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The Trails series is a long-running franchise of role-playing video games developed by Nihon Falcom. It is part of the larger Legend of Heroes series which is now best known for its interconnected subseries known as the Trails saga. These games are appreciated for their deep storytelling, world-building, complex characters, and strategic turn-based combat systems.
The Trails series is divided into arcs, each focusing on different regions, characters, and storylines, but they are all set in the same shared world, Zemuria. Trails Through Daybreak II is the second game of the Calvard arc, and it is the 12th game in the series. As part two of the Calvard arc, Trails through Daybreak II improves upon the innovations of the previous game in numerous ways.
It is recommended to play Daybreak I before starting Daybreak II, as this is a direct sequel that continues some of the plot threads introduced in the first game.
So... Get ready to dive into the latest entry in the epic Trails series!
Year 1209 of the Septian Calendar.
The threat posed by Almata has passed. Peace has finally returned to Calvard. And, for a time, that peace goes uninterrupted... until a CID Special Ops unit is slaughtered by an unknown assailant.
With authorities working to contain the situation, criminal forces take the chance to make their own moves.
Meanwhile, a spriggan by the name of Van Arkride begins his own investigation after prompting from an unexpected visitor.
Who could be responsible for this massacre? What was their objective? And how does it all relate to Agnès' search for the eighth Genesis?
A crimson beast's roar. A chance meeting with a boy and girl, both embroiled in a mysterious search. These are the circumstances that lure Arkride Solutions down the trail of an inescapable fate.
This time, Van and his collaborators will not always travel together during the events of Trails through Daybreak II. At times, some of the group may split off in order to take care of tasks in different areas of Calvard concurrently. Because of this, each act contains multiple chapters you can play in any order. Progress the story in the order you choose! Each chapter features a different cast of characters as we see their side of the act's story play out.
As usual, there are tons of characters in a Trails game, both new and returning. These characters are far more than simple NPCs, they have depth and purpose. Falcom takes great care in ensuring these characters can grow and mature across multiple games.
Like the first game, Daybreak II employs a connection events system to dig deeper into the stories of specific characters, revealing new sides to them that you may not expect. The game also features a new special connection event system between certain characters that are particularly close with each other. These events deal with each character's past and inner turmoil, exploring their personality in greater depth.
Van Arkride is the main protagonist of the Calvard arc. He's the man at the head of Arkride Solutions. A lover of sweets, saunas, and orbal cars. Due to his job as a spriggan, Van has a tendency to take on legally-questionable jobs. However, the fact that he occasionally walks on the edge of the law does not preclude him from doing good by others, as is evidenced by his numerous personal contacts. While tracking down the Oct-Geneses at Agnès' request, Van developed the ability to transform into an armored form known as the Grendel with the help of Mare, the holo core installed within his combat orbment. It was with this new ability that he was able to fend off the mafia group known as Almata. Having once terrorized the entirety of the Republic, Almata was eventually brought to its knees by the Arkride Solutions team during the fight for the Oct-Geneses. Upon the quelling of this threat, however, they decided to temporarily go their separate ways. Now left to himself in a less-than-lively office, Van is free to return to his lone-wolf lifestyle once more.
Agnès Claudel is the co-heroine of the Calvard arc, and she is the character that basically kickstarted the whole adventure. Agnès is a first year at the prestigious Aramis Academy who currently serves on its Student Council. Despite her polite manner of speaking and at times meek demeanor, Agnès has shown great strength and determination while employed at Arkride Solutions, especially when facing off against the seedy underbelly of society. Agnès first met Van while searching for eight prototype orbments known as the Oct-Geneses, which she inherited from her great-grandfather. As thanks for taking on her request, she began working as one of Arkride Solution's part-time assistants. At present, Agnès has recovered seven of the eight Geneses. Unfortunately, while continuing her search for the last remaining Genesis, she's had no choice but to also divide her time between preparing for the Aramis Academy Festival and periodically helping out around Arkride Solutions.
Elaine Auclair is an A-rank bracer affiliated with the Edith branch of the Bracer Guild. She is occasionally referred to by the moniker 'Beauty's Blade'. Due to her dignified beauty and masterful skill with a sword, Elaine tends to catch the eye of the media more often than not. Unfortunately, this also leads to talent agencies offering her contracts for modeling and acting: she always declines. Outside of being the poster girl for the Bracer Guild, Elaine has no present interest in joining the world of entertainment. During her high school years, she enjoyed a brief and fleeting romance with Van before he suddenly vanished without so much as a word. It was only recently, after seven years, that the two were able to reunite. Although their lingering feelings for each other have left their current relationship a bit tense, their time fighting Almata together was able to strengthen their bond once more. Some time after the events involving Almata and the Oct-Geneses, Elaine received word that the Central Intelligence Department's elite Gamma Squad had been brutally murdered by an unknown assailant, and that a 'crimson' monster was spotted at the scene of the crime...
In the picture down below you can see some of the characters featured in Trails through Daybreak II. If you are interested in reading more about them, head over to the official website.
No longer threatened by the mafia organization Almata, the people of Calvard have returned to their peaceful lives.
But one day, a shocking series of murders involving a mysterious crimson beast sets the wheels of fate in motion once again.
Various factions spring into action: both those who abide by the law to uncover the truth and those looking to capitalize on any new developments wherever possible, no matter how sinister.
The world of Trails is composed of countless factions, each of them vying for a particular objective, which more often than not can lead to large scale conflicts. There a quite a few factions that are currently operating in the Calvard arc: click on the quote below if you need a refresher on some of the major factions at play.
A large country located in the central region of the Zemurian continent. Its current leader is President Roy Gramheart. Due to the unfortunate circumstances created by the desertification in eastern Zemuria, Calvard has a substantial history of receiving both immigrants and refugees. The resulting mixture of cultures and ethnicities has made the country into something of a melting pot. One hundred years ago, Calvard was under the heel of its monarchal rulers. It was only after Sheena Dirke and her compatriots brought about a democratic revolution that the nation was transformed into a democratic republic. Though in constant conflict with Erebonia over the control of bordering regions, Calvard has recently been on the receiving end of reparations from the Empire following the Battle of Jormungandr. These reparations enabled Calvard to enter a period of rapid growth and development, leading to its eventual overtake of Erebonia as the most powerful nation on the continent. Regarding the region's recreational interests, recent technological advancements in orbal vehicles and filmmaking have caused a boom in both the motorsports and orbal cinema industries. 
The Arkride Solutions Office was founded by Van Arkride, where he works as a spriggan. Spriggans tend to take requests from a wide variety of people asking for a wide variety of things. A spriggan may be a detective one day, a negotiator the next, and a bounty hunter the day after that. Since above-board jobs go to either the police or the Bracer Guild, the jobs spriggans specialize in are such things as requests that citizens can't bring to the authorities, tasks the CID would rather not have the bracers know about, or even jobs from criminals or underground organizations: in all cases, jobs that skirt the line of legality. 
An international private organization that prioritizes the safety and well-being of civilians. Its members, investigation and combat specialists known as bracers, take on requests from the local population at one of the guild's many branches. Common folk regard them as heroes, and they can be found in every major city. However, the trade-off that allows bracers to function across the continent is a strict non-interference policy when it comes to government affairs. This policy can tie a bracer's hands and leave them powerless when they find themselves up against certain problems. Moreover, in Calvard's current booming postwar environment, Jaegers and criminal organizations have flocked to the Republic, seeking to take advantage of the influx of money. This means more and more issues that the bracers are unable to solve above board.Many such cases find their way to backroom consultants calling themselves spriggans, who will handle the problem for hefty fees. Naturally, most bracers have a dim view of this state of affairs. 
The Septian Church, which is centered around the worship of the Goddess of the Sky, Aidios, is the most widespread religion in Zemuria. Their emblem is the holy grail, which is said to receive blessings from the Goddess Herself. Its seat is in the Holy City of Arteria. The various regions and cultures across the continent have different names for the Goddess. However, whether it be the 'Goddess of the Sky,' 'The Heavenly Mother,' or 'The Winged Goddess, Arusha,' they all worship the same, singular Goddess. The church's facilities are managed and maintained by the Congregation for Divine Worship. However, the tracking and recovery of artifacts are handled by a group known as the Congregation for the Sacraments. As these two entities are not on friendly terms with one another, they often end up in conflict. The church is also tasked with enlightening the people of Zemuria through education, training, healthcare, and other such means. Their Sunday School program is perhaps their most successful in this mission, as it is widely attended by children across the continent for their early education. 
The intelligence branch of the Calvard government, working directly with the President's office. During the long era of cold war between the Empire and the Republic, Erebonia established its Intelligence Division and began collecting information both within its borders and without. In response, President Rocksmith put together the Presidential Intelligence and Research Office, better known as the Rocksmith Agency. Two years of provisional operation later, and now with talent collected from all branches of government, it was officially relaunched as the CID. When he assumed power, the incoming President Gramheart organized the CID into three branches with the aim of giving the President full access to and control over all the collected intelligence. The Integrated Analysis Division was then set up to coordinate the separate branches, and Kilika Rouran, who was involved in the original formation of the CID, was appointed to lead it directly by the president. 
A private military company offering "total security solutions." It is based in the independent territory of Ored, northwest of Calvard. When it was first founded 10 years ago, it provided security services to companies around the continent. In recent years, however, it has expanded its operations tremendously to include outright military operations. Though at first glance, Marduk might seem to provide similar services to jaegers, the main thing that sets Marduk apart is their focus on skirting, but not crossing, the lines of legality in the countries where they do business, earning them high-value contracts with companies that prefer to avoid risking untoward attention. Outside of security and military services, they also develop and test their own CQC techniques and equipment before providing them to armies and jaegers across Zemuria. For a fee, of course. They also buy data from especially talented testers. All of this assistance is provided through their service concierges. 
A mysterious martial order headquartered somewhere in the increasingly barren eastern reaches of the continent. They make use of the latest techniques in weapon manufacturing to outfit their many masters of the tachi, a weapon from eastern Zemuria, and their covert units of shinobi, trained in many forms of warfare and intelligence. They are whispered of in the East as the ultimate fighting force. Their combat styles have names such as the shinobi's Rougetsu school or the tachi school known as Black God One Blade, but their nature and origins are veiled in secrecy. 
The game builds on the seamless transition between field battles (action battle system) and command battles (turn based battle system) introduced in Daybreak with some new additional mechanics: Quick Arts, Cross Charge and EX Chains. Mastering the use of these new mechanics can provide you with overwhelming firepower to use against your opponents!
Quick Arts
Now arts can be cast seamlessly during action combat! This action consumes a relevant portion of EP, so use it with care.
Cross Charge
If you manage to Perfect Dodge an enemy's attack during a field battle, the Cross Charge icon will appear. Pushing the correct button while the icon is on-screen will swap in another party member, who will simultaneously execute a charge attack on your foe! As a bonus, the party member that you swap in will have enhanced attack power for a period of time.
EX Chains
Activated by fulfilling specific conditions during command battles. Once these conditions have been met, using a craft or normal attack against a stunned enemy will automatically activate an EX Chain! This allows party members with SCLM activated to launch a simultaneous attack that will also impact nearby enemies, dealing massive damage. The charge attack performed during a Cross Charge has a high chance of stunning an enemy, so following it up by switching to command battle and performing an EX Chain can be an effective strategy for annihilating large groups of enemies with high defense!
Trails is currently composed of twelve games (western releases only). It can be a bit tricky to understand how these games relate to each other, but the timeline below should clear most doubts.
The games are divided into arcs: each arc tells a complete story. While the main story of each arc is self-contained, the overarching narrative takes into consideration all arcs: characters, locations and events from previous arcs are mentioned often throughout the series. Still, the main story of each arc can be followed without needing to play all previous games, as all the important stuff is always re-introduced in the first game of an arc.
The best way to play the Trails series would be from the first game, Trails in the Sky. Obviously this is a huge time commitment, as these games can get quite long. The second best way would be to pick any first game of a particular arc. For example, you could start by playing Trails through Daybreak, and then move on to Trails through Daybreak II. If you get hooked, then you can go back and play the previous arcs.
In short, the optimal starting point is Trails in the Sky. Alternatively you can start with Trails of Cold Steel or Trails through Daybreak. Starting with Trails from Zero is inadvisable, as the main plot includes the conclusion of a major plot point introduced in Trails in the Sky SC. Still, if you want to start with Trails from Zero because you like the premise of the game, go for it. Starting somewhere is better than not starting at all.
It is also important to note that a remake of Trails in the Sky is in development and set to release in 2025. That might be the perfect starting point if you cannot stomach the style of the early Trails games.
For simplicity I put Reverie in the Erebonia arc, even if it's an epilogue to both Crossbell and Erebonia (base image source: rpgfan.com)
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The game is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.
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