Game of the Month: Trails beyond the Horizon (January 2026)

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Update [February 9th, 2026, 5:00 PM]: The voting has finished, and the results were incredibly tight!

Let’s start with some exciting news: Trails beyond the Horizon is our Game of the Month for January 2026! We’re thrilled to announce it before diving into the specifics.

Falcom’s newest Trails game is being hailed as one of the best in the series for a long time, and as dedicated fans, we’re thrilled to see it finally getting the praise it deserves.

So, we just finished up our Game of the Month poll, and you guys really came through – over 570 votes! But get this – it’s the first time ever that we had a tie for first place. Seriously, a tie! It’s pretty wild.

Trails beyond the Horizon and Cairn tied in the voting, so we used our review scores to determine the winner.

We rated Trails beyond the Horizon an 8/10, calling it ‘great,’ and Cairn a ‘good’ 7/10. This made Trails beyond the Horizon the better of the two games.

For reference, these were the top five PS5 games of January 2026, according to our readers:

  1. Trails beyond the Horizon – 173 votes (30%)
  2. Cairn – 173 votes (30%)
  3. Code Vein 2 – 99 votes (17%)
  4. Arknights: Endfield – 42 votes (7%)
  5. Highguard – 36 votes (6%)

Trails beyond the Horizon is a truly exciting game. It’s the culmination of everything the previous games, Trails through Daybreak and Trails through Daybreak 2, have been building towards, and delivers some incredibly important moments for the entire series.

We’re thrilled for Van and his growing team! We’re hoping the next Trails game is just as successful.

We’re launching our Game of the Month campaign for 2026, and we want you to help us pick the best games of the year! Get ready for what we hope will be a fantastic year of gaming.

Let’s kick things off with January – it was a pretty calm start to the year. However, a few excellent games came out on PS5, and we want you to tell us which one was your favorite!

I’ve been so excited for Trails beyond the Horizon – it’s the newest JRPG in the long-running Falcom series! And honestly, everyone’s saying it’s one of the best installments in the current story arc, and I totally agree!

2XKO then launched on consoles, offering a surprisingly good fighting game that doesn’t cost anything to play. Shortly after, Arknights: Endfield arrived – another free-to-play game, this time a gacha RPG, and it’s been very popular with fans of that style of game.

I’ve been thinking about Highguard, and while some people worry about how long it’ll stay popular, it’s definitely worth checking out. Then there’s Cairn – it’s totally different! It’s all about carefully planning your climbs, and it’s surprisingly relaxing, even though it’s still a good challenge. It’s a really unique experience.

We finished January by trying out Code Vein 2. While it didn’t quite click with us, we suspect many of you are having a great time with its action-packed, anime-style gameplay.

Okay, so I’m really curious – what game did you all think was the best of January 2026? I just voted in the poll, and now I want to hear why everyone else picked what they did! Let’s chat in the comments and explain our choices!

Voting closes on Monday the 9th February 2026, at 00:00 GMT.

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2026-02-09 20:07