Review | The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

A short review

I always need a break after The Legend of Heroes games. They tend to offer 60+ hours of gameplay, a couple of difficulties and whatnot – and everything is time-consuming. I can understand if you don't like heavy conversation scenes, PS2 graphics and the same old locations, but the turn-based combat part of the game is always really good.

Trails into Reverie comes after Azure and Zero in the series, and from a technical standpoint it's flawless. I don't know how it was when the game came out, but I had no issues, crashes, or bugs during my 70+ hour playthrough. It's advisable to play it after finishing the whole Sky and Cold Steel franchise, as the story and characters heavily connect to both of these.

Is it any good? Yes, but not everything. Still, I would say it's a must-play title for JRPG fans and fans of the Heroes series.

It's always the Prologue that reveals some story bit, and then you play 50 hours to get to that point in story

Story and the characters

If you dislike Cold Steel III, you will hate Reverie. It's a game told from 3 different perspectives – Rean’s, Lloyd’s and a mysterious 3rd person. I don't want to spoil it, but I loved the last playable leader. The whole idea of the story is great, it feels fresh, but the main plot feels so forced that I thought it was going to suck. It doesn't, it's really good, but it tends to have pacing issues and a lot of unnecessary conversations that could be shortened and still say what is needed. After 9 games, is it really fun to once again be trapped in a war and in between some dark secret workshops? They need something new. Crossbell is under attack, and you need to revert that.

Most of the game's story is all about learning the backstories of basically every Heroes character, location, and how that fits into the story. Everyone helps, so if you love the series for that, this is going to rule. If not, prepare for many swaps in the party and many battle combinations very often.

Most of the story comes from main events, and no side-quests are present – which I love, especially when side-quests usually feel like heavy fillers.

Hi Rixia, come to my party and stay forever

Game design, exploration

Like mentioned, you can switch between 3 storylines as you play. Each party is different, and many guests participate along the way. It's still the same old linear dungeon-exploring game, with an almost perfect orbment and battle system.

You can't progress a storyline before you reach that part with the other parties. It's all about living the 3 perspectives and trying to piece everything together. That part is great, and I also do like the bad guy at the end. It's a modern take on the themes with AI and Crossbell, with a pinch of 100 other characters.

This time around you can explore the dungeon with floors, like in previous games – and it's the best place for grinding, gear, and getting your team up to speed. That main generated dungeon was, in my opinion, fun. It's too bad you can't reach the top before you finish the main story.

With the absence of side-quests, the game becomes much more fun, especially with many battle challenges along the way.

Don't you guys like fishing, again? 

Combat

Combat is my favourite part of the game. Whether you are a caster, a skill-abuser or a dodge maniac – you will for sure have fun. A grid-based turn-based combat will order strategy and secondary effects like critical and heal during turns – it gives so much freedom combined with a 30+ playable characters roster. Sure, you can't really get them all during the story, but in the main dungeon you can.

I love upgrades to master quartz and stronger versions of quartz in general. I've spent a lot of time tweaking my builds and I've loved every minute of it. The only downside is that characters come with 3–4 skills, but having 30+ of them somewhat balances that fact. Limit breaks and the new Unite Front attacks are just a plus to an already perfect formula.

The game is not hard, but it presents just enough challenge to feel like everything you set matters. And like I said – having so many characters in battles was a big plus for me. I love experimenting.

It's so great to see some characters grown up, especially when you remember them from the first games in the series.

Side Content

Side content is basically the main dungeon (Reverie) with floors, and then you have optional story bits, trial doors and a bunch of mini-games to overcome. I loved the "gacha" system of the dungeon – you can reset the progress and redo the floors to get more rewards and more experience. The rewards here are the best in the game, so it makes sense grabbing some EVA+ accessories or stronger versions of equipment.

Even with the absence of quests in general, grinding the Reverie feels enough, even more than you need (the stories you unlock there are really long).

If you feel like that is not enough, Reverie offers many sub-missions that give points which you can use to raise BP and a bunch of other stuff that carries throughout the whole game. Fun little concept.

Banana ride, whats not to like?

Conclusion

Trails into Reverie is more of the same, still fun, still long, still with a lot of conversation – but a good turn-based old-school JRPG you know and love from the start of the series. It's a decent continuation of the global story and characters you know and love, told from 3 perspectives and with a more fun direction with fewer fillers and more focus on the fun stuff, like combat and challenges.

I will probably play the Daybreak series next, but I need to rest a bit, Trails are long and my eyes are tired from all the reading.