The Legend Of Heroes: Trails To Azure PS4 Review – The long-running Trails franchise has seen its ups and downs, but with the release of Trails To Azure, the series finally completes its revival process. The second title initially released on the PSP never made it outside of Japan, but fans can now enjoy what is probably the best story entry in the franchise.
The Legend Of Heroes: Trails To Azure (PS4) Review
A Compelling Narrative That Leaves You On The Edge Of Your Seat
Trails To Azure tells a thrilling story set during the events of the first and parts of the second Trails of Cold Steel series. Trails To Azure takes place one month after the events of Trails from Zero and sees Lloyd Bannings and the Special Support Section chasing down the remnants of a cult that looked to revive ancient demons.
The effects of what happened in Zero are felt throughout the game’s story as it tries to move on from those horrific events with new foes and widespread conspiracy begin to show their ugly head.
Trails to Azure begins to introduce many foes that would become staples in the franchise and those that have been manipulating situations that fans have already played through in the Cold Steel saga.
The central story plots follow the ever-famous Trade Conference that sets the stage for all-out war in the Cold Steel franchise. It’s an engaging piece of storytelling as it provides us with a different point of view of what happened during the conference and the major players involved.
World Building And Character Development Is Some Of The Best In The Franchise
This is just one of the significant aspects of its story. Azure does an incredible job fleshing out the franchise’s vast number of characters. Most impressive is the amount of time spent fleshing out the prominent party members and the members of the SSS.
You’ll learn more about your party and their pasts, especially those concerning Randy and KeA. Randy takes centre stage for many of the earlier story beats and his connections to one of the most fearsome jaeger corps in the world.
The mystery of KeA and her past is also explored and leads to some of the most heartbreaking parts of the story that genuinely pull on all your heartstrings. It’s a testament to the fantastic writing in Trails to Azure and the entire franchise.
Though the game follows Zero’s beats, some additions are made. The SSS gets a few new members in its roster: Noel and Wazy. The two were guest party members in Zero but have wholly joined the ranks of the SSS and added a nice touch to the team with their unique abilities and great personalities.
Same City, New Tricks
Crossbell remains primarily unchanged. Though you aren’t free to explore it right at the start, you get more exploration tools. As you take on tasks from the citizens of Crossbell, you’ll be given free rein to explore most locations that we have grown accustomed to from Zero.
Thankfully you unlock a car this time, allowing you to fast travel to any location on the map. It’s a great tool to get you moving across places. Still, it’s important not to leave your car at a specific location because it won’t automatically follow you wherever you go, so you must always return to retrieve it.
Though there are a few new dungeons to explore, for the most part, you’ll spend your time in Crossbell and its surrounding towns. I would have loved to explore recent locations, but due to its story being contained in Crossbell, it would make sense that new locations aren’t available.
Completing side tasks now provide better rewards. Monster-hunting quests were a chore in Zero and never provided an excellent incentive to finish. In Azure, completing these hunter quests now awards you brand new duel S craft attacks.
Other side activities involve a lot of main characters in the story rather directly or indirectly. Some of them are even branching quests with multiple parts, so learning more about the world and characters is always worth doing.
Unfortunately, like in Trails of Zero, the PlayStation 4 version again doesn’t receive the texture upgrades that the Nintendo Switch and PC versions received. The game still looks good, but the blurry textures are more noticeable than in Zero.
Combat Sees A Few Nice Additions
Combat remains unchanged from Zero, so fans shouldn’t have any problem picking up Azure without the need for any tutorials. You still utilize Arts for your magic and Crafts for your character skills. You don’t get to keep any of the Orbments you acquired in Zero, but your character skills remain since your party starts at level 50.
One other noticeable thing about combat is it seems that it’s balanced much better than Zero was. Zero suffered from some high-difficulty spikes throughout. Still, Azure seems to have corrected that, as my time with it felt like a much smoother ride, and I never really felt like I had to go on the defensive the moment I encountered a new boss.
One new addition to combat comes in the form of a Burst Gauge. The Burst Gauge fills up when you attack or are attacked by enemies. Once full you can enter Burst mode, which allows the party to attack unhindered for five turns and to unleash Arts without a cast time.
It’s a great tool to utilize and learn when to unleash it against bosses or groups of enemies to gain an advantage quickly. Unfortunately, Burst Mode isn’t available all the time, and it’s only present during specific moments in the game, most of which are story-driven encounters and dungeons.
The game’s soundtrack remains unchanged outside the battle theme, which is quite good. The same tunes can be heard throughout Crossbell that you heard in Zero. The game is once again not dubbed into English but does feature a lot more voice work for those who can understand Japanese.
An Entry In A Storied Franchise That You Won’t Ever Forget
The Legend of Heroes is a long-standing franchise that deserves more eyes on it. It’s a multi-generational saga, and the story is one I’ll never forget. With the release of Trails to Azure, we are just one final game away from concluding the epic saga that started with Trails in the Sky 19 years ago.
Trails to Azure provides one of the best stories in the franchise that will have you on the edge of your seat with plenty of heart-pounding and gut-wrenching moments.
Though its gameplay remains primarily unchanged from Trails of Zero, it’s still an engrossing and strategic combat system that’s fun to master. Trails to Azure is easily one of the best entries in this long, storied franchise and one that shouldn’t be missed.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure is now available on PS4 and is playable on PS5 via backwards compatibility.
PR code kindly provided by publisher.