The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, a game that greets old friends and new.
Each installment in this extensive series has the most vivid gaming environment one has had the pleasure of playing in, owing to the many character interactions that delve into various interconnected aspects. The new ensemble and site are exciting, even if it has clear ties with the games’ history and fate.
The question of whether The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is as beginner-friendly as claimed is worth a debate. You may start here and get a feel for the story, but it becomes quite clear as you progress that you will need to have played earlier games to understand this one. On the other hand, if this particular chapter intrigues you, you should give it a go since it is probably one of the final recommended entrance points the series will have.
Now, a full calendar year after the events in Trails into Reverie, we find ourselves in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. For the time being, we are no longer concerned with topics such as the SSS and Class VII. As a result of the penalties paid after the War of Cold Steel IV, the Republic of Calvard’s economy is prospering. Unfortunately, that is not the case in every field. The most insightful way to see the reality is via Van Arkride’s eyes, the story’s lead.
The self-proclaimed Spriggan walks the line between lawfulness and illegality, usually found taking up tasks for those who have nowhere else to turn for help. Despite his shaky moral values, what we could describe as the deuteragonist, Agnes Claudel makes demands that would change their lives irrevocably. The mission set is to find all eight pieces of Genesis, mysterious orbments involving her bloodline. Motivated by his reasons, Van agrees to assist her.
Everything from the story’s tempo and tone to the interplay inside the parties is drastically different in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, and at the heart of it all is Van Arkride. He merely takes an alternate approach to solving problems and having talks than the rest of the protagonists under Falcom. He is not heartless nor injurious. Realism and cynicism characterize him.
Van stands out due to his interactions with the group; Not only does he possess attractive qualities, but his approach is very astute. Despite how much you would want to know, you are not led astray by private details of Van’s life. Because you don’t find out substantial details until the very end, you’re more likely to be engaged with him as a whole. The character concept gives the audience a very novel experience, which in turn makes Agnes and the rest of the main crew more interesting.
As far as the plot of the many sagas is concerned, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is like a synthesis of all of them. Edith, the capital of Calvard, serves as your node. Like in the Sky Saga, you will explore unfamiliar locations and meet unfamiliar individuals as you go through the game, and for the majority of the way, they will serve as your companions. Edith is where one will devote the bulk of your time to getting to know the game before heading off on chapter-specific adventures; therefore she will take precedence.
Side missions and NPC interaction are plentiful in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, as they have been throughout all prior games. Returning personalities offer multiple events and cycles if you pay thought to them. A wonderful job illustrating the economic and cultural environments of Zemuria and Calvard is done by these NPC tales despite how many of them you can interact with.
Everyone blends in well with the crew in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, which is a testament to the strong cast and engaging chemistry. Though they, too, experience pivotal events, Judith and Bergard are unfairly compared to others.
Even the supporting cast, which consists of a select group of people, is impeccable. But my biggest gripes are with the antagonists. Despite their impressive performances, they succumb to the classic Falcom formula of being humorously uncivil with weak explanations that fail to evoke strong feelings.
I like the English edition of The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. Damien Haas, carrying on the high of the Cold Steel series, and Amanda Lee, channelling Agnes, were perfect fits. It was strange that Patrick Seitz did not return to his part from the front lines of Sky, especially considering Keith Silverstein was back.
Gradually, we can now talk about the gaming aspects of the title. In The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, players will find a whole new stadium that exudes ambition from the very beginning. Developed by Nihon Falcom, the new in-house engine contains major upgrades. It may not sound like a great deal, but they have now eliminated the loading screens that come to play whenever a player tries to go into buildings and such, making exploration less taxing.
Character models have also seen an improvement as they’re conventionally more pleasing to the eye. The combat system has too undergone a complete overhaul with their orbment system, the most important modification since Cold Steel’s launch more than ten years ago.
One practical analogy that springs to mind is Holo cores, which accomplish the same job as Master Quartz. More so than in the past, specialized character builds provide significant benefits. Just as in the past games, you need to use Sepith to open the orbment slots for each character to insert quartz.
Considering it requires an abundance of Sepith to unlock later slots, I believe this method is better than the Cold Steel games. Finding an orbment spot is; therefore, an enormous accomplishment, elevating the character’s journey to a satisfying level. Nevertheless, the orbment abilities only have a percentage of activation. This links into a different added function – the SP gauge.
With turn-based combat, you may trigger an SP boost by hitting and taking more damage, which is shown by glowing bars on the bottom left of the user interface. S-crafts, which are strong character-specific techniques that execute massive damage or restore life, also need SP boosting.
If you load up on SP gauges, you may truly wreak havoc on foes in combat since the number of gauges rises as you spike it more often. Because two bars must be present to activate SP crafts, this design decision also stops many players from hammering them at the beginning of combat.
The ability to instantly switch between turn-based and real-time action combat is the most noticeable change to The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak’s functionality. The turn-based conflicts are bound to be instantly recognizable to long-time players. At the core of each confrontation are character-specific skills called Crafts and magic spells called Arts.
Even so, placement is of utmost importance. You may use your position regarding an enemy to your advantage in some crafts, which adds a subtle but welcome layer of strategy. You might think about the elements that enemies use, as in any role-playing game, and how their strengths and shortcomings will affect you.
It is important to state explicitly that Arts have witnessed structural shifts. In this place, quartz is no longer an issue. Instead, they are attached to brand-new equipable objects called Arts Drivers. These may be customized with a variety of Art that aligns with certain builds; healing or elemental-themed. Fortunately, there are a variety of Art Drivers to choose from, each with its own set of open spaces for plugins.
The assaults, in both their command and action forms, have beautiful audio-visual aesthetics. Therefore, meetings are always fulfilling. Another noteworthy feature that has returned from the previous entry is turbo mode. You may keep this enabled even when a player is in the middle of an action battle.
If you are looking for the simplest game in the series, go no further than The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. You can easily dismantle its balance mechanisms, therefore the series has never had a reputation for being tough. Still, if the fighting was just tedious, it would be a whole other story.
The LGC alignment system is a further important component of The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak; however, it is the sole new element of the game that I have found to be problematic.
At several points as you enjoy the game, Van Arkride and you will be met with important decision-making scenarios, which will impact the fates of other characters. There are three possible moral alignments represented by these options: Law, Gray, and Chaos.
What these values do in practice is that they transform Van’s morality as he reaches certain milestones, which in turn has a consequence he faces in a later chapter of the game. The idea of the LGC alignment is fascinating in and of itself and also highlights Van’s ambivalence about the world. No matter where you stand, it befits his character.
But in reality, these decisions only cause minor disagreements that eventually come to a resolution or have no bearing on the plot as a whole. At most, it gives players a little bit of control. It would have been prudent to either abandon LGC altogether or give it more time to mature as a concept since it is too audacious.
That late-game decision unlocks features that are only accessible after reaching an alignment after level three; Law, Gray, and Chaos all have five levels. The drawback is that you’ll leave Chaos behind and get Law and Gray at level three alignment levels at a rapid pace. The lone perk of maxing out your LGC alignment levels is that, in the last dungeon, you will encounter unique monsters who, if vanquished, drop ingredients for ultimate weapons.
Previous editions’ systems for detecting enemies, character notes, and books have been completely deleted from The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak. Also missing are mini-games, including fishing. The planning of these sacrifices makes completion far more daunting. These ideas do not serve as the backbone of the game. Ultimately though, it is truly a shame.
In the end, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is yet another contemporary classic. Starting a fresh storyline after four games in a row and a reunion sequel is hardly an easy task, but Nihon Falcom pulled it off well.
Even while the LGC alignment method is brilliant, it might be too ambitious, and engagement could suffer due to the lack of difficulty in battle. In any case, the following titles may address these concerns. Though longtime and new fans of The Legend of Heroes will certainly find unique change in almost every imaginable area of The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak.
