who does everything), I generally recommend Trails of Cold Steel I & II --> looping back to Trails in the Sky 1-3 --> Trails from Zero & to Azure --> returning back to Trails of Cold Steel III & IV. The primary reason is that the original Trails in the Sky, for however immediately snappy and fun the dialgoue is, is just not a fun video game to play. Even within the Sky series, the games get better to play as they go along but the original starts you off with too few options and abilities are too stringent in their demands. Worse, the game doesn't really coalesce until nearly a third of the way into its runtime, and the major plotlines up to that point are punctuated by some dumb shit. I like Sky 1 allot after that, maybe even more moment-to-moment than the fan favorite Sky 2, but that doesn't change that I still bounced off the game twice before I played Cold Steel, returned, and powered through what I considered the bad stuff.

Cold Steel on the other hand is allot easier to recommend. The clearly Persona-inspired format the game borrows from is probably familiar to allot of people looking at this game but is still distinct and sets itself apart. This game has a ramp-up time too, but it actually being fun to play makes it easier to recommend as a jump-in point. A common criticism of the first Cold Steel game is that the whole thing is too slow but I don't agree. It's a slow burn, but the framing of the game, a school adventure where a bunch of kids travel to a bunch of different places learning about the world and themselves, is higlighted by so many moments of learning about the various factions around the country. The adventure is fun in its own right because of how well-packaged it is and because of how interesting it is to piece together the political landscape.

You asked about animeness. Anime is baked into the series' DNA. That said, the stepbrother/sister hotspring is not indicative of the series as a whole. For Trails in the Sky in particular, as initially weird as that kind of attraction being played straight is, the uncynical approach to just about everything else lets me give it a pass. My impression is that the writers had a story they wanted to tell and that particular dynamic served their end best.

The later games get worse about it. The first hour of Cold Steel 1 includes accidentally grabbing a tsundere's boobs and her being mad at you for the next couple chapters of the game which is just... really bad? There are more power of friendship speeches and anime-tropey archetypal characters. It permeates the experience but generally does not dominate it. Through it all, you know there are machinations under the surface and the reveals are (usually) satisfying.
Thanks for the detailed response. This is helpful.
 

AmuroChan

Member
It is my problem with the series too. I played and finished Tits, Cold steel 1 and was halfway into 2 when other games took my attention. Each game is huge and there are so many of them. I feel there is no way for me to catch up. Which is too bad because i liked all the ones i played. I just can't do multiple 80 hour games especially at the rhythm they have going.

80 hours is only if you want to do literally everything. If you follow a walkthrough, you can easily complete each game in 40 hours. I recently played through CS4 again and I beat the game in 25 hours.
 
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