Trails Through Daybreak Storms Onto Switch This July

I spent all of 2023 playing the entire Ys series (with a break for Zelda and Pikmin when they came out of course), and so I'm long overdue for playing the Trails series now.
Unfortunately, I am also long overdue for a ton of other huge RPG series, so it may take a while before I actually get to Trails. ...
I just finished Suikoden II and was planning for Suikoden III to be my next huge RPG.

I'm sorry Trails series! I'll get to you at some point, I promise!!

@JohnnyMind Welcome to the franchise!

Be warned, these games are chock full of conversations, events, and content, and they're not the kind of games you can just speed run to completion. There's plenty of combat and action, but also quite a lot of focus on dialogue and character development. Oh, and waifus. Can't forget them.

This is very much a "Take your time" kind of game, and that's the primary reason I forbid myself from buying any more games from this franchise until I complete Cold Steel 3 and 4.

And with that, I'll take this as my reminder to get back on that ol' horse again.

Already preorded and now waiting for shipments.

I wanted to play these chronologically, but I think I'm only going to be able to get "close enough" to the beginning story-- Just gotta figure out when and where I'll have the time. I like Nihon Falcom and the Ys series, but with hitters like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 I have yet to play, it will be tough.

get these games before they are hard to find in a few months..

@Astral-Grain if I only own a switch where do I start with the series? There are just so many in this franchise

@ScalenePowers I first discovered the franchise on the PSP (Trails in the Sky I believe), and what charmed me into it was the 2D sprites in a 3D environment type graphical style, but the more recent titles have been fully 3D and I think they go back to the PS3 era of consoles.

I'm no expert on the franchise, more of an admirer really, but I know all the games in the franchise take place in the same world, and each "series" has completely separate storylines that typically dip into the other games storylines. What I mean is there are "series" of the game such as "Trails of Cold Steel", which is different from "Trails in the Sky" but so long as you begin with the first game of whatever "series" strikes your fancy, you should be good to start from there.

If you play other games in the franchise, you will benefit from knowing the history of certain characters and events that may not be fully detailed in that game, but their chronicles are usually expanded further in another game (sometimes with them as the main character). This basically means the more of these games you play, the more tuned into the lore you will be and you can therefore appreciate the writing a lot more because once some things get revealed, you look at characters very differently than if you didn't already know their history.

I've waffled this answer enough, back to your question: I'd say the best and most accessible legal way to play these games is on PC or, if you already have an older console like a PSP, PS Vita, PS3, or even PS4, I think Sony has the entire library across their systems, but I could be wrong.

Edit: I totally mis-read your question, sorry!

For Switch-only users: it's tough because Trails of Cold Steel is amazing, but we only have 3 and 4. You can still fully enjoy these games by either watching a quick youtube recap video, but each game also has an impressive encyclopedia right on the main menu and you can read up on each event and character that took place before the game. I'm glad they did this, but it's admittedly boring to read about it rather than play it.

I can't speak much to the many other games of this franchise on Switch since I'm still digesting Cold Stall 3 and 4, but Trails from Zero looks really good, especially if you prefer the 2D sprites over 3D environments visual style.

Already preordered, even if I need to actually play a game in the series first despite owning several titles. Many Falcom titles don't seem to have long print runs. I barely snapped up Trails From Zero for a good price when Azure released. It started going at over MSRP new shortly after.

Wow these Trails games are coming way sooner than I thought. Still where's Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2? I just need those to complete my Cold Steel collection on Switch.

Well shoot guess that’s helping make my decision between Cold Steel IV and Another Code for game to play today. I gotta wrap up Cold Steel IV soon if I wanna be able to take it nice and easy and chill and yet also have the time to beat Reverie before this one now. Very excited tho can’t wait.

Switch building up a real nice selection of Trails series game.

@Astral-Grain I really wish Cold Steel 1 & 2 would get ported over to Switch. It makes no sense to have 3 & 4 as I’ve heard with the narrative structure you really have to start with the first one. I’ve been looking for a good jumping on point without having to console hop and having it be portable. I do still have a PSP and Vita, not even sure if they still work I know my PSP battery is swelled so I’d need to replace it not even sure is aftermarket PSP batteries are still made… but I wish we would just get the past games ported over I can’t imagine the ports would be difficult and more and more people are talking about the series but the older games are getting less accessible. Seems like an easy way for them to print money putting them in a single convenient place to play through the whole series

@ScalenePowers If you only have a Switch, start with Trails from Zero and then its direct sequel, Trails to Azure. Then pray the other games (Trails in the Sky trilogy and Cold Steel 1+2) get ported to Switch.

I am caught up! Well, at least as caught up with the series as a non-Japanese speaker can be at least. Can't wait to finally explore the Calvard Republic! I love this series like Tio-Tot loves Mishy.

@Astral-Grain i started with zero, played cold steel 1 and 2 on geforce now and right now I'm in cold steel 3 but I already bought cold steel 4 and reverie and will bought daybreak day one but I tale my time and it's great to know the story isn't over when I finished a game

I’m gonna buy this end up playing it like 2 years because I’m only at Sky SC… yes I am playing these games in order.

This is my most anticipated game that's been announced so far this year. Will be interesting to see what this new set of characters are like. Considering the sheer amount of characters in this series now it's a wonder that there are any new voice actors available to voice these roles!

We need at least to have the Cold Steel arc in the Switch! Trails in the Sky would also be very nice.

Still need to finish the Erebonian arc and Reverie and I do not at all have the time to even do that this year, and maybe not the next either 😵

I’ve finally started playing Trails in the Sky on Vita. I’m playing the English patched versions of the trilogy, and it’s off to a great start.

So I’ll get to this new one after I beat that game and like 11 more long RPGs. It’s gonna be awhile.

@ScalenePowers I would recommend getting a Vita or a PC and playing the ones that aren’t available to you on Switch as well. The series seems to really shine if you play them all.

It’s very surprising the the first trilogy is still not available on current consoles. Maybe one day.

@mauhlin12 is that the one where I have to play as a cop :/

@imgrowinglegs I only own one console on purpose! Too many games in the world - I need artificial limitations. How else would I resort to playing through Mato Anomalies, or Sphinx in the Cursed Mummy? And loving them

And no DEMO??? Not even that for us to try for Chapter 1 or beginning of the game?

just curious to see how it will end up on switch since the series hasnt had the best track record for ports iirc.

i remember Zero running really well on system (though azure had some performance issues near the end which i dont think ever got patched) and Nayuta ran pretty much perfectly but cold steel 3 had a crash bug in certain areas alongside some noticeable issues especially in handheld mode, Cold steel 4 was similar and Reverie too (the review even mentioning in places that it would get so bad that button inputs would feel delayed)