Recent reviews by kirby 2: die harder

I just finished the three Trails in the Sky games recently, and it was mostly coincidence that I finished them so close to this one's release. TL;DR, Trails from Zero is a phenomenal JRPG and a top-notch entry in the Trails series, and you should stop reading this review and play it ASAP.

I love JRPGs. If you love them, you're doing yourself a disservice by not sitting down and playing the Trails games until your eyes are bloodshot and your pants are fused to your chair. The characters, story, sidequests, and worldbuilding are honestly some of the best in any game series I've ever played, and the fact that I can play four of these sons of guns in a row without playing anything else in-between should speak to how special they are. The sidequest design honestly reminds me a bit of The Witcher 3's, if not quite in terms of writing in terms of their effect on the characters you interact with. Gameplay's fun too, but fast-forward mode and art/SP skip button will definitely be your best friend once you've been in a few battles. Seen one "Ore no ban da na!", seen them all.

If you don't like JRPGs, Trails won't change your mind. If you do, even a little, you owe it to yourself and the hardworking fans and developers to play these games by whatever avenue possible. Zero is maybe not the best way to start because of how much it references the Trails in the Sky trilogy and in some ways serves as something of an epilogue to stories from those games, but you won't be missing anything absolutely crucial to the plot if you start here. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of a dub as I've heard the Cold Steel dubs are fantastic, but the Japanese voice acting is excellent, and the lack of Vita-exclusive sidequests means we'll probably never see a Zero release with those quests in them officially in the west, which is by no means awful, more slightly disappointing.

In conclusion, 0/10, not enough Olivier.

Definitely one of the best RPGs I've played in a while, and the best Tales game I've played since Abyss. The characters aren't re-inventing the wheel, they're just fun with enough of a sort of meta-commentary to not be too stale. Combat is fun too, if a bit repetitive once you've unlocked a lot of the artes. Overall, high recommend.

I put 75 hours into the original Binding of Isaac, 25 into Rebirth on the Vita, and another 40 into Rebirth on PC. Safe to say, I love this game. The variety, the atmosphere, all of it comes together for a breakneck and still subtly paced experience that keeps me coming back so often.