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.