What a weird game. The first in the series since Sky 3 that doesn’t really belong to an arc proper. Actually, this game suffers from several of the same problems that Sky 3 did. It’s this weird, vestigial epilogue stapled onto the end of an arc that already had a pretty satisfying conclusion, both narratively and ludically. As a result, the game kind of has a hard time justifying its existence. It wants to spend more time with everyone in this dauntingly huge cast, but it doesn’t give any of them (with the exception of C and his party) anything interesting to do, say, or think, because all of their character arcs were completed in previous games.

Speaking of the cast, this game is also the poster child for power and scope creep. A big part of my enjoyment of RPGs comes from the characters growing stronger over the course of the game, learning new abilities that add new layers of complexity to combat. Every character in this game starts at level 100 with all their abilities already unlocked, so combat ends up feeling really stale by the end. Add onto that the fact that you’re pretty frequently switching back and forth between entirely different parties whose equipment loadouts require constant management, and you wind up with a game that just feels like a chore.

I think the game would have been so much better if the devs had simply cut out Rean and Lloyd’s completely extraneous storylines and just focused in on C and his gang. I’m hoping that the switch to a new setting and cast in the next game does just that.

Trails into Reverie is the final game of the first half of the Trails saga – which means if you have not played the first 9 (!) games here, this one won't make any sense for you. However – that journey is one of the best I ever started in my video game history and this is an insanely strong pay off for the Crossbell and Erebonia Arc.

Reverie is the best game in the Trails series in terms of story telling and pacing – because it can shine so much due to the world building and character arcs all the other games established. The main story itself is also very strong, yet I would not rank it amongst the best of the series. However it ties together a lot of loose threads and gives us amazing character development for characters that felt „unfinished“ after CS 4. It also introduces a few new characters that instantly became favourites of mine – Falcom is just that good of a developer.

The gameplay itself is very close to CS4, adding a few more tricks, but overall the same. You still have a variety of equipment and accessories, quartz, master quartz, orders and arts. There is so much you can do here and you can get lost in these RPG elements.

The game is also way more linear than other titles, which I personally enjoy, but it does take away the sense of exploration and hidden stuff, like hidden side quests etc. Due to the extremely big cast of 40+ playable characters, the story telling via 3 different routes splits those up nicely. It does get a bit chaotic at the end though.

Which is also my biggest issue with the game: All the characters are amazing story wise, but when they come together and you are tasked with creating a team of 8 it gets extremely difficult to pick a proper team. Furthermore, you will need to switch accessories and quartz around a lot, which can get annoying as there are no options to save load outs and fast re-equip them.

Overall, an amazing entry, to the best ongoing RPG series that exists – there is nothing comparable to Trails out there and everyone should try it.