A game I wish I could give a score higher than 5 stars; easily one of the best RGG games. Everything wrapped up so wonderfully in the end.

I've been meaning to play this for months now, hearing countless praises since it released back in 2021, and my goodness is it well deserved of the praise it gets. The combat here is probably the best combat RGG has made in their games--with style switching that's been tremendously improved from all the way back to Yakuza Zero.

The story is RGG's sublime writing as usual, WAY more intense than it's predecessor with a more powerful message than most, and with the best antagonist in the franchise to date. It's saddens me knowing this is Nagoshi's final RGG game, but it's quite perfect with a conclusion this extraordinary. I could say so much more about this game but I think this encapsulates my thoughts about it well enough.

This game is great, and it feels like a natural next step after the Sky trilogy. It does a great job expanding on existing lore and events from the Sky trilogy, without overly relying on what the trilogy did before it.

The story was very well paced, giving plenty of time for world building and revealing more and more about the city of Crossbell. Because of that, I could sympathize with the protagonists and better understand their plights.

Zero definitely pays homage to the previous games throughout its story by using previously seen characters and reusing some plot elements; however, it never feels predictable or samey, and each reference feels like it adds something meaningful to the overall plot.

The second half of the game centers around corrupt political systems and goes absolutely nuts with it, yet the conflict feels like it naturally progresses with higher and higher stakes, especially given what the player will know about Crossbell at that point in the story.

Because I’ve played the Sky trilogy, the protagonists all feel familiar. There are certain tropes and archetypes that remind me of the previous games, but the protags here don’t feel like anything like copies. They definitely feel like their own characters, through and through.

Each character brings something new to the table, both with how they interact with others and with how they develop as characters. Perhaps they don’t have the most engaging personalities on their own, but collectively, they're the most interesting team I've seen in the series.

I’m hard pressed to pick a favorite character. All four of the protagonists are awesome, and many of the support cast are great too.

The gameplay is a natural improvement from previous games, keeping everything familiar, but giving me so much more to play with. It’s very easy, which is my only gripe, but I did play on Normal, so perhaps Hard would’ve been a better challenge for me.

OST-wise, it's kinda hit-or-miss for me. The town themes are generally calm and nice, but there are some earworms that get grating after a while.
The battle themes are amazing and high energy, which holds true for all Trails games, and are my favorite tracks.

Because Zero is so different from other Trails games, I’m not sure where I would rank it compared to the rest of the series. At this point, I think I would consider it better than Third, but just below SC.

After playing through the game, off-and-on, for almost 9 months, entirely in Japanese, I had a great time. I've put a couple hours into the sequel already, and it looks like that will be a fun one too!

2-3 years after only playing Yakuza 0 to Kiwami 2, I've finally caught up with most of the Yakuza games. As for why I only played those 3 at first, I'm not quite sure myself truthfully. But this game...I don't even know where to start with this masterpiece. An emotionally devastating yet breathtaking end to Kiryu's story, now my favorite video game character. This is the best RGG has been with it's writing, completely unrivaled from characters to storytelling. It's not as ambitious in scope as Yakuza 5 was but it still does a good job in finalizing Kiryu's character and Haruka's relationship. The callbacks throughout this game were spectacular, each and every one of them making everything hit so much more harder. Even the substories are easily at it's best in this game, with surprisingly amazing writing throughout all of them.

Moving on to the gameplay itself, I really enjoyed the return of the Dragon Engine, albeit in an older state since this game released before Kiwami 2. I seriously don't think the Dragon Engine is that bad; and while yeah I do agree that 0's/5's/etc is better, It's still pretty fun for a prototype.

Finalizing my thoughts on this, I'm just glad I could experience the rest of Kiryu's journey throughout Kamurocho and the rollercoaster of emotion it offers. He is easily my favorite video game character ever as I've said before, and this game was pretty much confirmation of why. The RGG games as a whole has taught me a lot and I'm so glad I could experience these games. From beginning to end, it’s truly been an unforgettable journey.

This game is the best book I've ever read. It is grimly beautiful, but not the vague, formless beauty of sunsets or mountaintops or weddings. It is real, visceral beauty, the beauty of self introspection as the screen lights up your face, clicking every green circle hoping to find something - something about the case, or maybe something about you, not the detective, but "you" you. Its the beauty of the weary face of a muttonchopped man who, when you look hard enough at his visage, squinting, you can just barely make out its actually your own.


This game has told me a lot about myself - in a way nothing besides soul-shattering literature from my adolesence has before. It made me question many of my beliefs, it made me question how I've lived, and even, or especially, how I think. Voices of half-light, empathy and shivers echo the anxious trepidation in my own life, and honestly, I feel like I'm just a tiny, tiny bit better at ignoring false-positive anxiety thoughts because of the experience Disco Elysium gave me.


I think other people will take different things from Disco Elysium; that's how all good literature is, after all. It's about so many things. It's about everything in a way, and all of us.


If you don't mind reading, please play this. If you do, then it's still meant for you, too.

Loved to hate it.
Played it immediately after AC: Odyssey which might have been a mistake. The difference in quality is obvious, AC: Valhalla feels very rough and with little attention to detail. The focus was on a BIG world with a LOT to do.; the story and overall world coherence fell behind.
That is not to say I did not enjoy it at all, and I nearly played it as long as AC: Odyssey, but I did not fall in love with it. Eivor as protagonist fell also flat. I have the feeling having the option to switch between a female and male version is a fake out. Yes, you can play as a woman which is still revolutionary by Ubisoft standards, but it makes them interchangeable and without real character. It nearly boils down to a Mrs. Pac-Man version. With Kassandra, it felt more in tune with the world and also the voice acting was way better. I wish Ubisoft would take the time to develop an authentic female protagonist and don't just carbon copy their male protagonists.

A fantastic experience from start to right before the end.
The pacing is some of the best I've seen in a JRPG even over two decades after its release, the characters are tropey but it feels like witnessing the beginning of those tropes, its adorable. The world and music are magical, it sells the concept of an adventure with your friends so well. Playing it for the first time in 2021, I was head over heels in love with this game.
Then in the last 3 hours it completely drops the ball with sudden forced grinding that adds absolutely nothing except unnecessary playtime to the game.
The charm is still there, and it still deserves the title of classic, it just left a sour taste in my mouth. Looking back on the experience after just beating it, I'm glad I finally played this legendary game, and over time I think ill remember the magical 30 hours I spent with it more than the slog of the last 3.

(This section of the review is dedicated to the switch port itself)
I had a total of 5 crashes with this port, 3 of which were to do with the 3x speed function, if you do use this (which I honestly do recommend for certain portions) just be careful and save frequently.
The no random encounters feature makes backtracking a lot less painful, and the godmode function does the same to grinding.
A decent port, but I haven't played on original hardware so take my opinion as that.