Introduction
Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is part of the Universe of The Legend of Heroes revamped Series by Nihon Falcom. This is the fourth entry to the series after the First three games, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (Second Chapter), and Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd.
On this fourth entry, we are taken by the events that transcur in the city-state of Crossbell, an independent state between the borders of The mighty Erebonian Empire and the Republic of Calvard inside the continent of Zemuria. Here we will pass time with the four main protagonists rookie cops of the Special Support Section and their struggles to make Crossbell a better place for everyone. Let’s take a look!
Story
The setting is simple, everything in this game happens and stays within the borders of Crossbell state. The Police department has its hands full and decides to establish the special support Section, a type of subdivision within the police department to assist in tackling the lesser important cases of the citizenry, at least that’s what I remember since they were pretty much looked down on frequently. Our heroes, Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy still give it a go since it’s a new assignment. Little by little they start getting involved in the more sinister, obscure cases that plague their beloved city.
There is a crime organization in this game, they straight out call them the Mafia, it’s called Revache and Co. The goons look no less the part with suits and hats and dark shades hahaha, brilliant, and have a Mean attitude towards citizens. everything fits.
In the first chapter of the game titled Afternoon of the Wolves, we find that citizens have been disappearing mysteriously without a trace. the Special Support Section starts investigating these disappearances and they learn that a particular crime organization was the one behind the manipulation and handling of Hound dogs to do their bidding. Here we see Renne make an Appearance along with Arios Mclaine, an A-rank Bracer who rejected being promoted to S class.
I like how you get to play the part of being a detective with our heroes once collected enough evidence, get together to try and piece everything up, asking you, the player multiple options when going over their findings. You eventually Figure out who is behind it all.
Also, from memory, our rookie cops are sent to fix the disputes between two rivaling gangs of the slums, or downtown area of Crossbell. Here we meet Wald Wales and Wazy Hemisphere, the two Gang leaders. Wazy Later on Joins your party.
In chapter 2, Golden Sun, Silver Moon we meet Ilya Platiere and Rixia Mao of the theatre troupe Arc en Ciel, well, we did meet Rixia in her normal attire, you ran into her earlier since she was looking for a place to stay in Crossbell, but now its time for her and Ilya for the Spotlight as the biggest show of the group was nearing. The performer Ilya Platiere Receives a calling card from a YIN character where she was forced to cease performing on the next big show or someone would seriously get hurt.
The troupe Immediately Asked the help of Investigators to look into the matter and this is where our rookie cops get involved. While all that is happening we are introduced to the City’s Mayor, Henry Macdowell, Elie Macdowell’s Grandfather, and his secretary, Ernest.
Our heroes once again use their wits and cunning to reveal the real culprit behind the threats. I didn’t see that coming to be honest with who’s behind the threats.
Chapter 3 is About the Crossbells Festival celebration of its 70th anniversary of being an independent state, a 5-day celebration Culminating in the Scwarze Auction run by the mafia and company, bidding on the rarest and Illegal items you can find on the Black Market. While this happens a certain boy named Jona, a computer prodigy sets out to investigate and to catch a hacker by the name of Kitty that has been tampering with the Orbal network (Zemurias Internet basically).
On the fourth day we live the events of Renne Hayworth’s troubled past and the reason why she’s in Crossbell. I will be writing a profound character Insight on Renne Hayworth so I’ll keep this light. basically, Renne comes to terms with her former family and leaves. As the SSS you help to unravel the events that build up to the moment where Renne makes her peace in mind and heart. Renne is the reason why I Immediately started playing Trails from Zero Back to Back after beating Trails in the Sky the 3rd. I normally take breaks between Jrpgs, but Renne’s story hit me So hard I just couldn’t wait and jumped right into Zero to advance her story. Well played FALCOM.
You make it into the Schwarze Auction, You get all dressed up and ready for the night and you find this Green Haired girl inside a Coffer named KeA. She doesn’t remember anything but her name and seems to like Lloyd. My memory is a bit fuzzy so I don’t remember why the team came to the Auction in the first place, but finding KeA was happenstance, it was probably to investigate the Mafia since they have been involved in shady business in the past and also Politician Speaker hartman is rumored to have connections with the Mafia.
This is where the SSS is ambushed by the Mafia and are pursued all the way down to the Pierre, since the party is at an island, they´re cornered. This is where Randy Reveals his Strenght and his connection to the Jaegers. They escape with the perfect timing of Chief Sergei showing up with a boat to pick them up.
Intermission KeA. KeA is this green-haired kid who only remembers her name and started living with the SSS. The team tries to track down KeA´s parents or relatives, even ask the support of the Bracer Guild in the hunt but from what I can remember they come out empty-handed. They decide to keep KeA for the time being. I do believe KeA´s story will unfold in the following Game; Trails to Azure.
Chapter 4 Creeping Wisdom. Seems the Mafia is at it again, and this time, they come out with a new drug that´s turning everybody nuts. The SSS would like to investigate the matter but since our heroes screwed up over at the Auction, they have been banned from Sticking their noses into this case. Here we meet Inspector Dudley, a sorta ace detective of the PD, and the guy is just flat-out rude to you when you interact with him.
This investigation is around this Drug they’re calling GNOSIS and has something to do with this trade company called Heiyue out of the Harbor district in Crossbell. I do believe you take the MAFIA down at the end of this chapter, you infiltrate headquarters while Inspector Dudley joins the battle as you raid the place entirely.
Chapter 5, Crossbell’s Longest Day. Doctor Joachim Guenter. This unassuming character is a doctor you meet in the earlier chapters of the game over at Saint Ursula´s Medical College. Thinking about the final chapter I now remember that KeA plays a very important role in the climax of the story.
I will only say that KeA, even though appears like a child, seems to be older than time itself. well maybe I Exaggerated there a bit but that’s what happens in these games when they´re reaching the end, the plot thickens to the maximum power. And of course ” the bad guy” wants KeA back to continue experimenting since she’s a special child with hidden powers. I believe our bad Guy is a Cultist member of D : G organization. You beat the crap outta him of course and Crossbell is saved, since hours earlier he wreaked havoc just to get his hands on KeA.
Now, the moment I have been dying to see for the past 3 Games, is the moment Estelle and Joshua Find Renne… I was at the edge of my seat! for these moments I live and Praise a Good RPG! by the gods! Wanna know what happens with Renne? I´ll give you the whole story on my next Character Insight Renne Hayworth, be sure to come back and read it. 🙂
Gameplay
If you think this game is short because it has only 5 chapters, then guess again. it took me nearly 130 Hours to complete and that was only the first time around. As I’ll have you know the game does entice you to give it another go for extra content, more on that later. But gameplay follows the formula of the previous Trails games, you control your party from a 3rd person Perspective watching them run around the Entire Crossbell state while interacting with NPCs and the World.
Battle
The battle is turn-based. You trigger a battle when you run directly into enemies that are in the world map, so encounters are Not random. now when doing battle, every character takes turns acting, depending on their Speed parameters, this is pretty much fixed since every member excels in their own unique attributes. If I recall correctly First is Lloyd, Then Elie followed by Tio and finally Randy, Of course, you can Alter the speed attributes by managing their respective Orbments, Altering who gets to act first. Learn more about orbments and how they work by going to my Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC review and go under the Gameplay section and Orbments.
As usual with most Jrpgs out there, after battle you gain experience points for leveling up and Mira, the world’s Currency. useful to purchase new equipment and stuff. With every chapter, you get more and better Quartz, which in turn lets you access stronger and more sophisticated Skills and spells, a returning feature in the trails Games.
Chest Messages
This Needs to have its own category or subheading. the Chest Flavor texts around Zemuria is one of the most brilliant and genius Things I have EVER enjoyed in a JRPG, the writing is so silly, that you start to notice a character in an inanimate object!
Like really, every time you see a closed chest you´re already looking forward to reading about the witty stuff the thing´ll throw at you, some are so brilliant, I can´t leave these out as its a Brand Staple of the Trails series, In all my years of Video games, and Jrpgs, I yet have to play another game that isn’t a trails that has this feature, sure, other games that came after could already copied it, but falcom did it First. Anyway I wanna Share a couple of these Messages, some are inspirational, some others are hilarious and others flat-out goofy. LOL here they go:
“Okay, so you opened me and took my item, but, like… What do I do now?”
“Hello, darkness, my old friend… I´ve come to be looted again…“
“You´re gonna Love the sequel. It´s Called Trails to One“.
“This is what I get for opening myself up to others”.
“Lloyd and friends can get over Barriers, but they sure can´t get over stealing from treasure chests”.
“I came from Liberl to hide from a bracer Couple that kept looting my Fri… YOU TWO!”
“If you grind your teeth in an RPG, do they get stronger?”
“I have a sinking feeling in my Chest”.
“This chest is as empty as your soul! Chestkind ill needs a Looter such as you!” I understood that reference Captain.
And that´s enough for now. I hope you liked them.
Graphics
Why change something when it works? The engine used is the same for the previous 3 Trails games. It’s not flat-out cartoony-looking Graphics but it’s not realistic either, it falls somewhere in the middle. When it comes to graphics, seems to be running on an engine created solely by its developer Nihon Falcom, the same engine that ran most Y’s games such as Ark of Napisthim, The Oath in Felgana, and Origin.
They look very similar but according to Nihon Falcom, it’s a completely different engine. As a former artist, I Appreciate the character art you see on the status screen and in speech bubbles.
Guess an image speaks louder than a thousand words, here goes!:
Cast of Characters
Lloyd Bannings: The rookie detective from Crossbell, wants to follow in the footsteps of his brother Guy Bannings as a detective. Joins the newly founded special support section by the Crossbell Police Department. Uses Tonfas, a sort of double sticks for combat and martial arts. Lloyd has a strong sense of Justice and wants to clean Crossbell and the corruption that plagues it. Honest to a fault.
Elie Macdowell Elie is a very nice girl, caring and innocent. She´s a good long-range Attacker but also casts support abilities and skills like party healing and stuff. She is the granddaughter of Henry Macdowell, Crossbell´s Mayor, and enlisted in the Police Department to help her city in a different way other than politics. She wants to shine on her own merits as well.
Tio Plato The Genius of the group, is highly intelligent and soft-spoken. Supports her teammates with Buffs and other traits in battle. She handles the Computer terminal back In Headquarters when Head office sends Daily missions for the team to undertake. Her past with D : G Organization Makes her one of the most intriguing characters in the trails games.
Randy Orlando The Tall Crimson Haired Ladies man Randolph. He is the oldest of the group and acts as a big brother to everyone. Randy is a heavy hitter that uses a Stun halberd as a weapon. His elemental affinity is Fire. Randy´s past is a violent one, being raised as a Jaeger at a very young age, Randy now has left that lifestyle and has found a new home in the Special Support Section of the Crossbell Police Department.
Secondary and Returning Characters
Arios Mclaine An A-Rank bracer whose skills are rumored to equal those of the Divine Blade, Cassius Bright. Arios Has a small daughter Admitted at the Saint Ursula´s Medical College for her blindness. Arios Helps our rookie Cops throughout the story events in Zero and appears to be acquainted with Renne Hayworth… hmmm, interesting. Maybe he knows about Ouroboros. Ah, never Mind. Leave that for the Review of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC.
Renne Hayworth Quite frankly, My heart breaks every time I see her name. even more so after what I learned behind that blasted door in Trails in the Sky the 3rd down in Gehenna. Ah, but I digress, you´re here for the basics.
Renne is a mysterious child who has been a returning character since Second Chapter. Her involvement in Zero is crucial since she was the one who facilitated the Schwarz Auction tickets for the SSS members to gain entry and of course, assisted with the Wolves incident back in chapter 1. Ah but of course she also assists you Indirectly with Pater Mater at the final boss battle in Zero. Renne is on the run from Estelle and Joshua, events that I will explain in detail in her character Profile.
Estelle and Joshua Bright are travelling the Continent in search for a special Someone. If you read my Trails in the Sky FC review (if not do that Here) then you know they are full-fledged bracers now. after the events that happened back in Second Chapter, Their resolve now is to find Renne. But why? How do these three relate?.
The kid in the eastern block of town that speaks like this: can we go pway now? LOL. If you played the game you know exactly who I’m talking about hahaha, unless of course, you don´t have a habit of talking to NCPS in Jrpgs, but this kid, every chapter had something new to say and got a chuckle or two outta me. “mai Bwoder wants to pway wiv me” and its the smallest cutest thing prowling about eastern block.
Difficulty
Nah it ain’t Difficult. As I will continue to say, Want a quick 101 on RPG basics?. DO-NOT-NEGLECT-YOUR-BATTLES. You know what? There´s an anecdote I just unearthed from my memory archives and its concerning this very thing. You see, we all start somewhere, and for me and RPGs, I learned it the hard way. (I did neglect my battles back when I was still a sprout on the RPG scene), Now I´m feeling all nostalgic, darn it! I´ll write a blog post about it some other time.
That said, if memory serves me right, the game Does let you select your level of difficulty upon starting a new run. I usually play and enjoy my games on “normal”. the balanced option.
Understanding of the Orbment system, and how to unlock higher and better spells is Key. Understanding of party member placement in battle (Although you can move in this game) is also key to attaining victory.
Get your Potions and Ethers ready. there’s also food in this game that gives you good buffs for battle. Do frequent those as well as much as you can.
Another good strategy is to always study your enemy. If you think you can just mash-attack and expect to win, well, developers have gotten smarter now. Learn enemy elemental affinities and weaknesses, and act upon these weaknesses for a much faster kill.
Keep these things in mind, and you will surely succeed and hopefully won´t rage quit, since it would be a real shame you miss out on such awesome story writing just because a boss is kicking your butt. Please don´t be that guy hahaha.
Music
Disclaimer
(We Upload Falcom music under their “free music use” policy: https://www.falcom.co.jp/music-use), as well as the friend of the YouTube channel below, we just want to share the joy of Falcom Music to the world, which is the company’s goal to get this music worldwide. Also if any of the videos get taken down for any reason, or the Youtube channel associated to it is closed or is no more, Pray do tell me with a swift comment so i may fix the problem.
Get Over the Barrier! <3 Could you believe I listened to this track over and over as I was writing this portion of the review, Get over the Barrier is inspirational because I refer to it in everyday life, how to overcome obstacles, music has a power to give a person renewed strength.
Armorica Village, I just love that guitar playing, it brings me such peace. I want you to sit down after a long harsh day of work and relax in this tune. works for me when I’m kinda down and defeated. Puts me right back up!
Ardor of the Sun what elegancy this tune carries, and don’t get me started with the moves of Rixia and Illya, if Arc en ciel were Real I’d totally be a Fan!.
Fated Time This well could be a Final Boss theme, the final showdown to save the world. Everyone gather your strength, as this is our last journey Together! try to imagine as you hear this piece. Love it.
Inevitable Struggle This sounds like a Cool Boss battle, two main Protagonists and antagonists are having a go at it!
A light Illuminating the Depths I don´t know where composers get their inspiration from, but without a glimpse of a doubt you can tell which is a final dungeon Theme versus a quiet little village on the Outskirts of Crossbell State. This to me, is what constitutes, a good Music Score.
Zero No Kiseki The intro screen. I´m that guy who stares at the intro screen just to hear the music. More so after beating the game and it returns to the starting screen. Makes me wonder, what do I do now?
Replayability
When it comes to restarting this game for a new game plus there are certain things that you can still do with Legend of Heroes Trails from Zero, such as get to visit the Extra dungeon and achieve the “Open all chests” Challenge only attainable once you go through the extra dungeon, only available in a new Game +.
There are a handful of collectibles that you can gather across all 5 chapters that are missable, and if you do, well, tough luck, you´re gonna have to start all over again on a second playthrough. Why? These books or volumes, once completed grant you an item called Zemurian Ore (1), with it, you can craft the strongest weapon for 1 character. So, if you want to get the strongest weapons for all 4 of your characters, you are going to have to play the game 4 times. Not to worry, you can always skip text which is the one thing that makes jrpgs long. Maybe I should give the game another go, it´s been a year at the time of writing this that I started and beat the game.
Let me know if the ultimate weapons are worth it down in the comments section.
Final Thoughts
Please Play this game. you gotta try it out! As if I’m that friend that’s pestering you to try it and is so annoying that you concede to my demands hahaha because I’m willing to risk a limb if you do not like this game.
No really, Joking aside, Every single second of this game i enjoyed the heck out of. And now, almost a year after, I write this review, I have only but fond memories of the Game. Ever get that fuzzy feeling when you like something so much? well, yeah this game does it for me. All the Trails games actually, for that matter. all have perfect character development, Storytelling, Music, and Gameplay mechanics, all blended in a Tiny Cartridge in the case of Nintendo Switch.
You don´t have to believe a random dude on the internet but do try out the game. It’s great.
Thank You for Reading!
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