The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

The Tails in the Sky series immediately appealed to me. Depending on the difficulty level, it’s very challenging, with good characters and not the typical “main character can do everything and solves everything” trope. Some themes or backstories were surprisingly dark, especially Renne. I also played through the Cold Steel series, and there’s nothing left of the gripping story there anymore—just “friendship saves the day” after pretty much every fight. So what about Trails from Zero? I like the story and the old 2D combat system, so I was looking forward to the game after the first three parts. In short: it’s extremely boring and drawn out. The new team is just really dull. I’m 25–30 hours into the story and still don’t feel any connection to the characters. The only thing that even keeps me going and makes me play 10–20 minutes here and there are the short screen times of characters from the first three games. The setting feels completely irrelevant. You’re in a division of the police, and I still don’t know why, because they’re apparently not as popular as their competitors. Okay?! I’m honestly surprised we don’t also get sent to fix a clogged toilet—though that at least would be humorous and unexpected. The combat system is fine. On restart, enemies are no longer weaker, which I personally like, but some new features like this team attack are just unnecessary. It’s baffling to me how a story can become so boring after such a strong start in the Trails in the Sky series. I’ve played through one game after another so far, but this game just kills all the fun. 40 hours of drawn-out blah-blah just to maybe learn something relevant at the end simply isn’t worth it. I’d say: just get the Trails in the Sky series instead and skip this one.