90%Nintendo Switch

Game: 9/10
Game Direction: Fantastic
Story: Impeccable
Art: Shows its age
Gameplay: Great
Sound Design And Music: Great
Difficulty: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5
Recommendation: Yes! (but try to play the Sky games first)

90%Nintendo Switch

My first experience with a title from this famous RPG series and I have to admit, it was fantastic!
Trails from Zero was originally released for the PSP in 2010 and brings together all the elements that make up a memorable RPG: interesting characters, an engaging story, intelligent combat and a multi-layered universe that embraces everything organically. The development of the story and the attention given to the main characters are impressive, each with their own distinct personality and who mature as a team throughout the journey. This narrative construction makes the player sympathize with everyone and is encouraged to learn more about each one's origin.
It's a long game with a lot of text, but the narrative is so good that I hardly felt tempted to speed up the dialogues. Now I'm eager to finish the Crossbell duology and discover the outcome of the questions that remained unanswered in this first game.
Highly recommended!

80%PC

A little too long, but still as good a game as its predecessors. A little underwhelmed with the ending, but knowing there's a sequel, it feels okay.

100%PlayStation 4

Once again amazing. Love Llyod.

80%Nintendo Switch

Overall great experience! Fun to play an older game in a modern year, gave me flashbacks on old RPGs I played as a kid. While it is my least fav gameplay wise, the characters and most of the story draw this game to me.

100%Nintendo Switch

I suspect it’s because of the jump for the Sky trilogy’s PC releases to Zero’s Remaster on Switch, but man does the jump in graphics and features really impress me. It looks so crisp and runs mostly great on the Switch OLED aside from some light frame drops in the city. The inclusion of voice acting really blew me away at how natural it feels (I couldn’t get the voice mod to work for Sky on Steam Deck). There’s also stuff like the flashy new UI, text backlog button, and text/menus that actually look scaled for consoles.

I think what surprised me the most was that the devs really tried to make this a detective story first that happened to be in the Trails universe. The set up of Crossbell as this sprawling city with gangs, mafia, and corrupt police and bureaucrats, the main character having an almost stereotypical rookie cop backstory of an unsolved case relating to a loved one, and the chapter structure revolving around trying to solve the problem by figuring out a mystery. This is the RPG I was hoping Decapolice was going to be before it got delayed.

The combat is the slickest so far in the series, but despite the game throwing you the occasional 5th party member, it's not enough to mix things up. It also might be the easiest of the first four Trails games.

It’s hard not to compare Trails from Zero to Trails in the Sky FC. Zero hits highs close to the first game and it’s hard to say whether Zero or Sky FC is my favorite Trails game so far. The way Zero sets up and makes you invested in Crossbell and its citizens and then painstakingly explains the frustrations of the city state’s corruption makes me love it as much or more than Liberl. Lloyd, Randy, Tio, and Ellie are great new main characters on their own and I appreciate that the inclusion of elements carried over from Sky didn’t overshadow them too much.

My only big complaint is how some things were locked behind the ending Bond scene. Also after how great the romance was in the first trilogy, it’s disappointing to not have a canon romance in this game.

Final Grade:

A+ or 10/10
50 Hours
9/20/2024

90%PC

Yet another masterpiece, and the fourth one in a row at that for this series. While I don't think it quite reaches the emotional highs of the Sky games, and if you come from Sky Evolution it feel like nothing has changed gameplay wise, everything that makes this series so incredibly special is on display here, from some of the best writing in video games to stellar characters and music, and a detailed world that is just insane in its scope and detail.

90%PlayStation Vita

first foray into crossbell arc and how well it ties to other arc in kiseki series

100%PC

Wow, what a game. If you're right after Trails in the Sky trilogy (which you should be. Don't play out of order), you are in for a treat. Great addition to the story from Sky. It does start incredibly slowly and I got tired of all the talking in the first two chapters, but the latter half of the game is all straight gas. Everything just keeps snowballing into craziness. The finale is not one to miss.

Gameplay is not terribly changed from Sky trilogy. It could have really used a way to see what requirements there are for spells. I did not use many because nobody really had any interesting spells to cast except for one to reduce enemy speed by half. Not even any for reducing defense. Felt like after chapter 4, enemies became real bullet sponges. Attacks seemed to always do the same damage, but enemy health pools were bigger. But the Trails combat formula is still rock solid. I love it.

I wish I had more to say, but I just don't. You need to play it. Endure the first two slow chapters. That is all you need to know.

100%PC

no joke one of the best games i have ever played

90%PC

- Amazing OST.
- More Balanced and More Fun Combat System than previous trails, with more balanced arts and surprise attacks for faster farming.
- Interesting Plot as always, but not as heart-wrenching as in Trails in the Sky.
- Amazing Characters and Character Development (also past characters made a worthy appearance).
- Overall a great entry to the Trail series.

80%PC

This can be a DnD campaign and it'll still work

100%PlayStation Vita

plot: 10/10
cast: 10/10
music: 8/10

80%PC

A qualidade dessa série continua implacável. Temos aqui o início de uma nova saga, e os personagens são muito bem desenvolvidos, com o retorno de alguns que já vimos anteriormente. É um ótimo começo. No entanto, achei o ritmo desse jogo muito lento; a história demora muito para engrenar. Embora tenha seus momentos no início, parece se arrastar demais. Mesmo assim, é mais um jogo sensacional!

100%PC

(Updated review after replaying the game with the official translation).

I loved this game! I really enjoyed the updates to the graphics and gameplay, though I didn't like the new character art as much as the old ones from Trails in the Sky. Also, much like Trails in the Sky FC, this game primarily serves to introduce the world and characters, and the story beats were all interesting and engaging. This game takes place in the enthralling city of Crossbell and the worldbuilding is fantastic as always.

You play as a group of police officers and I'm a big fan of mysteries so playing as a detective that solves crimes and works toward unraveling evil plots is always a good time. I also liked that the playable team sucked at first and had to work hard to earn recognition for their efforts. It all felt very natural and believable in how it was handled. Each of the featured characters are unique and likable and I was fully invested in seeing them grow and overcome their barriers over the course of the game. The villains in this were great too and piecing together their involvement with the events that the main characters experienced was a lot of fun.

Overall this game is fantastic, and if you enjoyed Trails in the Sky, then you definitely should play this!

95%PC

The best trails game i have played. The more grounded story had me never want to stop playing.

60%Nintendo Switch

Bring your reading glasses, it's gonna be a long reading session.
If you like JRPGs/Turn-Based combats and like games such as the older FFs or Dragon Quest, stay away from this visual novel. lmao
The fans will boast about muh continuous story 20 years in the making, but 95% of all dialogue is just typical anime slop, plus the fan service for Trails in the Sky are mid as fuck.

My main problem is not the story, but the fact that there isn't enough gameplay in this GAME. Normally with JRPGs i want to go from point A to point B to progress the story but there's too much gameplay in the way (which i love), this game is the opposite. All the reading is occasionally interrupted by some gameplay.

90%Nintendo Switch

For someone that played only the Sky trilogy, the Crossbell arc is a huge step up in terms of quality.

The story follows Lloyd Bannings and the Special Support Section of the Crossbell Police, which solves every day life problems of the citizens of Crossbell City and the surrounding areas.

The cast is probably the strongest point of the game. Lloyd, Ellie, Randy and Tio are pretty much polar opposites with their own worries, and the game takes its time to develop each character thoroughly. Throughout the game, they build their relationship with each other while the secrets of the city slowly start to unravel.

The story itself is well written, and can be played in its entirety without touching the side jobs. It expands on some bits and pieces from the Sky trilogy while maintaining originality, and we even get to see some of the characters from the previous games on our journey.

The gameplay is standard The Legend of Heroes slop. You have your arts, crafts and interesting mechanics here and there. Nothing too special.

Overall, unless Trails of Cold Steel changes my mind, the Crossbell arc will be the Magnum Opus of Falcom. 9/10

85%PC

Starts slow but it ended up really strong!

It's a ordeal to talk to every NPC every time something happen, I guess you could not do that, and rush it, just the events, with a guide, but then again, why would you play a trails game if you wanna do that?

70%Nintendo Switch

Great story but gameplay could be boring

85%PC

Such a big improvement on Trails in the sky with QoL changes, auto advance text, voice acting, better portraits. However I'm still glad to have played the Sky trilogy because it makes this make so much more sense
Felt slightly more concise which is good for a Trails game.

70%PlayStation 4

A 5/7
H 1/1
S 1/2

85%PC

8.0-8.5

90%PC

Absolute banger, and maybe my favorite of the Trails games so far. Looking forward to starting Azure once I crash my way through a couple of other games. Easily recommended, although I wouldn't say it's a great *starting* point for the series.

70%PC

Crossbell was fun. A nice change from the rural Liberl. Basically the same game but new characters. Similar personalities, played the same, etc. Still enjoyable though. Story was pretty alright. Took a while to get there, but seems like it just set up the groundwork for something bigger (like Trails in the Sky 1 & 2). I guess with how this game builds its characters, they couldn't just jump into conflict immediately. Revache was kinda lame compared to what I was hoping, Zeit the legendary wolf literally did nothing after his chapter? The Liberl crew joining for a bit was fun.

Cool to see all the things from "Sky" play a bigger role in the grand scheme of things and connect to this story, like Renne's family and explanations for her backstory from Sky 3. Lots of doors opened in this one, like Lloyd's brother (reminds me of Ace) and what happened with him, this new evil anti-Aidios group, and where Crossbell and its neighboring countries go from here.

Tried to do everything I could. All chests, items, best quartz. I missed one suport request in Chapter 1 because I advanced a day. I used a guide sometimes later to make sure i wouldn't miss one by advancing. Saved my life because some requests you had to advance the story to progress in the request.

The game felt harder at first, but I started chessing with Ingenuityon Elie and Tio, and having Tio just Avalon Gate mfs to death and regen the EP, which made it easy. Felt fine though because I felt like I could die really easily. If I got ambushed late, I would get one tapped. Final boss 2nd phase almost fucked me, but Lloyd spamming Adamantine Guard and Randy spamming buffs made it really doable. No clue how you win that fight without Ingenuity regen in the cutscene to phase 2 or tons of EP restoration items.

Couple new mechanics in this one. Dual crafts were stronger than I thought and should've used more. The "shoot the little monster in the field twice to instakill it" thing was great. Elie was making that thing sing. New quartz (like the astrology ones) & arts were very welcomed. This series always does a good job at making your characters feel stronger than before in subsequent games.

Could keep going, might come back later to add more, but all in all, another good Trails game. Looking forward to the sequel.

7/10, which feels like the baseline for these games. Good, no real complaints, but wanted more. Story, setting, characters, etc. was good, but the game felt too similar to previous. Dual crafts wasn't a big enough change, hope the sequel has some new mechanics.

95%PC

First things first: I have to thank the incredible people at on the Geofront translation team. They went above and beyond with translating this game. They didn't just simply translate it, they added a bunch of quality of life features like turbo and a chat log, which I actually used a lot more than I expected, and added the infamous chest messages gathered from the community. It's honestly amazing, and I'm very grateful to the team.

NOTE: As of the time of writing this review, I've not played the Cold Steel series yet. I'm playing all the games in order, so I've only played the Sky Trilogy so far.
Now, the actual game itself. It's great! I played on Nightmare mode, and found the gameplay to be pretty challenging. I also had some self imposed rules I forced myself to abide by, which were:
(1). Not use any hotels, (2). Start boss/challenge chest fights at less than 100 CP for my party. (3) Buy all Decorations for all the characters (4). No grinding, which is my usual rule for most RPGs.

Reason being you can really easily cheese a lot fights by instantly spamming S-crafts before enemies can even attack. Zero is definitely much easier than Sky, and I recommend everyone playing Zero to try out these rules on Nightmare. You might have a lot more challenging fights, but that makes them all the more satisfying!
Overall, Nightmare was really fun and I highly recommend it if you're looking for a challenge. As usual with Trails games, there's no need to grind for EXP since EXP gain scales.

Combat remains largely the same from Sky. There's the usual arts and quartz, though they did change up some arts, like making Wind sepith more important as they changed Water arts having both single and AoE heals to giving Wind arts AoE heal and Water only having single-target, which I appreciated.
Zero also introduces Combo Crafts, which are a bit similar to Chain Crafts from Sky, except they're locked to certain characters and can only be activated by having 2 participating characters each use 100 CP. They're really strong, especially Lloyd and Randy's. In exchange, you have both characters turns delayed, which is a fair trade off.

Worldbuilding is what the Trails series excels at, and Zero is no exception. Crossbell feels very fleshed out, and despite being the the smallest state in Zemuria, there's a ton of details packed into the city. More than the Sky trilogy, it's much easier to see NPCs change over time, since you're going to spend a lot of time roaming the city. Maybe a lot of people will talk to each NPC a couple times and be done with it, but not me. I specifically made it a point to talk to EVERY NPC within the city and went to talk to EVERY major character, AKA anyone with a portrait. If I went to visit a town, I talked to everyone over there everytime. I love how you can track down bracers by checking where they're currently stationed from the guild schedule. I absolutely love the dialogue in the game and it makes me appreciate Geofront's translation even more.

Speaking of characters, they're all great. Apparently people don't like Lloyd, but that I find that odd. He's definitely not as dynamic as Estelle & Joshua, but he has his own set of goals that he's trying to accomplish. He's definitely better than many other JRPG protagonists I've seen. Same goes for Elie, Tio, and Randy. Watching the SSS all banter with each other and grow closer over the course of the game is really heartwarming. The supporting characters aren't fully developed, but they have clear personalities and are fun to interact with. Keep in mind that there is the sequel of Trails from Azure, so they might get even more development.
Also, KeA is absolutely precious.

Finding hidden quests from talking to characters feels great. However, that's also a double-edge blade.
There are so many hidden quests or quest items than can be missed very easily if you don't talk to everyone or if you use a guide, which I didn't. The prime suspects are the collectable books and hidden sidequests which require a high amount of DP. If you don't have enough DP, you won't even know there is a hidden sidequest EVEN if you talked to the person that would give the quest. I find that very frustrating, not because I need the mira or rewards, but because I missed out on dialogue. That's really my only major complaint with the game.

Overall, Trails from Zero is wonderful. I really, really, enjoyed this game. In my opinion, at the time of writing this, I would say my ratings for the games I've played so far are:

1. Zero
2. Sky SC
3. Sky 3rd
4. Sky FC

Zero comes very close to Sky SC for me personally. All of these games are great, and I'm looking forward to playing the rest of them.

90%Nintendo Switch

Another instalment of The Legend of Heroes series. A series which is quickly rising in terms of my favourite series of all time. It's been fun to explore Crossbell this time around and to meet our new band of heroes (and some old favourites of course).

What I liked:
* The music is once again fantastic. I'm constantly humming along when I'm going through the different town.
* Randy! He's OP and I'm there for it. His Crash Bomb and later his line of Death is sublime. He was my tank, my strength and my bond.
* The fact that some characters from Trails in the Sky make a comeback.
* Attack enemies from behind gives you extra advantage. It makes encounters easy.
* The chest messages, especially one towards the end is very cheeky ('so you finally found out how to open me', ha!)
* What started out as a story about two rival gangs and some politicians actually gets much better than I anticipated.

What I didn't like:
* A tiny tiny thing this time around was that you 'have' to make too many rounds through the same town. I'm almost dizzy from running around talking to every NPC to see what new things they have to say. It does add to the story and after 60+ hours literally everyone grew on me, but it's not just at the start of a day or chapter which means that you're going around the town a lot.
* A guide is adviced if you don't want to miss things. I almost didn't complete the bond because I forgot to do something even though I used a guide, so you have to be careful.

All-in-all great game. There are a few storylines which are left in the air a bit but that's because Trails from Azure is next, so I can't wait to dive into that one after a short break.

85%PC

Это как бы продолжение серии, но при этом в другой стране и с другими героями. В начале главный герой, закончив обучение детективному мастерству в другой стране возвращается в родной город-государство. По прибытии он должен бы устроится на работу в здешний полицейский департамент, и ему заранее уже сообщили что он будет служить в какой-то там специальной дивизии поддержки. Только вот при появлении в участке его сначала не поняли, потом приходит какой-то мужик с сигаретой и говорит пойдем со мной, и приводит его в кабинет, в котором уже сидят 3 разношерстных персонажа – одна пай девочка, как будто бы аристократка, парень с огненными волосами и отпускающий сальные шуточки в сторону девушек и еще одна девушка, очень мелкая на первый взгляд с гарнитурой в виде кошачих ушек. И этот мужик с сигаретой представившись говорит, что я ваш начальник, а вы только что сформированный отдел специальной поддержки секции, и поскольку вы новички вы будете в основном на побегушках у полиции и выполнять всякие никому неинтересные запросы и квесты мирных жителей, чтобы под ногами не мешались. Так начинается интересная история дружбы, любви и эпичности в этой каморной на первый взгляд, но при этом чертовски хорошей игре.

85%PC

Amazing character writing with lots of room for character development since you start out with the core party. Very enjoyable to see returning Trails in the Sky characters Estelle, Joshua and Renne play such a big role in the game too. The city of Crossbell is a major character in its own right, as you get to see how its inhabitants react to every major event, instead of traveling to other regions as other games in the overarching series. This showcases Nihon Falcom's master class worldbuilding at its finest. The main story is engaging too. The combat was good, but necessarily felt a step back after playing Cold Steel, although that's not a fault of Zero itself, as the original game came out before Cold Steel. The music is top-notch, as expected of Sound Team Nihon Falcom. Visuals are fine; I didn't play the vanilla version but imagine the portraits have been touched up for this Kai release.

100%Nintendo Switch

Absolutely excellent experience. A wonderful addition to the Trails series.

100%PC

One of the best JRPGS of all time.

90%PC

New feel for the trails series as it hit a new platform for this game. Great story with great characters as expected. (familiar faces from trails in the sky involved.)

90%Nintendo Switch

Great game, awesome port. I loved the gameplay loop. Disliked some story elements ... too many damn kids >:[

90%PlayStation 4

Very, very, very good game! Had a blast from beginning 'til the end.
I did 3 playthroughs to get the platinum, but with the high speed mode, the 2nd and 3rd playthrough were shortened quite a bit, and prevented the game from being boring.

90%Nintendo Switch

Fantastic story and characters.

100% worth the time spent.

90%PC

Better structure, gameplay, ost, sound and difficulty than Sky.

50%Nintendo Switch

Obsolete rpg, slow and full of futile dialogue. Feels like an
mediocre mid 90's console rpg, both in graphics and gameplay

80%PlayStation 5

This series has roped me in time and time, and this game is no exception. In the west now we are getting the missing piece that this series in this duology of games, and I could not be happier. After going through the Sky series earlier this and jumping onto this one I saw how improved everything was.
Combat runs smoothly (just like Cold Steel games), with the biggest takeaway is moving a character around the field in battle was far smoother than it is was in the sky games. As for the characters, all were wonderful. I went through the whole Cold Steel series so I know about these characters from that arc, so that helped a bit when getting into the motivations of the characters. The music was A+ with a shoutout to Incredible Struggle as it is one of my favorite Trails songs now. The one downside of this game is its plot, I was not in it as much as other Trails games. For it is the first in an arc that is not surprising because a lot of setups happen. It is not as bad as Sky FC because of the moments that made this game and having some of the returning characters helped. I just found myself not very invested in the plot, the characters were a very main reason why I kept going.
Overall though it is a very great start to this duology, and am looking forward to Azure next year 8/10

90%PC

A great game of the Trails Series. Not a great epilogue like the first Trails in the Sky or Trails of Cold and Steel though.

80%PC

It just started, but you can feel it will be a great game.

90%PC

Fantastic Game. Easily the best part 1 in the Trails series.

100%PlayStation Portable

Just awsome game. Great design, very cofortable to play with great story, World, haracters. Music was ok.

70%PC

Characters were great, story was recycled from older games but the action found in the final chapters was so good. The final chapter dungeon was weak but the game ended strong. By far the best music I've seen in a Trails game (so far). The beginning few chapters had you meandering a little too much but I understand why. The overarching villain is questionable, pretty much Weissman but without the charisma and intrigue.

80%PC

Awaiting Geofront translation for full playthrough and review score!

100%PC

i fuckin love this game bro

80%PC

A little unsure initally but the game was overall really good. As usual, this game was well written and a great story. Shame there wasn't a complete english version done for the game!

90%PC

long game with so much dialogue but worth the effort because I am an avid fan of trails series!

90%PC

A very solid entry in the Trails series. The recently released fan translation by the Geofront team is excellent and the updates/fixes to the PC version they made are a big improvement. I highly recommend checking that out so you can enjoy this in english without a subpar translation.

80%PC

Another fantastic game in the Kiseki series... The new cast of characters grew on me very fast and Crossbell as a city is very interesting and never got old, even though the whole game takes place there.

I very much liked how the story from the previous games continued while a new one gets established as well. So, this kind of works like a new story on it's own but also as a sequel to the Sky games. There are a lot of references to those games and also some returning characters, so definitely play the Sky games first, unless you really only want to play the Crossbell games for whatever reason.

Combat is pretty much unchanged with some slight improvements. For example you can now hit enemies on the map to gain combat advantage and there a special attacks you can activate with two characters at once, while only wasting half of your CP. Some new and cool spells also made it into the game.

While the story was mostly very good it also had some low lights... Particularly chapter 4 felt like a bit of a drag in my opinion and the villian was not as interesting as I thought they would be but the game set up the sequel really well and once again I can't wait to see how this goes on. The current unfinished translation patch definitely has a lot of issues and a lot of sentences have poor wording and grammar mistakes but 99% of it is perfectly understandable in my opinion. The banter between characters suffers a bit due to that but you always get the gist of it and the whole thing was still enjoyable from beginning till end, so I'd recommend just playing that version.

90%PlayStation Portable

This is by far my favorite TLOH series game. I will have to admit that the only way I was able to play this was a Hero came and Translated the game to english though there were some grammatical errors. I was able to finish it to the end without any problems.

The story of the game was appealing for me. IF you have played other TLOH games then you would know that this is a basically a game where you struggle though all the adversity that the game will give you. I played this game while playing TLOH: ToCS and if I had to compare I liked this more than ToCS but I have yet to play the second one.

Gameplay is basically the same with the previous TLOH games I liked the 4 protgonist here there skills is somewhat balanced out all there flaws.

What I didn't like about this game is that if you are a completionist. you will need a guide book with you while you play this game and considering that this was never officially traslated to english, Guides on gameFaq were very limited and the terminologies that were used were somewhat different.

But all in all I enjoyed this game a lot. I liked Kea she is just so darn cute.

When I finished the game I also finished ToCS and went straight to the sequel.

I heavily recommend this to TLOH fans! and also to the people who love JRPGs