The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon

The Trails series has been brining bright for years now - JRPG enthusiasts need no introduction to Falcom's fantasy world. For twenty years, we've had a narrative examined from multiple perspectives through several interconnected games. The lore-heavy series had become something of a barrier until Trails Through Daybreak gave players a new on-ramp to the series, helped by the fact it was a genuinely fantastic game in its own right which I very much enjoyed. The sequel was less impressive and failed to really move the series forward, so Trails Beyond the Horizon has some catching up to do.

The game keeps its focus on humanity's first foray into space, the advances of Zemurian space exploration bringing back two characters who's arcs were previously concluded but still have something to offer the story - Kevin and Rean. Van remains our primary protagonist but it is nice to see characters from the wider narrative threading events together. 

This creates a three-pronged narrative, which provides variety but also makes the story a little choppy. While a lovely touch for fans of the series as a whole, it does take the focus away from Daybreak's arc and means that the series still feels like it's still waiting for a proper payoff to all the storylines its been planting across the Trails games. 

The gameplay continues to offer exploration and hybrid turn-based combat, which at this stage is about as smooth and instinctive as it can be. Run around attacking an opponent to chip away at their health, while building up stamina for more powerful attacks and potentially stunning enemies before turn-based action begins. There are some mechanics used to provide a little depth - quick arts and reaction attacks - but it's really not that deep compared to turn-based combat and ultimately feels a little superficial. 

Once you switch to turn-based combat proper, you can position your characters and aim your attacks at the enemy to maximise buffs and damage radius, giving a feeling of freedom absent from older RPG's that just had you stand there and pick actions from menus. This feels far more dynamic and exciting, feeling more like a game than resource management via spreadsheet. 

There are skills to learn as a player too - your line-up, the way they attack and in what order can create buffs and effects in your favour, allowing you to place more attacks. You'll need to learn the characters to fully understand the best way to organise your party, but it's a welcome addition that means you won't just have to think about what to do, but in what order and when.

Still, you'll know all this if you've played the earlier games. Falcom has added some new mechanics to the game in order to make it somewhat more iterative and rewarding via ZOC, Awakening and Shard Commands. 

ZOC is a way to slow down time, allowing for more hits before turn based combat begins, or an extra turn once you transition. Awakening acts as an overdrive, granting major buffs to the damage you can inflict, while Shard Commands use boost points during turn-based battles to increase the stats of your entire party, which can be a major asset if timed correctly. All of these new mechanics feel natural and are easy to call on, the skill is more in the deployment than the use.

There are plenty of characters showing up to help along the way

Speaking of deployment, when it comes to characters, the game utilises the same Orbment system as the previous series entries, allowing you to use crystals to augment the abilities of your party, which in turn will define their roles within the group - healers, brawlers, ranged attacks, there's tons of customisation available and the game really encourages you to experiment in order to create a team that plays the way you want them to, all without using a class system that can be limiting. Again, it's not vital to proceedings, but adds lots of depth and the ability to endlessly fiddle for those that like to fine-tune their characters.

Aside from the game's main story, you'll find plenty of side-quests that will eat through your time, but there's also the "Grim Garten", a decidedly darker update to the series' Marchen Garten, a series of procedurally generated dungeons into which you can throw a party of characters together and explore to your hearts content, with rewards to find including unique items and story beats not found elsewhere. It's a good way to test a team's abilities, plus you can also collect and view "memories", which fills in a lot of backstory and really rounds out the plot. Whether you want a break from the main story or you just want to enjoy the combat and level up, it's a useful addition to the game.

So the fights are fun, the cast strong and the story... well that's a bit glacial truth be told and is arguably the weakest aspect of the game. The characters are engaging enough, but there's not a huge amount happening, so there's not much in terms of urgency. This might work well for fans of casual gaming, but I was hoping that, after a fairly slow start in previous games, we might start to see something compelling by game three of the series, but sadly that's not the case here. 

It does look really good though. The Switch 2 is starting to show its value as a step up from previous hardware - text is easier to read, so someone was taking notes of previous reviews, and the framerate seems steady at 60fps, at least to my eye. Character models are sharp, environments are sturdy and textures are, on the whole, good. Handheld mode maintains this quality, so that's a major plus for me as I'm usually playing in the office between meetings and coding. It also prevents my daughter wanting to nick the console for another Minecraft session...

It shouldn't really need saying, but this is best played after the previous two games. There's a certain level of expected knowledge of the story from the player, so while fans will find this to be an engaging (if not particularly spectacular) continuation of events, it's going to baffle you without some prior understanding of what's happening and why.

So all in, we have a solid JRPG that does well on Nintendo's new hardware. I still like the world and the story being told, but I can't help feeling that Falcom are dragging their feet narratively and that after three games, there really should be more compelling beats offered up for the time we're putting in here.