The Trails franchise has always felt most comparable to a long-running fantasy epic. Each subseries tackles an overarching story in one of Zemuria’s countries, with a cast of characters that sometimes crosses into other tales. It feels like a living, breathing fantasy world with history and lore. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Into Reverie is the epic conclusion of two story arcs, leaving plenty of room for a new saga to begin with the currently planned western localization of Kuro No Kiseki, the next Trails game already released in Japan.

Trails Into Reverie picks up after the Trails of Cold Steel franchise, but also heavily deals with characters and events from Trails From Zero and Trails to Azure. Instead of playing as one protagonist and party for the entirety of Trails Into Reverie, the game is split into 3 “routes”, each with a different protagonist. The first two protagonists are very familiar if you’ve played the aforementioned games.

One route puts you in the role of Lloyd Bannings, the leader of the Special Support Section, a specialized police force in Crossbell. His route deals with the sudden return of a dark plot that was thought to be thwarted in the previous games. The second route puts you in the role of Rean Schwarzer, professor at Erebonia’s Thors Military Academy and founding member of Class VII. The third protagonist is a mysterious character known only as “C”. I won’t spoil his identity, but I was shocked by it.

You cannot simply play through a single route all the way to the end. Certain routes will be locked until you finish progress with other routes so that crossover segments don’t spoil elements of the other routes. This makes up the “Trails to Walk” System that allows you to switch between routes at will, as long as you have fulfilled the requirements to continue the story.

In terms of gameplay, each route plays similarly. You progress through the story, undergoing quests and side quests while taking part in turn-based battles. Orbments and Arts return, as well as Brave Orders and Rush attacks from the previous games. New to the series though is the United Front mechanic, which unleashes a powerful attack using both main party and support members to deal massive damage and buff the party.

Additionally, there is a new mechanic known as the True Reverie Corridor, which is unlocked after a certain point in the game. This allows you to explore and challenge randomly generated dungeons to train your party, while also recruiting characters that wouldn’t normally be available. The True Reverie Corridor also allows you to play various mini-games separate from things such as fishing and casino games from the main routes.

There are a variety of side stories and side quests available as well, making Trails Into Reverie a robust and intriguing game. As with other games in the franchise, there are a variety of difficulty options. If you want a harder experience, you can turn things up to Hard, Very Hard, or even Nightmare. On the flip side, there is an Easy and very Easy option if you don’t want to stick with Normal.

You can also import save files from the previous games to carry over bond levels and get a few special items. However, I have seen varying reports that say that while the PlayStation and PC versions have had bugs fixed, there are still bugs on the Nintendo Switch version preventing some save file content from carrying over. I didn’t personally experience that myself, but you should be aware of it.

Overall, Trails Into Reverie feels like a stellar conclusion to the journey so far. It isn’t an experience that will make much sense plot-wise for newcomers to the franchise, but as a thrilling conclusion to two long-running story arcs, it hits the right notes. If you’re a Trails of Cold Steel fan or a fan of the Crossbell duology of Trails From Zero and Trails to Azure, give Trails Into Reverie a look.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Trails Into Reverie was provided by NIS America for this review.

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

$59.99 USD

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Fantastic Conclusion to Two Major Plotlines
• Lots of Quests and Side-Content
• Engaging Combat
• Difficulty Options for a Variety of Skill Levels

Cons

• Not for Newcomers to the Series
• Minor Bugs with Carrying Over Save Data