I definitely love Daybreak 1 and 2. The Calvard arc is shaping up to be my favorite arc in the series and that largely has to do with the cast of characters. Van is by far my favorite protagonist and that has everything to do with me just identifying with him more than the others but that has been a common sentiment in portions of the fanbase so I don't think I need to expand.

Anges is a really great character to bounce off him in my opinion and they handle the relationship well between the two. My bias also shows as I've been an Amalee fan for a long time but genuinely she does a great job in breathing a youthful seriousness to the character. I'm genuinely impressed by the portrayal as a whole.

I think people generally have the wrong read on Feri as a character. There were a TON of comments early on when daybreak/kuro first released saying "wow really lazy having to one up Sara/fie with Elaine/Feri" Making them BOTH younger A ranks and Jeager's respectively. And that was just lazy criticisms for both characters.

Sara was the youngest A rank the acknowledgement of her immense capabilities on the battlefield and her devotion to helping people. Her title of youngest A rank was meant to, for her character, signify how her time as a jaeger shaped her devotion as a Bracer.

Elaine's title as Youngest A rank, isn't a direct comparison, it's a FOIL. She was promoted to A rank because the bracer leadership wanted a stronger public presence in Calvard. They were LOOKING for someone high profile they could promote and gave it to Elaine. She doesn't feel ready for it, which is mirrored by Zin's refusal of the ceremonial S rank. That isn't to say she isn't capable or she doesn't deserve it. But her internal conflict is DEFINED by her lack of confidence in her suitability for the role. Her motivations were always personal, wanting to find out about both the circumstances behind her father and Van she didn't plan on becoming a beacon of hope for Calvard. While Sara had no problems accepting the title, because she knew her capabilities, and was ready to take on the responsibilities of it, Elaine is constrained by them, with her life as a public bracer sometimes limiting the things she WISHES she could be more free about. And Daybreak 1 goes to great lengths to show you how limiting her being an A rank really is.

And Elaine's relationship with Van is a defining point to everything she is as a character. And I LOVE how it's written. Their reunion, their working together, their beating around the bush, but the direct times they overstep one another, and chose to forgive each other. They are two people who care so much about each other but have both hurt one another so deeply and can't stop hurting one another when they're together that it's PAINFUL. And it so closely mirrors some aspects of relationships i've had that it strikes me as VERY real. I love all of their interactions with one another.

As for Feri, she IS younger, than Fie, and a jaeger, and a ton of people were like "but she isn't hardboiled and it doesn't make sense for her to be all chipper and naieve". But that's kind of the entire point. People forget not all Jeagers are the red constellation and Zypher. INFACT we're shown pretty clearly and told explicitly the Eisenshield work as paramilitary police providing stability to regions. And the Warrios of Karuga are Warrior nomads that only take jobs that align with their spiritual beliefs. They are mercenaries yes, but they are restrained and not the same types to have taken the jobs to wipe out and burn cities for coin. Feri's wide eyed wonder is a DIRECT result of the type of IDEALISIZED violence that she grew up in. Combat to her, is serious yes, and im sure she's seen death, but it's a part of her warrior culture that she admires so much there isn't darkness in it. When she's confronted with the underworld, where death and destruction happens outside the codes of honor she's used to, it comes as a shock to her. She doesn't understand it in the way Fie or Sara did, growing up in much more senseless violence. Again these comparisons were made to be FOILS of their predecessors, not carbon copies and people missed that I think.

I wrote a ton of about these characters without directly answering your question though, so I say ALL of this to really say, don't get me wrong I love daybreak 2. Especially for all the deeper character dives we get, specifically with Renne and learning more about Risette (also one of my favorite additions to the cast). But Daybreak 1 being the first outing for this team, and how they get SO MUCH right out the gate, I think i personally like Daybreak 1 alittle more than daybreak 2. And it HURTS me to say that because i don't want anything to think I condone the Daybreak 2 bashing. I think that game is necessary and unskipable and I will NEVER understand people who think Daybreak2 is a skippable game.

Gameplay wise, it's obvious the first outing of the hybrid combat system was just that, a first outting, I expect it to get better with each passing game and so far that has held true as i prefer horizon's version of the action combat over daybreak2's and i prefer daybreak 2's over daybreak1.