The Legend of Heroes series has quickly become a household name in JRPG since the release of the Trails in the Sky games, which offered not only extremely engaging stories but a level of worldbuilding that is hardly found in Japanese role-playing games. Despite some tweaks and changes to the formula originally introduced in the game starring Estelle and Joshua, the Trails series formula has seen its first major shakeup with Trails Through Daybreak, especially in regard to combat, introducing a field combat option that expanded the experience considerably and truly set the game apart from all its predecessors. Building upon the new features introduced in its predecessor, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II may not seem to be as innovative, but this isn’t going to make it a worse game. If anything, the refinement of features and mechanics, such as field combat, will possibly make the experience even more engaging.
During a press event hosted last week by NISA, I was able to check out the Western version of the latest entry in the Trails series ahead of its launch this coming February. Set three months after the events of Trails Through Daybreak, Van Arkride is informed by his old friend Elaine Auclair about the mysterious Crimson Grendel terrorizing Edith, who seems to be related to him in some way. At the same time, Swin and Nadia are in the capital of Calvard to find a certain someone, an apparently unrelated issue that will eventually link up with the other during the course of the game.
Bringing back the full team from the Arkride Solutions Office, Trails Through Daybreak II also sees the introduction of new characters and the return of others from previous entries in the series, including some fan favorites that haven’t appeared in the series for a while. To give all of these characters their time to shine, the game takes a page from the Trails through Reverie’s book, offering different viewpoint characters between chapters, which will also allow for an interesting combination of characters. Storytelling is further evolved by the introduction of a time factor which will see players travel back in time to explore different outcomes of different events. This, however, is only a storytelling twist and has no real impact on gameplay, so the narrative and gameplay flow of Trails Through Daybreak II won’t be all that different from what we have seen in the past entries in the series.
Combat, on the other hand, has been enhanced significantly in Trails Through Daybreak II. In the previous game, field combat was a little on the simple side, but in the new entry in the series, characters are able to cast magic, do a Cross Charge attack with the proper timing and more. Generally, field combat feels snappier, more varied, and definitely more fun, further bridging the gap with Falcom’s other mainstay series, the Ys series. Command battle plays mostly the same as in the previous game, with player and enemy taking turns unleashing a variety of special attacks, but there have been improvements here as well, with an improved interface and better customization options with way more Drivers with different Arts layouts and New Holo Cores. Additionally, it will be possible to unleash flashy Dual Arts special attacks involving multiple characters that are as powerful as they look spectacular.
With the return of the Gourmet and LGC Alignment systems from the previous game thrown into the mix, Trails Through Daybreak II promises to feel like a familiar experience right from the beginning for those who completed the previous game. With returning characters from the Trails series as a whole, the upcoming game will also be better connected to the narrative at large, so it is definitely setting out to be a game that no fan of the Trials series who has played through most of them, if not all, should skip. Being the second entry of a new chapter in the bigger story, however, Trails Through Daybreak II won’t be a good way to start exploring the Falcom franchise, as, while the game attempts to bring players up to speed regarding past events with an in-game glossary and a recap, it can never make up for the story and characters introduced in the past 11 games.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II launches on February 14th on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
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