The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II preview — Turn-based reverie

The Trails games take me an eternity to get through, ranging from 50 to 100 hours for just the main story or adding missable side quests on top of that, but for each one I’ve played they just keep getting better and better. I’m still in the middle of last year’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak, but recently I got the chance to see some gameplay in a hands-off preview of its sequel. The 30 minute presentation was all about the side content, so no spoilers here, just the return of minigames, beloved characters, and, best of all, fishing.

Originally released only in Japan in 2022, NIS America has been playing catchup to Falcom’s quick output for a long time. These games have massive amounts of text both along the critical path and in the many NPCs that live in Zemuria. While some Trails fans have issues with NIS’ localizations, I think they’re excellent, and that carries over to Daybreak’s sequel. We didn’t see much traditional dialogue, but the fantastic English voice actors make a return here, and I’m sure Damien Haas will still make whatever protagonist Van Arkride has to say just as charming as ever. Van is my second favorite protagonist in the series, just below Estelle, and I’m excited to spend more time in his shoes.

You don’t just have to play as Van, however, and just like Daybreak 1 you can swap between characters in your party with the press of a button. Playing different characters extends to the minigames as well. There’s a card game called Seven Hearts where you can pick from the entire party as to who participates. I’m not a fan of card games, however, so I’ll probably give this minigame a wide berth. On the other hand, there’s also 1v1 basketball. Here, you can likewise pick whoever you want to play as and who will be your opponent; we saw Agnes go up against Van. Oddly enough, basketball plays a bit like golf video games, with the player needing to press a button when the cursor is in the right position to score. On defense, things seem to play a bit like rock-paper-scissors, with the player needing to choose the right action to take in response to their opponent’s shot.

Next up, we have hacking, which is a maze-like minigame. Here, you can only play as Mare (Van’s… virtual assistant, it’s complicated), and need to avoid spotlights, perform quick time events to open doors, and reach the goal within the time limit. Minigames such as this aren’t required to complete the story, outside of maybe playing one round to introduce the player to them, but this looks like a fun take on hacking.

The last minigame is fishing, which every great RPG is required by law to have. Falcom always has great fishing minigames, and when it appears I take every opportunity to reel in some sea life. This minigame sees you approaching a body of water and casting your line. Once a fish bites (which will depend on your bait), then you press a button once your cursor and a cursor moving around a circle match up within a small section. It seems like a lot of fun, and players don’t have to worry about missing a fish for their collection thanks to the other, major addition to Daybreak 2: Märchen Garten.

Märchen Garten is similar to the True Reverie Corridor in Trails into Reverie. It’s a virtual dungeon divided into multiple layers with randomized layouts. Players can form a party from any of Daybreak’s playable characters to grind out some levels, grab some look, and improve their characters. There are some mandatory floors, but the majority of Märchen Garten is completely optional. Fans will want to complete it, however, as reaching the top in the post-game will unlock some supplemental material for the ending.

Märchen Garten of course features both of Daybreak’s combat styles: action and turn-based. Both work identically to how they did in Daybreak 1; players can defeat enemies outright in action combat, or simply stun them for an advantage and start up turn-based by deploying Shards. Turn-based is still the focus here, but it’s always nice to have both options.

Outside of the dungeons and minigames, there are still a few more things you can do in Märchen Garten. Players can spend Marduk Points to restore special items, unlock costumes, and more. Another currency, Skill Stones, can be spent to level up each character’s crafts, even including the Grendl’s. These stones are hard to come by, so spend them wisely, but you do have the option of resetting a character’s spent stones by using tokens.

Finally, there’s a gacha system which players can manipulate using certain items. For example, if you want more wind sepith, you can use an item that will increase the chance of that dropping from the gacha. This doesn’t involve any real world currency, so it’s just a fun, optional system for random rewards.

There’s a lot to see and do in Daybreak 2, and that’s not even counting the main story. The game releases on February 14th for Playstation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC so Van can steal players’ hearts on Horny Werewolf day, but you won’t have to wait that long to get a taste. Two demos for the game are coming, one with the first chapter of the story (2-3 hours) and another with some higher level gameplay (~30 minutes). For more on Trails, stay tuned to GamingTrend.

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