Preview | The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails - A Long Wait With Just A Little More To Go

I cannot overstate how vast Trails is. With ten lengthy RPGs spanning three arcs, an anime series and more, Nihon Falcom's behemoth series closes its first half next month in the West but in Japan, the fourth sub-series is well underway. You'd be forgiven for missing The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails among this all, a 2012 action RPG spin-off that's finally being localised for the rest of the world this September. I'm still pleasantly surprised NIS America is doing this and following a recent preview - where I got hands-on time with an in-development build of the game - I've been left feeling like the game is in a promising state.

LISTEN, We all hate humans, but we have to at least pretend to be friends.

Nayuta is uniquely placed in the Trails universe as the only game set outside the Zemurian continent, so don't expect any surprise cameos. Playing as Nayuta Herschel, this story begins on the oceanic Remnant Island, as the young researcher hopes to discover life beyond the tides. Soon discovering a parallel world, Lost Heaven, he’s joined by an otherworldly fairy, Noi, confronting an emerging threat to both worlds. I only witnessed two cutscenes, so story judgments would be premature but I’m intrigued.

You know this isn’t a tradition RPG because you can jump.

Given how overly eager later Cold Steel games included everything and everyone, giving Nayuta a cleaner slate makes it a much more welcoming place for newcomers to start, but the differences with the rest of the series go beyond the story. The Legend of Nayuta splits its world up into a classic world map with different levels, where completing stages awards up to a 3-star ranking based on your performance. For this preview, I was limited to one level and a boss fight within the Temple of Rieseweld, so I couldn’t dive into the particulars as to if these ranks offer any tangible rewards beyond high scores. 

Exploration involves minor puzzle-solving, like pushing blocks onto switches to activate platforms and jumping across. Just be careful when activating the 'high-speed mode'. Like every modern Trails game, Nayuta lets you play at x3 speed but this doesn’t account for the platforming sections, and this doesn’t work as a result. Things like timing a double-jump on moving platforms at 3x speed feels needlessly difficult, so you may as well turn off high-speed mode at these points.

Hey, buddy… I think you should maybe contact your dentist.

As an action RPG, combat ditches Trails’ usual turn-based system and plays more like Ys, so this isn't a completely alien experience for those familiar with the sprawling NIS catalogue. Beyond Nayuta’s basic attacks, Noi can equip four magic spells through familiar magical attacks called Arts. Each spell has multiple charges but requires a cooldown, so no spamming them and hoping for the best. Cleaving through enemies feels like a nice challenge and at the Temple's boss fight, the encounter was split across three stages, really putting everything I’d learned to the test. 

Ys, I like Trails.

As someone accustomed to modern Falcom games, Nayuta unsurprisingly feels slightly dated, which makes sense considering it was first released in Japan over a decade ago,  but don't let that deter you.  As someone who's played every Trails and Ys game, this isn’t a drastic change either from entries released around the early 2010s and I'm enjoying what I've seen, but you can feel the decade of game design that this game falls behind. Mechanically, Nayuta reminds of Memories of Celceta, Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, and that’s a very good thing. 

I can’t gauge too much from a brief preview so there isn't much else to add, though I already feel at home as a long-standing Falcom fan. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails could have been a more impactful release a decade ago and while I'm worried this late release will see many overlooking it, what I've played feels promising. Between an intriguing story, enjoyable combat and this new setting, I'm excited for the full release.