Trails into Reverie Review (PS5) | Push Square

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Trails into Reverie is essentially an epilogue to the Trails of Cold Steel series. It brings every character — and we mean every character — back for one last hurrah as yet another threat casts a shadow over the continent of Zemuria. Just to get it out of the way: if you haven't played through the four Cold Steel games, as well as the two Crossbell titles (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure), then we'd say Reverie is pretty much impenetrable.

Telling someone to play through at least six lengthy RPGs just so they can understand what's going on in the latest game is obviously taking the piss, but as we've said before, the deeply interconnected world of the Trails franchise is its greatest asset. For those players who have stuck around and immersed themselves in the many adventures of Lloyd Bannings and Rean Schwarzer, Reverie is a glorious celebration.

It's also a very unique Trails title in that its story is told through three distinct 'routes', each one focusing on a specific character or group. The first two star the aforementioned protagonists, as they're torn away from their now relatively normal lives and tasked once again with beating the bad guys. In some ways, both Lloyd and Rean's routes feel like retreads of concepts and story beats that were already dealt with in previous games — but there's just enough energy and action to their tales that simply seeing everyone team up again makes for an entertaining journey.

It's actually the third route that steals the show. It follows several new characters who underpin the overall plot, but what makes this party so intriguing is that they're not your typical heroes. They're led by the masked and mysterious C, whose goals seem to clash with the good guy antics of the