I’m a giant Trails nerd. It’s true, and I won’t apologize for it. I love the Trails series so darn much. I hear the criticisms from those of you who HAVEN’T drunk the Kiseki Kool-Aid, how the characters talk too much, how it’s all “the power of friendship this, the power of bonds that.” I get it, and I want you to know: I hear you. But I don’t care, that stuff doesn’t bother me. I’m Trails-pilled, and that’s all there is to it. But that’s not to say I don’t have the ability to be at least SOMEWHAT objective about any individual game in the series, or that I don’t have criticisms of my own. So with that in mind, let’s talk about the newest entry releasing in North America, Trails Through Daybreak II.
There has been a lot of discussion online in the Trails community about Daybreak II, for years now, even. The long wait that’s typically come between games in the Trails series might be coming to an end soon with the planned worldwide releases for future entries, but we’re still in that period of lengthy turnaround where opinions can be formed about the game before it gets its fair shot in this market. This is because there are people out there who will take a Trails game, run it through some machine translator, and spit out a version of the game with “subtitles” that are truly horrible and NOT a good representation of what the characters are actually saying. Because of that, I don’t take anything seriously that folks who play the game that way have to say about the story, the characters, or anything related to that. Maybe you like the machine translated stuff, that’s fine, but I think it’s slop and I won’t go near it. And you’ve probably already left an angry comment and stormed off to another video by this point anyway, so you’re not hearing any of this. Regardless.
Despite feeling strongly about not paying attention to the naysayers who hated Trails through Daybreak II, I tried my best to go in without preconceived notions. I think I was… mostly successful. In a way, I think knowing the pre-release critical consensus helped me more clearly identify areas of weakness in the story; but even acknowledging SOME areas of weakness, I’m happy to say the vitriol was overblown. Is this game as compelling and exciting as its predecessor, Trails through Daybreak? No. But is it a solid Trails game? Yes. And is it a very WEIRD Trails game? … Also yes. Now, I’m going to frontload my criticisms here, so let me say up front – I liked this game. I feel very positively about my experience with this game. But the things I’m going to talk about next are either things I’m just not crazy about, or things that, despite maybe being cool and different, might have dampened my enjoyment a bit.
I’m going to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, though I will have to talk about some of the game’s general structure, which I guess you COULD say is a sort of spoiler depending on how you look at it.
So, Trails through Daybreak II picks up a couple months after the end of Daybreak 1, with most of the characters off doing their own things. Van Arkride, the main character and possibly my new favorite Trails protagonist, gets word that there’s a serial killer on the loose, one that looks suspiciously like HE does when he transforms into the Grendel. Oh, I guess spoilers for Daybreak 1, as well. But why are you reading about Daybreak 2 if you haven’t played Daybreak 1? You must be some kinda rebel. Anyway. Van heads out to investigate this mysterious crimson killer, and here’s where the game shows off its true form. Unlike most previous Trails games – especially previous “part twos” within arcs of the series – Daybreak II has a split narrative. In the first two of the game’s three major Acts, you’ll begin by choosing which character’s story you want to see. Typically, this will be Van on the one hand, and one of his friends who’s stayed behind on the other. Like I said, this is very different from previous Trails games. It’s most similar, actually, to Trails into Reverie, which was a special, almost arc-less entry that served as a sort of wrap-up to all the games that had come before it. Because of this structure, it made the game feel very much NOT like a sequel to Trails through Daybreak. In fact, that feeling persisted for me until a little more than halfway through the game. Around the Intermission between Acts 2 and 3, things settle back into a more familiar rhythm, and the part of my brain that was screaming THIS ISN’T A DAYBREAK SEQUEL finally quieted down.
Now, is it a problem that the narrative is divided up like this? Well, yes and no. It’s actually good to see Falcom experimenting with the structure of these games, because outside of Reverie and Sky the 3rd, they have all had more or less the exact same structure. On the flip side, though, I felt like it had a detrimental effect on the pacing. Yes, Trails games have always moved slowly, but typically not as much in a Part 2 of an arc. Right? Like, that’s part of what I mean about how it doesn’t really feel like a Daybreak sequel. Instead, it feels like a bunch of separate stories that take a long time to finally merge together. It’s further bogged down by a sort of lack of a clear goal for a long time. I mean, yes, you have the vague “find out who the killer is,” but in each act the characters end up getting sidetracked by other, more pressing things, and the killer search sort of takes a back seat in a way. In Daybreak 1, you at least had the overarching goal of “Collect all the Geneses,” and that’s sort of replicated here as the characters come across parts of the 8th and final Genesis, but your goals feel a bit too vague.
Another structural change – and this is more of a spoiler than the split acts – is the fact that this game involves a hefty amount of time travel to sort of go back and correct fatal mistakes the characters make. Have you seen the anime Re:Zero? It reminded me a lot of that. Someone will die a gruesome death, and then time will rewind to an earlier point to give the characters a chance to do something different and avoid that fate. This is a cool idea, but there are a few times where you have to sit through scenes that you’ve already watched, which is a bit of a drag. I never wanted to skip anything for fear that some new dialogue might make its way in at some point (which was frequently the case). Like I said, a cool idea, but in a game that already has some pacing issues, it doesn’t help.
Okay, I think I’m done with the spoiler-adjacent stuff. In general, I really like the story. It’s weird, it’s different, it tackles some heavy things and draws in a bunch of lore from earlier games, which is a big reason I love this series so much. It’s hard to say exactly how much of the story will be key to the future of the series, but it’s too soon for us to say one way or the other at this point. It’s a good story. I mean, it’s a Trails game. Now, let’s talk about some other stuff, shall we?
Though I’m a bit more critical of the overall story presentation than I have been with most other Trails games, the writing in the English localization is still top-tier. Dialogue feels as natural as if it was originally written in English, and the voice work by the English cast is some of the best they’ve put out yet. I know the localization debate will continue to rage on within the circus that is the Internet, with some people preferring a literal, stilted translation because that’s what they think Japanese should sound like, and people like me who prefer it to be good. And that’s fine, I think healthy debate isn’t bad for the arts as a whole. Just, keep it healthy in your takes, please. I mean, yes, I just took a jab at people who disagree with me and implied the way YOU like it isn’t good, so I’ll allow similar jabs at me, but let’s avoid the more colorful language if you don’t mind. You know, the sort of mean insult a good localizer might sub in for “baka!” Okay, okay, that was the last jab, I’m done.
The only tiny criticism I have about the localization is… This is silly. You’re free to tell me this is silly. But it’s been bugging me since Daybreak 1, and since I’m actually reviewing games now, I guess I should at least mention it. Some of the character battle cries are odd to me. You know, the things the characters shout out when their turn comes up? You’ve heard a bunch of them. “It’s my turn!” was one that I remember hearing a lot in the Cold Steel games. Or, like, “Now’s my chance!” Things like that. Starting in Daybreak, several characters started saying, “Chance.” Like, just the word Chance. My assumption is that the Japanese character is saying チャンス, which is a loan word they took from English. It can mean “chance,” of course, or it can also be used as an expression of a sudden opportunity presenting itself. Look, I’m not a localizer, I mostly read about localization stuff in my spare time as a hobby, so maybe I’m off base on some of the reasoning behind it, but to me, “Chance!” is just not something that an English-speaking character would ever say. I think of these sorts of battle cries as phatic expressions, which are just things you say to quickly express an emotion, and not so much meaning. I also feel similarly about characters who shout “There!” when they attack. That feels odd in English. What do I think the character SHOULD say in these situations? I don’t know. I’m a dumb internet guy.
All right, that’s a bunch of aesthetic stuff. But this is a video game, so let’s talk about the game parts. The first thing I noticed is that there is definitely more TO this as a game. In the original Daybreak we were introduced to the action combat, which basically allowed you to attack enemies on the field and kill them for experience without having to always enter the turn-based battle system. It was, in my mind, the single best addition to any turn-based JRPG that has ever been. It greatly alleviates the monotony of the grind, because you can engage in the action combat and still walk away with all the experience and loot you would have otherwise. Admittedly, it was a bit simple. You had a basic attack, a charge attack, and a dodge. That was it. Daybreak II brings the expected improvements in version 2 of this system. Now, in addition to the old moves, you can launch a Quick Art – basically a magic spell – at any point, so long as you have enough magic power. This adds another layer of strategy to the action gameplay, because there is a bit of a pause while your character casts. A good strategy is to attack and dodge until an enemy staggers, then use a Quick Art to deal damage while they’re down. Besides Quick Arts, I think the single best addition is Cross Charge. Cross Charge activates when you dodge an enemy attack with perfect accuracy. Pulling off a move like that previously just filled your charge attack meter, but now it gives you the option of pressing a button and quickly changing characters. That new character will jump in with a charge attack and will have increased attack power for a few seconds. As someone who almost never changed characters in Daybreak 1, I feel like this is a really smart addition to the combat system. It incentivizes you to experiment with other characters, not to mention it keeps the flow of combat upbeat and fun. The turn-based combat is basically the same, though there is the addition of EX Chains. These are basically double attacks that you can pull off at certain points when two characters are in close proximity. They’re nothing special – just two characters performing their standard moves in a split screen – though the extra damage is nice. But honestly, the turn-based combat didn’t need much to change. It’s already the most refined version of one of the best turn-based systems in the industry.
Outside of combat, what is there to do? Van is a spriggan, or basically a fixer, and so a lot of the game’s side quests involve you going around and solving people’s problems. Like most Trails games, this unfortunately does tend to mean that you’ll either A) end up running around the city talking to various people before finally circling back to the person who gave you the request, or B) heading into a mini dungeon to take down a big monster. However, Daybreak II does introduce a few new elements to the side quest game that are worth a mention. One is stealth missions. Okay, these aren’t great, to be frank. You’ll have to walk behind someone, trying to keep your Found meter from getting too high. They’re not hard, but they take too long, and I never found them enjoyable. Another new addition is the occasional ability to control FIO, a drone that one of the characters uses in his attacks. There are certain missions where you’ll get to control FIO in an area, gathering certain things or maneuvering through vents and dodging lasers. These sequences feel surprisingly refreshing and they make a great addition to the Trails series side quest repertoire. I just wish there were more of them.
The other big “side quest” change – though I don’t think you can really call it that – is the Maerchen Garten. It’s a virtual reality world, and it’s most similar to the Reverie Corridor from Trails into Reverie. Here, you’ll fight your way through various floors that I’m pretty sure are randomly generated, and in each area you have to complete a certain task. Sometimes it’s killing X number of monsters, or breaking X number of objects, or disarming X number of devices. The nice thing about these sections is you can kind of spend as much or as little time on them as you want. Because you’re free to move on to the next area once you complete the objective, you can either rush through and do it and move on, or take your time and explore and find all the treasures. There are also a bunch of other ways you can use the Maerchen Garten to power up your characters. Shards you find throughout the areas can be traded in for random goodies in a sort-of gatcha-type thing – these are primarily cosmetic items, but there’s some useful stuff in there too, including skill stones that will let you power up your characters’ special moves. It’s a nice incentive to spend a bit more time exploring, but like I said, if you don’t want to, you can make these sections of the game nice and quick.
There are a few new mini games here. Well, a few new and one old. Fishing returns to Trails after its notable absence in Trails Through Daybreak 1. In this game, you can cast your line anywhere with water, though there are certain fish-heavy areas you can find by scanning. You can also play basketball for some reason, a mini-game I thought I was going to hate at first but actually ended up kind of having fun with. And there’s also Seven Hearts, a new card game. I’m gonna level with you here: I did not understand Seven Hearts at all. Not one little bit. I tried reading the tutorial, but I still could not grasp it. If you somehow haven’t done it already, this is where you’ll want to talk about how you can’t believe how inept reviewers are. Look, I have no defense. I’m bad at video games, and I’m particularly bad at Seven Hearts. I don’t know, maybe you’ll enjoy it if you can figure it out. More power to you.
Trails is a series that is experienced best if you just kind of let yourself go with the flow. As much as I love it as a whole, there are some points throughout where I feel like the energy starts to lag. There are maybe a few more of those parts in Daybreak II than in most other entries. But keep in mind, this is all serving the greater story, and the writers at Falcom have proven time and again that they don’t throw things in for no reason. Remember when they made you fight the last boss of Cold Steel 4 twice for seemingly no good reason, only to blow your mind with an actual legit reason just one game later? They do stuff like this all the time. I’m pretty confident in saying that Daybreak II is laying the groundwork for some big things to come in the future. I know the series is starting to wind down, we’ve heard it’ll be ending soon, and that’s kinda sad in a way, but in another way, I’m really excited to see if they can stick the landing. It’s gotta be an immense amount of pressure. But they haven’t let me down yet – not even here – and I have a feeling that trend will continue.