The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: NIS America
Platforms: Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed)
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Sometimes there are barriers to entry with a franchise that can seem rather daunting. Trying to jump into the third game in a trilogy for example might make players feel a bit lost or miss out on plenty of references or sometimes developers try to ease things as much as possible for newcomers by not connecting their franchise titles at all. Then there’s The Legend of Heroes franchise that took an entire story arc and spanned it across eleven games from 2004 to 2020 and while sure, these arcs were broken into their own little separate stories, each contributing to the grander tale overall with character crossovers, plotline developments, and more.
So now that the massive arc that combined Crossbell and Cold Steel into one has mostly wrapped up, NIS America has brought the latest Nihon Falcom RPG to the West in the form of The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. Set after the events of the previous story arc and telling a nearly completely original storyline, albeit one still set in the grander world of Crossbell and Cold Steel, is this perhaps the best entry point for RPG fans?
Story
Trails Through Daybreak picks up about a year and a half after the events of Trails into Reverie and is set in Republic of Calvard, a country far to the east from the main locations featured in previous entries in the franchise. Over the past few years Calvard has flourished thanks to reparations they received following the war that took place in previous games and, while returning players will have all of the context they need already, the game does provide a brief glossary of broader events to help new players catch up.
This new location, small time skip, and a brand new protagonist helps wipe the slate nearly clean as players find themselves taking on the role of Van Arkride, a “Spriggan” that takes on jobs that the police and other investigators can’t or won’t. This means that while he might take on a job as simple as tracking down a missing item, it can also mean coming face to face with some of the worst the criminal underworld has to offer. One day an academy student by the name of Agnes Claudel comes to Van with a job for his business, Arkride Solutions, and that job is to track down a missing memento left to her by her grandfather.
Initially, Van seems disinterested in the job until he finds out not only just how resourceful she is, going through illegal channels of her own to track down clues, to just how willing she is to put in the effort to find this valuable item that turns out to be a Genesis, a keepsake with far more power than either of them could ever have imagined. Upon finally tracking down the Genesis, the pair learn that it is part of seven that must be reunited in order to avoid an unknown fate but this is far from their only problem as this special item has the eyes of numerous factions on it, including a mafia organization known as Almata, never mind the dangerous source of power dwelling within the item itself that sends this pair spiraling into an adventure that will embroil them in an adventure that will rock the region.
Besides serving as a fresher starting point Trails through Daybreak makes a strong start to a brand new storyline, even if it is one that takes a bit to get going as it once again features the franchise’s trademark issues of having a poorly paced beginning as well as some poorly paced middle-sections as well. That being said, the new characters added in this game happen to be some of the best with the main character Van Arkride easily being the best protagonist of the latest games. Perhaps this is because players join him as a veteran Spriggan with a morally gray outlook, willing to bend the rules of law to help those in need, and a no nonsense attitude. This isn’t a fresh faced officer or teacher here, and the way he interacts with the world and its characters are all the better for it.
The rest of the brand new characters are a bit more mixed. Agnes serves as the staple heroine that brings her own unique take to the world, especially since she’s far more than meets the eye, and a number of other party members that join along the way are similarly just as intriguing. While we won’t spoil it here, a few characters really stand out as special partially with the way they end up interacting with Van and the way they develop through the storyline. It is also worth noting that longtime players will find at least a few familiar faces popping in from time to time, including one that has never had a 3D model before, though these are relegated to guest characters only.
Outside of the main storyline and characters it must be said that Nihon Falcom has done an excellent job in making sure to craft a believable world filled with people who have issues they need solved. Rather than having generic or no-named NPCs, every interactable NPC has a name and many of the side-quests players can take on offer not only some solid variety but also happen to pack quite the emotional punch as well. The fact that some of these story developments can easily be missed should players not take on side-quests is surprising thanks to how well many of them are written. This means that, while not every side-quest or objective needs to be pursued, players should feel encouraged to delve into the world as much as possible as there are greater rewards than just the loot at the end. Especially when Van’s alignment comes into play with certain story developments, but we’ll let those be a surprise.
Gameplay
Exploration in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is mostly the same as before, with players being able to freely travel the larger areas of the towns, though now they no longer require any form of loading when traversing between buildings. Perhaps the biggest change that is implemented into the game is how combat is handled as it has been given a brand new way to be handled as well as some tweaks to an already familiar formula. Previously, whenever players encountered enemies in the field they could attack them for a turn advantage or maybe even dealing a little bit of damage at the start of the turn-based battle. Now Trails through Daybreak has implemented a combination of limited action combat with its familiar turn-based RPG style fighting. The “Shard” system allows players to deploy Shard Circular Linked Metafield at the press of a button and enter turn-based combat but the real change here is the action mode.
As mentioned before, the furthest previous The Legend of Heroes games took field combat was having “first strike” capabilities before entering turn-based mode. Now however every character in the party, as the player can swap their lead character freely early into the game and each character is capable of unleashing their own style of attacks. Some of these are magic oriented and deal extra damage to certain enemy types while others are physical and deal similar. This whole action combat allows players to fight against smaller groups of enemies and dish out some standard combo attacks, unleash “charged” heavy blows that can stun an enemy all while dodging out of the way of incoming attacks. Occasionally enemies can unleash powerful strikes that cannot be dodged and will instantly trigger combat, so players will need to balance the risk reward system here. It is worth noting that stunned enemies will receive extra starting damage, have their turns delayed, and be vulnerable should players deploy their Shards. Of course, enemies can be straight up slain in action combat if the player feels like it.
Once players deploy their shards and enter turn-based fighting, the game takes on a much more familiar feeling with allies and enemies taking turns depending on stats, what skills/Arts they are using, and more. There are a few new revisions to be found here though and one of which is that the link system has been removed entirely as characters can no longer be paired together to deal powerful linked attacks when certain conditions are met. Instead being in close proximity to an ally while attacking will make your ally either provide a buff or an additional follow-up attack to the targeted enemy. The more useful too is the limited S-Boost mechanic that allows players to use Shards to boost a character’s stats with powerful buffs and abilities momentarily to really lay out the damage. This is especially useful when players want to trigger a powerful skill, of which there are quite a few available to every character and unlock at a reasonable pace or especially the powerful returning S-Break maneuvers that can be triggered at any time once players have enough meter to use them.
Another rather noticeable change that also plays a role in combat is how the player’s Orbments are now upgraded. Daybreak‘s main equipment source comes from the latest generation of Orbment called the Xipha and features three main parts, the Holo Core, the Arts Driver, and the Quartz. The Holo Core serves as something of the Master Quartz for those familiar from past games and provides boosts to a character’s EP in battle, the strength of the Arts they can use, and even what bonuses they obtain when using an S-Boost. As players fight, their Holo Core will also level up providing additional bonuses. The quartz system feels like it takes more of a step back as it no longer is used to unlock additional Arts/skills for characters to use but now are inserted into a Xipha to provide extra stats to a character or add special effects to their attacks. This can include unlocking special skills called “Shard Skills” that have a certain chance to trigger during fights and unleash extra damage when triggered, reduce the casting time of an Art to near-instantly, and even offer exploration help. This level of customization is freely up to the player and can honestly be a bit overwhelming, especially compared to past entries in the franchise.
Where players actually obtain the Arts they can wield in combat come in the form of Arts Drivers. These little chips are slotted into a Xipha and come with a special set of Arts that are unlockable via various plugins that players obtain from completing side missions, main missions, and just raising their Spriggan Rank. These plugins are highly versatile and allow many characters to use a wide-variety of skills, making things feel all the more wide-open for player customization and that’s a good thing too as characters will need it. That’s because Daybreak isn’t afraid to play rough when it comes to its combat system and some bosses can be real killers if players aren’t properly prepared to face them down. There are multiple difficulty options available of course and these can be adjusted at any time, but those even playing on Normal might find their skills tested if they go in without making the best use of what Xipha’s new capabilities have to offer despite its complexities.
Audio & Visuals
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak sees a notable improvement with its character models and improved visuals overall even if it may still be lagging a bit behind your average JRPG. This is partially due to the wonderful art style that the company has chosen to retain throughout the franchise and that remains true here. The character models, especially in combat when unleashing powerful attacks, are wonderful to look at and there is a wide array of enemies to take down, providing plenty of variety. The same compliments can go out to exploration as the different environments players can explore and visit is quite special at times, even if the dungeons themselves can sometimes leave a lot to be desired with some lazy designs mixed in.
With this release of the game in the West NIS America has offered both the original Japanese voice track as well as a brand new English dub for those who wish to choose one or the other. The English voice cast handles their characters well but it is worth noting that, while we didn’t test between dubs, the game has a strange tendency to have one or two spoken lines followed by countless unvoiced lines, making for some rather strange feeling interactions. As for the soundtrack the title features a great collection of background music that varies well for the different dungeons that players explore and has some exceptional boss battle music.
Overall
Nihon Falcom and NIS America had quite the task ahead of them when it came to The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. Not only was this their chance to make a new starting point for newcomers by offering a new storyline with almost entirely brand new characters set in an already established world, but it was a chance for them to change things up a bit mechanically as well and they have managed to succeed on both of those fronts. Sure, the combat is a bit more complicated when it comes to equipment than it feels like it should be and the story can drag more than usual, but the new changes made to the game don’t hold it back from being another great entry in The Legend of Heroes franchise, especially since Daybreak II is already on the way to potentially answer the many lingering questions left once the credits roll.
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