The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak [Review]
NIS America’s localization of Nihon Falcom’s Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is great.
I have missed out on a lot of the Legend of Heroes games. Although I own every game in the series, I've only played the first Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel games; there are just too many*.* The most recent game released in English is Trails Through Daybreak, which marks the beginning of a new story in the Legend of Heroes universe and a great chance for me to get back into the series. I really enjoyed every moment of the 70 hours I spent playing this game.
The Legend of Heroes is an expansive saga with multiple story arcs spanning over a dozen games. It unfolds across various countries, depicting periods of both war and peace on the fictitious continent of Zemuria. Trails Through Daybreak is set in Calvard, a nation experiencing economic growth following a war yet facing uncertainty as reparations are approaching expiration. The game delves into themes of tolerance, portraying the tensions arising from increasing hostility towards immigrant groups. While the handling of the topic may seem somewhat lacking, I appreciate the effort.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. Credit: NIS America / Nihon Falcom
The protagonist, Van Arkride, is a spriggan—a cross between a mercenary and a private eye—a fixer for hire who takes on jobs that exist in a grey area, crossing lines that cops and other law enforcers, such as the Bracers, won’t. He'll take on any request from a paying client as long as it doesn't go past that grey zone. He takes on a job from a teen girl to recover a stolen family heirloom, which leads into territory he didn't anticipate, involving powerful groups of every stripe, from the country’s intelligence agency to mafiosos.
I liked the game's turn-based battles. Positioning is crucial; characters receive bonuses from being adjacent to each other, but it also makes them susceptible to being hit together by an enemy attack. You can attack enemies in real time as you navigate dungeons and smoothly transition into turn-based combat. This is a nice touch because you can sometimes defeat weaker enemies without initiating a full battle.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. Credit: NIS America / Nihon Falcom
Your characters have two kinds of energy points: the first kind is for magic, and the latter fuels character-specific special attacks. A shared boost energy gauge can be spent mid-battle to skip a character’s turn ahead and trigger a devastating attack, as long as they have enough energy. You can stun enemies, interrupt their spells, or delay their turns, making battles strategic. It’s fun to time your abilities and spells to minimize enemy actions.
Your team members will gain stat boosts as they level, but how you manage the game’s orbment system is equally important. Each character has an orbment with various open slots where you assign quartz—crystals with different elemental abilities that grant stat boosts or combat effects. Throughout the game, you’ll open up more slots for each character and find better quartz crystals to assign. Certain combinations will also open up automatic combat actions such as shields, healing, etc. You also assign chips that open up sets of spells and an AI to each orbment that determines what bonuses characters get when they’re boosted.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. Credit: NIS America / Nihon Falcom
The battles are enjoyable, but the true highlight of Trails Through Daybreak is its story. I was captivated by the game’s storyline. Its episodic structure contributes to pacing, making it feel like watching a season of anime composed of interconnected short story arcs. Almost every chapter introduces a new character joining Arkride Solutions and the player’s party, which keeps things fresh. The characters are emotionally deep with unique personalities, and the game’s dialogue is engaging; it’s evident that NIS America put a lot of care into the game’s localization. I especially enjoyed the subplots about Calvard’s thriving film industry.
You will encounter certain non-player characters (NPCs) multiple times as you play the game. Small stories unfold as time passes when you talk to them. I appreciated this aspect of the game's writing, as it adds life to the game’s world. However, I started to skip many of these conversations because the NPCs tend to be overly talkative, often requiring you to speak to them more than once to hear all of their dialogue. Sometimes, the second conversation just repeats what was said in the first, which feels like a waste of time. While these interactions add depth to the game, you can skip them if you become impatient with them, like me.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. Credit: NIS America / Nihon Falcom
The game’s graphics are fine. It looks like a PS4 game, which is to be expected, considering that it initially came out in Japan for the PS4 in 2021. I’m just thankful that NIS America is bringing these games to the US, even if it takes time. It ran smoothly on my PS5, save for a few dips in framerate during some of the more ornate battle animations.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is an excellent turn-based JRPG, even if you’re new to the series. It refers to some past events in Zemuria’s history, but you don't need to know them to understand the story. It's a good starting point for new players and may even pique your curiosity about earlier games in the series. It’s a great time to jump into The Legend of Heroes.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is available now on PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 9/10
Played on: PS5
