Trails through Daybreak (up through day 1 of chapter 2)
Another Falcom game. I originally planned on holding off until February when Daybreak II's scheduled to come out, but I also want to finish catching up on their catalogue (and update my music database doc). The new leads, Van and Agnes, are easy enough to like, and it's very obvious to see where Falcom spent money on (certain) better animated and directed cutscenes. Conversely, it's easy to see where they cheaped out - VA performances for side characters only in many non-critical cutscenes is so distracting (and there'll sometimes be the occasional one-off line that is voiced for some reason). Edith, and the environments in general, are big and bustling, and you can't talk to every NPC anymore but that's as much by virtue of increasing the number of NPCs in the game and less Falcom cutting back on writing for them.
The experience has been a rollercoaster. The prologue and start of chapter 1 were fine enough, and I liked exploring the new town and getting into the groove of a new Trails arc, figuring out how everything and everyone pieces together in the greater picture. The rest of chapter 1... I did not like so much. Feri fell completely flat for me - I did not buy the pure, innocent, kind mercenary personality. I also hated Agnes' Genesis device apparently listening in on the gang's conversation and glowing in response to plot developments to tell them what they should do, a trend which is continuing in chapter 2. I'd have been a little more alright with it if Van or Agnes said anything about this being really weird, but they just rolled with the inanimate object reacting to them talking. That said, I've liked chapter 2 more so far. Feri's better when the game's playing up her 'sheltered yet battle-trained' personality elements while not focusing on the 'we're telling you she's a real mercenary, guys' part, and the Edith segments in general have been the most fun (even if I've left the city only once so far).
The leaps in tech in-universe have really been something, and gotten me thinking a bit: Namely how well-adapted Edith is for motor vehicles. Their presence and the limitation on use of cars has been touched on before lightly in Crossbell and moreso in Heimdallr, where the point was made that such an enormous and old city simply wasn't designed for street cars and so they could really only run on the main avenues dividing the city districts (and relying on the city rail buses otherwise). Edith's got a highway system! It's something I could accept in the Trails universe as I've already accepted that tech itself in this world grows in leaps and bounds, but a thought did cross my mind when Van commented explicitly about the new jumbotron by the railway station that maybe showing just a few WIP construction sites around the otherwise pristine cityscape would have been a good idea. Same feel for the movie theaters actually which Van says have been around for years, but I think I can roll with it because the tech hasn't leapt to modern day yet. Afaik, movies aren't streamable on the orbal net, and it's little holes like that in their societal development that are ever so different from our own that keep it plausible.
One of my more unexpected complaints is with the menu UI actually. Mainly that there is so much going on. My gut reaction is that it feels more designed for functionality than ease of use, as you sometimes have to jump to different directories' multi-layered submenus to change what seems to be a similar element of one system (i.e. your orbment setup). I had similar problems with other recent Trails games too for the same thing now that I think about it, but those complaints were isolated to the shop menus at rest points that allowed you to shop/customize.
Music's been a downgrade so far, but that's to be expected. This is my first real Falcom game with Koguchi in a prominent role, and he's doing alright. He clearly has a preference for piano and jazz and lower energy tracks, and he does those fine. Sonoda is, sometimes, running on fumes, but he keeps in step with Koguchi for better and worse. Haven't heard enough of Jindo's stuff yet but he's usually amazing. I am immensely satisfied with the music mod I installed that swaps out all of Singa's crap. By Reverie, I'd kinda accepted that a chunk of Trails music would be awful, and I'd tense up before every boss or mini-boss encounter for a cacophonous deluge. No longer the case. I think there's one mini-boss track in the mod whose lead synth is kinda rubbish, but I don't go into Daybreak's battles expecting the music to suck. It's nice.
It is just me but I notice some changes, in the movement and even the graphics in my Ps5 slim. Or maybe it is just I haven't played the game for a couple of months.
