Introduction

While I’ll always say one of my favorite RPG franchises is the Persona series, I can’t deny there’s always one contender trying to compete and often coming close to dethroning the legend. The Legend of Heroes series—which has been out for over 35 years—has released hit after hit and while I haven’t played all of them, the two most recent series I have and I adore beyond words. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak (1 and 2) were incredible and I was amazed they overcame the gigantic hurdle that was the Cold Steel games.

Now the latest entry, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, aims to go even higher and while that seems impossible, folks…I won’t deny it may have done it. For those who love quick reviews, I’ll say this: Trails Beyond the Horizon is without a doubt one of the best games of the franchise and a true peak way to end the Daybreak story and in many ways the series set in Calvard/Zemuria.

Now for those who want to know more about why The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon is so amazing, first thank you and second keep on reading as we enter my review of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon for the PS5!

Gameplay

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, I’m going to say, isn’t a game you want to play if you somehow didn’t play either Daybreak 1 or 2…and if you somehow missed any of the five other games before it, it still might make The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon a hard game to dive into. This is a direct sequel to almost every Trails game but especially Daybreak II and is filled with references from Cold Steel.

That being said, I’m sure many playing Horizon will be fans of the past games and won’t just jump in. Now then, let’s begin talking about the gameplay to expect when you dive into The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon.

Still a hybrid between a turn-based RPG and an action RPG, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon at first glance might seem like it just copied the Daybreak II formula, which would be fine, but there’s a vast amount of improvements found here. First, the action is leaps and bounds better than either Daybreak before it and more akin to the remake of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter.

Combat feels more fluid and allows for more combos to be used with other party members and even quicker art spells to be utilized. There’s also the new ZOC system where players can slow enemies down and unleash seemingly never-ending hits for massive damage. Other than that, the action still is not the best way to approach a battle as the turn-based element is always considered stronger.

When battles do enter turn-based, again many gameplay concepts have re-emerged in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon but there are a slew of quality-of-life improvements that make the game feel so much better. The SHARD system has been vastly redefined with the ability to choose how to amp up your party—more defense or maybe higher damage like Brave Orders from Reverie—giving a higher level of strategy to combat.

Special moves have also been changed—so they aren’t just repeats of previous moves from the last two games—giving you a feel as if these characters have grown. Overall, battles allow a lot more freedom of action but with that means combat has become a tad more tough, expecting more from the player.

When you aren’t in combat, you’re exploring various landscapes both new and old in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon. The Marchen Garten returns but now is The Grim Garten and is almost like a board game rather than just choosing a floor and fulfilling the requirements of it.

Aside from that, the rest of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon feels like past games with bonding quests, side quests, and the main story which is bigger than ever before. You now have three protagonists to follow: Rean, Van, and Kevin—who fans will remember from Trails in the Sky the 3rd.

I honestly love all of these characters and like us fans who played the games from the past, you can see how their growth has unfolded by not only their discussions but their combat and abilities overall. There’s a lot to do in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon and it is easily one of the biggest games in the franchise.

Graphics

There’s something incredible about seeing a new entry in the series look better than the last. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon keeps the trend going by going “beyond the horizons” (sorry for the lame joke) by seriously pushing the limits that this series can do.

Yes, it still won’t match the gorgeous beauty that is games like Final Fantasy VII Remake or even the recent remake of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, but it still looks quite beautiful. Everything from the attack animations to the cutscenes looks leaps and bounds better than Daybreak II and that entry was visually impressive.

I pray that maybe the next entry focuses a bit more on the visuals than just the gameplay or narrative but even if it looks like The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, that would be fine with me.

Sound

I’ve played every Trails game in English dub (though have listened to the Japanese when I could or when I was playing the original Japanese releases of these games) and the English dub needs to set the standards for EVERY RPG to come out.

Van is once more voiced by Damien Haas, Agnes by Amanda Lee (AmaLee), and the impressive cast only goes beyond the central two. Rean is once more reprised by Sean Chiplock and mostly the entire cast of past games returns to reprise their roles as far as I can tell.

Voice acting is what sells the narrative of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon and even if you do play it in Japanese, you’ll be treated to impressive talent as well.

Now aside from the legendary voice work, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon is an OST lover’s dream. Half of these tracks I can listen to in my car while driving and that’s after hearing them in-game dozens of times.

The music is top notch—something I always expect from NIS-published games and Falcom in general—but The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon is a tier above even the past games. The opening alone is like an anime OP; play it again and again. Don’t skip it, otherwise fans will probably weep a bit.

Story

Sadly, nothing in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon was a surprise to me since I followed and played the Japanese release and looked up online translations for bigger scenes. Still, now having the entire game in English means I can fully enjoy the story and it still is why the Legend of Heroes franchise is considered the Lord of the Rings of the gaming world.

Deep world-building and interconnecting character stories continue to be present in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon but the main story is where this latest entry shines. Once more Van and his team are forced to combat possible world-changing threats but this feels more substantial than Daybreak II.

The story does a great job of feeling like a conclusion to this particular group and yet still leaves possible sequels, which we know will come eventually.

Overall Impression

With The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II feeling a bit lackluster compared to the first one or any of the core Cold Steel games, I was worried a bit about The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon.

Thankfully, literally a minute into this amazing game and I knew Falcom wasn’t joking when they poured time into this. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon takes any issues from the last one, removes them, and somehow revamps the entire series to not only modern levels but some of the best from the franchise.

This is a perfect send-off for many of the characters we have fallen in love with.

Conclusion

There is no doubt in my mind that The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon is perfect both as a lover of the Daybreak and Cold Steel series and as an avid RPG gamer. The way past faces return without feeling shoehorned and how the mechanics have been reworked and perfected shows how incredible Nihon Falcom is.

I can’t wait for another entry in The Legend of Heroes story, but even if that takes years, I can sit back smiling knowing The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon was such an amazing title.

Let us know in the comments which Legend of Heroes game is your favorite—and why—so we can hear from you amazing readers out there.

—Aaron