The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon
This review contains spoilers
Right out of the gate, what a rebound from the still quite good but deeply flawed Daybreak 2. THIS is the Trails I fell in love with. This is a 10/10.
I originally tried playing this without the context of the rest of the games and I knew I did it dirty then, but I felt it deep in my bones as I played through it the whole way now. I never beat it when I tried the first playthrough because it was all just very overwhelming.
Like the best Trails endings, I sat in it for a bit. I know this will live on in my head like all the best endings I've witnessed in my life. Trails really knows how to end games. Not that every single one is a banger but when they ARE bangers, they hit so hard. Now I will talk more in-depth about it:
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 did this thing where it made you realize that while Star-Lord is the main character, the entire trilogy had really been Rocket's story. In this arc, Van has been the main character, but the arc has really been Agnes' story. And I say this as a guy who LIKES Agnes but didn't love her.
Actually, let's talk about her for a bit before I get back to the ending. As I said, I have liked her. I like her because she's so sweet and adorable, but I never felt like they gave her that much to work with as a backstory compared to the best Trails characters. Don't get me wrong, she's still a good character, it's just the bar has been set high. But it broke my heart when Van rejected her (even though I stan Elaine...), and then they throw that bit at the end again where she admits to kinda wanting to be rejected so she'd go through with her plan. So what's her plan? To erase herself from the timeline to "save" everybody. Or at least reset everything to a different time, or something. We don't know exactly yet what's going on since this is the most recent game chronologically. And during the credits, while it's showing bits from the game, you see Agnes standing at Van's door in their first meeting and then she disappears like a Thanos snap. So I repeat: I'm not crying, you're crying. But yeah, this ending rocks. The last bit is so awesome. I messaged my friend with this:
Went into space, currently shooting nukes at "god" lol This is sick [Then a while later] Well that hurt
Some other points:
I can't remember if I said this during my Daybreak 2 review but I hate the hacking bits. Small issue, obviously.
I will say this now about Van. While he's not my fave protagonist, his grey area existence does allow him to exist beside Renne, Jorda and Rixia in a way that makes a lot of sense. Not that Renne is bad anymore but she's still got that darkness in her.
The streamer Enforcer is great. Ouroboros remains awesome, and it makes sense that yeah, of course they'd have a streamer among their ranks. I'm an Ouro-bro.
I find it kind of difficult to follow multiple routes because my brain is dumb but I am happy they did this because I liked a lot of the characters. My only issue is that I wish Kevin had Ries with him. I really liked her and their dynamic, and while I really don't mind having Swin and Nadia in her place because they are awesome, it would have been nice to have her be more than a one and done.
But yeah, all 3 routes are good. It's hard to pick a favourite but I did dig Kevin having to become the Heretic Hunter again. And outside of the Finale, the part where you're back in Creil seeing the aftermath of the nuke is maybe my favourite part. There have been many reflective moments in Trails though I haven't felt it as strongly in the Calvard arc until this game. And of course I love seeing some of the members of Class VII again in Rean's route.
I still love Elaine.
Though the Divine Blade of Silver, Shizuna, has really shot up the ranks of the characters in the Calvard arc too. But that started I think last game for me and only furthered here.
Soundtrack is a step up from the two prior games too.
Gameplay still kicks ass. Not much to add really that I haven't said already. One of the best turn-based systems in JRPGs, but also with the real-time stuff. Actually, there was an excellent usage of the real-time battle at the end where you are the Grendel fighting your childhood best friend (besides Elaine), Rene, who is also now a Grendel, in space. It knocks you through a portal and then you fight real-time. That was a cool moment just because the game never forces you to do that.
As always, I realize I should have taken some notes so I'd have more to say. I always start off taking a couple then I just get too invested and don't bother. But I'll say this to wrap it all up until I play the 2nd Remake after I take a little breather. Playing through Trails is one of the best game-related decisions I've ever made. I honestly didn't think I'd do it. It's kind of insane to look at this series from game one to now and see how it progressed narratively. But it's cool. It all feels organic.
The best JRPG series.
I originally tried playing this without the context of the rest of the games and I knew I did it dirty then, but I felt it deep in my bones as I played through it the whole way now. I never beat it when I tried the first playthrough because it was all just very overwhelming.
Like the best Trails endings, I sat in it for a bit. I know this will live on in my head like all the best endings I've witnessed in my life. Trails really knows how to end games. Not that every single one is a banger but when they ARE bangers, they hit so hard. Now I will talk more in-depth about it:
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 did this thing where it made you realize that while Star-Lord is the main character, the entire trilogy had really been Rocket's story. In this arc, Van has been the main character, but the arc has really been Agnes' story. And I say this as a guy who LIKES Agnes but didn't love her.
Actually, let's talk about her for a bit before I get back to the ending. As I said, I have liked her. I like her because she's so sweet and adorable, but I never felt like they gave her that much to work with as a backstory compared to the best Trails characters. Don't get me wrong, she's still a good character, it's just the bar has been set high. But it broke my heart when Van rejected her (even though I stan Elaine...), and then they throw that bit at the end again where she admits to kinda wanting to be rejected so she'd go through with her plan. So what's her plan? To erase herself from the timeline to "save" everybody. Or at least reset everything to a different time, or something. We don't know exactly yet what's going on since this is the most recent game chronologically. And during the credits, while it's showing bits from the game, you see Agnes standing at Van's door in their first meeting and then she disappears like a Thanos snap. So I repeat: I'm not crying, you're crying. But yeah, this ending rocks. The last bit is so awesome. I messaged my friend with this:
Went into space, currently shooting nukes at "god" lol This is sick [Then a while later] Well that hurt
Some other points:
I can't remember if I said this during my Daybreak 2 review but I hate the hacking bits. Small issue, obviously.
I will say this now about Van. While he's not my fave protagonist, his grey area existence does allow him to exist beside Renne, Jorda and Rixia in a way that makes a lot of sense. Not that Renne is bad anymore but she's still got that darkness in her.
The streamer Enforcer is great. Ouroboros remains awesome, and it makes sense that yeah, of course they'd have a streamer among their ranks. I'm an Ouro-bro.
I find it kind of difficult to follow multiple routes because my brain is dumb but I am happy they did this because I liked a lot of the characters. My only issue is that I wish Kevin had Ries with him. I really liked her and their dynamic, and while I really don't mind having Swin and Nadia in her place because they are awesome, it would have been nice to have her be more than a one and done.
But yeah, all 3 routes are good. It's hard to pick a favourite but I did dig Kevin having to become the Heretic Hunter again. And outside of the Finale, the part where you're back in Creil seeing the aftermath of the nuke is maybe my favourite part. There have been many reflective moments in Trails though I haven't felt it as strongly in the Calvard arc until this game. And of course I love seeing some of the members of Class VII again in Rean's route.
I still love Elaine.
Though the Divine Blade of Silver, Shizuna, has really shot up the ranks of the characters in the Calvard arc too. But that started I think last game for me and only furthered here.
Soundtrack is a step up from the two prior games too.
Gameplay still kicks ass. Not much to add really that I haven't said already. One of the best turn-based systems in JRPGs, but also with the real-time stuff. Actually, there was an excellent usage of the real-time battle at the end where you are the Grendel fighting your childhood best friend (besides Elaine), Rene, who is also now a Grendel, in space. It knocks you through a portal and then you fight real-time. That was a cool moment just because the game never forces you to do that.
As always, I realize I should have taken some notes so I'd have more to say. I always start off taking a couple then I just get too invested and don't bother. But I'll say this to wrap it all up until I play the 2nd Remake after I take a little breather. Playing through Trails is one of the best game-related decisions I've ever made. I honestly didn't think I'd do it. It's kind of insane to look at this series from game one to now and see how it progressed narratively. But it's cool. It all feels organic.
The best JRPG series.
Mini Review: A brilliant rebound from Daybreak 2 which was quite good but flawed. All 3 routes are excellent. Gameplay systems still kick ass. An emotional story and a brilliant ending. Yeah, just Trails at its best. I don't know if it's my favourite of the series but it's definitely a 10/10 like some other ones.
Watch the Trailer