The KeA to it all.
The Legend of Heroes is one of the most interesting JRPG sagas out there. While the initial series started long ago, it wasn’t until Trails in the Sky that many took notice as this was the title that began the series’ connected world across almost a dozen games at this point. However, while several of these games made it outside of Japan, Trails from Zero, the arc that takes place before the events of Cold Steel, never had an official English release, until now.
Trails from Zero has had an interesting release history. While it started on the PSP and then to the Vita, and then to the PC, and Switch, each of those releases was only ever in Japanese. It wasn’t until a group of fans through the collective called The Geofront, took it upon themselves to not only translate Trails from Zero and its sequel, but also handle it in such a way that it felt like an actual professional localization. Fan translations of games have rarely been on the level of what Geofront has done here and not only did the fans approve, but the owner of the IP, Nihon Falcom, did as well, teaming up with them to finally bring Trails from Zero to the west. Had this been in relation to a Nintendo property, the team would have likely been met with a cease and desist rather than open arms for collaboration.
I’ll be honest, while I adore the Legend of Heroes series, the bulk of my history with it was previously only through the Trails of Cold Steel saga, a series of games I find to be nearly perfect, especially that of Trails of Cold Steel III and IV. These are games I consider to be the Infinity War and Endgame of The Legend of Heroes series. This is because the entire franchise in a lot of ways built up to those entries; packed full of characters across all numerous arcs in a way that felt earned and frankly, the whole ordeal was unprecedented. Many games often include winks and nods to other entries in their respective series or have the appearance of being connected, but the Trails series is one incredibly rich and connected ride as you’ll constantly see characters popping in and out from different arcs, all working together as their stories intertwine, and Trails from Zero is no different.
The Crossbell arc is likely one the most defining parts of the whole Trails series. What occurs here in Trails from Zero is even felt years later through the Trails of Cold Steel series and beyond. I remember entering the Special Support Section building in Trails of Cold Steel III and taking in its history and it wasn’t until pushing through this long-awaited port that I took place in actually creating that history. Seeing characters from Trails in the Sky was equally fun, and having much of their own story wrapped up here really made this whole series feel even more connected than I had imagined.
Playing Zero and taking in everything the game offered introduced me to a whole new collection of characters, but also those that would grow up and be part of the bigger picture once Trails of Cold Steel’s arc was underway. Sure, some of those characters don’t make much of an appearance until later, but when they do, it’s incredible to see everyone just there. While Trails from Zero is certainly lower stakes than what Cold Steel eventually builds to, at least when it comes to areas not just pertaining to Crossbell, it still has all the same character and heart that makes this series truly incredible.
Now, praise aside, Trails from Zero’s story is likely the only blemish here in an otherwise impressive adventure. While the story is deeply personal on a lot of levels to much of its cast, especially that of Lloyd Bannings and Tio Plato, it takes a while to really find its footing around a heap of random activities, unconnected side quests, and uneventful errands for some of its 60-hour length. Still, when it does pick up, and my god does it ever, it then succeeds in conveying why this title is so important to the overall series.
What Trails from Zero also does superbly is in developing its main cast as well as numerous characters that exist outside of the central story. You get a solid understanding of why Lloyd Bannings chose to become a detective, and what it truly means to him. Then you have Elie McDowell, who is the granddaughter of Crossbell’s Mayor, coming to terms with finding her own footing in the world and understanding who she truly is apart from her family’s legacy. Tio Plato, a character that I was very familiar with via Trails of Cold Steel, also comes to terms with her past and the unanswered questions that she has had to live with for years. Then you have Randy Orlando, who also makes an appearance in the Cold Steel series, and allowing his past to be fleshed out here made me really appreciate his efforts later on in the series.
The game does a remarkable job at building the bonds between the team, which does start pretty damn early as the group is formed during the game’s opening hour. As the four of them are lured into the prospect of doing some real good in Crossbell, it isn’t until they come together that they learn about a new program being created to bypass a lot of the limitations of what the Crossbell Police Department has to work around. The SSS may be unconventional, but it allows Lloyd and the team to present a sense of justice in how they see fit. It also presents them with a view of how Crossbell is plagued with corruption at its highest levels and causes the team to work extra hard to get to the bottom of it.
Since the Special Support Section is built from within aspects of the CPD, they are an untested group and will need to sway the public to trust in the police. Previously, the public was only able to rely on Bracers, who are essentially heroes for hire that work to protect the people. These are strong individuals who are at the cutting edge of not only technological advances that allow them to function as well as they do, but are not bogged down by the same limitations of the law. The SSS was created to accommodate that same structure, but as a public-facing detachment of the CPD. This then makes a lot of what the team has ahead of them to be an uphill battle as they are often looked down on by the actual CPD and cast aside as merely Bracer-wanna-be’s.
Trails from Zero also kicks off the basic structure of where the series would go in future installments. A great deal of the format of how each chapter worked was what I experienced in the Cold Steel series. Each chapter has its own share of side quests, hidden quests, and optional events, but also the main story path that will progress the day as you move throughout the story. You’ll be graded here via bonus DP (Detective Points) as you progress which grants you items as your rank increases. Answering certain dialogue choices or performing certain objectives that are secret, will boost your DP earns and rank you up faster.
As you attempt to show the people who the SSS are and how the public can rely on them, this is where you’ll tackle a lot of basic objectives like returning library books, inspecting train cars for spies, or attempting to track down a missing cat’s owner. These tasks are not terribly fun, but the world-building they can accomplish does have some aspects of them that in some ways eventually pay off. Most of your side quests will come from logging into a terminal in the SSS’s headquarters, and then finding the person who made the request and getting more details about it. You’ll have new quests every day, so each chapter can have several to tackle, causing you to travel all over the nearby areas surrounding Crossbell. Thankfully, you do earn a fast-travel system within the city as well as relying on a public transit route to the neighboring towns. You do get access to a more convenient way of travel, but you only have access to it for a very short while.
To aid in accomplishing those tasks as well as through combat, Trails from Zero also has a high-speed mode that increases the speed of the game. This allowed me to burn through enemy encounters extremely fast and allowed much of the late-game grinding to not feel monotonous or annoying as some JRPG’s can feel when it’s just battle after battle or the sluggish pace of simply moving around the world. Honestly, this should be a standard across all JRPG’s.
Trails from Zero would eventually share its very format with the future of the series going forward as while Trails of Cold Steel would refine certain aspects, the structure of the games are damn near identical. These refinements would often be explained in a way where the technology within the game’s world would advance, making certain aspects of gameplay and its mechanics to be more streamlined. This is especially noticeable in your orbments and the ways in which characters communicate or even traverse the environment. Technology, for the most part, is mildly advanced in Trails from Zero, where cars, certain weapons, and communication devices are all relatively new, but somewhat old hat by the time Rean and his friends would take over the series in Cold Steel.
A lot of key systems return from Sky as you still tackle character customization and combat through a series of Arts and Quartz. The Orbment system details the character’s Arts, which are skills they can use in battle once charged, to Quartz that boost values like health, defense, and their attack range in battle. Battles are turn-based with a few options that have been part of the series for some time now. You have a basic attack that can help in charging your CP, which leads to big extravagant skills that can cause some major damage when charged fully. Then you have your Arts and your Crafts. Arts use EP and require time to charge them up, unleashing elemental-based attacks such as quake, ice hammer, magma blaze, and many more. Crafts use CP, and offer up attacks similar to Arts but do consume the same CP that your bigger and more powerful attacks use, so there is a balance to knowing how you want to attack and how much you want to rely on those bigger and more powerful skills.
The combat system does have a bit more depth as you will also have S-Crafts, and Combo attacks, which are skills that are performed by a duo. S-Crafts vary by character but are Super-Crafts that are not only powerful but come with a flashy animation, such as Lloyd’s Rising Sun attack having this flaming dragon swallowing up his foes. If you can sneak up on enemies on the field and hit them into a daze, you’ll often start the fight with a team attack, having all four members of your active team perform a huge power attack that can feel dramatically overpowered at times. That said, if you are caught off guard in the field, enemies can get the drop on you and put you at a disadvantage.
At the start of each fight, you’ll have a turn order which details the order of attacks. Characters can have their formation changed as well, such as keeping healers or ranged characters at the rear and more combat-focused fighters at the front. You’ll also have a small cast of additional characters who can join your party temporarily as a supporting character, and those on the bench can chime in during fights with some support skills. Your party will consist of four active members and apart from a few moments where you split up or the story calls for it, you will almost always have a full team.
Apart from the exploration, combat, and conversations with the folks in and around Crossbell, you’ll also have a lot of the typical Trails side activities to take part in as well. You have collecting a wide range of books, cooking, fishing, and other feats that if repeated each chapter, will grant you rewards should you keep it up. Cooking changes a bit from Sky as you now can set certain people to create the same dish, often resulting in different outcomes due to their own capabilities. This comes in handy when you need to make Cat Food out of a certain dish made by a certain young lady. Fishing is a time-based affair and it is fine, but it’s normally the type of activity I only tend to only do if the mission demands it, and thankfully, there are very few that do.
Visually, you can certainly see the age of the game despite the enhancements made to make it look better and smoother than ever. Character models have a great deal of charm to them, and while there are some noticeable frame dips when entering certain areas, at least on Switch, I never had any other major issues apart from a few character portraits not showing up during some conversations or the odd spelling error or two. Overall, this is the best-looking version of the game with crisp and clear graphics than maintain the original look of the game.
While the Japanese cast does a fantastic job at bringing these characters to life as it did many years ago, it is a shame that the English cast that voiced all of these characters during various points in the Trails of Cold Steel series were not brought back to provide voices to them for an audience that likely played through Cold Steel in English, like myself. I would assume that Trails from Zero was meant to be a low-budget port due to almost all of the work already being done in some fashion, and bringing on a few dozen voice actors would have been a costly affair. Still, it is a shame in some ways to not hear the voices attached to characters I had already known and fell in love with.
Trails from Zero does a fantastic job at its world-building and character development, showcasing the political landscape that makes Crossbell one of the most interesting locations across the whole series. The ramifications of what happens here are still felt across the series to this day, and that is an incredible feat of storytelling. While the first half of the game can feel a bit trivial in its approach to what the story is giving you, the back half puts a great deal of that into context and really has you attached to its cast in ways that very few games can do. While Trails of Cold Steel to me is still the better adventure, Trails from Zero is the reason why Cold Steel is what it is, and honestly, both games make for a damn impressive time with characters you’ll actually give a damn about.
Developer - NIS America Inc. Publisher - Nihon Falcom. Released - September 27th, 2022. Available On - Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, PC. Rated - (T) Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes, Language, Use of Drugs, Simulated Gambling. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch OLED. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.