Despite all I've heard over the years, I think this is the weakest "Arc Starter" game (e.g. Trails in the Sky FC, Cold Steel 1, etc.). Not to say that it's bad though, I had a great time in Crossbell! I think the main party is a little underbaked, Lloyd especially feels like proto-Rean in a way I didn't think he would. Randy and Tio are the standouts here, even if Randy is just chillin the whole game with not much to do. (Though that does match his vibe so 😆) I did grow to like everyone by the end though, Tio especially is my fav of the SSS.

But if the main four are a little underbaked, Crossbell city itself is a really fun, well developed setting. Unlike the on foot touring you do in Liberl and Erebonia, having the game based in one big city is just a fun way to reallllly flesh out the place, and talking to the same NPCs each time the story progressed was really fun. As always, there are a lot of fun side characters who show up regularly too, and they’re all very charming and are very integrated into the city in good ways. The slow opening of the surrounding areas and highways works too, and naturally folds into the “rounds” you do between story segments.

The music is solid as always, a couple of standouts and everything else just solid, very typicaly Trails-sound. The actual plot is Fine, I like the contrast of the SSS vs the Bracers, and the story eventually ramps up into some fun stuff that definitely made me excited for Azure. I definitely want more group development (especially poor Elie, please Aidios give her something, anything)

So yeah, a solid Trails game, but not particularly standout to me. Still quite enjoyed myself, because a decent Trails game (especially since this is done so similarly to the Sky style) is still more enjoyable to me than So many other things

ROT13: (Nyfb V pna’g oryvrir gurl qvq Gur Guvat NTNVA. Rira bar bs gur gernfher purfg zrffntrf wbxrf nobhg vg! V jnf va qvforyvrs sbe gur ragver ohvyqhc bs gur ynfg puncgref.)

Trails from zero is... alright. I find it very lacking in some crucial areas such as characterization, character designs and dialogue. The game is full of distasteful misogynistic jokes that had me scowling every few minutes. I don't know if it's because the game is over 10 years old at this point or because it's anime-adjacent and therefore has to indulge in these annoying tropes, either way it really made my experience with the game much less enjoyable.

The only characters in the entire game that I found compelling were Tio and KeA. Everyone else gave me a migraine with their irritating commentary. Also, whether you like the characters or not there's no denying falcom's female character designs have taken a certain turn in the past decade -- one that I'm personally not a big fan of.

I had such high expectations for this game because of how much everyone has praised it, but I was pretty disappointed. I'm truly hoping that trails to azure is a better experience.

I stopped playing this one, cuz the Japanese got too complicated... May try out the English fan patch someday. For now it kinda excerbated the problems I have with the Trails-games in general. It's so goddamn wordy and slow. When I played Trails in the Sky it didn't even get started till 10 hours in. And even only watching Trails of Cold 1 & 2 felt like it takes forever to get going...

I don't know, I love the world-buildung and characters and the plot itself mostly...I even kinda consider myself a Trails-Fan in a way? But maybe I just like watching it instead of actually spending all that time to finally get to the "good part" myself.... Maybe I see things differently when I play this one in English for now though, that's were I am at

I was really excited to play Zero after all this time since I figured a smaller cast set in just one city instead of an entire country would make for a rather concentrated experience but ended up being a bit of a disappointment.

Despite the cast being significantly smaller than Cold Steel's, you might assume that Zero's character development would end up being much more thorough but Zero sadly has so many time skips that there was never really enough moments where you got to see the main characters interact outside of their police work. Each character gets a few scenes but just not enough for a player to be satisfied. Clearly the intention was for players to play Zero multiple times to get all the Bonding scenes but I don't think playing a game three times for a total of 120 hours or so just to see a couple scenes is really a good use of a player's time.

It doesn't help that Zero basically ends up being more of an Epilogue for the Trails of the Sky series than its own game. Like, the last 20 minutes of the game sidelines the main cast as focuses on completely different characters and while its fine in the grand scheme of things if I was a new player I think I'd be more annoyed that Llyod, Elie, Randy, and Tio just stand around for a while another group of people have their "Happily Ever After" moment.

While it was fun to finally play the missing link between the Sky series and the Cold Steel series, Zero ended up being a rather disappointing. Its not terrible but its a a game where you end up getting frustrated at what could have been.

Hopefully Azure pans out better.