Trails from Zero

Trails from Zero

Trails from Zero is the 4th game in the Trails series developed by Nihon Falcom, and the first game of the 2nd arc in the series, being the Crossbell Arc. I played it twice: once on Vita with a bad fan translation patch and now again on Switch with the official English release from localizer NISA.

I first experienced the Trails series (Kiseki in Japanese) in the beginning of 2021 with the 5th game in the series, Trails of cold steel. Playing through that game made me fall in love with the world and made me want to play every game in the series to learn the whole story.

Now, before I actually start my review for the game, I’m going to give a quick (or maybe not so quick) rundown of the franchise for those who don’t know much about it.

The Trails series started with The Legend of Heroes IV: Trails in the sky as a new entry in the series, introducing us the world and continent of Zemuria. Pervious The Legend of Heroes games in the series have nothing to do with this one. All the entries following part IV are a part of the world and story of Zemuria, known as the Trails series. (The Legend of Heroes itself is a spinoff of the Dragon Slayer series, but I’m not going to get into that now).

One thing I love about the Trails series is how every game is just another chapter is the larger story, and the more games you’ve played, the more you will enjoy the continuation of the story with returning characters and references to previous events.

The continent of Zemuria is very large and houses many different countries. The Trails series is split into different arcs of multiple games, which each focusing on a different cast of characters, in a different one of the countries, as they deal with unrest within their own country. You learn about the politics within and with regarding the surrounding countries, and you learn about a mysterious organization messing things up to their own mysterious ends.

Okay, this is becoming more of an article about Trails then just a zero review, but it’s good to know this information to understand the game.

The Trails series currently consists of 12 games across 4 arcs:

Trails in the sky (3 games), covering the Kingdom of Liberl.

Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure (2 games), covering Crossbell City.

Trails of Cold Steel (4 games), covering the Erebonian Empire.

Trails into Reverie (1 game), closing the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs.

Kuro no Kiseki (2 games with more on the way), covering the Republic of Calvard.

Not all the games are available in English yet, and the history of the games being translated into English is fascinating. I’m not going to get into that in this particular article, besides for when it comes to Trails from Zero.

Okay, I think I’m ready to just talk about Zero from here on out!

Trails from Zero first released in Japan in 2010 for the PSP, but for a variety of reasons, (along with the sequel Azure), an English translation was skipped to focus on the Cold Steel games. Over the years, various fan patches of various quality released. When I started the franchise, I only owned Cold steel 1&2 on PS Vita and I had no way to play the previous games, besides Sky first chapter, until a close friend of mine gave me his old PS Vita, which I then hacked and installed fan patches to translate the first 5 games to English, as there was no English for the Vita versions. The patches I had for the Crossbell Arc were not great. They had poor translation and editing. Unfortunately, that is the only option that English speaking fans of the series had to experience the story.

Enter a group of fans, dubbed the Geofront Group, who banded together to make a great free translation. It was edited properly to match translation terminology to the official release, even going back and making changes as more games in the Cold Steel arc released. They released the first patch for zero in 2020, and it was available only for PCs. Soon after they released the patch for Azure, NISA announced that they will license Geofront’s work to release the game officially on multiple platforms, with the game releasing in English on September 27th 2022, just shy of 12 years from the original Japanese release.

Okay! I know this has been going on for a while, but now it’s time for the actual review!

TLDR: I ABSOLUTELY LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THIS GAME!!! GO PLAY IT RIGHT NOW!!!

Ok! Now on a more serious note… Trails from Zero is a fantastic RPG game with an extremely fun turn based battle system, amazing story, incredible world building for the future, and a phenomenal soundtrack!

Mentioning no spoilers…the story follows Lloyd Bannings as he returns home to Crossbell City after living abroad for a few years, following his brother’s death. When he returns, he starts a new job as a detective in a new section of the police department called the Special Support Section, whose job is to help local citizens with anything they might need… from mundane to major requests. Other members off the SSS include Elie McDowell, Randy Orlando and Tio Plato… each amazing characters in their own right. Also, I want to say that it’s a blast learning everyone’s stories throughout the game.

Crossbell City and its sounding areas are highly rich environments, with the Erebonian Empire and Calvard Republic both vying for control of the territory. Currently they are under a peace treaty, and the Crossbell politicians are corrupt. Also, there’s a lot of unrest in the background. As you play through the game, you find out more and more about what’s going on.

The city where you spend most of your time is an absolutely stunning place, and even though it definitely looks like a PSP game, the HD upgrade makes it look spectacular! The city is full of interesting characters, and one place where this series shines is the personality that each NPC has. Also it’s always fun talking to everyone as the game goes on to hear what they have to say about everything that’s been going on, and seeing how their dialogue updates.

The game is full of optional side quests, and because of the linear structure of the game, you only have a limited time to complete them. However, there are some extremely memorable moments to be found as well and they will have callbacks to previous games or hints to the future. The main quests are fantastic! Some of the quests include trying to stop gangs from fighting, investigating mysterious attacks on villagers, finding a lost child, and investigating different mafia groups. The story builds up to an incredible finale that you won’t see coming. It also builds excitement for the 2nd game in the arc, Trails to Azure.

The battle system gives us turn based battles on a grid, where you choose between an attacks with your basic weapon, a weapon based special attack called Crafts, or an elemental magic attack called Arts. Your position on the grid will determine which and how many enemies you can hit and vice versa, while using different moves to inflict different effects and statues. Each enemy has different ones that they are immune or week to. The aspect where the battle system truly shines is the turn order system, where depending on what move you use, you have a different delay to when each character can move again or how long it takes an Art to charge before it occur. There are moves that will delay an enemy’s turn or cancel their Arts, but they can do the same to you. On the turn order, there are sometimes different effects that can help or hinder you, so you have to do what you can to manipulate the order so you get the good effects and not your opponent. Overall it’s a blast learning how to properly manipulate all the different systems in the game. Even I don’t know how to use if to its full extent!

Playing through the series can be daunting, but it’s absolutely worth it! I’ve been asked multiple times if this is a good place to start. While it’s always best to start at the beginning, you can start here…and who knows…maybe it will inspire you to play the previous games!

You will have to keep in mind that there are some characters that were previously introduced, including the 2 main characters from the Sky trilogy. However, not knowing their story shouldn’t be a deal breaker. Although, there is one character who’s my 2nd favorite in the series (this is the only game I’ve played in which my favorite does not appear) whose story from the Sky games really continues strongly here, and knowing what happened in the previous games will definitely help you enjoy their story better. But, please don’t let that stop you! You look up a YouTube recap if you feel the need, or a website recapping the stories if video isn’t your thing.

The Switch version of this game was fantastic! It had some additions to the UI, as well as some added functions, like high speed mode, made this version a joy to play. Also the upgraded graphics were beautiful.

Sorry friends! This went on way longer then I planned when I started! So, if you read all the way through, I commend you and I thank you! I hope you will enjoy this series as much as I did! I can talk about it forever, but I will stop here. Thank you and have a good day!

Oh and remember.. Always check the chests you already opened.

Thank you @eli_b_ny for editing this review