Game Information --------------------

Game Title: The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak

Platforms:

• PC (Jul 5, 2024)
• PlayStation 4 (Jul 5, 2024)
• PlayStation 5 (Jul 5, 2024)
• Nintendo Switch (Jul 5, 2024)

Trailer:

Developers: Nihon Falcom, NIS America

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 88 average - 95% recommended - 20 reviews

Critic Reviews -------------

ComingSoon.net - Tyler Treese - 8.5 / 10

>Trails Through Daybreak is the strong start to a new chapter that The Legend of Heroes franchise needed.

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Console Creatures - Matt Sowinski - Recommended

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is another hit in the beloved series, delivering a darker narrative, revamped combat, and an excellent cast of characters. It has a ton to offer to both new players and existing fans of the series.

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Everyeye.it - Antonello Bello - Italian - 8.8 / 10

>While not matching the epic nature of Trails of Cold Steel IV, which for its part had the advantage of being the final chapter of a painful and well-oiled tetralogy, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is configured as one of Nihon Falcom's best recent productions.

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Final Weapon - Raul Ochoa - 4.5 / 5

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak serves as a brilliant introduction to the Republic of Calvard, the setting for what appears to be the most exciting Trails story arc yet. Van Arkride explores the gray areas of Calvardian society alongside allies that are just as tough and driven. The game's story is complemented by a revamped combat system that retains the identity of Trails, and there's of plenty of improvements made that make this one of the best Trails games to date.

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GameGrin - Mike Crewe - 9 / 10

>A dark, more mature story, a great new cast of characters, and much improved turn-based action make Trails through Daybreak a fine addition to the franchise that's accessible to fans and newcomers alike.

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Hardcore Gamer - Jordan Helm - 4.5 / 5

>Nihon Falcom needn't have gone about overhauling things as radically as they have. But with a newfound energy and purpose to its real-time/turn-based hybrid of a premise, as well as a bountiful amount of new and returning mechanics to experiment with, Trails Through Daybreak is nothing less than another fantastic reinvention for what was already some of if not the best turn-based combat in any JRPG series. Aided on top by that familiar dedication to player customization, intriguing world-building and that ongoing desire to spend a bit longer in getting the most out of the systems on show. Countless entries later, Trails continues to prove itself as one of the most satisfying and engaging role-playing experiences available. It wasn't exactly begging for such reinvention, but with The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak, Nihon Falcom's opener to the Calvard arc is as close to perfect a new chapter, as you can possibly get.

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IGN - George Yang - 8 / 10

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak’s new cast of characters, revamped battle system, and engaging story is exactly what the series needed to reach new heights.

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IGN Italy - Alessandra Borgonovo - Italian - 7.5 / 10

>An eleventh chapter that tries to revamp the series from a gameplay point of view, only partially succeeding.

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Nintendo Life - Mitch Vogel - 8 / 10

>Trails through Daybreak stands as another great entry in the storied Legend of Heroes series, making the most of its new setting with its memorable characters and engaging turn-based combat. Though it's held back a bit by things like the awkward introduction of action-based combat and some irritating quirks (and nearly unreadable text in portable mode), this is still an entry that we would strongly recommend to both series fans and, yes, newcomers, too. Trails through Daybreak is a strong inaugural outing, offering another fresh start for this franchise; we'd suggest you give it a shot.

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NintendoWorldReport - Jordan Rudek - 9 / 10

>Van is a charming and vocal protagonist who gives as good as he gets, and rest assured, he isn't shy about giving a loving head patting when the opportunity arises. Those who have played earlier Trails games will enjoy the returning characters, mentions, and nods to earlier events and people, but even if you're an RPG player unfamiliar with the Trails games, you'll find plenty of reasons to sink your teeth into this latest one. It's no surprise that the hero of Daybreak has a proclivity towards indulging in cakes and pastries; he happens to star in one hell of a sweet adventure.

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NookGaming - Rob MacIntosh - 8 / 10

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak made for a rather enjoyable playthrough that was hard carried by its main party and how fun combat was. I also like that it trims some of the fat that had begun building with the bloated previous arc. This is one of the best put-together Trails games in a long time, complete with some solid cutscene choreography and a near-seamless feeling of play in between combat and cutscenes.

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PSX Brasil - Thiago de Alencar Moura - Portuguese - 90 / 100

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is a darker and more interesting take on one of the best JRPG franchises of all time. The gameplay additions enrich the experience, but what really makes it so remarkable is the excellent cast and storytelling that lives up to the series' fame.

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RPGamer - Alex Fuller - 4.5 / 5

>Offering an incredibly welcome refresh for the series with its story, cast, and gameplay, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is a delightful way to re-enrapture existing fans while being an excellent opportunity for newcomers to get on board.

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Siliconera - Cory Dinkel - 10 / 10

>Trails through Daybreak is a triumph for both long-time fans and newcomers to the series. For veterans, it builds upon and expands nearly every aspect that makes the series great, from its intricate storytelling to its deep character development and strategic gameplay. For new players, while it’s a challenge to dive into such a complex series, the game makes a commendable effort to provide an accessible starting point into the rich world and lore without feeling overwhelmed.

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Spaziogames - Gianluca Arena - Italian - 7.5 / 10

>Trails through Daybreak marks the first time Falcom takes a bet with its franchise, changing its combat system to a degree and some of its gameplay mechanics. The changes are all good for newcomers, which will find an ideal entry point here, but are not so for the longtime fans, who could dislike the action-focused shift and the decrease in the overall level of challenge.

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The Games Machine - Danilo Dellafrana - Italian - 8 / 10

>Trails Through Daybreak is a rather classic role-playing game and will delight Nihon Falcom fans, if only to inaugurate yet another narrative strand in a now endless dynasty. The combat system isn't quite as polished as the one seen in Trails of Cold Steel, however, and the plot likes to keep the pace a bit too slow, but as a start there's nothing to complain too much about, thanks also to the charisma of a protagonist like Van and an intriguing game world as only Falcom is capable of creating.

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The Outerhaven Productions - Scott Adams - 5 / 5

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak gives us a new area of Zemuria and a lot of new characters to love. Van Arkride is a great character and I hope to see more of him going forward.

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TheSixthAxis - Miguel Moran - 9 / 10

>The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is the spark that this series needed, and an incredible new chapter for such an iconic franchise. The shift in tone for the story and the addictive dual-mode combat had me hooked from beginning to end. If you play any game in this series, make it this one.

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Twinfinite - Cameron Waldrop - 5 / 5

>Though I will always have a soft spot for the Cold Steel games, Trails Through Daybreak arrives as the new best game of the series. Between giving a more mature protagonist and redefining the combat, the Calvard arc starts with its best foot forward. The fact that things have already become this hectic with the very first game means we're looking at probably the craziest arc to date. Sadly, these take a bit of time to localize, and we'll be two behind in September, but I will be right there when the next one hits.

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VGChartz - Thomas Froehlicher - 8.5 / 10

>Although it only partially fixes Falcom's woes in terms of story pacing, Trails Through Daybreak is nonetheless a journey full of wonders.

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It's been just a drip feed of news for us the past few months. The games showcase season started out slow for the genre, with Expedition 33 possibly the biggest early surprise, but Nintendo dropped a whopping eight announcements on us today. We also recently had a date set for Visions of Mana and the Baten Kaitos PC shadow drop.

What's got you excited? What do you want to see more of? What hasn't turned up that you wanted to see?

Bloomtown: A Different Story caught my eye immediately when I first saw it at last year's PC Gaming Show. Beautiful, smooth sprite animations and a clear Persona influence interested me enough to finally pick up the demo yesterday when I was browsing Steam's Next Fest.

It has a somewhat slow start, but I'm sure Earthbound fans will dig the the game's Americana setting with a dash of whimsy and humor as you poke around town. Of course, things take a turn and you end up fighting demons.

There's more than a little Persona 5 in the game's battle system, with familiar music, UI, gameplay elements, and concepts like companion demons. Some of it is parody, such as slapfights to determine who gains the initial advantage in battle. Some might feel outright borrowed, such as the battle music (which is nonetheless excellent).

Like many early demos, there are bugs and rough elements I'd expect to get smoothed out. However, the overall experience was far better than I was expecting. I'm excited to get my hands on the full game.

The demo is available on the game's Steam page if you'd like to try it yourself.

games@lemmy.world

This is another French-developed JRPG-ish thing. Kinda got Lost Odyssey vibes.

This showcase focuses on the job system and other aspects of combat.

As previously speculated, it indeed has a system quite similar to SMT's Press Turn, but with some additional quirks.

We were having a chat about retro box art on my Discord server, so I was browsing some Famicom box art today. I don't have a ton of NES (North America) ones I like, as it's a lot of this kind of thing, but there are a bunch of Japan ones I like. The post link is for Destiny of an Emperor 「天地を喰らう」. I also like the original Zelda box art, very satisfying shade of green:

!

What are some NES/Famicom boxes you like?

Translation from a post at ResetEra, slight modifications/formatting by me. ___ The annual Naples ComiCon among its numerous guests also welcome Yasumi Matsuno, game designer and scenario writer of some of the most influential titles of our era: Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, and others. Most recently he collaborated with the Final Fantasy XIV team on the "Return to Ivalice" and "Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr" scenarios.

Interviewing him I had the pleasure of meeting an author with great creativity, who recognizes enormous value in original and innovative ideas, and is convinced that it is always worth creating something new and complex, even at the cost of not chasing a broad target audience. But also presents a witty & pragmatic outlook who does not self-aggrandize despite his professional successes.

To my great pleasure he answered my questions very thoroughly, opinions about entertainment and his own work , so this interview is significantly longer than what you might be used to. Precisely for this reason, however, it shows us up close some less "public" sides of Yasumi Matsuno. Enjoy the reading.

MARCO PATRIZI, interviewer: Can you tell us something about how your career began? What led you to develop video games at Quest Corporation?

YASUMI MATSUNO: Thank you very much, and thank you for inviting me.

When I was a university student my aspiration was to enter the film industry, but since it was really difficult I changed my mind and started working in a small journalism company. I specify that in this period my work had nothing to do with the world of video games. Work often took me to interview various people, such as company presidents. It was fun and I learned a lot about how to write about various topics.

At the time I had a college friend who was three years older than me and who started developing video games. I wasn't a huge fan at the time, but I had still played various games on the Famicom. One day I went to visit this friend of mine in the office and I saw what he was doing, and I remember that he intrigued me a lot.

I remember that in the 80's, most international games were created based on already existing and famous characters. But in Japan, things were a little different, that is, the protagonists of the games became famous. And this friend of mine did just that: he created original characters for his games, and this interested me a lot.

In the pyramid scale of entertainment, given the large amount of films, books and various shows, it was very difficult to establish oneself with a new work, because there was already a lot of competition. Instead, the world of video games had been born relatively recently--in fact it was even seen quite badly by some--so I thought that there were more possibilities for someone like me to enter it and establish myself. Fortunately, my work as a journalist had made me better at writing than others.

I then started sending many CVs to companies. I remember getting rejected by Namco and Square. The first company that hired me was Bothtec, a PC video game company that had created a division that only dealt with video games for Famicom consoles, this division was precisely Quest. There were only 15 people working there at the time and I came in knowing nothing about programming. Then, six months after my arrival, it happened that my boss retired and due to my age I became the new boss, and I had to manage the group.

The company wasn't doing well at the time. Normally games were made on existing works, so the decision was made to do something original. The group was divided into two teams, the first started working on an action game, then we decided to make a role-playing game. At the time, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had achieved great success, so many companies wanted to follow their success by creating other RPGs, so we chose to focus on a strategy game, and this is how the development of Ogre Battle began .

After a year of development, we showed it to Nintendo during the Tokyo Game Show. At the time there was the belief that new IPs risked selling poorly, that it was better to make sequels like they did with Super Mario, so Nintendo was a bit skeptical towards a new game. After seeing it, however, they were convinced and supported us financially. Consider that at the time, a game that sold ten thousand copies did well. When Ogre Battle came out in 1993, it sold 500,000.

MP: What are your favorite games?

YM: Before I got into the video game industry, I really liked the very first The Legend of Zelda on the Famicom. Later I got really into SimCity; I played it a lot! Later I also played a lot of The Atlas, on PC. The protagonist is a captain of a ship that leaves from the Strait of Gibraltar and has to look for land in the Atlantic Ocean, and as he explores the map it expands. And every time you started a game the shape of the world changed.

You also receive information from explorers who say they have found lands. But they could also be lying, so it's up to the player to understand and decide whether to believe them. It is possible that someone will say that they have found America, Japan, or even fantastic lands such as the continent of Mu or floating cities! It was a very interesting game to exercise the imagination. In general I like games with brilliant and innovative ideas, even if they are not very famous.

I recently really enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima and Red Dead Redemption. Except that when I played it I had the feeling that I knew what was going to happen.

MP: The settings of your games are often inspired by medieval Europe. Where does this propensity come from?

YM: You know, for Japanese audiences, fantasy is very close to the idea of medieval Europe. Today if you think of fantasy, The Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, or Harry Potter immediately come to mind, but in the 80's very few fantasy works were known. Fans of the genre knew and read fantasy books, but the general public thought of Disney works. One of the few works that the Japanese knew was the legend of King Arthur, his sword, and Merlin. In the film sector, Conan the Barbarian and Excalibur were famous.

If you think of the first approach to fantasy of Japanese productions in the 80's, Miyazaki's films Nausicaa and Laputa come to mind, but also Dragon Quest, with the drawing style of Akira Toriyama, which had a very pop visual style. So in the 90's, they wanted to create a slightly more "serious" fantasy.

I'll give you an example: before the armor was designed very massively, all in one piece, in a way that didn't allow the characters to move realistically. Instead, I gave instructions to [Akihiko] Yoshida-san to design the armor so that the characters' movements were realistic. He wasn't familiar with fantasy at the time, because he was an advertising graphic designer. But being a very serious professional, he bought some books and studied how to draw armor well to be able to make the designs I asked him to do.

Players liked its more realistic designs, which is what I wanted. I think there was this curiosity and desire to see another kind of fantasy. In reality, I personally like even less precise and realistic settings, such as those of Captain Future or Flash Gordon. (laughs)

MP: Playing your games, one of the recurring themes that I am pleased to find is the relationship and contrast between humanity and power. Do you have a personal opinion on this topic that you try to convey, or do you prefer to create conditions in which the player draws their own conclusions?

YM: Unlike today, in the 80's and 90's video games were mainly made for children and very young teenagers. But observing the users of video games, I noticed that in reality there were also kids over 18, university students, adults who played video games... So I thought it was a great opportunity.

To make a comparison: when I was young I read Dumas' books in a version adapted for children; then as I grew up I read the original versions and I realized that there was much more: sex, violence, death... Similarly, at the time in video games a lot of content of this kind was left out to be suitable for children too.

What I wanted to do was try to learn the best things from all types of games and incorporate themes that are more relatable to adult players. At the time there were few games like this, so my projects were also approved to cater to that type of user.

MP: We know that the develoment of Final Fantasy XII began under your direction, but that you had to step down from the role. Is there anything about the final game that you weren't completely happy with that you would have done differently if you had continued to direct it?

YM: I would like to specify that, even though I had to leave my role, the development of Final Fantasy XII followed my directions on the story. The only thing I would have liked is to see more detailed characters. But it's no fault of anyone on the team, except mine who had to leave.

MP: I read a while ago that you worked in Quest's Customer Service section and were very attentive to player feedback. Is there anything you would like to change with the knowledge you have now?

YM: Almost everything. (laughs) I tend to be quite a perfectionist.

MP: It seems that Naoki Yoshida holds your talent in high regard. Do you have a good relationship? Would you like to work with him again?

YM: In general we are friends, we often go eating and drinking together. And if Yoshida-san wants to work with me again in the future, I would be very happy.

MP: Do you play Final Fantasy XIV a lot?

YM: I used to play it quite a while ago, but lately I don't have much time. But when the new expansion comes out in July (Dawntrail), I think I'll go back to playing again. I'm currently stuck at the sixth expansion, on the Moon.

Lately I have to say that I play the mahjong minigame more than the actual game. (laughs) Last January I went to the Fan Festival, in the Tokyo Dome. As many as 60 thousand people participated. And on that occasion, Yoshida-san announced that the new expansion would be released soon; the game's voice actors were also attending. And near the Tokyo Dome there was a hall dedicated to playing mahjong, and I actually didn't participate in the Fan Festival, but I played mahjong for two days! (laughs)

And with me there were also other people I had worked with, such as programmers and voice actors for the game. The games were very exciting, and there was this voice actor with a beautiful but also very loud voice who often shouted while playing and could be heard throughout the whole dome, and people told him to quiet down. It was very funny.

MP: You certainly receive a lot of requests from fans to return to work on a sequel or remake of your most successful games. I have always thought, however, that it could also be demeaning for an author to feel the expectation only towards his past titles. How do you deal with this situation? Would you prefer fans to focus more on your future projects, or do you find satisfaction in hearing so much admiration for your past works?

YM: Personally, I would prefer fans to wait for new games. But in the end, it is the companies that decide what is best to do, so if they decide to produce sequels or remakes I have no objections to doing what they ask of me.

It's also true that it's difficult to create something successful from nothing. There are franchises, for example Indiana Jones, that always do well every time a new film comes out, while it is more difficult to always create something new of quality. Which is why Hollywood continues to focus on Marvel and DC films, but also to expand Star Wars. Given the large fan base, they are safer projects.

MP: If conditions allowed it, would you like to work on a new game set in Ivalice or a sequel to the Ogre series? Or would you feel uncomfortable working on a setting from many years ago?

YM: Personally, I would always prefer to create something new. The problem is that nowadays it is difficult to embark on a totally original project. Thirty years ago it was possible to create a game with ten people, today many millions of funding are needed, so companies are more cautious about taking risks.

Also because today the budget must take into account translation and localization in many languages which must start immediately, while some time ago a game came out in Japanese and was only later translated into English. Then every translation needs someone to check it... In short, more people and more money are needed.

MP: What game are you playing these days? Or what's the next game you'd like to play?

YM: I recently played Unicorn Overlord, which Richter (composer of Unicorn Overlord, sitting next to Matsuno) also worked on. I haven't finished it yet, but I find it very well done.

Just three weeks ago, I went out drinking with [LTD Basiscape composer Hitoshi] Sakimoto-san and [Vanillaware founder George] Kamitani-san. Also there was Manabu Yamana, a programmer who worked on Dragon Quest. We're friends, so we talked about Unicorn Overlord and why it's selling well. It's a great game and I can't wait for Vanillaware's next game to come out.

Some time ago, since I like Harry Potter, I also played Hogwarts Legacy, which I found fun. Now I'm also playing Baldur's Gate 3, I'm almost at the end and I'm liking it a lot. ___ Original article: https://www.tomshw.it/videogioco/yasumi-matsuno-ci-racconta-i-suoi-albori-ma-guarda-al-futuro-intervista