Trails From Zero follows protagonist Lloyd Bannings and the special support section or SSS, a branch of the Crossbell Police as they unravel the mysteries of rival gangs, illicit activities and ultimately a nefarious plot that seeks to collapse the entire region.
Joining Lloyd or Randy, Tio and Ellie each with her own interesting backgrounds and over the course of the game's 40 plus hours the group ended up becoming inseparable.
Randy's raunchy casanova-esque personality is a particular standout of the cast. On a few occasions, you do have other characters join your squad for support but generally it's the same foursome for most of the adventure.
Having completed the four Trails of Cold Steel Games before this one, I did find the lack of more playable party members a bit of a downer; even if the SSS team up works well in terms of the plot and each member's own characterization.
Most of the game takes place in Crossbell City with Lloyd and Kobe accepting job requests in each chapter ahead of completing a primary objective to advance the story.
There are dozens of side quests to work through which reward in terms of story beats quirky moments and Mira, the local currency, completed requests also provide detective points and these contribute to your overall detective rank.
As you level up your rank, you are awarded with a variety of items like accessories to equip or gems called quartz to slot on to each character to provide stat Buffs and unlock different arts or spells for using combat.
Those wanting to reach rank 1 may want to consult a guide given that Hidden Side Quests and even specific dialogue choices can yield the extra points needed to get there.
Compared to the cool Steel games which took you all over the Erebonian Empire, Trails From Zero being set in and around Crossbell, does make it feel much smaller in scope.
Fortunately, this more condensed setting works well in tandem with the SSS playing the role of Detectives.
While the city itself can grow a little stale, spending more time with its inhabitants and informing closer relationships with people you encounter across multiple chapters lends the story a degree of charm and intimacy.
At times, you're almost just waiting for characters like plucky journalist, Grace or bracer extraordinaire, Arios to show up.
The turn-based combat of the Trails In The Sky titles returns here with many offensive and support Arts having an area of effect radius to try and maximize their effectiveness.
Craft points or CP, are also a part of combat and build up as you make successful attacks and take damage.
CP can be stored up to unleash powerful s-crafts that often hit nearly every enemy on the battlefield for massive damage.
You can even interrupt the indicated turn order by activating an s-craft outside of a character's normal turn.
It's worth mentioning that the battles are a little less complicated in Trails From Zero compared to Cold Steel 3 and 4 so be prepared for that step down if those are the only other Legend of Heroes titles you've played.
Some nice quality of life features are included in this release of Trails From Zero including a customizable speed up option that can be toggled on and off with the Press of a button.
Such a feature is welcome in any RPG but especially so and one that takes dozens of hours to finish. You can adjust how fast the speed up actually is, both inside combat and out.
Fast travel within crossbow city is another helpful feature. What misses for me is the lack of English voices and a mission that's especially glaring after having them in the two Cold Steel games.
Obviously, such a lengthy script would require a similarly sizable investment in an English dub but it's unfortunate to not see one here.
In addition to cooking and fishing, in-game achievements provide another incentive for being thorough and try to collect and do everything Trails From Zero offers.
That said, I didn't miss the regular bonding events of the Cold Steel games and it was tough not to feel an overall lack of variety compared to the games that were developed after the two Crossbell entries.
This is why I
mentioned earlier that would be a lot easier to appreciate Trails From Zero the opportunity to play it after the three Trails
In The Sky games which followed the adventures of Joshua and Estelle Bright;
two characters who end up figuring fairly prominently here.
The scope and combat changes of the later Cold Steel Games also mean that Trails From Zero feels like a step back in comparison.
If it sounds a bit confusing and a lot messy well that's because it is. Ultimately, your experience with Legend of Heroes games will likely shape your enjoyment of Trails From Zero.
While the background of the Trails In The Sky Trilogy will help to explain certain events and moments, these three games simply aren't available on modern consoles. You'd probably need to play them on Steam.
If you played Cold Steel 3 and 4 respectively, you may find the more insulated first Crossbell game plays a little too safe.
Fortunately, Lloyd and the rest of the SSS crew make for likable characters that you can't help but root for.
The dialogue heavy second half of the game can drag a little bit but the cumulative experience is still a positive one that I would recommend to RPG fans.
With Trails To Azure coming in 2023, the stable of Falcon titles continue to grow and there's zero reason to be unhappy about that.
