If you were to ask me if it was easy to jump into a series with twelve mainline games, nine of which have been localized out of sequence and on different platforms, I would probably say ‘no’, but Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero allows you to take the plunge effortlessly. Picking up with new characters who aren’t fully up to speed on the world and its workings themselves, you can learn together as they take you on their journey.
Divided into story arcs that follow different protagonists, the Trails series has four arcs (although reportedly only halfway the entire story) and Trails from Zero is the first game in the 2nd story arc with two entries. Zero‘s story actually runs concurrently with the next arc of four games – Trails of Cold Steel – eventually culminating in an epilogue entry and the beginning of the ongoing arc that is due to start being localized next year.
For some reason Trails of Cold Steel was actually released before Trails from Zero in the West despite being released 4 years earlier, so I experienced the series backwards in terms of design and approach, as Trails of Cold Steel was originally released on the PS3 with 3D character designs, whereas Zero was 2D on the PSP.
Initially I thought the ‘regression’ of visuals from 3D to 2D would be an issue, but somewhat surprisingly, the opposite is true as Trails of Cold Steel‘s barely touched PS3 visuals feel more than dated compared to today’s standards with empty maps that characters refer to as ‘bustling with life’ and it wasn’t until the third entry (released on PS4) that this improved.
In comparison, Trails from Zero has a refined 2D visual style that holds up far better, and while it might be a case of personal preference, there is something very charming about its 2D character sprites that the 3D anime-esque models lack – but that isn’t the only area where Zero feels like a step-up.
Outside of the battle system and dungeon action which largely remains the same, the Cold Steel arc takes an anime slice of life approach to the story, with a social and romance system with the story largely taking place on a student campus with slow sojourns out to barren maps and bland backstories in the 1st entry, but Zero‘s story is quicker on its feet, with slightly older characters thrown into the fire as a cobbled-together group on their first job, with a linear storyline and side missions that delve into the city of Crossbell and its characters, filling the maps with detail and NPCs and making the world feel like its reacting to the changes taking place in the world.
The city itself created as the world’s long-battling Eastern and Western factions came to a truce, creating a non-aggression pact and a geographical buffer in Crossbell, but in doing so – for the factions that never truly stopped fighting – meant a complex political situation for the city, as the world’s factions corrupt its politics for their own gain, and there is very little Crossbell and its residents can do about it, with political alliances and the non-aggression pact standing in their way.
Ignorance is bliss, however, and that’s where Lloyd Bannings and his group come in with an uncorrupted sense of justice and their own interesting links to the city, the unveiling of which, in parallel to the story, is very well done.
Zero also provides enough character depth and development to justify its young characters taking on the world (and its mother) and succeeding against characters they shouldn’t have even the remotest chance against, an issue many JRPGs attempt while trying to take themselves seriously.
The Active Time Battle (ATB) turn-based system is the same to Cold Steel‘s as you are able to move around battlefields choosing the distance in which you wish to attack as well as using special moves and team attacks to slow enemies down and push them down the order. It isn’t a revolutionary system and no changes have been made to it – or anything else in the game from the original release for that matter – but it gets the job done admirably, with plenty of room for tinkering with its quart system, a device that each character uses that holds jewels which provide seven elemental attacks, and it allows you to swap out all but your special abilities for a customized approach.
Admittedly, the 3D animation in battle is more enjoyable to watch in the more recent entries, and at times it seems the resolution has been stretched too much, but apart from that, the excellent Japanese voice acting and English subtitling, as well as the Shenmue-esque soundtrack does a great job of conveying the emotion of its scenes, making this old man tear up in certain scenes. Even though I came to realize that the game has an ’emotional scene’ audio track, and I knew it was coming, it still got me every time.
One slight spanner in the works for the PS4 release – compared to the Switch and Steam release – is that for some reason the extra and improved features that Zero received in previous versions are omitted here despite all three platforms receiving a release on the very same day. Casual fans won’t notice much of difference until seeing footage side-by-side, but for diehard fans of the series, they might want to consider the a Switch or Steam release first.
Despite being a basic port of a title that lays smack-bang in the middle of a gargantuan series, Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero manages to be both approachable and thrilling, resulting in a classic 2D JRPG that shows up some of the latter 3D entries in both story and design, and has me excited to play the Trails series again.
