I have mixed feelings about this game.

Story
As far as the story goes, Daybreak is a step up in some ways from the Cold Steel games, but nowhere near the quality of the original trilogy. I appreciate the fact that the game attempts to add stakes to the series and is willing to kill off major characters (which the Crossbell and Cold Steel games were unwilling to do), but the game lacks a compelling framing device like FC and SC had, which means the protagonists are mostly just wandering around without a good justification for it (and no, "search for the eight magic artifacts" is not a compelling reason). I also found the protagonists to be a bit random. Judith, Risette, and Aaron are fine but in particular I felt Feri and Quatre clashed with the noir aesthetic the game was going for, and there's little justification for them to be assisting Van and Anges in their quest. Furthermore Risette and Quatre are both tech-savvy geniuses, and I feel like they have too much of an overlap. In the Crossbell games our protagonists were mostly cops, in the Cold Steel games they were classmates, but here they are strangers who all join our protagonist's party because the plot needs them to. Furthermore the artifacts that drive the plot forward are effectively magic and can do anything the plot requires them to do, from creating zombies to hacking robots to unlocking ancestral memories of past lives, which is pretty lazy writing, even by JRPG standards.

Gameplay
What really bothers me is how watered-down the gameplay is. Daybreak is by far the easiest game in the entire franchise, and it has a lot less depth than previous games. I often found myself beating bosses without losing 10% of any of my characters' health, and I only lost a single fight in the entire game, and I am by no means a master at RPGs. The ability to interrupt enemy critical hits is gone, there are far fewer quartz available, the new equivalent of Cold Steel's Master Quartz are significantly less interesting, and all in all it's a significant step down not just from the previous game, Reverie, but from even Trails SC, which came out in 2006, almost twenty years ago.

Overall while I didn't hate this game, it is the first one in the series that really dissapointed me. I found it to be a significant step down in both gameplay and story from the previous ones. I doubt the series can ever reach the heights of the original trilogy, but hopefully Daybreak 2 can at least add depth and challenge to the gameplay and improve the next game's writing.

I have tried repeatedly to get into the 'Trails of' franchise, but I tend to run into the same problems again and again with them in terms of story pacing.

A lot of people will point to the series strong points as being the world building, and overarching stories. The most meaningful parts of each story can be condensed into about one game worth of actual content, but each one has about a 50-60 hour run time and multiple games per arc. There's always a hook, mid-game twist, and then a vague resolution of several plot points. Every one of these games takes about 20 hours to have anything meaningful occur, though.

The game's progression systems and RPG elements almost feel like they're there to keep people engaged while they pull you along for the story. You are typically given a lot of freedom in how you build your characters, but very little opportunity to actually do anything with it. These games aren't really about the grinding and combat; even though the underlying systems are fairly decent.

Side quests are basically mandatory, and there are always very small things you can miss that will give you a suboptimal experience for missing them if you don't have a guide book open in front of you when you're playing. If you're someone who enjoys taking things at your own pace, but also enjoys doing side quests and optional content whenever you like then this game absolutely will do nothing for you.

Each day only has a given number of side quests to complete, and if you don't do them on that specific day then they're gone forever. There is A LOT of content that the game presents to you as optional, but very obviously encourages you to engage with as a whole. You can very much lead yourself into having a completely sub-optimal experience with the game if you don't do everything you possibly can on certain days. Buying food from certain vendors on certain days, buying gifts, never watching the same movie twice, always making sure you buy a brochure. These things are all tied to meta progression, and they all feel like you have to keep a checklist of everything you're doing constantly.

The writing is not nearly as good as one might expect for a series that has been going for as long as it has. Understand that these games are VERY anime, and that's fine, but it also falls into some seriously juvenile moments that will keep people from enjoying them in full.

There are things I like about these games, but they're so outdated in a lot of ways.

The best comparison I can make is that these games are almost like playing Hyperdimension Neptunia games that take themselves a little more seriously. Both game series are mediocre at best and can barely hold a candle to the golden age staples of the JRPG genre, but there are dedicated fanbases in both games that will sing their praises to the ends of the world.

I can recommend the older titles; Sky and Zero, but the more modern arcs like Cold Steel and even this one aren't worth playing unless you've got nothing else to play. The 2nd game in this arc is widely panned as being one of the worst games in the entire series, but people put up with a lot of things in this series that they really shouldn't.

Great starting game and don't let anyone argue differently, but remember to go play the previous 10 games immediately afterward (only a short ~700 hour detour) in order for you to be ready for the sequel!

My favorite magical girl anime.

Crimson sin waiting room

we are so back

Exciting combat style and a fascinating story make Daybreak 2 and Kai No Kiseki highly anticipated. I can't wait for their release!

a bit better than all of the Cold Steel games as well as Reverie, not as good as the Crossbell duology and Sky trilogy by a longshot. The characters were a lot better than the Cold Steel characters, and the dialogue was a little better written, slightly less repetitive and also funnier. Music was pretty alright. The story was probably not as engaging as Cold Steel 1, 2 and 3's, but better than 4's and more sensible than Reverie's. The protagonist is fun and a lot better than Rean. I still miss Kevin and Estelle. Ch. 5 of this game is probably the best part.

I have to admit that I am new to JRPG's and was frankly expecting something a little different. Actually found it to be vapid, formulaic, repetitive, at times a bit infantile, and hardly a challenge. The voice acting, especially during combat quickly became exceedingly annoying. Really sorry to have wasted $60 on this item, I won't be spending any money on JRPG's again any time soon, no matter what the so-called rating....

liked