From here, a new trail begins.note
WARNING: Due to the Trails Series being a Long Runner, this page assumes that you have played The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie. The page will likely be filled with unmarked spoilers from the previous games so be careful of Late Arrival Spoilers ahead.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreaknote is the eleventh game in Nihon Falcom's Trails Series. It marks the fourth arc, as well as the start of the overall series' second half, following the Sky, Zero/Azure, and Cold Steel arcs, taking place a year and a half after the end of Reverie.
The arc begins in the later half of the year S.1208. The Republic of Calvard is experiencing an economic boom from both war reparations paid by the Erebonian Empire after a failed attempt at inciting a world war, and the radical political upheaval led by the country's newest president Roy Gramheart. During this time, an underground profession starts becoming popular due to its nature of accepting work from any client, even criminals: "Spriggan". One such Spriggan is 24-year-old Van Arkride, who owns the Arkride Solutions Office based in the capital Edith's Old Town. One fateful day, on August 27, S.1208, he is visited by Agnès Claudel, a girl attending Aramis High School, who decided to ask for his help in finding her late great-grandfather's stolen Orbment, rather than approaching the police or the Bracer Guild. And from there, what started out as a peculiar job to find a stolen item would take Van and Agnès, and a few other people along the way, on a country-wide adventure that may decide the fate of the Republic and Zemuria as a whole...
The game released in Japan on September 30, 2021 for the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 5 version would later release on July 28, 2022, and a PC version ported by Clouded Leopard Entertainment in Traditional Chinese and Korean would release the day before. In March 2023, NISA published their own PC port for the Japanese market with the intention of patching the official English localization in, all but confirming said localization. The game was later confirmed for an English release for July 5, 2024 during the NISA livestream on September 21st, 2023, along with the addition of a Nintendo Switch version. The Switch version was also released in Japan on February 15, 2024 by Falcom themselves.
Daybreak, much like Cold Steel, is a massive game-changer for the franchise, due to these factors:
- It boasts the privilege of being the first Falcom game to run on their own newly-created engine, which is currently unnamed. With this new engine came great improvements to the series' visuals, presentation, and most importantly, general theme and gameplay.
- Daybreak has a darker tone than preceding arcs, with Van being more of an anti-hero compared to previous protagonists and the game featuring a greater number of character deaths.
- Katsumi Enami, who did the character designs for Zero/Azure, returns.
- Bonding Events (which become more romance inclined as time went on) from the Zero/Azure and Cold Steel games are replaced with Connect Events (which lean more on the platonic side).
- The gameplay has been significantly changed to enable a more "action combat-styled" field encounter system and a revamped command-style turn-based battle system that can be switched at anytime (barring boss fights).
- Along with these changes are the revamped Orbments that take inspiration from their Sky and Zero/Azure counterparts, with a customizable arts list taken from Cold Steel.
- A multitude of new features like S.C.L.Mnote Chains (an off-shoot of Cold Steel's Link system), Shard-related mechanics like Boosts and Shard Skills, to name a few.
It was followed up with a sequel titled The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki II -CRIMSON SiN-. With the mafia group Almata utterly defeated by the Arkride Solutions Office, Calvard has reentered a state of peace. However, it wouldn't be long until this peace was endangered again. Less than two months after the incident, in February of S.1209, a CID special operations squad in Edith was found gruesomely massacred in cold blood by a crimson armored beast that looked similar to Van's Grendel. Van, enjoying his time apart from his part-timers, is contacted and hired by his old friend Elaine to investigate the massacre and track down the beast. What follows is a series of "nightmares" as Van and his Office find themselves in a slew of events that inch into a great coup d'etat upon Calvard, alongside many tragic events that would befall them and their allies as the mysteries behind the crimson Grendel and Agnès's Genesis devices and its dominion over time deepen. Will Van and his party be able to escape this treacherous Trail, or will they be unable to defy fate itself...?
The sequel was released on September 29, 2022 in Japan, for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. An additional update would later release on October 13, which featured additional Marchen Garten-only playable characters, an expansion of the Marchen Garten, and an epilogue-like story update connected to said game mode to finally end the Kuro II story. A Nintendo Switch version is set to come out on July 25, 2024 in Japan.
In December 2023, the next game in the series, The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki -Farewell, O Zemuria-, was announced for release in 2024.
The official website for Daybreak and its sequel can be found here
and here.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak provides examples of:
- A-Cup Angst: The first two games show Feri feeling a bit "lacking" compared to her female co-workers in the Solutions Office, all of whom are well-endowed to various degrees.
- Antagonist Title: Kuro II's subtitle, "Crimson SiN," refers to the game's recurring boss character, Grendel-Zolga.
- Artifact Name:
- The track "Crossbell Cathedral" from Zero is reused in the first game. As it's now playing in a cathedral located in Calvard instead of Crossbell, its name no longer fits.
- The designation of MVP Staffnote makes a lot less sense in Kuro II, as it can be given to party members that aren't actually a part of the Office's staff, such as Elaine.
- The track "Crossbell Cathedral
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: In the opening of the first game, Van lands a palm strike against Kasim who barely is fazed by it. Van ends up having a minor Oh, Crap! face before he disengages, blocks Kasim's strike, and fires a Coin Bullet at him.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name:
- Judith Ranster was changed to Judith Lanster.
- Grimcats was changed to Grimcat.
- Hollow Cores were respelled as Holo Cores.
- Van's Coin Bullet craft was changed to Coin Bullets.
- Barrier Warrior: Agnès, Risette, and Quatre have their own crafts that create party-wide shields for the party, acting like a second HP bar.
- Big Damn Heroes: Quite a lot of them in the first game, especially in the Final Chapter to the point of it being a bit too predictable.
- Bittersweet Ending: Subverted in the first game. The Solutions Office managed to take down a Devil-powered Gerard, but at the cost of Van becoming the Devil King Vagrants-Zion and choosing to seal himself within the boundary between Zemuria and the Outside to delay the Devil's destiny of destroying the world. Of course, Agnès didn't want to accept this ending, and chose to go after Van with everyone going with her, leading to the real ending of the game.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The first game does not shy away from blood in general compared to the previous series.
- Boss Bonanza: The final dungeon of Daybreak I has you face off against the members of Almata again, who are either revived for this one time or teleported from their prison cells depending on your choices in Chapter 5.
- Breaking Old Trends:
- The second games of all previous arcs gave every main character a second S-Craft. Kuro II goes against this, as no character other than Van gets this treatment.
- Trails games usually have their final battles start with a humanoid opponent before facing off against a bigger one, with the Final Boss being an opponent the player hasn't fought before. Kuro II does neither, starting off against the gigantic Grendel-Zolga Sin before transitioning back into regular Grendel-Zolga, a roughly human-sized enemy the player has already battled at least 3 times before.
- Breather Episode: The Intermission chapter of Daybreak I, until it decides to punch you in the gut with the revelations of the nuking of Creil and Dingo's death in the end of said chapter.
- The Bus Came Back:
- A page◊ from the Reverie calendar teased that Daybreak would mark the return of Jack and Halle◊, who haven't made any kind of physical appearance since Sky the 3rd, with a later screenshot◊ confirming their inclusion. This will be their first appearance in 14 years.
- The teaser trailer and official website confirmed that Zin the "Immovable" and Walter the "Direwolf" would also make a comeback after being off-screen since the end of the Sky games.
- Another screenshot revealed that Kilika the "Crimson Swallow"◊, the third member of the Taito trio, would be making her first appearance since Azure, almost exactly a decade prior.note
- A page
- Continuity Cameo: Olivert, Schera, Kevin, Wazy, Gaius, and Xin show up in Daybreak I's ending shots in the present day while Swin and Nadia show up in a flashback.
- Continuity Nod:
- Van's Coin Bullets craft has him flicking five 10-mira coins, the same amount as Rean and Crow's infamous 50 mira relationship.
- Prince Sherid says, "I'll take you to a world of fantasy!" when using his Kamal Resonance Craft. This line was previously used by Elliot during his Remedy Fantasia S-Craft.
- Cool Car: Van owns a S.1204 Ingel custom-tuned pick-up truck that can even compete with the likes of a Z1 racer's sports car in terms of speed and handling.
- Cute and Psycho: Shizuna is a pretty lady who can act and sound cute at times, but turns into a complete Blood Knight when faced with a potentially strong opponent, complete with Contralto of Strength.
- Dance-Off: In a Call-Back to Reverie, the climax of Daybreak I Chapter 3 has two sisters engage in one during the parade festival where one side is brainwashed with a mask and the other isn't.
- Darker and Edgier: Right from the start, this arc had shown more people dying onscreen than in any previous game, complete with blood on some of the corpses even. Van even kills off someone in a cutscene (as a form of Mercy Kill but still). Truly hammered home with Gerard's nuking of Creil Village, indiscriminately killing innocent children and civilians alike, including the reporter Dingo Brad who exchanged his life to expose Gerard's horrendous crime to the Orbal Net and Van going for the kill after gaining the upper hand against Gerard during the climax of Chapter 5.
- A Day in the Limelight: Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of Daybreak I primarily focus on whatever new party member is introduced: Feri, Aaron, and Quatre respectively.
- Death Is Cheap: Rampant throughout Kuro II: whenever a main party member is killed, or someone they care about dies in front of them, the Oct-Genesis will trigger a Time Leap to send their minds back to a point before the "Dead End." Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory is in play here, as the cast retain varying degrees of memories from the previous timeline, allowing them to prevent it with seemingly no consequences.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did the first game have a group of Badass Normals stop a Devil King infamous for being one of the strongest Devils within Gehenna?
- Driving Question: Much like Zero, Daybreak I doesn't end in a cliffhanger, but it does leave players wondering about a lot of unclear things in the story: Where is the final Genesis? What will actually happen when the Oct-Genesis isn't completed by S.120X? What's the deal with Van and his Devil origins? And many, many more...
- Dual Wielding: The first game has Aaron with his Twin Fencer swords and Risette with her pistol-and-blade combo. The second game then sees the return of Swin and his twin swords.
- Dub Name Change:
- Bergard's Howling Boost craft was changed to Lion's Roar.
- Van's Grendel crafts Quick Blow and Savage Hands were changed to Rapid Onslaught and Savage Blade.
- The earth art Stone Crack was changed to Earth Breaker.
- The shard skills Aqua Resist, Flare Resist, and Galt Resist were changed to Resist Freeze, Resist Burn, and Resist Mute.
- The End of the World as We Know It: What kicks off the main plot in the first place. As stated in Prof. Claude Epstein's last notebook: "Find the Oct-Genesis by the year S.120X. If not, then everything will end..."
- Enemy Mine: By the time of the first game's penultimate chapter, Almata had become so hated in-universe that the Bracers, CID, multiple Jaeger Corps, the Church, Heiyue, and even Ouroboros are willing to join forces just to take them down. The only reason party had to decide which faction to join was due to everyone being forced to partake in a battle royale, lest Almata bomb an entire city. Considering they already bombed an entire village, they're clearly willing to go through with their threat.
- Establishing Character Moment: Van first appears in the first game's prologue as a cool and indifferent character with his initial dismissal of Agnès' request, until Agnès presents him with a limited-edition cake.
- Establishing Series Moment: The sight of a person's bloodied dead body right in the first few hours of the first game should give a glaringly obvious hint to both established Trails fans and newcomers alike that the Calvard arc is, and will be, very different in terms of theme and tone from its more optimistic predecessors.
- Everyone Can See It: Anyone who sees Van and Elaine interact, even those that have never met the two before, can feel the tension between them. It gets to the point that Kuro II's prologue has almost every NPC the player talks to either comment on how close they are or flat out assume that they're in the middle of a date.
- Evolving Title Screen: Daybreak I featured different 2D art on the title screen depending on the player's progress in the main story. Kuro II would later forgo this to use in-game models to portray story progress like in the first two Cold Steel games.
- Fake Memories: Chapter 3 of Kuro II has several people get their memories rewritten in varying ways to get them to act in way that benefits Garden-Master. These new memories usually (but not always) take the form of the heroes being painted as villains, with the victims often forgetting moments that would contradict this new view. Even fellow main characters who weren't Locked Out of the Loop, like Feri and Risette, weren't immune to this.
- Fighting Your Friend:
- At one point in the opening of the first game, Van faces off against his childhood friend Elaine. In-game, players get to fight the faction of characters who weren't chosen. No hard feelings on their part however as they all know that Almata needs to be taken down, but they also have no choice but to play along with their rules, otherwise Almata will destroy Oracion City.
- The "rewritten memories" plot from Kuro II Chapter 3 often leads to this, with the biggest example being when it happens to Feri and Risette, two members of the current arc's True Companions.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the first game's Intermission, you'll get a call from one of the part-timers (who it is will depend on who's not walking around with Van) once you use up all of your Stock Times in Longlai. At least one possible instance has Agnès be the caller...yet Risette's picture will be the one to appear on-screen.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: During the Van vs. Elaine fight from Chapter 5 of the first game, the latter only has a fraction of her total HP, showcasing how exhausted she was before the fight even started.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: During the Final Chapter of the first game, a flashback to the scene in the previous chapter, in which Shizuna defeats some assassins working for Heiyue's Rai family, is shown regardless of what route was selected during said chapter. As such, if the player had chosen the Ikaruga route, they are treated to a flashback to a scene that did not happen on that particular playthrough.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: As seen on the official site, the first game's main party consists of 8 members, 4 male (Van, Aaron, Quatre, and Bergard) and 4 female (Agnès, Feri, Risette, and Judith).
- Guest-Star Party Member: While the maximum amount of people a player can have in active party is four people, there are moments where characters join up with the party on the field, but they cannot be controlled.
- Henshin Hero: The first game's 30-second commercial showcases that two of the main characters, Van and Judith, can change into Grendel and Grimcats respectively, with the latter getting an explicit Transformation Sequence.
- Hotter and Sexier: While fanservice is nothing new in the franchise, it was usually relegated to optional events and DLC costumes. Daybreak I meanwhile took it to a new level, namely with the strip club scene in Tharbad and Judith's Wardrobe Malfunction moment.
- Humongous Mecha: As shown in the first game's opening movie, Calvard now has their own equivalent to Erebonia's Panzer Soldat, the Assault Frame, otherwise known as Zaycress.
- Jurisdiction Friction: As is usual in Trails, the Bracer Guild often comes into conflict with the police and the resident government-affliated organization (in Calvard's case, the Central Intelligence Division) on who should handle any given incident. And this is before the resident Spriggan is thrown into the mix.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Shizuna, the latest Eight Leaves practitioner, is one of the strongest characters in the arc so far, and her power is clearly shown in gameplay as one of the best playable characters to control, especially in action mode.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: At launch, Daybreak I unfortunately has lots of loading and frame rate issues that can hamper a player's enjoyment where a NPC will not spawn until a few seconds in and loading a screen take as long as nearly a minute. If a player is in the same area in a city, chances are it'll probably faster to run to the destination rather than fast travel instead.
- Love Triangle: In contrast to Lloyd and Rean,note Van has one of these brewing in the background between two primary love interests, Agnès and Elaine. The gameplay section of Kuro II's Final Chapter even starts with the player choosing which of the two Van will walk around the school festival with first.
- The Many Deaths of You: Kuro II has the main cast die in numerous ways with the Octo-Genesis rewinding time to a point before they die. Curiously enough, while some of them are optional, the rest of the deaths are mandatory to the plot.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The party experiences this at the climax of the first game's Intermission chapter when Shizuna reveals that she knows "Spirit Unification" which is acknowledged in-universe as Rean's Signature Move.
- Monster of the Week: The general structure of Daybreak I goes like this: Van and his party get a request from someone, goes to the location mentioned by said requester, get wrapped up in whatever problem the place has at the time, and almost all Chapters end with Van taking the Grendel and beating the shit out of the chapter's final boss with the party assisting him. By the end of every chapter except Final Chapter, the team recruits another member into the Office, much to Van's dismay.
- Mood Whiplash: The second morning of Kuro II Chapter 2B starts with Nadia hilariously failing to do a "late for school" bit, only to quickly switch to a tense situation in which Aramis has been overrun by anti-immigrant terrorists, with Towa getting fatally shot in a futile attempt to save a student, forcing the party to perform a Time Leap.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Inverted. Prior to Kuro II, any character can use S-Breaks at any moment as long as they have enough CP, stealing turn bonuses like a Critical Bonus while bosses can only use their S-Craft on their turn. However starting in Kuro II, bosses can start using their S-Break when their HP hits below 50%.
- Nerf: For players who just went through Cold Steel and Reverie, players are in for a nasty surprise when a lot of powerful things in those games got nerfed hard in Daybreak I. Some examples include:
- If a character evades an attack, there is only a 50% chance the one who evaded will counterattack instead of a guaranteed counterattack unless the "Camio" Hollow Core is equipped.
- Cooking can only be done at the inn, Van's office, or at the end of a dungeon's orbal station (depicted as yellow instead of blue). Better pack up as much as possible before setting out.
- While inns are now free, they no longer restore CP. Players will need to take a bath at the sauna and they're only available sporadically.
- Unlike Master Quartzes where they give the character the bonuses right away, Hollow Cores need to spend a S-Boost in battle to reap the bonuses from the Hollow Cores. And S-Boosting only lasts 2 turns if used once (three turns if S-Boost is used twice).
- Players also need to spend two S-Boosts if players want to use a S-Craft to prevent spamming S-Crafts in general. To compensate however, S-Crafts now only cost 100 CP and no longer have the more powerful 200 CP option which means characters can throw out two S-Crafts in a row if a character has 200 CP, which also increases the the amount of S-Boost Gauges which always starts at three every battle. In Kuro II, this is nerfed even further by not letting the character use two S-Breaks in a row, requiring the character wait a few turns before they can use it again.
- Players can no longer steal turn bonuses by manipulating Delay or using S-breaks, due to the turn order timeline being split into two. If a character uses a S-break in an attempt to steal an enemy's (or ally's) critical turn or anything similar, the turn bonus STAYS with the character it's assigned to, not reassigned to the character you just used a S-break on. Unless you've set up your orbments' Drive Line with the pre-requisite element values, which even then only gives a 25% chance to steal a turn bonus (100% when 2 S-boosts are used), good luck enduring an enemy's S-craft if ever they get a critical turn.
- Never Trust a Trailer: One of Daybreak I's promotional videos showing off some S-Crafts features Walter as a playable character. However, there is never a point in said game that allows the player to control him.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Volga-Dahaka has a skeletal humanoid body with no arms and three long-necked dragon heads coming out from its back. It serves as Marchen Garten's 9th Floor Boss (the last one accessible during the main story), with a Palette Swapped counterpart called Damned-Zahhak serving as the 15th Floor Boss (the penultimate floor of the post-release update).
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The 1st Floor Boss of Kuro II's Marchen Garten is Gilga-Taurus, an axe-wielding minotaur with spikes on its back. It also has a Palette Swapped counterpart called Golden Beast that serves as the 8th Floor Boss.
- Optional Boss: If you've maxed out any of the 3 alignments in the first game, the final dungeon will feature a corresponding hidden boss, which can be defeated in exchange for material to make the party's ultimate weapons. As such, having 5 points in all alignments will allow the player to give 3 characters their best weapons.
- Pit Girls: Kuro II has the "Z1 Race Queen" costumes, Fanservice-y outfits created under the premise of being designed by Prince Sherid of Elsaim for the Arkride Solutions Office's entry into the Z1 Grand Prix as "Team Spriggan." These outfits serve as the DLC costumes for every female party member,note with Agnès, Elaine, and Shizuna all getting a second variation on top of that.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: The first two games both have their Big Bads act as Climax Bosses, with the actual Final Bosses being confronted after their respective main conflicts have been wrapped up.
- Punch Parry: In the first game's opening, both Zin and Walter duel with the two punching each other's fists, creating a shockwave.
- Recycled Soundtrack: As is common in Trails, some tracks from previous arcs are reused:
- "Crossbell Cathedral" from Zero plays whenever the player enters a church, whether in Daybreak I or Kuro II.
- "Temptation of Wisdom," also from Zero, plays a few times during Kuro II's Intermission, usually when something involving the D∴G Cult is being discussed.
- Red Baron: As is tradition for the franchise.
- Aaron Wei, the Crimson Khan
- Elaine Auclair, a.k.a. Beauty's Bladenote
- Shizuna Rem Misurugi, the Divine Blade of Silver
- Ellroy Harwood, the Thousand Oathbreaker
- Lucrezia Isselee, the Golden Butterfly
- Melchior of the Thorns
- Arioch, the Eradicator and the Invisible Tempest
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: If a character's irises turn red during Chapter 3 of Kuro II, it's a sign that the influence of the 8th Genesis has reached a peak, and that said character is unlikely to listen to reason.
- Revisiting the Roots: Screenshots and gameplay for Daybreak I showed how some elements that were present earlier in the series, but not in later arcs, were brought back.
- The protagonist, Van, wields a Stun-Calibur, which is normally a non-sharp weapon like Estelle's staff and Lloyd's tonfas, in contrast to Rean's tachi. Key word being "normally," as it's shown to be very sharp in cutscenes where he "activates" it. In the first game, he does this to give Aida a Mercy Kill, he can potentially do it Viola and Alexandre (complete with blood spilling) if players didn't side with the Bracers in chapter 5, and he can do it again in the same chapter to Gerard.
- After every game starting with Cold Steel I decided to only show the character you directly controlled on the field, Daybreak I went back to showing your other party members following you.
- The first game's default battle themes for both the action-based and turn-based modes are very reminiscent of the more light-hearted tunes present in the Sky games, compared to Zero/Azure and Cold Steel's action-packed beats.
- Running Gag: At the end of almost every chapter in the first game, the latest one introduced among the eight party members ends up joining Arkride Solutions Office to Van's dismay.
- Sequel Hook:
- While the first game ends on a happy note, there are a lot of questions left unsolved. Some examples include: who was sponsoring Almata as hinted by Melchior in the final chapter, where is the 8th Genesis unit, what are the arc's Sept-Terrion and Holy Beast, why won't Verne join the Western Zemuria Technology Federation, what's the entire deal with Ikaruga, what's with Ouroboros' third phase, what exactly is Van's connection to the Outside, and what are Gramheart's own plans?
- Aside from how none of the aforementioned questions got resolved (barring the 8th Genesis plotline), the copy of Dingo outright says that the events of Kuro II were nothing more than an "irregularity," and the apocalyptic event mentioned in Epstein's diary has yet to come.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Kuro II has the "Suit Style" costumes, nice-looking business suits used as DLC outfits for each of the male party members.note
- Shout-Out: Shares one with the rest of the series here.
- Significant Double Casting: Altera has the same voice as Lapis...because she is Lapis.
- Story Branching: The L.G.C. Alignment system makes it so that certain choices you make throughout the game affect Van's "alignment," which can have an effect on the guest characters that the party can team up with. Specifically for the first game, your alignment determines which group you can form an alliance with during Almata's battle royale in Chapter 5:
- If you have 3 points in Law (or you don't have enough points to partner with anybody else), you can team up with the Bracer Guild. The first section of the main dungeon will give Elaine as a playable character, with Fie and Zin as non-controllable allies. However, Elaine will leave by the time of the second session, with Fie taking her place as the designated playable guest.
- If you have 3 points in Gray, you can team up with Heiyue, with Yin as a playable character and Cao as a non-controllable ally.
- If you have 3 points in Chaos, you can team up with Ouroboros, with Walter and Lucrezia as non-controllable allies.
- If you have a total of 5 points split between Law and Chaos, you can team up with Ikaruga, with Shizuna as a playable character and Kurogane as a non-controllable ally.
- Tagline: "From here, a new trail begins."
- Time-Shifted Actor: A flashback in the first Daybreak game establishes Rie Manaka and Hikaru Yuuki as the respective voices of Van and René during childhood, while Daisuke Ono and Jun Fukuyama voice them as adults.
- Time Stands Still: The final chapter of Daybreak I has Melchior using one of the Genesis artifacts to summon a huge clock tower that stops the time, with only those who have talked to Van at least once being allowed to move in said time compression. He also ends up bringing back all of the dead Almata in the process.
- Wham Episode:
- The first game has one at the end of the Intermission. After a whole chapter of the party going on a relaxing hot springs trip to Longlai, they are greeted with the radio delivering the horrendous news of Creil Village suddenly getting nuked by Almata and a revelation from Mariel that Dingo was at ground zero when it happened. Then the chapter just... ends.
- Kuro II has several though a significant one happens at the end of Intermission where the Arkride Solutions Office already has most of the pieces of the final Genesis when Swin betrays the group by stealing those pieces, gives them to Garden Master who reveals himself to be Ace who has the final piece, and steals all but one of the Octo-Genesis and that's only because Van as Grendel managed to snag it at the last second. Another is what happens at the end of a few routes in Act 3; some of them include Van having a few bullet holes in his body after his office gets shot, or a battleship crashing on top of the office due to the coup d'etat.
- Wham Shot: While blood on bodies isn't anything new even with a guy dying in the first hour of Daybreak I, Van pulling a Mercy Kill to Aida at the end of chapter 2 definitely is this for fans as it's clear that Van averts the Thou Shalt Not Kill policy of prior arc protagonists. Another one is at the beginning of Chapter 5 where the audience is shown how Creil got wiped off the face of the earth through Dingo's point of view.
