This was the first Trails game I played almost a year ago now and it was an instant classic for me and the start of my obsession with this series which has since become my all time favorite series.
Below is my review of the game back when I first played it.
I adored everything about this game, from the very fun turn-based/tactical combat, to the customizable battle orbment system which acts a lot like Final Fantasy VII's materia system, to the Persona/Fire Emblem styled bonding system, the beautiful soundtrack, strong voice acting and vibrant level design. I loved everything.
However the true draw of the game is the absolutely baffling detail in the worldbuilding, story and characters. I can't think of many games (Especially J-RPGs) that go to the lengths of making even the most minor NPCs have their own story arcs, daily problems and distinctive personalities that all get fleshed out during the course of the game if you decide to talk to them multiple times at different parts of the story and that's not even mentioning the sheer depth of the major militaristic politics and governmental affairs surrounding the entire story, seriously I haven't been blown away by such attention to detail in a game this much in years. The world just feels so alive and realistic.
Also the actual story itself was incredibly well written, dark and mature and kept me captivated from start to finish too, I can see how the first couple chapters might seem slow to some, but I was so enthralled by the world that I didn't mind and the build-up really made the later events that much more impactful. There were some truly great plot twists I really never saw coming, but once all was said and done, made perfect sense and it ended on one of the most insane cliffhangers ever too. The game really felt like watching an entire first season of an anime in the best way possible.
The characters themselves were all great too. In the beginning most start out very trope-y, but as the game goes on almost everyone has a fantastic amount of development and really start to feel more and more like realistic humans and not just standard anime tropes and I really ended up loving them all, this is one of the most memorable and endearing casts of characters I've seen in a game in some time.
All in all I'm so glad I played this title because I'm so captivated by this world, story and characters I just can't wait to see what happens next and if every game in series is this great I can definitely see The Legend of Heroes becoming one of my fave series in the future. This game does everything Persona/Fire Emblem/Tales and Final Fantasy do and just as well, but on 1/4th of the budget. I very strongly recommend it to ALL J-RPG fans.
Below is my review of the game back when I first played it.
I adored everything about this game, from the very fun turn-based/tactical combat, to the customizable battle orbment system which acts a lot like Final Fantasy VII's materia system, to the Persona/Fire Emblem styled bonding system, the beautiful soundtrack, strong voice acting and vibrant level design. I loved everything.
However the true draw of the game is the absolutely baffling detail in the worldbuilding, story and characters. I can't think of many games (Especially J-RPGs) that go to the lengths of making even the most minor NPCs have their own story arcs, daily problems and distinctive personalities that all get fleshed out during the course of the game if you decide to talk to them multiple times at different parts of the story and that's not even mentioning the sheer depth of the major militaristic politics and governmental affairs surrounding the entire story, seriously I haven't been blown away by such attention to detail in a game this much in years. The world just feels so alive and realistic.
Also the actual story itself was incredibly well written, dark and mature and kept me captivated from start to finish too, I can see how the first couple chapters might seem slow to some, but I was so enthralled by the world that I didn't mind and the build-up really made the later events that much more impactful. There were some truly great plot twists I really never saw coming, but once all was said and done, made perfect sense and it ended on one of the most insane cliffhangers ever too. The game really felt like watching an entire first season of an anime in the best way possible.
The characters themselves were all great too. In the beginning most start out very trope-y, but as the game goes on almost everyone has a fantastic amount of development and really start to feel more and more like realistic humans and not just standard anime tropes and I really ended up loving them all, this is one of the most memorable and endearing casts of characters I've seen in a game in some time.
All in all I'm so glad I played this title because I'm so captivated by this world, story and characters I just can't wait to see what happens next and if every game in series is this great I can definitely see The Legend of Heroes becoming one of my fave series in the future. This game does everything Persona/Fire Emblem/Tales and Final Fantasy do and just as well, but on 1/4th of the budget. I very strongly recommend it to ALL J-RPG fans.