Thank you NIS America for sending us the Ultimate Edition of this game to review!

When I wrote my review for The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, I thought for sure that the Erebonia and Crossbell arcs were complete; after all, the game's ending implied that it was. It turns out that Falcom again did what they had done way back in Trails in the Sky the 3rd, and needed one more connector to the next arc, tying up loose ends once again. And after having played it, yes, I can see that not only was it necessary, but I'm glad they did it, making a truly great capstone that ties up many of the hanging threads that the last nine games left unresolved.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is the tenth title in The Legend of Heroes: Trails saga, and should absolutely be played tenth. Thankfully, we no longer have the situation we did when Cold Steel IV (game nine) was released, where an entire arc (the Crossbell duology) wasn't released in English yet. Now all nine previous, from the first Trails in the Sky to this one have all been released, so fans can enjoy them all. (The West is still a couple of games behind Japan, but at least we can play everything in order now if we wish.) And they should, because each one ties heavily into the next, and Reverie expects all players to be familiar with at minimum the events of the Cold Steel and Crossbell sagas. While there is a 'Backstory' option from the main menu, I only recommend using it to refresh your memory if you haven't played the other games in a while, not as a replacement for playing them. With that said, you can read the '3 & 9 Novel' from that screen; unless you successfully collected all of the books while playing Cold Steel IV and you remember reading it all, I would highly recommend reading that, as the story and characters from that novel play a major part in Trails into Reverie.

Note: From this point on, it may be difficult to avoid minor spoilers for previous Trails games.

Trails into Reverie takes place a few months after the conclusion of Trails of Cold Steel IV. After the events of the Great Twilight and Great War, many of the soldiers who remained were extremely unhappy with how Erebonia handled the massive military build-up and sudden withdrawal and disarmament. At the same time, Crossbell was finally in a place to declare a well-earned independence. Right as they were about to finally gain that long sought-after peace, the Ebon Defense Force shows up, seemingly shattering their dreams. Will Crossbell finally be able to get past their seemingly endless conflict? Will Erebonia and the rest of Western Zemuria finally see peace? These and other questions are what Trails into Reverie seeks to answer.

Rather than focusing on one protagonist through most of the adventure, there are three. Lloyd Bannings, Rean Schwarzer, and the mysterious 'C' each plays a major part in the story, with alternating paths where they each play their parts in their own way and place. (Trails in the Sky's Estelle and Joshua also play a part, but it's a much smaller one.) I really like how the varied experiences of each group somehow leads each to do something greater. Trails fans are really rewarded for sticking with our heroes over the years; as great as Cold Steel IV's conclusion was, we get to see them reach even greater heights in Trails into Reverie.

It's also pretty neat how the True Reverie Corridor (TRC) ties the game together. These are semi-optional (semi because while you do need to go there, how much you do is somewhat up to the player) sections that allow you to take advantage of powerful resources, craft and upgrade weapons, play mini-games, and reap many rewards. The items and other stuff you can get from the True Reverie Corridor makes the time spent there more than worth it, though if you generally dislike the combat or otherwise don't enjoy grinding in RPGs you might not have fun here. Even still, I was surprised how well the game does in making your time feel productive, even if you are just powering up in randomly-generated dungeons.

The gameplay itself is of the turn-based RPG variety, where you and your party move around in a 3D rendered game world, going from one place to another, fighting monsters that you can see in front of you. Once you engage them in battle, it goes to a turn-based battle system where you can issue orders like 'Attack', 'Crafts', which are special attacks unique to each character that cost Craft Points (CP) to execute, 'Arts', which is the in-universe quasi-scientific magic system, or use various battle items. You choose your attacks on a menu, with each face button on the controller leading to a different action. There are also link attacks, that has a real-time element to it; if you successfully link, you have just a moment to press a button to have your linked partner perform an extra attack for you. Your position on the field also matters, as some attacks affect an area of various sizes. You can move your characters, or use crafts that might affect where they are. Things like speed affect turn order, movement rate affects how far you can move to attack, and so on. There are also crafts, arts, or even items that effect all of these things.

You fight everything from simple creatures, to humans, to various magical and even supernatural opponents. Demonic opponents are included in that repertoire; there is quite a lot of variety. There is a massive roster of characters; somewhere around thirty-five, though only four to eight can be in your party at a time, with only four usable at once. Character customization includes weapons, armor, accessories, as well as orbments, which is how available arts is determined. It's a great system with plenty of depth, and combat is fast moving and quite enjoyable. The game system is for all practical purposes identical to Trails of Cold Steel III and IV, with slight tweaks to various characters' available skills and some small new additions.

In many ways, Trails into Reverie feels like a penultimate celebration of the Trails of Cold Steel game systems. Almost everything great about them is made better in some way. The character roster is bigger than ever. Characters have little ways of being celebrated, with lots of side stories, new victory quotes, and more. The level cap is way higher than any previous Trails game, and you can make characters scarily powerful. Experience is super easy to get, if you want to. Powerful loot and unlocks are just piled on in droves. Virtually any resource is easy to get in massive quantities. New items, equipment, and accessories are available to make you even more insanely powerful.

If that wasn't enough, Brave Orders are made more useful than ever, with expandable Brave Point pools, and new ways to replenish them, like United Fronts. It's kind of insane how many tools they give you; while in past games certain powerful orbments or accessories were expensive or difficult to get (there was only one in the game), there is very little that can't be gotten more of. And sometimes it makes you take advantage of all of that bounty.

In the TRC, there are many side stories, called Daydreams, which explore the recent past for many of the characters. There are also mini-games, like Pom Pom Party, Vantage Masters, and more. One of the real challenges are Trials, available after raising certain characters up to a specific level. Once you can challenge them, get ready, because especially later on, you may just need to give those characters your very best, because they can be wicked tough. I found early Trials pretty easy, but late ones took quite a lot to get through. I found myself using items that I almost never used in previous Cold Steel games, like those 'revive all party members' or 'give me more Brave Points' items, because I just wasn't going to make it otherwise.

Outside of the quite enjoyable TRC challenges, the story itself is a bit harder to follow at times, but I still enjoyed it immensely. I don't know that the highest points quite live up to the best story moments in the series, but I never felt let down or bored. That Trails into Reverie has a proper post-game, with things to conquer after the main story concludes, was also nice. Even though you might have seen the ending credits, until you unlock those final Daydreams, it doesn't feel truly over. There is also a New Game+ if you wish, and some neat ways to shake up the gameplay of you choose to do so. It never wants for something else to do if you wish, and I found that this was one of the longest games in the series for me, though not as long as Cold Steel IV. My Steam library says 180 hours, while the time of my save says 165 hours. And this was with heavy use of the turbo/fast forward button. Either way, there is a ton to do, and if you like long RPGs, you won't be disappointed. But if you don't, well, it might be best to avoid this series, even if they are some of my favorites. Most long-time fans probably don't need a review to keep up with the latest installments, as none of the ten and counting games in the Trails series are bad, and all tell a continuous and still-growing story tying all of them together.

With that out of the way, I suppose I should mention that the graphics are good - acceptable, even - but not amazing. The PC version's upgrades help - a lot - but the art assets are what they are. They are largely similar to what Trails of Cold Steel III and IV offered, though you do get to visit some new areas. The game engine itself, though, is certainly starting to show its age. As usual, the voice acting and music is still excellent, though I did see the occasional localization bug, mostly in item descriptions. For example, one item shows a strength bonus of +1600, when it should be only +160. Still powerful, but not quite the same!

It should probably be said that deciding to get into this series is a huge investment. While this game is a great epilogue to the series thus far, there are more games already released in Japan, and not yet localized. Even if we decide that long, story-driven RPGs are an adventure worth having, and I agree with that, there are still nine games to play before this one, and only PC has all of them available.

Is it worth it? I would say yes - but not everyone has the time for long, deep stories like this. There is a strong sense of optimism that also runs throughout the series, including the 'power of friendship' trope - it certainly doesn't bother me, but if you're not a fan, perhaps these games aren't for you.

From a technical point of view, the PC version, as heavily enhanced by PH3 GmbH, is most certainly the best version of this game available. Resolution and frame rates can be customized, as can the aspect ratio. Steam Deck is supported, with Verified compatibility. I played over half of this game on my Linux install, so stability there is excellent. If you have a lower-end PC, you might have trouble if it's much weaker than a Steam Deck, but if it meets that criteria, I expect you should be able to enjoy what this game has to offer.

Like other PH3 ports, this PC version looks better than all consoles, and likely always will outside of some future remake. This offers the sharpest, most detailed version of the game possible, utilizing the original art assets. The filtering, shadows, precise detail and sharpest edges all look wonderful. And, if you don't have a high-end gaming rig, you can easily sacrifice resolution, anti-aliasing, shadows, or post-processing to make the game use far less system resources. It's a very well optimized PC version, and highly recommended.

On top of making it look great, there is also controller flexibility. You can choose the controller gamepad icons - from the original's DualShock icons, to the Stadia controller, the Switch controllers, or Xbox controller icons. There is also keyboard and mouse controls, and the on-screen button prompts will match those, too. You can also remap buttons, keys, and whatever else you like to your heart's content. There is also a configurable High-Speed mode, where you can zoom through any slow part of the game. On this PC version, you can configure the speedup, from 2x to 6x faster. You can also automatically load the last save without having to see the main menu if you like. This PC version, like with previous ones, is the definitive way to play these games.

There is a virtual reality (VR) mode in a few places. Primarily, it's part of a mini-game on the beach, where you can talk to one of the many females wearing their bathing suits. There is also a '2D' version of this mini-game. It's kind of silly, and you can 'observe' their cleavage if you wish, and they react to this. There is also a model viewer, which is a bit nicer, because you can see not only the characters but their environment. The PC version likely has the best VR experience, because it reportedly only otherwise works on the PS4's PSVR, rather than on PS5's PSVR2, which is known to be much better than what was offered on PS4. On my HP Reverb G2, it looked pretty good, though it had some odd quirks. Unfortunately, with Microsoft abandoning the Windows Mixed Reality platform that the Reverb G2 uses, I'm not optimistic those quirks are going to be addressed.

As is often the case with this series, it's not without significant moral concerns. Of course, if you listened to my spoiler warnings, you've already played the entire series before reading this, so I probably don't need to tell you what to expect. Nevertheless, there is quite a bit to cover.

It's worth noting that Trails into Reverie is a bit different in one key area: there is less romance. You can import your save from previous games, and choose who you romanced in Trails to Azure and Trails of Cold Steel IV, but there are no new bonding scenes. You can flirt with every available girl in the beach mini-game, even if you didn't 'pick' them, and some of the chats can be a bit suggestive, but it stops there. On the other hand, there are mixed bathing scenes, where they all share an open air bath. Everyone wears a towel. Some outfits have tons of cleavage, while others wear quite short skirts. There are rare underwear shots, but it's not common. One humanoid creature has a tail when in human form but no obvious underwear with their rather unusual outfit, though everything important is still covered. Girly magazines and even posters make their return.

There is a women who strongly prefers women, and is known for her inappropriate antics. There is a romance writer, who specializes in male/male romance novels. Several of the other girls also make known their love for these male/male romance stories, and it's a long-running gag of the Cold Steel series. There is also a man who seems to be homosexual or at least bisexual, with a few statements strongly hinting that, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as the homosexual woman.

There is fantasy violence, as expected in RPG games, along with occasional blood, in certain cutscenes in particular. There is PG-13 level language, with examples like 'd*mn', 'a*s', 'h*ll', 'b*tch', and 'sh*t'. I wouldn't say foul language is particularly common, but it's there.

Magic and spells are present, though most come in the form of the quasi-scientific power called orbments, that powers both modern conveniences like cars and motorcycles, as well as magical effects. There is a significant presence of witchcraft-style magic, as a prominent character and her hidden clan of witches can cast spells through magical sayings. With some spells, hexagrams are prominently displayed, while a small number of attacks also show pentagrams. Religion is still primarily the Catholic-like Septian Church, where they worship a monotheistic goddess named Aidios. Spiritual forces, curses, ancient demon-like creatures and more also play a large part in the story.

Alcohol use is present. You see several adults enjoying alcohol at various times. Gambling is present and even performed by the player, in casinos where the player can take part in Blackjack and Poker in exchange for credits if you win.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is an amazing epilogue to the Trails series that we've gotten to enjoy so far. While often my favorite Trails game tends to be the last one I played, this one of the better ones. I love the new characters and how they set up for the next arc, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. I also love how Reverie lets you take the Cold Steel game systems to the extreme, letting you make and test your mettle with whichever characters you want to. It's a ton of fun to max everyone out, and if I had the time, I'd probably play New Game+, since they made this game so much fun. There is far less 'fluff' and much more 'meat' compared to some other titles in this series. The story is really engaging, and I love to see how they grew the characters even more.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails series has some of the best world building, story, and characters in all of video games. If you are already a Trails fan, then you will be pleased with Trails into Reverie. If this review makes you curious about the series, and the many appropriateness issues don't push you off (which is completely understandable; there are many) then please don't start with this game. We have reviewed the rest of the series, so please enter 'The Legend of Heroes' into our search bar to see them all. If you are wondering if I recommend it, as a long-time Trails fan, yes, absolutely.