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.
There is no question that Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is worthy of being re-released on modern platforms. Upon its original 2010 release on the PSP, it earned rightful accolades for its novel approach to worldbuilding, its gameplay loop that mostly revolved around a single city (more on this in a moment), deep character building, and complex combat that felt more like action-strategy than traditional turn-based combat. It, along with its Trails to Azure sequel, comprised the Crossbell RPG duology that eventually feeds into Trails of Cold Steel. Back in 2022, it was finally allowed out of its PSP-exclusivity jail and released onto the OG Switch, PS4, and PC with a smattering of enhancements and graphical updates to bring it mostly up to par with modern RPGs.
Fast forward to today…and Trails from Zero is about to be re-released again on the Nintendo Switch 2. At this point, I’d be hard pressed to find players who want to play this game on relatively modern hardware who haven’t yet done so four years ago. Its $40 individual price and $70 bundle deal (along with Trails to Azure) seem compelling for being the same prices as the older versions, but what’s more compelling is that the Switch 2 version comes with support for up to 120fps and mouse controls. If you haven’t already played it, you’re probably best off getting the newest version just so you can experience the best version of this classic game.
But, I’m left thinking that perhaps Trails from Zero needed a full remake treatment rather than a glorified reskin that takes better advantage of hardware. Trails from Zero on the Nintendo Switch 2 shows its age with its “enhanced” graphics that border skeumorphic, massive lore dumps that would make Kojima blush, unskippable cutscenes, traditional RPG grinding, and fast travel that takes too long to unlock. The high speed mode (which is a must-enable, by the way) does some heavy lifting in whittling some of the game time down, but there are too few levers that assist those wanting a quicker-than-usual replay.
Lloyd Bannings and his Special Support Section (SSS) crew take center stage right from the jump. They’re put in a position of unofficial power, expected to function as full-on law enforcement, all the while taking on fetch quest after fetch quest as though they were Fiverr freelancers. As political tensions mount between rival city factions that apparently share a common goal, I cannot help but see similarities between the in-game world and current events. I digress, the storytelling effortlessly weaves together charming moments, irreverence (mainly from one of Lloyd’s companions, Randy Orlando), and conundrums. By the final chapter, virtually every plotline will be wrapped up in a satisfactory fashion.
Moving onto the combat, Trails from Zero blends turn-based combat with top-down grid battles. Positioning and managing cooldowns are part of the decisionmaking process alongside casting special skills (called “arts” and “crafts”). It’s a good spin on traditional turn-based combat that makes things more tactical. To make things more complex, the Orbment system allows for flexible character building that modifies stats. It shares similarities with Final Fantasy’s Materia system, but with a greater degree of variety that isn’t hindered by requiring the player to commit to something early on.
Much of the game takes place within the city state of Crossbell. It’s strange by today’s standards, especially knowing how recent games instill regional variety within the context of protagonists traveling far and wide on a grand adventure. Crossbell’s multiple districts sprawl in every direction, all of them containing secrets and treasures that reward players trained on poking and prodding in-game worlds. The prologue felt flat-out overwhelming when I was tasked with visiting every single district, only to find that each district felt like cities in and of themselves. If you hate Bethesda-level open world fatigue, Trails from Zero will feel like fresh air. There is so much to discover and tackle in the form of main quests and errands (the game calls them “Support Requests”), I just wish that there was a better way for me to keep track of it all without turning to a Gamefaqs guide.
I often prefer playing classic RPGs on my Nintendo Switch because of how their simple grindiness and deep stories distract from the boredom of being in a confined space. I spent two back-to-back trips playing Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, making 4+ hour flights feel like minutes. For Trails from Zero, the story and music kept me fully engaged. Chores and grind aside, Trails from Zero is a solid choice for an RPG lover or a Trails fan looking to experience the earlier titles.
My only real reservations with Trails from Zero on the Nintendo Switch 2 is its lack of novel features. Luckily it’s being released at the same price point as the older Switch version, but I’m not fully convinced that the mouse input adds anything meaningful to the core gameplay experience. The higher framerate is noticeable, yes, but it would be better appreciated in a game where visuals take more of a center stage. Either way, you can’t go wrong with the Nintendo Switch 2 version. It ran great, it didn’t egregiously drain my battery life, and it was a joy to play.
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.
