The Legend of Heroes: Trails series has been a wild ride, celebrating its 20-year anniversary! I also just wanted to congratulate Falcom on this wonderful milestone and thank you for all the joy the series has brought me. This leads to an interesting question. Where do you take a series that has been around as long as Trails? Thankfully, Falcom had most of the right solutions in mind and captured what makes the series so grand yet again. With a location that’s only ever been discussed in the background, a fresh new set of fantastic characters, and new refinements to the turn-based combat the series is famous for, Trails into Daybreak proves that the series still has plenty of juice left in the tank.
Trails into Reverie helped us close the Erebonia saga in grand fashion, giving us a sense of finality and adding some fun new elements to the combat and side activities. Taking place one year after the events of Reverie, we shift our central focus to The Calvard Republic, where, once again, fate is in play. Agnes, a student with a secretive family history, turns to Van Arkride. Van’s skills and talents make him a Spriggan, a detective-like position that allows him to handle jobs that fall into a gray area. While Van regularly skirts the limits of what is legal, he is not without a moral compass, and his companions play well in his decisions. There’s a dichotomy in this particular cast that I fell in love with, and it involves the characters’ ages. In the earlier portion of the story, most of Van’s new associates are younger quite a bit younger than Van. I love how none are ever 100% out of the loop or required to “be rescued.” Those who come in later who are Van’s age or older complement the team further with their experiences in their respective fields. This makes the team well-rounded in skill sets, personalities, and experiences. Arkride Solutions is a great group in a series full of unique groups. I never felt the story suffered from pacing issues and questionable writing decisions. The dialogue is well-written, and the English Voice cast has done a fantastic job bringing everyone to life.
Trails Through Daybreak introduces some interesting new wrinkles to a very well-established battle system. While the arts, crafts, and bonus effects or hazard returns in Daybreak, it is not the only factor to consider. While you engage enemies in the field, you can inflict damage and stun in real-time. While this seems tacked on at first, Daybreak takes a page out of Ys’ book. By dodging just before being hit, you get a full heavy attack that inflicts massive stun. Next, you can use a new system known as “Shards.” Shards trap enemies in a field and trigger the more familiar turn-based combat. If you wish, you can actually DISENGAGE the shard and return to the real-time attack style. This allows tactical retreats, a chance to heal, and a lot of other strategies. The link and quartz systems return but have new features and trigger requirements. Like previous Trails games, you can equip new quartz to increase stats and gain bonus effects. Artes are now equipable based on the core you choose. However, you do not gain arts from quartz equipment, but you gain shard skills. For example, if you equip enough fire quartz in the attack line of your orbment, you can add a fire attack skill that has a percentage to trigger, adding fire damage to your attacks. This grants a ton of potential builds and ways to empower your characters. This required a bit more thought as Daybreak moved on, and I imagine that higher difficulties will be crucial to success. The positioning is also now more important than it’s ever been as well. Certain crafts can grant you bonuses for flank or back attacks, and to use a link attack or skill empowerment requires you to be within a certain distance of your allies. These new additions are fantastic and add a lot of not only depth, but a lot of fun to the combat as well.
Some of the smaller features make Trails Through Daybreak a cozy experience to play. Over time, Falcom has added features to their games that add convenience. Features like the double movement speed and well-timed auto advance for dialogue. If you wish to quickly get to the next gameplay segment you can move quickly through and stop, if necessary. The menu design is snappy and easy to read, allowing quick perusing and decision-making. The ability toggle running and walking is nice because you no longer have to hold the button if you wish to run for long periods. This option is available to you if you prefer the old method. Visually, while the leap from reveries isn’t massive in raw fidelity, improvements to lighting and more advanced character models allow the snazzy new designs to shine. The strong sense of place the series has always masterfully captured is still here, with all the parts of Calvard visited feeling inspired. Also, the average fashion sense in this game is almost bewilderingly good. So many NPCs with fantastic clothing styles, not to mention the main cast is (generally) great. Trails through Daybreak is also very well optimized. I never encountered load times more than a few seconds, and that was only for boss encounters that had the story at the start of them. I encountered a few small hiccups during combat, but it’s only being mentioned because everything else went smoothly. Daybreak’s biggest assets, though, are still the characters, the overall story, and the combat system.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is another fantastic entry in the long-running series. While many of the improvements in the non-combat section are not incredible strides, the overall satisfaction of the game from its story, cast, and updated combat cannot be understated. I had a great time with my playthrough of this game, and I cannot wait for the next installment to see where Van and his new team are going.
