For years, telling friends about The Legend of Heroes games has felt less like recommending a cool new RPG and more like assigning Summer homework. Hyping up a game in this franchise comes with the caveat that you need to play every entry in order so you can fully understand the story, but when you’re talking about over a dozen 80+ hour JRPGs, that isn’t an easy ask. It’s why I’ve been so excited for The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak to get an English release, and so frustrated that it’s taken so many years for it to happen. In a world where games that were once niche Japan-only titles now get synchronised global releases, the delayed release of this new entry point in a long-running franchise has likely lost much of its momentum for a potential global audience. That isn’t fair at all, when this is one of the most engaging and enjoyable new JRPGs I’ve ever played.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak takes place in the Republic of Calvard, a country far east from the main locales from the last handful of The Legend of Heroes games. You won’t be expected to know what happened in previous games, who their protagonists were, or what the dozens of characters in those games may or may not be up to when you start this one.
You’re given a clean slate in the form of new series lead Van Arkride, who works a day-job as a humble Spriggan. Essentially, he’s Columbo with a license to kill – clients come to him looking for a detective, a bounty hunter, or a combo of the two. When a young girl by the name of Agnes Claudel comes to him seeking help in tracking down seven mementos from her great-grandfather, Van ends up taking her in as an assistant and the two of them set off on a conspiracy-unfurling journey through the seedy city of Edith and beyond.
Typically, protagonists in The Legend of Heroes live up to that “hero” moniker, with a lot of them being plucky young swordsmen with a lawful moral compass and plenty to learn about the dark secrets of their world. Van isn’t like that at all, and it ends up being such a breath of fresh air to play as a protagonist who isn’t just bucking the trends of his franchise, but of the JRPG genre as a whole.
Working as a detective-slash-fixer means that Van knows every dirty little secret about the city of Edith and the people who occupy it’s seedy underbelly. He has connections to secretive factions like Oroboros, and no qualms with taking on jobs that are slightly on the wrong side of being illegal. At the same time, he does his best to protect Agnes and his other inexperienced companions from being too exposed to the shadier sides of his business. Striking that balance as he tackles underground mafias and scientific conspiracies is incredible storytelling, and it’s a thrill whether you’re a longtime fan or fresh to the franchise.
A lot of other aspects of The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak are a fresh glow-up from prior entries. This game utilizes a brand new engine, resulting in lots of much-needed improvements to the gameplay experience. Character models look better than ever, and the dynamic cutscene animations we had just a taste of in The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie are dialled up even further in this game. There’s a much better sense of connectivity and seamless exploration to the game, too – you’ll encounter far fewer loading screens than usual as you run around the streets of Edith, and you can enter and exit houses or stores seamlessly without any loading screens. It’s small stuff, but stuff that has been long overdue for a franchise that’s been running on dated technology for so long.
Most exciting to me of all the changes and upgrades in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, though, is the combat. There are two different combat modes in the game – real-time action combat like you’d experience in modern Ys games, and positional turn-based battles that feel just like combat from prior entries in the series. You can choose to use one mode or the other as much as you want, with the exception of boss battles that are only turn-based in nature.
The game smartly rewards you for swapping between the two regularly styles – damaging enemies enough in real-time combat will stun them, and if you switch into turn-based battle from there they’ll take increased damage and have delayed turns. It’s something I genuinely wish other JRPGs could implement. I’m a massive action-combat fan, and I also appreciate turn-based battles, but in long games they can both get a little repetitive. Having the ability to swap between the two so often kept me on my toes and excited to play all the way until the credits rolled.
Inevitably, a sequel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak will require some knowledge of prior games to fully appreciate the narrative web they’re weaving. As far as this title alone, goes, it’s an amazing starting point for anyone, and a genuinely captivating and exciting JRPG in its own right. It isn’t just easy to recommend this game because it’s a standalone adventure – it’s easy to recommend because it’s just that good.
