The Legend Of Heroes: Trails To Azure Review

After last year’s pretty darn decent The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero, it is now time to close out the Crossbell saga of Lloyd Banning and the political conspiracies embroiling the Special Support Section of the Crossbell City police force. The closing of this newcomer-friendly duology within the broader continuity of The Legend of Heroes saga, Trails To Azure sets a gold standard for focused storytelling as part of a far greater and more ambitious meta-narrative. Come for the story, and stay for the challenging and varied turn-based combat that safely sits among some of the genre’s best.

As a quick refresher, Zero introduced us to the SSS and the city of Crossbell. A technologically advanced city-state that operates autonomously between two increasingly polarised bordering empires to the east and west. Protagonist Lloyd Bannings’ core team from the previous game is much more fluid this time around, with familiar faces like Randy and Tio often going about their journeys outside of the party. As a result, infamous side characters like the effeminate gang leader Wazy join the cause, adding a welcome sardonic and indiscriminately flirtatious dynamic into the mix. The party composition rotates out steadily between chapters, with an emphasis on powerful and unique partner combos synergising between the changing faces of the party. 

Mighty Morphin Power Chookens

Azure picks up shortly after the previous game’s confrontation with a mysterious and malevolent cult operating in the shadows of Crossbell with vague political affiliations. Azure works best as a kind of ‘disc two’ companion to its predecessor, with the vast majority of locations, abilities, and characters shared between the two games of the Crossbell arc. It doesn’t hurt that the sharp graphical charm and chibi-esque character models evoke the best-looking isometric Japanese RPGs to grace the PlayStation One toward the end of its lifespan.

Tails To Azure welcomes returning players with a warm embrace. There are no early hours spinning tyres and grinding before characters feel powerful and fights begin to get more dynamic than simply spamming basic attack commands to mow down turn-based monster encounters found on the highways orbiting Crossbell. Unlike other franchise sequels of the era, Azure makes no effort to nerf these characters as they begin their new chapter. Developers Nihon Falcom appreciate that players have already invested at least 40 hours in this saga already, so why not take that experience and have these characters reflect the prowess and powers developed during their journey thus far. 

While the initial chapter is very much about checking in with how these characters and this city have handled the scandals and disruption from the previous game, the story comes to a boil deep into its second chapter, leveraging Trails’ focused character narrative to deliver a surprise denouement to the Cold War simmering on the continent of Zemuria. Crossbell, every bit an important character in this narrative despite being a mere location, plays host to a meeting of the bordering rival nations. Lloyd and co. are tasked with providing security at a meeting of dignitaries and national leaders. Needless to say, things go south and the nations collide.

God, Luna Park sucks

While the three distinct mainline localised sagas of The Legend of Heroes can be accessed independently of one another, Azure’s second chapter very much pays off for those players who have completed the preceding trilogy beginning with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in The Sky. World-changing events and the resulting complications take the spotlight when the power players of the neighbouring nations make themselves known in Crossbell. Rumours spread about monsters appearing in the skies of neighbouring nations, and characters are referenced whom newcomers likely won’t have any references to. Luckily the game makes sure to include the necessary glossaries and recaps in the main menu. Yet as a series novice myself who has played some of Trails in The Sky, I was left slightly cold as to the consequences of some events and dramatic story beats that either resulted from the previous trilogy or were sown as plot threads to eventually explode in the subsequent Trails From Cold Steel quadrilogy. 

For the uninitiated reading this review, jumping into Tales From Azure would be akin to jumping into the midpoint of a sprawling epic franchise like Star Wars, but without any reference point. All these plot threads seemingly run parallel between the various Trails sagas, and collide in such an explosive manner as to astound series fans and leave curious newcomers stunned and baffled. By the game’s end, the various reference points and growing plot threads are staggering but will pay off massively for those willing to invest as they might in a series like the enormous Wheel of Time or Song of Ice and Fire books.

Nuns & Orbments

As an RPG, it is best to view the gameplay primarily in service to its story. Much joy can be had from the simple act of travelling this world and talking to random citizens and shopkeepers, especially as most are returning faces who belong in this lived-in world. The gameplay has always been reliably decent turn-based tactics fare which genre fans will easily pick up, but it is generally slow-paced and already showing its age fairly early, especially considering it is but the fifth main entry in the nearly dozen-strong series. The writing, however, is timeless. This world is extensive and its canon spans hundreds of hours, with the consequences of each title’s denouement woven into the world-state of the next. 

For a remastered port localised in the West for the first time, there is a range of settings, UI adjustments, transition animations and more. Godsend features such as a fast-forward toggle for the slower moments of combat mean that the game’s age demands less patience, and overall it looks and sounds as ideal as one could expect of a PSP title that is 12 years old. On top of that is the fact that all the main story’s dialogue is fully voiced terrifically, making this a package that will preserve well for future audiences and ensure the best performance possible.

Tsun-tsun-tsundere

Minor criticisms and weak points are present in this otherwise outstanding sequel, and those bugbears will simply be too much for some players. The first 20 hours, a relatively small investment for some JRPG veterans, are familiar and grounded in the same locations and relationships of the first game. Weapons, abilities, and plot beats cover much of the same territory as well, for the most part. The SSS will still play the role of community handy folk, searching for lost cats and solving rental disputes. Super mundane shit. Things do take a sharp left turn around the 25-hour mark, setting up for a dark and focused journey into a proxy war that erupts on the SSS’ home turf of the sovereign Crossbell. Heck, even eye-rolling perverted stereotypes such as Randy are deepened and ironed out by the appearance of his cutthroat mercenary family. But that early 20 hours and the familiar monotony of events it entails will simply be too large a pill to swallow for many curious players.

Final Thoughts 

For players curious to see what the epic, acclaimed saga of The Legend of Heroes is all about, I could not recommend the Crossbell saga enough. It has the least demanding playtime, the most focused storyline, and maybe even the best writing of the lot. But despite this, players are still looking at a combined 75 hours or more for the most memorable moments of this saga to occur, held back by iterative combat, slow pacing, and meandering quests.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch // Review code supplied by publisher

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