This series has roped me in time and time, and this game is no exception. In the west now we are getting the missing piece that this series in this duology of games, and I could not be happier. After going through the Sky series earlier this and jumping onto this one I saw how improved everything was.
Combat runs smoothly (just like Cold Steel games), with the biggest takeaway is moving a character around the field in battle was far smoother than it is was in the sky games. As for the characters, all were wonderful. I went through the whole Cold Steel series so I know about these characters from that arc, so that helped a bit when getting into the motivations of the characters. The music was A+ with a shoutout to Incredible Struggle as it is one of my favorite Trails songs now. The one downside of this game is its plot, I was not in it as much as other Trails games. For it is the first in an arc that is not surprising because a lot of setups happen. It is not as bad as Sky FC because of the moments that made this game and having some of the returning characters helped. I just found myself not very invested in the plot, the characters were a very main reason why I kept going.
Overall though it is a very great start to this duology, and am looking forward to Azure next year 8/10

Its peak...
Having a smaller main cast compared to the sky trilogy made me get attached way quicker to the characters. The writing is just as good as it was before they really don't miss. The liberl stuff was just too good it was so worth the build up. I really appreciate the changes in game design on caves/dungeons, they don't feel as linear as they used too. Please don't start the trails series with this game, you'll get more from the story if you start with FC. Overall a great game with a good cast, still miss Oliver tho.

Lloyd Bannings is really just the best, huh?

Trails from Zero is feels like a breath of fresh air for me after playing through all the Liberl games. The Liberl games are by no means bad but the Crossbell duology is something I never thought this series needed, judging from how good it's already been 3 games in, now 4. Crossbell is a city with so much life and a more modernized feel to it as opposed to Liberl, plus it even makes it's predecessor Sky 3rd better regarding the mysteries it brings up. Also the cast is my favorite in the series so far, and I hope they only get better in the next Crossbell game.

-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.

A fun RPG with an okay cast, although you can really feel the series shifting more towards a more recent type of anime RPG moe. None of the characters really left an impression on me, although I recall some nice moments with Lloyd and Elie. Honestly, I think Zero marks the point in which Trails games stopped really being that interesting (although I did enjoy Kuro) and I should have played something else.

Battle system is 'better' than Sky, but I still didn't care for it. It was kind of cool learning about Crossbell, but I thought the way you travel throughout the world felt kind of like an awkward in-between of Sky and the terrible pacing of Cold Steel.

Hello based department? I'd like to order a claim.....

Anyways the Crossbell arc makes a damn good first impression with Zero. I was worried since I adored the Sky cast and was sad to leave them, but while it took a bit the SSS did eventually win me over. I will say the prologue and first chapter are kind of nothing burgers, in both character and narrative. The game starts to pick up in chapter 2 and goes full steam chapter 3 onward.

I love the SSS's group dynamic, I think the bracer squad takes them in terms of individual characters, but as a group unit I for sure like the SSS more. I love the found family thing they have going on and their personalities bounce off one another really well. Their status as underdogs in society makes them easy to root for, and there general wanting to do good attitude makes you want to see them succeed. The city of Crossbell is one of the more well fleshed out locations I've seen in any video game. Everything in and around this city exists for a reason, every person has a reason to be there and be prideful, it's constantly evolving as the story goes on and the SSS find out more about it.

On the gameplay end Zero adds a few new things, the first being able to attack enemies from the overworld. It's neat it's nice getting a full turn before the enemy can act, and I like that I don't have to worry as much about positioning anymore. Team bursting is alright it can be helpful or agitating sometimes though it's not nearly as annoying 3rd's statuses. I know Combo crafts started here but they're such a non factor in this game compared to Azure since only Lloyd can use them, I'd rather just talk about them in the Azure review. Assists are pretty sick but I found myself only really using a select few since others were nearly useless. This was also the start of bonding events, uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, actually they're fine here. There's only 3 routes so they're all pretty doable and it's not like crucial character development is locked behind them haha... (foreshadowing).

Overall like Sky FC before it, Zero has a bit of a slow start but I'd say getting through that is totally worth it.

My first experience with The Legend of Heroes series and damn, what a game.

If you're looking for a fresh JRPG with some of the best writing, this is what you want. Literally every NPC has thought-out dialogue that changes throughout the game, making the world that much believable. No more ignoring every person because they blabber on about nonsense. I made an effort to talk to everyone to make sure I didn't miss a thing.

I also think this has some of the best character development in JRPGs when it comes to the party. Learning about small details of the crew and seeing them bloom and grow in a playthrough made seeing their individual growths and journeys that much more impactful. I'm also finding it hard to pick a favorite character as I've grown to love them all.

As for the story, obviously can't say much, but starting as a lil rag-tag group of people helping around the small town to evolving into the final moments in the game is batshit crazy.

Anyways, go play this. It's far worth the sixty hours-ish. I promise 😘

It's Trails but with a new cast of characters and now you're playing as police officers instead of bracers.

The police in this game have a sort of friendly rivalry with the bracers. This is a fun way of incorporating characters from previous games without their presence overshadowing the main cast, but it does help point out that classic Trails characters overshadowing the main cast is a potential issue. In the story, the main cast of Trails From Zero don't want to be outdone by Estelle and Joshua. And even though they address that problem narratively, I do think there was a part of the game where Estelle and Joshua being present could potentially overshadow the main cast. I'd prefer that classic characters have a smaller role in a game that's establishing a new cast of characters. Otherwise the new characters never get their moment to shine. Luckily there were many moments in this game that let the new characters shine, but I do think they could have dialed back Estelle and Joshua's involvement for this particular game.

Trails from Zero is only half of a story, so I don't have the full picture on the main cast yet. But I enjoyed the seeing characters' stories so far. I do think that the main cast gets along together too well though. It may have been more interesting to have their friendships develop over the course of the game than have them become friends immediately.

The plot of this game is a bit on the insane side, but I enjoyed it the whole way through. It's neat that this is a JRPG that is initially about policemen taking on the mafia within a crime-infested city. That's not something you see often, so it's enjoyable even just for the novelty. And while the story takes a wild left turn toward the end, I enjoyed the direction the story ultimately took. But there's a part of me that wishes that the story continued to be about the mafia instead of changing course when all the setup for the mafia story had been done.

My biggest issue with Trails From Zero is that the main villain of the game is kind of lame. This is a game with a bunch of interesting and well developed characters, so when the villain was revealed my reaction was "THAT'S who it is??" There's not even anything necessarily wrong with how the character was written. It was just a weird-ass choice to make the character a villain. I think the villain being a character who fits the role better would have made for a more compelling finale.

The combat is Trails combat. I pretty much know the drill by now, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time because there was a built-in speed up function. Granted, the game shouldn't have needed a speed up button to be fun. The biggest flaw with Trails combat is how slow it is and that remains true, because it's actually pretty enjoyable when sped up beyond what was originally intended. I played through most of the game on speed up mode. I feel like this game is easier than the previous ones, but that's probably because I know what I'm doing with the combat system now, as well as the fact that attack animations don't take 2 years to complete when sped up.

The music is good, although Trails in the Sky the 3rd is still the highpoint of Trails music from what I've played. This game takes second place for music. There are some nice non-combat tracks here but some of the combat tracks sound a bit generic or low energy. They delivered on the boss themes though, as they tend to do.

The last thing I'll bring up is that the support requests are a pretty sizable step down from the side stories in Trails in the Sky the 3rd. The support requests can occasionally lead to some amusing scenarios, but I'd much much rather learn more about the extended cast of characters than do a bunch of fetch-quests. But narratively it makes sense for the main characters to do fetch quests, so I ended up completing a good amount anyway.

I like this game. It's my second favorite behind Trails in the Sky the 3rd so far. The story isn't over after beating Trails from Zero so I can't make my full judgement on the Crossbell arc yet. But what I really appreciate about Trails from Zero is that even though it's a new story it still follows up on unresolved plot points from the previous games. And I think for that reason alone it's worth sticking with this series even if not every game ends up being a winner.