Those valiantly keeping up with The Legend of Heroes: Trails series have long been anticipating the finale of the multi-faceted, interconnected grand saga that’s arguably Falcom’s magnum opus. As the Republic of Calvard begins preparations to journey into space (the final frontier) for the first time in Zemurian history, divergent paths intersect, and hidden truths involving reality itself come to light, setting the stage to end a saga that’s already twelve games deep. Can three different parties seeking answers come together in time to save Zemuria, or will the necessary sacrifices prove too much for them to bear? What happened in the past, what almost came to be, and what might occur in the future all come to a world-altering head in The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon.
Trails beyond the Horizon is a meaty RPG, clocking in at around 100 hours of playtime to accomplish everything the game offers. The completionist in me is loath to admit it, but due to time constraints, I missed out on Act III’s optional fishing quest. Even then, I still ended up slightly over 100 hours by completing all the other side quests and “optional” dungeon runs whenever available. It’s a massive time commitment, one that banks on prior knowledge from throughout the Trails series. Take heed: the game’s tagline, “the beginning of the end,” is intentional. It connects the differing Trails story arcs with the promise of a grand conclusion.
As such, the double-edged sword of all Trails games once more rears its head. Trails beyond the Horizon relies heavily on players understanding lore and the character moments that precede it. Playing the two Trails through Daybreak games, at least, is necessary given the story’s central emphasis on Arkride Solutions. Given the overall plot setup, one could argue that Trails beyond the Horizon is essentially the third Daybreak title. With the focus on Kevin and Rean as central protagonists, knowledge of the original Trails in the Sky trilogy and the Trails of Cold Steel games is also beneficial to players. Throw in important characters and lore from Trails into Reverie and the Crossbell duology, and you truly connect all of the differing Trails story arcs into one interconnected tale, resulting in a game that’s definitely not newcomer-friendly.
Trails beyond the Horizon splits its story into three different routes that you can choose between: Rean and his Thors Military Academy friends represent the international perspective of the situation outside of Calvard, Kevin and the Trails into Reverie gang showcase the Septian Church’s mysterious motives, and Van and the rest of the Arkride Solutions crew represent the Calvardians more personally affected by the goings on surrounding the space program. A lot of plot gets unpacked along the way, and seeing it all come together from differing perspectives is a true narrative-building delight.
That said, I found that not all routes are created equal. Everyone will have their own personal preferences for which ones are their favorites. I’m a sucker for the Daybreak games, and I love seeing those characters’ storylines in particular continue, so I was pretty biased towards Van’s route. I also find Kevin and the Trails into Reverie characters to be nuanced and memorable, so I enjoyed playing their route quite a bit, too. Sadly, this meant poor Rean was something of a third wheel by comparison. I didn’t hate his route by any means, and I adored the appearances of some of my favorite Trails of Cold Steel characters (Crow, Altina, and even clumsy engineer Mint), but I always picked his route first when available just to get it done. In Rean’s defense, I felt burnt out from him getting the lion’s share of five games’ worth of lore already. Still, perhaps getting a narrative break from Rean before his return here might have been beneficial. Truth be told, certain plot reveals involving him and how he interacts with others in the cast are even particularly well-done. But the route preferences are very much more geared towards personal tastes than anything else, so others might have very different opinions. The routes aren’t all given the same amount of playtime, with Van’s route being noticeably longer than Rean’s and Kevin’s, despite all three having significant plot reveals.
The story relies so heavily on plot twists and surprise revelations that I’d probably have to make this entire review one giant spoiler warning if I went into any more detail. Be prepared for some shocking and emotional events throughout, though! I love the main antagonist twist and how Agnes is arguably the tale’s “main hero,” given how the story develops, which I found to be quite a powerful choice on Falcom’s part. As a result, many of her story scenes are truly well-done. Despite the truly massive main party, everyone has a chance to shine during main story scenes or connection events, too. I’ll also give the game credit for handling some LGBT+ story beats with more care and sensitivity than previous games in the series. Even the twin assassin characters Jorda and Ixs, originally introduced in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II, receive much-needed depth and narrative purpose here compared to the last time we saw them, with Jorda in particular becoming a standout.
Various long-running NPC storylines built up over the Calvard games get resolved here, such as the young artist Kisara finding purpose and a place to belong, or the continuing journeys of the three Old Town flatmates as they try to figure out their own paths while holding on to their connection. While not every single Trails character makes an appearance despite the massive cast, I do love all the name drops and references to other characters. It just helps make the world feel more alive. Given just how many interesting and heartfelt narrative moments there are, I continue to be floored by the attention to detail Falcom gives everyone in this game.
Gameplay for The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon is pretty easy to pick up if you’ve played the first two Daybreak games in particular. Action RPG mechanics initiate combat out on the field when you first spot an enemy, though you can seamlessly switch to a more turn-based, strategy-oriented combat with the mere push of a controller button. Moving characters close to one another to link their attacks helps increase the damage during a turn. When an enemy is stunned, you can even wallop them further by using a shard boost when linking up character attacks for a devastating combo move. An addition for this entry is that not only can you perform a “Quick Art” magic attack to damage enemies, but also activate puzzle pieces in dungeons. Certain characters can even use a move called “Awakening” that gives them potent damage output for a short time when in action RPG mode, and you can also slow down time to give yourself an upper hand. Honestly, if anything, both turn-based and action RPG combat might play a little too smoothly or easily now, given how many varying options you can choose from, but you can still alter difficulty as needed.
Beyond the game’s main story component and the various side quests you can participate in, the optional dungeon known as the Grim Garten awaits those who want to experience more combat while also providing a key opportunity to level grind as desired. It’s relatively easy to navigate if you’ve any familiarity with the Marchen Garten of Daybreak II or the Reverie Corridor of Trails into Reverie, with further domains opening up as you progress in the main story. I refer to it as “optional” because the game does so after a certain point, but in reality, the domains that you initially clear still provide much added insight into the main plot. You also acquire memento orbs that let you further explore series lore and worldbuilding while traversing the Grim Garten domains.
You can even collect points that you can then use to witness connection events you missed out on, given the limited number you can actually see during the main story progression. You can also gather tokens to receive various outfits and items, as well as open up a hub for characters to mingle. Given the separation of party members throughout the main story routes, the Grim Garten is also one of the few times where you get to use an assembled “dream team” of party members. My personal fave combo was Shizuna, Swin, Quatre, and Elaine, with characters like Agnes, Altina, Kevin, and Renne providing reserve support, but even in the Grim Garten, character availability varies depending on story events. It’s odd that the Grim Garten’s so important, though, given that it’s technically considered optional, especially because it comes across as anything but.
Beyond a ton of sidequests and main story quests to accomplish, there’s also a variety of minigames to participate in, too. A lot of them are hit-or-miss, though. Personally, I could’ve done without the stealth one. Still, others, such as fishing or using conversation topics to draw out story reveals, are pretty entertaining. I found the hacking maze puzzle minigame particularly fun! The law, gray, and chaos alignment system from Daybreak also returns, adding an interesting layer to decision-making regarding how to resolve 4SPGs.
Graphically, Trails beyond the Horizon is easily the best-looking Trails game to date. However, a day-one patch is planned to fix some graphical hiccups. There are still cases of some NPCs clearly being triplets separated at birth or hair going through things like pillowcases, and a bizarre graphical glitch when focusing on certain female character “assets” in scenes that I just roll my eyes over, but otherwise, it’s quite a good-looking game. I love how colorful and vibrant it can be and how expressive the character models are. However, I should note that the UI can be small and busy, particularly in combat. In regard to glitches, I did run into a particularly unpleasant one in the game’s Finale, where it actually froze during a voiced story cutscene. Luckily, I was able to use the backlog to “force” the game forward, as I was already 30 minutes into a massive narrative exposition, so it wasn’t game-breaking. It was still anxiety-inducing for a few minutes before I figured out the workaround. I don’t know if that particular glitch will be addressed in the aforementioned day-one patch, so I think it is worth noting here.
This Trails entry features some phenomenal English voice acting. Quatre’s voice actor, John Patneaude, does a phenomenal job in certain scenes, and both Agnes and Jorda’s voice actors, AmaLee and Madeline Dorroh, respectively, emote incredibly throughout standout scenes. Aaron, Rean, Kevin, Van, and Lapis are other characters with standout English voice work, but everyone does a great job with their respective roles. The game’s OST is memorable and does a great job providing emotional support and nuance to pivotal moments and action sequences. I personally love the opening theme too. I also didn’t notice many script or localization errors while playing either, which is extremely impressive given the sheer amount of text in this game.
I can imagine that the ending to Trails beyond the Horizon could be divisive given what occurs, but the setup leading to it is absolutely incredible and, while it might be somewhat wishful thinking on my part, I have faith in Falcom’s potential to bring this massive saga to a satisfying conclusion. Trails beyond the Horizon is truly a massive game with an impressive amount of content and a thought-provoking storyline replete with memorable characters and powerful moments. It’s a true delight to play so long as you’re not a series newcomer. As a Trails fan, The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon has me eager to see just where this concluding story arc goes next!
