Video Game / The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

When heroes, liberators, and hermits fates intertwine.^note Characters in the picture clockwise starting from the top: Lapis Rosenberg, Rean Schwarzer, Swin Abel, Nadia Rayne, Lloyd Bannings, Elie MacDowell, Tio Plato, and Randy Orlando. Centered is the enigmatic C (Actually Rufus Albarea.)

WARNING: Due to the Trails Series being a Long Runner, this page assumes that you have played Trails of Cold Steel IV. The page will be filled with unmarked spoilers from the previous games so be careful of Late Arrival Spoilers ahead.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie^* (英雄伝説 創の軌跡, Eiyuu Densetsu: Hajimari no Kiseki, lit. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Beginnings) is the tenth game of Falcom's long-running Trails Series, taking place five months after the end of the Erebonia arc.

Taking place after the Great Twilight, the story focuses on three different routes: "The Day of Reindependence" (starring Lloyd Bannings, the protagonist of the Crossbell arc), "Lost Symbol" (starring Rean Schwarzer, the protagonist of the Erebonia arc), and "The Miserable Sinners" (starring C, an enigmatic masked character.)

An update was announced on September 17, 2020, revealing more Episodes, characters and levels in the True Reverie Corridor to be added, along with a raised level cap from 180 to 250. It was released on October 1, 2020.

The game was released in Japan, China, and South Korea on August 27, 2020 for the PlayStation 4. Versions for the Nintendo Switch and PC came out on August 26, 2021 for the same regions, courtesy of Clouded Leopard Entertainment. An English release for all previous platforms plus the PlayStation 5 is planned to come out on July 7, 2023, courtesy of NIS America. However, for the impatient, Clouded Leopard and NIS has worked out a deal where they are allowed to sell the PC version with Chinese and Korean GUI in the Americas on Steam, without obstruction from NIS.

A sequel, Kuro no Kiseki, was released in Japan on September 30, 2021.

The official website can be found here.Trailers of the game can be seen here or here, here and here for the English-language version. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie provides examples of:

• Absurdly High Level Cap: You face the Final Boss at around levels 140-150. The original limit is 180. The October DLC raises it to 250 for the Bonus Dungeon.
• Actually a Doombot: A bunch of characters have evil robot versions of themselves who act like they're the real person, known as a simulacrum (singular) or a simulacra (plural). Examples include the clone of Rufus at Crossbell who delivered a Curb-Stomp Battle against the SSS, multiple clones of Arios ^note  (One clone appears in Rean's chapter 3, and 2 clones appear in Rufus's chapter 4) and the clone of McBurn that appears in Lloyd's chapter 3.
• Advertised Extra: Despite being on the promotional videos and posters, the Grandmaster doesn't get involved in the events of Reverie. She only shows up in a post-game Episode similar to Star Door 14 from Sky the 3rd.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Most of the problems in the game's story were brought about by this: Elysion, an intelligent system brought about by the aftermath of Cold Steel IV, tried simulating the Great Twilight scenario, which had the side-effect of simulating the curse of Erebonia, corrupting the system. After the final battle, the ex-administrator of the system, Lapis, decides to delete the whole system as humanity is not ready for it.
• All Just a Dream: The end of the Magical Alisa episode reveals that it was all just a dream from Juna sleeping at her desk. And then her ARCUS II flashes with a brief pink light after she leaves...
• All Myths Are True: A group victory quote between Swin, Nadia, Roselia, and Toval has the four lampshade that their life stories are sold as popular books.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • While the UI of Cold Steel III and IV was really great, it unfortunately lacked a party menu, forcing players to scroll through all the characters one at a time just to pick their characters; made worse by the fact that certain characters have to be on the active party before certain boss fights and some of them are all the way to the end of the list. Reverie now has a dedicated party menu button (left on the D-Pad) so players can shuffle through characters easily.
  • To avoid turning the game into a tedious grind-fest due to the huge character roster, you can obtain EXP boost items in the game that instantly reward amounts of EXP to the recipient to instantly help characters catch up. You can also buy them as DLC. However, characters that are not in your party no longer receive Leaked Experience unlike Cold Steel IV.
• Armor-Piercing Question: During Rean's first chapter, when he and Claire talk alone at the hot springs, Claire asks Rean "whether he's happy." While Rean does claim that he's happy in general about Millium and Crow being alive, and that life has been treating him well, Claire outright tells him that he's lying because she tells him that she's also feeling the same way. Rean then admits that he's actually confused about this happiness and wonders if he deserves to experience it since he still hasn't forgiven himself for triggering the Great Twilight and nearly got the entire continent in a world war back in Cold Steel IV.
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: At the end of the game, Lloyd pulls out his badge to "arrest" Rufus for escaping prison but most importantly, ignoring all the bonds he has formed over the course of his journey.
• Ascended Extra: Rufus Albarea went from a major antagonist and a boss fight throughout the Cold Steel games to the third protagonist of this game.
• Beach Episode: The game lets the combined Class VII (as well as Celine, Duvalie, Elise, and Princess Alfin) put on swimsuits for a "beach vacation" at Mishelam Wonderland, featuring mini-games like splitting a watermelon blindfolded with a wooden sword, or riding a banana boat being pulled by a boat while collecting flags. Through downloadable content, the Special Support Section (as well as KeA and Rixia) can do the same.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: The "Hollow" copies^note As well as the Class VII simulacra fought in Rean's Chapter 4 all have black sclera with golden irises, making them quite similar to both Rean's ogre mode from Cold Steel IV and McBurn's demon form.
• Blade Lock: At the beginning of Rean's chapter 1, Rean engages in this with Matteus Vander before Matteus overpowers him and pushes him back. Kurt then engages this with his dad immediately afterwards.
• Book Ends:
  • Both the first boss and the Final Boss of the base game use the same OST, "Zero Break Battle".
  • Rean's Final Boss fight in Cold Steel I is against Crow in a mech fight. Rean's final boss fight in the main story is in a mech fight alongside Crow and Rufus (also their final time being playable characters in the main game).
  • At the start of the game, Lloyd and the SSS scale up the Orchis Tower to arrest Rufus' guards. At the end of the main game, Lloyd, Jusis, Lapis, Swin, Nadia, and Zeit climb Reverse Babel to "arrest" Rufus and save his life.
• Bonus Dungeon: The True Reverie Corridor is a hub area that you first gain access to in Lloyd and Rean's Chapter 2. This area can also be accessed after the Final Boss for Post-Game Content. While there, you can access dungeons, view Episodes and acquire guest characters and miscellaneous items.
• The Bus Came Back: Characters who were only mentioned in passing in Cold Steel IV, among other individuals, finally come back on-screen:
  • Rixia Mao, as well as Teo and Lucia Schwarzer, were last seen in Cold Steel II.
  • Noel Seeker, Wazy Hemisphere, Henry MacDowell, Alex Dudley, Zeit, Arios MacLaine, Ilya Platiere, Sergei Lou, Fran Seeker, Shizuku MacLaine, Wald Wales, Mireille, Garcia Rossi, Dieter Crois, and Ian Grimwood haven't appeared since Azure, almost a decade prior.
  • And in what's likely the biggest case in this game, Professor Erika Russel was previously on featured in her debut back in The 3rd, meaning that this is her first appearance in 13 years.
• Call-Back: Considering this is the tenth game of a long-running series, this was bound to happen, but a few ones specifically for this game include:
  • Altina recalling that Rixia, Rean, Lloyd, and her all first met at Geofront during the Divertissment in Cold Steel II with Altina noting that because Rixia is in her civilian attire, that means Rean won't be distracted by her Yin attire.
  • Rean recalling that he helped out Juna making pretzels at one point, referring to Juna's bonding event in chapter 4 of Cold Steel III.^note which also answered the question that fans had for a long time as to whether any of the bonding events are canon or not.
    • Also in the same episode, Margarita wanted Millium to help her with her dish for the royal wedding, but couldn't as Millium's spare body was still sleeping at the Black Workshop at that point in time.
  • In the final dungeon, Lloyd deduces that the other Rean they see is another possible future. He explains that he believes that is the case because, as shown in Azure, the SSS died in another timeline.
  • The SSS beach event has Lloyd recalling that he did apply sunscreen to Elie back in Azure, embarassing the both of them.
• Cap:
  • Before the October update, the maximum level of the game was at level 180. After the patch, it is increased to level 250.
  • Meanwhile for experience, the cap is at 99,999 which is not a lot in this game as that amount is only worth around 2-3 levels from level 150 onward.
  • Finally, the damage cap for this game is at 9,999,999.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: For the mech fight against Zoa-Gilstein piloted by Ishmelga-Rean, he will dodge attacks even if it's his weak spot.
• Cool Mask: Curiously enough, C, the main protagonist, wears a prominent one. It breaks at the end of Rean/C's chapter 2, revealing that the one behind the mask is actually Rufus Albarea, who cut his hair short after escaping from prison after Cold Steel IV.
• Crutch Character: A variation: Rean and Rufus are these in the main story with really great crafts, powerful brave orders, and great orbment lines and seeing as they're the protagonists of their route, they're always available. They however cannot be taken to the Final Boss fight as Rean, Crow, and Rufus get taken out of commission (Rean just finishing his fight against Zoa-Gilstein and exhausting himself while Rufus pulls off a Diving Save to save Lapis and the various tech groups to weaken Zoa-Gilstein and Ishmelga-Rean), leaving Lloyd and the rest to deal with Ishmelga. And if players haven't leveled up the rest of the cast because the game doesn't share Leaked Experience, have fun dealing with the Final Boss with the other characters.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Lloyd's first chapter ends with the fake simulacrum of Rufus soundly trashing all of the SSS, Wazy, and Rixia at the same time. And then delivers this to Lloyd who charges at him with one swing of his sword while barely moving from his position. Also, the first three phases of the Final Boss battle with Zoa-Gilstein.
• Cutting Through Energy: When the Tower of Babel fires its Wave-Motion Gun at the Arseille II, Aurelia, Victor, Matteus, Wallace, and Vandyck stop the beam from hitting the ship with nothing but their weapons enchanted by Roselia and Vita.
• D-Cup Distress: A group victory quote between Elie, Rixia, Alisa, and Emma have them discussing this with Alisa suggesting they go to famous brand store that sells better bra sizes.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Due to the presence of the new mechanic "Valiant Rage", the switching stance button went from R2 to L3.
• A Day in the Limelight: Similar to the "Doors" from Sky the 3rd, there are 17 "Episodes" that give certain characters their chance to shine in events that take place in the gap between Cold Steel IV and this game, with more being added later as DLC. Examples include:
  • Path of Escape, Path of Divagation, Path to the Future: An episode focusing on Swin, Nadia, and Rixia.
  • Restart - A Normal Day for the SSS: A day for the founding members of the SSS to get back into their old groove.
  • St. Astraia's Case Files - Myka and the Beautiful Swordsman: Kurt, Juna, Musse, and Elise investigating an incident at St. Astraia.
  • The White Rabbit and the Sleeping Puppet: Millium being reunited with Airgetlam.
  • Radiant Departure: Olivier and Schera getting ready for their wedding.
  • Reunion - A Maiden's Melancholy: Claire, Sharon, and Sara investigating a theft of military technology that may have involvement from Ouroboros.
  • The Fallen Prince: Cedric being trained by Ouroboros to become an Enforcer.
  • New Orbal Gear Development Project Part I: Tita tests a new Orbal Gear.
  • New Orbal Gear Development Project Part II: Tita, the New Class VII girls, and Princess Alfin go through a new level at Einhel, fighting their friends along the way as a test.^note Estelle, Renne, and Kurt are the first group fought, followed by Rean, Ash, and Joshua, and finally Agate at the end.
  • Endless Blade: Rean, Duvalie, and two other members participating in a martial arts tournament. It also reveals how Rean has access to Spirit Unification in the main game.
  • Thors Branch Campus Scholastic Festival: Ash helps out around the Branch Campus' school festival and unwittingly ends up the Student Council President.
  • Memories of a Fiery Gaze: Giliath Osborne's thoughts about his entire life when he became the chancellor through Rean's dreams resonating with the burnt picture of the Osborne family.
• Dénouement Episode: To both the Zero/Azure duology and the Cold Steel tetralogy. Reverie is essentially a standalone title that details the epilogue of Azure and explores the aftermath of Cold Steel IV, all while expanding on the fates of numerous characters and setting up future plot threads.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If a player picks a girl for Rean at the start of his first chapter, then in Rean's episode where his dream resonates with the burnt picture of the Osborne family, whoever is the girl Rean picked will have the photo frame of Rean with said girl in his desk.
  • During chapter 4 of Rean's route, at one point, Rean and another character have to play the Horror Coaster minigame at Mishelam. If players pick anyone else other than Crow, then at the final enemy, Crow shows up and takes care of it by shooting at it. However, if players pick Crow to accompany Rean, then Crow just stands up from his seat and shoots the enemy.
• Disappears into Light: At the end of the game, the simulated Rean from the Normal Ending timeline disappears after Lloyd gives him a fist bump with a smile on his face.
• Disk One Nuke: At the beginning of Rean's chapter 2, there's a Lone Blade quartz underneath the Heimdallr Museum. Players don't even have to fight the optional boss to obtain it as the chest is at the same place where the Magius Master Quartz is located in Cold Steel III.
• Duel Boss: Rean vs the Simulacrum Arios at the climax of chapter 3 of his route, Rufus vs Duvalie at the beginning of chapter 4 of his route, and McBurn vs Demon McBurn at the True Reverie Corridor for his trial door and S-Craft upgrade.
• Dueling Player Characters: This is the case for two battles in Rean/C's chapter 2. This is due to the fact that Rean Route Chapter 2 and C Route Chapter 2 take place at the same time, and are very intertwined.
  • The first occurs in Mater Park. You start out controlling Rean's party fighting C's. Once C's party reaches 50% HP, the battle ends and you get a cutscene. After the cutscene, you switch to C's party fighting Rean's, where you now have to reduce Rean's party to 50% HP.
  • The second occurs in Himmel Cemetary, as shown in the trailers. You start out controlling C's party fighting Rean's. Once Rean's party reaches 50% HP, the battle ends and you get a cutscene. After the cutscene, you switch to Rean's party fighting C's, where you now have to reduce C's party to 50% HP (technically just C but C has so much HP that the rest of his team gets kicked out before C can if players have been hitting the party with attacks that hit the group).
• Early-Bird Cameo: By clearing the expanded True Reverie Corridor, players can read 3 short-stories that give a sneak peek at some characters who will make their proper debut in Kuro no Kiseki: Dingo Brad, René Kincade, Shizuna Rem Misurugi, Kurogane, Elaine Auclair, Agnes Claudel, and Van Arkride.
• Ensemble Cast: While Lloyd, Rean, and C share the spotlight as the three central protagonists of the main game, the unlockable Episodes focusing on the other cast members also take up a decent chunk of the game's content.
• Epiphany Therapy: It took five whole games, two separate talks from both Duvalie (in the tournament episode) and Claire (in his first chapter), facing off against a simulated version of himself, and finally confronting an alternate universe of himself who committed to the Heroic Sacrifice but Rean finally manages to find the answer to his life questions, and consequently rejects the alternate Rean's proposal to sacrifice himself yet again.
• Evil Knockoff: Played with throughout the game:
  • In the main story, Elysion has filled the villains' ranks with quite a few robot copies of several characters. That being said, some of these characters were already evil.
  • The True Reverie Corridor also recreates several characters to serves as bosses, most notably the "Hollow" copies. Again though, some are based on actual villains.
• Extremely Short Timespan: While there's a one month gap between the prologue and the first chapter of the game, the entire main story only happens in a week's time from March 15, 1207 to March 22, 1207. Counting the side stories timeline however avert this as the earliest date shown in-game is, ironically enough, the final side episode where Rean inherits the burnt Osborne family photo, taking place three months after Cold Steel IV.
• Fate Worse than Death: As revealed by Ishmelga-Rean, the Normal Ending version of Rean in Cold Steel IV spent an unknown amount of time fighting against Ishmelga for control while trying to fuse the two together which always ended in failure in the dark corners outside the continent.
• Final Boss:
  • In the main story, Ishmelga-Rean piloting Zoa-Gilstein is this for Rean, Crow, and Rufus. After that, Lloyd and the other 36 characters fight Zoa-Gilstein as "Ishmelga of the End" on foot.
  • The last opponent of the updated True Reverie Corridor is "Demiourgos of the Genesis," which is fought with three teams with 8 characters each.
• Fishing Minigame: For the final fish of the game, Estelle, Lloyd, or Rean are the ones who are allowed to fish it once the rest of the fishes are gathered.
• Girlish Pigtails: One of the group victory quotes has this trope where Estelle, Nadia, KeA, Alfin, and Tio are going to form the twin tail group when Celine reigns them in.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: While the series mostly played this trope straight in earlier games, Reverie begins to invert this trope, as the Erebonian government is reforming itself to avoid the reputation of the evil empire it had in previous games. Meanwhile, hints are shown that Calvard has a shady side that has yet to be dealt with and faces a very real danger of democratic backsliding. Roy Gramheart, the new president of Calvard, is an apparent President Evil implied to be taking advantage of the political capital the Great War's fallout gave him to amass power, and he managed to contact the Grandmaster of Ouroboros and offered a neutrality agreement, where he wouldn't interfere with her Eternal Recurrence Plan for two and a half years if she didn't interfere with his plans during that time. Even more alarmingly, he tries to use the Reverse Babel crisis as a pretext for invading Crossbell, much like when Osborne tried to "assist" Liberl during the Orbal Shutdown Phenomenon. The DLC also gives three short stories foreshadowing the Calvard arc. Renne's story has her transfer to a school in Calvard to investigate the Verne Company, Calvard's equivalent to Reinford, as it refused to participate in a Continental Peace Science Organization ran by the Russell family and Professor Schmidt.
• Grand Theft Prototype: Though it's not exactly a prototype, the SSS manages to hijack a Sorge and have Juna pilot the machine while the SSS ride on its right arm and head.
• Guest-Star Party Member: For Rean and Lloyd's routes, their party changes every chapter until the final chapter so technically whoever joins them ends up becoming this as they leave at the end of the chapter. But the standouts for the main game, not counting the True Reverie Corridor include:
  • During the prologue, Juna is only available for the first battle and then leaves as she assists the hostages of Orchis Tower escape. This leaves the original four members of the SSS to free the rest of Orchis Tower by themselves.
  • Elise joins Rean's party throughout chapter 2 and never returns in the main game unlike everyone else despite being fully customizable when she joins.
  • Aurelia joins partway through Rean's chapter 3 and then gets replaced by Olivert when the party goes to the Courageous II at Nord. Unlike Elise above, if the players didn't obtain either Aurelia or Olivert at the True Reverie Corridor, their loadouts cannot be edited.
• Guide Dang It!: If players are trying to get specific characters at the True Reverie Corridor and don't like the character they got (mainly due to the character's Brave Order or the Master Quartz they come with is terrible and by default, cannot be brought to the main story), then the player is out of luck as Save Scumming doesn't work the normal way if the player has saved their game after beating the special monster that drops the special orbs. Instead, the player has to first save before fighting the special monster, get the yellow orb, and then go back to the main hub and hope to get the character they want.
• Handshake Substitute: Lloyd and Randy pull off one after they have a talk about Randy's failures (his backstory with his friend, Lloyd getting beaten back in chapter 1, and Mirielle in a coma, and Lloyd encouraging him again.
• Hero of Another Story: Swin Abel and Nadia Rayne were first introduced in the "Three & Nine" books found in Cold Steel IV. Reverie's website has their story in the website alongside pictures depicting the events of their story.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Two of the protagonists, Rean and C/Rufus, primarily use swords in contrast to Lloyd who uses tonfas.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • The new mini-game, "Project Tyrfing," acts as a mech simulator to help Rean get used to the new model Panzer Soldat, the "Tyrfing S." The opponents are Fie in a Kestrel Beta, Laura in the Branch Campus' Spiegel S, Gaius in a Hector Mk.II, and finally Crow in his Tyrfing X.
  • The boss of the prologue is Asmodyne, a Magic Soldat developed at the same time as the Leviathan. It was intended as the Imperial Defense Force's trump card against Calvard. A successor model, the Asmodyne Menace, is later shown in the final chapter.
  • Lloyd's route introduces Hermod, a newly developed Magic Soldat that serves the successor to the Sorge and Merkia models. Rufus ends up piloting a custom gold version, the "Hermod G," for the second phase of the final boss battle.
  • Lastly, there's Zoa-Gilstein, the Divine Knight of Zero. It's the combined form of all 7 Divine Knights with Valimar's form as the base, piloted by Ishmelga-Rean. It's later renamed "Ishmelga of the End" after the Ishmelga-Rean portion is taken out of the equation by the Rean the player have been using.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: The entire party suddenly finds themselves mysteriously crying just before Zoa-Gilstein appears at the climax of Rean's chapter 3...
• Irony: After five games, Rean finally learns never to pull off his Martyr Without a Cause tendencies and sacrifice himself to save the world. Only for Rufus to do his Heroic Sacrifice to save the world.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Due to the game's events happening five months after Cold Steel IV, these are inevitable. Examples include: Rean becoming a Divine Blade, Valimar and the other Divine Knights no longer existing, and Osborne being the Reincarnation of Dreichels, to name a few.
• Legacy Character: The new C shares the identity Crow Armbrust created while he was leader of the Imperial Liberation Front. The two eventually end up confronting each other, with Crow clearly not happy someone's chosen to revive his old alias.
• Magical Girl: The minigame Magical Girl Alisa RS fully embodies this trope where the minigame is set in an alternate universe where the characters live in the real world^note Hilariously, it reuses assets from Tokyo Xanadu eX+. Except it turns out it's all just a dream from Juna sleeping at her desk.
• Man Hug: Randy delivers one to Lloyd in chapter 4 of Lloyd's route since he wasn't sure whether he could save Lloyd and Noel. Considering the last time he saw Lloyd he was beaten by Rufus back at the end of chapter 1, it's only natural for Randy to be worried about him.
• Mask of Power: The masks that the Black Workshop uses to brainwash people is back and two people are depicted wearing these in the opening of the game, one of them fighting Rixia.
• Monster Whale: Ark-Kaitos is a large whale-like Cryptid with a temple on its back and the ability to fly. It serves as the boss of both the True Reverie Corridor's 4th Floor^note The last floor pre-update, accessible only after beating the main story and of Machias, Olivier, and Alfin's Trial Door EX.
• Nerf: Various game mechanics have been nerfed from the Cold Steel games.
  • Reverie has made some modifications to various Brave Orders from Cold Steel IV, making them better in some areas, but worst in other areas. For example, Lloyd's Raging Hammer cost has been reduced from 3 BP to 1, but it now only gives a 150% increase in break damage instead of 300%.
  • The most powerful art of the entire series, Chrono Burst, is nerfed to the point that players can no longer spam the art for infinite turns. The art only gives the caster two turns and must end their action on the second turn.
  • The most powerful offensive art, "Albion Wolf," is also hit by this. In Cold Steel III and IV, it removes all positive buffs first with its "All Cancel" attribute before inflicting damage, making it an unstoppable nuke. Reverie has this skill be useless against "Perfect Reflect", preventing damage bypass.
• New Transfer Student: The St. Astraia side episode has Juna, Musse, and Kurt temporarily transfer to the school to investigate the mysterious reason of why the students suddenly are in a coma.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: Reverie reuses a lot of assets from Cold Steel III and IV, from character models to areas to the battle system.
• Nuke 'em: What happens to Juno Naval Fortress; reduced to a crater after a blast from Reverse Babel that's located all the way over in Crossbell. Turns out the rock of Juno wasn't very solid after all...
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Victor, who at this point has lung disease and has only one arm, teams up with Arios and defeats Cassius Bright and Zechs Vander in an unofficial tournament in Rean and Duvalie's side episode.
• Optional Boss: Taking the place of Cold Steel II and IV's "Trial Chests" are the 10 "Trial Doors," optional battles involving select party members having to fight against certain boss characters. If the player wins, each character used will get one updated Craft (some of which are S-Crafts). The update would later add in "Trial Door EX," 8 more battles that cover all characters playable in the True Reverie Corridor that weren't featured in the original 10.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being the completed version of the Great One and packing a lot of punch in all of its attacks, Zoa-Gilstein is only around the size of a Goliath Noa. This is in stark contrast to both Ark Rouge and Lost Zem, who were massive behemoths by comparison.
• Power Gives You Wings: The proper second phase of the fight against Zoa-Gilstein has the mech sprouting wings on its back.
• Promoted to Playable: A few characters in the previous arc make their playable debuts in this one. Notably, Rufus Albarea is a major playable character thanks to being the new C's true identity, both Cedric and Freddy are playable in side stories (interestingly, the former is only controlled in battle while the latter is only controlled on a field), and (the real) McBurn is a DLC character.
• Purposefully Overpowered: At the climax of chapter 3's boss fight, Nadia gains a second Brave Order that is hands down the most powerful BO in the game as it grants an increase of 700% to break damage, all stats buff for five turns and it only costs 2 BP. It's gone after the fight is over, however.
  • Also,the DLC character Mc Burn is the most powerful party member in the series, fitting for his title as the strongest character in the series. He has insane stats even without Quartz, he gets even better when you start giving him Quartz, he is good at both physical and magic damage, he has one of the most powerful S-Crafts in the series getting up to 6S damage, he has a regular craft with SS in both damage and break, he has a ridiculously powerful self-buff that gives him a large STR, ATS, and Speed buff, 150% HP recovery,and 100 CP immediately, and his Brave Order, for the cost of the entire Order gauge, gives the party 100% crit and 100 CP.
• Relationship Upgrade: After years of being Implied Love Interests for each other, Randy can be seen proposing to Mirielle during the credit sequence. And a later picture shows him with a ring on his finger, proving that she said yes!
• The Reveal:
  • C is actually Rufus Albarea, who plans on pulling a Zero-Approval Gambit and take the blame for the events of this game, as well as the events of Azure and the Cold Steel games, to atone for what he's done.
  • The Eighth Awakener, Ishmelga-Rean, is a What If? scenario of the Rean from Cold Steel IV's Normal Ending made real thanks to it hijacking the Elysion system.
• Rotating Protagonist: The game cycles between three different routes focusing on Lloyd, Rean, and C. The player can generally switch between them freely, but there are times where they must get to a certain point in one route to continue with another route.
• Say My Name: Happens to all three protagonists where someone will scream their name. Examples include KeA screaming Lloyd's name at the end of Lloyd's chapter 1, Alisa, Crow, and Lloyd screaming Rean's name at three different occasions (Alisa screaming Rean's name in the Cold Steel IV Normal Ending vision Rean watches in his chapter 4, Crow screaming Rean's name when Ishmelga-Rean tries one last desperate attack against Rean in their final battle, and Lloyd when his team gets separated from Rean's team when entering the final dungeon), and Lapis with Rufus after he gets nuked by the Heavenly Thunder in a simulated vision.
• Scarf of Asskicking: The mysterious man in bandages, who looks like a long-haired Rean, wears a red scarf. It's later revealed that it is indeed Rean, or rather, a simulation of the Rean from Cold Steel IV's Normal Ending.
• Schmuck Bait: During Rean's duel against Zoa-Gilstein, players are automatically partnered up with Altina, whose first art gives the mech one Perfect Craft Reflect. Using this art causes Zoa-Gilstein to use its bow that deals multi-hit damage and the craft reflect will only reflect one hit while the rest passes through.
• Sea Sinkhole: The destruction of Juno Navel Fortress by the Heavenly Thunder leaves behind a massive hole in the surrounding waters.
• Sequel Hook: As this game is supposed to bridge the Erebonia arc with the Calvard arc, this is inevitable. But some highlights included in the new episodes, as well as the game itself show:
  • And So, The Girl with Sword in Hand Presses Forward - Beyond the Genesis: A newly introduced A-Rank Bracer who breaks Sara's record for becoming the youngest A-Rank Bracer who encounters a man who wants to inject fear into the hearts of man after he was inspired by the Tower of Babel incident that happens in Reverie.
  • Grandmaster Episode: Heavy implications that President Gramheart is a power-hungry demagogue, which is a terrible omen for Calvard's democracy given the popularity the Great War and its aftermath gave him.
  • Another Hot Spring Town - Beyond the Genesis: A character named "Princess" who is capable of breaking Rean's tachi.
  • That Girl's Ordinary School Life - Beyond the Genesis: Renne being the Student Council President in a Calvard academy who is investigating why the Verne company isn't joining the West Zemuria Technology Federation and Dingo, a Calvardian journalist who helps out Renne uncovering government scandals.
  • The credits show The New ILF traveling to Calvard after Rufus can no longer get inside Erebonia after he's declared to be dead.
• Smashing Watermelons: One of the minigames at the Mishelam episode is the boys of both Class VII and SSS in their respective episodes doing this. Specifically, Rean or Lloyd do the first split and then the chosen male companion does the second split. The minigame rewards the players with the swimsuit and the blindfold for the men.
• Story and Gameplay Segregation:
  • In general, if the player switches a character's outfit, there's a decent chance the game will switch the character back into the outfit they're supposed to be wearing for that particular cutscene before switching back to the one the player has equipped.
  • On successive playthroughs, the player can take off C's mask during the portions before his identity is revealed. However, his voice will still be distorted during the cutscenes.
• Superdickery: At the start of Rean's chapter, it depicts Rean and Kurt dueling Matteus Vander which ends with Kurt getting flung off the cliff of the Eisengard Mountain Range. Meanwhile, Claire starts shooting both Juna and Altina with a sniper rifle. When Juna wonders how they got to that situation, the game cuts back to 10 hours ago when Rean's chapter finally starts.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes:
  • The other Rean has gold irises as Ishmelga-Rean.
  • These are also present on the "Hollow" characters.
• Supporting Protagonist: While Lloyd and Rean do play major roles, C and his party are the main focus of the game.
• Tagline: "Where one trail ends, another begins."
• Take My Hand!: Noel does this to Lloyd to save him from the burning Reinford Factory while riding a bike.
• Taking You with Me: Ishmelga decides to blow up all of Zemuria after Lapis decides to destroy the Elysion system for good, claiming that humanity isn't ready for it. This forces Rufus to stay behind to pull off a Zero-Approval Gambit to save Zemuria at the cost of his life.
• Time Skip: Five months have passed between the end of Cold Steel IV and the main story of Reverie. After the prologue, another month passes before the first chapter begins.
• Tournament Arc: The Episode "Eternal Sword" which features Olivert hosting one, with Rean, Duvalie, and two other party members participating against characters like Arios, Cassicus, Victor, and Aurelia.
• Trap Door: During Rean's journey inside the Castle of Mirrors in his fourth chapter, his party ends up falling into one. Unlike the last two times however where Thanks for the Mammary was involved, nothing like that happens.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Lloyd and Rean make the same speech when entering the final dungeon to their respective group as Lloyd, KeA, Rufus, Nadia, and 17 other characters chosen by the player get separated from Rean, Lapis, Swin, and the remaining 17 people due to Zoa-Gilstein's interference.
• The Unreveal: When the Rean freed from Ishmelga's influence is about to tell Lloyd what is going to happen three years from the game's events, Lloyd tells him to not say anything as they've already rejected Elysion's guidance.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The main weapon of Reverse Babel, the Heavenly Thunder, allows it to nuke any part of Zemuria as demonstrated when it nukes Juno Naval Fortress which is all the way near the western part of the Zemuria continent.
• Wham Line: During the fight against Zoa-Gilstein, everyone is on the ropes, only for Rean in his Tyrfing S to charge in anyway and actually managing to injure it, surprising Ishmelga-Rean and everyone else. Then one line manages to turn a Hopeless Boss Fight into a Heroic Second Wind.
  Valimar: Well said, Rean.
• Wham Shot:
  • A gameplay example but in Zoa-Gilstein's boss fight, players may attack one of Zoa-Gilstein's parts and Zoa-Gilstein may dodge an attack, making players think that it's not its weakspot for that particular stance (as it is tradition in the mech fights in the Cold Steel games. Only for the next character to attack Zoa-Gilstein and players may notice that the part they targeted was a four star rating.
  • In chapter 4, if players first played Lloyd's route before Rean's route, then at the end of Lloyd's route, Rean shows up with a different hair and eye color, just like at the end of Rean's third chapter.
• What If?: Actually deconstructed, as the Elysion system made a simulation of Cold Steel IV's Normal Ending, where Rean merged with Ishmelga. The simulation then promptly takes control of the system, and becomes the Big Bad of the game.
• The World Is Not Ready: This is Lapis' reasoning for why she's destroying the Elysion system for good as Ishmelga desperately asks her why she's doing it when the Elysion system is guiding humanity to better heights.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: One of the side episodes has Kurt crossdressing while he, Juna, and Musse enter St. Astraia.
  • A group victory quote with Wazy, Joshua, Kurt, and Swin has the former lampshading the times when the latter three have worn a maid, a schoolgirl uniform, and a goth loli without him knowing as he thinks it suits them. The latter three obviously object to this.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: When Rean finally meets his Normal Ending self in the latter's world, they end up talking for a few minutes with Rean rejecting the offer to take Ishmelga's power and do what his Normal Ending self did in order to save the world. When it goes back to their Single-Stroke Battle with Rean's Tyrfing-S VS Ishmelga-Rean's Zoa-Gilstein, the entire thing only lasts for a second.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Lloyd's first chapter in the game ends with Simulacrum Rufus stomping him and the SSS and then declares that he will conquer the world with Crossbell at the center.
• You Do Not Want To Know: Inverted trope. In his last moments, the Rean simulated from the Elysion system wanted to tell Lloyd, Jusis, and company about what's going to happen in the future. Lloyd however tells him to not say anything as they've already rejected Elysion's guidance.
• Zerg Rush: The Tower of Babel spawns endless amounts of mechs to fight off against the Crossbell Police, Red Constellation, Zephyr, Ouroboros, both Thors campus, the Merkabahs, and finally the Arseille II.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Rufus pulls off one at the end of the game, focusing all of the hatred of the world to destroy the Tower of Babel while he was still inside it. He was committed to dying himself since there was only a few minutes left before the beam comes down to him when Lloyd, Jusis, Lapis, Swin, Nadia, and Zeit go back and pick him up through some miracle.

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