The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails Review (Switch)

The Trails series is known for its incredible worldbuilding through many different games, including Trails of Cold Steel, Trails from Zero, and Trails to Azure, as well as Trails in the Sky. The events of those games culminated with Trails into Reverie, which finally got a localized release this year.

The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, however, has absolutely no connection with the mainline games. That’s actually a good thing as it means Boundless Trails can implement new mechanics without being beholden to them. This has an engaging real-time action combat system with plenty of great worldbuilding through side quests. However, the story is rather simplistic and sometimes the platforming feels imprecise. Still, Boundless Trails is a worthy spin-off deserving of the Trails name.

The story doesn’t have the intricate political and socioeconomic pulls that the mainline Trails games have, and that might sour some longtime fans of the series who expect Boundless Trails to be the same. Instead, the story reminds us of classic Final Fantasy games—Nayuta and the fairy Noi team up to collect elemental Master Gears and stop the evil villain Zechts, who is hellbent on destroying both Nayuta’s hometown of Remnant Island and the magical Lost Heaven.

The story also has a hint of Kingdom Hearts wonder to it, as Nayuta has dreams of visiting other places outside of his hometown and Noi’s magical abilities let him do so. Boundless Trails doesn’t have the most elaborate story by any means, but it’s nice to be able to experience a journey that doesn’t rely on playing a bunch of interconnected ones to understand.

The game’s story is bolstered by its wonderful side quests, which are reminiscent of those found in the mainline Trails entries. I enjoyed tackling these as I got to learn more about both Remnant Island and Lost Heaven’s inhabitants. One quest, in particular, had me show an elemental god the delicacies of human food, which provided context about how they view others in the human realm. Additionally, these quests are worth pursuing as they often give rewards such as extra gold or some useful combat items upon completion.

The combat in Boundless Trails is the game’s biggest strength. It completely goes in the opposite direction of the turn-based battles in the main Trails games and opts for real-time action platforming. It’s simple but effective. The game lets you choose stages on a map similar to that of a 2D Mario game. We had a lot of fun hacking and slashing at enemies throughout each of the stages—it was a refreshing take on the typical Trails combat formula and kept us engaged.

The stages also have impressive replayability. Each has three stars to collect based on goals and conditions. For example, you can earn a star on a certain stage by reaching the end without getting hit more than 10 times. You’re even rewarded for reaching certain milestones in your star-collecting journey; every six stars lets you learn a new skill or special attack. It is a fun mini-collectathon and we felt like we were a young teen playing New Super Mario Bros. on the DS again.

Eventually, Nayuta can also change the seasons in Lost Heaven, and that unlocks seasonal variants of existing stages, offering even more replayability, with even more star collecting! The seasonal stages mix up the environments, platforming, and enemy variety quite a bit, so it never really got repetitive. However, sometimes the platforming aspect in the stages felt imprecise. These stages are presented as a 2.5D affair, and there were many instances where we had to jump onto moving platforms, only to misjudge our distance and incur fall damage. The fact that the camera is fixed doesn’t help matters.

As for the presentation itself, NIS has managed to make this 11-year-old PlayStation Portable game as pretty as it possibly could. The 3D character models have been enhanced and they’re charming in a retro-style, early-polygonal way. There’s also a smart use of cel-shading applied to the models. Sure, the graphical limitations of a PSP port are obvious, but the facial expressions and character movements add to its appeal. On Switch, the game also runs flawlessly with no discernible hiccups or frame rate issues.

Another addition that we truly loved was the high-speed feature. In recent Trails entries, you can click a button for high-speed mode, which increases the speed of the entire game, gameplay and cutscenes included. While taking the critical path in Boundless Trails will get you a 15-20 hour runtime, the game has plenty of content. Not only does running back to previous stages to collect remaining stars add more playtime, but there’s also a playable epilogue after the main story. The way the game is structured is perfectly suited for the stop-and-go playstyle that a portable machine was designed for.