Trails Beyond the Horizon Might Already Have the Best Character of 2026
No cap.
It’s not every day that playing a video game makes me feel like an old man, despite the fact that my tired eyes start to hurt after just a couple of hours. But a single moment in Trails Beyond the Horizon brought me to a screeching halt, with my jaw hanging open as the “Zoomer” streamer villain I just met threw out a litany of slang words, some of which I’d never even heard before. Trails Beyond the Horizon’s new character, Ulrika, is like staring into the abyss of a broken TikTok algorithm, and while my knee-jerk reaction might have been shock and even a little disdain, over the next 100 hours, I grew to find the character’s bit surprisingly genuine and, admittedly, hilarious. What first felt like a gimmick grew to become one of my absolute favorite parts of the game, enhancing the already distinct personality of the Trails games.
For just a bit of background, Ulrika is a brand-new character introduced in Trails Beyond the Horizon, which is the 13th entry in the long-running series — all of which tell a continuous interconnected story. Across the franchise, there’s a shadowy organization of villains known as Ouroborous — pulling the strings of nearly everything for some unknown purpose. Yes, even after 13 games, we still don’t really know what they’re up to.
Ulrika’s style is based on a Japanese fashion subculture known as “gals” or “gyaru,” that’s known for tanned skin and heavily accessorized looks.
Within Ouroboros is a position known as Enforcer, ultra-powerful people who are given near freedom to do what they want — and because of that, they tend to have, let’s say, quirky personalities. Ulrika is one such enforcer, and fittingly, you only ever interact with her through a computer screen, because she’s quite literally terminally online.
Right off the bat, she hits you with a litany of Gen Z slang, calling protagonist Van Arkride “unc,” and saying her body is so ready for battle, but not in a “sussy” way. Yeah, Ulrika comes off incredibly strong at first, so much so that it’s easy to see the character as a simple gag. But, as time goes on, her whole shtick starts to feel more and more genuine, with real thought put into her writing — especially by the localization team (which I give full props to here).
Ulrika’s abrasive personality fits the weird and wild personalities we’ve seen from Ouroboros across the series — it’s basically an organization made up of Bond villains. But Ulrika has an interesting place in the organization, as she’s highly critical of her own allies — making fun of them just as much as the main party.
But the more you see here interact with her compatriots, you can start to see the threads of theming rear their head — a young person who, despite their skill and knowledge, often feels overlooked by her peers, simply because of her generational differences.
It’s a blast to see how each character interacts with Ulrika, and the nicknames she gives them.
It’s this thoughtfulness that makes Ulrika start to stand out. But there are a couple other levels that Ulrika works on as well.
Hilariously, her power is that she can brainwash people using specific “power words,” turning your allies against you, and following commands. That’s a pretty brilliant little wrinkle for a villain entirely themed around being an “influencer.”
But equally, she’s almost satirizing the classic JRPG trope of the “old man” party member. Cid from Final Fantasy 7 is maybe the most famous example, but Japanese RPGs often feature a party member framed as a crotchety old man, despite not being that old. 28-year-old protagonist Van fills that role in the recent Trails games, often ribbed for his old-fashioned personality. As someone 34, it often makes me feel like I’m turning into dust.
Ulrika’s interactions with not just Van, but the entire party, is a nice little subversion of that trope — suddenly everyone who treats Van like an old man knows exactly what it’s like (and more than one character comments on that).
Equally hilarious is that Ulrika is introduced alongside another new villain, Simeon, who’s the polar oppposite — a dapperly dressed guy obsessed with medieval nostalgia.
There’s all these little layers to Ulrika character and place in the story, making her one of the richest additions Trails Beyond the Horizon makes to the series.
It’s not unreasonable to say that media, largely, is slow to meaningfully depict younger generations — until said younger generations start making the media. Now, I fully realize I’m an aging millennial, but a major theme of Trails has always been the hopefulness of youth. Ulrika feels like that to a tee, but instead of simply being a gag character, her role and behavior is given layers. And it’s equally a great example of why Trails continues to be a groundbreaking RPG franchise.
