The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn is the contemporary begin the sequence wanted. It’s an odd declare to make, contemplating we’re apparently solely midway via the Trails sequence, which started all the way in which again in 2004. We’re now ten video games deep, not together with spin-offs, solely about half of which had been launched for Nintendo techniques.
Daunting? Sure. However once more, Trails By Dawn serves as a contemporary begin. Though some areas, characters, and references will probably be acquainted to sequence followers, there’s little or no right here that may make newcomers really feel misplaced. The sport begins, as an example, not in the midst of a big battle like earlier Trails video games have, however with a younger woman, Agnès Claudel, hiring an investigator, Van Arkride, to assist her discover a household heirloom. Appears harmless sufficient, proper?
Yeah, higher than that.
Van isn’t your typical PI, for one factor. He accepts missions which are authorized, however barely so—the sort of missions the place the shoppers can’t go to the police (or the Bracers, sequence followers) for no matter motive. Van is keen to stroll the road between regulation and chaos, which is one thing you, the participant, will do as effectively. On the finish of many missions, Van should determine how you can carry them to a detailed. This can have an effect on his rankings in regulation, chaos, and the grey space in between. What you determine has some impact on late-game proceedings, but it surely’s by no means an enormous deal, and the alternatives you’re given are by no means utterly morally incorrect.
In typical Legend of Heroes vogue, it’s not lengthy earlier than this celebration of two turns into a celebration of three. Then 4. Then a rotating group of company to shuffle out and in. The excellent news is that regardless of counting on a (largely) new forged of characters, sequence followers will really feel immediately at residence with all of them. Their persona quirks and dialogue beats are tonally in keeping with earlier video games, proper right down to everybody making enjoyable of Van for being the previous man regardless of his fixed reminders that he’s solely 24.
I’ve targeted this evaluation up to now on characters as a result of that’s what the Legend of Heroes video games do. They’re decidedly dialogue-heavy. This was useful in video games previous, because the conversations introduced gamers in control. Right here, lots of the dialogue is character targeted, doing nothing to drive the plot or deepen the lore. I preferred that. It helps the participant come to know the folks on the journey. Everybody will get a punchline to ship, a purpose to succeed in, a previous to beat (or at the least come to phrases with). They’re accessible.
However the accessibility doesn’t finish with the brand new characters; there are many new gameplay parts, too. The largest of those is the addition of real-time fight. Though The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn continues to be a turn-based fight sport at coronary heart, gamers now have the choice of partaking lesser enemies in easy, action-oriented battles. Assault, dodge, and stun are your solely strikes, so there’s not a lot to them, however they assist you to achieve needed expertise and sources with out stopping for extra calculated turn-by-turn strikes.
Boss battles are nonetheless absolutely turn-based, and hacking away on some enemies in actual time isn’t probably the most environment friendly strategy to deal with them, however the choice means you’re extra more likely to enter into all accessible battles, in flip making certain you’re leveled up and prepared for the massive, unavoidable ones.
Flip-based fight is just about the identical throughout these greater fights. You possibly can select between primary assaults, arts, and CP assaults, with the timeline of who will get to maneuver when dispalyed on the high of the display screen. Arts can take some time to forged. CP assaults are extra highly effective however extra restricted in use. Characters could be extra freely positioned within the fight enviornment this time, and you’ll entry boosts from group members simply by standing with in proximity to them.
It’s additionally simpler to activate every character’s particular CP assault, though they appear much less highly effective than earlier than.
Oh, and in case your talent ranges (or endurance) fluctuate between turn-based and realtime battles, no worries; you possibly can set the issue settings for every individually.
Sequence followers will even discover the modifications to the orbment system of arts and enhancements. Earlier Trails entries had been pretty inflexible in the way you assigned a personality’s skillset and enhanced their skills—you sort of needed to get it proper from the beginning. Trials By Dawn makes it simpler to rapidly shuffle their Arts Driver (which gives their primary skillset) and the Quartz enhancements for every. Dealing with a tricky boss that’s weak to earth assaults? Swap out the characters’ present Quartz set with extra earth-based expertise. Win, then swap them again. You don’t must plan so rigorously this time round, and also you received’t end up with out correct therapeutic expertise, for instance, when the story quickly takes your greatest healer away from you.
Even the stream of the city exploration has been modified a bit. Sure, Trails By Dawn has the identical loop—enter a brand new city, discover it, purchase stuff, settle for and carry out sidequests, after which full the principle process to maneuver on. Earlier video games, nevertheless, made it very straightforward to overlook gadgets that would’ve been an enormous assist in a while. That didn’t appear to be the case this time, with present gadgets and key equipment being extra simply identifiable at shops. Or, possibly I’ve simply performed sufficient Trails video games to understand how the system works. Both method, I felt like I spent much less time backtracking via city to verify I’ve acquired the whole lot that might be locked away after shifting on.
Talking of cities, the setting of Calvard is a little more numerous than regular, too. The assorted cities have apparent worldly inspirations—Chinese language and the Center East, for instance—which helps them turn into extra memorable.
This additionally results in some fascinating costume designs. Who cares about costumes, you ask? Trails followers, I assume, contemplating the myriad choices accessible via DLC. Somewhat costly DLC, too. $30 to decorate the characters in swimsuits? No thanks. Correct footwear is necessary in fight.
The general visuals are high-quality. The settings are colourful however oddly primary and angular. They provide the sequence a particular look that gives strong efficiency when taking part in docked or in handheld mode (though I wouldn’t advocate the latter as a result of the kind is tiny). The music can be good, though it’ll largely simply disappear into the background. The battle animations appeared to have been toned down, they usually’re nonetheless skippable. After seeing the extended assault animations a couple of times, you’ll wish to use that function.
My solely actual grievance about The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn is that it takes too lengthy to get shifting. Midway via the sport, it nonetheless felt like I used to be simply accompanying a bunch of mates on a vacation lark. Hints of better risks, secret pasts, and ulterior motives are scattered all through, however nothing appears terribly necessary for fairly a while. After the political weight of the Trails of the Chilly Metal video games, it was an odd choice for a lot of Trails By Dawn to focus on a movie competition.
The sport nonetheless suffers from extended narrative dumps, too. You don’t wish to hit a big story marker simply earlier than an obligation or bedtime, as you may get caught in a half hour of animations and textual content throughout which you’ll’t save. Oh, and there additionally appears to be no rhyme or motive for what dialogue is voiced and what isn’t. Characters simply randomly cease speaking for no motive, as if the script was expanded or altered after all of the actors had gone residence. Bizarre.
But it surely’s straightforward to look previous these faults because of The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn’s concentrate on what issues in these video games: fight and characters. This entry delivers them way more successfully than Trails Into Reverie and extra accessibly than Trails of Chilly Metal III. It’s a strong option to occupy your time throughout the Swap’s twilight, throughout which you’ll compensate for the Trails video games you missed.
