The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II Side Content Detailed, Demos Announced

NIS America announced that it will be releasing a pair of demos for Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II ahead of the game’s western launch next month. The Story Demo and Gameplay Demo will be available for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on January 24, 2025. The Story Demo will let players go from the start of the game up to the beginning of Chapter 1, with save data able to be carried over to the full game. Meanwhile, the Gameplay Demo will let players access two floors of the game’s Märchen Garten with two different, pre-selected parties.

In addition to announcing the demo, NIS America also gave an earlier press demonstration of the game. The demonstration covered the various bits of side content in Trails through Daybreak II, after The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak largely eschewed the mini-games and other such content from previous entries.

As previously detailed, Trails through Daybreak II takes place three months after the events of Trails through Daybreak. Van Arkride keeps the mantle of protagonist, working as a “Spriggan” — effectively a hybrid of private detective and bounty hunter — based in the capital of the Calvard Republic but willing to go wherever jobs take him. The game begins with Van approached by his past flame, Elaine Auclair, who seeks his help in investigating a series of gruesome murders. Connecting Van to these murders is the apparent appearance of a red beast-like creature that looks eerily similar to the blue Grendel form that Van was able to take on at key points in the previous game.

 

 

As part of his investigations, Van will be granted access to the Märchen Garten, which borrows a few elements from the Reverie Corridor in Trails into Reverie. This is a virtual space created by the Marduk Company that allows people to enter and interact with each other. As part of the story, players are tasked with helping to fix some bugs in the Märchen Garten. After doing so, it becomes a fully optional area where players can gain equipment, levels, and other bonuses to use in the main game. The Märchen Garten will also offer players some extra post-game floors and story content.

Players will eventually be able to select a party of four active members and four support members that can swap in from over fifteen characters in the Märchen Garten, including two not playable during the main game. The Märchen Garten is a multi-floor dungeon with each floor’s layout randomly generated. Players can enter the Märchen Garten by interacting with various portals, usually one in each town and at certain save points in dungeons. Here, players can access unlocked floors as well as use a variety of facilities. Each floor is made up of multiple nodes that players plot a route through, with each node having a particular objective such as destroying objects, and players get bonuses for completing floors multiple times.

The CP Supply Service allows players to restore CP before venturing into a floor, and there is a regular item shop to buy new equipment, Quartz, and items. Players can also “Repair Data”, which sees them swapping data fragments obtained during their exploration of the Märchen Garten for costumes and background music, and trade Skill Stones between characters, which are used to upgrade each character’s crafts. Another section is the Activity Support, which lets players play the new Seven Hearts card game, undertake hacking trials, play one-on-one basketball, and fish. Seven Hearts is a four-player game quite similar to Uno against three NPCs chosen by the player. Hacking trials let players practice the game’s hacking system, which is generally used for special treasure chests found throughout the game. These see Van’s AI companion Mare go through a virtual maze, attempting to avoid detection.

 

 

Basketball is a fairly simple take on the sport; players have a small amount of time to shoot and score as many baskets as possible while being guarded, before roles swap and players to try to prevent the opponent from scoring. Trails through Daybreak II’s take on fishing sees players aim at different parts of the water at the various fishing locations. Each spot in the water shows the likelihood of fish appearing there, which also depends on the bait they are using. Reeling in fish sees players pressing a button when a rotating icon matches the direction of the L stick within a certain zone. Like hacking, basketball and fishing can be done at various points in the main game as well as in the Märchen Garten.

During their exploration of the Märchen Garten, players will obtain Shard Tokens (S-Tokens). These can be analysed in the Garden’s Mystic Cube, which generates a randomised mixture of items, Quartz, Sepith, data pieces, and Skill Stones of varying rarities. Skill Stones are used exclusively in the Craft update system. This system lets players power up their characters’ unique skills, including their ultimate S-Crafts, such as upping the power, reducing the turn delay, and so forth, which allows a bit more customisation of character builds.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II will release in North America and Europe on February 14, 2025. The game will be available physically and digitally for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch and digitally for PC, with a $99.99 Limited Edition available to pre-order from NIS America’s online store. Trails through Daybreak II features the same combat system from Trails into Daybreak, which features a mix of real-time and turn-based combat, as well as its Law, Gray, and Chaos alignment system.

 

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Alex Fuller

Alex joined RPGamer in 2011 as a Previewer before moving onto Reviews, News Director, and Managing Editor. Became Acting Editor-in-Chief in 2018.

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