The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon

[b]The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon[/b] is a game I struggled to decide whether to give a blue or red thumb. Ultimately, with how much it frustrated me on a pacing level, along with a narrative that has so much potential for its follow-up but ultimately leaves me dissatisfied, I have to opt for the red. Fans who have made the long climb from FC to this point will no doubt have clashing opinions, so let me explain where I'm coming from. I started the Trails series for the first time at the beginning of 2025 and, over roughly six months of actual playtime, completed everything from FC through Daybreak 2, with only brief breaks to sample other releases. Beyond, by contrast, took me another six months to finish. This is not because it was six months' worth of game, but because I repeatedly put it down. That contrast says more about my experience than any score I could assign. So what went wrong? Was I simply sour on the Calvard arc? Partially. I've never been fond of how Van Arkride is written as a protagonist whose importance is often communicated through "tell, don't show." We're constantly informed that he played major roles behind the scenes of earlier events, yet we rarely get to experience those moments ourselves. And yet, despite that criticism, I still enjoyed Daybreak 1 and Daybreak 2, completing them back to back. I only really struggled with Daybreak 2's infamous Act 3. If anything, I expected Beyond to win me back, because it seemed poised to do for Calvard what Sky 3rd and Reverie (two of my favorite entries) did for their respective arcs by bringing everything together. I mean, Rean Schwarzer and Kevin Graham are here. What could go wrong? Let's start with pacing. One of my biggest concerns after Daybreak 2 was that Beyond would continue interrupting its main narrative with constant distractions, and unfortunately that's exactly what happened. The Garten returns as the primary side activity, but with far motivation to re-enter it to keep it engaging. Each route opens with a map littered with side quests and mandatory conversations that boil down to what I can only describe as the "Remember me?" routine. Characters from Daybreak 1 and 2 constantly reappear, only to exchange brief pleasantries before disappearing again. Kevin and Rean's routes are especially guilty of introducing characters whose defining interaction amounts to, "Oh, I heard you once worked with Arkride." This happens over. And over. And over, again until I was numb to it before Act 1 had even concluded. To explain why this bothered me, I want to compare it to the previous Daybreak games. While those titles certainly had slower stretches, they never overstayed their welcome because there was always a sense that something exciting was just around the corner. They constantly rewarded the player's patience with meaningful story progression or memorable character moments. Beyond rarely accomplishes this, unfortunately. The entire game revolves around the three-day countdown to the rocket launch, but outside of reintroducing Ouroboros, Ixs, Professor Hamilton while introducing the Vestiges (an intriguing concept that ultimately lacks payoff here), very little of significance happens until Act 3. Even when the story finally gains momentum, it rushes through its biggest revelations, including the origins of Marduk's technology and the truth behind the time-loop concepts, only to slam straight into the credits after an underwhelming final confrontation and a last-minute betrayal that left me more confused than intrigued. Beyond also has a habit of manufacturing conflict by turning allies into temporary enemies, only to resolve those conflicts moments later. Earlier Trails games certainly did this from time to time, but here it became so frequent that many boss fights felt less like meaningful ideological clashes and more like excuses to create dream matchups. In the end, I found myself feeling that, much like the side content, the main plot itself often felt like filler. Even Rean and Kevin ultimately felt like narrative detours because their contributions never meaningfully factored into the finale. The fact that neither is even playable during the ending, a stark contrast to how previous Trails finales wove their expanded ensembles into the climax, speaks volumes. Remove either of their routes from Beyond, and very little about the ending actually changes. That's especially disappointing given how much history these characters carry and how central they seemed poised to be. I did not even cover combat, but it isn't even worth going into, because not much has changed from Daybreak 2, and the only trick the game throws at you is to artificially stretch out enemy hit points with added regen to make fights go from 5 seconds to 5 minutes, making the routine dull once you have the gear and quartz to break the systems. You will never come close to death if you have played previous Trails games, and in a lot of boss encounters it can be very easy to outright shut down a boss before they can even attack you. The final point I want to touch on is what I found to be the weakest aspect of the Calvard arc as a whole: Van and Agnés' relationship. I genuinely enjoy romance in JRPGs when it feels gradual and earned. Trails has given us some wonderful relationships over the years because they developed naturally through shared experiences. Van and Agnés never reached that point for me. Instead, the narrative constantly pushes the player toward believing this relationship is destined to happen, despite never convincing me why I should become invested in it. Van spends much of the arc emotionally unavailable, while Agnés is repeatedly described as uniquely important to the story without ever truly feeling like the heroine the narrative insists she is. So much of their relationship and, frankly, both of their character arcs, feels built on being told how important they are rather than showing us through meaningful growth. What made this especially frustrating was how often the supporting cast seemed determined to push the two together. Rather than allowing their relationship to develop naturally, the dialogue repeatedly nudges the player toward the conclusion that this is the romance we should be rooting for, even when I never felt the chemistry had earned that expectation. Ultimately, I left Beyond feeling like it consistently got in the way of its own best ideas. There are genuinely fascinating revelations here, and the finale introduces concepts that could make Horizon 2 a very interesting follow-up. But reaching those moments required pushing through so much unnecessary padding, manufactured conflict, and underdeveloped character drama that I rarely felt the momentum that made the previous twelve games so difficult to put down. I sincerely hope Horizon 2 proves me wrong. I didn't spend over a year falling in love with this franchise because of nostalgia. I became a fan because these games consistently delivered some of the strongest long-form storytelling I've experienced. Beyond is the first entry that left me feeling like I was waiting for it to become the game it clearly wanted to be.

ノーコメント *thousand-yard stare* certified "imma not big fan of government" moment of cycled history...

Однозначно одна из самых интересных игровых вселенных! А эта часть однозначно одна из лучших среди всех треилсов! Концовка конечно дерзкая, что будет дальше - неизвестно. 100% жду продолжение. Ну и конечно же жду ремейк второго ская в сентябре! Если вы не фанат jRPG (как и я, по большей части), всё равно советую к ознакомлению с этой прекрасной игровой серии игр.

First off, Kai no Kiseki is my personal least favorite Kiseki game yet. And I did not like Kuro no Kiseki 1 and 2 very much. I love this series too much to not 100% this godforsaken game and, up top, I can only hope the next one is better. Tbh, one of the biggest reasons I found I have disliked the Kuro+Kai arc as a whole is the fact that the acts and gameplay loops feel so focused in the cities that they appear in. Particularly what I mean by that is that the exploration of the regions of the cities we explore is practically nonexistent. For each city, you get to explore the cityscape and like one highway/route connected to it and then a dungeon at the end of the act. That's it. And a lot of the times the dungeon ending the act is a underground basement facility that seems cooked up in a lab to engineer creating less assets. Like I know making games is hard and expensive and it's art but like I can't help but be disappointed by this. Graphical fidelity is up but my experience is worse. Could be rose-tinted glasses for Sora/Crossbell/Sen but I definitely feel like exploration has taken a backstep in these most recent games. Also it must be mentioned it feels like basically nothing significant has happened yet in the Kuro+Kai arc. Kai no Kiseki takes place over 3 DAYS. I did find Aaron to be a more likable character here than in Kuro no Kiseki 1 and 2. And I do feel like this game has okay character writing overall, expect regarding basically all writing and lore pertaining to exactly one character: (HUGE SPOILER INCOMING WARNING) ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- Agnès is the worst character in over 20 years of Kiseki history. She is the most special girl in the world based on nothing other than who her ADOPTIVE great grand-father is and his legacy. And the fact that she was Van's first assistant maybe??? Maybe later games will explain why, but as of now, I can't see it. And the Van-Agnès shipping in this game is catastrophic. ... It is so forced it leans into absurdity, Van is a 25 year-old man in this game and he cannot tell a 16 year-old Agnès in no uncertain terms that he cannot see her as a woman. All of the characters act like this is totally cool because they don't want to step on Agnès's shoes and deny her school-girl crush. There's multiple scenes where everyone knows this 16 year-old is crushing on this 25 year-old man and he knows it too and everyone encourages it. I find this to character-assassinating on a large scale because I like every other party member here but they all lean into this bit. None of this can be organic. The Van-Agnès shipping must be so forced so that the shocking reveal in the ending can be like being slapped by a piece of sliced bread you have soaked in water for at least 5 minutes. (SUPER MEGA BIG SPOILERS AHEAD) ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- The ending of this game could be the worst of any game I will ever play. Like other people have said the time-rewinding mechanic is overused and lame and takes any stakes there might be out -- I have heard Kiseki series be described as having Saturday-morning-cartoon-style stakes and I believe this to be apt, But this ending involves Agnès and more importantly, ***her adoptive-great-grandfather's legacy*** and the secret plot she has been cooking up with some other big players and it's supposed to be tragic because time has to be reset before anyone knows how special Agnès is and Van especially will no longer remember how special Agnès is. And I just cannot be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ enough to care. None of this feels earned. Mostly because I do not find Agnès to be a compelling character. And Rean and his homies and Kevin and his crew are here just for fun lmao. This series that I really care about had me, in the final moments of this game, exclaiming, "Are we serious?" and "No ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ way (this is so stupid)" like 10 times between the two of them. I can only hope the subsequent installments will tie this whole arc in a nice bow. I do not have that much hope that it will be close to 10/10, but if it could be 5/10 on my personal scale, that would be lovely.

Сюжет не просто сдвинулся с мёртвой точки, а начал бежать. У нас тут 3 рута. Вернули Рина (слишком мало, дайте больше) и Кевина. Музыка как всегда на высоте. Коридоры из ревери никуда не делись, но стали не такие душные. Всего 9 этажей и под конец встречаем [spoiler] грандмастера [/spoiler] Концовка немного в стиле колд стил 3. Жду продолжения)

I think this was my last straw. Having played all the games up to Horizon I would have believed that the playerbase would be treated a bit better in regards to where the series is headed in terms of writing. Suprisingly I didn't dislike Daybreak 2 as much as some others did but with each game its becoming significantly more obvious that some things about the way these games are written will not change. While the gameplay has been slowly improving with each release in the Kiseki legacy, sadly the writing has taken the complete opposite approach. Not that I think that the writing in those older games was any perfect either. I am gonna be frank. it feels to me like the games are starting to become time wasters. First of all, each chapter feels the same, to the point that I dread finishing one, because I know I will have to do the whole loop of Sidequests -> Grim Garten -> Main Story Mystery -> Main Story Boss. Just when things start getting somewhat interesting, things get put on hold because either the bad guy is done "performing his experiment", teleports away, or some stupid deus ex machina happens. This is a flaw that the series has sadly carried over from the later Cold Steel entries. The intermissions end up always being my favorite chapters in these games because the main story in them feels like its trying to at least move in *some* direction. The finales sadly have not been hitting hard in a while (with the exception of Reverie). They often feel like they are written with the sole purpose of sequel baiting or trying to recreate that shock that players felt back in the Sky 1st ending. If the transition from Cold Steel 3 to Cold Steel 4 is anything to go by, even if this game ends with some crazy twist, it just takes 1 game to completely nuke all the tension and buildup from existance. Most Trails games main story can be told by just retelling 1st chapter, intermission chapter and final chapter plot points. Removing all the artificial padding in the dialogue, these games are 40 hour experiences at best. And while the length of a game does not matter what *does* matter is the fact that I am spending the other 40 hours of my life listening to people introduce themselves for the 5th time, with their full title, relationship and affiliation statuses as if I am reading a DnD lorebook. Then there is the god awful constant chatters about food and saunas. Why does the game have like a 3 paragraph dialogue box where the characters just praise tiramisu ? I really do not mind seeing the day to day of these characters. The Trails games have always been slow burns, but sometimes too much is too much. And how does seeing the day to day of these characters mean practicaly anything when there is 20+ of them ? There is no way to connect with that many, and there is not enough scenes that you can connect with only some of them in meaningful ways either. The main characters are feeling like reactionary NPC's, and they have een like that for a while. To not just list the negatives, there are some genuine things this game in particular does right: - Sidequests in the whole Calvard arc have been genuinely really good, and the addition of the new topic quests where you are given multiple choices on what to talk about is a nice change. - Connection events being unmissable is great, especially since the games have decided they are going to drop most of the character development from the main story to said connection events. - Animations are very beautiful to look at. - The boost gauge put the combat in a much healtheir state in terms of balance, while still letting you do crazy stuff if you utilize the system right. - The more mature tone on the series and the lack of normalizing sexual absue unlike Cold Steel has made me more comfortable playing these games. Tho the weird "everyone is in love with the main character" is still somewhat present. - Horizon has slowly started moving towards bosses with interesting mechanics rather than just walls of HP (Though those are still plenty present here) I could ramble on and on but I think the series has left such a bitter taste in my mouth after all the effort I put into it that I don't think I can believe the writers will be ever able to write a genuine enjoyable 60 hour experience with deep characters and an interesting story that doesn't revolve around some magical MacGuffin. Even less so now that Falcom has announced they will be trying to ship two games a year. With that kind of development cycle not only will the developers be feeling more pressure, they will also undoubtably have no time to do any sort of meaningful revisions on the dialogue. I am still glad I went through this journey. There will never anything quite like Trails in the videogame sphere for a while, but what the series has become greately saddens me.

gaolang may not have been able to fell cao lee, but a new heiyue house will come to pass nonetheless

Game 13/13 And thus I've finally caught up after 3 years of playing this series. This series has genuinely become one of my top jrpgs of all time. Reaching the peaks of my favorite series Xenoblade Chronicles. This is quite literally the One Piece of JRPGs and I can't wait to play more until they finally conclude the story of Zemuria. And man what a way to finish the series this game was. Trails Beyond the Horizon is genuinely one of the best trails games for me. This was a top 3 TRAILS GAME for me. And the way they end this game is ABSOLUTELY DEMONIC. There is a special place in hell for the writers for ending this game there. The wait for Trails Beyond the Horizon 2 will be torturous is all I can say. This game has some of the best trails plot twists and turns, character moments and dialogue, and combat system I've seen. The places this game reaches in terms of lore and plot is something I could not have guessed. Theres also the fact that they're able to connect foreshadowings and plot points ALL THE WAY from 10 games ago is absolutely crazy to me. I love how they treat Agnes, Van, and even Kevin of all people in this game. A character whom I thought would have no more story to tell is able to have another compeling facet to their character arc post Trails in the Sky 3rd. In relation to that, the 3 MC format with the 3 routes that they do here is so good. I love how the MCs have their own thing going on and almost go into conflict with each other. Its a farcry from the usual them working together for the greater good etc. I like how Rean, Van and Kevin's groups have their own struggles and goals in mind. I really loved the way they paced this game. Its such a good step up from the Daybreak 2 blunder they had. I never felt tired or even burnt out during my playthrough because the revelations and the mysteries they present in this game were pretty compeling. They made a very mid plot device in daybreak 2 very interesting in Beyond the Horizon. My only gripes in the story are the connect event portions do break the momentum of some parts of the story. I also don't like that we had more questions than answers in this game. Although this is not really a big problem and moreso a nitpick since we still have one game to go in this arc presumably. Now onto the combat, man... how do they do it. They evolved the hybrid combat yet again and SOMEHOW made the animations look better even though they're using the same engine as Daybreak 1 and 2. Its crazy how simple camera work improves some of these cutscenes. The hybrid combat itself gets another glow up with the ZOC and shard tactics function (forgot its actual name). The Awakening during action combat is also really great and makes some low level enemies faster to farm. My only gripe is quick arts still seem weak and Grim garten was still not on the same level as reverie corridor in terms of endgame variety. Another disappointing aspect for me was the mecha battles. Theres not alot in this game but the few we had looked pretty meh gameplay wise. Nice animations but i hope they put more depth in the sequel. I miss the mecha battles in cold steel arc where you can select body parts to target. Overall, highly highly recommend this series. This was 100% worth it and if you like an interconnected story with very good worldbuilding ala One Piece this is for you. I cannot wait for more PEAK and truly hope they continue the momentum and stick the landing for this arc. (once they stop focusing on the sky remakes lol).

PS4破過一次了，純粹為了艾蕾因與靜名買的，其他人千萬別浪費錢。 總結：-99分。無恥辣雞爛尾宇宙神遊： 世界觀：-90分。被原神、崩鐵、鳴潮抄家。 劇本：-100分。4SPG比在聯邦通馬桶還無聊。 音樂：0分，自閃軌2跟伊蘇8後，非負分就該謝天了。 人物：-95分。范恩小隊沒特色就算了還慘遭塑造，糟糕到閃軌那四隻在本作竟然覺得不錯。 模型：90分，以小廠而言可以了，愛蜜莉雅很棒。 系統：79分。即時制+回合制很好玩，但法佬控不想鑽研就很。 戰鬥：89分。艾蕾因跟靜名切菜很爽，打靜名也很刺激，缺點太簡單了。 艾蕾因：10000分（含齋藤千和）。艾蕾因新版服裝、立繪、戰鬥分鏡都是歷代最佳。 靜名：10000分（含內田真禮）。靜名新版戰鬥分鏡和新招鬼神樂很好看。 范艾：-5000分。破產了。

The 13th Trails game, and the 3rd game within the Calvard arc. Falcom went out of their way to make up for any disappointment people have had from Daybreak 2. Graphics and gameplay from the previous Daybreak games have been sharpened even further, and to spice things up the cast is joined by Rean and Kevin. The story is told by the events of 3 different parties of characters. Lots of fun and the best of the Calvard games so far. FAQ "can I start with this one?" Nope. Start with Sky FC/1st.