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By Manuel  Players: 1 Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is an Action RPG game that's a spin-off of the Trails series. (Fun Fact: The Trails series itself is a spin-off from the wider Legend of Heroes series.) It's developed by Nihon Falcom, who have also brought us the Ys series. It originally released on the PSP in Japan only back in 2012, and got an updated release in 2021 originally also released only in Japan. Year later, in the midst of several other Trails games getting US releases for the first time, NIS America is now bringing it to consoles and PC and we're going to see if the long wait for this game was worth it. Does the Action RPG format hold up against the mainline series? Did the game age well over the years? Is it worth picking up in light of the glut of Trails games we've been given over the past year? All these questions and more will be answered below! Boundless Trails drops you into the shoes of Nayuta, an explorer who longs to discover the mysteries that lie beyond his world. Him and his best friend Cygna have just returned to their hometown of Remnant Island after spending time studying abroad and have set up their Handyman business again. Their adventures eventually bring them to explore ruins that fell from the sky right off the coast of the island. This brings them directly into a scuffle between two mysterious figures and a fairy named Noi. After rescuing Noi from the seemingly evil men, the duo learn that the fabled "Lost Heaven" actually exists and Noi is from there. Following her back to her world they find themselves entangled in a fight to restore order to Lost Heaven's continents from the evil machinations of big bad guy Zechst. This ultimately involves travelling to each area and restoring its "gears", basically machinery that is used to moderate and control the seasons. Eventually more is revealed regarding Nayuta, Cygna, Noi, the world of Lost Heaven, Zecht's true intentions, and even the mysterious sleeping Creha. While the story is a bit more straightforward when comparing it to the Trails games that originally released around it, it does a good job giving you an excuse to dive into the actual meat and potatoes of the game: The Action RPG gameplay.
Considering that Falcom also develops the Ys games, I initially assumed that Boundless Trails would play like those. It does to a certain extent, but it's also very different from the adventures of Adol. You run, jump, dodge, and attack your way through several stages while defeating monsters for gold and experience. You grow stronger by leveling up and by acquiring and equipping more powerful weapons and armor. All that sounds par for the course, but the biggest difference from the Ys games, and just about any other Action RPG actually, is that the game is made of several stages. There aren't dungeons proper, or even an overworld to explore here, everything takes place in a series of pre-set levels that are like an RPG version of a Super Mario stage. Each region of the world has a set number of stages that contain their own monsters, secrets, and more. You're given a set of goals each time you enter one, like defeating a certain number of enemies or collecting a certain number of a particular item, and are graded upon completion. This gives everything a more arcade-y feel, but I enjoyed being able to easily track what I had to do to perfect each stage. You'll find sub-bosses on specially marked stages, and a boss to culminate each section. You're able to go back to any previously completed stage to grab things you missed, or to go for those ever elusive perfect ratings. You can also change up the levels entirely by altering the seasons on each continent. The different seasons only become available once you progress through the game, but they offer new enemies, challenges, and more. They also have a higher recommended level, so be careful if you're attempting them too early. Oh, and the game has a difficulty setting that can be picked when you first start the game.
Nayuta isn't alone in his journey and Noi acts as a companion in every stage. Noi's main contribution to gameplay comes in the form of her magic. Her magic comes in two forms, one that attacks enemies and one that helps open up new paths for exploration. The former has several different varieties that are acquired and/or unlocked in several ways, but mainly from simply progressing through the main story. These attacks can be elemental based, often are projectiles, and have varying areas of attack and strength. You're eventually able to equip three of them at a time, but you must unlock the slots through gameplay. Each magic has a set number of uses that is determined by its level with each magic regaining said uses over time, or by killing enemies. It's best to determine what magic you're going to want to bring into each stage before you enter it as if you change magic during a stage it reverts its use count to 0. The long and the short of it is that Noi mostly acts as Nayuta's long-range attack, and there are some enemies that are all but immune to everything but Noi's magic. Magic aside, Noi has her own set of equipment that augments her abilities that are separate from the equipment that Nayuta equips. While Noi is very helpful at times, I did wish the player had more control over her magic as she'll always cast it from wherever she is standing. This means that you might have to awkwardly move Nayuta around to position Noi since there is no way to control her directly. Not a deal breaker by any means, but a bit of an annoyance nonetheless.
Remnant Island acts as your home base of sorts and features the normal assortment of shops and NPCs as one would expect. There's a general store that sells ingredients for cooking, items that unlock more in-game options, and accessories for Noi. (Which are actually accessories for dolls.) The weapon shop sells weapons and armor of course, but something so obvious was still somehow lost on me as in my first playthrough I did many stages with no armor since I didn't realize I had to buy it. Also, weapons come in two types: swords and heavier bludgeoning weapons. Most skills are only available when Nayuta has a sword equipped, but the hammers and maces found in the second category often have a higher attack and damage output. Elsewhere you can sell collectables to the museum to set up Animal Crossing-like exhibits, and you can bring ingredients and recipes to Nayuta's sister to make meals that offer stat bonuses or healing properties when eaten. You can also learn new attacks when you've accumulated enough stars from stages, and even take in a stray dog that catches random bugs and the like for you. Remnant Island is quite the lively place and I haven't even talked about one of the biggest aspects of the town yet: The NPCs and the various quests they have for Nayuta's recently re-opened Handyman business. At various points in the game you can check the mailbox in front of Nayuta's house to receive requests from villagers, or even the residents of Lost Heaven occasionally. These are pretty much all optional and reward you with money (mira) and/or special items, recipes, or equipment. The game doesn't really inform you of this, but most of these have a small window to complete so it's best to keep going back to town every so often to check for new requests. Completionists might also want to know that not all sidequests are unlocked via the mailbox. Some Handyman requests have to be sought out by the NPCs first, even if you didn't realize that they needed help before talking to them. This is a familiar concept to those who've played previous Trails games, but I was a little annoyed when I realized that I very nearly missed the window for one if I didn't randomly decide to talk to every NPC for a completely different sidequest. Thankfully checking on every NPC every so often isn't all that hard considering the smaller size of the world, but it's something that makes me want to consider looking up a 100% guide for my second playthrough just to be sure I don't miss anything.
Now I just mentioned the size of the world as a good thing, but now I want to talk about it in a slightly more critical light. Boundless Trails can be a rather short experience overall. I don't want to make it sound like you can beat it in an afternoon, but considering that you can finish your first playthrough in about 15-25 hours (depending on how thorough you are) it's a far cry from the RPG series it's a spin-off of. Now there's a lot of extra content to experience in a second playthrough (more on that later), and the game's length is anything but uneventful, but it did surprise me when I realized I was on my way to the endgame after only about a dozen hours or so. At first I recalled my time with the first three Ys games that were also pretty short but had fun things to unlock in New Game+ that made the punishing advanced difficulty settings more palatable. The difference is that those games were quite a bit shorter than this one. Boundless Trails walks that fine line where it's a bit too short for me to truly praise a single playthrough, but it's also a bit too long for me to want to go through the same game again after beating it once. As I'll discuss later, the game pretty much expects you to beat it at least twice. This does bring the total time with the game to maybe 40-50 hours, but it reaches that time using tactics I don't feel should be here in the first place. I'd rather they made one full gameplay experience and only placed optional extras in New Game+. I hate to suggest this, but I wish I'd rushed my first playthrough just to get to the "real" game in New Game+ and take my time with that run. A very backwards way to do things, but honestly the way I felt about the game by the end.
Now let's talk about how this ties into the Trails series. Simply put, it doesn't. Now for starters only the Trails series of games were ever truly linked. The greater Legend of Heroes series was mainly a series of standalone games, and this falls more in line with those titles. It does have the Trails name in it though, and that lead me think that there would be more hints to led one back to that world. Besides the barest of (maybe) easter eggs, the only thing the game shares is a few enemy and item names, and the mira currency. Part of me wishes that this was made as a spin-off to the Ys series. I think that would've put it more at home with the gameplay style, and it wouldn't be such a surprise to those whose experience with the series only comes from the games that feature the world of Zemuria. With that said, it's a great game and I'm sure that hardcore Trails fans will probably find more connections than I did, but it's a spin-off in pretty much title only. Just set your expectations accordingly and you'll be set to join Nayuta on his adventures. Boundless Trails started life as a PSP game and it really shows at times. I have a soft spot for games that look like this, so the somewhat dated visuals didn't bother me much, but they are there. Unlike the mainline Trails games that used sprite-based graphics, everything in Nayuta is in 3D so its lower poly models can be a bit distracting if you're one to be bothered by such things. I played this on the Nintendo Switch in Handheld Mode, so perhaps my views on how good the game looks vary from those who might be playing on a PS5. I can't imagine upscaling these graphics further would do them any favors though. With that said nothing looks bad. It's also based on an already updated release, but I've seen the original PSP graphics and this is more of an upscaling job as opposed to a full remake. Technical stuff aside, character and monster designs look great. Every character, from the main cast to the smallest NPC, are unique and many of them have anime-style pictures to give them even more life. Speaking of giving them life, the 3D character models might not be the best, but they are definitely expressive when they need to be. Monster and boss designs are no slouches either and there were several enemies that looked cool, silly, intimidating, powerful, or some combination of everything all at once. I don't think there's anything to complain about when it comes to visuals as long as you're not expecting perfectly rendered 4K models. Hell, the game runs at a smooth 60fps and while that means little to me, I know that a lot of people complain when games don't run like that. It may not look the best, but my controversial take of the day is that I found it more visually appealing than the recently released Trails into Reverie. Though that's getting slightly off topic.
Do I even need to talk about the music when it comes to a Falcom game? The soundtrack here is pretty much perfect. There are several tracks that stand out, but honestly they're all amazing so I won't dwell too much on individual tracks or we'll be here all day. Falcom Sound Team JDK provides the music here and they have a way to make every song fit the mood. The vocal songs are moving, the town themes are chill and relaxing, even the simplest stage music is lively, and the boss battles get your blood boiling. There wasn't a single track that I didn't like and I've already picked up this game's soundtrack to listen to on its own. It's that good. Now, there's more to sound than just music, so let's talk about the English dub for a bit. You can play the game in both English and Japanese and I want to start by saying that the English dub is very well done. This is no fault of either vocal track, but it is worth mentioning that there aren't a lot of spoken dialogue sections in the game, and they're pretty brief even when they do pop up. I did find it odd to hear most of the English-language cast from the main Trails games here, doing voices that sounded very much like ones from there. I am not sure if that is the case in the Japanese dub, but hearing the same voices playing different characters in a shared universe felt so weird to me that I had to switch to the Japanese track near immediately. This is pretty much a me thing I'm sure, so I doubt anyone else will have issues with it. The options are there if you want them though.
I don't think I've bothered talking controls in a Trails game before, but there is a bit more to be said here due to this being an Action RPG. At first I thought that movement and actions were very clunky, and that Nayuta moved as if he was locked to big squares of movement. I was wrong though, and I eventually came to realize that everything seems to work well within the context of the game. The only big exception to this though is the game's occasional focus on platforming. Jumping onto small, sometimes moving, platforms is something this engine was simply not made to handle. There's no camera control at all, and a lot of jumps are leaps of faith with only your shadow to determine where you're going to land. This isn't too bad in places where falling just means a bit of damage and a second attempt, but some falls can send drop you several levels down, forcing you to do large sections of a stage again. I don't think there was a single time that I missed a jump where I didn't feel that I could've made it if I was able to adjust the camera, or if the jumping mechanics were just a bit tighter. This isn't a full-on platformer though, so thankfully there aren't too many sections like this. I pretty much always found them annoying when they did pop up though, and they were probably the only thing that managed to kill my fun completely. My only other big note for controls regards using Nayuta's sword skills. Most of them require jumping to pull off, and just about all of them are only really able to be done from a standing jump. This limits their usefulness and made it so that I don't think I ever purposely used them in battle. Beyond those brief complaints, I don't think anything with the controls negatively affects gameplay.
Boundless Trails has replayability in spades, both during a current playthrough and in new ones. Each stage has several goals to complete in each seasonal variant and these alone can take quite a while to get through if you're a completionist. Also, while the inventory is relatively limited, there are a lot of quests and items that are hidden and/or missable. Missable quests and items are somewhat par the course for the Trails series, and I'm glad to say that missing things hits a lot less here with the total game being considerably shorter than a long 30-50 hour JRPG. This leads me to talk more about the New Game+ mode. This is one of the most full-featured New Game+ modes in general due to the options you can "purchase" using in-game points that allow you to carry over certain things like your levels or items. Unlike most games though, the New Game+ is pretty much necessary to go through if you want to get the True Ending. It also opens up the game fully and unlocks all the seasons in all the stages. This means new cutscenes, new character interactions, and it even unlocks the highest difficulty setting if that's something you're interested in. It might be a bit annoying to some that the entire first playthrough is something of a trial run only, but I do like the idea that the New Game+ isn't just an afterthought. I just wish its inclusion didn't come at the cost of the single playthrough experience. With that said, you'll definitely get a full experience even if you don't touch New Game+ so don't let all this talk about it keep you from trying out the game if it seems interesting to you.
While this is truly just an updated PSP game, it really scratched that old-school Ys itch that I didn't realize I missed. It's a great game that I can't recommend enough, especially for Action RPG fans. It also is priced at just $49.99 across all console releases. That doesn't exactly bring it to value discount pricing levels, but it is less than current A-list releases typically retail for. Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is a great game and my only gripe is that it didn't release a bit earlier in the year as it feels like it would make for the perfect summer experience. Who knows, maybe this means we can expect more Action RPG spin-offs in the future. Anyhow, grab it on whatever platform you can and get exploring! For More Information on The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails: https://thelegendofnayuta.com/ Story: A Gameplay: A- Graphics: A- Music/Sound: A- Value: A Overall: A Pros: + A rich story and world really bring you into the game. + Offers a very balanced Action RPG experience very reminiscent of the older Ys titles. + The graphical updates over its original release look great on modern consoles. + Great music and voice acting per usual. One of the best overall Nihon Falcom soundtracks today. + Multiple stage goals, different difficulty settings, and a robust New Game+ add a lot of replayability to the game. +/- Doesn't really feel tied in to the Trails series beyond the name. Cons: - Difficulty can vary greatly between settings and different stages making things feel a bit unbalanced. - Boundless Trails origins as an updated PSP game can be quite noticeable at times. - Platforming sections can be a bit of a buzzkill on some stages. - While the game does offer a lot of replayability, the main game is rather short if you're just heading straight to the end. A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.  A great summer game... |
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