REVIEW: ‘The Legend Of Heroes Trails Through Daybreak II’ Upholds Most Of The Franchise’s Excellence

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II is the upcoming sequel to Nihon Falcom’s JRPG Trails through Daybreak I. While the sequel improves upon the first title in many ways, it also has some intimidating and overwhelming elements.

The game takes place a few months after the first title. It follows returning protagonist Van Arkride, who is enjoying some downtime after the chaos of the first game and returning to his life as a Spriggan. Most of Van’s party has been disbanded and has returned to their lives, while his associate, Agnes, returns to her duties as a student after collecting the seventh Genesis, a tool that grants its wielder special abilities. Unfortunately, Van’s return to normalcy is quickly interrupted when his long-time friend Elaine drops by his office to inform him of a new string of murders in Calvard.

The odd thing about the murders is that the culprit is a crimson Grendel who looks identical to Van in his superhuman Grendel form. Because of this, he’s now under suspicion from several guilds and underground factions. Van and Elaine get on the case and eventually run into the perpetrators, a mysterious man in a trench coat called Grendel Zolga and an AI Holo core named Carmine Altera. A fight ensues between both parties, and Van and Elaine are murdered.

However, the timeline mysteriously resets to hours before their death, and this time, with the help of Agnes and Raine, Elaine and Van win the fight and fend off the pair. In doing so, they discover that the mysterious man has an eighth Genesis, which is the source of his powers. The rest of the game sees Van team up with several new and old characters, including his two new associates, Nadia Ryne and Swin Abel. They go on a quest to stop this mysterious man and solve the mystery behind the eight Genesis and the odd timeline shift.

Prepare yourself for dense narrative storytelling in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II, like many Trails games, is a very narratively dense game with many moving parts. Not only is the story exceedingly long, but it’s also filled to the brim with several characters, many of whom are from other games. Even the newly playable main characters, Nadia and Swin, are characters introduced in Trails of Cold Steel IV. Throughout the story, players will come across characters that are part of different companies, guilds, and factions, from the freshly defeated villain syndicate Almata from the first game to members of the Septian Church and the mysterious villainous group Ouroboros.

While knowledge of character backgrounds isn’t necessary to enjoy the story, the added context certainly helps as players will continue meeting or reuniting with characters from across the franchise. As such, they may be left confused if they are unfamiliar with other games.

Additionally, it is hard to emphasize how detailed and long Trails Through Daybreak II‘s narrative is. The game has a large number of story and character arcs, mysteries to solve, and a shocking amount of twists. As such, players will not only have to keep track of many things but will also have to stay focused on the story throughout due to how much is happening simultaneously. The problem with this, however, is that some chapters are painful to sit through due to the number of unnecessary quests and activities plaguing several sections, making them feel quite drawn out and even boring.

Several missions have players looking for where to go, who to talk to, and what to do before actually getting to the meat of the primary storyline. While some moments in these chapters are entertaining, they can all get overwhelming very fast.

Despite its occasional slogfest, the narrative is impeccable.

However, once players get through the sluggish parts, they’ll find that Trails through Daybreak II‘s narrative is impeccable in many ways. Almost every character exhibits great depth and is endearing in their own way. The aforementioned twists are incredibly engaging, and the overall lore and interconnected world of the Trails universe are so enticing that it’s hard not to lose yourself in all its intricacies.

The game also fantastically wraps up the narrative and several character arcs. Overall, while the narrative isn’t perfect, the game’s story is still highly engaging and is its best aspect by far, thanks to its characters and world-building elements.

While not much has changed gameplay-wise since the first game, the overall experience is still incredibly fun. Like the preceding title, Trails through Daybreak II combines traditional turn-based mechanics with real-time action elements, allowing players to switch between modes seamlessly. The hybrid system provides a fresh and dynamic approach to battles, catering to fans of classic JRPG turn-based combat and those seeking more modern, action-oriented gameplay. Hitting enemies with real-time attacks is fast and satisfying. And despite being limited, every character has a unique move list that makes walloping enemies freely incredibly satisfying.

During turn-based combat, players can cast Arts and Crafts, which basically serve as spells and ultimate attacks at the cost of Craft Points and Energy Points. However, the best part of combat is learning how each character works and fine-tuning the party so that the characters work well together. Executing each character’s special and ultimate attacks is also quite fun due to how effective they are and how visually outstanding their animated cutscenes are.

The newest and most notable addition to Trails Through Daybreak is the Marchen Garten. This new virtual realm serves as a training ground with dungeons for players to fine-tune their combat skills, unlock new items, upgrade characters, and customize several aspects of the game. The new mode is especially useful for upgrading characters, as playing through missions is the only way to get points to upgrade some characters’ combat skills.

The dungeons are more repetitive than challenging, but boss fights add a little punch.

Sadly, the missions in these dungeons are repetitive. They basically boil down to collecting items, defeating a certain number of enemies, and breaking a specific number of objects. However, the boss fights at the end of each dungeon offer a good bit of challenge, and the experience points and rewards are always worthwhile. It’s also worth noting that missions outside Marchen Garten are much more engaging and streamlined.

The game also offers tons of great customization options that add strategic depth, encouraging players to experiment with different setups to optimize their party’s performance. This ranges from equipable and consumable items to items that upgrade virtually every stat. Additionally, like in previous games, players level up characters in Trails Through Daybreak II through its intricate skill trees and equipment management menus.

In terms of visuals, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II has about the same graphical features and visual fidelity as the previous title, with little to no improvements. However, the game still looks great. It sports crisp and detailed models and impeccable art direction, seen chiefly in the backgrounds and city designs that combine modern and fantastical elements.

Additionally, playing on PC allows players to tweak visual settings such as shadow resolution, depth of field, light draw distance, and more for an optimal experience. Trails through Daybreak II also runs marvelously on PC with consistent frame rates of 120fps and above, without crashes or glitches. Lastly, the game has an impeccable soundtrack with many melodic and high-octane tracks. DLC owners will also be treated to extra nostalgic BGM songs from other Trails titles, like “Trails in the Sky.”

All in all, while the narrative has its share of tedious moments and some repetitive missions, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II is still a great sequel. It delivers a compelling, immersive story and exhilarating combat, improving upon its predecessor in many ways while upholding the series’ JRPG excellence.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II will launch on February 14, 2025, for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.