This review contains spoilers
Trails from Zero is everything I knew the Trails series was capable of based on its premise, but that it didn’t quite achieve in the Sky trilogy. In previous reviews I had complained about how I felt the story in each individual Sky game was somewhat lacking. Sky the 3rd had begun to present some interesting ideas with its plot, but due to the dungeon crawling-structure of that game, those story moments were so spread out that they lost some of their impact. Not so in Trails from Zero. Zero manages to simultaneously be darker and more grounded than any of the Sky games were, making the plot overall much more compelling. Now being able to compare the political conflicts of First Chapter and Zero with the more typical fantasy JRPG conflicts of Second Chapter and Sky the 3rd, I can confidently say that the Trails series works better with smaller scale conflicts. The way the conflict between the two opposing mafia groups ties into the internal politics of Crossbell’s diet and the overall struggle for power between Erebonia and Calvard is not only impressive worldbuilding, but also creates stakes that feel immediately more pressing towards not only the main party but the people of Crossbell as a whole. In a world that feels as fleshed out and alive as Zemuria (but especially Crossbell) I’ll take that sort of conflict over a clash with some secret society every time.
Even when the stakes are inevitably raised for the third act and we get our secret society/“greater evil” equivalent in the form of the D∴G cult, they still make for more interesting villains than Ouroboros for not one, not two, but three reasons. Firstly, the cult’s inner workings are deeply interwoven with Crossbell’s internal politics, to a degree far greater than Ouroboros’ trickle-down manipulation tactics in Liberl; secondly, the cult’s backstory directly ties back into arguably the most interesting part of Sky the 3rd’s narrative; and thirdly, they aren’t some vague fantasy secret society, they’re a cult that kidnaps and drugs people, tying back into my point about the plot of Zero being darker and more grounded than the Sky games. I think that Zero’s overall change in tone is thanks in large part due to Lloyd’s position as a detective. Trails from Zero isn’t quite a mystery game—like in Persona 4, the game does most of the detective footwork for you—but Lloyd’s being a detective adds a sort of crime drama flavor to the story, which I very much appreciate (even if I think it’s a bit lazy that from a gameplay perspective the SSS is almost identical to the Bracers Guild). For all those reasons, in spite of what I said in the previous paragraph, I would say that the first half of the game is good, but that it really takes off at the end of the third chapter when the cult’s handiwork starts coming into play.
All that to say that Trails from Zero has an excellent story, but now moving onto the characters, I’ll admit, it took a little while for our main quartet to grow on me because none of them have the kind of over-the-top anime energy most of the Sky cast has. Don’t let that fool you into thinking these characters are less entertaining though, I think the lack of silly quirks simply ties back into the idea of this game being at least somewhat more grounded tonally. Once I had some time to become familiar with them, I ended up enjoying this cast a lot. A special shoutout is in order for Randy, one of the very few anime characters of his particular archetype (“ladies’ man”) to not be totally infuriating, thanks in large part to the fact that they didn’t just make him the personification of that trope and remembered to give him a personality. The SSS have such a strong group dynamic too, one that becomes even stronger when KeA (stupid spelling) is introduced and all four of them instantly switch into parent mode.
I’ll wrap there because I don’t have anything to add in regards to the combat, but suffice it to say, free from the confines of Liberl, the Trails series is finally meeting my expectations. I have no reason to suspect that Azure will be any different, so I’m very much excited to see where things go next.
Even when the stakes are inevitably raised for the third act and we get our secret society/“greater evil” equivalent in the form of the D∴G cult, they still make for more interesting villains than Ouroboros for not one, not two, but three reasons. Firstly, the cult’s inner workings are deeply interwoven with Crossbell’s internal politics, to a degree far greater than Ouroboros’ trickle-down manipulation tactics in Liberl; secondly, the cult’s backstory directly ties back into arguably the most interesting part of Sky the 3rd’s narrative; and thirdly, they aren’t some vague fantasy secret society, they’re a cult that kidnaps and drugs people, tying back into my point about the plot of Zero being darker and more grounded than the Sky games. I think that Zero’s overall change in tone is thanks in large part due to Lloyd’s position as a detective. Trails from Zero isn’t quite a mystery game—like in Persona 4, the game does most of the detective footwork for you—but Lloyd’s being a detective adds a sort of crime drama flavor to the story, which I very much appreciate (even if I think it’s a bit lazy that from a gameplay perspective the SSS is almost identical to the Bracers Guild). For all those reasons, in spite of what I said in the previous paragraph, I would say that the first half of the game is good, but that it really takes off at the end of the third chapter when the cult’s handiwork starts coming into play.
All that to say that Trails from Zero has an excellent story, but now moving onto the characters, I’ll admit, it took a little while for our main quartet to grow on me because none of them have the kind of over-the-top anime energy most of the Sky cast has. Don’t let that fool you into thinking these characters are less entertaining though, I think the lack of silly quirks simply ties back into the idea of this game being at least somewhat more grounded tonally. Once I had some time to become familiar with them, I ended up enjoying this cast a lot. A special shoutout is in order for Randy, one of the very few anime characters of his particular archetype (“ladies’ man”) to not be totally infuriating, thanks in large part to the fact that they didn’t just make him the personification of that trope and remembered to give him a personality. The SSS have such a strong group dynamic too, one that becomes even stronger when KeA (stupid spelling) is introduced and all four of them instantly switch into parent mode.
I’ll wrap there because I don’t have anything to add in regards to the combat, but suffice it to say, free from the confines of Liberl, the Trails series is finally meeting my expectations. I have no reason to suspect that Azure will be any different, so I’m very much excited to see where things go next.