![]() ![]() On normal difficulty setting just engaging with the game as intended – I’d consider that hitting whatever you come across, spending all the money you happen to have on the best weapons and armour you can afford, and not making any effort to clear every stage of its treasures – is always enough to keep you hovering around the main story’s intended level: sometimes just ahead, sometimes just behind, but always roughly where you need to be and always with a real chance of success. As with every other monster you encounter their attack patterns have been crafted with utmost care, and without exception you are never more than seconds away from knowing what to hit and when. These are all without a doubt some of the very best Falcom have ever done every last one an intense multi-phase duel against a wholly unique giant-sized adversary, arenas flipping upside-down with a dramatic blow or inviting you to grapple your way up to a godlike being’s face with more eyes and vestigial faces than anything should have. Even enemies that burrow in from underneath or surprise you from the air are given suitable foreshadowing thanks to telltale puffs of dust beneath your feet or easily spotted shadows on the floor with no enemy in sight.Įach neatly portioned off area of your adventure ends exactly as all good action games should – with a spectacular boss battle. Enemies big and small have multiple position-sensitive attacks (for example a dragon will try to hit Nayuta with its fiery breath from the front, but if he’s around the back try a tail swipe instead), all with clear tells that make rolling, blocking, or leaping out of the way in time a reliable life-saving tactic. While there’s nothing to stop you hammering the attack button and leaping around beyond the inevitable early demise that will come from doing so on harder difficulties/later stages, you’ll always do better by using Nayuta’s growing range of skills, Noi’s equippable magical spells, and paying close attention to your surroundings. After a few hours you find yourself blindly leaping into the air or swinging from one magical hang point to another without even breaking the titular Nayuta’s stride, simply because time and again Boundless Trails has proven it will catch you.Ĭombat is more in-depth than the speed and enthusiastic nature of the game would suggest. There’s a happy sense of energy to it, every surface placed just so because it contributes to the overall rhythm of your bouncy-slashy behaviour, every detour – deliberately taken or otherwise – short, engaging, and no doubt holding a reward at the end. Stages are linear in the best sort of way, a focussed thread of action that might see you running across the ancient spines of forgotten beasts, swimming through gaps in the ceiling of crumbling ruins as the water level rises, or rushing over red-hot platforms, hoping pink-ponytailed “ Please don’t eat me!” fairy Noi’s magical shield will last the trip. More importantly than that it’s also perhaps Falcom’s finest action game yet, each stage seamlessly flowing back and forth between 2.5D style platformer-esque challenges (think Klonoa) and 3D combat arenas, always carefully balancing the need for something new – a new enemy type, a new puzzle – with a clear and reliable set of rules: Hit the lever to deactivate the gate, defeat the monsters to make a spring appear, whack the switch and then pass over the bridge before the timer runs out. ![]() This is a secret new Zwei!!, released under a (sadly) more saleable brand. ![]() I’ll be honest – you’ll correctly guess most of the plot twists hours before any of the cast do – but you’ll be enjoying yourself so much you won’t mind. A Falcom title where an inseparable pink haired magical girl and blue haired sword-wielding boy go off on warm-hearted action adventure, eat delicious meals to regain HP and boost their XP, potentially get a pet dog who will bring them random items, a place where bar one hub town every area is its own discrete stage with character level recommendations made very clear before entry. The naming scheme technically makes this part of the wider “Trails of…”/”Kiseki” series (this specific entry made its debut after Ao no Kiseki/ Trails to Azure and before Sen no Kiseki/ Trails of Cold Steel) but in truth it’s very much a standalone adventure in every single way: You not only don’t need to have played any of the other Trails games to understand this one, but bar one extremely minor non-canon cameo you won’t gain any benefit for doing so either. ![]()
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