Whether you’re on the site every day or listen to the Day 0 Update, you know everybody on SmashPad absolutely loves Falcom and the Trails series.
While are full review isn’t ready–this is a prediction, not a spoiler: Trails through Daybreak won’t be any different.
Just to be upfront, the main reason why our review for Trails through Daybreak isn’t ready yet is because I haven’t finished the game yet.
What’s Taking So Long?
I’m obviously not allowed to talk about when NIS America sent my review code, or the process of getting it, it shouldn’t be to anyone’s surprise that this is a big game. I’m 30 hours in, which I would say is a little more than maybe 40 percent of the way through the game’s main story. Whenever I play a Trails game, even though I have no intention of platinuming them (because I don’t spend any time on New Game+ nor do I bother switching difficulties), I do go through the effort of doing every sidequest and beating every secret boss in the game for a “perfect” playthrough. I want the high marks. It is what it is.
The other reason why I’m taking so long is I’m still in the midst of finishing my Summer Game Fest preview content, and I spent almost 20 hours playing through Until Then. This doesn’t include the time I spent writing that Review in Progress and well as publishing the full review late last night.
How Is It So Far?
All this said, I’m absolutely loving Trails through Daybreak, but it did take some getting used to.
I mentioned this on the last episode of the Day 0 Update. Having played through the demo, which transfers your save over to the real game, I was caught off guard by two things: the game’s refreshed battle system and the Republic of Calvard in general.
These sidequests are pretty dark.
If you read my hands-on impressions of Metaphor: ReFantazio, the battle system is similar to that. When you’re out in the open, you have the option of attacking enemies. Doing so enough to stun them will put you in advantage when you “open shards” and go into turn-based battle mode, which then follows your more traditional Trails battle system, albeit also with a few nice changes–but I also wouldn’t go as far as to call them upgrades yet.
During turn-based battles, positioning of your character matters. You can move them anywhere you want on the field, and you’ll do more damage when you attack an enemy from the side or from behind. In the meantime, if you’re within a close enough proximity to another party member, that party can assist in your attack obviously doing more damage. Early on in the game, I struggled with this because now there are more than four times the amount of enemies in the open world, and it can be pretty hectic. The rules for the ultimate S-Craft moves are a little different as well–they always take 100CP to use, which means if you built up 200CP, you could use them twice. I don’t really see a point to that. You also have the option of powering your attacks with the L1 button too.
The changes definitely add some freshness to the game’s battle system which a lot of people will say they needed. Even then, I do see it being an archaic choice to people who wanted Trails to remain a “traditional” turn-based JRPG.
About Calvard–we obviously knew this was the setting going in. What I didn’t expect was how metropolitan it ended up being. I’d argue they’re more technologically advanced than Crossbell, which I assumed would be the most advanced due to its smaller size. That said, I did just finish a chapter that took place in a town of a more feudal-esque Eastern feel to it, so I don’t know whether I’ll be expecting more.
Right now, I’m absolutely loving the cast, especially the new protagonist Van Arkride. Again, I’m not even halfway through the game so I don’t know his full backstory yet, but I love his willingness to accept and deny assignments based on whether they’d be worth his time, and the best thing about him is the guy is a true blue foodie. We’ve had an amazing looking meal at every town we’ve come by, and I’ve immensely enjoyed his analysis on the foods he’s had and the hilarious sweet tooth he’s been blessed with.
When Will The Review Up?
Now that I’ve given you all the reasoning and what I think so far, I’ll say that my plan is to have the game beaten and review published right before the game comes out, so I want to be done by next week on July 5. The difficulty with that is I have a couple job interviews lined up which obviously take priority, and the fact that I’ll be flying to LA for Anime Expo on July 3 and will be gone until July 7.
Van is the best kind of jerk.
It’ll be my first time at Anime Expo, and the main reason I’m going is because Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo and NIS America will be there talking both Trails and Ys X: Nordics, so you can expect some coverage from my trip to AX.
If all goes according to plan, I’ll have the game finished before I leave, but that’s obviously wishful thinking with how long a Trails game can be. Trails of Cold Steel IV took me well over 140 hours, while Trails Into Reverie took me 50. I don’t know how long Trails into Daybreak is and I have no intention of looking.
Still, I have every intention of having our full review up by July 5. Let’s hope!
Whether you’re on the site every day or listen to the Day 0 Update, you know everybody on SmashPad absolutely loves Falcom and the Trails series. While are full review isn’t ready–this is a prediction, not a spoiler: Trails through…
Whether you’re on the site every day or listen to the Day 0 Update, you know everybody on SmashPad absolutely loves Falcom and the Trails series.
While are full review isn’t ready–this is a prediction, not a spoiler: Trails through Daybreak won’t be any different.
Just to be upfront, the main reason why our review for Trails through Daybreak isn’t ready yet is because I haven’t finished the game yet.
What’s Taking So Long?
I’m obviously not allowed to talk about when NIS America sent my review code, or the process of getting it, it shouldn’t be to anyone’s surprise that this is a big game. I’m 30 hours in, which I would say is a little more than maybe 40 percent of the way through the game’s main story. Whenever I play a Trails game, even though I have no intention of platinuming them (because I don’t spend any time on New Game+ nor do I bother switching difficulties), I do go through the effort of doing every sidequest and beating every secret boss in the game for a “perfect” playthrough. I want the high marks. It is what it is.
The other reason why I’m taking so long is I’m still in the midst of finishing my Summer Game Fest preview content, and I spent almost 20 hours playing through Until Then. This doesn’t include the time I spent writing that Review in Progress and well as publishing the full review late last night.
How Is It So Far?
All this said, I’m absolutely loving Trails through Daybreak, but it did take some getting used to.
I mentioned this on the last episode of the Day 0 Update. Having played through the demo, which transfers your save over to the real game, I was caught off guard by two things: the game’s refreshed battle system and the Republic of Calvard in general.
These sidequests are pretty dark.
If you read my hands-on impressions of Metaphor: ReFantazio, the battle system is similar to that. When you’re out in the open, you have the option of attacking enemies. Doing so enough to stun them will put you in advantage when you “open shards” and go into turn-based battle mode, which then follows your more traditional Trails battle system, albeit also with a few nice changes–but I also wouldn’t go as far as to call them upgrades yet.
During turn-based battles, positioning of your character matters. You can move them anywhere you want on the field, and you’ll do more damage when you attack an enemy from the side or from behind. In the meantime, if you’re within a close enough proximity to another party member, that party can assist in your attack obviously doing more damage. Early on in the game, I struggled with this because now there are more than four times the amount of enemies in the open world, and it can be pretty hectic. The rules for the ultimate S-Craft moves are a little different as well–they always take 100CP to use, which means if you built up 200CP, you could use them twice. I don’t really see a point to that. You also have the option of powering your attacks with the L1 button too.
The changes definitely add some freshness to the game’s battle system which a lot of people will say they needed. Even then, I do see it being an archaic choice to people who wanted Trails to remain a “traditional” turn-based JRPG.
About Calvard–we obviously knew this was the setting going in. What I didn’t expect was how metropolitan it ended up being. I’d argue they’re more technologically advanced than Crossbell, which I assumed would be the most advanced due to its smaller size. That said, I did just finish a chapter that took place in a town of a more feudal-esque Eastern feel to it, so I don’t know whether I’ll be expecting more.
Right now, I’m absolutely loving the cast, especially the new protagonist Van Arkride. Again, I’m not even halfway through the game so I don’t know his full backstory yet, but I love his willingness to accept and deny assignments based on whether they’d be worth his time, and the best thing about him is the guy is a true blue foodie. We’ve had an amazing looking meal at every town we’ve come by, and I’ve immensely enjoyed his analysis on the foods he’s had and the hilarious sweet tooth he’s been blessed with.
When Will The Review Up?
Now that I’ve given you all the reasoning and what I think so far, I’ll say that my plan is to have the game beaten and review published right before the game comes out, so I want to be done by next week on July 5. The difficulty with that is I have a couple job interviews lined up which obviously take priority, and the fact that I’ll be flying to LA for Anime Expo on July 3 and will be gone until July 7.
Van is the best kind of jerk.
It’ll be my first time at Anime Expo, and the main reason I’m going is because Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo and NIS America will be there talking both Trails and Ys X: Nordics, so you can expect some coverage from my trip to AX.
If all goes according to plan, I’ll have the game finished before I leave, but that’s obviously wishful thinking with how long a Trails game can be. Trails of Cold Steel IV took me well over 140 hours, while Trails Into Reverie took me 50. I don’t know how long Trails into Daybreak is and I have no intention of looking.
Still, I have every intention of having our full review up by July 5. Let’s hope!
by Danreb Victorio
