The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond The Horizon PS5 Review. It’s been over twenty years since the start of the Legend of Heroes saga as we know it with Trails in the Sky. It’s taken Falcom over twenty years to finally conclude this overarching story, stretching across various countries and enough characters to fill its own gatcha game if need be.
Is Trails Beyond the Horizon the ending this near-20-year story deserves? That can only be answered on a personal level. Though the story ends here, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a continuation of the franchise. The ending will leave fans divided, for one simple reason: it ends on a cliffhanger.
The Legend of Heroes Trails Beyond The Horizon PS5 Review
A Story For The Fans
Trails Beyond the Horizon picks up right where Trails Through Daybreak 2 ends. Beyond the Horizon is not where new time players want to jump in. Even players who have skipped the Daybreak games should avoid it until they play the two previous games if they’re here for the story.
There is a lot to digest in the game’s story, and if you don’t know the major players from the Daybreak, Cold Steel, and even the Sky games, you may be lost. The game tries to keep you informed by allowing you to access information during conversations to learn key terms and people, but it’s still not enough to really grasp what’s going on without prior knowledge.
Trails Beyond the Horizon is the longest and most meaty game in the franchise, clocking in at over 70 hours to finish the campaign while avoiding all the side quests. The game, like Trails into Reverie, splits the campaign into three parts. Though you have to play through each of the three paths before moving on, you can choose which one you want to take first.
A Three-Way Party
The story is split between Van’s party from Daybreak, Rean from Cold Steel, and Kevin Graham from In the Sky. Each party has a separate story to deal with, each involving various party members met throughout the franchise. However, each story feels like a wholly separate campaign. As the story heads into its endgame, you begin to see each campaign start to converge into one big story.
Though Rean and Kevin have their own paths, this is still very much a Daybreak game and focuses mainly on Van and his group. The story is easily one of the franchise’s strongest, and it kept me hooked throughout. Some parts could have been cut.
There are parts where the story isn’t really going anywhere and feels like filler content. It also features one of the franchise’s longest and most boring openings. I spent almost seven hours just running around the city doing 4SPG’s and watching characters simply catching up with each other. In those seven hours, only about thirty minutes did I actually get to experience combat.
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
Combat has remained mostly unchanged, and that’s fine because it’s one of the best turn-based combat systems out there. The most significant improvements come to the action combat. The Daybreak games featured both turn-based and action-based combat, allowing you to do damage to an enemy before activating Shards and sending the battle into a turn-based one.
Beyond the Horizon has given you more tools to enjoy the action combat this time around. You can now slow down time and give yourself an advantage, increasing your damage. You can even unlock your potential, powering yourself up, giving you a temporary damage boost.
Turn-based combat follows the same mechanics as the last two games. You can use CP points to use abilities that have gotten some new animations, or use magic attacks using your Orbments. You can use your shards to boost your attack stats, or if you’re next to any of your party members, pull off a cool tag team attack.
Big Improvement To Exploration
The Orbment system hasn’t received any updates since the last two games, but it’s not a significant loss because it works so well; there’s really no need to improve it. You unlock slots in your character’s device and equip Quartz that provide stat boots and also unlock new magic abilities to use.
The Grim Garten has also gotten some improvements. In Daybreak 2, you can select a party from a massive cast of characters and complete dungeon runs in a virtual world.
This involved you going through a lot of uninspired locations, defeating foes, and collecting upgrades and rewards as you move from level to level until you reach the boss and complete the stage.
The Grim Garten Is A Fun Mini Game With A Lot To Offer
The Grim Garten in Beyond the Horizon has gotten a makeover now, following a virtual RPG where you select your chibi avatar to move around a grid that may have chests appear on the grid or even icons that increase your stats, and doors that lead to exploration and combat, much like in Daybreak 2.
This system is more refined and moves the game mode along at a smoother pace. One thing to note is that you can only move forward on the grid. Meaning if you choose to go up and to the left to get a chest, another chest on the right will no longer be accessible for you to acquire.
If you enter a Door on the grid, you’ll head into a dungeon floor with enemies and objectives to complete, much like you did in Daybreak 2. This time, there is a primary objective and two side objectives to complete to earn more Shards that you can then use to unlock new cosmetic costumes, music tracks, and upgrade gems for each character, which allows you to upgrade your skills.
Both The Soundtrack And Visuals Are A Hit And Miss
Visually, the game has some great combat effects and looks better overall than Daybreak 2, but some textures look bad, and it’s noticeable, especially later in the game. It’s a shame, because the visual style in the Trails in the Sky remake, released back in September, actually looks like a much better game from a graphical standpoint.
On the sound design side, Trails Beyond the Horizon is still plagued by sporadic voice acting. In the middle of a conversation, one character would find their voice, speak for three sentences, and then go silent again. It’s something that’s plagued the franchise since the Cold Steel games and should have bee addressed by now.
The voice work, when it’s there, is excellent, with everyone returning to reprise their roles. The soundtrack, though, feels weird at times. Many of the game’s tracks return from Daybreak 1 & 2, while some new tracks are significantly electronic and almost techno-like. It’s a massive departure in places, and to be honest, I wasn’t a fan.
Trails Beyond the Horizon is a fitting end to a story that’s been going on for almost 20 years, though it doesn’t change or add a lot from the last game. Still, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
From an excellent combat system and engaging story, those who have stuck with the franchise for this long will feel vindicated; it’s just a shame that the game feels specifically designed for players who have stuck around for 20 years rather than those who came in at the start of the Daybreak trilogy.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon is now available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Review code kindly provided by PR.