Well, here we are, fans of the The Legend of Heroes franchise are now entering the final phase of the Calvard arc. Not only that, we’re apparently ending the final phase of the Zemuria section of The Legend of Heroes games. The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon is a game where many of our favourite characters across Zemuria join forces to combat a force none of them could defeat alone.
With Ouroboros’s machinations in full swing with the Grim Garten, Van and his united heroes have their work cut out for them.
Time to get serious
In The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon, there are tweaks to the combat here and there. The ZOC system allows you to slow down time and unleash punishment on enemies on the field. It keeps up the momentum and allows for a lot of fun with your favourite character.
There is also the Awakening mechanic, which is awesome. There are several characters in the game which have transformations. For example, Van can become the Grendel, Rean has his Spirit Unification form, and Kevin has his Stigma. Unleashing these forms gives you the same bonuses as the ZOC; the main difference I saw was that they look cool.
Brave Orders have now evolved to Shard Commands, meaning you can supercharge your team to battle the bosses across the Grim Garten and Zemuria. There is also the BLTZ synergy ability, which will randomly drop an extra attack from another character. This is pretty much where everything new stops. The rest of the game draws from previous entries. The Grim Garten is essentially the Märchen Garten and the Reverie with a new coat of gothic paint.
The graphics have not improved sadly, it is fun to see characters from previous entries get a graphical overhaul, like Rean and Kevin. However, the story is good, pushing the overall narrative further towards its explosive climax.
Oh no
The element that, unfortunately, brings The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon down for me is the fact that this game is buggy as hell. The game crashed at so many important moments, setting me back so far in the story. There have been patches, but none of them seem to help. From looking across the internet, this seems to be a problem for almost everyone playing the game. Whether it be on the Nintendo Switch, PC, or PlayStation consoles, this game will almost certainly crash; it just depends on when. This happened to me in the previous game, and I hoped it would not happen here; sadly, it was not the case. This ruined my immersion and playthrough.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon is sadly my least favourite entry in the entire franchise. I don’t know about anyone else, but Calvard and its residents are some of the more annoying figures of Zemuria. After several games in Calvard, I’m aching for somewhere new, with new characters, a more interesting combat system, and a more robust graphical style. It didn’t help that while I was playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon, I was also playing Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, which, in my opinion, is a far superior title.
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