Bear the nightmare... unless that nightmare is being contracted to 5 nights at Freddy's EEK!!! No thanks!

Just finished my first playthrough. I was really afraid I will not like it as much as Cold Steel/Reverie but turns out it is at least equal in some parts even better than Cold Steel to me. This Review won't contain any Spoilers.

Graphics: [8/10] - While it is a step up from Reverie it is still not state of the art though I really liked the visuals a lot especially the higher detail in the Characters.

Sound/OST: [8/10] - Sound Design was great no annoying sounds. OST was good though not as peak as OST in Cold Steel/Reverie.

Gameplay: [9/10] - The new hybrid battle system is sooooo much fun to me and makes dealing with trash mobs so much quicker in some instances. Really looking forward to what future games will do with it. General Gameplay was just as good as other Trails games if you liked that you will like this as well.

Story: [9/10] - Won't spoil anything but the story needed a bit time to hook me but once it had me I loved it. Really looking forward to answer more open questions with future Daybreak Games. Writing was imo a bit better than most of Cold Steel writing but not much.

Characters: [9/10] - I love the new Cast, as much as I miss Rean, Van really grew on me quick as Protag. The whole group found their place into my heart and I look forward to even more of their personal back stories. Fie from Cold Steel/Reverie is still my favorite over all of Trails but still I grew really fond of the new Cast. Bonding Events are also awesome as always.

Total Score: [8.6/10] - A very solid entry in the whole Series, an awesome start into a new adventure, a lovable new Cast, more answers and even more questions, great continued world building. If you loved Trails so far I am pretty sure you will at least like this one as well. While it is for sure not the best entry in the whole Series still for me personally it continues with what I want from the Series and why I love it so much. It is also just a great entry point for people new to the Series and a good JRPG in general. Trails is by now a huge part of my life I would not want to miss and I am grateful for it. Thank you to everyone involved creating this ongoing Story.

(Copied from my backloggd review).
My entire motivation to get into Trails was to get to this entry, after a stream from one of my closest friends.
I played Sky 1 - 3, and after realizing I didn't give Sky 1 a chance and the hyperfix on the series wasn't starting, I chose to skip to Daybreak, and after it, continue Zero - Reverie.
103 hours later, after doing almost everything you can on a first run, I can safely say, not only is this game special, not only is it my 2° favorite game ever behind Digital Devil Saga duology, this game made me realize what makes Trails as a series so special and worthwile experiencing.
But before that, this game is utterly marvelous.
Graphically its evident its not high budget, but the optimization and artstyle of it really shines, and makes it look super great, the locations and character designs are super good, I like its OST a great chunk, even if its not the best thing ever, lots of banger like Satisfied Madness, Make a Breakthrough, Unmitigated Evil, The Desicive Point, Revolution Anniversary, Rise of the Grendel, Marginal Crisis, and my favorite of them all: Ressonance of Ray, the OST shines a lot on the game.
Gameplay wise, the jump from Sky 3 to Daybreak was wild, but the core of it can still be felt. And the changes done to it feel very good.
For starters, this game is a hybrid of action and turn based RPG. While the action combat feels basic, it adds a lot to the game, its an extention of the overworld exploration, with regular attacking, dodging, charge attack to try and get the advantage to iniciate the turn based combat, which is stellar. The classic turn order determined by delaying based on the moves used is back, as well as craft points earned by taking damage or regular attacks, and arts that need to be charged before thrown. This game however, adds shard boost, they're a passive that can be used to gain bonuses depending on how many levels are used, on Lv. 1, they add buffs dependent on holo cores, modifiers that can be changed from a select pool you can obtain, and they also raise the chance of shard skills happening, on lv. 2, shard skills become guarantee, and you can use S crafts, and in this game, they always consume 100 craft points, and using one, extends the maxium of shard boost bars from 3 to up to 9. Shard skills are passive obtained by customizing quartz, gems that provide bonuses, and depending on the ones you use, you unlock passives for the characters, which encourages a lot of experimentation. By far my favorite change in this game, is movement is part of the turn, instead of an option, which feels SO NICE, and to adapt to it, crafts can have positional bonuses now, which adds to the system, specially since hitting the positional bonuses, fill the shard boost bars faster, it is absolutely incredible and so rewarding to do. Alongside this, bonuses to the EXP multiplier depending on doing certain actions are here, and they make grinding barely be felt, it is so good.
When it comes to exploration, the dungeons can be described as hallways 99% of the time. Which, is not a bad thing, the looks of the dungeons are really good, and while hallway like, there's enough incentive to see all of it for chests and enemies to fight and such, they do their job well, and feels nice to explode, specially with the looks of some dungeons (SPECIALLY the final one). Sidequests are fun to do as well, since there's an alignment system for this game, between law, gray and chaos, and doing sidequests increases them, and when you're offered options, it significantly increases them. The alignment comes into play 3 times, one in CH5 where lv. 3 nets you more options, another in CH4 where Lv. 4 gives you a benefit per alignment reached to it, and a final one in the final dungeon where you can face off a boss dedicated for any alignment you reached Lv. 5, and nets you the ability to make the ultimate weapon of a character, as long as you defeat it. You won't be able to reach Lv. 5 on every alignment in a first run, so its prioritizing what you like, which I LOVE. And fits Van's job as a Spriggan so well.
And now, its time for the writing section.
Story wise, it is amazing. Very early you find the hook with issues regarding the mafia: Almata, and Van suddenly transforming into a monster called Grendel, all done by an artifact called Genesis, and the journey now becomes finding the 8 Genesi, and stopping Almata along the way. The story manages to escalate a lot of times, and provide incredible moments, which I won't spoil here. But by far, the biggest strength of Trails through Daybreak, and the Trails series as a whole, is its characters, and their interactions. The main cast of the game, Van, Agnes, Feri, Aaron, Risette, Quatre, Judith and Bergard, are absolutely incredible characters. Every chapter is mainly dedicated to a character, and everyone gets fun and amazing dynamics as a group, or with side characters, which can be so good, standouts are Shizuna, and my favorite character of the game: Elaine. What this game also does so well with its characters, are the antagonists, be it from the Society like Lucreza and SPECIALLY Harwood, or the main antagonists: Almata. Alexandre and Viola are plot devices for the main villan, but they work well as that, Olympia ended up being great with her deal, and Arioch is pretty entertaining too. Melchior is such an entertaining villan with how unhinged and funny he is, absolutely delightful to hear him talk, his VA really knocked it out of the park with his performance. And then, the main villan: Gerard Dantes. Absolutely marvelous villan who is a threat like no other, and managed to get to me in plenty of times, the way they make him so rotten and intimidating, there's nothing charming about him, nothing redeemable or the like, he's a monster, and one you can't stop, absolutely incredible villan and threat, all while being a paralel to Van as well. And all of this gets exacerbated by the incredible interactions between all the characters, they're so entertaining and impactful, and with how many there are, it just shines so well, and give such a special feeling to this game. This has been present since Sky, and its in this game where I finally realize this is the real strength of Trails, and what makes it so special.
Overall, Trails through Daybreak is such a special game, one that acomplishes so many great things in gameplay, and writing. It is a marvelous experience, and one that I'll remember forever for all it acomplished, and how it served me personally, as a way to realize how far I've come when it comes to my personal issues since the past 4 years.