The music in Trails beyond the Horizon features both new tracks and old ones from past Trails and Falcom titles. In terms of the new music, I found the tracks to be more memorable and ear-catching than the ones introduced in Trails through Daybreak II. The game starts off the playable section with a banger called “Warriors of Varhala” and from then on I knew things were gonna get good. I’m a sucker for good battle music, and Trails beyond the Horizon has a bunch of those, including “Detoxify the Snake Venom -Command Battle-”, “The Height of Majesty” and “KEVIN GRAHAM.” On a side note, Kevin is so great, he not only is the protagonist of one of my favorite Trails games, he has one of the best battle tracks in Horizon named after him as well. The game also features one of the best final boss themes in the series, and that’s saying something for a series as long as Trails. However, I do have a minor complaint, and that’s with the regular battle music that usually plays. While I do enjoy the tracks, I feel there was a missed opportunity to have different regular battle themes for each route, like how it was in Trails into Reverie. It would’ve made each route’s experience that much better. All in all, I enjoyed the music in the game and I tip my hat to the composers and the sound team.
Trails beyond the Horizon has dual voice acting with options for both English and Japanese voices. I played the game with English voices, and the voice actors all did a great job portraying their respective characters. Of the different scenes in the game, I particularly liked one involving just Van and Agnès. Damien Haas (Van) and AmaLee (Agnès) really showed off their chops in that scene and it helped me get that much more invested. If I had a complaint to lodge it’s that I wish more dialog was voiced. Trails games have a tendency to have scenes where it starts off voiced, goes silent, and then voiced again. I would’ve appreciated it if the scene was voiced all the way through, so it wasn’t so jarring when the voices stopped midway. There are also scenes where only certain characters in the scene are voiced while the rest are silent. If all the characters in the scene were voiced, it would make the scene that much more enjoyable. I also found some instances where Active messages weren’t voiced. Active messages are usually voiced banter by the party when traveling. The majority of these are voiced, so it is a bit strange seeing some with no voices. The voice work in the game is already great, but more recorded lines would be a step towards making things even better.
The localization effort in the game is pretty solid. I didn’t have trouble understanding the game’s story from start to finish. However there were some mishaps I ran into during my playthrough. First off is regarding the naming of some of Agnès’ outfits. You can unlock her original outfits from Trails through Daybreak and Daybreak II in the Grim Garten, but they are named incorrectly. Her Daybreak I outfit is named the Daybreak II outfit while her actual Daybreak II outfit is called the Daybreak I outfit. It’s a weird mix-up, but it’s there. I also counted 10 instances where it looked like sentences were missing a word or an article, or had a misspelled word. It’s a very minuscule amount in a game with a ton of text, but it does make it more noticeable when the issue pops up. There is also a new character whose way of speaking might grate on people’s nerves. She’s an influencer/streamer and she talks with a lot of young people lingo and acronyms. If I were to compare it, it’s like how Nadia speaks, but dialed up a good few notches. It didn’t really bother me much since I thought the way of speaking fit her character, but I’m giving a heads up to those it would bother, just in case. Overall, though, I thought NISA pulled off a good effort.
NISA and PH3 Games usually provide stellar PC ports of the Trails games, and this one is no exception. Like with the previous Calvard games, there are 5 graphics presets you can choose from: Performance, Console, Default, High, Ultra. The graphics options can each be customized individually to fit your PC build. The game features a plethora of graphics options with detailed descriptions telling you what the option does and how it affects performance. Another underrated option that returns, you can choose your button icons to match your controller, something all PC ports should have. There are multiple different anti-aliasing (AA) options, though for the first time in a while, there is no MSAA option, which may be a bummer for those that liked using it. There are four AA options and three DLSS options: Basic, High, Sharp TAA, Smooth TAA, DLSS 3, DLSS 4, DLSS 4.5. DLSS support was previously available post launch in Trails through Daybreak and Trails through Daybreak II, so it was nice to see it available as an option right away. I like to use DLDSR and, if I have the option, combine it with DLSS. It usually looks nice visually with great performance. In this case, I used 4K DLDSR with DLSS 4 in the Quality setting for the majority of my playthrough, with all the other graphics options on their highest setting. It ran like a dream, usually running at 120+ FPS. There were moments where the frames would drop during battle, usually if there were a lot of visual effects going on, like during S-Crafts, with it sometimes dropping to as low as 60 FPS, but the frame rate would quickly return after that. After an update, I had access to DLSS 4.5, so I decided to try that out during my playthrough of the Finale. Once again I combined 4K DLDSR with DLSS 4.5 and other graphics options on the highest setting, but this time DLSS was on the Performance setting since that seems to be what NVIDIA recommends for that version. It still looked great and ran well with frames hitting in the 120+ FPS range again, so that is an option for those that have newer hardware.
Steam Deck users have no fear, the game runs well on it too. I played it on the Performance preset and the game ran smoothly and still had a good visual quality. I played it with a 45 FPS lock to save battery life, but it still looked plenty smooth. Based on my short time playing it on Steam Deck, it is definitely a viable option if that is your only way to play. However, I did run into an issue while playing the game both on my PC and Steam Deck. This only happened on three separate occasions, but the game crashed after saving. Luckily, the crashes happened after the saving completed, so I didn’t have to deal with any corrupted files. I wasn’t able to replicate this issue on my own, so I’m not sure of the cause. And it wasn’t a consistent issue as it only happened three times, so it didn’t hamper my experience too much. Overall, despite those hiccups, this is a stellar port for a stellar entry in the Trails series.
Trails beyond the Horizon is a very long game. It took me a little over 124 hours to complete the main story. This play time takes into account finishing the Grim Garten, talking to all NPCs, completing the fishing book, and completing all 4SPGs. If you don’t have time on your hands or you can’t handle long games, this may not be the one for you. But if you don’t mind the game’s length and can set aside time to play, I believe you’ll enjoy it. After finishing the game, you unlock New Game+, so you can tackle the game again while carrying over your equipment, on a higher difficulty level if you so choose.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon is an excellent entry in the Trails series and the strongest game in the Calvard arc. The combat system is one of the best in the series and the music will leave a lasting impression on you. The story is interesting and will grip you until the end. It resolves mysteries from previous games all while setting things up for the future and leaves you clamoring for more. If you have been following Trails for a long time, I highly recommend you pick this game up, you will love it. Newcomers, however, should play earlier entries first before tackling this one, to maximize their enjoyment of the game.
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Review copy provided by the publisher.
