Accidental Aesop: The correct choices for an optional side quest in Chapter 4 of Daybreak I that involves racing cars in the highway is to practice safety driving instead of gunning for speed.
Adorkable: Shizuna can evoke this reaction from fans whenever she's not in a fight. This is especially prominent in the updated version of the first Daybreak's final chapter, where she becomes Van's passenger and is seen marveling at the sights of Edith, including taking a picture of the tower while half of her body is outside the passenger window. Van has to struggle to put her back in the car so that she doesn't get runover by a random car.
Gerard Dantès is the leader of the Almata mafia syndicate. Having been born into the D∴G Cult, Gerard steals the Demonic Essence of a young Van Arkride, and proceeds to join and become the leader of Almata in order to enact his plan to become the personification of fear. Gerard proceeds to manipulate a young girl to brainwash a large film festival; turns the bodyguard of a prince into a demon; and nukes a small town despite someone pleading that he spare the town—or at least the children—before threatening to do the same to the far larger town of Oracion if the various parties in the story don't fight each other for his own amusement. Even after death, his evil doesn't end, becoming an immortal and having the capital frozen in time before turning himself into a demon in one final attempt to kill the party. Even when Gerard dies for real, he goes out gloating that his goal of the ultimate fear will be achieved by Van in his stead.
Melchior is one of the Wardens of The Garden, and is the second-in-command and The Heavy of Almata. In his status as a Warden and one of the founders of the Garden, Melchior has children kidnapped and trained as assassins. For the sake of Gerard's plan, Melchior murders and turns a Jaeger corps into mindless and bloodthirsty revenants; turns Aaron Wei into the demonic Tycoon; spreads drugs through the tobacco at a film festival; manipulates a professor into trying to create a nuclear bomb; and gives his boss Gerard Dantès the idea to nuke Creil Village and the combat game in Oracion. After Gerard's death, Melchior freezes the capital of Edith in time, and then summons demons to kill all of the people who were unfrozen while also bringing back all of the captured or deceased members of Almata. After turning himself into a demon and losing to Van and company, Melchior dies mocking the party, becoming the only person in this game that Van sees as completely irredeemable.
Continuity Lock-Out: The arc heavily borrows a lot of its plot points from past games that may confuse someone if they're starting here. Some examples from the first game include:
While Bergard's voice actor was initially listed as "???" for some unknown reason, plenty of fans predicted right off the bat that Akio Ōtsuka would be voicing him, long before Daybreak I's short PV confirmed it to be true.
Plenty of fans speculated that, at some point, Van and Aaron were going to fight each other. The short PV revealed that this was indeed happening, though unsurprisingly, the exact circumstances leading up to it were unknown at the time.
Upon seeing a man in a blue fur coat in certain screenshots, many fans automatically assumed that he would be Ouroboros's Fourth Anguis, the "Thousand Oathbreaker," due to him being seen with Lucrezia.Explanation It was stated in Cold Steel III that Sharon joined the society at the same time as Enforcer No. III (the Golden Butterfly) and the Fourth Anguis, and Lucrezia was introduced as said Enforcer. It was later confirmed that this man (named "Ellroy Harwood") was indeed the very same Anguis.
Bergard being the former Eighth Dominion, Barkhorn, had been predicted by fans pretty much from the moment his looks and bio were revealed. The actual game doesn't really do much to hide this, as Van actually calls him "Master Barkhorn" before the name "Bergard" is even brought up in-dialogue.
Grendel-Zolga's identity being Dingo Brad was something fans figured out before the release date. The only thing fans didn't get to figure out was that he's only a shard of Dingo who only survived thanks to the 8th Genesis. He really did die in that explosion.
Both Gerard and Melchior are some of the most blatantly evil characters the Trails series had featured up to this point. Both were also well-received by fans due to how they played their roles as villains quite well, especially for those who felt that Azure, Cold Steel, and Reverie played their characters too safely, inadvertently making them Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
Elroy is, as he describes himself, the "worst". He often does a lot such as minor evil acts like smoking in a no smoking area to outright villanous acts like intentionally using dangerous chemical weapons. Yet it's because of his vileness that he's become popular with fans, with many hoping he would become a much more prominant antagonist in later games.
Memetic Loser: Prior to the release of the first Daybreak game, Elaine received ridicule among some fans, whether it be because they either thought she was won’t be Van’s Love Interest due to her status as his Childhood Friend and Agnés being billed as the game’s main heroine or being Overshadowed by Awesome by Shizuna. She did manage to shake off that reputation regarding the former when the game itself shows that Van has more romantic tension with her than any of the other girls.
Memetic Molester: After the first game came out, Shizuna began getting this label due to her obsession with her "little brother" Rean. After fighting the party, it turns out that she ended up learning Spirit Unification because she saw him that one time using it and decided to copy it. And in one of her Connect events, it turns out she actually kept the broken tip of Rean's tachi and used it as a part of her sheathe, reasoning that her sword needs a strong sheathe.
Moral Event Horizon: Gerard crossed it in Chapter 5 of the first game when he nuked the entire village of Creil, killing off everyone including Dingo.
Narm: Van's Badass Creed when he transforms into Grendel starting during the first game's Intermission level has him speak in both Japanese and Gratuitous English, especially with how the sentence ends: "I am Nightmare, I am Grendel Biting Myself. English-speaking players who can also read Japanese had a chuckle or two at the sentence.
Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Van's relationship with Renne is largely supposed to resemble an older brother looking out for a younger sister he hasn't seen in a long time instead of a potential romance, with any flirty-sounding comments on her end being attributed to her just being The Tease. Unfortunately, some of their scenes together portray her as more touchy-feely with him than the people she's supposed to be the closest to, which can make it very easy to see her as having a crush on him. Him giving her the series' signature head pat,note Even if Van does this towards most people younger than him, even Aaronboth having a common connection as victims of the DG Cult, and him giving her a Bridal Carry after saving her during the first game's final chapter doesn't help.
Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic: Kuro II introduces Connect Events that cover multiple characters at once, such as one for Feri & Aaron. This is largely seen as a step in the right direction, as a common complaint for Bonding Events and their variations was how the interactions within them are often limited to just the protagonist and the one character who triggered it.
Scrappy Mechanic: Or rather, Scrappy lack of a Mechanic especially compared to the previous games. In the first game, players could no longer skip craft or art animations which means players are forced to watch the animations over and over again. Averted after version 1.10 was released a month after initial launch, as Falcom adds skipping animations in addition to unlocked framerate, changes in select cutscenes, and more.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: When the first Daybreak game was initially released, there was a rabid fight between the Van/Agnès and Van/Elaine ships due to the amount of Ship Tease Van has with the two of them onscreen.
Shocking Moments: Van ends up killing a live person on screen. This only signified that this arc was going to be much darker than anticipated.
Signature Scene: Van stabbing the undead Aida in Chapter 1 of the first game. It showcases how the Calvard arc was going to be far darker and bloodier than anything that came before it.
The news revealing that players won't be able to talk to everyone they see on the map also had somewhat of a negative reception.
The fact that Daybreak I lacked a fishing minigame irked some series veterans who wanted to see Van join the ranks of Trails' fishing protagonists.
More than a few fans were disappointed upon finding out that all mandatory encounters were restricted to turn-based combat, since many were curious to see how bosses reacted in real time.
The pre-release info for Kuro II confirmed that the Solutions Office members, barring Agnès, will be keeping the same default outfits they had in the first game. While it's definitely not the first Trails game to do this, it still left some fans disappointed, made worse by how the official artwork for most of these characters remained unchanged.
Daybreak I's initial teaser trailer gave fans something they weren't anticipating: Fie as a playable character for the sixth game in a row.
Likewise, the first game's short PV revealing Rixia in her Yin guise as playable was something of a surprise, as plenty of players assumed she had little reason to return to Calvard after previous games established Arc-en-Ciel as where she belongs.
As shown in multiple pre-release materials like this screenshot◊, two of the returning characters in Daybreak I would be Jack and Halle, who haven't been seen since their debut in Trails in the Sky the 3rd. In a minigame.
Daybreak I's teaser trailer and "S-Craft Introduction video" showing Walter being playable caught quite a few people off guard, given how he's been shown to be among the less sympathetic of Ouroboros's Enforcers. Granted, the player can't control him in the game proper, but he does still team up with the party on a few occasions.
The Un-Twist: Bergard is actually the former eighth Dominion, Barkhorn, previously thought dead in-universe. It doesn't even count as a spoiler, as Van introduces him as "Master Barkhorn" before the name "Bergard" is established. The real surprise was in how Daybreak I didn't try to be coy about the whole thing.
Alternative Title(s):The Legend Of Heroes Kuro No Kiseki
was first dropped, the apparent lack of character cut-ins was generally met with disappointment.
