Trails Through Daybreak - Main Art

The Legend of Heroes Trails Through Daybreak Review – A Perfect Place to Start with Trails

Not for you if:

  • You’re not a fan of JRPGs with anime tropes
  • The Trails series seems overwhelming to you
  • You don’t like reading a lot in your games
  • You’re looking for a shorter game to enjoy
9

The Legend of Heroes series is undoubtedly Nihon Falcom’s magnum opus. As a JRPG series that started in 1989, it has since evolved into an interconnected universe of games. This has made it both unique and overwhelming for the fans of the genre. 

How do you justify devoting hundreds of hours to a series, especially when you have to start at the very beginning? Nihon Falcom’s solution is elegant but controversial. Split the games into independent ‘arcs’ and allow players to jump into The Legend of Heroes at multiple points in the series. 

Trails Through Daybreak is the 11th game in the current The Legend of Heroes series, which started with Trails in the Sky in 2004. It’s the beginning of a brand-new story in a completely new region of the continent of Zemuria, with new characters and a new mystery for players to enjoy. 

The perfect place for new players to jump in, right? With Nihon Falcom being a very small company compared to western AAA developers (with around 50 employees), The Legend of Heroes series hasn’t been released in the West and Japan simultaneously. Trails Through Daybreak is actually a 2021 game that Japanese players have had access to for 3 years. With Trails Through Daybreak 2 already announced for a Western release in March 2025, we finally have a chance to enjoy the latest Trails games alongside Japanese fans. So, without further ado, is this game worth picking up in 2024?

TL;DR

The Legend of Heroes Trails Through Daybreak is a JRPG that does so many things just right. It’s a great starting point for new players and an amazing reintroduction to the series for long-time fans. It evolves the series formula with turn-based/action combat, improved visuals, and a story that’ll hook you for 100+ hours…as long as you don’t mind some reading.

Story – Welcome (Back) to Zemuria

Trails Through Daybreak takes place in the continent of Zemuria, in the Calvard Republic. This is a brand-new setting for The Legend of Heroes series and players have only heard stories and legends about Calvard in the previous games. 

Players take control of Van, a ‘Spriggan’, which is a fun twist on the detective stereotype. Van takes jobs that are outside the law but not completely illegal. This is also the basis for a lot of side content later on in the game. 

Early in Trails Through Daybreak, he is visited by Agnes, a mysterious student who tasks Van with finding a precious family heirloom for her. Curious about the girl’s story, Van takes the case. And so, a 100+ hour story begins. While Trails Through Daybreak has pacing issues similar to previous games, it always manages to keep you interested in what’s coming next.

Very Meaningful Side Content

One of the hallmarks of The Legend of Heroes series is its side content. Trails Through Daybreak follows the same trend and introduces plenty of jobs for Van and his party to solve on their journey through Calvard. What separates it from games like Shin Megami Tensei V is that every side quest matters. 

Nihon Falcom has done an excellent job at making sure each side quest weaves into the main story, the characters’ backgrounds, or the state of the Calvard Republic in some way. You’ll often come across people you’ve helped dozens of hours earlier, thanking you for your help, offering assistance during the main story, and so on. 

This goes further, however, as every game in The Legend of Heroes series has certain characters who move from game to game and carry on their own stories through side quests. It’s a remarkable achievement in today’s gaming landscape, and Trails Through Daybreak is worth checking out for this reason alone.

Get Ready to Read – A Lot

A small quirk that The Legend of Heroes series is infamous for concerns its narrative structure. While the most recent games do have voice acting, like Trails Through Daybreak, a lot of the dialogue isn’t spoken. 

Instead, you’ll have to read through dialogue boxes, newspaper clippings, radio announcements, street signs, and so on. The game also comes with a comprehensive encyclopedia of past events from other games, different countries and factions, etc.

This is a love-it-or-hate-it element, and whether it appeals to you will be entirely subjective. If you give Trails Through Daybreak or any of the previous The Legend of Heroes games a chance, however, you might be surprised by just how well-written and rich its dialogue can be.

Gameplay – Turn-Based/Action Hybrid

Trails Through Daybreak evolves the traditional The Legend of Heroes turn-based combat formula by introducing an active element to it. You can either engage enemies in turn-based combat or attack them outside of combat to weaken them instead. 

While action combat isn’t as complex as something like Final Fantasy XVI, it’s still a fun way to avoid the grind. You’ll control Van and three other party members as you travel through Calvard. You can modify their equipment however you like, but their appearance only changes with costumes, which are sold as premium DLC and offer no statistical advantages.

This is also not a traditional open-world game. You’ll move through different chapters in the story and spend time in various locations before moving on to the next. However, you won’t be able to return to previous locations if the story doesn’t demand it. This makes Trails Through Daybreak more linear and focused than a lot of today’s games, which is certainly a plus.

Assembling your Orbments

How Trails Through Daybreak treats its skill system is closely intertwined with its story. The Legend of Heroes series features Orbments, items that can be slotted with various gems called Quartz. Different types of Quartz offer various elemental skills, buffs, and passive bonuses. 

It’s up to the players to figure out the best combinations of Quartz for every character to make the most out of the combat system. Orbments evolve through every The Legend of Heroes game, and Trails Through Daybreak features a very advanced form of Orbment. It allows players to combine skills and Orbment’s visual appearance unlike ever before in the series. It’s a very fun and dynamic way to play with your skills.

Visuals – Pleasing but Dated

As we’ve mentioned before, Trails Through Daybreak is a 2021 game, and it really shows. If this were any other developer, it would be a point of criticism. However, with Nihon Falcom being a very small company dedicated to creating an interconnected series of games for over two decades, it’s something players tend to overlook.

 Trails Through Daybreak is the best-looking The Legend of Heroes game, even though it’s very simplistic and dated in its visuals. But it does make up for it with its aesthetics and style, effectively translating the same vibes and atmosphere of games like Trails in the Sky which came out 20 years ago. 

Fans of the series who waited for the game for 3 years really won’t mind, especially since the game runs at steady 60FPS with zero bugs and very fast loading times. Brand-new players might be a bit more critical, especially for a full-priced game with day-one DLC.

High-Speed Mode Saves the Day

One of the most popular and beloved features of The Legend of Heroes has nothing to do with the story or the characters. Rather, Nihon Falcom introduced a High-Speed mode that makes the game run faster at the press of a button. 

This makes Trails Through Daybreak even more enjoyable to play because you can fast-forward through battles or whenever you have to travel by foot. It’s a very useful feature that more JRPGs would benefit from, especially those that rely on hours and hours of grinding.

Trails Through Daybreak - City Gang

Audio – Anime-Level Voice Acting

The Legend of Heroes series is known for its reliance on anime tropes, and Trails Through Daybreak isn’t an exception. Even though the global story and world-building are deep and engaging, individual characters can come off as stereotypes. You’ve got the smart but introverted investigator, the girl who loves cooking for you, the big but soft warrior type. 

While these are characters we’ve seen a thousand times over before, Trails Through Daybreak manages to do new and interesting things with them. And since the cast of characters is so large, voice-acting can be hit or miss. For better or worse, more than half of the dialogue isn’t spoken, so you’ll only hear your characters speak during important story moments.

As far as audio design is concerned, it’s one of the game’s weaker elements. While the soundtrack serves its purpose with unique tracks for different locations and dungeons, it wasn’t the team’s focus. The same goes for audio effects such as combat abilities, menu navigation, world interaction sounds, etc. It’s serviceable but nothing to write home about.

Conclusion – Should you Play The Legend of Heroes Trails Through Daybreak?

Trails Through Daybreak is a JRPG that’s worth your time, whether you’re a veteran of The Legend of Heroes or someone who just learned about the series. It’s a self-contained story with a few callbacks and Easter eggs about previous games but that’s about it. There’s an intricate 100+ hour story here for you to enjoy if you decide to tackle all the side quests. 

And if you love your time with the game, you’ll literally have 10 other games to pick up and dive even deeper into the story of the continent of Zemuria. Trails Through Daybreak is now available on PlayStation consoles, the Nintendo Switch, and PC, with its sequel coming to the West early next year.

Big thanks to Enarxis for providing us with the review copy!

Rastislav Filip

Posts published: 68

Professional copywriter, full-time nerd, and a loving husband. Loves playing JRPGs and story-driven games, binging TV shows, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books. Probably writes content in his sleep.