After exploring an entire massive world, the developer of the Trails series now guides you into a new world, bringing Nayuta’s story to the West after a delay of more than ten years.
It may not be so surprising to want something new after twelve years, but even less time is enough to get exhausting. If we follow the Japanese calendar, exactly eight years have passed since then Legend of Heroes: Paths in the Sky And the The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Paths Ben, after five fantastic episodes of The Legend of Heroes, has jumped headlong into an entirely new genre, in just one chapter. However, in the West, the anticipated debut with a huge amount of playing time and many connected episodes was particularly late. Legend of heroes– The series, because by the time it officially became available in the fall of 2023, the entire series (except for the most recent story line) had already been released Paths in fiction With his appearance. So Nayuta’s adventure is equivalent to time travel in every way.
Star fighters
after every thing, The legend of Nayuta: Limitless paths Originally landing in 2012, after the release of the Crossbell duology, on the Playstation Portable platform, Nihon Falcom felt as at home as possible, and not just one that was decades old. Yes Smooth their fate further, but breathe new life into Legend of heroesWhich has reached the peak of its popularity only now with Western releases. However, it is important to emphasize that this is not the topic of our article Paths-saga, so it doesn’t fit into the canon or its world, and instead tries to introduce a completely new world.
More precisely, there is more than one world, since its main character, the titular Nayuta, has dreamed since childhood of proving: the Earth is not flat, the ocean has no end, and there is definitely something beyond the limits of imagination. However, before he can find out, fate brings him together with a fairy-like girl known only from fairy tales, Noi, and he falls into an adventure that literally takes him to a whole new world, to save him – as usual. -He falls on him immediately.
the Nyota It serves all of this not within the usual JRPG framework, but as an action platformer, where instead of exploring a large, open world, you have to visit quite linear locations divided into small sections of just a few minutes, and fight monsters and other creatures. And the journey, money and equipment acquired in the meantime for character development. This hybrid idea of an action platformer and an RPG looks like it from the inside: the combat system is strongly reminiscent Yes To its simplified extracted version; The Inventory, which only defines a few classes, offers very simplistic but fun development, and Trails’ clumsy story management is complemented by a narrative that’s a few paces faster and more focused on Tidal world building.
It’s the same
Thus, a large part of the playing time is mainly spent overcoming obstacles on the mini-maps, which are not very complex, and are designed specifically for small and large roads. These are incredibly simple logic puzzles that require minimal thinking and guide you towards the goal by moving platforming elements, activating switches, and engaging traps and machines that change the terrain slightly, while you have to face various opponents in real time. For this, basic attack, throwing, and jumping are available, as well as Noi’s ever-expanding repertoire of skills, which are primarily used to control small crowds, as well as When eliminating monsters that have more health It’s useful. Equipment also attempts to strengthen these items: Nayuta can wear a helmet and armor, and Noira can also be somewhat interested in accessories that enhance one of her attributes. At the same time, the more serious character development and grittier RPG elements are almost completely absent, so… The legend of Nayuta Rather, it seeks to provide diversity and depth in other ways.
The courses themselves are like this: The sections, which are intentionally designed to be 5-6 minutes long, are fast, fast-paced, there’s absolutely no meandering, and are worth completing more than once. On the one hand, because there is always an additional task (for example, killing a certain number of opponents, or, for example, racing under the target time), which rewards good performance with various rewards, and on the other hand, because the story soon introduces the possibility of manipulating time, With which we can go to spring with one click, to cover the selected area in autumn or winter. This replaces (and increases the strength of) opponents, changes the terrain, provides access to previously inaccessible places, and allows some side quests to be solved. In addition to the main quest, there are many smaller quests waiting to be completed, which try to help with money and equipment to complete the relatively short story, which is between 15 and 20 hours long, as well as successfully complete the large-scale, amazing and amazing story. Particularly powerful boss battles.
And although the easy gameplay, Nihon Falcom’s usual good world-building, and fusion of genres generate a very entertaining game, it would be a shame to deny that the age is very evident on it – even despite the fact that the Western release has a seriously bloody update (60 fps nd, higher resolution, and improved textures) makes its debut on consoles. However, all of this isn’t enough to make it clear: it’s an eleven-year-old game that debuted on the PSP, which, given its focus on action, can’t hide the flaws of its age as well as its own. Paths– series, but even after all these years, there are few similar experiences on their chosen platforms.
