-Written on June 29, 2020-
The first thing that really caught my attention is the setting, Crossbell City. It's very rare in a JRPG to go for a modern urban setting since most of them are either based on fantasy or sci-fi (sometimes both). Considering I grew up in a big city for pretty much all of my life, the atmosphere felt very familiar, almost like home in real life. You have shops everywhere, entertainment places, run-down places, gangs, shady alleyways, political landscapes, apartments, something close like a Chinatown, etc. For better or for worse, Crossbell managed to capture the real feeling of a city, and naturally, I was drawn in. It isn't super-duper huge like say, Los Santos, but for a Trails game, it's pretty huge. In fact, I think Crossbell City is just as big as all of the major cities in Liberl combined in the Sky games. Not to mention areas become more rural once you step out of the city and I suppose that is very true here as well. So I appreciate it.
Trails is known for its massive NPCs dialogue writing, so I won't spend too much time here, since it's more of a trait for the series overall. However, I think Zero has the most care put into the NPC interaction. At times, talking to everyone in Crossbell State, including the non-city areas can get draining and exhausting at times due to the sheer size, the number of NPCs (especially in Chapter 3) how much you have access to it at all times. However, I can safely say it's worth talking to everyone in the end. You get plenty of conversations between the four main characters by talking to the NPCs that you won't hear anywhere else, whatever you are doing a main or side quest. Sometimes it just fleshes out little details for the characters, other times its additional story writing. With the way the characters respond to the citizens of Crossbell, it just feels more believable and realistic. Almost if they're real people talking back to the NPCs, rather just listening to everyone all of the time like cardboard. Not even the Sky and Cold Steel games are this responsive to the NPCs, so I was really impressed by this, considering Trails is already on the top of their game with the NPC writing.
Speaking of the characters, you have the four main characters, Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy that forms the Special Support Section (or SSS for short). They're a division in the Crossbell Police Department to get close to the citizens and address their needs in the wake of universal distrust (hence the amount of NPC interaction compared to the other games). I have to say, the characters are easily my favorite part of the game since it did a lot of the heavy lifting. It usually takes me a while to really like anyone in this series but I loved all four of them before I was even halfway done with the game. I just overall enjoy their chemistry and how they quickly mold in with each other. Each character also has a pretty different background that plays a part in their personality and their development later on in the game. They just an enjoyable bunch of people in the end. That not to mention the supporting cast of people the SSS get to meet over the course of the game and overall, they're pretty solid as well. I don't think there is an outright bad character (save for the villans) overall in the game as far as more major characters. I can easily dive deeper into the characters and talk about them one by one but I rather not make this essay overly long.
Zero is honestly one of the best JRPGs I have played as far as setting and character writing, in fact, it's a little bit too good. Because of the amount of text with the NPCs and just how long the cutscenes are. Zero felt like a visual novel first and a JRPG second like 70% of the time. The lack of dungeons compared to your average JRPG does not help either on top of some side quests that don't even require any combat. The dialogue to gameplay balance is rather pretty off. Especially if you take your time to talk to the NPCs. While I do appreciate all of the extra writing efforts and it's a huge part of why I love these characters, at the same time, I went into Zero no Kiseki to play a game, not to read a novel, so it's a bit off-putting. It's a shame as well since Zero no Kiseki has many gameplay improvements from the Sky series such as counters, team rushes, combo crafts (which I only have seen in Zero/Ao so far in the series).
The story itself is the most questionable part of the game. Without saying much, it's basically the SSS intervening in mafia activities with many connections with political figures. While it does dive into this faster and the story structure in Zero is far less repetitive compared to Sky and Cold Steel, it just... a whole lot of nothing really happens for a while. Zero is a very, very slow burn and nothing very intense doesn't have until near the end of the game. It also may seem like a lot of things is unrelated to each other at first. However, everything pays off in the end and the game suddenly gets far darker and twisted. As well as a lot of the story threads get connected. The last 15% of the game is pretty amazing and carries the first 85% of the game's slow-burn very hard. I'm not sure if this is a fine way to tell a story since Zero has pacing problems regardless of how good its final moments are though. Also, I do not like how the true main villain of the game is basically a repeat of the main villain of the Sky games but even more twisted and evil. The game even clearly pointed that out and I thought it was a bit unoriginal. Not to mention, the execution doesn't hit as hard. Despite all of this, this gives the SSS a lot of fortitude and it plays as a strong strength for the character writing. Sadly I can't go into details without spoiling but it's great.
What really hits home for me about Zero is its messages about justice, the corruption inside the police and the political world, power balance, citizen mistrust, and seeking reform. Despite starting Zero before the current protests and riots etc. It couldn't be perfect timing since at least here in the USA. We are currently struggling with these same issues with police corruption and misuse of power. Zero also clearly points out that even those that work in the police can't do much about the corruption unless there is major reform from multiple organizations. Zero also hit home in a very personal way about relying on your friends during your strongest hardships and not going through your problems alone or trying to resolve everything by yourself. I tend to do both quite a lot. So it's rather assuring for the game to tell me I'm not alone and I do have people that want to stand by me.
Zero isn't a perfect game at all due to its iffy story pacing and dialogue/gameplay balance. In fact, Zero isn't even my favorite Trails game. but Zero is probably going to be one of the games that personally means a lot to me. I love the cast so much, they're some of my favorites in the series, the city is very relatable to me and the messages hit home, especially now during these hard times both personally and the world around me. I say despite its problems, I am glad I played this game.
The first thing that really caught my attention is the setting, Crossbell City. It's very rare in a JRPG to go for a modern urban setting since most of them are either based on fantasy or sci-fi (sometimes both). Considering I grew up in a big city for pretty much all of my life, the atmosphere felt very familiar, almost like home in real life. You have shops everywhere, entertainment places, run-down places, gangs, shady alleyways, political landscapes, apartments, something close like a Chinatown, etc. For better or for worse, Crossbell managed to capture the real feeling of a city, and naturally, I was drawn in. It isn't super-duper huge like say, Los Santos, but for a Trails game, it's pretty huge. In fact, I think Crossbell City is just as big as all of the major cities in Liberl combined in the Sky games. Not to mention areas become more rural once you step out of the city and I suppose that is very true here as well. So I appreciate it.
Trails is known for its massive NPCs dialogue writing, so I won't spend too much time here, since it's more of a trait for the series overall. However, I think Zero has the most care put into the NPC interaction. At times, talking to everyone in Crossbell State, including the non-city areas can get draining and exhausting at times due to the sheer size, the number of NPCs (especially in Chapter 3) how much you have access to it at all times. However, I can safely say it's worth talking to everyone in the end. You get plenty of conversations between the four main characters by talking to the NPCs that you won't hear anywhere else, whatever you are doing a main or side quest. Sometimes it just fleshes out little details for the characters, other times its additional story writing. With the way the characters respond to the citizens of Crossbell, it just feels more believable and realistic. Almost if they're real people talking back to the NPCs, rather just listening to everyone all of the time like cardboard. Not even the Sky and Cold Steel games are this responsive to the NPCs, so I was really impressed by this, considering Trails is already on the top of their game with the NPC writing.
Speaking of the characters, you have the four main characters, Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy that forms the Special Support Section (or SSS for short). They're a division in the Crossbell Police Department to get close to the citizens and address their needs in the wake of universal distrust (hence the amount of NPC interaction compared to the other games). I have to say, the characters are easily my favorite part of the game since it did a lot of the heavy lifting. It usually takes me a while to really like anyone in this series but I loved all four of them before I was even halfway done with the game. I just overall enjoy their chemistry and how they quickly mold in with each other. Each character also has a pretty different background that plays a part in their personality and their development later on in the game. They just an enjoyable bunch of people in the end. That not to mention the supporting cast of people the SSS get to meet over the course of the game and overall, they're pretty solid as well. I don't think there is an outright bad character (save for the villans) overall in the game as far as more major characters. I can easily dive deeper into the characters and talk about them one by one but I rather not make this essay overly long.
Zero is honestly one of the best JRPGs I have played as far as setting and character writing, in fact, it's a little bit too good. Because of the amount of text with the NPCs and just how long the cutscenes are. Zero felt like a visual novel first and a JRPG second like 70% of the time. The lack of dungeons compared to your average JRPG does not help either on top of some side quests that don't even require any combat. The dialogue to gameplay balance is rather pretty off. Especially if you take your time to talk to the NPCs. While I do appreciate all of the extra writing efforts and it's a huge part of why I love these characters, at the same time, I went into Zero no Kiseki to play a game, not to read a novel, so it's a bit off-putting. It's a shame as well since Zero no Kiseki has many gameplay improvements from the Sky series such as counters, team rushes, combo crafts (which I only have seen in Zero/Ao so far in the series).
The story itself is the most questionable part of the game. Without saying much, it's basically the SSS intervening in mafia activities with many connections with political figures. While it does dive into this faster and the story structure in Zero is far less repetitive compared to Sky and Cold Steel, it just... a whole lot of nothing really happens for a while. Zero is a very, very slow burn and nothing very intense doesn't have until near the end of the game. It also may seem like a lot of things is unrelated to each other at first. However, everything pays off in the end and the game suddenly gets far darker and twisted. As well as a lot of the story threads get connected. The last 15% of the game is pretty amazing and carries the first 85% of the game's slow-burn very hard. I'm not sure if this is a fine way to tell a story since Zero has pacing problems regardless of how good its final moments are though. Also, I do not like how the true main villain of the game is basically a repeat of the main villain of the Sky games but even more twisted and evil. The game even clearly pointed that out and I thought it was a bit unoriginal. Not to mention, the execution doesn't hit as hard. Despite all of this, this gives the SSS a lot of fortitude and it plays as a strong strength for the character writing. Sadly I can't go into details without spoiling but it's great.
What really hits home for me about Zero is its messages about justice, the corruption inside the police and the political world, power balance, citizen mistrust, and seeking reform. Despite starting Zero before the current protests and riots etc. It couldn't be perfect timing since at least here in the USA. We are currently struggling with these same issues with police corruption and misuse of power. Zero also clearly points out that even those that work in the police can't do much about the corruption unless there is major reform from multiple organizations. Zero also hit home in a very personal way about relying on your friends during your strongest hardships and not going through your problems alone or trying to resolve everything by yourself. I tend to do both quite a lot. So it's rather assuring for the game to tell me I'm not alone and I do have people that want to stand by me.
Zero isn't a perfect game at all due to its iffy story pacing and dialogue/gameplay balance. In fact, Zero isn't even my favorite Trails game. but Zero is probably going to be one of the games that personally means a lot to me. I love the cast so much, they're some of my favorites in the series, the city is very relatable to me and the messages hit home, especially now during these hard times both personally and the world around me. I say despite its problems, I am glad I played this game.