The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

I'm thumbing it up because, at the end of the day, it is a competent game I did not regret playing, otherwise I wouldn't have done it for 70 hours including post-game. But when it comes to the story and just the overall respect for my time, I have quite a lot of criticisms for this entry. First of all, no matter what most of the fanbase may tell you, this game is redundant. Two thirds of its story is just bloated fanservice that retreads locations, characters and plot points from a combined 6 games with the excuse this is supposed to be a capstone for the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs, plus a bridge into the Calvard arc. Nevermind the fact both arcs were already over and done with and did not need any sort of further closure. The "bridge" in question is a 15 minute cutscene and three visual novel-like short stories you get at the post game. Almost everything before that is either fanservice for longtime fans or just recycling/straight up repeating plot points from the aforementioned previous 6 games. The story is divided in 3 routes, one for Rean, one for Lloyd and another for a new cast of characters, the main one called C. C's route is by far the best one on account of exploring a particular character further than they were in the previous games and introducing new characters that are not repeating their development, though in order to actually understand their deal you'll need to read through a collection of books you could find at CS4, which is certainly a choice. Lloyd's route is just a contrived retread of Azure in order for the writers to have an excuse to get the whole cast from that arc back front and center. The characters will either awkwardly reference past events as a way to refresh the memory of longtime fans ("hey, this is just like that time we did such and such! It felt hopeless then too, but we prevailed!) or drone on about the power of friendship to the point where my patience ran thin and I just skipped some dialogue once I noticed they were just going to endlessly say something about how "when it seems hopeless, your friends will light the way, we just wanted to save everyone, but what matters is that everyone is smiling" yet again. Almost every single character in this goes back to their previous issues they had already overcome way back in Zero/Azure and has to relearn their lessons. Rean's route is just another limited tour through Erebonia, though it is a bit more involved in the new proceedings than Lloyd's, but just like in 4, there's really nothing left for any of these characters to say after 4 games focused on them, sometimes they just do weirdly convoluted trials that look like betrayals as a test of resolve for no discernible reason, get into a conga line so they can introduce themselves and their titles one by one and somehow we have Rean agonizing over the power within him for the fifth time in a row. I'm not sure we won't get that plot point retread again somehow since I know he comes back for the Calvard arc. And sandwiched between these routes is the Reverie Corridor, which is Trail's attempt at making a dungeon crawler, and it's a mixed bag. On one hand, there's certainly appeal in just enjoying the gameplay for what it is and getting to mix and match characters that otherwise would never be at the same place at the same time. On the other, it's an uninteresting looking precedural dungeon where you get a cast of over 40 playable amnesiac characters on the excuse that it's a place outside time and causality alongside weird gatcha mechanics that unlock a torrent of side-content that varies from "kinda neat" to "this is just busywork". There's a bunch of short stories called Daydreams you can unlock, the vast majority being just glimpses into its many, many characters lives after the finale of CS4, which wouldn't be an issue if not for the fact that a) there's a bunch of them b) they're all an hour long at the very least, complete with gameplay segments. To me, that's just bloat. Then, as if to add insult to injury, the main story ends but there's a post game, and you can only unlock the actually important Daydreams at this point, as well as find out why the Corridor even exists only once you reach it's final floor. Your mileage may vary, but I don't think these revelations were worth the amount of busywork you need to get there. I'd say the final boss itself is yet another recycled plot beat I couldn't care less about. There's some cool stuff here, but ultimately this game is for the most part just reduntant filler that repeats itself constantly while throwing a few teases over what you may actually want to see. This is not intricate, expansive storytelling, it's just spreading all your material thin to justify the existence of one more game before moving on to something new. If you're into visual novels, this is basically a fandisk. Trails fans will insist you should not, but if you're burned out of the series even a little, it's okay to just skip this one. Find a summary online for the actually relevant parts and be on your way, because the context and experience will not really enrich it.

It took five games and 462 hours, but Reanbean finally learned that dramatic self-sacrifices are optional. Also Lloyd Bannings is the most amazing protagonist in the world and I love him in ways that cannot be qualified or quantified, and I'm gonna miss Crossbell so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much. This really was a Trails into Reverie.

Excellent capstone game for both Crossbell and Erebonia. The "Daydream" content really helped give closure to a lot of long sub-plot threads, added layers and context to several important NPCs, and did some fun foreshadowing.