You know, you really wouldn’t think that a video game series that has been running for over ten installments now would keep getting better with each new entry, but somehow it does! The Trails of Cold Steel tetralogy improved with each entry, Trails Into Reverie was even better than that, and now we have the most recently released game, Trails Through Daybreak, which is somehow more amazing than that! Truly, it’s pretty astounding.
So, quick recap. The Trails series is probably the longest-running linear JRPG series of all time (by which I mean that each new entry takes place after the last, each one building upon each other in a successive storyline), and it’s really crazy to wrap your head around if you’re trying to get into the series. I mean, with over ten games and hundreds of hours of playtime, you’ve got a steep hill to climb if you want to jump in. That being said, it’s absolutely worth it.
All the games take place on the continent of Zemuria. The first three center around the country of Liberl, the next two games take place in the state of Crossbell, the next four games take place in the Empire of Erebonia, and the game following takes place all over the place in its efforts to tie up loose ends from the proceeding story arcs and lead into the next (and, I think, final) arc. Which brings us to Trails Through Daybreak, which takes place in the Republic of Calvard (the other really important country on the continent that hasn’t been explored yet).
It’s not an exaggeration to say that this game had big shoes to fill, on both the story and gameplay fronts. All of the previous games were relevant to Trails Into Reverie, so that game was buoyed by hundreds of hours of comittment and love. It was also jam-packed with content and secrets to explore. Trails Through Daybreak, on the other hand, was going to be starting a new arc with a brand new cast in a new country. I’ll admit that even I was a tiny bit apprehensive going into the game, and I certainly didn’t expect to love it as much as the previous games.
Well, I do. By golly, I do. It’s honestly probably the best Trails game made so far, and it goes to show that these developers just keep learning from their past experiences and mistakes, and refine their formula closer and closer to perfection with each installment.
Trails Through Daybreak tells the story of a fixer named Van, who spends his days accepting odd jobs from anyone willing to pay, and he has no issue with morally grey requests. The whole game actually has a lot to do with the blurry lines of morality. Actually, on that topic, this entire game is easily the darkest and most mature entry in the series. Which, if you know anything about me, you know that I love to see. It’s especially surprising given this series has somewhat of a track record of being a little too clean-as-a-whistle with complex topics.
I was surprised over and over again at some of the lengths the story went to, and the topics it covered. There’s a lot of main plot relevance centering around the political and economic ramifications of Calvard receiving reparations from the Empire after their brief war, a lot of worldbuilding and side quests feature around immigration policies and the rampant racism that is bred in the darker sides of society, and there was a surprising amount of discussion/examination about the sexualization and objectification of women versus the empowering ways in which women express themselves in the world. There’s also a lot of death, which is also uncommon in this series. One death is especially impactful, and really caught me off guard.
But to get back on track, Van’s pretty solitary life is thrown onto a crazier path when he accepts a job from precocious student Agnés, who wants him to help her track down some family heirlooms. What seems simple at first becomes anything but as Van and Agnés travel all throughout Calvard trying to track down these heirlooms, gather new friends and allies, and battle against the sadistic machinations of the Almata mafia. Add in some shocking reveals, dark truths, and eldritch monsters, and you’ve got a recipe for one crazy story.
I mentioned earlier how Daybreak feels like the developers have learned a lot of lessons from their past games. One such area is in the story presentation. In a game like Trails of Cold Steel, a player is thrown into the school, introduced to Class VII and all the other students and faculty, and the story builds from there. It works, to be sure, but Daybreak‘s slow-burn method of character and plot introduction works so much better. You don’t even assemble your whole party until the endgame, but by building it all up so slowly everyone is given much more importance and time to shine across the game’s five-ish chapters.
Cold Steel also infamously ends on a cliffhanger, and while it’s an extremely exciting and memorable moment, the game is effectively just half a story that needs its sequel to properly conclude. The same thing happens in Cold Steel III cliffhanging into IV. Daybreak again subverts this, much to my shock and amazement. It tells its own story from start-to-finish, with an emotional and satisfying conclusion, proper character arcs, and a bombastic and sweet conclusion that both leaves the door open for more but also doesn’t leave the player feeling like they are demonstrably missing something.
The core gameplay has also been evolved with the introduction of field battles. Essentially, you can engage in battle with enemies through real-time combat, softening them up and stunning them, before launching into the more traditional style of turn-based combat. It’s, admittedly, a little barebones, but it’s a very nice change of pace that spices up the dungeon crawling aspect of the game. It also makes grinding (not that there’s very much of that) a breeze, and because each party member attacks differently on the field, it assuages any sort of burnout that can come from fighting enemies for hours.
Customization also works differently in this game, with a complete overhaul of the Orbment system used by…well, just about every other game in the series. Gone is the rigid structuring of the line-based system, and in its place is a system called Shard Skills. Dependent upon what gems you equip in what slots, you grant your party members new Shard Skill buffs that range from adding elemental damage to their attacks, to shielding allies from harm, to recharging CP or EP after a devastating blow. There’s hundreds of skill combinations, so you can really build your characters however you want. In-battle team-up attacks are also easier and more reliable to use, as are the uber-strong S-Crafts, which is nice.
I sort of vaguely touched on this earlier, but the writing quality in this game is great. The Trails series has always been pretty fantastic in this regard, but honestly Daybreak exceeds even the other games in the series. The side quests, the external world-building, the random NPC dialogue, and the central character arcs are all pretty spectacular. The main plot is also pretty great, and while it might not be as emotionally resonant as I found Reverie‘s main plot to be, it’s probably the best written and realized in the series overall.
And do you want to know just one of the very many reasons why the main plot is so good? Because of it’s fantastic central antagonist, Melchior.
Taken on a macro level, Melchior isn’t breaking new ground when it comes to villainous archetypes, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t effortlessly entertaining. He manages to tick off a lot of the boxes required of a great antagonist, which JRPGs sometimes struggle with doing. He has a constant presence throughout the story instead of just popping up as a final-boss-from-nowhere cliché. But, his frequent appearances also don’t diminish his threat level. His pure sadistic villainy is also carefully balanced by some other more sympathetic villains in the game, allowing them to shoulder the burden of emotional resonance while Melchior himself is free to just be deliciously awful.
And pivoting somewhat relatedly from Melchior, it wouldn’t be an article on this blog if I didn’t mention the soundtrack and voice acting. Melchior in particular has a just amazing vocal performance, but actually most of the characters in this game have great performances. The Trails series has never faltered with its voice acting in the past, but this game is really a highlight of the series regardless (my favorites probably being the voices for Van, Agnés, and intrepid reporter Dingo Brad). Also, the soundtrack is a real banger. I’m not sure I could say its better than any other game in the series, but it’s definitely not worse. All the Trails games have good music!
So what’s the key takeaway here? Basically, Trails Through Daybreak is super good. Super, super good. Not flawless (the Trails games really need to stop looking like they came from the PS3-era, and I still think that the overuse of giving every single character and group an overblown moniker/title is silly), but honestly it’s the closest the series has come to perfect yet. And while I’ll never stop loving the Cold Steel crew, or how surprisingly great Reverie ended up being, I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that this is the best entry in the series yet. I can’t wait for the sequel early next year!
9.5/10
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 