The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is a 2020 role-playing video game developed by Nihon Falcom. The game is a part of the Trails series, itself a part of the larger The Legend of Heroes series. It was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 in August 2020, with ports for the Nintendo Switch and Windows released in August 2021. An English release is scheduled for July 2023, additionally being ported to PlayStation 5. Trails into Reverie is considered the end of the series' Crossbell and Erebonia arcs and serves as the precursor to The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki.

Gameplay

Trails into Reverie plays similarly to the Trails of Cold Steel tetralogy, being a traditional Japanese role-playing video game with turn-based battles. The game features a new Crossroads system where players can switch between three different story arcs, with each focusing on a different protagonist: the leader of Crossbell's Special Support Section, Lloyd Bannings, the instructor of Class VII, Rean Schwarzer, and the masked character "C". The game features over 50 playable characters.

Plot

The game takes place five months after the end of the Great Twilight. Crossbell's Special Support Section (SSS) led by Lloyd Bannings, oust the remaining imperial forces from Crossbell and reclaim independence. Later they're preparing the city for the reindependence ceremony, but once started, it's interrupted by Rufus Albarea, the former Governor General of Crossbell and the righthand man of the deceased Chancellor Osborne who's seemingly freed from prison. He easily overpowers the SSS and forces them to retreat, he then reclaims Crossbell as his territory and reveals his intention of uniting the world under the branch of Crossbell Unified nation with him as the Supreme Leader.
The heroes later assault the weapon and discover the true mastermind is an alternative version of Rean from another timeline calculated by Elysium in which Rean did not separate Ishmelga from himself and became "Ishmelga-Rean", the Awakener and pilot of the fully reforged Great One. The unlikely existence of the Great One allows the spirits of Valimar, Ordine and El-Prado to come to their aid and Rean successfully separates his other self from Ishmelga while Lapis deactivates Elysium, wiping the Great One out of existence in the process. With his dying breath, Ishmelga sets the weapon on destroying whatever humans hate, while the others escape, Rufus remains behind and announces to the world that he is responsible for the recent incident, the Great War and everything that led to it, thus driving humanity's hate to himself and the weapon, but Lapis, Swin, Nadia, Lloyd, the SSS dog Zeit and Rufus's cousin and step brother Jusis save him before the weapon destroys itself. In the course of events, Rufus, who was injured, survives her injuries and is free to go since the world believes he is dead, although he will not be allowed to enter Erebonia freely, as doing so would result in his arrest and execution. With no threat of reannexation, the heroes watch as Crossbell goes with the reindependence ceremony and gains a permanent freedom.

The game contains multiple side-stories, some leading up to the main story, and others foreshadowing the events of Kuro no Kiseki.