Starting a recent chapter in a long-running online game sequence should be a frightening endeavor for a developer. How do you comply with up 20 years of worldbuilding and deeply intertwined tales with a brand new setting and solid? It’s a troublesome query that The Legend of Heroes: Trails via Daybreak solutions confidently, kicking off an thrilling new arc that each newcomers and veterans can equally get pleasure from after 2023’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie introduced the sequence’ earlier saga to a satisfying conclusion. With an up to date fight system that fuses turn-based battles with some new real-time parts, an interesting story, and an enthralling solid of characters, Trails via Daybreak shines as one more nice RPG in a 12 months packed stuffed with them.
Daybreak follows a mercenary named Van Akride who finds himself on a grand journey that’s noticeably darker in tone than earlier Trails arcs. He takes on the soiled jobs native regulation enforcement aren’t capable of deal with, and generally even work from underground organizations – issues like negotiating offers with shady middlemen or looking bounties. That’s a welcome change from the sequence’ previous protagonists, who’ve tended to be a bit unrealistically altruistic.
The story itself effortlessly weaves topical themes into your actions, with shadowy figures profiting from anti-immigrant sentiment to achieve energy and the meteoric rise of a brand new mafia group threatening the established order of the underground world. These themes aren’t fully obvious early on in Van’s journey, however he finally begins to appreciate simply how a lot affect the completely different factions of this world have, making Daybreak really feel extra like an engrossing political drama the deeper you go.
This is a good leaping in level for the Trails sequence, free from the shackles of getting to straight connect with earlier video games, however Daybreak does additionally deal with longtime followers like myself by incorporating lore from them when it fits the story. For instance, it takes place within the Republic of Calvard, a spot referenced in earlier Trails video games however by no means truly proven. Similarly, when Van fights towards the native mafia early on, they take efficiency enhancing medication to get an edge on him, and he deduces that they might be just like those that the native gangs in Crossbell took, referencing each Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure. It’s a implausible approach to preserve this universe interconnected whereas making a clean slate to work with for brand new tales.
The lovable, tight-knit solid of important characters helps set the stage, too. Some standouts embrace a younger woman named Feri Al-Fayed, who Van takes in after she is exiled from her village, slowly rising to simply accept her teammates as her second household all through the story. A private favourite of mine is the enjoyable Grimcat, who’s clearly an homage to Persona 5’s Ann, sporting a skintight go well with and cat masks. (Grimcat even calls herself a “phantom thief.”) Her sturdy willed character amusingly contrasts together with her position because the comedian reduction – she’s a horrible liar and sometimes slips up when attempting to speak her approach out of a state of affairs, which isn’t one thing you’d anticipate out of a supposedly slick trickster.
It’s additionally nice that Daybreak’s comparatively smaller solid means every character’s improvement is rather more targeted. They’re capable of get extra consideration all through the story and have room to develop, which is one thing the Cold Steel arc particularly had bother dealing with as its storyline progressed and its solid ballooned. Veterans will catch just a few character cameos from the earlier Cold Steel, Sky, and Crossbell arcs in supporting roles as nicely, however they’re well positioned in order to not steal the highlight or alienate newcomers.
When you’re not tied up within the political intrigue of the primary story, you’ll be finishing varied facet quests that may earn you factors in direction of Van’s Law, Gray, or Chaos stats. These are framed as a type of morality system, however they function extra equally to the way in which Persona handles its social stats. Certain facet quests give out predetermined values for these stats, and you’ll see which can enhance earlier than accepting them – nevertheless, they’re all value accepting and finishing anyway, as having a excessive stage in a single alignment doesn’t lock out the advantages from the others. This method affords a higher diploma of freedom because you received’t really feel such as you’re being railroaded into one single morality path.
It additionally provides an additional layer of depth to Van’s character and influences how he handles sure encounters outdoors of his default cool, bad-boy demeanor. Some quests allow you to resolve how they finish, offering further factors to a sure alignment based mostly in your alternative. For instance, one quest has you chasing down a cashier who’s stealing cash from his job, however it seems he was being extorted by another person: You have the choice to encourage the cashier to return the cash and are available clear because the Law method, or take the Gray route and return the cash however preserve it a secret. Because I didn’t really feel pressured into following a strict path like with the morality programs of another video games, I cherished that I might choose the choice that I’d most definitely do if I used to be in Van’s footwear. (If the cash is again the place it belongs and the enterprise remains to be working, nobody is damage and ever has to know, proper?)
Daybreak’s quests additionally present nice worldbuilding. One notably enjoyable one has Van’s celebration journey to a secluded island to clear its monsters so vacationers can safely discover. In an amusing twist, a tour information seems and offers the celebration a guided expedition whereas they’re busy combating. They’ll periodically cease at sure factors to explain native legends, however whereas the celebration retains hoping to be taught enjoyable info, every of the tour information’s tales as an alternative entails one thing horrifying, similar to individuals getting devoured by monsters when a excessive tide happens or a sure cavern being named “Death’s Head” as a result of it was plagued by human stays. The size and energy that these facet quests go to in an effort to make them genuinely entertaining is among the finest elements of the sequence.
Later on, relying on how excessive Van’s morality is in sure alignments, you’ll be able to select to group up with sure factions. While choosing any given faction doesn’t change the general story, Van’s resolution could make battles simpler for that particular chapter. Some factions have stronger playable characters that may make the enemy encounters and executives a cakewalk when you have entry to them. On the flip facet, the faction I picked had two purely AI-controlled characters, so generally it was irritating not having the ability to give them direct instructions after I wanted to. Choosing sure factions over others additionally results in distinctive character interactions, which provides some enjoyable replayability for future playthroughs.
One of the most important gameplay adjustments in Daybreak is its battle system, which is now a hybrid between real-time and turn-based fight. On the sector, you’ll be able to run as much as enemies and begin hitting them, however you can even provoke turn-based fight on the press of a button any time. By breaking their shields first, you’ll begin the turn-based portion in an advantageous state, with enemies dazed and unable to behave for a short while. Unfortunately, these real-time parts are very rudimentary; regular hits and charged assaults that stun enemies are all you are able to do moreover dodging. It will get extremely repetitive over a 50-plus-hour RPG, and I want extra choices have been launched all through the marketing campaign to maintain the real-time moments from stagnating.
However, the turn-based fight picks up the slack because of some noticeable enhancements over its predecessors. Loading screens are gone outdoors of boss battles, so fights in Daybreak transition seamlessly from the sector to battle. It’s a lot smoother now that the celebration isn’t magically whisked away to a separate dimension only for battles; the battlefield is similar actual measurement because the room Van was in when he encountered an enemy.
This battle system additionally sees the return of the sequence’ timeline mechanic, which is comparatively unchanged however simply as nice as ever. Bonuses land in random spots within the motion timeline, so if you happen to see {that a} crucial hit bonus goes to land on the enemy’s flip, you’ll be able to cleverly manipulate the order through the use of an assault with the Delay impact, pushing the enemy’s place and hopefully having the icon land on one among your allies as an alternative. This makes for some extremely partaking battles because it’s necessary to benefit from these bonuses each time you’ll be able to, particularly throughout boss fights and different excessive problem moments.
Another welcome change is that characters are now not required to make use of up their flip to easily transfer across the battlefield, and may as an alternative roam freely inside a sure motion vary. While transferring your celebration into advantageous positions earlier than attacking isn’t precisely a brand new RPG idea, this tweak opens up an entire new side of tactical gameplay when mixed with Trails’ already wonderful fight mechanics.
For instance, Van’s Stun Slash has the Impede impact, which may disrupt enemies in the course of casting spells, however it additionally does extra harm when Van hits an enemy from their flank reasonably than the entrance or again. That provides it a twin goal, letting you select whether or not to extend your harm by prioritizing positioning together with your new motion choices, or utility by specializing in manipulating the order of the timeline. It helps some assaults keep helpful even when their major results don’t apply in sure conditions, which wasn’t all the time the case in earlier Trails video games since transferring round counted as its personal motion.
Daybreak’s customization system affords loads of flexibility in the way you construct out every character’s stats and talents with completely different gems. What’s nice in regards to the customization is that it may be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be. Every gem has a component related to sure stats and talents, which may then be positioned in any of the 4 customization strains of every character: Weapon, Shield, Drive, and EX. For instance, pink gems are related to the hearth component and have traits that profit bodily attackers, in addition to give them fire-based attributes when positioned in sure strains.
It’s all tremendous and dandy if you happen to merely need to slot within the pink Attack +1 gem in any obtainable slot because the character will get the assault stat enhance it doesn’t matter what. If you need to take it a step additional, nevertheless, it’s essential to be strategic in the place you place your gems. Daybreak introduces Shard Skills, which act like passive buffs influenced by the completely different line choices. Placing a pink gem within the Weapon line has an opportunity of including fireplace elemental harm to regular assaults, whereas placing them within the Shield line boosts your probabilities of avoiding the Burn standing. Knowing methods to make the most of these passive buffs may be the distinction between successful and shedding, particularly throughout late-game boss battles and when enjoying on greater difficulties
The approach gems and Shard Skills synergize additionally makes customization enjoyable. Activating extra highly effective Shard Skills requires meticulous gem placement. Burst Gain, for instance, has an opportunity of recovering HP when attacking, however requires each a pink gem and water-based blue gem within the Weapon line to unlock. I might fortunately lose monitor of time optimizing every character and attempting completely different mixtures.
Bonding occasions referred to as Connections make a return in Daybreak, letting your protagonist casually hang around with different characters throughout their free time, which is all the time plenty of enjoyable – particularly for returning followers. In one standout scene, Van catches up with Rene, his pal inside Calvard’s intelligence division, and finally ends up discussing a double agent of theirs who additionally occurs to be working for a key political determine from the Cold Steel and Crossbell video games. So not solely are these bonding moments entertaining and well-written, the Trails sequence is ready to use its intensive historical past to include previous occasions for much more spectacular worldbuilding, which is one thing that video games with related options can’t go almost as in-depth on.
Other options from previous entries are conspicuously gone, although. Minigames in earlier Trails RPGs that have been entertaining distractions, similar to the cardboard video games Vantage Masters and Blade, aren’t in Daybreak in any respect, and there’s nothing new to fill the void they’ve left after I’m between missions and searching for a change of tempo. Cooking has additionally been drastically restricted, with every celebration member now solely capable of prepare dinner just a few choose dishes reasonably than having their strengths and weaknesses inside the full menu. For instance, if somebody was sturdy within the curry recipe, they’d an opportunity to create an enhanced model that restored extra HP than normal, whereas a weaker curry prepare dinner might probably screw up and offer you a dish that might be detrimental. That selection added character to characters outdoors of battle, so it’s a bit of disappointing that every character solely cooks their specialised recipes with out fail right here.
Fishing is lacking, too, which is stunning given it had beforehand been included in each single mainline Trails recreation – although that’s to not say that Daybreak is missing in content material. There’s an infinite quantity of stuff to do and see between all the facet quests and the morality system, however the absence of those conventional Trails minigame staples does make Daybreak just a bit bit much less charming.
And whereas it could possibly’t make up for every part, Daybreak’s soundtrack is wonderful. It incorporates the rocking guitars and melodic piano that the sequence is thought for, and whereas each the opening theme and the track that performs because the credit roll sound a bit extra laid again in comparison with previous video games, that’s a becoming reflection of Van’s character. As all the time, the battle themes are explosive and designed to get you within the temper to battle, and the vigorous tunes within the metro areas make exploration enjoyable.
