The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon

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104 hours

2

It's been 3,000 years. For months, I read all over Twitter and Reddit about people hyping up this game, but at the time, it was still exclusive to Japan. Now that I've finally played it, I can see what all the hype is about. To preface this right away, do NOT play this as your first Trails game. Similar to Reverie, this game heavily expects you to already know things from past games, especially since this the third game in an arc.

If Daybreak 1 was an introduction to Calvard and the Arkride Solutions crew and Daybreak 2 was a more character focused story that let the main narrative take a bit of a back seat for a while until the finale, I would classify Horizon as the polar opposite of Daybreak 2, a game where the main narrative is front and center. Not only are returning characters back like our favorite onion priest, Kevin, and Mr. Cold Steel himself, Rean, a bit of information brought up during Cold Steel IV's final chapter gets more limelight here.

Now, before going on about the plot, let's go on about gameplay. A lot is still the same as the last two outings of Calvard, but thankfully, S-Crafts now only need 1 Boost Gauge again. They still require a cooldown after using one, but using 1 Boost lasts less time than two. A few new Shard Skills got added and I feel like the Guardian skills got their requirements altered in this game, but don't quote me on that. New features, however, are always nice to have. First is ZOC, which temporarily slows down time and lets you do more damage to enemies in field combat. It can also be used to get 2 actions in Command Battle, which is useful for setting up an art and casting right away. The second thing was Awakening, where certain characters can power up and do more damage in field combat. Using this really makes melting enemies in the field easier and faster because of the increased damage.

The problem I have with Awakening, though, is that only certain characters have access to it. It creates a bias of "use this character over this one because Awakening is useful." More on this later. The last thing is an old mechanic revamped. Remember Brave Orders from the latter half of Cold Steel? Well, they're back, and about as fair and balanced as always. One thing I do like about the system that Cold Steel didn't do is when an enemy shuts down your Shard Command, you can rewrite theirs by setting up a new one, with an additional cost. Where the system falls apart into "fair and balanced" territory is with two specific Shard Commands, Gordias Guard and Ultimate Wind.

Gordias Guard amps up your defenses for 8 turns, and makes your party so tanky they can endure even lategame S-Crafts with ease. Ultimate Wind, however, basically shatters all game balance entirely. Sure, it's locked to a connect event, but we'll put a pin in that. However, it lowers delay enough to turn casters into infinite turn nukes that barely let the enemy get a turn most of the time. I used this on numerous fights, including the final boss, and he only got about 2 turns in. These two Shard Commands are likely going to be nerfed to oblivion in the next game.

(Somewhat) back by not any popular demand is the Garten, this time in dark castle mode. Unlike the Marchen Garten last game, this place is somewhat optional, but there is a sort of plot going on, which in a way does tie into the main plot. I did like it a bit more than the Marchen Garten, but the last Garten kinda sucked, so that's not a very high bar to clear. You can also now view unseen Connect Events, so there's now no excuse for not seeing all of them, but why not make this a feature sooner? It's also the place where you have more party freedom...in which let's address that part.

Similar to Reverie, this game does the "3 protagonists" thing again, between Van, Rean, and Kevin. I do feel like Rean and Kevin got most of the main limelight when it came to big revelations in their stories compared to parts of Van, which do feel a bit slow. Namely Van Route 1 and 4. The three plots don't feel too connected until the end, but part of that is probably because each party is doing their own thing. I will admit, there were parts of Van's routes that weren't the most interesting thing ever. A certain moment of Van Route 3 is a big highlight, and I feel that moment was given the seriousness it deserved.

But then it happens. The parts where the game decides to go all in, and it is amazing. The way things come together in the end had me drawn in, especially in the last couple of hours when the big twist happens, and then there's that ending. I don't want to spoil the ending, because I think it's something that needs to be experienced firsthand. I am curious as to how the crew is supposed to win this one, though.

But at the time of typing this, we have no knowledge of the next game, not even a screenshot. It may be another year before we get some answers about what's going to happen in "Van's Final Episode." We've had (more or less) three games worth of setup, and while there is some payoff for the long term quest we've spent the past two games on, how will this end? When that time comes, I'm hoping we get a satisfactory conclusion.

BEST. KISEKI. GAME.