Van and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Please note that I did not review Daybreak 1 due to logistical issues, but I have played it and would have given it a 9/10 as a great introduction to the land of Calvard as well as its bold new direction for its hybrid real time/turn-based combat. I also feel Van is a fantastic protagonist, bringing a sense of maturity and understanding that nothing in the world is black or white.
Picking up only a few months after the events of Daybreak 1, Van and his Arkride Solutions employees have mostly all gone their separate ways. All seems to be business as usual until he is made aware that a figure that looks like his Grendel form was spotted committing terrible crimes. Eager to clear his name and get to the bottom of this imposter’s identity, Van and his allies gather once more against a foe more terrifying than they could’ve imagined.
The introduction of new and familiar faces alike were welcome.
MSRP: $59.99
Platform: PC, PS, NSW
Voice Acting Selection: JPN/ENG
Length: 65~ hours
The way Daybreak 2’s story unfolds felt a bit conflicting to me.
On one hand, due to the “gimmick” of the story which I won’t spoil, there are great opportunities to explore what ifs and situations where things just go terribly wrong. As much as I love the Trails series, there are often too many times where someone just comes to the rescue at the exact right time and while most of that is presented well enough to not have me roll my eyes, it’s still true that it happens all the time. So, it begs the question of how the characters would handle everything falling apart and it was interesting to see how they reacted in those situations.
However, that also meant that since exploring “what ifs” was possible, it also made it feel like nothing really mattered to some degree which made me feel a bit less invested in the story as I would have normally. There are also some pacing issues during certain acts that felt like it dragged out longer than it needed and even though I understand in the full context of the story as a series is concerned, that many of these were necessary, in the moment, they felt like filler material that I needed to get through to get to the good stuff.
Having said that, it was still great to see some familiar faces like Swin and Nadia from Trails into Reverie make their return as well as the introduction of fun new characters like Ixs and Jorda were most welcome. Harwood, the Thousand Oath Breaker was also a highlight and stole the scene every time he was on screen. While I would consider the overarching story in Daybreak 2 to be one of the weaker entries in the Trails franchise, it was still very much enjoyable to go through.
Always down to slay with Shizuna.
As for the gameplay, much of the concerns raised from Daybreak 1 about the lack of mini-games and side activities have been addressed with the return of Fishing, Cards, Hacking, and more. The big stage based explorable content “Marchen Garten” is a great addition not just as a place to power up but also to gather up all playable characters to be used at any time. It’s reminiscent of the special dungeon presented in Reverie, just on a smaller scale.
I don’t mind Gacha when I don’t have to pull out my credit card! Pull! Pull! Pull!
However, the inclusion of the Garten and the fact that the acts play out in different perspectives with their own teams, it re-introduces the same issue that I had with Reverie where it’s an absolute hassle of having to gear up many different characters. Switching quartz was particularly annoying given the nature of the shard system and how the special effects are activated based on the quartz that are being slotted in. Something like a loadout setting for the characters would’ve been greatly appreciated.
The combat has been expanded to allow for the use of arts during the real-time encounter and perfectly dodging the enemy allowed me to swap to a different character while increasing their damage output for a time. Also, during turn-based combat, making it so I couldn’t spam S-Crafts with the same characters over and over again also made the combat more tactical and enjoyable, putting special emphasis on stunning enemies for that big EX-Chain combo.
The combat felt more involved with proper balancing.
In terms of the visuals and presentation, it’s very apparent that NIS is improving with each entry as the camera/animation work on the cutscenes felt a notable improvement from the previous title. Knowing what’s to come in the next entry makes me all the more excited to see the future growth of the series. Even though none of the Trails OSTs have been bad by any means, I felt like Daybreak 1 had a weaker OST than the usual golden standard and they’ve corrected that here with a selection of incredible songs that I have added to my workout playlist.
The music is superb as expected.
While Trails Through Daybreak II’s story doesn’t reach the heights of the previous entries, the expanded combat, re-introduction of side activities and a fun playground to test the might of the best teams I could muster made for a very enjoyable time all the same.
Fun Tidbit: As I have also finished the sequel to Daybreak 2, I have a better appreciation for why much of the events that took place in this title were important- whether or not others will feel the same after the next entry “Kai no Kiseki” will be revealed once that game comes out in the States.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
