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Worst Trails Game Ever Made To Date

Introduction:
After finishing Daybreak 1 and it being the first ever negative review I give to a "Trails" game, sadly, The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak 2 is getting ANOTHER negative review from me and is also, by far, THE WORST TRAILS GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED TO DATE. Since many of the issues that I have with this game are carried over from Daybreak 1 (i.e. repeated issues/dislikes that weren't resolved/changed), I'm not gonna repeat myself again here, so instead I will provide a link to my Daybreak 1 review as MOST of my dislikes with Daybreak 1 are again present here in Daybreak 2 and will be focusing the remainder of this review on NEW dislikes that I have with Daybreak 2.
Link to Daybreak 1 review: https://steamcommunity.com/id/infinity_master/recommended/2138610/
New Dislikes Related to Daybreak 2:
Music:
1) Regular/Boss Battle Music: Like Daybreak 1, I wasn't impressed with the overall battle themes in this sequel. Furthermore, I'd say the vast majority of NEW Daybreak 2 battle themes range from "okay-ish" to outright "forgettable/underwhelming". The ONE exception to this is the normal battle theme of the Marchen Garten "Regain the Administration!", which is a good "normal" battle theme overall and very reminiscent of older Trails battle themes, but otherwise that's about it when it comes to the battle themes of Daybreak 2 sadly.
Combat:
2) S-Crafts being limited/nerfed to 1 per S-Boost: While this change hasn't really made changed the "overall difficulty" of the battles for me, it has certainly made battles WAY SLOWER and DRAGGED THEM FOR SO LONG, ESPECIALLY against bosses. This change overall hurt the combat experience of Daybreak 2 and not made it any "better" IMO.
3) Returning Holo Cores from Daybreak 1 got NERFED in Daybreak 2: Like the previous point, these nerfs didn't impact the difficulty of the game (which is probably what the developers were aiming for), it just made battles, particularly boss battles, BORING/SLOW/DRAGGED ON FOR WAY TOO LONG as characters don't deal as much high damage as they used to in Daybreak 1.
4) Back-to-Back Boss Battles with No Chance of Healing In-Between Fights: This point happened way more than it should throughout the game and once you started expecting a "2nd consecutive boss battle" while doing the 1st boss battle, you start playing very conservatively/passively so that you have enough HP/EP/CP for the 2nd boss battle and as you can probably figure out for yourself, THIS (adding to previous points above) has made boss battle TOO LONG/TEDIOUS than they should be rather than "fun/challenging", sad to say.
5) Final Boss Was, By Far, the EASIEST in HISTORY of the ENTIRE TRAILS SERIES TO Date: Not only was I "unimpressed" by the EASY/PATHETIC final boss of this game, but I also REALLY didn't like the FORCED "real-time combat" that you had to do during the 1st phase of that fight as I COULDN'T CARE LESS about the "hybrid real-time combat" that Daybreak 1. Needless to say, this will go down as the WORST/MOST FORGETTABLE finale for a Trails game I've ever experienced to date.
Story:
6) The HORRIBLE REPETITIVE "Time Rewind" Mechanic: I don't even know where to begin here. THIS aspect of Daybreak 2 has just RUINED the whole game for me. It made character deaths feel meaningless/unimpactful (since you ALREADY know time will rewind and will get to save them eventually) in addition to all the story progress you made feeling absolutely POINTLESS once time rewinds which erases all what you did to progress that particular timeline's story plot. Furthermore it got REALLY ANNOYING when time started rewinding more than once during particular parts of the story and then you have to sit through the SAME DIALOGUE AGAIN and while you CAN "skip" those dialogues, the problem is that sometimes new dialogue/story events happen WITHIN those "repeated" cutscenes and thus not making it clear when it is "safe to skip" and when you shouldn't skip.
7) STUPID Characters making STUPID/ILLOGICAL Decisions: Many times during the story I've seen characters, both friend or foe, making illogical/unconvincing decisions that really break immersion and just makes you not care about the story overall. One example is Shizuna. First she fights against you early on as a boss. Then, 5-seconds later, she rides a boat with your main party as if NOTHING happened, then randomly decides to fight alongside you for the remainder of the story with no convincing reason for doing so. This similarly also happened with other characters like Walter/Ritzy, who ALSO fight you to the death, then 5-seconds later they are drinking tea in the SAME hotel your characters are staying in as if NOTHING happened between both groups. Really the whole story felt unconvincing/illogical/pointless and didn't invoke that "these characters are a REAL threat to you and you should take them seriously" feeling and that, to me, just made me not care for the story whatsoever till the very end.
8) Story "Plot Twists" That Don't Make Sense: Majority of "plot twists" in this game didn't have that convincing factor to them and just felt "forced/randomly inserted" to artificially make the story feel "more dramatic", but honestly because it wasn't built on "logical/convincing premise", they felt weightless/awkward" to me than anything else (example: The Swin Betrayal, which felt awkward, overblown drama with NO convincing premise to make you "understand" why or how that character ended-up in that situation logically-speaking. If anything, it makes those characters look dumb for making those "plot twist decisions" than anything else).
9) Characters STUPIDLY standing still in place while villains talk/carry-out their plans with no immediate action to prevent them from doing so.
10) Anyone (even NPCs) can trigger "Time Rewinds" with no explanation whatsoever.
(I have more things to say, but I will stop here as I am approaching the word count limit)
Conclusion:
In the end, this game had so many problems carried over from Daybreak 1 as well as many NEW problems introduced that prevented me from fully enjoying it. Thus, Daybreak 2 will go down as the most underwhelming "Trails" game I've played to date.

Summary Ratings:



Game
Rating


The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2
9.5/10


The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 1
9/10


The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4
8.5/10


The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
8/10


The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3
8/10


The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 1
6.5/10


The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2
5/10


(Note: I only rated games from "Trails of Cold Steel 1" onward because it felt fairer IMO as those games are more comparable from a "graphics/combat/story" point of view than the prior "Trails in the Sky" trilogy and "Trails from Zero/to Azure" duology games)