This game is bad, while I've disliked Trails games before (I'm looking at you Cold Steel 1 & 4), never have they been this bad. This game was "allegedly" not planned to be a part of the Calvard arc, and came to be only because Falcom "had" to put out a yearly game due to delaying Ys X (I don't know how true this is).

The game barely improves upon the base gameplay of Daybreak 1, with the only notable additions being Quick Arts, a limitation on S-crafts (this is like the third time in the trails series they've made S-Crafts too broken and had to dial it back the next game), and making the turn order actually readable.

While I do not expect the second game in a trails arc to reinvent the wheel this is quite sparse, add to that the fact that there's barely any new crafts, at least through chapter 1 & 2. I think I can name ONE new craft so far and that might be something I missed from the first game.

Now for some positives before a final rant, the music feels slightly better than Daybreak 1, it's still not great and nowhere near as good as pre-daybreak games but we are on the right track, the roster is also kinda fun with you being able to play more with The two new Dominions, Renne, and some other returning characters.

With that brief positivity out of the way omg is this a dumpster fire, the story through act 1 and 2 is not "good" but it's not the worst thing in existence, the events directly AFTER act 2 on the other hand is the worst events/writing/asspulls/gameplay I've seen in a Trails game (that says a lot). You're not even allowed to play as any of the fun characters because those are all unavailable and the game gives you like eight dead ends back to back clearly tired of even trying anymore.

This game could have been just fine if they had gone the route of Sky 3rd, focus on developing one or two characters and then add the great side character moments (which exist in daybreak 2 I'll admit) as rewards for optional content and focus more on gameplay/dungeon crawling. Why they didn't do this totally escapes me, probably to keep Daybreak 2 more marketable as a main game/60-dollar product.

While this game is so bad it almost makes me want to retroactively change my Cold Steel 1 and 4 reviews to be less harsh, I'm atleast excited for Kai no Kiseki/Beyond the Horizon. Post-Kai critique from Japanese readers seem to be generally positive, and the reviews for the English version (which dropped embargo today) seems to be unanimously in praise of the game. Couple that with the fact that Sky 1st remake is an absolute homerun things are at least looking up going forward.

It's ok, it's not bad by any stretch but leaves some things to be desired. Heavily carried by the vibe.

I'm gonna outline some critiques but don't take this as me not enjoying the game, also keep in mind it's a 3€ game so these things are not critiques as much as things I think would have made the experience even better:

- The story is a bit too "obvious" and seems to miss something, the "vibe" and presentation is fantastic but it could use some more subtlety and maybe a more interesting ending or twist.
- The metaprogression is, ok? A lot of the meta progression sadly ends up feeling really unimpactful, a lot of it simply allows you to scale *with* the game as opposed to feeling like you unlocked a new mechanic or grew in power.
- I think this game could use some additional friction, but I'm not sure where. I think what makes this experience feel a bit unsatisfactory is how frictionless the whole experience is. Apples are relatively easy to find, the story is not really daring, in-depth, or hard to figure out enough that it can totally carry the experience. What's left to carry is the gameplay, and while the difficulty options and randomiser mode are great additions, the core gameplay loop is so "easy" or lacking in significant depth that it doesn't really help. Maybe added difficulty or depth outside of simply more expensive meta progression would alleviate this? I never felt like I needed to use my gadgets to succeed.

Absolute masterclass in UI and Visual-design. Immense Tsutomu Nihei vibes.

Only reason to buy this is if you want to bet on supporting an official english release of White Album 2, which may or may not happen. This game is a passable slice of life romance VN but it doesn't share the same writer or characters as the critically acclaimed sequel.

Very pretty but not very good, does not understand good arcade-style level design.