While simultaneous worldwide releases have become more common in the gaming world, fans of the Trails series are accustomed to waiting several years for a new entry in Nihon Falcom’s role-playing game series to come straightforward. Such is the case for The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak, which was originally released in 2021 in Japan. The good news is that the wait was definitely worth it as it takes The Legend of Heroes franchise in a more mature and fulfilling direction while staying true to its core identity.
To classify the Trails series as epics would be an understatement. The previous storyline, the Erebonia arc, spanned five games with each taking over 50 hours to complete. Trails Through Daybreak is an important title as it moves the story to a new location — Calvard — and takes place after the Second War that took place in the previous sub-series. If this all sounds overly complex, it’s worth noting that this serves as a new start and a great entry point as a result.
Sure, there is an incredible amount of care that went into the backstory, and there are certainly a lot of callbacks that returning fans will appreciate but they aren’t necessary to understand the story at play in Trails Through Daybreak. In fact, it features a new cast, which is led by the very likable Van Arkide — a detective/bounty hunter, and the post-war story it tells is much more mature than past entries. From reparations and immigration issues to the economic realities that are taking place in the nation, there are a lot of heavy subject matter and deeply emotional story moments that come up as a result. This isn’t to say there isn’t any levity, though; it’s still a JRPG, and it’s never afraid to have some fun, either.
This isn’t just a new era in terms of story, though. This also marks a gameplay movie for the series into action RPG territory — although, if you’re a purist, don’t get too worried by those words. Standard fights can be initiated and then fought in real-time, as players can dodge and perform combo attacks. You can do full battles this way, which is good when you’re going through underpowered foes that are just in your way, but it’s best used to trigger a stun against enemies, and then you can switch to the traditional turn-based combat at any point. Rather than a radical change, it winds up being a nice addition that adds some variety and gives the player more options.
You’ll still spend most of your time in the turn-based fights, as boss fights are spent exclusively in this mode. Like past games, the battle system is incredibly layered with a variety of different options at your disposal at any moment. The biggest change is that positioning in battle is more important now as you can freely move around a bit during fights, and you can set up more effective attacks and follow-up strikes. This opens up a ton of strategy, as being close together can also backfire if an AoE attack damages your whole party, so you’ll always have to be careful with how you’re moving your team around.
This is also running on a new engine, which looks better than previous games and allows for a larger overworld for players to explore. In particular, the game’s handling of lighting and reflections is much better while still retaining the series’ signature style. While it won’t be confused for a technical behemoth, it looks good while running smoothly and allowing players to speed up gameplay at any point.
Trails Through Daybreak Review: The final verdict
Trails Through Daybreak is the strong start to a new chapter that The Legend of Heroes franchise needed. After a slow introduction that does its job of getting players invested in the new characters, the story picks up and isn’t afraid to deal with more complicated subjects. The series’ complex gameplay is as good as ever, with the more direct action complementing the turn-based fights rather than taking away from it.
SCORE: 8.5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8.5 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
Disclosure: The publisher provided a digital PS5 copy for our The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak review. Reviewed on version 1.002.000.
