The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
This review contains spoilers
Okay, as always I will just briefly talk about the gameplay. I know there are big changes in combat and whatnot coming in this series so I will have more to say then about that.
But basically, great turn-based combat, orbment system still slaps, turbo mode is a must, sometimes people talk too much but most of the time it's fine plus it's often rewarding. If you like the gameplay in the other games, you'll like this. They just kind of iterate on what came before. Mostly they're incremental changes. I play these for the story and characters. This never disappoints, even if there are moments that aren't always so great. That's fine in RPGs that are basically all 40+ hours.
Okay, onto the random ass notes I think of:
- New characters: C, Swin, Nadia, Lapis. At first I was a little disappointed that C was Rufus, but it grew on me over time. Part of me wishes they would have just let Rufus die. Give him a sacrifice. With that said, it is a very Trails thing for them to be like, "You have lost everything, you shall now live with what you've done, but you're still alive," and he can go off with his new crew.
Swin wasn't especially memorable. Kind of felt like a bargain bin Joshua so far, though maybe that'll get better as more is revealed. And that doesn't even mean I hate him. It just means he's a character I never put on my team if I didn't have to. There are just so many other fantastic characters he doesn't stick out.
Nadia on the other hand, really like her. First time you see her it's dark and a bunch of soldiers see her wandering towards them. Eerie music playing, they check her briefcase. It's a teddy bear bomb. That's an entrance. When meeting Renne, "We got the same vibe," then she calls their group the "Imperial Picnicking Front."
Lapis is like KeA, only she's a doll and a little creepy and cocky. I like her. There's room there to grow. Plus I did like her interactions with Rufus and she ended up becoming the heart of the group... while also being the AI.
But I do like these 4 as a group. Appealing horror aesthetic. Bunch of rejects all group together (plus a doll). Enjoyed the dynamic. It felt organic.
- Dialogue didn't feel as overwritten as in Cold Steel 4. I think I read somewhere that Reverie and Cold Steel 4 have similar playtime lengths, but only if you actually do all the Reverie Corridor stuff, but I'm not sure. Though I also read that the script was smaller and I felt that. Felt a lot more concise by their standards.
- Beginning was neat with the kind of Nier: Automata weirdness for the opening "credits."
- There's small running gag where that dog Cerberus is doing human jobs like running the black market trade shop and learning to fly the airship. I laughed. More Cerberus is good.
- Something I said about the First Chapter Remake is that it always felt like you were getting shit (septium, attribute points from cooking, etc). I can see the origins of that with Reverie probably the most, specifically with the rewards/Reverie Corridor, not that I spent a ton of time in there since I'm just mainlining these games for the most part.
- Not new to this game but I haven't mentioned the fact that I still love how they turned little Tita into a tank since she drives a mech around in battle.
- Enjoy how the "fake" ending from CS4 ties into this. Basically, it creates this alternate version Rean that ends up causing some trouble and ultimately leads to Rean's emotional resolution. So then the "real" ending in CS4 is you know, what you're playing the aftermath of. It's cool that Falcom didn't just change up the ending format in CS4 for shits and giggles, though I'm not surprised considering everything in these games is very deliberate.
- Cringed when I had to run back into the tower to save Rufus after all this shit happening. Fortunately it only took about 5 minutes but why make us even do that? Just fucking keep the cutscene going. You've already made us watch like 20-30 minutes at that point anyway. But that's a minor dig.
- Arcs ending always feels like I'm saying bye to friends, and that's maybe the most positive thing I can say about it. I genuinely get emotional knowing that yes, I will still see these characters, but I was spending so much time with them and now outside of a few, I won't be. Well, I assume, since we're going to Calvard.
Don't really have anything else to say about the quality of the game. My reviews for Trails mostly consist of me writing down things I want to remember.
No surprise, loved it.
But basically, great turn-based combat, orbment system still slaps, turbo mode is a must, sometimes people talk too much but most of the time it's fine plus it's often rewarding. If you like the gameplay in the other games, you'll like this. They just kind of iterate on what came before. Mostly they're incremental changes. I play these for the story and characters. This never disappoints, even if there are moments that aren't always so great. That's fine in RPGs that are basically all 40+ hours.
Okay, onto the random ass notes I think of:
- New characters: C, Swin, Nadia, Lapis. At first I was a little disappointed that C was Rufus, but it grew on me over time. Part of me wishes they would have just let Rufus die. Give him a sacrifice. With that said, it is a very Trails thing for them to be like, "You have lost everything, you shall now live with what you've done, but you're still alive," and he can go off with his new crew.
Swin wasn't especially memorable. Kind of felt like a bargain bin Joshua so far, though maybe that'll get better as more is revealed. And that doesn't even mean I hate him. It just means he's a character I never put on my team if I didn't have to. There are just so many other fantastic characters he doesn't stick out.
Nadia on the other hand, really like her. First time you see her it's dark and a bunch of soldiers see her wandering towards them. Eerie music playing, they check her briefcase. It's a teddy bear bomb. That's an entrance. When meeting Renne, "We got the same vibe," then she calls their group the "Imperial Picnicking Front."
Lapis is like KeA, only she's a doll and a little creepy and cocky. I like her. There's room there to grow. Plus I did like her interactions with Rufus and she ended up becoming the heart of the group... while also being the AI.
But I do like these 4 as a group. Appealing horror aesthetic. Bunch of rejects all group together (plus a doll). Enjoyed the dynamic. It felt organic.
- Dialogue didn't feel as overwritten as in Cold Steel 4. I think I read somewhere that Reverie and Cold Steel 4 have similar playtime lengths, but only if you actually do all the Reverie Corridor stuff, but I'm not sure. Though I also read that the script was smaller and I felt that. Felt a lot more concise by their standards.
- Beginning was neat with the kind of Nier: Automata weirdness for the opening "credits."
- There's small running gag where that dog Cerberus is doing human jobs like running the black market trade shop and learning to fly the airship. I laughed. More Cerberus is good.
- Something I said about the First Chapter Remake is that it always felt like you were getting shit (septium, attribute points from cooking, etc). I can see the origins of that with Reverie probably the most, specifically with the rewards/Reverie Corridor, not that I spent a ton of time in there since I'm just mainlining these games for the most part.
- Not new to this game but I haven't mentioned the fact that I still love how they turned little Tita into a tank since she drives a mech around in battle.
- Enjoy how the "fake" ending from CS4 ties into this. Basically, it creates this alternate version Rean that ends up causing some trouble and ultimately leads to Rean's emotional resolution. So then the "real" ending in CS4 is you know, what you're playing the aftermath of. It's cool that Falcom didn't just change up the ending format in CS4 for shits and giggles, though I'm not surprised considering everything in these games is very deliberate.
- Cringed when I had to run back into the tower to save Rufus after all this shit happening. Fortunately it only took about 5 minutes but why make us even do that? Just fucking keep the cutscene going. You've already made us watch like 20-30 minutes at that point anyway. But that's a minor dig.
- Arcs ending always feels like I'm saying bye to friends, and that's maybe the most positive thing I can say about it. I genuinely get emotional knowing that yes, I will still see these characters, but I was spending so much time with them and now outside of a few, I won't be. Well, I assume, since we're going to Calvard.
Don't really have anything else to say about the quality of the game. My reviews for Trails mostly consist of me writing down things I want to remember.
No surprise, loved it.
Mini Review: I came onto Trails with the remake of the first one, and something I liked a lot about that was that it always felt like it was giving you stuff. Reverie feels like the start of that (with the rewards/Reverie Corridor). Gameplay is much like it has been. New cast is quite cool. It's a fitting closure to Crossbell/Erebonia. It does leave you with some questions but it is more of an end of an era. Didn't love the OST as much as some others but still loved the game.
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