The Legend of Heroes: Trails Into Reverie is a masterclass when it comes to content and storytelling. The same can be said about any of the games in the series. Even if you don't like the series or care for the story, most people have to admit that it's one of the grandest stories in all media. I wasn't originally planning on playing Reverie because I played Cold Steel but not Azure and Zero, but this was another game that NIS America sent me a copy for and I spent weeks trying to catch up so I could review this last year for my site.

It was a daunting process. You don't even need to know the context of the games that came before this arc such as Trails in the Sky but just playing through all four Cold Steel games and then Zero and Azure could cost you more than 200 hours if you speedrun it and maybe close to 1,000 hours if you don't. But that's also what makes the series so special because it has thousands of hours worth of content and story and it keeps getting bigger. Reverie serves as the epilogue to both Cold Steel and the Zero/Azure duology while also having a new protagonist and some new story stuff.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

I think the graphics were pretty good as a whole but I didn't really think there was anything that stood out compared to the other games. When you're walking around many of the environments, they kind of gave me Xenoblade Chronicles vibes. Many of the environments and textures look great, there are some fantastic character designs with good 3D models, and the cutscenes are good as well. I didn't experience any performance issues either which is a huge bonus.

SOUND: 10/10

The sound is amazing because all of the voice actors from the previous games return for one final showdown and they're all amazing. It's really the definition of an ensemble cast as you have the cast from both series and the new characters and many of the actors are pretty big names like Sean Chiplock as Rean. It's also really cool seeing how all the actors do their voices in this game compared to how the characters first started out in the previous games. They all brought their characters to life and you can really see the progress they made through their voices. The soundtrack is also incredible as many of the songs are really good and there's almost 100 tracks in total. Put the voice acting and soundtrack together and I think this might be one of the best sound packages that we have yet to see in gaming.

STORY: 10/10

First you have the Cold Steel series with four games and then you had a separate duology with Zero and Azure. Reverie serves as an epilogue to both as there are two main pathways that follow the teams from their respective series following the aftermath of their games. There's also a third path with a new protagonist. Despite the fact that this serves as an epilogue to hundreds of hours of content, it's pretty accessible for the most part because the game includes hefty recaps of all the previous games so that you can read up on the entire story before starting Reverie. I think that's a nice touch for those who can't be bothered to spend 1,000 hours playing all the previous games. For those who have played them and love the series, Reverie serves as an amazing finale to this saga of the franchise.

On the Cold Steel side of things, Rean and Co. Are looking the missing Prince Olivert. On the Azure/Zero side, Lloyd's team is continuing their fight for independence. Even though there's so much story before Reverie, there's still a great amount of character development and emotion across this game while also being able to set up what comes next.

GAMEPLAY: 8/10

I know that a lot of people love the gameplay loop of these games, but it's actually pretty confusing to me. For RPG's, I usually just like standard attacks, skills, and items but this series adds so much more like the ability to position yourself on the map and arts. Keeping tabs on the best kinds of strategies can get daunting at times. But one aspect that I love is how intense the customization options can get. Since it's an epilogue to both series and has a new path with new characters, there's so many characters to mess around with. In total there are more than 40 characters to build your teams around, but it's a shame that you aren't able to unlock most of them until after a few hours. Your choices are pretty limited near the start of the game. The amount of weapons, items, and arts add even more to the customization aspect of the game.

ADDICTIVENESS: 9/10

The game will be addicting no matter how much you like the series. If you love the gameplay and combat you're going to love going into battle and fighting, constantly working on new challenges and working on building the best team possible. If you don't care too much for the combat, you'll still be enamoured by the intense story and brilliant cast of characters. You might not want to replay the entire 40 to 200 hours all over again but you will always want to revisit some of your favorite battles or moments, or continue growing your favorite characters.

DEPTH: 10/10

Trails Into Reverie simply has so much content. Just the amount of story and dialogue that you get from the three paths is more than you'd see in most RPG's and the game only gets bigger from there. The fact that you have more than 40 characters work with and grow adds so much to the game and creates a limitless amount of possibilities. Then you have things like the union system and the millions of customization options I mentioned earlier. The fact that they even had to add DLC is insane.

DIFFICULTY: 6

There will be some times where the game can get pretty tough and it's because of how complex the gameplay can get. The different types of attacks and arts can become a challenge to balance and you might create a party that you like or think is good enough only to be easily defeated. Both of those situations will cause you to rethink your entire strategy. You're going to need a lot of patience because you're going to be defeated a lot and you're going to need to adapt quickly in order to get past those moments.

FINAL THOUGHTS

You're going to get a ton of value with the game. The game never has to drop below the $60 retail price and it would be worth it forever. If you pick up the physical deluxe edition you're going to get a soundtrack, art book, and DLC which makes it even better. The game as a whole just has so much to offer from the amazing story and characters to perfect music and voice acting. It could easily be one of the three best RPG's of the current generation. The overall series is one of the greatest, most complex stories ever told and this game gets a 9.4 out of 10 from me.