When it comes to Nihon Falcom action-RPGS, I have to admit that I’m more than a little biased. The developer is easily one of the best when it comes to the genre and The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is no different. Originally releasing on the PSP in Japan all the way back in 2012, the game is an action spin-off of the Trails series, itself a derivative of The Legend of Heroes. Then again, that was part of the Dragon Slayer series. That’s quite the lineage, huh? Despite all that baggage, you require absolutely zero familiarity with any related games to follow what’s happening here.
The game begins with the main character, Nayuta, returning to his home of Remnant Island, where he reunites with his best friend Cygna, sister Eartha, and childhood friend, Lyra. Nayuta and his sister have long been enthralled by tales of another world they call Lost Heaven that they’re able to glimpse via star fragments that sometimes rain down from above. When some ruins fall from the sky, Nayuta and Cygna explore it, only to become acquainted with a fairy-like girl called Noi who’s trying to protect her home from a man named Zechst. She opens a portal in Nayuta’s backyard which the two friends soon follow her through. Much to their surprise, they end up in the place they’ve been calling Lost Heaven.
What follows is mostly typical for a Nihon Falcom story. The characters are varying levels of anime tropes, but the plot is still plenty engaging, which won’t be surprising considering how often the developer successfully pulls all of this off. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is broken into multiple chapters, as well as a post-game with more content and a new game plus with even more added. For a significant amount of the game, you’ll play as Nayuta as he assists Noi in returning gears to a device called an Astrolabe that’s capable of altering the seasons of the continents you’ll be exploring.
Take it Ysy
Unlike an Ys game, The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails doesn’t have an interconnected world and instead focuses on individual levels. Each of these levels has crystals and chests to find, plus you can complete an objective such as defeating a certain number of monsters or completing the level quickly enough. Doing this will net you a star which will be added to a stamp card. Collect enough and Nayuta can learn a new move (or occasionally get a new piece of gear.) Due to this, it’s easy to spend time going back into levels to find everything. It’s a fantastic game loop.
The kicker is that, once you put the gear back where it goes, you can change the season of its related continent. For instance, changing a continent to Winter will see its bodies of water frozen over and its ground covered with snow. Levels change drastically, though, so they’re basically brand new areas as opposed to simple rehashes. This mechanic also plays into the game’s sidequests, which sometimes task you with doing something in one season and then changing to another to accomplish an objective. For instance, at one point you can plant seeds, change the season, and then go collect fruit from the resulting tree.
Nayuta himself plays much like Adol does in Ys. He runs, jumps, attacks, dodges, and blocks. But the big difference is Noi. Noi learns skills as you progress and you’ll cycle between these. They’re typically magical projectiles of some sort (plus a tornado or giant chunks of ice, among others) and they level up with use, much like the skills in Ys. Nayuta will also learn gear skills that allow for further progression or backtracking for crystals and chests in previous levels. Filling out the stamp book also teaches him new moves that get improved with successive unlocks.
Time to buy a new hammer
The combat and movement are in-line with other Nihon Falcom action-RPGs, so this is a fast, mostly straightforward game. There’s also plenty of platforming to be found. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is one of the developer’s better action games, which is really saying something since the Ys games have mostly been fantastic since the beginning. You’ll find plenty of new gear (and can choose between one or two-handed weapons) for both Nayuta and Noi, so there’s very little stagnation in terms of the game experience. If you have any affinity for Japanese action-RPGs, this is pretty much a must-play.
Of course, the PSP version received an English fan patch years ago, so you may have already played the game. That being said, this version is unsurprisingly much better. The textures have been massively overhauled, the sprites look better, the copious pop-in is gone, and there’s even an English dub. Of course, this version actually debuted in 2021 and has been purchasable ever since, but it’s only just now received an English translation. There’s not much reason to play the PSP version now and while the game certainly looks dated, it’s got a timeless style to it that has aged perfectly well. This all comes together to make for an excellent package that’s still well worth experiencing over a decade later.
Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails: Is The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails worth playing for Trails fans? Of course it is, and everyone else. – Andrew Farrell
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The Crew Motorfest review for PC — Pomp, pageantry and problems | Sprawl review – Pop goes the weasel | Bomb Rush Cyberfunk review – Back to the Future | Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition review – Slowly We RotT | Dragon Quest Treasures PC review – Get Rich or Die Trying | Sludge Life 2 review – Smoke if you got ’em | Nimbus Infinity review – Wrong Turn |
