The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure is a jRPG from the popular The Legend of Heroes series. It is a direct sequel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero. The game, like all other installments of the brand, was developed by Nihon Falcom studio, known for the Ys series as well.

Plot

The story begins several months after the events of The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero. The game's action again takes place mainly in the city-state of Crossbell. Two new recruits join the SSS, the special police section known from the previous part - an army major named Noel Seeker and former gangster Waza Hemisphere.

The plot tells of a showdown between two neighboring empires that are trying to take control of Crossbell. To make matters worse, local forces are also fighting increasingly brutal battles with each other for power in the city. Police officer Lloyd Bannings, known from the previous part, together with other law enforcement officers, will have to once again control the chaos in the metropolis and ensure the safety of its residents.

Game mechanics

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure expands on the ideas from Trails from Zero. Thus, we get a classic jRPG, in which we explore the world, complete quests, develop the team and fight numerous battles. The fun is varied by numerous mini-games.

Clashes are played in a turn-based system and allow you to give orders to a team of several players. Each hero has his own abilities and weapons, and the whole thing was developed so that achieving success requires good cooperation between characters.

Compared to the previous part, a burst bar has been introduced into battles, which slowly fills up during skirmishes. When it reaches the maximum, the whole team gains an extra turn of action and loses all negative statuses (such as poisoning), and the use of special techniques is free. Another new feature is the ability to modify and upgrade the car the heroes use to travel around the city.

Game modes

The game has a single-player mode only.

Technical aspects

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure features simple but attractive graphics, which combine three-dimensional locations with two-dimensional characters.

An added attraction is the ability to import saved game states from The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero, which provides access to additional scenes in the campaign.