Info about The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure:

Official game description:
Following the events of Trails from Zero, the Special Support Section find themselves with new members and new duties. However, rising tensions in Crossbell along with pressure from two neighboring political powers threaten both the safety of their home, as well as the integrity of their team.  
**About**  
The story of aspiring hero Lloyd Bannings continues in Trails to Azure!  
Set just a few months after the events of Trails from Zero, a temporary peace has settled over Crossbell and the Special Support Section find themselves with newfound fame and status, thanks to their heroic actions.  
However, the peace is soon broken with the rise of multiple organizations with ulterior motives. Framing these growing tensions is the increasing pressure from the Erebonian Empire and the Republic of Calvard, with Crossbell caught between them. With the safety of their home and the foundations of their team now on the line, Lloyd and his allies must gear themselves for the threats that loom ahead. Little do they know that Crossbell will soon become the stage for a climactic conflict that will determine its future...  
**Key Features**  
The Fate of the City-State: Play through the finale of the Crossbell arc, a key thread within the Trails universe. What lies ahead for Lloyd Bannings and his ragtag squad of allies?  
Crossbell’s Finest Forces: Experience new combat features introduced by Trails to Azure, including Burst, Back Attack, and even your own customizable car. Also, meet a few familiar faces from the Trails of Cold Steel series!  
Power from the Past: Import save data from Trails from Zero for a different story experience, including additional event scenes and entirely new scenes! Also, use your save data from Trails to Azure for bonuses in the upcoming release of Trails into Reverie!

Release date: 14 Mar, 2023

Categories: RPG, Single-player Story, Turn-based Combat, Strategic Combat, Character Development, World-Building, Mini-game Collection, Vehicle Customization


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Masterpiece and Series Highlight (weight 0.99): The game is widely regarded as a masterpiece and a standout entry in the Trails series, often cited as one of the best JRPGs ever. It significantly improves upon its predecessor, Trails from Zero, in nearly every aspect, offering a more refined and engaging experience.
- Captivating and Emotional Story (weight 0.65): Players overwhelmingly praise the game's narrative, highlighting its captivating plot, emotional depth, unexpected twists, and strong character development. Many consider it one of the best stories in the JRPG genre, providing a cinematic and immersive experience.
- Satisfying Crossbell Arc Conclusion (weight 0.4): The game provides a rich, emotional, and satisfying conclusion to the Crossbell arc. Players appreciate how it ties up plot threads, deepens character relationships, and builds crucial world-building for future games, making Crossbell feel alive and its political situation compelling.
- Memorable Characters and World-Building (weight 0.32): The game features a memorable and well-developed cast of characters with complex motivations and significant personal growth. Players connect deeply with the characters, appreciating their emotional journeys, natural interactions, and the detailed world-building that makes the setting feel alive.
- Exceptional Soundtrack and Music (weight 0.25): The game's soundtrack is consistently praised as stellar, superb, and magnificent, with many tracks enhancing the gameplay experience and evoking strong emotions. Falcom's sound team is highlighted for their exceptional work, contributing to one of the best OST collections in the series.
- Improved and Strategic Combat (weight 0.24): The combat system is seen as a significant improvement over previous installments, with new mechanics like Master Quartz and the Burst system adding strategic depth and making battles more dynamic and engaging. Players enjoy the refined and fun combat experience.
- Dynamic World and Strong Dialogues (weight 0.14): The game excels in its detailed world, where NPCs have evolving dialogues that reflect story progress and contribute to a living, breathing environment. The writing is strong, balancing serious discussions with top-notch humor and charm, making dialogues consistently enjoyable.
- Strong Pacing in Later Chapters (weight 0.07): The story's pacing is particularly strong from Chapter 4 onwards, with many players becoming fully invested and experiencing significant emotional impact during this period and the final chapter.
- Charming and Detailed Art Style (weight 0.07): Despite dated graphics, the game's pixel art and visual style are appreciated for their charm, cuteness, and attention to detail. Smooth animations and a vibrant color palette contribute to a visually pleasing and enchanting experience.

Common complaints:
- Excessive and tedious dialogue (weight 0.3): Players found the sheer volume of dialogue excessive, often feeling like 'fluff' or 'padding' that slowed the game's pacing. This extensive text, combined with repetitive NPC interactions and deep lore, can be overwhelming for both newcomers and veterans, making the game feel like an interactive book.
- Disappointing and incoherent story finale (weight 0.22): The story's second half and finale were widely criticized for radical, nonsensical plot twists, abrupt resolutions, and a general lack of coherent writing. Many felt the ending undid previous developments, was rushed, or left too many questions unanswered, leading to disappointment.
- Declined quality from previous titles (weight 0.17): Compared to previous entries, particularly the Sky series and Trails from Zero, players felt the game's writing, music, and overall charm took a dip. There were criticisms of reused assets, less memorable music, and a failure to reach the narrative heights of its predecessors.
- Unbalanced and unfair difficulty spikes (weight 0.12): The game suffers from unbalanced difficulty, with frequent and sometimes unfair spikes, particularly in boss battles. Many found certain bosses, especially the final one, to be overly challenging or designed poorly, requiring specific party setups or leading to one-shot defeats.
- Important content is easily missable (weight 0.09): A significant amount of important character moments, lore, and valuable collectibles are easily missable, often hidden behind extensive NPC dialogue or specific bonding scenes. This forces players to rely on guides or risk missing crucial content, impacting character development and overall experience.
- General pacing and technical issues (weight 0.09): General issues include uneven pacing, occasional sluggish gameplay, and minor technical flaws like sound mixing. Some players also felt the game overstayed its welcome, was graphically dated, or struggled to engage them initially.
- Repetitive and unengaging dungeons (weight 0.08): Dungeons were described as repetitive and boring, lacking improvement from previous games. Issues like poorly implemented fast travel, constant gameplay interruptions, and a lack of incentive to explore fully contributed to an unfun dungeoning experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Master Quartz enhance combat depth (weight 0.28): The introduction of Master Quartz significantly deepens the combat and character customization, allowing for more diverse builds and strategic gameplay. This new system, along with the Burst mechanic, enhances the existing turn-based combat framework.
- Familiar turn-based combat system (weight 0.24): The core combat system remains a grid-based, turn-based affair, largely building upon its predecessor, Trails from Zero. While new mechanics like Master Quartz and Burst add engagement, the fundamental gameplay structure is familiar.
- Challenging late-game bosses (weight 0.16): Late-game and final bosses are notably challenging, sometimes requiring specific builds or strategies to overcome. The game offers difficulty options and a restart-with-lower-difficulty feature, but some boss mechanics, like instant-kill moves, can be frustrating.
- Improved quality-of-life features (weight 0.12): Quality-of-life improvements like a Hi-Speed mode, fast travel (including a car for the SSS), and direct save loading enhance the player experience. These features help manage the game's length and streamline exploration.
- Burst mechanic offers combat advantage (weight 0.09): The Burst mechanic is a new, powerful ability that allows players to dominate turn order and cast Arts instantly once its gauge is filled. It's often tied to climactic story moments, providing a significant tactical advantage.
- Extensive dialogue and evolving narrative (weight 0.08): The game features extensive dialogue and a rich narrative, with NPC stories evolving alongside the main plot. While a skip button exists, using it risks missing much of the game's charm and detailed world-building.
- Replayability with New Game+ (weight 0.08): The game offers replayability, including New Game+ with additional content and super bosses. However, the bond system limits players to one final bonding event per playthrough, encouraging multiple runs to see all character stories.
- New characters and expanded party (weight 0.06): Several new playable characters and companions are introduced, expanding the party roster. The game also includes character-specific Crafts and a bond system, allowing for powerful combo attacks.
- Detailed visuals and rich lore (weight 0.04): The game is praised for its detailed sprite work, beautifully rendered backgrounds, and deep lore. The world, though small, is well-designed and contributes to the overall immersive experience.
- Includes various mini-games (weight 0.04): The game incorporates various mini-games, such as 'Pom!' and 'Horror Coaster,' which serve as breaks from the main story. Player reception to these mini-games is mixed.

Performance notes:
- Excellent Steam Deck optimization (weight 0.08): Players are highly satisfied with the game's robust Steam Deck support, noting excellent performance, dedicated settings, and extended battery life. The inclusion of trackpad navigation and button icons further enhances the portable experience.
- Extensive display options (weight 0.08): The PC port is praised for its comprehensive display options, including full ultrawide support, 4K resolution, and high refresh rates up to 144 FPS. This allows for a visually enhanced and smooth gameplay experience on various monitors.
- Minor issues with older versions (weight 0.01): One user noted that the Chinese version with the Geofront patch experienced occasional screen flickering and imprecise mouse control. This suggests potential issues with specific older versions or fan patches.
- Consistent dialogue box assets (weight 0.01): A minor detail noted is that the dialogue boxes utilize Joyoland assets, which is a stylistic choice consistent with previous titles like Trails in the Sky.

Recommendations:
- Play 'Trails from Zero' first (weight 0.52): Players overwhelmingly recommend playing 'Trails from Zero' before 'Trails to Azure' as it is a direct sequel and essential for understanding the story. Many also suggest playing the entire 'Trails in the Sky' trilogy for full context, emphasizing that 'Trails to Azure' is not a suitable starting point for the series.
- Use guides for missables (weight 0.04): Players suggest using guides or walkthroughs to ensure they don't miss any hidden quests, items, dialogue, or events. This is particularly recommended for those who want to experience all the content and connections the game offers.
- Support developers for future games (weight 0.04): Players express strong emotional attachment to the Crossbell duology and excitement for future installments. They also encourage purchasing the game to support the developers and ensure faster localization of upcoming titles.

Other player notes:
- Gratitude for Geofront localization (weight 0.1): Players express immense gratitude to the Geofront team and Scott KillScottKill for their fan translation efforts, which were instrumental in making the official Western release possible. The quality of the Geofront patch's translation is highly praised.
- Lengthy and complex experience (weight 0.09): The game is quite lengthy, with playtimes often exceeding 55-70 hours, even without completing all achievements. Its complexity can be daunting for newcomers without prior series knowledge.
- Sets up Cold Steel arc (weight 0.07): The game heavily teases and sets up events for the subsequent Trails of Cold Steel arc, with some scenes even hinting at its chronology relative to Cold Steel 2 and 3. The ending of Azure may contain spoilers for Cold Steel 2.
- Engaging side quests and voice acting (weight 0.07): The game offers a visual novel-like experience with engaging side quests that enrich the city and its inhabitants. While voice acting is only in Japanese, it significantly enhances the overall experience.
- Reused locations, spoiler risk (weight 0.04): Most locations are reused from the previous title, and while a 'Prehistory' menu offers summaries of prior games, its character section contains spoilers. Replayability is primarily for re-experiencing the duology.
- Legacy versions and remake hopes (weight 0.04): Some players played the PSP version on Vita, noting its Japanese voice acting. There's a wish for a remake to address potential ending issues, similar to previous Trails in the Sky remakes. This feedback is based on limited and somewhat nostalgic points.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.33): Players felt satisfied by the game's high overall quality, particularly its compelling and well-developed story, engaging world-building, and memorable characters. Improvements to the combat system and quality-of-life features, along with a strong conclusion to the arc, also contributed significantly to this positive emotion.
- Excitement (weight 0.18): Excitement stemmed from the game's captivating story, which featured unexpected twists and a thrilling plot, especially during its epic finale. The rich world-building, engaging side quests, and anticipation for future arcs also generated significant enthusiasm among players.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment arose from perceived declines in story quality, such as plot twists feeling alien or a lack of nuance, and some sloppy execution in the first part of the finale. Other causes included slow pacing, overwhelming text for newcomers, and a rushed ending with unresolved plot points.
- Frustration (weight 0.07): Frustration was primarily caused by old issues like the lack of fast travel, illogical plot twists, and excessive fluff dialogue. Players also expressed frustration with difficulty spikes, missable content, aggravating bosses, and repetitive gameplay elements.
- Admiration (weight 0.06): Admiration was driven by the brilliant writing, deep character development, and the creators' talent in crafting a consistent, high-quality series. Players also admired the game's attention to detail in world-building, its emotional story, and its incredible soundtrack.
- Joy (weight 0.05): Joy was experienced through the game's emotional roller coaster, excellent new heroes, and amazing music. Players also found joy in the overall quality of the game, its cast, setting, and the emotional impact of key characters like KeA.
- Appreciation (weight 0.04): Players appreciated modern features, improved pacing, and the narrative importance of the finale chapter. The quality of the port, refined graphics, and the addition of master quartz were also significant factors, alongside gratitude for NIS America's partnership with the Geofront team for the Western release.
- Love (weight 0.01): Love for the game was a profound emotion, primarily driven by the overall experience, the compelling story, and the well-developed characters of the Crossbell arc. Many players expressed a deep affection for the series as a whole.
- Affection (weight 0.01): Affection was felt towards specific characters, particularly KeA, and the gorgeous main character cast. Players also developed a strong attachment to the game's characters and its immersive world.
- Sadness (weight 0.01): Sadness was primarily caused by the emotional experience of parting with beloved characters and saying goodbye to the duology. The end of the 2.5D art style also contributed to this feeling.
- Gratitude (weight 0.01): Gratitude was expressed towards the Geofront team and individuals like Scott for their significant contributions to the game's official Western release and making it accessible to a wider audience.
- Awe (weight 0.01): Awe was inspired by the game's epic and impactful story, intense final chapter, and overall high quality and craftsmanship. Mind-blowing plot twists also contributed to this sense of wonder.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement came from humorous elements within the game, such as witty chest phrases, specific character dialogue (like Wazy's), and enjoying famous lines delivered with full voice acting.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise was generated by unexpected story twists and the game exceeding players' expectations regarding its narrative and overall quality.
- Happiness (weight 0.01): Happiness was derived from the game's excellent PC port and settings, its engaging music, atmosphere, and daily conversations. The recognition of Geofront's work also brought happiness to players.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance stemmed from issues like haphazard AI upscaling, obscure missables that necessitated multiple playthroughs, and problems with grind and pacing.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation was felt for future games in the series, particularly the desire to play the next arc and the hope for further developments like Burst evolution.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.01): Enjoyment was a general positive feeling derived from the game's engaging combat, fantastic story, memorable characters, and excellent music.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope was expressed for the future popularity of the series, faster release schedules for future titles, and the inclusion of in-game settings in subsequent games.
- Reflection (weight 0): Reflection was prompted by the game's emotional and existential impact, particularly concerning the ending and the overall journey experienced throughout the game.}