One of the games that I was looking forward to is coming out on July 5th, and it is Trails Through Daybreak. If you have seen any of my Rising Star giveaway posts, then you would have probably noticed that I am a big Trials (Kiseki) fan and it has released 12 games so far in the 20 years since it has started. I have only played 10 of those games and Trials Through Daybreak will be the 11th game because the rest has not been translated yet. The downside is the long wait between the translated games but that has been improving lately. The images above comes from the wiki page for Trials Through Daybreak.
What is Trails (Kiseki)?
Trials (Kiseki) is a JRPG series that takes place in the continent of Zemuria. It's a unique JRPG series that I love because of the story. As everything takes part in a shared universe, the things that you learn in the earlier games also help you understand the things happening later. Also, the NPCs in the game also have their own stories that you can follow if you talk to them at different points in the story. So it's the JPRG that feels the most like the real world. Many characters make another appearance in later series and some of them come up in conversations. The only downside of this series is that the graphics are lacking compared to other JRPG series and the battle combat focuses more on turn-based combat. I do like the system because the ornament system allows you to customize the characters as you like. The games are fairly long as it takes around 40-50 hours to beat the game without worrying about completion. In some of the games, it took me over 100 hours to complete everything. So I think the money was worth the entertainment that I got. All of the games are on Steam so it makes it easy as I can just use my PC to play the game.
The map of Zemuria is above.. Starting from Trials in the Sky (Liberl Arc), you start off in the small country of Liberl in the southwest corner for 3 games. Then we move over to the small blue country in the middle called Crossbell for two games and the previous 5 games took place primarily in Erebonia (west red country). Trials through Daybreak take place in Calvard (green country in the middle). You learn a lot about different parts of the continent as you go through the game. Such as the Salt Pale incident in North Ambria. It was a supernatural disaster that devastated the entire country and it shows why their population focuses on being mercenaries because that is the only way to keep their people alive. The map comes from the wiki page for Zemuria.
Trails Through Daybreak
Above is the trailer and the opening for the game. The game takes place in the country of Calvard and our protagonist is the oldest one in the series so far. I am kind of happy that we aren't really dealing with the teenage protagonists. The battle is also no longer all turn-based as you can now have active combat in the field to speed things up. I am interested in seeing how the new combat system works out because I am so used to the turn-based system. I am not worried about the story but I did run across a few spoilers (even if I don't want to) and I am interested in seeing the connections to the demon-worshipping cult in the game.Conclusion
I am looking forward to this game and it comes out later this week. I might not be around as much on Hive but my work schedule is quite busy. So I don't know how long it will take to go through this game. However, I do think that I will enjoy it. I just wish that work wouldn't bother me as much so I could binge it. Another thing to note is that Trials in the Sky is the best starting point for the series. However, you can always opt to choose any of the stories that start an arc to start as well. In that regard, Trials through Daybreak is also a valid choice for a starting point into Trials if you are interested. I think the chronological order is the best because you might miss some of the references to past characters or knowledge otherwise. They do have a glossary for you to view the terms, but it's easy to miss things otherwise.
Feel free to leave a comment if you read my post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.