The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero Reviews
This long-awaited chapter of the Trails series is absolutely worth your time.
With The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero making its way to the Switch 2 for the same price as the original Switch version, there’s very little reason to choose the older version. The performance improvements are smooth while overall story and OST are more than worth the price of admission. The game would be better served for a full remake, though – there’s some excellent storytelling to be experienced in a fully realized and redesigned world.
As a franchise newcomer, I found my entry point with The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero utterly fascinating, tantalising, and enjoyable. Within are some of my favourite blending of mechanics and tidbits within turn-based combat I've seen yet. It's a comfy RPG that you can lose plenty of time to, sinking into the moving character narrative, all set within the colourful world of Crossbell. Character models will occasionally show their age and menus are a little funky. Still, it's easy to forgive and just hang out with Lloyd and friends, saving the better part of humanity. Team SSS forever.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is a solid entry into the Legend of Heroes series. It has superb sound design, art, and storytelling. It has a really good detective oriented main character that pays off quite well in the end.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Hero is one of the best titles in the franchise and an incredibly well-made RPG overall. Experiencing the tale of the Special Support Section has never felt better, be it in terms of combat, writing, or presentation.
Redeeming a fantasy metropolitan police department is a strangely pedestrian setup for a JRPG. Forgettable plot aside, Zero features some of the best writing and character narratives in the genre.
It's a shame that NIS and Falcom both decided to bring Trails from Zero in Europe only after the vastly superior Trails of Cold Steel series. This way a very solid if formulaic JRPG as this does not get the attention it deserves, due also to a lazy remastering process.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Trails from Zero is one of the most captivating RPGs, whose thoughtful use of setting and skillfully balanced storytelling make it a peer to the classics from the genre's golden age.
If you enjoy RPGs, Trails from Zero is one I think you should check out. While knowledge of the Trails in the Sky franchise does help, as there are some crossover characters, this is still an intended entry point to the game. If you're just looking to upgrade your experience from Switch to Switch 2 versions I might hold off, but otherwise I think this is a great introduction to Crossbell and the Trails series as a whole.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero stands out from the crowd of JRPGs by focusing on a small area and making the city safer one parking ticket at a time. Its combat system is a major strength, but technical issues like textures flickering out of existence during gameplay and cutscenes, mixed with a poor difficulty curve, make this otherwise beautiful remake hard to recommend wholeheartedly in its current state on Switch 2.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is a very beefy RPG that is way longer if the speed-up functions are never used. The imaginative premise and complex battle system are what makes it stand out. The text can be really long-winded, even for RPG fans, but it all pays off for the diligent reader with patience to parse it all. Regretfully, there is no English voice acting - a first for The Legend of Heroes. While that is initially disappointing, the realization of the voice acting padding out an already very long RPG quells the desire.
After 12 long years, Trails from Zero is a classic RPG that was worth the wait. Fantastic characters, world building, and fun combat create another game in the franchise that will appeal to long time fans and newcomers alike.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is a fun JRPG with a great setting, story, and cast of characters. Since it took so long to come to the west it does show its PSP roots in the visuals and the PlayStation 4 version is inferior to the other versions. Despite those things though this is worth experiencing for anyone who is a fan of the Cold Steel games or those who want to jump in for the first time.
As one chapter in something that is almost experimental for video games – a genuine epic, spanning decades of game development, a half dozen consoles, and a dozen titles – Trails From Zero is a very fine entry indeed. The rich complexities of the narrative engage the brain, while the charming writing and characterisation also make for an entertaining experience. The story is everything to this series, so it’s just as well that is spot on, though thankfully the combat is enjoyable in its own right, and it’s all backed by excellent aesthetics. If you are new to The Legend Of Heroes, this isn’t a bad place to start. If you’re a veteran of the series you must surely love how one of the best games in the series has finally got the full localisation it always deserved.
Fortunately, Lloyd and the rest of the SSS 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 Falcom titles on Switch continues to grow, and there's Zero reason to be unhappy about that.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero is a very bad remaster of a very good game. While the story of the SSS and the journey through Crossbell must be played by any fan of the series and the gameplay holds up surprisingly well even today, the PS4 version leaves so much to be desired that it is only recommended for those who can't afford to play it on another platform.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is a superb entry in the long-running franchise that made me pumped for Trails to Azure as well as Trails into Reverie and the inevitable release of the Kuro no Kiseki series. There sure are a lot of these games but I still can't get enough.
The new versions for PS5 and Switch 2 make this duology more accessible to those wishing to discover or rediscover *The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero* and *The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure*.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure are still excellent games. They're fun. Still, however, they definitely deserve more than such a low-effort remaster.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Trails from Zero is a different beast compared to other JRPGs, and that’s partly due to the way the series works in general. Putting that aside though, Zero is still a great game in its own right. It has it’s own unique set of main characters, the game is filled with character development and world building, there are multiple mysteries at play, and it is very easy to get sucked into life as a police officer. The game is very dialogue heavy, and a large chunk of it is talking to NPCs (assuming you want to get the most out of this world), and honestly that might not be for everyone. Of course you can skip NPCs and only focus on the side stories and main quest if you like, but doing so really does take away from the world building the series is known for. It’s just one of those things that will not click with everyone, and if it starts to feel like a chore, then that will greatly damper your enjoyment of the game.