Trails Through Daybreak 2 Is the Series’ Most Experimental Entry, For Better and Worse
Inverse Score: 8/10.
After my heroes were ruthlessly murdered by a monstrous crimson beast, a mysterious power let me rewind time. But before I figured out how to overcome the monster, I had to play a bit of basketball.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2 is, by far, one of the most experimental entries in the long-running RPG franchise. While some of that experimentation pays off in spades, other bits make Trails Through Daybreak 2 feel a bit uneven. The stakes of this sequel are decidedly lower, but it also makes one thing abundantly clear: the Trails series no longer cares if you haven’t played every game. You need to.
A Leisurely Stroll
Falcom has made huge strides forward in Daybreak 2, in terms of animation and graphical quality.
Daybreak 2 picks up shortly after the events of the first Trails Through Daybreak, with Van Arkride still running his business as what’s known as a Spriggan, a work-for-hire handyman. The rest of the party from Trails Through Daybreak have largely splintered off to pursue their own goals, leaving Van to tackle the problems of Edith (the capital of the Calvard Republic) on his own.
If you’ve played any of the “sequels” in the Trails series, you’ll know that the first game is practically required reading. That stands true for Trails in the Sky to Trails in the Sky SC, Trails From Zero to Trails Through Azure, and Cold Steel 1 to Cold Steel 2. Just like those games, Daybreak 2 assumes you’ve played through the first game, and the events of this game, for all intents and purposes, are only taking place because of what happened before. But going further, past Trails games have tried to make some concessions for players that haven’t gotten through the over a dozen entries — that’s not quite the case here.
Daybreak 2 isn’t afraid to drudge up lore and characters from a half-dozen games ago, such as the D∴G Cult from the Crossbell games. As the series starts to reach its final phase, it's becoming clear if you haven’t bought in yet, you need to. But on the flip side, if you’ve bought into everything, Daybreak 2 can be incredibly satisfying — piecing everything together like some huge 1,000-piece puzzle.
Daybreak 2 has a fantastic sense of place, with cities and towns that are a joy to explore.
A big part of that is because of the drastically different approach Daybreak 2 takes to its narrative. While the first game presented you with a dangerous crime syndicate to take down and a world-ending threat, by comparison, Daybreak 2 is an intimate character-driven story all about unraveling a core mystery. That’s where the first layer of the game’s experimentation comes in, with a slow plodding narrative, exploring the idea of rewinding time.
At multiple points, the story branches and follows two different parties, and you can reach a “Dead End” where your main characters are mercilessly murdered. These are often genuinely terrifying scenes more violent than anything I’ve seen in the series. It’s an interesting choice.
But after that, the story rewinds to a prior period, where you’ll need to do things a bit differently to change fate. To be clear, this time travel isn’t a mechanic, you aren’t directly controlling it, but it’s used as a narrative device to explore character’s fears and insecurities — with everyone having knowledge of the fact time has rewound.
The time travel in Daybreak 2 is an interesting idea, but purely a narrative device.
Daybreak 2 is quite a bit shorter than the first game, but there’s more diversity in the locations and settings. One chapter is set almost entirely in the prestigious Aramis Academy, while another takes you to a luxurious resort island crowned by a magnificent villa. Trails games are always a slow-burn, but Daybreak 2 takes that to the extreme, heavily focusing on character relationships and fleshing out backstories. Seeing these characters in more detail is a real joy, but it’s undeniable that Daybreak 2 suffers from some occasionally sluggish pacing.
Spliced in between the main story there’s a randomized dungeon to explore called Märchen Garten, letting you train up characters, get extra equipment, and more. You can jump into Märchen Garten at any time, and additional floors will be unlocked as you get further in the story. It works a lot like the Reverie Corridor from Trails Into Reverie, but overall this dungeon simply feels too forgettable and generic. It’s nice to have another way to level up, but going through the dungeon feels like busy work more than a meaningful addition. It only further slows a game that already has sluggish pacing.
But luckily, the rest of Daybreak 2’s gameplay fares a lot better, and it’s where the game’s experimentation truly shines.
Shaking Things Up
Minigames are short and quick, but a nice way to break the story up.
The first Daybreak only had two things to fill up your time: combat and story. Daybreak 2 feels like a drastic overcorrection from that, inundating the experience with a handful of minigames, robust side quests, and enhanced combat. Daybreak 2 is a game all about variety, and that also ties directly into the shorter runtime.
Most of these minigames aren’t heavily involved, and they tend to be optional, but they’re a nice way to break things up. While venturing through dungeons and fields you can take a break to catch a few fish, kick back with a card game at the local pub, or play a few rounds of the surprisingly fun basketball game. More than anything, Daybreak 2 wants to make sure you have options, multiple things that can distract you at any given moment — and that’s by and large a good thing.
But the game also makes some surprisingly smart innovations to its combat system. There are more characters this time around, and each character feels more distinct through their unique attacks and skills. Just like the first game combat is a mix of action and turn-based, where you can fight enemies on the field in real-time before launching your “shards” and going into turn-based. The action elements have been drastically enhanced, giving you more combos to use, the ability to fire off arts (spells), and a cross-chain feature that lets you swap between playable characters on the fly.
Combat in Daybreak 2 feels faster an more fluid than the first game.
Everything feels a lot more fluid and precise, meaning the action combat is more feasible as its own thing this time around, rather than something that just enhances the turn-based combat. It also helps battles move along at a much faster pace, which is a blessing. Daybreak 2 also does a fantastic job of mixing up combat with truly challenging boss battles, unique guest characters that join your party, and a few surprising gimmick battles.
The biggest problem with the first Daybreak was how monotonous it could feel after going through dozens of battles and sitting through dozens of cutscenes. The sequel’s variety of gameplay options can feel a little scattered and slapped together at times, but it really helps the entire experience flow better.
Wonderfully Mundane
Daybreak 2 introduces a few new, and incredibly unhinged, villains.
As weird as it might sound, the one word I’d use to describe Trails Through Daybreak 2 is cozy. Its basic formula is still the same as past games, but it’s an experience that feels drastically more laid-back. Narratively it’s all about intimate character exploration, and seeing locations grow and change over time. There’s so much rich detail crammed into Daybreak 2’s world. The writing for the main cast is consistently fantastic, but if you go out of your way you can see immense character growth for even the smallest of side characters — from the chill cab driver who’s always happy to see you, to the two girls obsessed with every new social media app.
Daybreak 2 is a game that revels in the mundane, even as you take on supernatural threats. Even in a series known for being a slow-burn, it’s a story that takes its time and wants you to soak it all in. Its smorgasbord of different minigames and gameplay elements can feel a bit all over the place, but is more compelling than not. It’s clear Falcom wanted to try new ideas with this entry while setting the stage for the series’ last arc to begin.
Daybreak 2 may not be quite what Trails fans are expecting, and if you’re not a fan you might feel a bit lost — but if you buy into the experience, there’s a truly delightful role-playing game underneath.
8/10.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2 launches on February 14 for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Inverse reviewed the PS5 version.
INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.
