The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero was released as far back as 2010 in Japan on the PlayStation portable. If you are a fan of the series, you can probably tell by the name the game itself is a part of the Trails series and part of the Legend of Heroes series overall. The game would eventually get an improved release on PS4 and Vita with better graphics and voice acting and finally after several years a release to the Western audience thanks to the basis of a fan translation. Both Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure now have PlayStation 5 versions with albeit very small additions to the PS4 counterpart.
Trails of Zero begins in the city of Crossbell and takes place simultaneously with The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series. The game’s protagonist Lloyd Bannings is a rookie police detective who arrives home to his home City of Crossbell which is at the centre of political tensions between the Erebonian Empire and the Calvard Republic. After arriving he is assigned to the (SSS) Special Support Section of the police force that takes on odd jobs. Trails from Zero certainly sets the tone for a grand adventure. The beginning of the game has a lengthy opening with some very detailed dialogue. The narrative is an integral part of the game and much like every game before and after it, there is a lot of it. I have felt that sometimes there are pacing issues in the Legend of Heroes and Trails games especially, I did find that after playing Trails of Zero, it does have better pacing overall and I certainly never felt conversations between characters got stale, even though they were still on the lengthy side they were well paced and are full of charm despite there being no English voice acting.
The game has a top-down semi-fixed camera angle which switches depending on where you travel. The camera cannot be changed outside of battle but during battles, this can be changed and rotated. While it is not the most eye-pleasing game, its simplistic graphics really work in its favour, it is a remaster of a PSP game which is now on the big screen, after all. There are many secrets to be found, mostly treasure chests and finding out the secret path to them is a rewarding experience in itself. Once you have searched the treasure chests they can be searched again for some very hilarious dialogue. The gameplay is a loop of conversation and storytelling between characters, doing tasks which include fighting monsters for enhancing your SSS rank before progressing to the main story. This is a typical loop within the Trails series and here is no different. You also have various logbooks and these all correspond with the in-game features such as fishing and cooking. These are pretty standardised and fishing is a simple task of hitting the confirm button at the correct time.
Fighting will give you rewards such as XP, Items and Sepith. Sepith which is earned has an element to each one and is used to create a corresponding Quartz which are magical orbs that can be used by your characters. Each Quartz increases stats but will also give the equipped character a range of spells that corresponds to the element of Quartz equipped. Sepith will also unlock new slots for each character which allows more Quartz to be equipped. Sepith also can be exchanged for Mira which is the currency of the world and is required to buy new Items, Weapons and Armour. As Sepith is a highly used resource it takes a lot to keep characters at their best, fortunately, Trails from Zero gives a reasonable amount and has a good exchange rate in-game meaning Mira is not at all difficult to come by. Items can be a little expensive but nothing a small grind cannot fix. Like the Trails series though XP is scaled to your level, and you will find yourself earning less XP if you are too high a level for an area. Trails from Zero does have a high-speed mode and much like the Cold Steel series, it is a great feature that speeds up the pace of the game in and out of battle so it really helps alleviate the grind of such a long game. The game does run quite smooth and fast in comparison to the Cold Steel games anyway but at this point, I’d honestly be lost without this feature.
Combat is simple and does get progressively more advanced throughout the game. Enemies are easy enough to take out quickly early on but as the game progresses you will find yourself adhering to tactics by using your Arts and Crafts. Arts are magical abilities which are gained by equipped Quarts and Crafts are unique abilities specific to each character. Combat takes place on a map where you can move to any of the blue squares shown during your turn which is determined by your MOV stat. Upon moving you can attack or defend or use abilities, all of which have a range to use and area of effect on using them. Battles are tactical and the tide can be turned in your favour thanks to the S-break specials that can be used provided you have enough CP. CP is what your characters use for their Crafts but using normal attacks and getting hit will have you gain CP, save enough of these points and using the S-breaks instead is a great way of dealing massive damage. There are many other advantage-inducing tactics that can be used to gain an advantage in battle such as the chance to do all-out character attacks and approaching enemies from behind and getting the hit on them first.
Trails from Zero overall is a very simple game and certainly, most of its features are something that feels very familiar. Trails from Zero has a great cast of characters and some of which may be well known to some players. Lloyd is very well versed and makes the best decision out of a bad situation while Randy is a hardy type who is into women, drinking and gambling. All characters have varying personalities but work so well together. As always with Nihon Falcom, there are no shortfalls in the music department, every track is excellent, never overplayed and I feel myself humming to most of them when I am not playing.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure
The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure is the follow up to The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero which saw just a release late last year outside of Japan and follows the story of Lloyd Bannings in the second and final part of the Crossbell arc. The Trails series at this point is a pretty big deal with it feeling like a new game is coming out with another one seemingly just around the corner and with so much of the Story and the games out it can feel quite daunting to start them.
As always Trails to Azure is here and can provide some backstory to previous events but it is highly recommended that you have beat Trails from Zero, after all this is a direct follow up and ties loose ends of a continuous narrative. It’s not crucial to have played the Trails in the Sky series nor the Cold Steel series but it does help in adding context to certain scenes but as the Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure games are of the same arc it is highly recommended to play them in order. I also highly recommend playing them also just as they are fantastic in their own right.
Trails to Azure takes place sometime after Trails from Zero and the SSS is still in full force. The leader of the SSS, Lloyd Bannings is instantly thrust into action with the game opening on a high. As you start to realize Trails to Azure is more of what Trails from Zero provided. Once again the bustling City of Crossbell remains a large hub where most of your time will be spent, this will of course include completing a variety of tasks such as menial deliveries to fighting large monsters that terrorize the public. This is again mostly done from the headquarters computer, some mandatory to the Story itself but a lot of optional requests also and as always Trails to Azure is a game built on worldbuilding so it’s entirely possible requests can be hidden behind talking to many of the residents that occupy the City.
Trails to Azure again is a game that progresses through it’s man story but it is not it’s main focus, many NPC’s in the world will have something interesting to say and many if not all of them have optional dialogue after having already conversed with them, their dialogue will also change just after minor and major events in the game. This makes the Trails series one of the most thorough RPG’s out there, if you really want to just focus on it’s main story that is fine, the High-Speed mode once again is there if you wish to zip right through it but if you want to take your time, you can, there’s enough Characters, NPC’s, Bookshelves and Lore to be read here if you really want to delve deep into the Trails universe, either way the game is again huge much like the other games in the series. Characters once again will trip over their own remarks as usual, this is down to their conflicting personalities with each other, it is something veterans of the series will always expect but still it’s always great to see. Trails to Azure will reward the most prestigious of players again with points that will allow your detective rank to level up. This will reward the most sought after Items so they are usually worth doing.
Graphically Trails to Azure is no different to Trails from Zero, this is down to the games themselves being PSP remasters, just on a modern console. As far as remasters go however, the game itself is done really well. The art style is something I really appreciate and if you enjoyed it from Trails from Zero you can just expect more of the same. More of the same is a common theme with Trails to Azure with almost all of the games features carrying over from Trails from Zero such as Cooking and Fishing.
Enemies can still be seen on the map and are initiated by running into them or attacking them from behind and getting the advantage on them, the same Grid like battle system also returns with battles having a new feature but for the most part remaining unchanged. Using powerful unique moves by hitting the 100 CP skill mark. The Burst mechanic is it’s newest feature that allows characters to get one over on the enemies, by filling a gauge you can use Bursts to get rid of annoying Status effects that the party while cancelling enemy arts. This is a welcome change as I find one annoying trait with the Trails series is not enough turns to heal those pesky annoyances whilst trying to keep your party alive during a difficult fight.
Master Quartz are another feature that was introduced into Trails to Azure and if you have played the Trails of Cold Steel games you will already be familiar with their feature. They essentially are a giant Quartz limited to one per character and offer stat bonuses on being levelled. By levelling it up to level 5 allows the equipped character to use a Master Arts.
There are plenty of other little nods to Trails from Zero. Treasure chests that have been opened already will offer once again a quip or hilariously thought out remark usually to do with the surrounding area or situation, again a nice nod and a real testament to the worldbuilding that the Trails series continues to deliver on.
While Trails to Azure is a sequel it doesn’t really offer anything new to anyone coming in from Trails from Zero, the game is more like a direct sequel rather than bringing game changing new features or anything extensive to the table. If you come into the game with the mindset of wanting to know what happens and are just in it for the Story, then great, Trails to Azure delivers on that and then some. The music is once again fantastic but given that Nihon Falcom never misses it’s mark in that department, it was never a worry going into the game. A lot of what I enjoy from Trails from Zero is here again and while I knew what to expect with any new Trails game, the focus of going into it once again knowing I will enjoy a full and engaging story is an experience, one that I can share sentiment with many other players.
With both these games on PlayStation 5 it now supports up to 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. Both games can be brought standalone or as a bundle and if you are wondering, you can transfer your old PS4 save to PS5 now.
A PlayStation 5 Review Code was provided by NIS America.
