I’m undecided how I really feel about The Legend of Heroes: Trails By means of Dawn II, which often just isn’t the case once I spend this lengthy with a sport. This can be due to how a lot time I’ve spent with the sequence because the Change launch of Trails of Chilly Metal III again in 2020. With so many video games and so many tweaks to these video games, components I like and dislike come and go. That’s anticipated and appreciated, however there’s one aspect that ought to stay constant, and I’ll get to that in a bit.
First, let’s take inventory of the place we’re. The sport opens with…really, let’s not do this. I’m going to put in writing this evaluation as when you’ve got a working data of those video games and the characters inside. When you do, you don’t want me to elucidate who everyone seems to be. When you don’t, that is not the place to find out about them. No less than bounce again to Trails By means of Dawn to introduce your self.
This sport opens with Elaine visiting Van at Arkride Options to element a sequence of violent murders attributable to somebody with the power to transform right into a monstrous beast…as beforehand solely Van might.
Contemplating that Arkride Options exists to deal with issues that lie within the grey space between the legislation and crime, that is Van’s sort of factor. So, he and Elaine got down to decide what’s up.
In the meantime, Swin and Nadia return on a mission of their very own that considerably enhances Van’s agenda. The events find yourself teaming up, on and off, as they discover the Calvard Republic looking for solutions. And, as you’d anticipate from a Legend of Heroes sport, every reply solely results in extra questions and larger hazard forward.
The issue this time is that the construct to something of precise curiosity could be very sluggish. Earlier video games within the sequence have began with a bang, kicking you instantly into motion and solely later revealing how everybody matches into it. Right here, we meet the characters (that we’ve met earlier than) and simply…spend time with them. We discover, positive. We battle. We play playing cards.
However we solely get small glimpses of something urgent, which makes the primary couple dozen of hours appear inconsequential. If this have been another sequence I might’ve misplaced curiosity.
However that is The Legend of Heroes, so you understand one thing loopy is in retailer. And it’s not like the sport doesn’t offer you something to do as you push in direction of it. As earlier than, there are a ton of things to purchase, craft, cook dinner, and acquire as you’re employed your approach via the quite a few cities and dungeons. And when you’ve ever misplaced your thoughts attempting to recollect what stall sells what and which shops you haven’t visited, Trails By means of Dawn II does a a lot higher job of guiding you alongside.
It additionally introduces the Märchen Garten. The closest parallel to this may possible be the True Reverie Hall from Trails Into Reverie, however higher applied and extra helpful right here. First, you will get there from just about any city at any time. Entry is even supplied on the save factors earlier than boss fights. Why? As a result of the degrees you push via within the Märchen Garten will stage up your characters, reward you with useful gadgets, present sepith to buy higher tools, replenish your CP, and so forth. It’s a good way to buff up your characters as a result of it doesn’t really feel like stage grinding. The randomly generated dungeons have distinct visuals and a large assortment of monsters to face, and that helps to maintain issues contemporary.
As new characters are made accessible within the Märchen Garten, you may create groups that in any other case wouldn’t be accessible within the sport. They usually don’t simply must battle. The mini-games are slowly added, permitting you to fish, play 1v1 basketball, follow your hacking, and so forth. That doesn’t imply you’ll wish to, in fact; these video games are mildly entertaining at greatest (fishing is enjoyable, however you get sufficient of that in the principle sport) and infuriating at worst (the free controls of the hacking sport will undoubtedly get in your nerves). Oh, and those that take pleasure in dressing up warriors in spa towels for lethal fight ought to word that that is the place these towels (and different costumes and equipment) are obtained through the gacha system of the Mystic Dice.
The Märchen Garten could be the greatest new addition, but it surely’s not the one one. Bear in mind how Trails By means of Dawn added some real-time bodily fight options to hurry up the dungeon crawling? There’s now an arts aspect to that, too, and you may unleash particular assaults by swapping characters on the proper time. It’s nonetheless all fairly fundamental, but it surely makes the minor battles extra partaking as you press via.
That’s vital, as a result of urgent via now entails the occasional repeat. For the primary time, main battles don’t at all times finish the way in which you’d hope. Characters will die! (Which is bizarre to see contemplating what most needed to overcome to outlive up up to now.) However when this occurs, a mysterious energy whisks them again to a earlier level the place they’ll make a unique resolution to have an effect on the end result. These moments are fully story pushed, so it’s not like you must work out what you probably did incorrect. In truth, the characters even sort of know one thing’s happening with this, they’re simply not fully positive of what. This implies you could have to work your approach via the identical dungeon a number of occasions, however opened chests stay opened and defeated semi-bosses stay defeated. Additionally, the second (and third) walkthroughs often include new shortcuts to get you to your aim quicker.
The disadvantage to the time hops and the Märchen Garten is that they chop up the narrative, stopping the story from ever actually gaining any momentum. It appears the writers relied solely on “Hey, look who confirmed up!” to maintain you versus giving us something to essentially care about. That’s unlucky, as a result of the gameplay is fairly strong. So many tweaks have been made to the orbment system, fight positioning, ability activation, and different system settings that it’s beginning to really feel like a wholly completely different sport from earlier entries (virtually extra like an Ys sport), however the system nonetheless works.
And boss battles retain the true Legend of Heroes really feel…proper right down to their period and the huge dialogue dumps at their conclusion. These intricacies are laborious to grasp, however will entice JRPG followers who love the trivia of get together administration. If that’s not you, no worries; simply set a better problem and push via with out fretting over shard optimization and such.
The sport appears nice, too, with splendidly designed landscapes to discover and a few attractive fight animations. Efficiency does get uneven, although, and an in-battle glitch at one level pressured me to reboot the sport. Fortunately, auto-saved dropped me proper again initially of the battle.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails By means of Dawn II is an efficient sport. I simply want slightly extra focus had been utilized to the narrative in order that gamers would have extra incentive to push via all of it. Fishing shouldn’t be essentially the most fascinating a part of a spriggan’s day.
