The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn is the recent begin the sequence wanted. It’s an odd declare to make, contemplating we’re apparently solely midway by way of the Trails sequence, which started all the best way again in 2004. We’re now ten video games deep, not together with spin-offs, solely about half of which have been launched for Nintendo programs.
Daunting? Sure. However once more, Trails By Dawn serves as a recent begin. Though some places, characters, and references will likely be acquainted to sequence followers, there’s little or no right here that can make newcomers really feel misplaced. The sport begins, for 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, you already know higher than that.
Van isn’t your typical PI, for one factor. He accepts missions which are authorized, however barely so—the type of missions the place the purchasers can’t go to the police (or the Bracers, sequence followers) for no matter cause. Van is prepared to stroll the road between legislation and chaos, which is one thing you, the participant, will do as properly. On the finish of many missions, Van should resolve methods to deliver them to an in depth. This may have an effect on his rankings in legislation, chaos, and the grey space in between. What you resolve 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 style, it’s not lengthy earlier than this get together of two turns into a celebration of three. Then 4. Then a rotating group of visitors to shuffle out and in. The excellent news is that regardless of counting on a (largely) new solid of characters, sequence followers will really feel immediately at house with all of them. Their persona quirks and dialogue beats are tonally according to earlier video games, proper all the way down to everybody making enjoyable of Van for being the previous man regardless of his fixed reminders that he’s solely 24.
I’ve centered this assessment to this point 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 on top of things. Right here, quite a lot of the dialogue is character centered, doing nothing to drive the plot or deepen the lore. I favored that. It helps the participant come to know the folks on the journey. Everybody will get a punchline to ship, a objective 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 components, 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 participating 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 will let you acquire crucial expertise and assets with out stopping for extra calculated turn-by-turn strikes.
Boss battles are nonetheless totally 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 prone to enter into all accessible battles, in flip making certain you’re leveled up and prepared for the large, unavoidable ones.
Flip-based fight is just about the identical throughout these greater fights. You may select between fundamental assaults, arts, and CP assaults, with the timeline of who will get to maneuver when dispalyed on the high of the display. Arts can take some time to solid. 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 crew 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 persistence) differ between turn-based and realtime battles, no worries; you possibly can set the problem settings for every individually.
Sequence followers may even discover the modifications to the orbment system of arts and enhancements. Earlier Trails entries have been pretty inflexible in the way you assigned a personality’s skillset and enhanced their talents—you type of needed to get it proper from the beginning. Trials By Dawn makes it simpler to shortly shuffle their Arts Driver (which offers their fundamental skillset) and the Quartz enhancements for every. Dealing with a troublesome 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 have to plan so rigorously this time round, and also you gained’t end up with out correct therapeutic expertise, for instance, when the story briefly takes your finest healer away from you.
Even the circulation 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 simple to overlook objects that might’ve been an enormous assist afterward. That didn’t appear to be the case this time, with reward objects and key equipment being extra simply identifiable at shops. Or, perhaps I’ve simply performed sufficient Trails video games to know the way the system works. Both approach, I felt like I spent much less time backtracking by way of city to ensure I’ve acquired all the pieces that may be locked away after shifting on.
Talking of cities, the setting of Calvard is a little more various than regular, too. The varied cities have apparent worldly inspirations—Chinese language and the Center East, for instance—which helps them change into extra memorable.
This additionally results in some attention-grabbing costume designs. Who cares about costumes, you ask? Trails followers, I assume, contemplating the myriad choices accessible by way of DLC. Fairly costly DLC, too. $30 to decorate the characters in swimsuits? No thanks. Correct footwear is necessary in fight.
The general visuals are nice. The settings are colourful however oddly fundamental and angular. They provide the sequence a particular look that gives stable efficiency when taking part in docked or in handheld mode (though I wouldn’t suggest the latter as a result of the sort is tiny). The music can also be good, though it’ll largely simply disappear into the background. The battle animations appeared to have been toned down, and so they’re nonetheless skippable. After seeing the extended assault animations a couple of times, you’ll need to use that characteristic.
My solely actual criticism about The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn is that it takes too lengthy to get shifting. Midway by way of the sport, it nonetheless felt like I used to be simply accompanying a bunch of associates on a vacation lark. Hints of larger 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 resolution 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 need to hit a big story marker simply earlier than an obligation or bedtime, as you would 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 cause for what dialogue is voiced and what isn’t. Characters simply randomly cease speaking for no cause, as if the script was expanded or altered after all of the actors had gone house. Bizarre.
But it surely’s simple to look previous these faults because of The Legend of Heroes: Trails By Dawn’s deal with what issues in these video games: fight and characters. This entry delivers them far more successfully than Trails Into Reverie and extra accessibly than Trails of Chilly Metal III. It’s a stable option to occupy your time throughout the Change’s twilight, throughout which you’ll make amends for the Trails video games you missed.