To put it succinctly this is the best trails game yet (even better than cold steel II). Daybreak still indulges in some of the typical nihon-falcom JRPG cheesiness (villains fleeing to fight another day x1000, fakeout deaths, monologue-ing, et. al) but seems to find a better balance between the expected JRPG tropes and a ever slightly more grounded story tackling more adult themes and content. Make no mistake, this isn't the witcher 3, but in comparison to the previous cold steel series the overt violence, actual character death, and presence of more adult content (sex work, drugs, etc.) may come as a surprise.

The game doesn't lose any of the series patented wholesomeness and charm in spite of the inclusion of more adult themes- I'd argue the classic cold steel vibes are as strong as ever in daybreak because of the lower lows and darker moments.

A few general notes

• The things you expect from a trails game are exactly as you'd imagine; the art style is solid despite the graphics being a generation (or two) behind, the music is top notch, the writing is great as always (reluctant shoutout to NIS america) and the world building is as exhaustive and complex as any series out there. No surprises; the series strengths are stronger than ever, and its weaknesses (inconsistent and incomplete voice acting, comic book style 'tune in next time' unresolved major plot threads, graphical quality, etc.) while better than previous titles in the series, are still present.

• The action combat system is hit or miss, but it does seem to solve the tediousness of 'random world encounters' while not compromising the series trademark brilliant turn based combat. I full cleared every area of all enemies and despite ~80+ hr playtime I still didn't get burnt out on dodge-hit-dodge-hit as the action combat sections were all brief, mostly optional and punctuated with great tactical turn based fights.

• The turn based combat is incredible as expected, with good build options, variety and customization. I felt like the major boss battles were a little too S-BREAK focused at times, but that could be a consequence of my play style and how I built my party, and the fights themselves were still satisfying and challenging.

• Van is the best protagonist yet. No offense to Estelle and Lloyd (and Rean, I guess, if anyone would even consider him) but Van is the soul of this game in spite of Daybreak letting its ancillary party members shine often.

The Trails series is a motley collection of brilliant music and writing, classic JRPG cheese, a ps3 graphics engine and an overall story that has grown wildly out of scope and when you combine all these elements you get one of the best JRPG series out there in spite of its consistent flaws.

started playing this series fairly recently and played through it pretty much one after the other. Trails of Cold Steel was getting rather boring, 5 games was TOO many imo, arcs should be 3 games at most so finally starting off fresh with a new area/team was SUCH a breath of fresh air I hope the calvard arc or at least the van arc is going to be 2 or 3 games. I also HATED the "curse" part of the cold steel story it really felt like an excuse to sweep all the terrible stuff the bad guys did under the rug and belittles the stuff NPCs/Good guys went through. In my head canon "main bad guy" had just lost it and the curse wasnt real. (Theres enough drugs, illusions and mind control in this series to hand way it")

That aside ill say Daybreak improved on pretty much everything in regards to mechanics from the previous game but two things bothered me.

The first is just a fear, with the introduction of an option to play this game like an action rpg (or a but of both) I will say it was nice to just smash through enemies i out leveled and having it so the battle ends immediatly allowing you to walk or run whilst the exp/loot stuff is showing made it feel alot smoother/faster even though it only shaved off like a second or two BUT im concerned that future games will push the ARPG aspect even more and id hate to lose amazing turn based series. I just dont have the reflexes and eye sight to play ARPGs.

Second was a REALLY weird decision in that the turn order doesn't show up on the UI anymore, requiring you open up "more info" its was such a PITA especially since you can only access that more info button when it your turn. Its litterally just adds the order number to each characters icon, it saves such an ifintantely small amount of spoace for a REALLLY important piece of information. SUCH a weird choice, hopefully this in future games.

Oh and it was nice that enemy identification is automatic now, you just have to beat the enemy to get it, using a identify item was just busy work so this definately contributes to combat feeling smooth and helps with not screwing yourself cause you forgot to identify one single boss like 4 hours ago. Actually being open with information is a HUGE pplus for daybreak the map idicates what NPCs you havent talked to (gold to indicate new dialog, grey to indicate no new dialog) it made getting all the extra little scenes and side quests so much easier.

Overall REALLY good start to a new arc and looking forward to Daybreak 2 coming out soon

Edit: Van is the first protag that it actually makes sense that you freely work with "bad/grey" people. They handle him really well contendor for fav protag assuming they don't ruin him somehow lol (for the record the SSS is my fav crew so far)