[European Portuguese - PlayStation 5 - Dated 04/10/2022]

"Feitas as contas, The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero é um JRPG suficientemente bom para ser desfrutado sozinho, mas cuja narrativa e enredo ganham outro peso quando existe o contexto da saga Sky e Cold Steel por trás. Ainda assim, o foco da narrativa numa escala pequena permite vender um mundo muito pessoal e intrigante, com a banda sonora, jogabilidade e grafismo mais ‘retro’ a ajudar à eufonia. Não deixa de ser genuinamente triste existirem duas versões visualmente diferentes entre PS4, Switch e PC, porém esta é uma aventura que merece ser vivida para os fãs do género independentemente da plataforma de escolha."

See more @ https://squared-potato.pt/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-from-zero-ps4-analise/

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.

As a fan of the Trails in the Sky games I was excited to jump into this. Playing with a new cast was a bit weird at first but in typical Trails fashion you get some amazing character/world building. While Crossbell is smaller than Liberal(the region from the Sky games) the main city was bustling with life and I loved running around it.

The story had you follow an up and coming side police force tasked in helping the city. As the game goes on you learn more about the seedy underbelly and more. I liked it but it definitely was not as crazy as the first two Sky games. Everything else like the combat and mechanics are all the same as past titles so it was easy to get into.

Overall I really liked the game but I still thought the previous titles were better. Of course playing this and it's sequel add more to the lore of the world which I like so I'm just plugging away at the titles. You could start here as there are some nods to the past you can easily look online for what they mean.

Minha jornada por essa incrível franquia chega em Crossbell. Iniciei imediatamente após concluir a primeira trilogia da franquia, e já tive gratas surpresas na experiência visual, por se manter na mesma estética, porém, mas com uma qualidade de detalhes ainda mais bela. Outro charme, pelo design de personagens ser obra do Katsumi Enami, um ilustrador pelo qual tenho profunda admiração desde que o conheci em Baccano.

Outras melhorias notáveis na qualidade de vida, especialmente na versão para Switch e PC (que foi a que joguei), o que me deixou bastante satisfeito. Destaco, em particular, o modo de velocidade. Além disso, um aprimoramento adicional na qualidade de vida foi a introdução do teleporte (sim, já existia no 3rd, mas este é diferente). Inicialmente, não esperava sentir falta desse recurso, mas, na prática, foi uma adição muito positiva.

Para minha agradável surpresa, a trama deste jogo mergulha nas narrativas de detetive, dada a condição do protagonista como um policial. Isso é particularmente cativante para mim, pois tenho uma afinidade especial por histórias desse gênero, sendo um grande admirador de Sherlock Holmes e Detective Conan. Isso ajudou muito para conquistar rapidamente.

Permaneceu no mesmo padrão de qualidade narrativa dos jogos anteriores, apresentando um worldbuilding intrigante e personagens pelos quais você se afeiçoa rapidamente. O início desta lembra o começo do primeiro jogo da franquia, seguindo um ritmo mais lento, o que foi excelente, pois proporciona espaço para conhecer um novo elenco de personagens. Só senti falta de qualidade nas sidequest, achei bem fraquinha e tinha oportunidade de trazer muita coisa boa já que é uma “história de detetive”.

Não apenas no desenvolvimento da narrativa, mas também há muitas coisas ressoam com os jogos anteriores, como exploração de torres e a participação ativa de personagens mais antigos. Inicialmente, achava que suas aparições fossem apenas participações especiais, mas surpreendentemente, três deles tiveram grande destaque e relevância na trama. Isso me trouxe um acalento no coração, pois, embora seja uma história nova, é reconfortante ver o retorno de personagens queridos do passado.

Um dos elementos que mais me agradou foi ter um grupo desde o início, com Loyd, Ellie, Tio e Randy, que são personagens fantásticos. Gostei especialmente da estabilidade na formação do grupo, mantendo-os ao meu lado do início ao fim. No entanto, devido a essa consistência, não explorei muitas combinações de habilidades, o que tornou o gameplay um tanto repetitivo em certos momentos. Mesmo assim, não vejo isso como um problema significativo, considerando que o jogo não é tão extenso. Em relação ao combate, algumas alterações nas orbs o tornaram ainda mais envolvente, reforçando o meu apreço pelo gameplay desta franquia.

Ademais, é um refresco saber que a franquia mantém a qualidade e deixa ainda mais animado para os próximos.

Ao/Azure
The Legends of Heroes: Trails to Zero: Zero x Zero

Honestly, how the fuck do they keep getting away with it? God damn it's a straight Zero all the way through! Well, we've finally advanced to a new point in time. A new era has begun, and we're here to understand! It is important to note that this is the first time Falcom has used "to" something in their titles. Trails in the Sky was about being IN something, implying that the characters were already INvolved in the story around them. This time, the story is Trails TO Zero, Where are we going TO? Well why don't we find out?

Trails from Zero (henceforth referred to by its review score) is a Strategy RPG by Japan Falcom, with a very sexy PC port created by deliciously juicy dedicated fans. After nine agonizingly long years of fan effort, 0 is playable in non-Eleven thanks to the Geofront. How exactly does the underground base from Evangelion translate a video game? With great justice, take off every zig.

0 is the 4th (3rd canon) game in the long running Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu no Zelda series, and is the Swirl of Akasha (origin/root point) of the franchise. With all new graphics, characters, buildings, character models, strippers, and battle mechanics, 0 is an EVOlution of the currently existing Trails Of formula, and it does a great job of perfecting it. Although the characters, world, story, and music is all new, it all feels very familiar and instantly memorable, harkening to days of old when video games were still on discs, Girls were still attainable by the average Lloyd, and Shark Tail hadn't covered Car Wash.

Moving away from the country of Liberal to the vibrant city of Crossbell, 0 moves away from the generic and boring setting of the first game to something as equally generic and boring, but with POLITICS. Those worried about the presence of politics need not be worried, as the politics are superficial and not at all important in the slightest, this isn't Gundam (yet). Now, all great creators copy, there's no shame in that. And here in 0, there is a load of copying from much larger and successful franchises. Copying from Persona 5 for instance, there's gangs, garages, shopping malls, jazz clubs, and even a secret underground network connecting the entire city together. There's even monsters you fight inside of it! And the music is fantastic, just like in Persona 5 as well. Truly, Persona has a large influence on Falcon's business plan and 0 is not afraid to wear it's heart on its sleeve (which will be taken henceforth by the phantom thieves!). There's even a goddamn mafia, just like in Makoto's arc in Persona 5! Falcom really did allow Atlus to go hog wild on them, but it ends up working out for both of them. Atlus gets to keep a rabid fanbase of seething monkeys, while the Kiseki fandom... what kiseki fandom?

The battle system is near unchanged. You slot Djinn into slots and become more powerful, somehow wielding the most powerful of elements with just a tiny crystal, must be inspired by Crash Bandicoot. Taking place on a gridded surface, Fire Emblem meets Persona in this fantastic rendition of JRPG Combat. You have access to ARts and Crafts, which allow you to make all sorts of cool things to show your mom, especially if you get two Water sepiths and unlock Ice, that'll be really cool indeed. One of the biggest Persona influences is the existence of tag-team and crossover attacks. Your whole party beats the living crap out of whatever you're attacking, and you get some sick bonuses for doing so. You also have more personal combo attacks that look cool but are ultimately kinda weak. The rest of the combat revolves around Lloyd using Tiger Charge and Randy spamming his Craft Dinner with his Red button attack, which he can charge just by getting very mad, like our pal Quartze from the last game. It's honestly a pretty decent combat system, even if a bit simplistic. You can even inflict elements! and there are plenty of goofy looking monsters to fight as well, so make sure you fight them all!

Characters

The characters in Falcon games are so memorable they're often hard to forget.

Our protagonist is named Lloyid Irving, a rookie cop and recent hire at the Crossbell Police Department. As one of the founding members of the Smile Support Section (Bracer's Guild 2.0), Lloyd is a fresh and interesting take on what it means to have a mecha pilot as your protagonist, without any mecha. His mecha is the bonds he forms with his friends, and together they Gattai into a Sentai-Rider of Sugoi-desune incredible power!. Armed with dual swo- tonfa's, his obsession with crossing bridges and overcoming barriers makes him very grounded, as well as his obsession with a dead brother. As most of us have dead brothers, they just died and were absorbed by us in our mother's womb. It takes guts (and your brothers) to have a goal like that. He's not quite as nuanced as Estelle from the prior game or as BASED as Kevin from 3rd, but he's decent enough that the rest of the cast builds up on him.

Elie McDonalds is the game's token romance interest, and god damn is she pretty. She's basically every single refined lady trope pushed into a single character, complete with the non existent character development that only becomes worse and worse as the game goes on. I'll be honest, Elie isn't the most interesting character of the bunch, but she does have some nice assets, and an even bigger pair of titties. Her Holy Bullet ability turns the entire party undead for a split second, and she then shoots them, restoring their HP. This is the best healing skill in the game, and will be used over and over. Much like plain white panties, she is quite plain but there is elegance and beauty in even the whitest pairs of undergarments, especially when wet.

Tio Puto is unfortunately not a reference to the old Greek man Plato's allegory of the cave, a story of which men who live in caves are tricked by shadows into believing everything is real. Unlike those shadows and that cat, Tio is very real or at least, as real as a fictional manga character can be. Stemming from the cave, she has a dark past (like the shadows) and relies on the others to feel emotions. She's a precious cinnamon roll from Skyrim to be loved and cherished, not sold to a group of nobles and turned into a..... real life dakimakura, that's just no good! As the token Cuumdere of the game, Tio is one of those "tsunberry" characters that takes a while to grow on you, you take the first bite and it's bitter and gross but turns into something with a sweet smell later on. As the game's primary magic caster, she's very powerful and is capable of sending the enemy Around Noah many times over.

Randolphin Orlandeau is the game's certified chad, womanizer, and sex-haver. His hair is as bright red as his women's bed sheets, and his special button is always ready. Taking many properties from Agate in the prior games, Landy Borlando is a fantastic character and is your certified "bro" of the game. He's such a bro, you really wish he was your bro. He apparently also has a flaming hot sister, we're talking like a god-damned fireball of a lady, oooh baby she's a star, a goddamn Constellation! Randolph's biggest addition to the battle is making everybody blind every turn he has! He has a seemingly endless supply of flash grenades, enough to turn Resident Evil 4's village into a ghost town! He even has an obscure backstory, and characters seem to know him far better than the SSS does, but surely they're just joking. Haha that's our Randy..

I should further mention that the entire game is playable, with voices! Unfortunately, if you lack the information, you may be shit out of luck.. Regardless however, the cast of characters is by far the most balanced of the franchise so far (consisting of two guys and two girls)

Other supporting cast include: Sergei Vodka Burzhememov, the leader of the Crossbell police department. Very cool dude, nice. Wazy Heimlichshpier: a power-top who dresses like a bottom, with cool green hair and a hatred for garage-rock (he also looks really cool, and has strong guilty gear vibes. Testament ftw!!!) France Eeker (pronounced e-care): A cute receptionist at the Crossbell Police Department loved by Noel Seeker: The best ass in crossbell, and a powerful military commander. Not much else to say, other than she's a temporary party member with some quality assets, and an even bigger orbal net. God I wish I could be caught in it, just for a little bit ;_; Yin: Yang's Sister ....and many more to catch and sniff!

As like the prior games in the Tales of, the music is incredible this time around, like you have no idea. Masashi Hamauzu of FF7 Remake fame is believed to have been one of the kings who influenced this fantastic soundtrack, along with Apple Inc.'s Garageband application, Fruity Loops, and 009 Sound System. It is an absolute criminal that Masanori Osaki decided to wipe himself off the face of Zemlya, but if he decided to ascend the astral plane and become one of the many delicious jukebox heroes ( stars in the sky), all power to him. Seriously. Takeshita aint got shit on this guy, holy Bruh moments. Standout tracks include Inevitable Struggle, Terminal Room (catjam.gif), To Those Who Fight Further Beyond the Barrier, and Silver Will.

Perhaps the best part of the entire game is Crossbell City itself. The city acts as your main hub of operations, and much like the roads in Gran Soren, all roads lead to Crossbell. The City is very clearly an idealized version of Hong Kong, where it is conquered by the British (Erebonians) from the neighbouring Chinese (Calvard). Life in Crossbell City is very interesting, there's a super fancy department store, a mysterious dark alley full of Moofia Bosses, A totally 100% secure 0-chance-of-ever-being-robbed-honest-to-aidios Bank, and many other places. Even the Geofront, a hidden underground network of tunnels and technology, is a very interesting place. Possibly because it borrows from Evangelion, straight down to the name. There are even monsters inside, which represent that there are monsters beneath us, even at this very moment. It's a very interesting mix of The West and the East without the fucking * ruining everything, god bless the Eastern Roman Empire.

Final Score: 0(1/0/10)/10