I was able to play Trails Through Daybreak 2 and was invited to a preview event showcasing the game prior, but we got a lot of meat in a brand new preview event for the game and it was stellar. Let us dig in!
Recapping What We Already Know
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2 takes place three months after the events of the first game. Elaine knocks on Van’s door as she wants his help finding more information about the crimson Grendel.
At the same time, Swin and Nadia (From Trails Into Reverie) have made their way to Calvard looking for a mystery person. As they follow the clues to each of their mysteries, Elaine and Van, meet up with Swin and Nadia. Throughout the game, the full Arkride Solutions team will become available to help with these mysteries alongside some new party members.
The Märchen Garten
The Märchen Garten is a brand-new area to Trails Through Daybreak 2 and it is reminiscent of the Reverie corridor of Trails Into Reverie. While in this brand-new area, you can go through multi-floor dungeons with any playable characters in your party. There is also a ton of things you can do in the Märchen Garten.
You obtain equipment, costumes, items, and more with the mystic cube. As you are going through the dungeons in the Märchen Garten, you get shard tokens. You can use these shard tokens to break down the mystic cubes. If it is a high-rarity item inside the cube, the color of the cube turns into a rainbow. In the mystic cube instead of it being an item for a costume, it is a data core. If you get an allotted amount of the same data core, you can trade those cores in for that item it is a data core for. That is one difference between the unsealing pedestal in Reverie and the Mystic Cube here.
A brand new mechanic in the series is enhancing Crafts. In earlier games, you mainly enhanced crafts by leveling up or reaching a story milestone. This time you can enhance crafts by collecting skill stones and converting them to craft stones. These craft stones are unique to individual party members. You can break down craft stones back into skill stones in case you want to convert them into another party member.
Minigames Galore
There are minigames in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2. This is a surprise because the first game was lacking heavily in this department. Trails Into Reverie had a ton in the Reverie corridor and it was a surprise when none made their way over to the Calvard Arc. Nihon Falcom must have been disappointed in this too as they added a bunch to make up for that in this second entry in the Calvard Arc.
The first one on the docket is Fishing. Fishing is a staple in the Trails series and makes a return here. This is also the most sophisticated fishing has ever been. You choose your bait and put your line in the water. When a fish tugs on the line, an exclamation mark appears over the character’s head. To reel in the fish, the reel will appear as a visual on the screen and you can use the left analog stick to move the pointer on the reel. Your goal is to move the pointer in the highlighted section, and then when the reel makes its way to the highlighted section press the button it tells you to.
The next minigame is an interesting hacking game. You play as Mare as you essentially stealth your way to new waypoints and hide from viruses. You also input commands to remove barriers from your path.
The next one is an interesting side step, Seven Hearts. Throughout the Trails series, we have gotten card games that use their own rules and mechanics. Some were evolutions of the previous ones like Vanguard. This one however is more like Uno than any of the other card games. You have to match the card played and lose your hand to win.
The final minigame we were introduced to in the preview event was one-on-one basketball. It is more like a mind game with the shooter and the guard. The shooter can move along the three-point line and can shoot. The guard can block, steal, or add pressure on the shooter to force them to shoot.
Post Game Content
Märchen Garten in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2 is mostly optional content similar to the Reverie Corridor. The first few floors introduce you to the Märchen Garten and then you continue with the story. You can use the Garten to increase levels of your characters in the story, but once you are done with the story you can put all hands on deck to finish the dungeons. If you do, there are two extra playable characters you can unlock in this mode. These characters can only be used in the Märchen Garten.
This new preview event made me even more excited for the main release in a month simply because I adored the Reverie Corridor in Trails Into Reverie and to see it already make a comeback is exciting!
I am so excited to see what else there is to look at when The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II is released February 14th, 2025. It will be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
