The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Review

ign.com:

Ever wanted to experience the Marvel Cinematic Universe of RPGs? The Trails series is exactly that. More specifically, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is the Avengers: Endgame of RPGs. It’s the culmination of three different subseries within Trails and two decades’ worth of meticulous storytelling, easily totaling over 100 hours of gameplay time between its story, combat, and post-game activities. Despite a bloated cast of characters resulting from combining the expansive Trails series, impeccable pacing makes every event and interaction manageable. With its politically engaging story and strategically fun turn-based gameplay, it's one of the best RPGs of 2023.

Reverie is able to pack so much content in because its overarching story is split into three routes, each with a different main character. By switching between perspectives, it’s able to keep its various plot twists and revelations fresh, and I never felt like I was lingering on one particular route too long before I had to make progress on another.

Fans of the Trails series will undoubtedly recognize the first protagonist, Rean Schwarzer. I’d gotten tired of playing as Rean as the main character of the four games in the Cold Steel saga – in particular, the story around him involving some worldwide catastrophe in Cold Steel IV was messy and convoluted. However, Reverie redeems Rean by giving him a much more focused storyline for his route, and I was impressed at how cleverly it expanded on his arc from Cold Steel IV.

The second protagonist, Lloyd Bannings, surprisingly has the weakest route of the three. I immensely enjoyed the Crossbell ‌duology that he originated from; Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure tell the story of Lloyd and the Special Support