|OT| The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure | The Rise and Fall of The City of Sin

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
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Downunder.









Welcome to the Metacouncil's Official Thread of Trails to Azure! I'm sure you all have played the first half of the duology, right? No? There will be spoilers abound, so please consider heading back to my Zero OT or play the game to completion! We'll hope to see you again soon!

Late last year, we followed The Special Support Section's growth from Crossbell PD's black sheep to a household name. In Azure, we will follow the SSS at the peak of their career, dealing not only with low-level public issues, but also lending their hand to the highest level of Crossbell's government. Set just a few months after the events of Trails from Zero, a temporary peace is soon broken with the rise of multiple organisations with ulterior motives. As a buffer state between Erebonian Empire and the Republic of Calvard, Crossbell is soon caught in the heightened geopolitical tension in the region. At the forefront of this brewing conflict, the SSS will play a major role in determining the fate of the region, while also dealing with their own personal circumstances.







Store page, soundtrack and merchs:






Save Data Transfer




Starting a new game with a clear save data from Trails from Zero will earn several starting bonuses in the form of items, among other things. Clear data character levels, Bond levels, Fishing and Detective Ranks and learned Combo Crafts can be carried over. Additionally, some dialogue in Trails to Azure will change depending on what support requests you have completed and which NPCs you have met in Trails from Zero.



Pom! Pom! Party!




If you're already familiar with Puyo Puyo Tetris, the gameplay in this mini-game will seem oddly familiar. Do consider speaking to NPCs and completing their requests in order to challenge them in this mini-game to become Crossbell's top Pom Master!. The reward of completing this mini-game is one of the strongest items in the game.



Enigma II




The latest evolution of Battle Orbment developed by the Epstein Foundation, Enigma II feature a special quartz called a 'master quartz' can be placed in the centre of an Enigma, allowing its user to activate more than twenty powerful new arts. Completing battles with a master quartz will refine and enhance it over time, eventually earning a special art known as a master art. These artes are the strongest attacks in the game. Hence, only by completing certain high-level requests that the master quartz can be earned.






The Crossbell State


Crossbell Police Academy




Lloyd is a graduate of this school. This academy is a school for police recruits located in the Knox Forest southwest of Crossbell City. In addition to instructing general law enforcement personnel, the academy also provides lessons for handling police vehicles, as well as training for detectives and forensic officers awaiting certification. There are also a variety of administrative facilities on the premises, such as a prison and a training area for the Crossbell Guardian Force.

Orchis Tower




The new crown jewel of Crossbell City which also serves as its new City Hall, this building is located in the northern side of Crossbell City. At 40 stories tall, it is the first skyscraper in the history of the continent. Built as a hub for Crossbell's administration, it is also intended to serve as a centre of international dialogue and trade in western Zemuria. Its development was financed by IBC, and was under construction during the events of Trails from Zero. Finally, its construction was completed, and the building unveiled shortly after new mayor Dieter Crois took office.

Mishelam Wonderland




Tio's own slice of paradise, this is a theme park built on the other end of Lake Elm from Crossbell City. Its many attractions, such as the ferris wheel and the Horror Coaster, make it one of the state's most popular tourist destinations alongside Arc en Ciel. A place of respite among the busy days of SSS, MWL is a magical place where memories are made eternal.






Women Who Changed the World


NOTE: this section contains minor spoilers to some of the most important characters in Azure.


Mireille





A Warrant Officer of Crossbell Guardian Force at Bellguard Gate and former colleague of Randy. Bright and hardworking, Mireille kept her unit together despite the incompetence of their former commander. She has negative feelings about Randy's departure from the CGF.

Sonya Baelz




Formerly the deputy commander of Crossbell Guardian Force at Tangram Gate, she is a calm, collected, and intelligent ranking officer who assisted the SSS during the events of Trails from Zero. After the resignation of her disreputable predecessor, she took his place as commander of the Crossbell Guardian Force. Sonya strives to reform the CGF while also preparing for the potential threat of the two major powers bordering Crossbell.

Rixia Mao




Ilya Platiere's protégé, she is an up-and-coming performer who made her glorious stage debut in Trails from Zero. Her true identity is that of Yin, a skilled xiongshou--or assassin--who is feared throughout the Republic's Eastern Quarter.

Kilika Rouran




Kilika was formerly a receptionist at the Zeiss branch of the Liberlian Bracer Guild. She is also a master of Taito, an Eastern martial art. She is serving as the head of the Republic's intelligence division: The Rocksmith Agency. Furthermore, she meets the SSS in Trails from Zero under the guise of an entertainment industry producer and helps them resolve the incident in Crossbell, though seemingly for her own separate purpose.

Arianrhod




Formerly known as the Steel Maiden, she is known to have a noble personality and the disposition of a warrior, having been raised since birth to be a knight.






Screenshots









 
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QFNS

Plays too many card games
Nov 18, 2018
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Best Trails game? Time to find out, and this time with a translation that is up the quality level of the other entries.
 
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Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Amazing OP, Kvik . really appreciate the amount of work you put into the Trails OPs here on Meta.
Best Trails game? Time to find out, and this time with a translation that is up the quality level of the other entries.
It's the best Trails game for me so far (not having finished CS IV; currently playing it). I will say that I also really liked Zero before it, so my opinion might be different from the "main stream", where I got the impression Zero was received with pretty mixed impressions.
 
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Shantom

Junior Member
Mar 17, 2021
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Best Trails game. Wish they'd go back to this sort of style, it's clear they're struggling to pace fully 3D worlds
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,120
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Nice thread! Looking forward to it :pikkardblanket:

Durante how does the save game transfer work with the Deck?
Does Zero need to be installed, is there some manual copying involved (since each game has it's own virtual filesystem iirc), does it pull it directly from the cloud,...?
 
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Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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Sadly, it doesn't work natively/automatically on Deck.

You can either do it on Windows PC, or manually copy. Sadly there's no Steam API yet to punch through the game isolation in Proton.
 

sanhora

Baldr Sky
Dec 7, 2018
387
1,439
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Best Trails game? Time to find out, and this time with a translation that is up the quality level of the other entries.
It's definitely one of the best ones and has incredibly high highs, but I would say temper your expectations a little since some of the story stuff is kind of dumb.
The final stretch is way too long and the main villains and their motivations are dumb as hell which takes it down several notches for me. I still prefer Sky as a whole but I'm so glad Crossbell is finally officially available in full and on several platforms. One step closer to making the series even more accessible and popular here in the west.
 
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Arsene

On a break
Apr 17, 2019
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Canada

 
OP
Kvik

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
I booted the game for a few minutes. It detected my Geofront Azure clear save, but it doesn't detect the carryover flags from the SYSTEM save.

I can make a new Geofront Azure NG+ save and imported it just fine, but obviously it doesn't have the achievements/flags from the NISA Zero.

EDIT: I suppose I can just import a save from just before the final boss and make a fresh clear save. That's the job for tonight, I think. :flare_lmao:
 
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Dec 5, 2018
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I got it to work.
By loading the the save before the final boss (save again) then load the NG+ save, get to the first point when you can save then exit to the main menu and that made the extras menu appear (which let me buy the carry over option).
 
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OP
Kvik

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
Steam Deck Zero save imports should now "just work", and importing data from the Geofront/Joyoland version can no longer prevent you from unlocking achievements.
Great work as always!

Although, the book collector achievement is not unlocking for me, despite being present and included in the carryover. Not a big deal since I can just look up Zoelius' guide to make sure I don't miss it.



 
OP
Kvik

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
Spent the weekend playing up to the end of Chapter 2.

Up to this point, Osborne remain one of the best Trails antagonists Falcom has ever conceived. I think one of his most brilliant plans to undermine Crossbell's position in the region was largely contributed by the two intelligence leads from either side of the border. Both sides knew there will be an attack. They knew all the actors. They knew how it all will advance down to the smallest detail, and they acted the playbook accordingly while still keeping SSS in the dark, despite Kloe and Olivert's involvement. It's so well executed that there's almost zero chance that this stratagem will fail. Even with Campy's tendencies of being an agent of chaos and disseminating Orchis Tower's floor plan, the deck is still stacked against SSS' best efforts.

This isn't even my first time playing, and I'm still in awe of this devious plan. Of course, Osborne at this point didn't know what Dieter was cooking behind the scenes, but it's still within his margin of error, as we will soon see in the later chapters.
 
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SaberVS7

Average Date a Live Enjoyer
Jan 23, 2020
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I'm curious - In the Steam Deck UI this is marked as Incompatible - Error on Valve's part, or should I use GE when I get around to this?
 
Dec 5, 2018
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So I've found a bug.
In chapter 3 Day 4. If I try to buy a copy of Crossbell times anything, the game crashes.

I thought It might be a deck related problem, but it also happens on my desktop.
E: It happens in any save. Even If I load old saves :dizzy-face:
E2: Durante (not sure if this is the best way to send you this) I've uploaded my dmp file. I'm so confused with this, for some reason in any of my saves (doesn't matter how far back i go the game crashes when I try to buy stuff)
It feels like it doesn't show the "popup" where you choose how many units you want. Maybe you guys already knew this, but just in case.

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Final Edit: It only happens when I load straight from the latest save. If I launch the game normally and then load it works just fine.
 
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Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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Sorry about that - this bug will be fixed in the next version. It would probably also be "fixed" (not really, but not show up) in a prior version. It's a legacy issue which surfaces when the game tries to unlock too many in-game "records" at once.

Also, Azure is now Deck verified. At least the retesting didn't take too long, though I still don't fully agree with the original decision (given how well the game works on Deck and even has 16:10, UI scaling and Deck-specific prompts, compared to some other verified games).

 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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curi0usBystander, do let me know if you can still reproduce the crash in this version.
 
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OP
Kvik

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
The satisfaction in getting a perfect score during Sully's dance training mini-game is immeasurable.

:flare_bath: :flare_bath: :flare_bath:
 
OP
Kvik

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
No idea what Falcom was smoking when they designed that without the ability to try again. That was added by Geofront, and kept in the official release.
The lack of turbo mode combined with the fact that there is some conversation before and after the mini-game preventing the player to retry it quickly, the PSP version was certainly an exercise in frustration.

The Horror Coaster mini-game is another source of frustration, since it can't be restarted mid-game if we miss a target. Although in this particular case I don't care enough about getting 3 stars since there's no extra DP involved. :flare_lmao:
 
Dec 5, 2018
1,545
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2021:
...
Also
2023:

:steam_pigblanket:



It's cool to play the game knowing where the story goes (and will go later). But I still don't like locking content to NG+ in such long games.
Sure they're just a bunch of hard enemies (although i find the last one easier than rest). but still.
 
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