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The Legend Of Heroes / Kiseki / Trails Series Megathread

Mikey Jr. said:
Playing daybreak now. I'm 43 hours in.

One thing that I'm confused about. In reverie, I was DESTROYING enemies with arts.
But in this game, I feel so neutered. Like it's not doing the same damage as fucking basic attacks. Ok maybe a bit more, but not much. Crafts destroy her damage output.

Like I put Agnes as pure arts character and tried to bump her ATS. But it just feels so weak. I mainly use her for support now. But I have half a mind to just swap her with a physical character and be done with it.

Am I missing something? Are arts supposed to be really good in this game and I'm just doing something wrong?
I'm on chapter 4.
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you won't really do much arts damage till you get the arts can crit orbment. make sure align the bonus elemental damage with the right skill. but yea, just much easier to spam crafts.
found arts much better in daybreak II though
 
Mikey Jr. said:
Am I missing something? Are arts supposed to be really good in this game and I'm just doing something wrong?
I'm on chapter 4.
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Arts become good later on, be sure to get Judgement Feather on your main casters.

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EDIT: I forgot that dual arts are not a thing in Daybreak I. Still, there are plenty of S arts that can shred enemies.
 
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Mikey Jr. said:
Playing daybreak now. I'm 43 hours in.

One thing that I'm confused about. In reverie, I was DESTROYING enemies with arts.
But in this game, I feel so neutered. Like it's not doing the same damage as fucking basic attacks. Ok maybe a bit more, but not much. Crafts destroy her damage output.

Like I put Agnes as pure arts character and tried to bump her ATS. But it just feels so weak. I mainly use her for support now. But I have half a mind to just swap her with a physical character and be done with it.

Am I missing something? Are arts supposed to be really good in this game and I'm just doing something wrong?
I'm on chapter 4.
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i always get confused about how long stun lasts, I guess using a SP craft breaks them out of it (but if I do it really fast one after another, there's still in the stun state)
and sometimes I can do a lot of chain ex. followups in a row, but sometimes it looks like they break out after 1.
 
GateofD said:
i always get confused about how long stun lasts, I guess using a SP craft breaks them out of it (but if I do it really fast one after another, there's still in the stun state)
and sometimes I can do a lot of chain ex. followups in a row, but sometimes it looks like they break out after 1.
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Boss encounters are also rather scripted in the series -> you break an enemy at 60% HP -> unleash one S-Craft -> enemy HP 50% -> enemy cancel's stun and get's empowered -> next turn enemy S-Craft.

And there are tons of such scripted lines in the encounters that could break the stun or do some other things to keep combat dynamic.

Also enemies on higher difficultys since CS3 have also absurd amounts of speed to counter action delay spam so that the break stun only lasts for 2-3 character actions anyway.
 
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Lorianus said:
And there are tons of such scripted lines in the encounters that could break the stun
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I hate that shit. One goes through all the effort to preemptively buff/set-up the party to maximize the damage while a boss is stunned... and he recovers immediately because while stunning him he reaches the scripted threshold. Fuck that...
 
Finally got past chapter 1 in Horizon. Back to my favorite guy.
Everything got so much more interesting by like 2-3x fold.

Also, god damn, put those things away, your gonna poke an eye out with those those.
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mèx said:
That section...

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It really is! All the different discussions happening, all the history being discussed, the music......it's the first time I think, since starting to play Sky 1 on the PSP all those years back where I'm like......this series has come full circle in ways that few videogames really do! Never would have thought back then that the series would end up where it's at now, it's truly something special.
 
mèx said:
His background:
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Like Skies 1st Chapter remake did a good job in showing me Bracer's role in everything.
and Crossbell I think did fine in seeing the police's side.
Cold Steel the military side.

Now just missing the role the church plays in everything.
 
GateofD said:
Like Skies 1st Chapter remake did a good job in showing me Bracer's role in everything.
and Crossbell I think did fine in seeing the police's side.
Cold Steel the military side.

Now just missing the role the church plays in everything.
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You'll get more insight into the church in Sky 2 and 3.
 
I've been sitting on the prologue chapter of Azure Kai for longest time (like a couple of years now) and just finished the prologue.
Just encountered Kevin, and somehow I thought he had stronger Kansai accent - but it's been such a long time since I played Sky 1/2/3, so I could be mistaken.
Been going thru some of the stuff that had happened to remind myself. I vaguely remember Zero's storylike, but thankfully remember most the characters and their backstories.
I tend to have hard time following an RPGs storyline that in general- a big fault of mine because I tend to get side tracked on all the side quests and task at the moment - the main quest storyline (especially towards end of the game) sometimes becomes somewhat vague.
That's especially true because Trails series (so far) - the final battles tend to become some sort of SF fantasy. ;) Thankfully I remember maybe 60-80% of the storyline from Zero which was about DG church.
Looking forward what the storyline would hold this time around.
 
This series has grown on me a lot. I began playing Falcom games in summer 2024 with Ys, played through all of it (and loved it, especially Ys VIII and Ys X), and afterwards, in March 2025 I began playing Trails. Save for a few months at the end of 2025 I took to rest, when I was going through Cold Steel I (because I was feeling burned), and I'm now on Cold Steel III, going through Chapter 2 and having a blast. And CS3 is the first game where I'm taking my time with the combat (played all the others on Easy because I was mostly interested in the story and the gameplay wasn't doing it for me). It's a very well done series, plenty of characters that have storylines with tons of thought behind them. At this point, I feel like it's the second best series I've played (behind Final Fantasy, the one I grew up with) and it's one I would have never discovered (or even considered) if it wasn't for GAF and the constant activity on both Ys and Trails threads.
 
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Kazdane said:
This series has grown on me a lot. I began playing Falcon games in summer 2024 with Ys, played through all of it (and loved it, especially Ys VIII and Ys X), and afterwards, in March 2025 I began playing Trails. Save for a few months at the end of 2025 I took to rest, when I was going through Cold Steel I (because I was feeling burned), and I'm now on Cold Steel III, going through Chapter 2 and having a blast. And CS3 is the first game where I'm taking my time with the combat (played all the others on Easy because I was mostly interested in the story and the gameplay wasn't doing it for me). It's a very well done series, plenty of characters that have storylines with tons of thought behind them. At this point, I feel like it's the second best series I've played (behind Final Fantasy, the one I grew up with) and it's one I would have never discovered (or even considered) if it wasn't for GAF and the constant activity on both Ys and Trails threads.
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That's awesome. I grew up on FF and DQ back in the day, but now Trails and Persona are my two favorite JRPG series.
 
AmuroChan said:
but now Trails and Persona are my two favorite JRPG series
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There's something that Persona does very well, and Trails also at times, which is creating a sense of familiarity with the characters and the setting. Happened to me both in P4 and P5. I haven't yet played P3, but I have the feeling it'll be the same.
 
If someone is planning to play Cold Steel 3 on PC soon, it's on sale on Steam. The game is not available for a decent price on third party stores anymore, so the only good time to buy this is during a Steam Sale (NIS America Golden Week Sale in this case).

The same applies to Cold Steel 4 and Reverie actually, but some obscure third party store might have some keys left for a decent price.
 
My three favorite now are Final Fantasy, Trails and Persona.

Everything else, Star Ocean, Dragon Quest, Octopath, Tales of, Metaphor, Ys, Yakuza like a Dragon.. everything takes a back seat against these three.

Only one who could enter in that trilogy would be Valkyria Chronicles, if Sega decided to developed another one.
 
I have too many favorite game franchises for an actual 3, but FF and Trails are my top two. Third would be whoever has recency bias or what we I'm playing at the moment but it's be between Nier, Kingdom Hearts, Yakuza and Xeno.
 
any Laura fans. Never played Cold Steel I and II, so I'm missing any context with her. And the old Class VII of Rean's classmates never really did much in III and IV other than a very select few. Pretty random pick.
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And my boy Lloyd still hasn't had a figure! come on!

Myself, dropped about 67,000 mira (including shipping) for two more figurines to sit in their box.
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Been trying to find Renne for a while, so happy about that. Elaine is okay, she was just there so I just added her.
 
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finally getting close to the end of daybreak 1. Is part 2 really as disappointing as I keep hearing? Or is it more like if its the current newest game its disappointing but now since you can just go straight to horizon its good?
 
corgiix3 said:
finally getting close to the end of daybreak 1. Is part 2 really as disappointing as I keep hearing? Or is it more like if its the current newest game its disappointing but now since you can just go straight to horizon its good?
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it is. Its like a giant bloated DLC with only a few scraps of relevant updates to lore.
 
corgiix3 said:
finally getting close to the end of daybreak 1. Is part 2 really as disappointing as I keep hearing? Or is it more like if its the current newest game its disappointing but now since you can just go straight to horizon its good?
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Daybreak 2 is the weakest of the 3 games. The villain is lame and nothing really happens in the story.
 
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corgiix3 said:
finally getting close to the end of daybreak 1. Is part 2 really as disappointing as I keep hearing? Or is it more like if its the current newest game its disappointing but now since you can just go straight to horizon its good?
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Daybreak 2 has the best character interactions in the series. Act 3 is bloated but you can power through. Just chill, sit back and enjoy the characters and NPCs.
 
mèx said:
Daybreak 2 has the best character interactions in the series. Act 3 is bloated but you can power through. Just chill, sit back and enjoy the characters and NPCs.
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so its relevant to character storyline progression but mostly inconsequential to the overarching narrative? how do the visuals/animations and combat compare to daybreak1? One of the highlights for these games is the boss fights. I play all these games on nightmare and love to min/max to beat a crazy boss lol
 
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corgiix3 said:
how do the visuals/animations and combat compare to daybreak1? One of the highlights for these games is the boss fights. I play all these games on nightmare and love to min/max to beat a crazy boss lol
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Visuals are the same. Gameplay is mostly the same with a few tweaks.
 
corgiix3 said:
so its relevant to character storyline progression but mostly inconsequential to the overarching narrative? how do the visuals/animations and combat compare to daybreak1? One of the highlights for these games is the boss fights. I play all these games on nightmare and love to min/max to beat a crazy boss lol
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They added Quick Arts and Cross Charge (timed dodge + character switching) to field battles, and added Ex Chains (combo attacks) and Dual Arts to command battles. They also re-worked some shard skills, fixed the turn-order graph and fixed the S-craft spam. Like every Trails, you can min/max and break the combat. If you love combat then they also added the Märchen Garten, which is similar to the True Reverie Corridor.

The combat and craft animations are slightly improved, but they were already quite good in Daybreak 1 imho. There is a bigger jump in Horizon when it comes to animations and cutscenes mocap in general.

It's not completely inconsequential to the overarching narrative, but it takes a major backseat. There are quite a few important revelations about events and characters that you cannot miss if you plan to play Horizon. But as I said, that's not the main focus of the game. It really emphasizes character driven storytelling above anything else.
 
AmuroChan said:
Baffling to me that S-E is just sitting on the Chrono IP and won't do anything with it.
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I for one am glad that they haven't done anything new with the Chrono IP. Modern SquareEnix would screw it up

All I want from them in regards to the Chrono IP is a port of Chrono Trigger DS to all systems. I still think it's the best version of the game
 
I'm thinking replaying 1st Chapter before 2nd Chapter drops.

Is it confirmed we are getting 3rd Chapter as well?
 
Danjin44 said:
I'm thinking replaying 1st Chapter before 2nd Chapter drops.

Is it confirmed we are getting 3rd Chapter as well?
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Undecided.

In an interview with Dengeki Online, Kondo discussed Nihon Falcom's next steps for the Trails series after launching the upcoming 2nd Chapter. When asked about whether Trails in the Sky the 3rd will be coming as a next remake after 2nd Chapter, Kondo explained that the development team is still deliberating. "We're not sure whether to do the 3rd or from Zero next – opinions are divided among us. Some of the members are saying that it would be better to do a remake of from Zero before the 3rd," Kondo said.

However, he does remark that releasing a remake of the 3rd before from Zero would be more logical continuity-wise. "Renne's story is really important. Same goes for Kevin, and the name Crossbell appears for the first time in the 3rd. This is also where Erebonia's Blood and Iron Chancellor Osborne makes his first appearance. […] I think we have to do a remake of the 3rd at some point, but there are many possible ideas for what form it could take."
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When asked about how Nihon Falcom would handle possible remakes of Trails of Cold Steel and Trails of Cold Steel II, Kondo explained that, due to how big the two games are, doing a remake doesn't sound realistic at the moment. "When we were developing Cold Steel, we were told to just do whatever we liked, so we packed the game with so many different elements. I think remaking it would be a rather difficult feat. Merging I and II into one title would also be quite tricky to do given the sheer volume of the games." Though Kondo didn't outright deny that there would be a remake of Cold Steel, he said that, as of currently, Nihon Falcom is yet to decide whether they can take on the project in the future. So, even if it does get greenlit eventually, it is safe to say that a remake of Cold Steel will not be coming anytime soon.
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Fie's second bonding/special memory in CS4 is what I love and appreciate about the game. The world building and characters.

Sure the world is on the brink of war and other destruction but let's smoke cigars and drink and reminisce with our most recent rivals and others who most definitely want to fight me. Everything that's happened between this certain group of characters in every previous game (and stuff only mentioned) made the moment feel special because of the HISTORY of each relationship. Might be my favorite bonding event so far, the ones I've done so far in this game have really felt important.
 
hardwood007 said:
Why switch? For portability? Don't the games perform quite poorly on switch?
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The Trails game I play in docked mode for Switch. I didn't notice any of Reverie dipping in framerate when I was playing the game on Switch

I played the Daybreak games on steam and I bought the Korean Versions, this was before any of the games came out in North America. I used a MTL English Fan Patch to play the games.

Why Switch, because other than Steamdeck, that's my primary console
 


I guess they are going to show some new footage/info for both Sky 2nd and Kyoto Xanadu. It's going live in few mins.

EDIT: It was mostly about Xanadu regarding new footage, the Sky 2nd part was about introducing characters.
 
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So finally rolled credits on daybreak. 100+ hours. Last chapter I kinda just plowed through the 4spg and lots of enemies.

Anyways, as someone who started this series with cold steel 1, I would give daybreak a solid 8.

I really had a great time with it.

The pros:

1. Graphics and animation got a HUGE step up imo. Especially animations. Everything just looked better, more polished, higher budget.

2. I really enjoyed the new combat system. Took a while to really get in the groove after FIVE fucking cold steel games, but once I found it, I was having fun. It's super snappy, albeit kinda easy even on hard. I never really got bored of it. Imo "hate" needs to be removed. I abused that shit way too much lol.

3. That title screen music is a fucking banger. I have it on my Spotify playlist lol.

4. The game actually made me laugh. Like, legit chuckle. Aaron especially. Says the most out of left field shit lol.

5. I like that they are going the more mature route. Like, straight up blood and death. They aren't afraid to kill people. I feel like it's a little bit held back still. Unlike cold steel where I don't think we ever saw a drop of blood the entire series? And everyone is just constantly "knocked out".


The cons\meh

6. I feel like story was a bit weak. Reminds me of those old FF games where they have to find the 4 crystals of power or blah blah. I mean, it's ok.
I like cold steel 1 better in this regard.

7. I like most of the characters. Quatre and feri I'm soft on. But good cast. But what I don't like is how everyone is so friendly immediately. Everyone loves each other right out the gate. Everyone is best friends and will die for each other.
I guess theres a little tension between Judith and van, but I never felt like the group having differences, but eventually they come together in the end and understand each other. Feels too perfect right out the gate.

8. Last thing. I was hoping for a more "ohh shitttttt!!!" moment at the end of the game to set up the sequel. but everything tied up with a nice little bow.
Unlike cs1 where I immediately bought cs2 because that fucking ending was crazy.


Anyways, solid 8 for me. Really good score for me. Cold steel 1 is still my favourite though. I just loved that setting and cast of characters. I think Rean is still #1, but I'll give van a chance. I really didn't fall in love with rean until cs2.

Gonna give daybreak 2 a rest though. 100 hours really knocked me out lol.
 
Mikey Jr. said:
So finally rolled credits on daybreak. 100+ hours. Last chapter I kinda just plowed through the 4spg and lots of enemies.

Anyways, as someone who started this series with cold steel 1, I would give daybreak a solid 8.

I really had a great time with it.

The pros:

1. Graphics and animation got a HUGE step up imo. Especially animations. Everything just looked better, more polished, higher budget.

2. I really enjoyed the new combat system. Took a while to really get in the groove after FIVE fucking cold steel games, but once I found it, I was having fun. It's super snappy, albeit kinda easy even on hard. I never really got bored of it. Imo "hate" needs to be removed. I abused that shit way too much lol.

3. That title screen music is a fucking banger. I have it on my Spotify playlist lol.

4. The game actually made me laugh. Like, legit chuckle. Aaron especially. Says the most out of left field shit lol.

5. I like that they are going the more mature route. Like, straight up blood and death. They aren't afraid to kill people. I feel like it's a little bit held back still. Unlike cold steel where I don't think we ever saw a drop of blood the entire series? And everyone is just constantly "knocked out".


The cons\meh

6. I feel like story was a bit weak. Reminds me of those old FF games where they have to find the 4 crystals of power or blah blah. I mean, it's ok.
I like cold steel 1 better in this regard.

7. I like most of the characters. Quatre and feri I'm soft on. But good cast. But what I don't like is how everyone is so friendly immediately. Everyone loves each other right out the gate. Everyone is best friends and will die for each other.
I guess theres a little tension between Judith and van, but I never felt like the group having differences, but eventually they come together in the end and understand each other. Feels too perfect right out the gate.

8. Last thing. I was hoping for a more "ohh shitttttt!!!" moment at the end of the game to set up the sequel. but everything tied up with a nice little bow.
Unlike cs1 where I immediately bought cs2 because that fucking ending was crazy.


Anyways, solid 8 for me. Really good score for me. Cold steel 1 is still my favourite though. I just loved that setting and cast of characters. I think Rean is still #1, but I'll give van a chance. I really didn't fall in love with rean until cs2.

Gonna give daybreak 2 a rest though. 100 hours really knocked me out lol.
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Cold Steel 1 literly opens up with soldiers killed and blood on the floor (atleast PC version)
Cold Steel 3 had some blood when a specific character was slain

Daybreak 1 starts up more mature, but it is sadly downhill from here. DBII is the worst game in the series. (73 at metacritic)
 
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