Phrasemaker

Every Trails game has offered NG+ (New Game Plus) with pretty much the standard fare. However, the Trails in the Sky remake has blown that open with a new offering that entirely changes the game for how New Game Plus can go, and I haven’t heard enough praise for it in the four months since the game released.

This change is an ultimately somewhat simple one: when starting NG+ from a clear data save file, there is an extra feature you can toggle that will increase all enemies’ levels by 50. Those basic, level one enemies you fight in the tutorial? They are now level 51. This will be the case throughout the whole game.

I finished my first playthrough of the game at around 48, so I essentially get another playthrough with just as much substance as the first, with enemies that once again scale with me instead of a breezy run where I blow through all encounters in seconds.

This simple new feature means that I will be 50 levels above the final fights when I take on the next playthrough on Nightmare difficulty to clean up the platinum trophy. My big complaint with the first Trails Through Daybreak was that the game didn’t offer enough ways to level up outside of the story. I would’ve loved the +50 levels option then.

While this does very much benefit getting the trophies, it isn’t only for me. This feature can easily give the game new life, with players using it on another nightmare run, increasing the challenge offered in the game.

This exact situation could easily be done for other JRPGs as well, especially the other series known for doing NG+: Tales. Especially if others can make it so the 50 levels can be infinitely applied instead of only once across the standard levels of the enemies.

As the most recent game in the series, Trails Beyond the Horizon, was made before Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, it doesn’t share some of the new things the remake incorporates. However, the next mainline game in the series has yet to be announced, so there is every chance this NG+ feature will continue forward, and that’s what I’m hoping.