Trails from Zero is my favourite Trails game, and after playing the official western release of the game, my opinion remains unmoved. Sky SC and Sky 3rd were special games to me, but there's something about the SSS section that sets it apart from the Liberl folks' dynamics.

The Special Support Section is a solid team, with a good leader. For almost the entire game, Lloyd was trying to get away from the shadow of his brother. At the same time, he tried to fill Guy's shoes both as a renown detective and a person who is revered by his peers. I feel a certain satisfaction in knowing that Lloyd is a mature and well-rounded character I have come to expect from a protagonist of Kiseki series.

One of the themes presented in Zero is progress (or change) and how we shouldn't be afraid of it if we want to experience better lives for ourselves. For instance, Randy is a complex character despite his carefree and womanising exterior. He escaped a life of violence and tried to remake himself into someone who lives in the moment, enjoying the company of the ladies and Crossbell's nightlife to the fullest. He is a prime example of someone who isn't afraid of change but at the same time, he hides behind his carefree exterior because he ultimately hates the person he once was.

As any metropolitan cities in the real world, Crossbell also shared the same type of problems, namely: organised crime and corruption. There's obviously an argument to be made that these issues are just a pale imitation of their real-world counterpart, however; the idea behind it is still very relevant, and the solution is as complex. The confrontation between Revache and Heiyue affects the lives of people of Crossbell in the same way that organised crime is affecting people in a real city.

And of course, the total disregard of the authority of CPD due to corruption at the highest level of government which has rendered the police force essentially toothless, leading to public distrust. The SSS team spent most of the game trying to regain this trust back, not only for the good of the city, but also motivated by their personal drives. Lloyd is trying to fill his brother's shoes by being a remarkable detective people can rely on. Elie knows that getting rid of Crossbell's corruption has to start with regaining the public trust. Randy and Tio considers Crossbell their adoptive homes and felt certain affection towards it like Lloyd and Elie does.

The pulse of the city itself is directly reflected on its citizens. The diversity of the location and the people it occupies presents a very real place which feels lived-in. For example, the Downtown District is occupied by blue-collar labourers, struggling artist, immigrants, and neighbourhood gangs. West Street is where middle-class citizens live, with upscale apartments, retired bureaucrats and entertainers, and also a safe neighbourhood for children to play on the street. East Street is an analogue for Chinatown, with market stalls lining up the street, eastern restaurant and cheap apartments can be found in there. The Residential street is where the aristocrats live, new money intermixing with old money, essentially the Crossbellan ruling class and the privileged.

The issues faced by Crossbellans are also reflected in the variety of side quests. Although most of them are mundane tasks such as tracking down overdue library books or rescuing lost pets, there are a few quests which highlighted urban crimes, such as smuggling, counterfeiting and thievery as a result of social divide/poverty. I feel that these types of quests go a long way to make Crossbell feels like a living, breathing city.

One last thing I shouldn't fail to mention is the soundtrack. While obviously, you have several really powerful tracks such as Intense Chase, Limit Break and A Light Illuminating The Depths, most of the time the SSS team will be travelling from one point to another. The town themes and dungeon themes are really excellent as well. They are very rich in texture while retaining some of the motifs we're already familiar with from the Sky trilogy. They are mostly composed by Saki Momiyama and Hayato Sonoda. Tracks such as Geofront and On The Green Road are very upbeat, while Mining Village of Mainz, Lemonade in Hand and Tomorrow Is Another Day sounds very relaxing. And finally, tracks such as Fulfilled Feelings and The Wind from Liberl are very touching and filled with nostalgia, and especially for The Wind from Liberl, fans of Sky Trilogy will definitely appreciate this track.

Overall, I feel it's a very enjoyable and memorable entry in the Trails series, filled with many loveable characters with depth and great storytelling I've come to expect from Falcom. I probably have said it often enough, but The Geofront and PH3's work on this game is really something special. They are fans of this game, and it shows in every aspect of this official release. I might not agree with some of NISA's localisation choices in the game, and some text bugs remain unpatched at the time when this review is written, but my overall experience remains positive.

Barrier Crushed/10. Will play again before Azure release next year!

While CS4 is pretty much a more polished experience compared to previous entries, the game is not without its share of issues in terms of narrative. The bonding system has long overstayed its welcome, and the implementation has barely changed since its inception in Trails from Zero, for better or worse. Despite its shortcomings, the game is still as enjoyable to play as ever, with its PC features as the gold standard upon which all Japanese PC ports should aspire to achieve. In terms of content size, it is still a behemoth that took me months to (nearly) complete. Its soundtrack and NPC subnarratives remain the absolute highlight of the series, although I feel certain characters' aspirations will be served better if not directly tied into shallow romance options which do the entire game a disservice.