The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero Reviews

it sucks

Excellent RPG 10/10

it is really good

Muy buen Juego! 8/10

Awesome game!!! The battle system was good and the story was awesome!

After 3 games with the Sky cast in Liberl, we're now off to a new adventure with a new set of protagonists. Set in the territory of Crossbell, a place briefly name-dropped in previous entries. Instead of being a Bracer, you now assume the role of Lloyd Bannings, a detective graduate trying to join the police force. But don't worry, Lloyd gets assigned to a special new division that is functionally very similar to Bracers anyway. Rather than have a primary protagonist (and possibly a deuteragonist) with a vast array of lesser player characters to serve as supporting cast, Zero decides to focus on just a core of four central characters. Lloyd and his fellow SSS team members Randy, Tio, and Ellie are with you the entire game and pretty much your set party. There are a few exceptions where you only can have one with you, as well as some cases where you have a guest character that you can swap in for one of them temporarily. While you don't get to have as many player characters to mess with, I think the four you do have are a lot more fleshed out and have better chemistry with one another because the game was able to focus on just them and didn't stretch itself thin. As standard Legend of Heroes fair, there's tons of lore on the various side characters with everyone having their own stories going on in the background. As the player, you decide how much of those stories you uncover. The gameplay is a more polished version of Sky's with a lot of little enhancements that makes it more fun. The characterization is top-notch, and the premise is very interesting. By the halfway point of the game, the story really picks up and you start to see the payoff through the climax. There are a couple of really tense moments to keep you on the edge and it leaves just enough questions to set up a sequel.

Fun game! Continues the trails story with a new cast of characters and some cameos from old ones. Some minor changes to the combat system that simplify it but make it a bit more approachable, and a return to a point based accomplishment system, which I like. Overall, easy to recommend.

Ahead of the review, huge huge huge HUGE props to the localization (and by proxy the Geofront) team for making unironically one of the best PC ports I have ever experienced. The amount of minute attention to detail, customization and extra features this port of a fixed-camera PSP game from 2010 has is genuinely astounding. Trails from Zero a very solid entry in the series. Interestingly, it follows much of Sky FC's structure quite faithfully, to the point that once you notice it you might be able to predict some plot points ahead of time. This isn't to say Zero isn't original; Crossbell City is itself a fresh injection of life into the formula of the Sky games, and the city is dripping with character, further enhanced not only by the Trails team's extensive and always intriguing worldbuilding but also the INCREDIBLE environmental music (when I say I have had dreams featuring some of this music...). Crossbell's NPCs are full of charm and intrigue, and following them more intently this game led to a few really awesome moments where an NPC that had piqued my interest was suddenly involved within the main story. They all add to the melting pot of the city, the sleaze and the glamour, the corruption and its steadfast opposition, and the pride of collective camaraderie. While I could definitely see parts of this game's crossover with the Sky trilogy-- both narratively and mechanically-- grating on people, personally I rarely found it cheap, and it didn't drown out the unique identity of the SSS and their plot-- in fact, it often only further enhanced it! The SSS feels quite unique in this entry given the generally fixed party, the types of jobs they acquire and their individual ways of growing as characters. Personally, I wish there were more scenes exploring the characters in-depth, because those scenes are some of the greatest in the game, though I imagine they're saving at least some of that for Azure the same way Sky FC did. The narrative itself is solid, with plenty of REALLY high highs that made me audibly gasp and once even made me jump, but I also feel like there were some pretty mediocre beats that felt kind of one-note, which I felt was quite an anomaly considering the previous three games. Still, as always, the narrative is carried on the shoulder of fantastic character writing, which is at some of its most memorable here, even when it doesn't go beyond the surface. I like Trails from Zero fairly well overall, but I seriously adore specific parts of it: the environmental music, Crossbell City itself and the people within it being so rich with character, some of the twists, and all of the characters. There are some seriously unforgettable moments here that I will treasure. I wish the plot was a little more fine-tuned at points, but there's not so much serious flaws as missed potential and sometimes shallow motivations. I also understand that many of these nitpicks can (and hopefully will) be tackled in Azure, so here's for hoping, cause I'm probably hopping back in soon. I'm looking forward to spending more time with the SSS and all of Crossbell in Azure!

Already played the Geofront version back in 2020 but just bought this one to complete my Trails library. I will admit that coming from Sky 3rd to Zero was a big whiplash. Everything felt different. The city feel, the majot cast changes, the vibe so it took a bit before I got used to it. In the end though, I was sold on the SSS as a group and while I wasn't huge on Lloyd in this game(he's likable but something is still missing), he becomes one of my favorite characters in Azure and the future installments. The main plot of this game is very intriguing and makes you interested in what will happen to Crossbell. Major highlight in this game is the Renne subplot. That story is phenomenal and how they wrapped it up during the Finale. Combat is improved yet again and the Orbment system, while similar to the Liberl arc, is still good since I love the elemental values. All in all, a very nice solid starter game for an arc despite me not vibing with it at first.

This game should not be played first. Play the Sky trilogy first. This game and the sequel Azure are direct sequels to the Sky Trilogy. This game is probably the easiest game in this series. I did not party wipe once. Even the NG+ boss wasn't that difficult, but I made it more difficult on myself by not having items to prevent certain status ailments. My only real annoyance per say are the slow start, which is common with this series, and the combat notebook. On my NG+ playthrough, I was certain I got every single enemy. This includes the shining poms. However, I got 99.6% complete by the end of it all. That stings almost as much as finding all but one chest in Trails in the Sky SC. So yeah, that's why I have 90+ hours. Strongly recommend playing AFTER the Sky Trilogy.