The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon review

The Legend of Heroes sequence has been an absolute rollercoaster for me for the previous few years. As a lot as I really like the thought of the franchise, the deeply interconnected nature of all of it bought means too daunting and exhausting for me. The recent begin of The Legend of Heroes: Trails via Dawn in 2023 was precisely what I wanted, however a yr later, its sequel got here out and promptly fell proper again into the irritating trappings of requiring you to play a half-dozen different 100-hour JRPGs with a purpose to perceive its wildly inconsistent story. Then, final yr, an excellent brisker begin was launched with the extremely anticipated remake Trails within the Sky 1st Chapter. I beloved my time with that recreation, and I’m actually excited to proceed following that saga with its subsequent entry. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Past the Horizon isn’t that entry, and whereas it is without doubt one of the most mechanically dense and enjoyable video games within the franchise, it’s one other title that feels just like the RPG equal of Avengers: Infinity Battle.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Past the Horizon places you within the footwear of three totally different protagonists, in addition to their three totally different crews of comrades and companions. These aren’t totally new heroes who you’ll develop alongside, although – they’re the principle characters of three totally different eras of the assorted arcs on this sequence, and also you’re anticipated to know their historical past to know what they’re doing now. There’s Van Arkride from the Trails via Dawn duology, Rean Schwarzer from the quite a few Trails of Chilly Metal entries, and Kevin Graham returning all the way in which from Trails within the Sky the third (a recreation we’ll possible find yourself seeing a big-budget remake of in only a few years).

A big majority of the 70ish hour marketing campaign follows Van Arkride particularly, which I appreciated as somebody who performed each of his video games, barely remembers Rean Schwarzers’ video games, and barely ever performed Kevin Graham’s starring entry. It feels good to have Van proceed to hold the leading-man mantle for this entry, even when it doesn’t have the phrase Dawn within the title – and it’s actually satisfying to see him bounce off of so many new characters and get wrapped up in a world that feels a lot bigger than the place he began.

All three characters are caught in an internet of cascading mysteries and conspiracies stemming from Undertaking Startaker – an initiative being spun up by the nation of Calvard that goals to ship humanity to house for the primary time ever. It’s sort of foolish, realizing that it’s taken this lengthy for one thing so simple as manned spaceflight to occur in a universe the place arguably each different trope in JRPG historical past has occured by this level. Regardless of being the character I used to be in all probability the least excited to observe, Rean’s story ended up being probably the most attention-grabbing one of all of them. It’s actually cool seeing him give attention to digging into the secretive reality of Undertaking Startaker, and unraveling the layers of conspiracy behind it throughout his sections had me gripped.

Kevin’s story sees him changing into a “Heretic Hunter” and grappling with the morality of who he’s being tasked to hunt – it’s attention-grabbing on paper, however I bought the vibe that it will have landed so much tougher with me if I knew extra about him going into this recreation. Van’s story, which is for much longer than the opposite two characters, spends plenty of time both slowly constructing as much as huge moments or just idling round in enjoyable, however in the end inconsequential smaller adventures. All three tales find yourself colliding into one another in a extremely, actually superior means, although. Even with out the complete context or attachment from earlier video games that made the journey to get to that ending really feel a little bit underwhelming, the conclusion to this recreation is huge and enjoyable and unimaginable to not get a minimum of a little bit enthusiastic about.

Narrative shortcomings apart, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Past the Horizon is well probably the most jam-packed recreation within the sequence when it comes to fight methods, mini-games, and modes. In relation to fight, among the additions are fairly minor however nonetheless appreciated enhancements. Just like the ZOC mechanic that permits you to steal enemy flip bonuses on the assault order timeline in turn-based battles. Or BLTZ, a brand new bonus capability that mainly permits back-row celebration members to extra actively help front-row celebration members throughout their turns in battle. My favorite might be Awakening – it lets Rean, Van, and Kevin activate particular powered-up modes that give them enhanced assaults and harm throughout real-time fight. I’m a sucker for the real-time fight within the newest Trails video games, so having extra options to play with in that mode is a blast.

I beloved the Reverie Hall from Trails into Reverie and the Märchen Garten from The Legend of Heroes: Trails via Dawn II, so I used to be joyful to see these modes expanded upon with the Grim Garten on this entry. Just like the earlier two named modes, it’s a roguelike-inspired mode that sees you diving into randomised units of dungeons and battles, gathering set merchandise rewards and even gacha-style prizes as you efficiently end runs. I believe there’s a secret sauce to the thought of a roguelike JRPG dungeon crawler, and I nearly want that we may get a complete recreation constructed round this idea. To me, it’s a extremely recent and rewarding technique to body the thought of repeated dungeon crawls that may in any other case really feel repetitive and bland in comparison with the standard open exploration the sequence is understood for.

Regardless of a story that struggles to shine from beneath a dense layer of established franchise lore, I had a good time enjoying The Legend of Heroes: Trails Past the Horizon. It will not be the correct follow-up to Trails within the Sky 1st Chapter when it comes to how participating and comprehensible the story is, however it’s completely a worthy follow-up relating to how enjoyable it’s, how dense the fight is, and the way wealthy the world is with interactivity and unlockables.