The epitome of a Trails game, for better and for worse.
What They Say:
The Special Support Section is back with more members and more cases to solve! How will this rag-tag group deal with the oncoming threats to Crossbell’s political stability while maintaining their team’s foundation?
Content:
The Legend of Heroes is quickly becoming my favorite video game series and certainly the best-written ones of all time. Trails to Azure arrives as the long-requested sequel to Trails from Zero and the final mainline game that needed to be officially localized.
I can say that the wait was definitely worth it, but the idea of being patient until the good comes is a recurring theme with Trails to Azure. This is by far the most Trails-like game that I have ever played, using every trope and stereotype expected from the series all throughout.
This comes with both the positives and negatives of this, as Trails to Azure does just about everything I love about the series while also falling into most of the same pitfalls at the same time. In this way, it has the highest peaks of any game in the series while also suffering from some of the lowest valleys, too.
Trails to Azure picks up only a few short months after the events of Trails from Zero. The beginning of this game is absolutely stellar, feeling like a climactic finale but for the opening prologue. However, soon after this extraordinary start — easily the best opener in a Trails game yet — it falls into the usual pattern.
The Special Support Section is back with Lloyd and Elie at first, but no Randy or Tio in sight. Instead, there are two new members in the form of Noel and Wazy, both of which played decent roles in the first Crossbell game.
In this way, the first few chapters of this game are nothing special. It acts almost entirely like a repeat of most other Trails games, introducing new characters, reintroducing others, and laying the groundwork for what is going to happen later in the story.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this, other than the fact that some of the story beats and slower-paced nature is a little too unnecessary for a sequel, but the issue comes from how long this goes on and the overall lack of interest I had compared to Trails from Zero’s early chapters.
The story in Trails to Azure honestly doesn’t pick up and get good until well into Chapter 3, which is, give or take, half through the game. I was, personally, about 25 hours into the game (doing everything in it so it can be faster than this) before I felt like the story was finally get to the highs I knew it could.
There is so much filler in the first half of the game that I would honestly take out nearly two whole chapters. Most of it lacks the charm and development that is expected of these games, anyway.
To be fair, though, the payoff is certainly worth as the last two chapters are possibly the strongest in the entire franchise; it just takes way too much effort to get there.
This slower, more explanatory and introductory pace worked in Trails from Zero and other games in the series because it was necessary. That isn’t the case here. It shouldn’t take several chapters just for the whole team to come together again, for instance. Not to mention, it under-uses many of the characters in the first half that would’ve greatly enhanced this section, such as Zeit, KeA, and certain missing names.
Sure, the writing is still as great as always, thanks to the help that the Geofront provided, but I mean, even when the treasure chest dialogue is starting to falter, you know there is an issue. With all of that said, though, I still enjoyed Trails to Azure like the other games in the series.
While it suffers from its pacing issues, it’s still impressively better than every other even-numbered sequel out there. I had major problems with Trails in the Sky SC, Cold Steel 2, and Cold Steel 4, and this game largely sidesteps most of the problems from each of them.
Instead of feeling too much like a content-light sequel, Trails to Azure is packed with almost too much content while also feeling like its own substantial experience, instead of feeling too dependent on the previous game. In this way, it’s almost more like Cold Steel 3 in terms of being a sequel.
That said, the problem it does carry over is the reuse of environments and dungeons. This is expected but even with the best city in video game history in Crossbell, there just aren’t enough new areas to visit in this title. It’s only worsened by some of the cutscenes seeing you hanging out in Calvard’s Altair but never being able to explore it. And the few dungeons that are new in this game were some of the less enjoyable ones I experienced.
Even still, there is a high level of quality that Trails to Azure has that is prevalent here as in other Nihon Falcom games. While it may seem like I am dogging on the game, this is a classic Trails title. You have pretty much the exact same battle system from Zero, but with the new Burst mechanic.
Honestly, the Burst gimmick is something I completely ignored as it was pretty much useless for me, but I can’t be mad given that the turn-based strategic combat with crafts, arts, and a grid-based system is as good as ever.
The difficulty is a little odd but I didn’t mind. The game felt easier than most other Trails games (at least on normal) for a vast majority of the game until the final two chapters. From there, it made a significant jump with some of the toughest bosses in the series.
This made sense in a way, though, since the final two chapters are some of the best story content that the Trails series has ever seen. The twists are unreal, the multiple climactic moments are outstanding, and so many characters take surprising turns as the story progresses.
Even as someone who played the later games in Cold Steel that spoils some of what happens in this game, I was still impressed and surprised by what happened. Some of the best story moments and fights from the entire series happen in the final two chapters.
In fact, the best twist in the entire series to date happens in this game; it just sucks that I already knew it was going to happen (just not how or why) because of some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it dialogue from the Cold Steel games.
Even still, I preferred experiencing the games in this order because I had no idea that this game spoiled some of the wilder events from the later games regarding the Erebonian Empire and the like. At the very least, I was able to retain the impact of those twists because of this odd order the games were localized.
In the end, all things considered, I think I marginally prefer Trails from Zero due to its more consistent storyline and experience, but Trails to Azure is pretty much equal to it due to the unprecedented storytelling heights that it reaches.
In Summary:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure is a game I’ve waited a long time for, and the wait was ultimately worth it. Once I got through most of the game at least, that is. The first half certainly suffers from retreads of the same areas and typical content, but without some of the charm, characters, and development of other games.
But it more than makes up for that with a second half that is the strongest in the entire franchise. With the best twists, turns, and character development, Trails to Azure shocked me and constantly had me on the edge of couch during its final few chapters.
It takes a lot to get there, but if you can, you’ll find that Trails to Azure is the epitome and living definition of The Legend of Heroes series, with the highest of peaks and the lowest of valleys alike.
Grade: B+
Developer: Nihon Falcom
Publisher: NIS America
Age Rating: 13+
Release Date: March 14, 2023
MSRP: $39.99
Platform: Switch (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
