CSX
Bio
Also CSX on Resetera. Will post reviews once in a blue moon :)
Also occasionally stream as CSX142857 on Twitch.
Also CSX on Resetera. Will post reviews once in a blue moon :)
Also occasionally stream as CSX142857 on Twitch.
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Shreked
Found the secret ogre page
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Played in 2024
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Update (12/2023) : Minor editing. Content still the same
This review also doubles as a personal love letter to the series. TLDR - I cried and it's my GOTY 2023 :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After three long years, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is finally out in the West. This entry acts as the grand finale of the last two story arcs, composed of the previous six games, and symbolizes the end of the first half of the entire story that began with Trails in the Sky 1 which originally released almost 20 years ago. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way:
This game does little to none when it comes to helping newcomers with the story. If you’re new to Trails, stay FAR away or you’ll be making the same confused faces as the new characters introduced in this game whenever they see past characters reference events in the previous story arcs. Managing the equipment of 30+ playable characters gets exhausting and the eye rolling anime tropes from earlier games are all still there. The minigames are also on the dumb side of things.
But worst of all are the numerous mistakes and bugs in the localization. There are instances of characters saying the wrong voiced lines in battle, the incorrect proper noun used in dialogue (Jusis instead of Rufus, Calvard instead of Crossbell), spelling and grammar mistakes, and skills and item descriptions being incorrect. If you play only through the main story and keep the difficulty at normal or lower, you’ll experience these errors at a minimum. However, one of Trails’ most defining aspects is the amount of writing and attention to detail it gives to characters outside of the main cast. Every NPC from the retired couple living in the apartment nearby to the junior chef working at a popular restaurant has their own individual storyline that advances for each inch you progress in the main story. Many of the NPCs in Reverie were NPCs back when the series was still 2D and getting to see where they are now in life since the events of the earlier games brings joy to those that have been with the series since the beginning. It makes the world feel so alive knowing that these everyday characters are living their own lives and always have something new to say after completing the next story objective or sidequest. Unfortunately, the dialogue from these NPCs is where most of these typos and grammar mistakes are found. A good chunk of Trails players go out of their way to talk to every NPC so these mistakes are a detriment to the unique experience that the series has since the first game. This is something that NISA really needs to work on as they continue to be the English publisher for this series, and I hope that they fix this with patches in the near future.
But from here on out, it’s complete praise. I laughed, cried, squealed, screamed, smiled, eyes popped open, etc. I went through an entire range of emotions during my time with this game all because it gave me another opportunity to be in this wonderful world with a cast I’ve been in love with for the past seven years. Nearly every major story character from all the previous story arcs makes a physical appearance in this game with the rest being either referenced or mentioned at least once throughout the events of this game. Getting to see these characters have their heroic moments and having banter with each other brings humor, excitement, and engagement in the current story events because of the legacies and backstories they built from the earlier games. And yet somehow, even with these established characters already being fan favorites, they are topped by the new characters introduced in this entry of the series. Nadia and Swin are child assassins first introduced in a collectible in-game novel from the last game, Cold Steel 4. Their fates intertwine with Lapis, a talking doll, and a mysterious masked person going by the name “C”. This group of four make up one of the three story routes in the game with the other two routes being headed by Rean and Lloyd, the protagonists of the Cold Steel and Crossbell story arcs respectively.
The Trails’ signature brand of quality character development has always been phenomenal with small casts and it’s no different with C’s group. The relationships they build with each other, the conversations they have, and the events they go through together as their route intertwines with the other two all combine to make them another group of characters you’ll come to love in the Trails series. It’s a shame that their route is the shortest out of the three.
Nevertheless, the three-route system and the ability to jump between them at almost any point greatly improves the series’ continuous problem with pacing. Although I ultimately loved my time with Cold Steel 4, the game felt to me thirty dungeons too long and at multiple times pushed me with how much fighting or dungeon crawling I had to do to advance to the next major story event. With Reverie, I never had this issue thanks to always learning or seeing something new through the eyes of different groups of characters. While fixing this issue, Reverie maintains the positive sides of the series’ storytelling. The numerous callbacks to previous games, amazing character development and relationship building for both old and new characters, continuing storylines of NPCs, interesting plot buildup, the big revelations, continuous lore and world building, the attention to detail, references and minor story setups for future story arcs if you pay enough attention, the wonderful banter between the humongous cast inside and outside of the main story, it’s all there.
It's extremely hard writing this without mentioning major story details to avoid spoilers. But I will say this: the moment that all three routes converge together led to endless hours of me screaming, crying, yelling “OMFG!” to the events I saw on screen and the crazy plot revelations being revealed. Sure, I was doing this for most of the game but when “that” sequence happened, I was literally jumping out of my seat!
And then I finally hit credits. During the final hours, my excitement was at an all-time high but at the same time, there was a bittersweet feeling lingering in the back of my mind knowing that this final grand adventure with these characters was coming soon to an end. When the first lines of credits appeared on screen, tears came out. It was finally time to say goodbye to these characters from the world of Zemuria. Sure, there is a special dungeon and post-game content containing special story scenarios. These events act as fanservice, help to explain various events that happened between the stories of Reverie and Cold Steel 4, give attention to other characters that didn’t have major roles in the main story of Reverie, and/or provide a glimpse into the next story arc. But ultimately, this will be the final time these characters will be in the spotlight of this phenomenal series.
As I tried to simultaneously wipe my tears and view the illustrations in the credits, my mind started to go down memory lane. From my time in Liberl with Estelle and Joshua to overcoming every barrier in Crossbell with Lloyd and the Special Support Section to conquering the endless trials thrown at Rean and Class VII, these journeys are some of the most memorable experiences I had in video games. As I continued down memory lane, specific story moments came to mind. Estelle and Joshua returning to Rolent after reuniting, Tio’s heart to heart conversation with Lloyd about finding a purpose to live, the juxtaposition of the state of Rean’s character after the major events of Cold Steel 2 compared to his companions, the whole finale of Trails to Azure, Kevin’s “sacrifice” , the first time everyone meets up in Cold Steel 4, these are just a few of the specific events I reminisced about out of the countless unforgettable moments throughout the entire series as credits continued to roll.
Reverie solidifies how special the Trails series is to me. A few years ago, I wrote a little post about how I played too many games to have an absolute favorite or Top 10 but have an easier time listing games that are personally special to me. My example at the time was Persona 4 because even though there are aspects of the game that haven’t aged well, its story themes resonated with me during my high school years. The Trails series is special to me but for different reasons.
Throughout all my years playing games, I never had a turnaround in opinion as big and insane as I had with this series. My first experience with this series was the PSP version of Trails in the Sky 1 back in high school. I couldn’t stand it. I found it slow, repetitive, and generic, all the worst words you can describe an RPG with. I gave up early on. But in the following years after high school, I observed a fiery and passionate fanbase preaching to every gaming corner on the internet to “Go buy and play Trails!”. I proceeded to see this fanbase getting bigger and bigger to the point that they saved this series in the West after initial poor sales of Sky 1 stopped the release of its sequel. It wasn’t until the slow summer of 2016 that I decided to buy Sky 1 on PC and gave it another shot.
And then it all clicked. I found Estelle and Joshua to be charming characters. I found the “laid back” attitude of the story to connect with me so well because it made me feel like I was journeying the nation of Liberl alongside these two, learning more and more about the history, politics, and people of their home country alongside them. My mind was completely blown with the amount of writing the game gave to the NPCs. Every single character I could talk to from the villager to the soldier guarding the nearby gate had their own unique names, personalities, and storylines. It made the world feel so alive not through realistic graphics but showing that every human being you can meet and talk to were living their own lives. Even though the gameplay was still slow and outdated (the original version was released in 2004 and was designed to run on low-end PCs of that era), the story kept me pushing till the end. I loved the main characters too much to give up and the world building and lore was all interesting. And then I arrived at the infamous ending of Sky 1. I still remember the night when I saw the ending. It was 2AM and I was having an intense internal conflict deciding between going to bed or immediately starting the sequel.
The moment I decided to start the sequel in the middle of the night was when I officially became obsessed with this series. That year, I finished all the Trails games that were currently available in English, Sky 1, Sky 2, Cold Steel 1, and Cold Steel 2. The attention to detail, the amazing lore and world building, the volume of dialogue given to every character and NPC and the consistency with it, the way characters are built up and developed throughout the beginning before the big plot twists and revelations drop, the detailed diversity and backstories and politics of each individual nation in the world of Zemuria that affects each story arc, etc. I’m amazed at what this series does and to top it all off, there is ONE GRAND STORY being told that links all these story arcs together. There is no “cheating” with huge timeskips and completely different settings/universes that long running video games do with their sequels. Every story arc happens a year apart from each other and takes place in neighboring nations. As a result, the events of previous story arcs can directly affect the current and characters/organizations from earlier games making appearances, even if minor, can potentially bring major plot implications. It’s a type of story experience generally reserved for books, and the fact that a video game series is doing this and pulling it off speaks volumes of how special Trails is.
This series brings out a child-like media obsession from me. It’s the movie that’s watched on repeat for hours on end. It’s the book series that’s easy to daydream and self-insert yourself into. It’s the weekend TV show you make sure to drop everything for. It’s the album on endless repeat in the background. I never thought I could fall in love with a piece of media like this since becoming an adult and graduating from college. As the years go by and I find my time and interest in video games waning bit by bit, I told myself that if I ever lost complete interest in games, I would make an exception for Trails. It’s the one series whose story I need to see through to the end.
If we follow the original Japanese release dates, it took Falcom 16 years to reach the halfway point in this series with Reverie. They are on record saying that they plan to pump out games faster so that it wouldn’t take as long to finish the latter half of the series. But with how long it takes for these games to come out in English, I wouldn’t be surprised that it would still take 15-20 years for us to see the remaining story arcs Falcom has planned for this series. I sincerely hope I live long enough to see this series through to the end. I can already vision it…a middle aged me, balding, slightly chubbier (hopefully), bawling deeply into a box of tissues after hitting credits in the final game of the series. I’ll be crying not because the ending is sad or anything like that. I have no idea how they plan to end this series. But I know that regardless if Falcom lands the ending or not, it will all be bittersweet because it will signal that my time in Zemuria has come to an end. It’s a world that I have come to love and know so much with countless endearing characters whose stories I deeply enjoyed. Who would have thought that a video game series with one of the most generic titles ever could capture my heart like this?!
As the young kids would say, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is “peak fiction”. In the year that has a new Fire Emblem, a new Zelda, Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo 4, and much more to come, Reverie has and will personally top them all for me. Even with its major issues with the localization and the fact that it’s nowhere nice for newcomers, I can’t help but say it is my Game of the Year for 2023. Thank you Falcom for giving me one last incredible ride with these unforgettable characters.
Score: 10/10
This review also doubles as a personal love letter to the series. TLDR - I cried and it's my GOTY 2023 :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After three long years, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is finally out in the West. This entry acts as the grand finale of the last two story arcs, composed of the previous six games, and symbolizes the end of the first half of the entire story that began with Trails in the Sky 1 which originally released almost 20 years ago. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way:
This game does little to none when it comes to helping newcomers with the story. If you’re new to Trails, stay FAR away or you’ll be making the same confused faces as the new characters introduced in this game whenever they see past characters reference events in the previous story arcs. Managing the equipment of 30+ playable characters gets exhausting and the eye rolling anime tropes from earlier games are all still there. The minigames are also on the dumb side of things.
But worst of all are the numerous mistakes and bugs in the localization. There are instances of characters saying the wrong voiced lines in battle, the incorrect proper noun used in dialogue (Jusis instead of Rufus, Calvard instead of Crossbell), spelling and grammar mistakes, and skills and item descriptions being incorrect. If you play only through the main story and keep the difficulty at normal or lower, you’ll experience these errors at a minimum. However, one of Trails’ most defining aspects is the amount of writing and attention to detail it gives to characters outside of the main cast. Every NPC from the retired couple living in the apartment nearby to the junior chef working at a popular restaurant has their own individual storyline that advances for each inch you progress in the main story. Many of the NPCs in Reverie were NPCs back when the series was still 2D and getting to see where they are now in life since the events of the earlier games brings joy to those that have been with the series since the beginning. It makes the world feel so alive knowing that these everyday characters are living their own lives and always have something new to say after completing the next story objective or sidequest. Unfortunately, the dialogue from these NPCs is where most of these typos and grammar mistakes are found. A good chunk of Trails players go out of their way to talk to every NPC so these mistakes are a detriment to the unique experience that the series has since the first game. This is something that NISA really needs to work on as they continue to be the English publisher for this series, and I hope that they fix this with patches in the near future.
But from here on out, it’s complete praise. I laughed, cried, squealed, screamed, smiled, eyes popped open, etc. I went through an entire range of emotions during my time with this game all because it gave me another opportunity to be in this wonderful world with a cast I’ve been in love with for the past seven years. Nearly every major story character from all the previous story arcs makes a physical appearance in this game with the rest being either referenced or mentioned at least once throughout the events of this game. Getting to see these characters have their heroic moments and having banter with each other brings humor, excitement, and engagement in the current story events because of the legacies and backstories they built from the earlier games. And yet somehow, even with these established characters already being fan favorites, they are topped by the new characters introduced in this entry of the series. Nadia and Swin are child assassins first introduced in a collectible in-game novel from the last game, Cold Steel 4. Their fates intertwine with Lapis, a talking doll, and a mysterious masked person going by the name “C”. This group of four make up one of the three story routes in the game with the other two routes being headed by Rean and Lloyd, the protagonists of the Cold Steel and Crossbell story arcs respectively.
The Trails’ signature brand of quality character development has always been phenomenal with small casts and it’s no different with C’s group. The relationships they build with each other, the conversations they have, and the events they go through together as their route intertwines with the other two all combine to make them another group of characters you’ll come to love in the Trails series. It’s a shame that their route is the shortest out of the three.
Nevertheless, the three-route system and the ability to jump between them at almost any point greatly improves the series’ continuous problem with pacing. Although I ultimately loved my time with Cold Steel 4, the game felt to me thirty dungeons too long and at multiple times pushed me with how much fighting or dungeon crawling I had to do to advance to the next major story event. With Reverie, I never had this issue thanks to always learning or seeing something new through the eyes of different groups of characters. While fixing this issue, Reverie maintains the positive sides of the series’ storytelling. The numerous callbacks to previous games, amazing character development and relationship building for both old and new characters, continuing storylines of NPCs, interesting plot buildup, the big revelations, continuous lore and world building, the attention to detail, references and minor story setups for future story arcs if you pay enough attention, the wonderful banter between the humongous cast inside and outside of the main story, it’s all there.
It's extremely hard writing this without mentioning major story details to avoid spoilers. But I will say this: the moment that all three routes converge together led to endless hours of me screaming, crying, yelling “OMFG!” to the events I saw on screen and the crazy plot revelations being revealed. Sure, I was doing this for most of the game but when “that” sequence happened, I was literally jumping out of my seat!
And then I finally hit credits. During the final hours, my excitement was at an all-time high but at the same time, there was a bittersweet feeling lingering in the back of my mind knowing that this final grand adventure with these characters was coming soon to an end. When the first lines of credits appeared on screen, tears came out. It was finally time to say goodbye to these characters from the world of Zemuria. Sure, there is a special dungeon and post-game content containing special story scenarios. These events act as fanservice, help to explain various events that happened between the stories of Reverie and Cold Steel 4, give attention to other characters that didn’t have major roles in the main story of Reverie, and/or provide a glimpse into the next story arc. But ultimately, this will be the final time these characters will be in the spotlight of this phenomenal series.
As I tried to simultaneously wipe my tears and view the illustrations in the credits, my mind started to go down memory lane. From my time in Liberl with Estelle and Joshua to overcoming every barrier in Crossbell with Lloyd and the Special Support Section to conquering the endless trials thrown at Rean and Class VII, these journeys are some of the most memorable experiences I had in video games. As I continued down memory lane, specific story moments came to mind. Estelle and Joshua returning to Rolent after reuniting, Tio’s heart to heart conversation with Lloyd about finding a purpose to live, the juxtaposition of the state of Rean’s character after the major events of Cold Steel 2 compared to his companions, the whole finale of Trails to Azure, Kevin’s “sacrifice” , the first time everyone meets up in Cold Steel 4, these are just a few of the specific events I reminisced about out of the countless unforgettable moments throughout the entire series as credits continued to roll.
Reverie solidifies how special the Trails series is to me. A few years ago, I wrote a little post about how I played too many games to have an absolute favorite or Top 10 but have an easier time listing games that are personally special to me. My example at the time was Persona 4 because even though there are aspects of the game that haven’t aged well, its story themes resonated with me during my high school years. The Trails series is special to me but for different reasons.
Throughout all my years playing games, I never had a turnaround in opinion as big and insane as I had with this series. My first experience with this series was the PSP version of Trails in the Sky 1 back in high school. I couldn’t stand it. I found it slow, repetitive, and generic, all the worst words you can describe an RPG with. I gave up early on. But in the following years after high school, I observed a fiery and passionate fanbase preaching to every gaming corner on the internet to “Go buy and play Trails!”. I proceeded to see this fanbase getting bigger and bigger to the point that they saved this series in the West after initial poor sales of Sky 1 stopped the release of its sequel. It wasn’t until the slow summer of 2016 that I decided to buy Sky 1 on PC and gave it another shot.
And then it all clicked. I found Estelle and Joshua to be charming characters. I found the “laid back” attitude of the story to connect with me so well because it made me feel like I was journeying the nation of Liberl alongside these two, learning more and more about the history, politics, and people of their home country alongside them. My mind was completely blown with the amount of writing the game gave to the NPCs. Every single character I could talk to from the villager to the soldier guarding the nearby gate had their own unique names, personalities, and storylines. It made the world feel so alive not through realistic graphics but showing that every human being you can meet and talk to were living their own lives. Even though the gameplay was still slow and outdated (the original version was released in 2004 and was designed to run on low-end PCs of that era), the story kept me pushing till the end. I loved the main characters too much to give up and the world building and lore was all interesting. And then I arrived at the infamous ending of Sky 1. I still remember the night when I saw the ending. It was 2AM and I was having an intense internal conflict deciding between going to bed or immediately starting the sequel.
The moment I decided to start the sequel in the middle of the night was when I officially became obsessed with this series. That year, I finished all the Trails games that were currently available in English, Sky 1, Sky 2, Cold Steel 1, and Cold Steel 2. The attention to detail, the amazing lore and world building, the volume of dialogue given to every character and NPC and the consistency with it, the way characters are built up and developed throughout the beginning before the big plot twists and revelations drop, the detailed diversity and backstories and politics of each individual nation in the world of Zemuria that affects each story arc, etc. I’m amazed at what this series does and to top it all off, there is ONE GRAND STORY being told that links all these story arcs together. There is no “cheating” with huge timeskips and completely different settings/universes that long running video games do with their sequels. Every story arc happens a year apart from each other and takes place in neighboring nations. As a result, the events of previous story arcs can directly affect the current and characters/organizations from earlier games making appearances, even if minor, can potentially bring major plot implications. It’s a type of story experience generally reserved for books, and the fact that a video game series is doing this and pulling it off speaks volumes of how special Trails is.
This series brings out a child-like media obsession from me. It’s the movie that’s watched on repeat for hours on end. It’s the book series that’s easy to daydream and self-insert yourself into. It’s the weekend TV show you make sure to drop everything for. It’s the album on endless repeat in the background. I never thought I could fall in love with a piece of media like this since becoming an adult and graduating from college. As the years go by and I find my time and interest in video games waning bit by bit, I told myself that if I ever lost complete interest in games, I would make an exception for Trails. It’s the one series whose story I need to see through to the end.
If we follow the original Japanese release dates, it took Falcom 16 years to reach the halfway point in this series with Reverie. They are on record saying that they plan to pump out games faster so that it wouldn’t take as long to finish the latter half of the series. But with how long it takes for these games to come out in English, I wouldn’t be surprised that it would still take 15-20 years for us to see the remaining story arcs Falcom has planned for this series. I sincerely hope I live long enough to see this series through to the end. I can already vision it…a middle aged me, balding, slightly chubbier (hopefully), bawling deeply into a box of tissues after hitting credits in the final game of the series. I’ll be crying not because the ending is sad or anything like that. I have no idea how they plan to end this series. But I know that regardless if Falcom lands the ending or not, it will all be bittersweet because it will signal that my time in Zemuria has come to an end. It’s a world that I have come to love and know so much with countless endearing characters whose stories I deeply enjoyed. Who would have thought that a video game series with one of the most generic titles ever could capture my heart like this?!
As the young kids would say, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is “peak fiction”. In the year that has a new Fire Emblem, a new Zelda, Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo 4, and much more to come, Reverie has and will personally top them all for me. Even with its major issues with the localization and the fact that it’s nowhere nice for newcomers, I can’t help but say it is my Game of the Year for 2023. Thank you Falcom for giving me one last incredible ride with these unforgettable characters.
Score: 10/10