Nayuta is an interesting game. One of the last PSP games, The Legend of Nayuta was never released in English until now and seeing it on a modern console shows how approachable some of Falcom’s older titles still are. In it, you play Nayuta, a young boy on an island whose parents have died and he was left alone with his sister, friends, and an extended family of islanders. His head is always in the clouds and he’s often distracted while thinking about the science that led to his parents’ demise. Naturally, this leads to a much larger adventure while Nayuta searches for Lost Heaven, a mythical land of fairies. Nayuta’s home island is strange too. Remnant Isle is well off the beaten path and strange ruins plummet from the sky there on a regular basis, landing in the ocean and forming the island itself.
It’s from here that Nayuta manages to follow in his parents’ footsteps and the game takes off. But where is the ‘Trails’ content, you ask? Well, there isn’t any. While The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails sounds like a Legend of Heroes game, it doesn’t share any familiar landmarks or characters. Officially, the game is part of the Trails series, but it doesn’t play like any other titles and feels more like an Ys game than anything else. If you were hoping for another installment of The Legend of Heroes, you might as well put those hopes away for now. You’re definitely not getting one here.
However, what you are getting is a rousing action game with some light RPG elements and a decent story. The Legend of Nayuta is heavily focused on action, broken down into short levels. While the game looks a lot like Ys 7 which was made around the same time. Gameplay is similar to Ys Origin or Oath in Felghana however, even if the visuals don’t match. That transitional 3D looks pretty good here in HD however. Once you work your way through the initial story, Nayuta opens up into a level-based exploration game. There are four main worlds in the game and each consists of multiple stages and a boss at the end. That seems pretty short until you find out that as you progress, you unlock the ability to change the seasons and as you switch from spring to summer to fall to winter, the enemies get harder and the level layouts change.
Each stage has a series of goals as well, including three gems to find for extra cash, a treasure box, and a specific goal such as completing the level in a certain time or beating a certain number of enemies. Complete the goals and you can get up to three flags per stage. Every six flags lets you go back to the swordmaster on Remnant Isle who teaches you a variety of new techniques that allow you to progress further in the game. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is set up like a cross between a Ys game and a vintage metroidvania. To properly progress, you’ll need to revisit levels, go back to stages you’ve beaten with new powers to unlock things you couldn’t access, and zip back and forth between worlds to complete tasks and requests. Within the levels, things are a bit more cut and dried however. Kill everything that moves and make it to the stage end warp. While you’re at it, collect as much cash as you can because you’ll need it to upgrade your weapons and armor along with your partner Noi’s gear. Noi has magic as well and in some stages you’ll find new magic and abilities, allowing her to blow through different barriers in order to progress or just making combat that much easier.
While Nayuta’s powers get progressively more complex and combat requires more and more attention to detail, The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails isn’t a complex game. The story moves forward steadily and the levels are laid out clearly. Sometimes you’ll have to figure out how to shift seasons to get the result you want or go hunting around Remnant Isle for a while, but that’s to be expected. What’s important to know is that gameplay is fun and responsive and most of Nayuta’s powers are fairly easy to use if you can remember the simple button combinations. You’re not going to have three characters to utilize here like in Ys and you’re not going to get a deep nuanced storyline like the Trails games either. Instead, The Legend of Nayuta is kind of a bastardization of the two approaches that feels somewhat closer to Ys and could occasionally pass for a vintage PS1 platformer like Pandemonium or Klonoa. That’s certainly not a dig however, as the platforming aspects of Nayuta are certainly fun and well-made.
Visually, The Legend of Nayuta is a bit dated but in a charming way. Since this is originally a PSP game, you should expect some older graphics but NIS has done one heck of a job spit-polishing the game and the graphics look fantastic even if the polygons are a little bigger and blockier than we’ve all become used to. Colors are crisp and bright and Boundless Trails always feels vibrant and alive. Character portraits are particularly detailed and look like they’re straight out of an anime as well, adding a bit more depth to the storyline. The camera definitely still feels like it’s on the PSP however. Unlike Ys, Nayuta has a fixed camera system that makes it hard to spot hidden items and pathways unless you’re paying close attention. This fixed perspective definitely feels dated but the gameplay is designed around it and stages hide many of the hidden items in plain sight through this programming trick. It’s a shame that there was no way to add a dynamic camera to Nayuta, but unfortunately, it would likely require a complete redesign of the game.
Boss fights are engaging too, with bosses which feature multiple attack styles and change as their hit points drop. The bosses are huge and it really feels like an accomplishment to beat them, even on normal difficulty. Some of the attack patterns are particularly fun and interesting as well, and boss fights are definitely one of the high points of Boundless Trails. The scope of the overall game is huge even though the stages make levels feel tight and constrained. The freedom of the Ys games is definitely missing here and that’s a shame because it makes Nayuta feel somehow lesser than it actually is.
Of course, no review of a Falcom game would be complete without discussing the music. Falcom is know for absolutely incredible soundtracks and the JDK team in particular has been well-known for decades. This is a Sound Team JDK soundtrack, but surprisingly, it’s not one of their best works. There’s something about the Ys and Legend of Heroes soundtracks that surpasses expectations and it’s just not here in The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails. That’s not to say that this is a bad soundtrack by any means, but it’s definitely different than you might expect. Songs start off whimsical and light, but as you progress and Nayuta grows in ability, the soundtrack shifts to one that’s a bit more on-brand for the JDK Team. It’s definitely solid, but you’re not as likely to rush out and listen to this one as you are to say, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV or Ys VII: Lacrimosa of Dana.
There’s a unique feel to The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails that other Trails games don’t have however. It feels like a small-town version of those other games. Ys games feel like grand adventures and The Trails of Cold Steel games and spinoffs feel like a complex web of political machinations, but Nayuta is neither of those. Instead it’s more like a small-scale vintage PS1 RPG telling a more concise story. Think more of a Grandia or Granstream Saga vibe (if you’re familiar with those) and you’ll get the idea. Naturally it doesn’t play like those games but the feel is similar. It’s a game from a previous era and it absolutely shows but that’s not necessarily a bad thing and The Legend of Nayuta is different enough that it easily stands on its own and doesn’t feel cliché, even after all these years. With solid music and visuals, and excellent gameplay, this is another timeless entry in the Falcom library that we finally get to play in the West.
With The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless, you’re getting vintage Falcom gameplay that drops a whole new world into the Trails series. While it doesn’t intersect with other Trails games and its roots are definitely more akin to Ys action games, there’s still a possibility we’ll see Falcom incorporate Nayuta into the larger Trails world at some point. NIS America has done a great job with the translation and conversion for Western audiences too. The game plays smoothly and loads quickly on the Switch as well and it’s honestly a delightful and balanced gameplay experience that is challenging but never unfair. At only $40, you’re getting a 20-30 hour adventure that’s a refreshing throwback to earlier gaming days and noticeably fun. That’s definitely good value, so don’t skip out on The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails! This is one title you’re going to want to have in your library!
This review is based on a digital copy of The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is also available on PS4 and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.