Peak found family media :)
This review contains spoilers
three and a half corny speeches out of five
it's trails. a weird series whose style and philosophy of character and plot writing fundamentally disagrees with me, a series so frequently unbearably dorky that i find myself rolling my eyes playing it so often that some day i think i'll sprain an eye muscle and go blind. are eye muscles a thing? can you sprain them? that's no doubt one of the unsolved mysteries of the universe. no, no, stop googling it; i'm on a personal quest to find out!
because i also can't stop playing these frigging games. despite my seething but ice cold hatred for the cold steel sub-series, i've played 1-3 from beginning to end, and i've restarted 4 multiple times--that's like, a 400-hour-old baby's worth of gaming hours! a big, fat, ugly baby, who just can't decide what it wants. i've also played the first two sky games multiple times, despite finding the main duo pretty annoying (i have nothing bad to say about sky the 3rd--that boy good). they are such a unique beast in the world of japanese rpgs that i very well can't just ignore them, can't not play them, and if that means i'll have to occasionally rant about them and my issues with them online, to a no doubt thoroughly captivated audience...
whhops, doing it again. moving on!
i was excited to finally jump into the officially localized crossbell games, as i've played them before with the (very rough) fan translations and found myself having a genuinely really good time--they are, as far as i'm concerned, easily peak trails, both in the good ways and in the... no, actually, peak trails in just the good ways.
the central cast is nice, tight and balanced. lloyd is a bit of a dweeb, but he gets teased for it adequately, so i can't hate on him too much. the other three are great, with randy probably being the highlight for me--despite his thorougly tired and unfunny womanizing shtick, he gets the best moments in the game in my opinion. the supporting cast is varied and colorful too--there's a lot to love there. but everyone gets plenty of screentime and good scenes and lines and moments.
the plot is.. well, it's good. it's a really slow burn, and in all honesty, i did end up dropping the game for a while after the first couple chapters cause i was just so bored with it. but, in all fairness, i did come in with the wrong expectations--i was just thinking about azure and how exciting that game gets, that i forgot that the first half of the duology is there to lay a TON of groundwork. and it definitely gets more exciting later on! i was actually surprised how self-contained zero really was, i totally remembered there being at least one very end game plot twist to hook you, but it seems i was wrong.
ultimately more or less the only bits i did not care for were any when the sky characters popped up--i frankly do not give a single shit about estelle or joshua or renne. mercifully those were fairly minor in the end. neither was i a huge fan of tio's backstory and how it was handled in the present narrative, but relegating the actually dark (and in this case, very dark) bits of the human existence to the background and then either basically just sweeping that stuff under the rug or even resolving it in the most unsincere, saccharine (relatively) feeling way in the narrative is nothing new to trails and is, in fact, one of my biggest frustrations with the series. heavy flashes of this with randy too, actually. the dude murdering hundreds or thousands of people in the battlefield over the course of 15 years, starting when he was literally four years old (according to him), is handled like it was just a neat bit of added flavor to this character, he's just a cool guy with some secret depths, a bit of darkness to him, but hey, who amongst us isn't like this? you just talk it through and it's all good. very relatable.
the combat is really good, it's fun, it's snappy, it feels good to mess around with the timeline mechanic (i forgot how strong the speed buff and debuff were in this), it offers just the right amount of variety in combat and outside of it to feel like you have plenty of options at your disposal, but without feeling like any mechanic is superfluous or encumbering or just worthless. it's like the sky games but with interesting accessory and quartz itemization, or like the cold steel games without the ridiculous systems and cast bloat.
i have found the official localization to be a bit of a mixed bag, however, to my disappointment. it's fairly breezy and casual most of the time, but on the occasion it pulls out the absolutely clunkiest possible lines that sound like they were just straight up machine-translated, like nothing a real person would ever say, not even tio, the lil' robot girl herself. those really stick out. i hope azure is better on this front. though, in fairness to nisa, this has also seemed like a staple of the series to me, even under xseed, so maybe it's mostly due to the source text.
all in all, i had a really good time thoroughly steeping myself in the slow and meticulous worldbuilding and politics of crossbell, the big and the small side quests, the npcs and their daily lives, the interesting character progression and the engagingly simple but varied combat. i'm more than ready for the shit to hit the fan in azure.
it's trails. a weird series whose style and philosophy of character and plot writing fundamentally disagrees with me, a series so frequently unbearably dorky that i find myself rolling my eyes playing it so often that some day i think i'll sprain an eye muscle and go blind. are eye muscles a thing? can you sprain them? that's no doubt one of the unsolved mysteries of the universe. no, no, stop googling it; i'm on a personal quest to find out!
because i also can't stop playing these frigging games. despite my seething but ice cold hatred for the cold steel sub-series, i've played 1-3 from beginning to end, and i've restarted 4 multiple times--that's like, a 400-hour-old baby's worth of gaming hours! a big, fat, ugly baby, who just can't decide what it wants. i've also played the first two sky games multiple times, despite finding the main duo pretty annoying (i have nothing bad to say about sky the 3rd--that boy good). they are such a unique beast in the world of japanese rpgs that i very well can't just ignore them, can't not play them, and if that means i'll have to occasionally rant about them and my issues with them online, to a no doubt thoroughly captivated audience...
whhops, doing it again. moving on!
i was excited to finally jump into the officially localized crossbell games, as i've played them before with the (very rough) fan translations and found myself having a genuinely really good time--they are, as far as i'm concerned, easily peak trails, both in the good ways and in the... no, actually, peak trails in just the good ways.
the central cast is nice, tight and balanced. lloyd is a bit of a dweeb, but he gets teased for it adequately, so i can't hate on him too much. the other three are great, with randy probably being the highlight for me--despite his thorougly tired and unfunny womanizing shtick, he gets the best moments in the game in my opinion. the supporting cast is varied and colorful too--there's a lot to love there. but everyone gets plenty of screentime and good scenes and lines and moments.
the plot is.. well, it's good. it's a really slow burn, and in all honesty, i did end up dropping the game for a while after the first couple chapters cause i was just so bored with it. but, in all fairness, i did come in with the wrong expectations--i was just thinking about azure and how exciting that game gets, that i forgot that the first half of the duology is there to lay a TON of groundwork. and it definitely gets more exciting later on! i was actually surprised how self-contained zero really was, i totally remembered there being at least one very end game plot twist to hook you, but it seems i was wrong.
ultimately more or less the only bits i did not care for were any when the sky characters popped up--i frankly do not give a single shit about estelle or joshua or renne. mercifully those were fairly minor in the end. neither was i a huge fan of tio's backstory and how it was handled in the present narrative, but relegating the actually dark (and in this case, very dark) bits of the human existence to the background and then either basically just sweeping that stuff under the rug or even resolving it in the most unsincere, saccharine (relatively) feeling way in the narrative is nothing new to trails and is, in fact, one of my biggest frustrations with the series. heavy flashes of this with randy too, actually. the dude murdering hundreds or thousands of people in the battlefield over the course of 15 years, starting when he was literally four years old (according to him), is handled like it was just a neat bit of added flavor to this character, he's just a cool guy with some secret depths, a bit of darkness to him, but hey, who amongst us isn't like this? you just talk it through and it's all good. very relatable.
the combat is really good, it's fun, it's snappy, it feels good to mess around with the timeline mechanic (i forgot how strong the speed buff and debuff were in this), it offers just the right amount of variety in combat and outside of it to feel like you have plenty of options at your disposal, but without feeling like any mechanic is superfluous or encumbering or just worthless. it's like the sky games but with interesting accessory and quartz itemization, or like the cold steel games without the ridiculous systems and cast bloat.
i have found the official localization to be a bit of a mixed bag, however, to my disappointment. it's fairly breezy and casual most of the time, but on the occasion it pulls out the absolutely clunkiest possible lines that sound like they were just straight up machine-translated, like nothing a real person would ever say, not even tio, the lil' robot girl herself. those really stick out. i hope azure is better on this front. though, in fairness to nisa, this has also seemed like a staple of the series to me, even under xseed, so maybe it's mostly due to the source text.
all in all, i had a really good time thoroughly steeping myself in the slow and meticulous worldbuilding and politics of crossbell, the big and the small side quests, the npcs and their daily lives, the interesting character progression and the engagingly simple but varied combat. i'm more than ready for the shit to hit the fan in azure.
SSS is something special man
8/10.
Olha eu gostei muito desse aqui.
Antes de mais nada, não terminei o 3rd porém avancei bastante o ""suficiente"" a não ficar perdido em trails zero.
Tenho uma teoria que todo jogo início de arco/pais, é meio fraco.
Zero tem uma estrutura narrativa que achei bem bacana, mas muitas decisões eu particularmente não achei bem realizadas, em minha visão é sky fc só que bem melhor, mas ainda é cansativo.
Demorei umas 35 horas pra terminar esse camarada, utilizei um guia pra tenta fazer 100 por cento e acabei nem chegando em 75%, porém foi um experiência afável.
Em suma foi uma boa experiência, curti bastante a gameplay desse camarada, jogar trails no hard e nightmare realmente empolga, sinto uma certa similaridade a smt, do sky sc em diante e ênfase em dar exploit em fraqueza e buffs nessas dificuldades tornou o combate bem mais divertido.
Gostei bastante dos combos craft, gostei bastante de do hud apesar de não ter mudado muito, mas ficou bem melhor, a câmera tbm e etc.
Esse jogo eu definiria como filler até o ch 3, mas não dá pra dizer que ele é totalmente, pq tá sendo apresentado muitos elementos da cidade, da geografia e populacao de crossbell, somado ao fato que ser policial não ter uma mudança tão interessante em sistema de quests e etc, me desapontou, é re-skin de mecânica dos bracers.
Sério eu fiz acho que quase todas as sides, faltando só 2 que tava cansado na reta final, a versão de vita te mais conteúdo que a de PS4,Switch, PSP e PC, mas não é tão ruim assim.
Em suma gostei da ambientação, foi um build up bacana, porém senti que o sky fc fez um melhor no quesito de apresentação, ainda assim crossbell é viva.
Igual a sky fc, o plot só fica desencalha de vez nos dois últimos chs...
Então o pacing do sky é um slow burn lerdo pqp, jogar trails sem voz não tanko muito não, porém o pacing do zero é bem mais palatavel que o do sky, senti a progressão fluindo bem até.
(voice acting é absurdamente importante pra mim, talvez seja por isso demorei tanto pra termina o fc)
Antes de eu terminar, preciso falar sobre os personagens.... eu amei todos.
Diferente de sky onde eu demorei 2 jogos pra de fato me importar totalmente, zero me pegou de começo, talvez pela arte de katsumi enamo no char design ou os diálogos bem condensados apesar de ser heavy text, arquétipos bem realizados e bons contrapontos, uma ótima química, apesar de eu ter uns problemas quanto a porra do harém do llyod, coisa que reclamarei mais em azure, mas até aqui tá ok eu acho.
Randy maravilhoso
Tio bom personagem
Ellie bem padrão eu espero mais dela azure
KeA que coisinha fofa, dá vontade de proteger essa criatura.
Dudley achei interessante, espero mais dele no azure
Áries design foda e é um personagem que quebrou a primeira impressão de edgy que ele passou, gostei.
Rixia espero mais na sequel.
Wazy que personagem charmoso, anseio muito por ele no azure.
Garcia foi um boneco Interessante no fim.
Estelle e joshua estão bem feitos aqui, design do enami deixou a estelle linda e o joshua bonito pkrl e tais personagens demonstram a sua evolução desde da trilogia passada.
Gostei do desenvolvimento de todos na reta final, como infelizmente sou um incompetente n consegui nenhum final bounding event e vi no yt, me deu ânimo firme pra sequência.
As sides são bem fracas, tirando um certo punhado, mas são bem ok em geral, sky sc foi melhor.
Personagens recorrentes de jogos passado e que ainda vão ter mais destaque em cold steel (lechter eu sei que é você) me fazem apreciar mais o carinho que existe em como a falcomm interliga cada personagem em jogos sucessores sem forçar a barra e ser ou um fanservics bom ou um motivo sólido, dá uma sensação de algo muito grande está se moldando, lembrando one piece só que melhor.
Trilha sonora...
Olha eu gostei pkrl, way to life é minha intro fav de the legend of heroes destronando silver will de sc e isso não vai mudar eu acho....
Inevitable struggle é linda, formidable enemy é icônica, get over barreira roarimg version é apoteótica na reta final e a ost da dungeon final é fino señores.
Ainda assim tem poucas osts que de fato curti, sc e 3rd teve mais, espero que azure seja melhor.
Dito isso eu amei o que joguei.
Meus problemas é mais ele ser uma parte 1 de duologia de uma história e ser muito algo como utawaremono mask of deception ( jogaço, porém ele funciona demais pra engrandecer e mask of truth e apresentar o novo continente, esperava mais)
Tem outros problemas aqui a acolá que prefiro não citar aqui, mas em suma trails ja me pegou.
Olha eu gostei muito desse aqui.
Antes de mais nada, não terminei o 3rd porém avancei bastante o ""suficiente"" a não ficar perdido em trails zero.
Tenho uma teoria que todo jogo início de arco/pais, é meio fraco.
Zero tem uma estrutura narrativa que achei bem bacana, mas muitas decisões eu particularmente não achei bem realizadas, em minha visão é sky fc só que bem melhor, mas ainda é cansativo.
Demorei umas 35 horas pra terminar esse camarada, utilizei um guia pra tenta fazer 100 por cento e acabei nem chegando em 75%, porém foi um experiência afável.
Em suma foi uma boa experiência, curti bastante a gameplay desse camarada, jogar trails no hard e nightmare realmente empolga, sinto uma certa similaridade a smt, do sky sc em diante e ênfase em dar exploit em fraqueza e buffs nessas dificuldades tornou o combate bem mais divertido.
Gostei bastante dos combos craft, gostei bastante de do hud apesar de não ter mudado muito, mas ficou bem melhor, a câmera tbm e etc.
Esse jogo eu definiria como filler até o ch 3, mas não dá pra dizer que ele é totalmente, pq tá sendo apresentado muitos elementos da cidade, da geografia e populacao de crossbell, somado ao fato que ser policial não ter uma mudança tão interessante em sistema de quests e etc, me desapontou, é re-skin de mecânica dos bracers.
Sério eu fiz acho que quase todas as sides, faltando só 2 que tava cansado na reta final, a versão de vita te mais conteúdo que a de PS4,Switch, PSP e PC, mas não é tão ruim assim.
Em suma gostei da ambientação, foi um build up bacana, porém senti que o sky fc fez um melhor no quesito de apresentação, ainda assim crossbell é viva.
Igual a sky fc, o plot só fica desencalha de vez nos dois últimos chs...
Então o pacing do sky é um slow burn lerdo pqp, jogar trails sem voz não tanko muito não, porém o pacing do zero é bem mais palatavel que o do sky, senti a progressão fluindo bem até.
(voice acting é absurdamente importante pra mim, talvez seja por isso demorei tanto pra termina o fc)
Antes de eu terminar, preciso falar sobre os personagens.... eu amei todos.
Diferente de sky onde eu demorei 2 jogos pra de fato me importar totalmente, zero me pegou de começo, talvez pela arte de katsumi enamo no char design ou os diálogos bem condensados apesar de ser heavy text, arquétipos bem realizados e bons contrapontos, uma ótima química, apesar de eu ter uns problemas quanto a porra do harém do llyod, coisa que reclamarei mais em azure, mas até aqui tá ok eu acho.
Randy maravilhoso
Tio bom personagem
Ellie bem padrão eu espero mais dela azure
KeA que coisinha fofa, dá vontade de proteger essa criatura.
Dudley achei interessante, espero mais dele no azure
Áries design foda e é um personagem que quebrou a primeira impressão de edgy que ele passou, gostei.
Rixia espero mais na sequel.
Wazy que personagem charmoso, anseio muito por ele no azure.
Garcia foi um boneco Interessante no fim.
Estelle e joshua estão bem feitos aqui, design do enami deixou a estelle linda e o joshua bonito pkrl e tais personagens demonstram a sua evolução desde da trilogia passada.
Gostei do desenvolvimento de todos na reta final, como infelizmente sou um incompetente n consegui nenhum final bounding event e vi no yt, me deu ânimo firme pra sequência.
As sides são bem fracas, tirando um certo punhado, mas são bem ok em geral, sky sc foi melhor.
Personagens recorrentes de jogos passado e que ainda vão ter mais destaque em cold steel (lechter eu sei que é você) me fazem apreciar mais o carinho que existe em como a falcomm interliga cada personagem em jogos sucessores sem forçar a barra e ser ou um fanservics bom ou um motivo sólido, dá uma sensação de algo muito grande está se moldando, lembrando one piece só que melhor.
Trilha sonora...
Olha eu gostei pkrl, way to life é minha intro fav de the legend of heroes destronando silver will de sc e isso não vai mudar eu acho....
Inevitable struggle é linda, formidable enemy é icônica, get over barreira roarimg version é apoteótica na reta final e a ost da dungeon final é fino señores.
Ainda assim tem poucas osts que de fato curti, sc e 3rd teve mais, espero que azure seja melhor.
Dito isso eu amei o que joguei.
Meus problemas é mais ele ser uma parte 1 de duologia de uma história e ser muito algo como utawaremono mask of deception ( jogaço, porém ele funciona demais pra engrandecer e mask of truth e apresentar o novo continente, esperava mais)
Tem outros problemas aqui a acolá que prefiro não citar aqui, mas em suma trails ja me pegou.
Moving away from Liberl and into Crossbell, this game tells a fun story with a new cast of likeable characters while still managing to weave in more lore on the characters and events of the Liberl arc.
The Special Support Section are a fun bunch and grow closer throughout the course of the game, but they still feel more like coworkers as opposed to the genuine friendship of the main cast in Sky. Lloyd is a fine protagonist, and his interactions with Randy, Tio, and KeA are great, but his relationship with Elie is pretty much just fake romantic tension.
The main plot of this game is incredibly intriguing the whole way through. This game past the halfway point had so many moments that just left me with either my jaw on the floor or giddy from excitement. Much like Sky SC, the game has a satisfying enough ending while still leaving enough unanswered to make the player want to dive deeper into the rabbit hole that is the Trails franchise. Trails from Zero is a great introduction to the new arc, and I look forward to its conclusion in Azure
The Special Support Section are a fun bunch and grow closer throughout the course of the game, but they still feel more like coworkers as opposed to the genuine friendship of the main cast in Sky. Lloyd is a fine protagonist, and his interactions with Randy, Tio, and KeA are great, but his relationship with Elie is pretty much just fake romantic tension.
The main plot of this game is incredibly intriguing the whole way through. This game past the halfway point had so many moments that just left me with either my jaw on the floor or giddy from excitement. Much like Sky SC, the game has a satisfying enough ending while still leaving enough unanswered to make the player want to dive deeper into the rabbit hole that is the Trails franchise. Trails from Zero is a great introduction to the new arc, and I look forward to its conclusion in Azure
amazing beginning game to start an arc off in the kiseki series.
I played this in my own time. While the gameplay isn't as good as the Cold Steel games I played before this, the story really drew me in with an amazing main cast of characters and the actual plot feeling very well done as well. The soundtrack might be one of the best out there as well. It also makes me excited for the sequel as well.
Amazing. What an amazing beginning to a new arc. It really hooked me into the new cast, the SSS, and found a way to make me love them so much. Honestly, this game did a bit better at a beginning of an arc then fc but nevertheless, I still love them both.
also
LLOYD FUCKING BANNINGS.
also
LLOYD FUCKING BANNINGS.
After a long porting journey, the game is finally officially out in English, and the Crossbell journey begins. While the Trails game are known for their overarching plot and the many connections to each other, and while this is certainly true with Zero as well, I was still a bit surprised with how self contained and personal this one felt. The chapters follow a case solving structure, and while there are a lot of activities to do during the in-game days, the pacing is rather swift and leads to a satisfactory development each day. Also, the game, especially on the earlier parts, has a very "Scooby Doo" feeling to it, not only because of the mystery solving, but because the gang is a collection of individuals with wildly different personalities and skillsets, that work surprisingly well with each other. And while I loved the main characters, the side characters have their charm as well, even the various citizens without portraits that live in Crossbell.
The game is a bit dated compared to the latest entries, where the gameplay has improved quite a bit, but I don't really think this poses an issue as it's quite fine tuned, and it's both simple and fun. Like other entries, it's not really mechanically complex, but you can delve deeper and experiment with some aspects of it, and it's easy to get powerful enough with the right preparation even in higher difficulties. The only improvement in general that I really missed from the newer entries is the lack of tricky missables. While it's not really too bad on that, and you can usually tell when there's a point of no return, there are still some stuff that are very easy to pass over, and the achievements aren't forgiving if you mess up.
Overall, a really tight experience and a very fun JRPG, that makes you appreciate the series and look forward to the sequel even more. It's quite a novel setting, and the striking art along with some really good music tracks make it a very memorable game. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The game is a bit dated compared to the latest entries, where the gameplay has improved quite a bit, but I don't really think this poses an issue as it's quite fine tuned, and it's both simple and fun. Like other entries, it's not really mechanically complex, but you can delve deeper and experiment with some aspects of it, and it's easy to get powerful enough with the right preparation even in higher difficulties. The only improvement in general that I really missed from the newer entries is the lack of tricky missables. While it's not really too bad on that, and you can usually tell when there's a point of no return, there are still some stuff that are very easy to pass over, and the achievements aren't forgiving if you mess up.
Overall, a really tight experience and a very fun JRPG, that makes you appreciate the series and look forward to the sequel even more. It's quite a novel setting, and the striking art along with some really good music tracks make it a very memorable game. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Skipped sky to play this one 👍
worth it!
worth it!
I love Tio so fucking much
Took away a star cause i hate cops
Look ma, I got over the language barrier.
And the barrier is a bop.
And the barrier is a bop.
One of Trails' biggest strength is letting you explore its well-realized world, and that strength has never been more apparent than in Zero, where Crossbell really comes alive. Top-quality stuff.
It's Trails but with a new cast of characters and now you're playing as police officers instead of bracers.
The police in this game have a sort of friendly rivalry with the bracers. This is a fun way of incorporating characters from previous games without their presence overshadowing the main cast, but it does help point out that classic Trails characters overshadowing the main cast is a potential issue. In the story, the main cast of Trails From Zero don't want to be outdone by Estelle and Joshua. And even though they address that problem narratively, I do think there was a part of the game where Estelle and Joshua being present could potentially overshadow the main cast. I'd prefer that classic characters have a smaller role in a game that's establishing a new cast of characters. Otherwise the new characters never get their moment to shine. Luckily there were many moments in this game that let the new characters shine, but I do think they could have dialed back Estelle and Joshua's involvement for this particular game.
Trails from Zero is only half of a story, so I don't have the full picture on the main cast yet. But I enjoyed the seeing characters' stories so far. I do think that the main cast gets along together too well though. It may have been more interesting to have their friendships develop over the course of the game than have them become friends immediately.
The plot of this game is a bit on the insane side, but I enjoyed it the whole way through. It's neat that this is a JRPG that is initially about policemen taking on the mafia within a crime-infested city. That's not something you see often, so it's enjoyable even just for the novelty. And while the story takes a wild left turn toward the end, I enjoyed the direction the story ultimately took. But there's a part of me that wishes that the story continued to be about the mafia instead of changing course when all the setup for the mafia story had been done.
My biggest issue with Trails From Zero is that the main villain of the game is kind of lame. This is a game with a bunch of interesting and well developed characters, so when the villain was revealed my reaction was "THAT'S who it is??" There's not even anything necessarily wrong with how the character was written. It was just a weird-ass choice to make the character a villain. I think the villain being a character who fits the role better would have made for a more compelling finale.
The combat is Trails combat. I pretty much know the drill by now, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time because there was a built-in speed up function. Granted, the game shouldn't have needed a speed up button to be fun. The biggest flaw with Trails combat is how slow it is and that remains true, because it's actually pretty enjoyable when sped up beyond what was originally intended. I played through most of the game on speed up mode. I feel like this game is easier than the previous ones, but that's probably because I know what I'm doing with the combat system now, as well as the fact that attack animations don't take 2 years to complete when sped up.
The music is good, although Trails in the Sky the 3rd is still the highpoint of Trails music from what I've played. This game takes second place for music. There are some nice non-combat tracks here but some of the combat tracks sound a bit generic or low energy. They delivered on the boss themes though, as they tend to do.
The last thing I'll bring up is that the support requests are a pretty sizable step down from the side stories in Trails in the Sky the 3rd. The support requests can occasionally lead to some amusing scenarios, but I'd much much rather learn more about the extended cast of characters than do a bunch of fetch-quests. But narratively it makes sense for the main characters to do fetch quests, so I ended up completing a good amount anyway.
I like this game. It's my second favorite behind Trails in the Sky the 3rd so far. The story isn't over after beating Trails from Zero so I can't make my full judgement on the Crossbell arc yet. But what I really appreciate about Trails from Zero is that even though it's a new story it still follows up on unresolved plot points from the previous games. And I think for that reason alone it's worth sticking with this series even if not every game ends up being a winner.
The police in this game have a sort of friendly rivalry with the bracers. This is a fun way of incorporating characters from previous games without their presence overshadowing the main cast, but it does help point out that classic Trails characters overshadowing the main cast is a potential issue. In the story, the main cast of Trails From Zero don't want to be outdone by Estelle and Joshua. And even though they address that problem narratively, I do think there was a part of the game where Estelle and Joshua being present could potentially overshadow the main cast. I'd prefer that classic characters have a smaller role in a game that's establishing a new cast of characters. Otherwise the new characters never get their moment to shine. Luckily there were many moments in this game that let the new characters shine, but I do think they could have dialed back Estelle and Joshua's involvement for this particular game.
Trails from Zero is only half of a story, so I don't have the full picture on the main cast yet. But I enjoyed the seeing characters' stories so far. I do think that the main cast gets along together too well though. It may have been more interesting to have their friendships develop over the course of the game than have them become friends immediately.
The plot of this game is a bit on the insane side, but I enjoyed it the whole way through. It's neat that this is a JRPG that is initially about policemen taking on the mafia within a crime-infested city. That's not something you see often, so it's enjoyable even just for the novelty. And while the story takes a wild left turn toward the end, I enjoyed the direction the story ultimately took. But there's a part of me that wishes that the story continued to be about the mafia instead of changing course when all the setup for the mafia story had been done.
My biggest issue with Trails From Zero is that the main villain of the game is kind of lame. This is a game with a bunch of interesting and well developed characters, so when the villain was revealed my reaction was "THAT'S who it is??" There's not even anything necessarily wrong with how the character was written. It was just a weird-ass choice to make the character a villain. I think the villain being a character who fits the role better would have made for a more compelling finale.
The combat is Trails combat. I pretty much know the drill by now, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time because there was a built-in speed up function. Granted, the game shouldn't have needed a speed up button to be fun. The biggest flaw with Trails combat is how slow it is and that remains true, because it's actually pretty enjoyable when sped up beyond what was originally intended. I played through most of the game on speed up mode. I feel like this game is easier than the previous ones, but that's probably because I know what I'm doing with the combat system now, as well as the fact that attack animations don't take 2 years to complete when sped up.
The music is good, although Trails in the Sky the 3rd is still the highpoint of Trails music from what I've played. This game takes second place for music. There are some nice non-combat tracks here but some of the combat tracks sound a bit generic or low energy. They delivered on the boss themes though, as they tend to do.
The last thing I'll bring up is that the support requests are a pretty sizable step down from the side stories in Trails in the Sky the 3rd. The support requests can occasionally lead to some amusing scenarios, but I'd much much rather learn more about the extended cast of characters than do a bunch of fetch-quests. But narratively it makes sense for the main characters to do fetch quests, so I ended up completing a good amount anyway.
I like this game. It's my second favorite behind Trails in the Sky the 3rd so far. The story isn't over after beating Trails from Zero so I can't make my full judgement on the Crossbell arc yet. But what I really appreciate about Trails from Zero is that even though it's a new story it still follows up on unresolved plot points from the previous games. And I think for that reason alone it's worth sticking with this series even if not every game ends up being a winner.
Zero is a very good experience. I love the SSS as a group (when overly repetitive jokes aren't ruining the conversation) and this game flows at a decent pace. It's slow from time to time, but what isn't. My faults come with the story and character development. Story isn't a good starter and if your name isn't Tio Plato you aren't getting shit bud. Lloyd tries to gaslight you into thinking he gets real character development, but it's false. All of the character development in Zero more resides in how the SSS gets a lot closer to each other and how they solve each case they need to.
Beat: 5/30/23
Beat: 5/30/23
Its very good.
While I've been generally positive about the previous Trails games, they were typically a mix between good and bad aspects that averaged out on the positive side. Zero manages to break from the crowd with its consistent level of quality across all the entire experience. I think this is the first Trails game I can recommend without any hesitation (though I would still advise playing the Sky games first thanks to the context they offer).
Combat and gameplay, while still largely the same as previous games, has enough improvements that it feels noticeably better. Balance to enemy health and damage numbers make the fights much more engaging and limited the number of encounters that felt tedious or boring to get through. Meanwhile changes to how orbments and arts are composed gave a much greater variety and complexity to the builds which was further emphasized by the smaller cast of main characters encouraging depth and complexity unlike the huge ensembles of prior titles.
As for the story, I'm largely positive. Crossbell feels much more cohesive, more believable, and more interesting than anything Liberl offered. And while its hard to judge much of the content here since a lot of it seems to be setup for the sequel, I think Zero did a pretty good job of giving us the backdrop for its events while still showing meaningful progress in the world rather than leaving the resolution of events entirely to the next game to wrap up.
Considering how much of this game is supposed to be setting the stage for Azure, I'm very excited to play it. And while Azure's quality doesn't directly influence whether Zero is a good game or not it does mean I'm willing to overlook some of its weaker points since many of them seem to be planting the seeds for future plot points to take advantage of.
So overall, I really liked Zero. Even after spending nearly 200 hours playing the previous three Trails games this still managed to feel fresh and engaging. Definitely worth giving it a shot.
While I've been generally positive about the previous Trails games, they were typically a mix between good and bad aspects that averaged out on the positive side. Zero manages to break from the crowd with its consistent level of quality across all the entire experience. I think this is the first Trails game I can recommend without any hesitation (though I would still advise playing the Sky games first thanks to the context they offer).
Combat and gameplay, while still largely the same as previous games, has enough improvements that it feels noticeably better. Balance to enemy health and damage numbers make the fights much more engaging and limited the number of encounters that felt tedious or boring to get through. Meanwhile changes to how orbments and arts are composed gave a much greater variety and complexity to the builds which was further emphasized by the smaller cast of main characters encouraging depth and complexity unlike the huge ensembles of prior titles.
As for the story, I'm largely positive. Crossbell feels much more cohesive, more believable, and more interesting than anything Liberl offered. And while its hard to judge much of the content here since a lot of it seems to be setup for the sequel, I think Zero did a pretty good job of giving us the backdrop for its events while still showing meaningful progress in the world rather than leaving the resolution of events entirely to the next game to wrap up.
Considering how much of this game is supposed to be setting the stage for Azure, I'm very excited to play it. And while Azure's quality doesn't directly influence whether Zero is a good game or not it does mean I'm willing to overlook some of its weaker points since many of them seem to be planting the seeds for future plot points to take advantage of.
So overall, I really liked Zero. Even after spending nearly 200 hours playing the previous three Trails games this still managed to feel fresh and engaging. Definitely worth giving it a shot.
this series is so good
this game has a really strong early-mid game, but towards the late game you will get a "oh we're doing this again" feeling. just feels a bit too similar to the late games of sky SC and sky 3rd for my liking. it also drags a bit and doesn't have an extremely satisfying conclusion (except for estelle/joshua/renne which even that felt a bit rushed and anti-climactic)
i love the SSS, the fact that the main cast is so much smaller than in sky/cold steel makes it way easier to get attached as the characters get much needed screen time and development. but admittedly, the supporting cast and antagonists are weaker than in sky and cold steel. the main antagonist, albeit with slightly different ambitions, is just weissmann 2.0 to the very end
this game has a really strong early-mid game, but towards the late game you will get a "oh we're doing this again" feeling. just feels a bit too similar to the late games of sky SC and sky 3rd for my liking. it also drags a bit and doesn't have an extremely satisfying conclusion (except for estelle/joshua/renne which even that felt a bit rushed and anti-climactic)
i love the SSS, the fact that the main cast is so much smaller than in sky/cold steel makes it way easier to get attached as the characters get much needed screen time and development. but admittedly, the supporting cast and antagonists are weaker than in sky and cold steel. the main antagonist, albeit with slightly different ambitions, is just weissmann 2.0 to the very end
Trails from Zero is an awesome game, and I had a great time with it. The world, the story and the characters are all fantastic, and after playing the Trails in the Sky trilogy before, I can say that I love this game just as much as those. I'm also really looking forward to playing Trails to Azure after playing this game.
This review contains spoilers
Games that go untranslated for years normally develop this kind of mystic reverence around them, with people generally considering them better than the translated ones. Just look at how Fire Emblem fans venerate the Jugdral games (I've never actually played them maybe they're fantastic IDK) to see what I'm talking about. The Crossbell duology held a similar place in the Kiseki series until earlier this year, being stuck between the (eventually) fully translated Sky trilogy and the Cold Steel tetralogy. I had always come across people talking about how great the Crossbell games were, how they make the Cold Steel series look terrible and were the peak of the series, stuff like that. I never got around to playing the Geofront translation when that came out, so when NIS announced an official English translation, I was very excited to finally try it out. I was honestly expecting it to not live up to the hype, but this game took my lofty expectations and went so far beyond them I don't even know what to say about it. The staples of a Falcom game are here (that distinctive kind of chibi art style, an absolutely fantastic soundtrack, an almost absurd amount of optional dialogue and side content, a fishing minigame, etc) but the game is way more than that. Normally with a Falcom game there’s some part of it that feels a little less fleshed out than everything else, but that just isn’t here. It’s like the developers set out to top the Sky games in every aspect and just managed to do it. It’s hard to explain but as someone who’s played a pretty decent chunk of Falcom’s catalog and is an unapologetic fanboy of basically anything they do, I was still surprised by just how good basically every part of Trails from Zero was.
I had written this whole big thing about the story and how Crossbell is a fantastic setting for a game like this due to its rampant corruption and organized crime which brilliantly contrasts how peaceful Liberl was without external meddling, and how Falcom managed to justify having the SSS do basically the same thing as the Bracer Guild so they didn’t have to really change the structure of the game at all, but I really didn’t like how that turned out, and I couldn’t really write anything that managed to properly explain what I love about this game so I'm just going to share my unfiltered ramblings. Getting to spend the whole game with the SSS gave Falcom more time to flesh out Lloyd, Tio, Randy, and Elie than they had for most of the Liberl characters or any character introduced in Cold Steel I or II (the fact that New Class VII is so small is one of the reasons I like the second half of the Erebonia arc way more than the first one but that’s neither here nor there) and it never felt like any one of them was being overlooked to focus on someone else or didn't have enough screen time to be fleshed out. Really the whole game is like that, where the scale of it was toned down compared to the other games in the series, but Falcom took that as a chance to dive way deeper into things than they do in other games in the series. There’s also a real sense of progression in the story and the growth of the SSS, since you go from being the rookie police unit tasked with breaking up petty disputes between street gangs to stopping an assassination attempt on Crossbell City’s mayor to infiltrating a black-market auction run by Crossbell’s leading organized crime group to fighting the high priest of a cult that's fundamentally opposed to the world’s leading religion and spent centuries committing unspeakable horrors in the name of their “true god”. Look up Star Doot 15 from Trails in the Sky the 3rd if you don’t care about spoilers for that game and want to see just how fucked up they really were. Fair warning that it’s probably worse than you’re expecting, and deals with some really sensitive topics like sexual assault and child abuse if you’re bothered by that kind of stuff. Going back to my main point, this gradual progression of events really helps build up the story of Zero as this real journey and emphasizes both the personal growth of the SSS and their growth as a team. Also chest messages are back and unlike the Sky games they’re all unique and mostly make dumb references to the current events in the game’s story. There are a few too many “Haha the cops are stealing you’re all terrible people” messages and one of them near the end of the game says bruh (Thank god the infamous “bruh moment” line from the original Geofront release wasn’t in here at least) but overall they’re pretty amusing. The translation in general was pretty solid and outside of NIS’s general habit of taking really short lines and making them super long for no real reason, didn’t seem deviate from the original script all that much. Yeah I know NIS used the Geofront version as a base and still managed to fuck some things up like leaving Japanese text in a few places or having a character named Carla in dialogue be named Kara in the part of the text box that says who’s speaking so it’s not super polished, but the actual writing was really good. Anyway, I know this is a rambling mess so I’ll just say that the game is near perfect and instantly shot up to being one of my favorite Falcom games and probably one of my favorite games in general. Go play it, but you should probably play the Liberl games first. You could maybe get away with starting here since the story isn’t super connected to that arc, but there are a few scenes that would really lose their impact if you did that, and there are some concepts that the game just kind of assumes you’re already familiar with from those games so you might be a little confused at times. It is the start of an arc and the SSS is also in the dark about basically everything that happened in Sky so maybe it wouldn't be that bad of a starting place actually if you just wanted to check it out without devoting 120+ hours to some JRPGS from the mid 2000s, but I do think the series is something that's best experienced from start to finish. Granted I did the exact opposite and played all four Cold Steel games before the rest so I'm really not one to talk about the order you should be playing this series in.
But fishing is the same as it was in Sky SC and 3rd, as in it’s not good, so actually 0/10 Cold Steel is better.
I had written this whole big thing about the story and how Crossbell is a fantastic setting for a game like this due to its rampant corruption and organized crime which brilliantly contrasts how peaceful Liberl was without external meddling, and how Falcom managed to justify having the SSS do basically the same thing as the Bracer Guild so they didn’t have to really change the structure of the game at all, but I really didn’t like how that turned out, and I couldn’t really write anything that managed to properly explain what I love about this game so I'm just going to share my unfiltered ramblings. Getting to spend the whole game with the SSS gave Falcom more time to flesh out Lloyd, Tio, Randy, and Elie than they had for most of the Liberl characters or any character introduced in Cold Steel I or II (the fact that New Class VII is so small is one of the reasons I like the second half of the Erebonia arc way more than the first one but that’s neither here nor there) and it never felt like any one of them was being overlooked to focus on someone else or didn't have enough screen time to be fleshed out. Really the whole game is like that, where the scale of it was toned down compared to the other games in the series, but Falcom took that as a chance to dive way deeper into things than they do in other games in the series. There’s also a real sense of progression in the story and the growth of the SSS, since you go from being the rookie police unit tasked with breaking up petty disputes between street gangs to stopping an assassination attempt on Crossbell City’s mayor to infiltrating a black-market auction run by Crossbell’s leading organized crime group to fighting the high priest of a cult that's fundamentally opposed to the world’s leading religion and spent centuries committing unspeakable horrors in the name of their “true god”. Look up Star Doot 15 from Trails in the Sky the 3rd if you don’t care about spoilers for that game and want to see just how fucked up they really were. Fair warning that it’s probably worse than you’re expecting, and deals with some really sensitive topics like sexual assault and child abuse if you’re bothered by that kind of stuff. Going back to my main point, this gradual progression of events really helps build up the story of Zero as this real journey and emphasizes both the personal growth of the SSS and their growth as a team. Also chest messages are back and unlike the Sky games they’re all unique and mostly make dumb references to the current events in the game’s story. There are a few too many “Haha the cops are stealing you’re all terrible people” messages and one of them near the end of the game says bruh (Thank god the infamous “bruh moment” line from the original Geofront release wasn’t in here at least) but overall they’re pretty amusing. The translation in general was pretty solid and outside of NIS’s general habit of taking really short lines and making them super long for no real reason, didn’t seem deviate from the original script all that much. Yeah I know NIS used the Geofront version as a base and still managed to fuck some things up like leaving Japanese text in a few places or having a character named Carla in dialogue be named Kara in the part of the text box that says who’s speaking so it’s not super polished, but the actual writing was really good. Anyway, I know this is a rambling mess so I’ll just say that the game is near perfect and instantly shot up to being one of my favorite Falcom games and probably one of my favorite games in general. Go play it, but you should probably play the Liberl games first. You could maybe get away with starting here since the story isn’t super connected to that arc, but there are a few scenes that would really lose their impact if you did that, and there are some concepts that the game just kind of assumes you’re already familiar with from those games so you might be a little confused at times. It is the start of an arc and the SSS is also in the dark about basically everything that happened in Sky so maybe it wouldn't be that bad of a starting place actually if you just wanted to check it out without devoting 120+ hours to some JRPGS from the mid 2000s, but I do think the series is something that's best experienced from start to finish. Granted I did the exact opposite and played all four Cold Steel games before the rest so I'm really not one to talk about the order you should be playing this series in.
But fishing is the same as it was in Sky SC and 3rd, as in it’s not good, so actually 0/10 Cold Steel is better.
*Played Trails from Zero twice back in 2023 (first on PS4 then on Switch). Now making a review of it since it's still fresh in my mind and I just finished the Liberl arc not long ago in 2024.
Trails From Zero (or Zero for simple sakes) is a solid game through and the second Trails game I ever played.
As the start of a new arc known as the Crossbell arc, Zero had the job to establish a new cast of characters as well as develop the city-state of Crossbell as a setting. From the two playthroughs I did, I can confidently say it did it's job well as I loved the settings of Crossbell in general and the new cast of characters from the Special Support Section (SSS). The main cast of characters were fun to watch as the game greatly builds on their dynamic with each other over the course of the game. It doesn't help that the amazing jp voices from the Evo version elevated them into some of my favorite characters (ex. Randy and Tio). Crossbell, while small in comparison to Liberl, is still a rich setting filled with some of the best named NPCS in the series. Due to the settings contained in one city with a few small towns, bases, and a hospital, the stories of the named NPCs develop through out the whole game and it makes me care for them more than Liberl NPCs due to the smaller setting.
The story is pretty good for what it is, even if its pretty small in context to the larger narrative of the series. However, I do like the fact the story is really self - contained with a start and an end that doesn't force the direct sequel baiting that most other Trails kind of fall into.
As for gameplay, it still follow the quartz system from the Sky games, though there are minor modifications such as changing some specific spells into a different element or adding new spells all together. The battles are still the same from the Sky games, though you are mostly sticking with the four SSS members for most the game. You do get the usual extra characters, though they are only temporary.
Finally, music is simply excellent whichs make walking through Crossbell a joy and battles pretty hype.
As for the negatives, the game starts off slow though thankfully not as slow as Sky FC. There is unfortunately no English voice acting though I could understand the fact that trying to record it would delayed the game and thus delayed future Trails games that need to be localized. Finally, the PC and Switch ports invalidate the PS4 version due to the simple fact that there are no chat logs to check.
Other than those nitpicks, Trails from Zero is just a pretty great game in general and a solid start of the Crossbell game. And shouts out for the Geofront Team for making this happen! 4.5/5.
Trails From Zero (or Zero for simple sakes) is a solid game through and the second Trails game I ever played.
As the start of a new arc known as the Crossbell arc, Zero had the job to establish a new cast of characters as well as develop the city-state of Crossbell as a setting. From the two playthroughs I did, I can confidently say it did it's job well as I loved the settings of Crossbell in general and the new cast of characters from the Special Support Section (SSS). The main cast of characters were fun to watch as the game greatly builds on their dynamic with each other over the course of the game. It doesn't help that the amazing jp voices from the Evo version elevated them into some of my favorite characters (ex. Randy and Tio). Crossbell, while small in comparison to Liberl, is still a rich setting filled with some of the best named NPCS in the series. Due to the settings contained in one city with a few small towns, bases, and a hospital, the stories of the named NPCs develop through out the whole game and it makes me care for them more than Liberl NPCs due to the smaller setting.
The story is pretty good for what it is, even if its pretty small in context to the larger narrative of the series. However, I do like the fact the story is really self - contained with a start and an end that doesn't force the direct sequel baiting that most other Trails kind of fall into.
As for gameplay, it still follow the quartz system from the Sky games, though there are minor modifications such as changing some specific spells into a different element or adding new spells all together. The battles are still the same from the Sky games, though you are mostly sticking with the four SSS members for most the game. You do get the usual extra characters, though they are only temporary.
Finally, music is simply excellent whichs make walking through Crossbell a joy and battles pretty hype.
As for the negatives, the game starts off slow though thankfully not as slow as Sky FC. There is unfortunately no English voice acting though I could understand the fact that trying to record it would delayed the game and thus delayed future Trails games that need to be localized. Finally, the PC and Switch ports invalidate the PS4 version due to the simple fact that there are no chat logs to check.
Other than those nitpicks, Trails from Zero is just a pretty great game in general and a solid start of the Crossbell game. And shouts out for the Geofront Team for making this happen! 4.5/5.
Trails but consistently good, Zero top 1 hive stand proud we love games not carried by having a hype moment every 6 hours.
just wanna know who changed this to a remaster bc the platform i was playing this on vanished from the options
EDIT: i have finished it! excellent game but i am docking a star because fuck 12
EDIT: i have finished it! excellent game but i am docking a star because fuck 12
Renne 🐐
"Okay but what if sky had none of the issues and also Lloyd Bannings, the greatest character in trails"
-Toshihiro Kondo, minutes before creating the first trails game you can say is unconditionally good
-Toshihiro Kondo, minutes before creating the first trails game you can say is unconditionally good
The best first game of the trails series. What an incredible cast. Crossbell has the best politics and world building of all the trails games. SSS forever.
"If fishing at a hospital is wrong, I don't want to be right." - Lloyd Bannings.
Game genuinely a banger tho, the saga really keeps going up in each game in al senses.
Game genuinely a banger tho, the saga really keeps going up in each game in al senses.
Decided to replay my former favorite first story arc game in the franchise upon it's official release in the west, and it still holds up very well from when I first played it 3 years ago with the Geofront Patch.
PH3 and Durante's studio went above and beyond with the additional features they added to this port, and helped make this version of the game to be the definitve version of Zero for new comers in the franchise to play.
PH3 and Durante's studio went above and beyond with the additional features they added to this port, and helped make this version of the game to be the definitve version of Zero for new comers in the franchise to play.
Crossbell is one of the most vibrant and immersive feeling cities in video games. The characters are great, and it sets up amazingly for Azure.
On it's own this game is decent, the gameplay is kind of mediocre and the story takes a bit of time to pick up. It benefits from providing payoff to a sky arc early on and only being enhanced by it's sequel. Ultimately it's mostly setting up for Azure but the story it presents is still good. Peak goated raw fire.