Video Game / The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

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The beginning of the second arc of the Trails Series after the Trails in the Sky trilogy, The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero^note 英雄伝説 零の軌跡 (Eiyuu Densetsu: Zero no Kiseki) in Japan moves the setting to the bright lights of the wealthy-but-corrupt city of Crossbell. Four rookie cops are enlisted to improve the police's reputation by joining a new division, called the Special Support Section. Of course, it doesn't stop there...

One of the game's unique points in comparison to the rest of Trails is its intense focus on Crossbell City as a setting. Unlike the other arcs in the series, which have the player bounce around a number of different cities across a country, Crossbell City is gigantic and makes up a substantial portion ^note Crossbell City itself makes up about 50-60% of the explorable area of the entire game. While you will eventually leave the city limits to travel to other parts of the wider Crossbell State, these all really serve as "suburbs" of the city and the focus is on Crossbell City itself, in all its grand, towering, corrupt, decadent glory. When combined with series staples like orbments (this series' equivalent of technology), it creates a fairly unique "Urban Fantasy in The '50s" atmosphere. The only really comparable games would be the Shin Megami Tensei games, and even then there's a lot of differences in tone and content.

The game was first released in Japan on September 30, 2010 for the PlayStation Portable and later got two Updated Rereleases: one for the PlayStation Vita which features full voice acting, remastered music and other little quirks and one for the PlayStation 4, which remains faithful to the original but features the full voice acting from the Vita version. This version would later be ported on September 27, 2022 for the PC and Nintendo Switch for international audiences, with a Japanese version being released on August 31, 2023. It would later be ported to the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, set to be released in Fall 2026.

A sequel titled The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure was released in 2011. A Drama CD titled "Road to the Future" that serves as an Interquel between the end of Zero and the start of Azure has also been released. A subbed version has been released online.

This game provides examples of:

• Abandoned Laboratory: Any location the D∴G cult has left behind is one of these by definition and that means that they tend to house various demons summoned by the cult, as well as monsters that used to be human before Gnosis was used on them.
• Abandoned Mine: There are two mines in Mainz, one of which has been shut down and can only be entered in the second game. It's the first area where you observe higher-dimensional phenomena at work in the form of the very first Cryptid.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: The Final Boss at level 45. The limit is 50. The Super Boss is at level 50. The SSS can reach that level after defeating it due to massive amounts of Experience Points gained, making the rest of the game a joke.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Geofront complex is a high-tech combination of sewage treatment and recycling, power distribution and the location for all the cabling and many access terminals for the experimental Orbal Network. It's designed on a large scale to permit easy access, repair and expansion.
• Achievement Mockery: In Zero, a chest in Sun Fort - Second Stratum taunts players who read the chest messages hoping for one.
  You know there's no achievement for reading all of these, right?
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The remakes of Zero and Azure have cameo appearances of Juna and her family here and there, when they originally didn't exist as characters until Cold Steel III.
• Ain't No Rule: In Chapter 2, it's revealed someone, later revealed to be Jona, had hacked into the IBC's main terminal to send a message to the SSS. As the orbal net and hacking are still in the development stages and not completely widespread as of yet, both Mariabell and Jona point out that as there technically aren't any laws against hacking yet like in real life, so they technically can't arrest him.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Some of the ducts in the Geofront are large enough for grown adults to walk through. Definitely not true for air vents in buildings though.
• All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Toyed with, because while the entire staff of Heiyue does know martial arts and are as close to Chinese as it's possible to get in Zemuria, they're also all trained to fight because they're gangsters, not because they're Chinese. The rest of the Chinese-inspired characters in Crossbell don't play according to this trope.
• All Just a Dream: In Zero, a chest message in Geofront A2 Sector 1 has this happen to the SSS.
  You're sucked into the chest and end up in a chest-based world with no way back. Decades go by, your memories of Crossbell fade, and as your life comes to an end, you take your final breath...only to wake up. It was all a dream!
• Anachronism Stew: Applies a fair bit once again. While most of Crossbell is styled heavily on the 1930s-to-50s, there are still things like Lloyd's very modern-looking jacket, most of the bracers insist on using melee weapons (so do Lloyd and Randy, for that matter, despite being police officers with access to government-issue firearms), and the beginnings of an internet being worked on in Crossbell (a technology that wouldn't really get serious use until the latter parts of The '60s in reality). Crossbell itself is also a bit of an anachronism in the wider setting, given how much higher the technology base is comparatively (but then, non-Crossbellans point out in-universe how disorienting they find modern Crossbell at times, so this is likely intentional on Falcom's part).
• And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: One of the empty chest messages added to the English version reads "Inside this chest, you find a shirt that reads 'I checked this chest twice and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.' You decide not to take it with you."
• Angel Unaware: The Hayworths assume this to be the case when they hear from Colin that "a girl with purple hair just like Papa's" appeared to save his life, then vanished. They're, oh, about 25% right. Renne has been called an angel before, but of a rather different kind.
• Anti-Grinding:
  • There is an achievement for beating the game while remaining under a given level cap, which requires avoiding or fleeing from all non-scripted fights in the last three dungeons to achieve.
  • As with the other games in the Trails series, experience gained scales based on your own level relative to that of the enemies you're fighting. Fighting enemies more than about 3 or 4 levels below your own results in a pittance at best.
• Art Shift: Although the sprites and world design remain the same, the characters got a very different art style this time. Just compare Estelle and Joshua's portraits in this game with their portraits from Trails in the Sky. A little justifiable in that they're older now, but still. Renne also got somewhat more redesigned than one would think. She looks a bit older, sure, but her hair, which was a kind of pale lavender in SC and was a little brighter in the 3rd, is now a violent shade of electric pink. Even more hilariously, she has her dad's hair.
• Asshole Victim: The Final Boss Joachim dies due to a painful Super-Power Meltdown from ingesting Red Gnosis. Since he was a Mad Scientist who was part of the D∴G cult and a colossal Hate Sink, it's unlikely anyone will shed any tears.
• A Taste of Power: Subverted in Zero where it looks like this will be the case at the start, but the scene ends without any combat. Played straight in Azure when you start with Arios and Dudley in your party, many levels higher than Lloyd and Noel and with a set of extremely powerful Crafts and high-level Master Quartz.
• Auction of Evil: Crossbell annually hosts a Schwarze Auction, where Revache and Co. auction off totally legitimately acquired art to the rich and powerful. The police can't do anything about it because Revache has very powerful friends in Crossbell's government (including the man hosting the event) and it's regularly attended by scores of legitimate tax-paying citizens. The centerpiece of the auction during the events of Zero is a new Rosenberg doll, which actually is a legitimate sale. Except that it's a cover story for the real 'item' being auctioned: a little girl named KeA. In a bit of a twist on the trope, this actually ends up being a big problem, because Revache is at least smart enough to stay the hell away from human trafficking. They have no idea how the hell they got KeA when they genuinely thought they were acquiring a doll, and Revache's backer in the Crossbell government is furious with them for appearing to flirt with trafficking, which signals the beginning of Revache unraveling.
• Barely Changed Dub Name:
  • Superb dishes: Resurrect Fry, Crescent Soup, and Kill Nightmare were changed to Resurrection Fry, Crescent Moon Soup, and Nightmare Killer.
  • Peculiar dishes: Bombrice, Needle Pasta, and Adamas Solid were changed to Bombelet Rice, Pasta Needles, and Adamant Solid.
  • Consumables: Bennet Special was changed to Bennet's Special.
  • Armor: the Powered Suit was changed to Power Suit.
  • Shoes: Fine Sandal, Grasshopper, Sprinter, Stamp Jumper, Stride Heel, Dual Guarder, and Ares Greave were changed to Fine Sandals, Grasshoppers, Sprinters, Stamp Jumpers, Stride Heels, Dual Guarders, and Ares Greaves.
  • A few accessories had barely-changed names: Misty Stole, Passion Rouge, and Brave Badge were changed to Mystic Stole, Passionate Rouge, and Bravery Badge
  • One of Lloyd's weapons was pluralized from Take Prisoner to Take Prisoners.
• Beware the Nice Ones: This game and its prequel series will have you second-guessing everybody's motives.
• Call-Back:
  • Lots, to the previous trilogy. The Final Boss of Zero plays out the same way as that of Sky FC, with the party getting overpowered only to be saved by a last-minute intervention, and the boss's final phase essentially being a scripted Coup de Grâce. Chapter 2 (Day 2) of Azure is also loaded with these, since it's when so many familiar faces arrive in Crossbell. In short order, references are made to Julia's fan club, Renne and the Brights, R&A Research, the Non-Aggression Treaty and Axis Pillar.
  • Zero's intermission has a Sunday School guest teacher quest that plays out nearly identically to the one in the Sky arc, though with Lloyd explaining the CPD instead of the Bracer Guild (and the differences between the two). Once again you need to answer 10 questions correctly for maximum points, though the kids' questions are a lot more on-topic this time.
  • Halfway in the game Lloyd and a character he choose disguises themselves and Lloyd uses his dead family member (in his case brother) Guy's name just like what Estelle and Joshua did in Trails in the Sky.
• Car Fu: Dieter is happy to use his limo as an improvised weapon while helping extricate the SSS from a tight spot. Noel then takes the Car Fu Crown by doing this with her armored car, forcing several other armored cars off the road near Zero's climax.
• City of Adventure: Considering that Falcom managed to squeeze as much content into Crossbell City as they did in the entire Kingdom of Liberl, it definitely counts.
• City of Spies: Crossbell edges into this trope, given that the city is divided into factions that support Erebonia and Calvard and agents from both countries are active in the background, along with Wazy and Abbas keeping tabs on things for the Church and later Ries keeping tabs on the Church. During the final chapter, it's possible to find out that Reins, a reporter at CNS, is actually an R&A Research employee, meaning Liberl is spying on Crossbell too.
• Combination Attack: Replacing the Chain Craft system from the previous trilogy are Combo Crafts, which are learned through the plot or sidequests and involve two characters performing a unique attack. They require 100 CP from each character but won't drain excess unlike S-Crafts (nor can they be used to S-Break) and they are extremely powerful.
• Comm Links: The Enigma model of Tactical Orbment now have communication functions, although their range is limited by the reach of Crossbell's Orbal Network. Both the CSPD and the Bracers have been assigned the Enigma to test all its capabilities.
• Company Cross-References: Falcom has a habit of this.
  • To Ys:
    • Randy's Jukebox plays a jazz remix of "Tower of the Shadow of Death" from Ys I & II Chronicles.
    • The slots minigame has characters from Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished – Omen.
    • One chest message in Zero is "Wait a second, you're not Adol! WHERE AM I?!"
  • To other Falcom games:
    • You can decorate KeA's room with Penpen doll from Zwei II.
    • You can decorate Lloyd's room with the Tristan, also from Zwei II. In his room decoration event, he talks about airplanes like it existing in fantasy stories, even though they don't have them in Zemuria.
    • The Jack, Queen, and King cards used in the poker and blackjack minigames have characters from both Zwei games, Brandish, and Gurumin.
    • Arios is named after Areios, the protagonist of The Legend of Xanadu. While the English renderings of their names differ, they are the same in Japanese: アリオス (Ariosu). Both are even associated with wind: Arios (from this game)'s nickname in Japanese is Kaze no Kensei, while the Japanese name of The Legend of Xanadu is Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu, with kaze no meaning "of wind".
• Condescending Compassion: The Bracer Guild doesn't have any hard feelings against the SSS despite the politics involved, indeed, they're happy to have some of their crushing workload taken off their shoulders, but it's with the air of letting the SSS have the jobs, and with the expectation they won't accomplish much.
• Continuity Cameo: The Bobcat appears in the background at Crossbell's airport in Zero, in a sequence set up during Sun Door 1 from ''the 3rd''. It appears again in Azure and is part of a Support Request.
• Convenient Decoy Cat: Lechter arranges this to deflect suspicion from the fact that several individuals the Mafia would like a word with are hiding behind the curtains of his room.
• Could This Happen to You?: One of the empty chest messages added to the English-language localization of Trails from Zero reads "An unassuming-looking, middle-aged scholar who turns out to be evil? In MY Trails game?! ...It's more likely than you think."
• Cover Identity Anomaly: At one point the SSS is trying to find a criminal suspected of smuggling counterfeit goods into Crossbell. The clue to discovering which of several possible parties is the guilty one is to find the one who forgot to research their excuses properly, specifically by stating they've been to Mishelam Wonderland before... but it wasn't open yet the last time they claim to have visited Crossbell.
• Crapsack World: The premise of the arc. Crossbell State is a young country situated in what used to be a hotly disputed area between the much larger Erebonian Empire and the Republic of Calvard. Both nations still want that territory for themselves and take every opportunity to try to upstage the other, to the inevitable detriment of Crossbell itself. The city is internationally known as the "City of Sin" and is famous for its Schwarze Auction. The government is divided into factions. The Mafia has ties to major government figures so they can operate more or less with impunity and there's a second underworld group starting to engage in a shadow war with them at the start of the games, making everything worse. The downtown area experiences regular violence as its two resident gangs fight for dominance. The police who really care and try to do the right thing aren't allowed to make a difference to Crossbell's biggest problems because of the political situation. The people have basically given up on their government and its officers and have turned to the Bracers... and this is the situation Crossbell is in when the game starts and the idealistic Lloyd and company are assigned to the newly formed Special Support Section.
• Driving Question: In a departure from series tradition, Zero is the first game in the series to be the first game in an arc that doesn't end in a cliffhanger. However, Zero leaves you with three lingering questions: Who or what exactly is KeA, how did she arrive at the Schwarze Auction, and who really killed Guy Bannings?
• Drugs Are Bad: In Zero. Once the distribution of Gnosis starts ramping up, it doesn't take long for Crossbell to descend into utter chaos. Everyone who uses the drug changes for the worse, and is eventually either abducted by the D∴G cult or brainwashed into becoming an obedient pawn. When Joachim starts extolling the virtues of Gnosis after The Reveal, the SSS don't hesitate to call him a madman.
• Dual Wielding: Lloyd does this with tonfas, Noel packs dual SMGs and Sigmund swings around a pair of enormous axes. Elie normally only uses a single pistol but can pull out a pair when using Divine Crusade.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Relaxing Gel was changed to Relaxant.
  • The minigame Pomtto was changed to Pom Pom Party.
  • Łazy Hemisphere was changed to Wazy Hemisphere. Łazy is a real Polish word, and the Ł is pronounced /w/... but nobody who isn't familiar with Polish would know that, so it got changed.
  • Mi-she was changed to Mishette.
  • The various Purrfect pieces of equipment in Zero were originally Nyanderful^note Nyan means "meow", so "Meowonderful" instead. In addition, the Nyanderful Ear had its name pluralized to Purrfect Ears.
  • Accessories: Sunny Pendulum, Star Pendulum, and Silence Blue were changed to Solar Pendulum, Stellar Pendulum, and Still Blue.
  • Elie's first support craft was changed from Saint Bullet to Priestly Bullet.
  • Arts with their names changed:
    • The earth arts Theia Titanis and Earth Glow were changed to Gaea Titanis and Earth Pulse.
    • The water arts Around Noah and End of World were changed to Genesis Flood and Eschaton.
    • The fire art Melty Rise was changed to Impassion.
    • The time art Shadow Apocryph was changed to Shadow Blade.
    • The space art Gold Heiro was changed to Golden Halo.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: You know Joachim Guenter? That easygoing, somewhat lazy doctor that perpetually pushes work off onto his subordinates so he can cut out of work and go fishing? Turns out he's a high priest of the D∴G cult who is responsible for some of the series's most horrific atrocities and who was secretly perfecting the recipe for Gnosis in the hopes of awakening the cult's dormant god.
• Dungeon Town: In the final chapter of Zero, St. Ursula Hospital is occupied by brainwashed Revache members and their monsters, with the staff and patients held hostage, and plays like a traditional dungeon instead of an overworld region.
• Dueling Hackers: Tio and Jona versus Kitty. Since the Orbal Network that functions as a rudimentary internet also provides the power to the computers and those computers are running the International Bank of Crossbell, the simple solution of unplugging the machines either from the network or entirely isn't really an option.
• Elemental Absorption: A pair of Quartz (The Helios Orb and Selene Orb) allow a character to absorb all elemental attacks from either the basic four elements or the higher three.
• Elemental Powers: Because of the way Orbments work, all characters except for Lloyd have at least one Slot restricted to one of the seven types of Quartz, giving them a natural inclination towards one element or another. Despite this, actual specialization is mostly a matter of player choice combined with line setups. The presence of Master Quartz in Azure (which take the place of the previously restricted central slot) let any character accumulate a lot of points in any of the seven Art families.
  • Earth Element: Noel
  • Water Element: Tio
  • Fire Element: Randy
  • Wind Element: Elie
  • Time Element: Dudley and Arios
  • Space Element: Wazy
  • Mirage Element: Yin/ Rixia
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: In the EN localization, Mei, a girl who lives in the East District with her bwother, Woy (Roy), speaks wike this.
• Enemy Scan: Tio's Analyzer skill lets you see all stats and item drops, plus the enemy description and then it lowers DEF and ADF as a bonus. The Battle Scope item and Analyze spell perform the same task minus the debuffing. The Information Quartz provides a temporary version of this that doesn't result in a Monster Encyclopedia entry while the Dragon's Vision Quartz lets you get an Encyclopedia entry by killing that enemy while it's equipped.
• Epic Fail: A new feature introduced into the cooking system is multiple outcomes. Depending on a variety of factors, you can produce what you were trying to cook, something better than you were trying for or epic failure. You're actually rewarded for getting all the 'bad' results since both games provide someone who wants the things. There's also results beyond epic failure, producing cat food, fishing bait and 'a failed cooking experiment serving as a warning to others'. There's also the extremely rare Epic Fail that produces U-Material. Somehow.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: Happens ten minutes into Zero when all four main characters meet each other for the first time. It makes sense as the SSS was just formed and officially commissioned as the game began.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Joachim Guenter. The D∴G cult believe that the Septian Church and belief in Aidios are holding humanity back. Their Gnosis experiments were intended to put humanity where it 'should' have been. Said experiments included summoning demons and creating drugs based on researching the demons, kidnapping children and testing the drugs on them to inevitably horrifying results and using some of the survivors as child prostitutes for blackmail purposes. Surprisingly though, manages to avoid the usual Science Is Bad aspect of the trope since it's clear they're an aberration... and ultimately revealed to be The Pawn in someone else's scheme.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • In the backstory, at least. Ouroboros and the D∴G cult absolutely hate each other and take practically any opportunity to do harm to one another, much to the relief of anyone else in the know.
  • The Mob War between Revache and Heiyue in present-day Crossbell, although the latter is presented as A Lighter Shade of Black as they don't directly harm civilians if they can help it.
• False Flag Operation: Chapter 2 centers around a plan to make the assassination of Mayor MacDowell get blamed on the Calvard faction by stirring up fears of the legendary Calvardian assassin Yin. Which fails miserably because one of the first people the perpetrator tries to use to start spreading the story happens to be Yin's civilian identity.
• Fetch Quest: The volume of fetch quests the SSS is tasked with gets Lampshaded by Randy in chapter 2:
  Randy: Work's work, but is it me, or does the SSS get saddled with a lot of fetch requests?
• Final Dungeon Preview: Zero starts with Lloyd and the team entering the underground tomb where the mastermind of the recent crimes in Crossbell is waiting.
• Foreshadowing: If you visit Mireille at Bellguard Gate during the last day of Chapter 4, she mentions that CGF forces there had just received a shipment of a new high-end vitamin supplement from St. Ursula's Medical College. The vitamins are actually Gnosis, which leads to the Bellguard Gate forces being controlled by Joachim in the final chapter.
• Friendly Local Chinatown: East Street, where many immigrants from Calvard (or Calvard by way of the countries further east) live. It's not limited to that ethnic population though; the Bracers Guild and Fishing Guild are both set up there and the Seeker sisters live in an apartment within the district.
• Full-Body Disguise: Yin's mask and all-concealing hooded coat which serves two purposes: First, to hide that 'Yin' is a Legacy Character and second, to hide that the current Yin is Rixia.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: When introducing the speakerphone function of the Enigma unit to Lloyd, Tio warns him not to overuse it as it consumes quite a bit more EP than usual. In-game, you use the Enigma units to cast Magic from Technology via Orbal Arts, which consumes EP.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: One scene in Zero features Lechter and Ganz facing off in a poker match using five-card draw rules, with wildcards in play. However, the only version of poker available to the player is a variant of Super Texas Hold 'Em, with no wildcards.
  • In addition to the more obvious choices that affect bond levels in Zero (who to bring to major events), every party member has an extra 15 points available by doing something in the story. Randy's requires certain choices in a quest, while Tio needs you to talk to a specific NPC at one point in Chapter 1, but Ellie's... is based on how many sidequests you complete in Chapter 2. Nothing in the game hints at this, aside from the fact the chapter coincides with her Character Development and conflict over staying with the SSS, so a player going for 100% completion will give her a big lead in bonding points without realizing. In addition, simply using a character's Combination Attack with Lloyd raises their bond level, meaning those going for a specific character's final event might have to forgo certain attacks.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • In addition to the more obvious choices that affect bond levels in Zero (who to bring to major events), every party member has an extra 15 points available by doing something in the story. Randy's requires certain choices in a quest, while Tio needs you to talk to a specific NPC at one point in Chapter 1, but Ellie's... is based on how many sidequests you complete in Chapter 2. Nothing in the game hints at this, aside from the fact the chapter coincides with her Character Development and conflict over staying with the SSS, so a player going for 100% completion will give her a big lead in bonding points without realizing. In addition, simply using a character's Combination Attack with Lloyd raises their bond level, meaning those going for a specific character's final event might have to forgo certain attacks.
  • In Chapter 4, there's a quest that takes you to Rosenberg Studio and is the only time you'll be allowed past the gate. It's a hidden quest so you have to talk to the right person to trigger it and you can't even do that unless you have almost all possible DP up until that point. Miss a couple of earlier hidden quests or fail a couple of bonus DP conditions and you'll never know this quest exists. You also need to clear this quest if you want to get the rewards for having a full Monster Encyclopedia from Rebecca and for the in-game Record.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Tio loves Mishy, the cat mascot of the local theme park, and keeps several dolls in her room. Virtually all of KeA's furniture accessories are plushies of some kind.
• Heal It With Fire: In a sign of Developer's Foresight, it is possible to 'heal' the Frozen status effect by hitting the victim with a fire-elemental attack. Potentially doubles as Worst Aid if accidentally done to you by the enemy. The reverse is also true as the water-elemental Tear spells cure the new status effect Burning.
• Hero of Another Story: Even moreso than in Trails in the Sky; Investigator Dudley, Arios MacLaine, Wazy Hemisphere and the Seeker sisters all definitely feel like this and many join the party for a bit. Natch for Estelle & Joshua, too. In fact, those two quite literally have another story going on in the background for a significant portion of the game, in the form of their search for Renne, which eventually intersects violently with the main plot. Interestingly, most of these characters also join the party in Trails to Azure, with Noel and Wazy acting as more or less permanent party members. The Brights (now including Renne) also reappear in Azure, and played major role in the Crossbell invasion.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: A bus driver being menaced by monsters shouts "O-oh... ^AidiosJesus, take the wheel!"
• Host Club: Toyed with. Trinity doesn't function as one but Wazy moonlights as a host and is in much demand with Crossbell's ladies.
• How We Got Here: Zero opens with Lloyd and the team entering the base where the Big Bad is located and prepare to put an end to it, with the story shifting back to the start of Lloyd's arrival in Crossbell and following the events leading up.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Present to varying degrees in Zero thanks to the rampant corruption and cronyism in Crossbell's elite circles. This even gets Played for Laughs in a sidequest in Bellguard Gate, where Warrant Officer Mirielle contacts the SSS in a desperate bid to find the keys to a prototype military truck that the base commander drove in and lost, resulting in said truck being stuck on the Erebonian border, at a time when Chancellor Osborne is looking for any excuse to annex Crossbell. Absolutely everyone seems aware that they're only cleaning up the base commander's mess, as there's no way he'll ever take any responsibility for his ineptitude. This incompetence is also what allows Joachim to freely traffic Gnosis within Bellguard Gate as a supposed "supplement" developed by Saint Ursula, as he knows full well that the base commander won't do any due diligence regarding his claims.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: A required quest in Zero involves correctly identifying a counterfeit dealer from a group of suspects that came to Crossbell on a bus from Calvard. If you pick the correct suspect, the elderly woman, Lloyd identifies her as having lied about her last trip there: she claimed to have visited Mishelam Wonderland with her grandson three years before, even though it hadn't been built at the time. That, however, is not this. What is this is that after she continues trying to deny being involved in anything shady, eventually asking if he seriously thinks a kind elderly lady like herself would be heinous enough to pawn off counterfeit goods on unsuspecting people. Elie then tells her it's the final nail in the coffin, as they never mentioned anything about counterfeiting.
• Inherent in the System: Many of the problems Crossbell City faces are the result of its unique political situation and the agendas of its neighbors. The city was made as an autonomous buffer state between two superpowers who are at each other's throats and each want to take the city for themselves due to its resources and strategic location. Due to this, many members of the diet are installed from Erebonia and Calvard to cater to the interests of the respective nations with the well-being, opinions, and livelihoods of the citizens treated as an afterthought, resulting in rampant corruption in law enforcement and government. Trying to deal with the problems created by this system plays a critical part in the SSS' journey, and also serves as the motivation of several antagonists.
• Insistent Terminology: Crossbell is an Autonomous State. It is not a nation. It's an important distinction — while the Crossbell Government has the power to manage its own affairs over its own citizens, it has limited authority over foreign nationals within its borders, and it is explicitly subservient to the nations that declared it an Autonomous State, who conspire together to keep Crossbell weak but prosperous so they can continue milking its tax revenue for themselves, while conspiring to claim the whole region for themselves.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Pater-Mater was already intelligent, but by the end of Zero it's grown enough that it is able to choose to ignore what Renne tells it to do in favor of doing what Renne really wants but is too scared of rejection to contemplate.
• Instant Costume Change: Lloyd and a chosen companion crash the Schwarze Auction and when it becomes clear that something suspicious is happening, they begin searching the area along with Wazy. All of them are dressed up in fancy outfits suitable for the high-class party atmosphere of the auction. After they discover a mysterious girl in a trunk, KeA, an alarm sounds and a couple of guards appear and are quickly taken out by Wazy. He says they'll be caught if they stay any longer and Lloyd agrees. His sprite turns to KeA, gives a little spin, and he is instantly in his normal outfit. The second the cutscene ends, both of the others are as well.
• Instant Runes: Falcom likes these in general but they took the opportunity to really go all out in these games. These appear during chants and in a couple of Arts, as well as in a number of Crafts and Combo Crafts.
• Internal Reveal: The player is shown Yin's true identity at the end of Chapter 2 of Zero.
• Is That Cute Kid Yours?: At first, Cecile thinks KeA is actually Lloyd's daughter.
• Item Crafting: A new feature in the Crossbell Arc is the ability to upgrade your weapons or create new items from raw materials. Weapons (and certain protective gear) can be upgraded through the use of U-Material and occasionally Sepith. Accessory upgrades/creation sometimes require Noodle Implements like fish.
• Item Amplifier: The effect of the Master Quartz 'Moebius'. It increases the amount of restored HP/EP, increases the range at which you can use items and at max level, even makes the items possess an area of effect. Once you have a few Zeram Capsules, this becomes game-breakingly powerful.
• Jurisdiction Friction: The 1st Department of the Crossbell Police like to step in on all the interesting cases, to the annoyance of both the 2nd Department and the Special Support Section. This also exists between the Bracers Guild and the CSPD as a whole during the events of Zero. Both issues generally go away after the SSS proves themselves to the rest of the city and restore the faith of the people in their police.
• Karma Houdini: The worst thing that the CPD can do to criminals from Calvard or Erebonia is pull their visa and deport them, with no guarantee that their home government will do anything to punish them for their crimes.
• Katanas Are Just Better: As in the original trilogy, they're the preferred weapon of Eight Leaves practitioners. Arios does pretty ridiculous damage with it. Of course, he's also twenty levels higher than you are with an amazing assortment of Crafts and a high-level Master Quartz.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Sully, who talks like a boy, dresses like a boy and has extremely short hair. Lloyd even mistakes her for a boy when they first meet. Sully is not amused.
• Land of One City: Crossbell State does have some smaller towns and developments, but they're all just exurbs of Crossbell City. Justified in-universe by the political situation that led to its existence in the first place and the fact that it's so small that there isn't really room for a second city.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Joachim is beaten to the point of Body Horror by a party including one of the victims of the cult he helped lead, then additionally fried by yet another survivor of the Gnosis experiments, using technology she can only operate because of those experiments.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Ilya says that there's no way that Arc en Ciel can cancel their performance, despite the threat of the assassin Yin. Troupe Leader Avan agrees that they all belong to the stage, heart and soul, despite them not all being quite as insa-...passionate as Ilya.
• Mad Doctor: While Joachim is more a Mad Scientist Evilutionary Biologist in his goals, he hides in plain sight as a doctor.
• The Magic Poker Equation: The Trails franchise is no stranger to poker matches being decided by royal flushes pitted against other high-value hands, but a scene in Zero takes it even further by having Lechter and Ganz's poker match conclude with Lechter's five-of-a-kind (even higher value than a royal flush, but only possible with wildcards) trumping Ganz's straight flush. Ganz does not take it well and has to be forcefully escorted out of the casino.
• Magic Staff: The Orbal Staff is a high-tech version of this, based off the technology of the setting.
• Matryoshka Object: In Zero, a chest in Ancient Battlefield has this message.
  Inside the chest you find a smaller chest. Inside that chest is an even smaller chest. Inside that is an even smaller chest. Inside that chest…
• Merchant City: Crossbell is a trade hub between Erebonia and Calvard to the west and east and Liberl and Remiferia to the south and north. It's the capital and heart of Crossbell State and unlike its Liberlian equivalent of Bose, there is a thriving Black Market run by the Mafia. It's also the second-largest city in western Zemuria, after Erebonia's capital Heimdallr.
• Metamorphosis: The end result of Red Gnosis use is becoming a gigantic demonic creature. This turns out to have been foreshadowed in ''the 3rd'' with the strange substance Renne was made to take in Paradise and (sort of) by the boy who transformed into a demon that Kevin was forced to kill.
• Militaries Are Useless: Due to its status as a buffer state between two major powers, Crossbell isn't permitted to have a military large enough to be any real threat to either of them, which also means they don't have enough firepower to handle the problems that their military is supposed to be dealing with. Erebonia and Calvard use that (and the fact that some of the Guardians got caught up in the Gnosis incident of Zero) to try to get it replaced with garrisons from their own militaries.
• Minigame Zone: The casino in the Entertainment District offers fun with Company Cross-References, three different games to play and a nice assortment of items you can purchase with your winnings. Evolution adds even more minigames scattered throughout Crossbell. Azure adds Mishelam Wonderland. Getting Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer is entirely possible in these games, even moreso when you include fishing.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The SSS mediating a fight between two delinquent gangs leads to them unravelling a massive conspiracy involving The Mafia, an Auction of Evil, Crossbell's most prominent politicians, drugs and the remnants of a child-abusing, devil-worshipping cult.
• Missed Him by That Much: Estelle and Joshua in their search for Renne hears from an eyewitness that Lloyd had been seen with a girl that fits her description earlier that day, so they visit the SSS building to ask about her. Unfortunately, they arrive the moment after Renne leaves the building through the upper exit.
• Mistaken for Gay: After Lloyd vehemently denies dating either Elie or Tio, Cecile assumes he's dating Randy instead and proclaims that he has her full support.
• Mob War: A sizeable part of the plot is one going on between the Erebonian mafia operating out of Revache and Co and the Calvardian triad operating out of Heiyue Trading, Ltd. Heiyue ends up being portrayed more sympathetically, as all of their crimes are committed in the background against other criminals, while Revache is shown openly running protection rackets and the like against honest citizens.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: In the penultimate chapter, the SSS takes a drug sample to Dr. Guenter for analysis. Unfortunately, since the person they went to talk to was the mastermind, this served to warn him that the police were closing in, causing him to accelerate his plans and kick off the events of the final chapter.
• The Nicknamer:
  • Randy likes coming up with nicknames: Mademois-Elie, Tio Tot, KeDo, Jon-ster, Sulldier...
  • KeA does it as well; she at least has the excuse of being nine.
• NOT!: One of the empty chest messages added in the English-language localization reads "Upon further inspection, you found a Zeram Capsule. ...Pfft. You wish."
• Ojou: Elie, of the Proper Lady subtype. She has the social standing based on her relationship to Crossbell's mayor and her household calls her by the title. Randy also calls her this before the SSS realizes the implications of her last name and keeps calling her that throughout the series in lieu of her name.
• Online Alias: The hacker the IBC is looking for during the events of Zero goes by the alias of Kitty.
• Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: One of the empty chest phrases for a chest that contained 200 of every type of sepith, reads "Is that All element sepith x200 in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
• Orphaned Etymology: When Jona insists to not being responsible for the fire-spitting robots in the Geofront C Sector, Randy comments "Your nose is growin', Jon-ster," even though the story of Pinocchio presumably doesn't exist the world of Zemuria.
• Playful Hacker: Jona and Tio both have elements of this, as does Renne although mixed with The Cracker.
• Point of No Return: Walking into Marconi's secret vault in Zero functions as one of these, as afterwards you completely lose the ability to wander around freely. The game flat-out tells you this and to not proceed until you're sure you've done everything you want to.
• Police Are Useless: Between Crossbell's status as a buffer state, the political need to keep balance between the pro-Empire, pro-Republic, and anti-Both factions, and the fact that many of the major criminal groups have ties to one of those factions to allow them to bribe their way out of trouble (and the government's limited ability to arrest and hold foreign nationals), the police basically isn't allowed to be useful. This has resulted in the public putting more trust in the Bracers, who aren't hamstrung by the highly corrupt government, than in the police force. The SSS is basically a political boondoggle to have cops do Bracer work in the hopes of winning back public trust, a stunt that only really works because the SSS takes its duties seriously, even if the rest of the CPD considers them a joke.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Revache, despite its many connections to Crossbell's government, stays clear from Human Trafficking and drug peddling, as both are considered too major offences to be able get leniency for, which even their backers would draw the line at defending them from. Their seeming involvement via unintentionally smuggling KeA (when they thought they were selling a Rosenburg Doll) and peddling Gnosis ends up being key to them being finally put away.
• The Promise: Lloyd tells Tio that he will protect her just like Guy did, but she tells him that he doesn't have to be the same as Guy, that he should find his own path. Later, the two discuss the promise and Lloyd admits that he still hasn't figured out his path. Tio then tells him she has a request of her own: to take her to Mishelam Wonderland when everything is over. Stunned, he asks if that's really all, that she could even say "When I'm in trouble, always come to my rescue." She tells him that it's more than enough, that in order for it to come true, they'll have to resolve the crisis anyway.
• Puppet State: To two rival nations simultaneously. Crossbell was originally a region continuously fought over by Calvard and Erebonia until it was turned into an ostensibly independent buffer state seventy years before the start of the story. Its constitution was drawn up by diplomats from Calvard and Erebonia with the interests of those nations in mind, without any thought for or input from the people actually living there. This is the root cause of many of Crossbell's problems.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Jona, Tio and Renne engage in this. Rather justified for the latter two since both are victims of Gnosis experimentation and are faster and smarter than normal humans.
• Red Baron: These come up again, naturally.
  • Arios MacLaine, the Divine Blade of Wind.
  • Ian "Grizzly Grim" Grimwood^note Kumahige-sensei in the Japanese version, which roughly means something like "Bear-Beard, Esq.".
  • Sergei "the Scrutinous" Lou.
  • Garcia Rossi, the Killing Bear.
  • Ilya Platiere, the Fervent Dancer.
  • Cao Lee, the White Orchid Dragon.
  • Randy Orlando, the Son of the War God and the Red Reaper.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Overuse of the refined form of Gnosis leads to the user developing reddish eyes, as opposed to the gold eyes characteristic of the victims of earlier experiments.
• Refuge in Audacity: Basically everything Lechter does when you first meet him. First, he openly admits to the SSS that he's an Erebonian agent and working with the guy whose party you're about to infiltrate. He also suggests that now that you know he's going to have to kill you (complete with musical sting). When the party begins, you see him fishing in his host's ornamental pond, then feeding his host's fish to his host's cat, who he's come up with a new name for. Later when all hell has broken loose, you're forced to take refuge in his room. When the guards show up, he then tells them he just saw something move behind the curtain... which turns out to be the cat but your party was also behind those curtains... then the Chapter ends with him beginning a conversation with a known agent of Calvard.
• Relationship Values: You can raise Lloyd Banning's affection with any of the other main playable characters: Elie, Tio or Randy, by having them accompany Lloyd during certain events or viewing certain optional scenes. You can view the current affection levels from the game's Records screen and having max affection with a particular character in the final chapter allows the viewing of an extra scene.
• Religion of Evil: The D∴G cult, which believes that Aidios is a lie spread by the Church and has been conducting rituals to bring about the revival of the "True God D", discovered by the cult's founder. These 'rituals' take the form of summoning demons and performing horrific medical experiments on children.
• The Remnant: Joachim Guenter is a surviving member of the D∴G cult, which got wiped out by the Bracers, the Crossbell police, and Ouroboros few years prior to the start of the game. Ouroboros' involvement in suppressing the cult is in fact how they came to recruit Renne.
• The Reveal: Dr. Joachim Guenter, the lazy doctor who perpetually pushes his work on his juniors so he can skive off and go fishing, is actually a high priest of the D∴G cult.
• Samus Is a Girl:
  • The stalker that you encounter in Zero who looks and talks like a boy? Yeah, she's not.
  • Yin is a girl.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Elie is a Proper Lady through and through and can get the SSS into meetings with the wealthiest and most powerful people in the city. When politeness fails, the handgun comes out.
• Sinister Minister: Joachim is really a priest of the heretical D∴G cult, possibly the last one remaining.
• Sixth Ranger: A succession of characters fill this role in Zero, temporarily joining the fixed party of four at one or more points. Wazy and Noel each do this twice, Dudley and Yin do it once as do Estelle and Joshua in the final dungeon. Everyone but the Brights become permanent allies by the end of Azure, with Wazy and Noel being playable for almost the entire game.
• Status Effects: The same as in the previous series, plus Burning, which functions like Poison except that it hurts more and can intuitively be 'healed' by targeting the victim with a Water-based attack or the Water-based Tear spells.
• Stock Costume Traits: Revache's rank and file are apparently traditionalists and have the fedoras to prove it.
• Storming the Castle: The end of Zero, in which the party finally penetrates the depths of the Sun Fort. Done in epic style in Azure as well except replace 'The Castle' with 'Orchis Tower'.
• Super Boss: Zero has one (found in a Bonus Dungeon) which is only available in New Game Plus.
• Survivor Guilt: Tio, who was the only survivor in a base of the D∴G cult where she was experimented on.
• Take That, Audience!: If you neglect to do certain quests, talking to those associated with said quests later on will often result in learning that they were handled by the bracer guild or others in Crossbell instead, much to the chagrin of the Special Support Section, and by extension, the player.
• Taking You with Me: Once it becomes apparent that he's going to die one way or the other, Joachim uses what strength he has left to trap the party so they'll go when he does.
• Teaser Equipment: Everything sold at Imeldas and most of what is offered at Neinvalli exists to tease you; you won't have the Mira or necessary items to obtain those goods until much later.
• Teen Genius: Jona, Tio and Renne. There is dark side to the latter two as their intellect is developed from horrific experiments by the D∴G cult.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Any time the Saber Vipers and Testaments work together in Zero is an exercise in this, starting with their teaming up to fight your party because you're getting in the way of their fight. Played more heroically later when they work together to fight off the Mafia and later the Gnosis-controlled CGF.
• There Should Be a Law: When the SSS first finds Jona's Hacker Cave in the Geo-Front, Tio states that networked computing is so new that laws concerning what you can and can't do with the network haven't even been drafted yet, much less passed, so the most they can charge him with is squatting on government property.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: In-universe example. This is the public's opinion of the SSS when the group is first formed. Everyone writes them off as police officers trying to rip off the success of the bracers, who are more popular with the public. Only when they manage to get some success under their belt does the public start respecting the group.
• Too Awesome to Use: Lampshaded in a chest message in Zero in the Sun Fort.
  Hey, now that you're in the final stretch, you don't need to hoard all your rare consumables anymore. ...Right?
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • The Special Support Section start out as nobodies with no respect from anybody. By the end of Zero, they've outsmarted a threat nobody else could stop.
  • Estelle and Joshua most certainly count too. They are now internationally known Bracers and Estelle getting closer to Cassius's level of combat skill now, given that she can use his S-Craft, Phoenix Wave. As for Joshua, he's at last made peace with the idea that his ferocious potential doesn't have to be used for murder and terror and can be used for good - meaning he's one of the most skilled Bracers living. He won't kill you, but that's the only break you'll get.
• Totally Not a Criminal Front: Both Revache and Co. and Heiyue have fronts as trading companies in Crossbell. Most people are fully aware they're actually mafia, but are too powerless, scared or corrupt to do anything about it.
• Traffic Wardens: One sidequest has the SSS checking parking registrations and ticketing illegally parked vehicles.
• Ultimate Authority Mayor: Justified, due to the small size of the country the mayor of Crossbell City is also the head of Crossbell State.
• Unobtanium: Zemurian Stones function this way, described as an ore with unusual properties. It was rare 1200 years ago when the Ancient Zemurians used it and it's rarer still in the present. They're used to synthesize the strongest weapons in both games.
• Vice City: Crossbell is presented as this during the events of the previous trilogy. It's not quite as bad as the reputation that preceeded it but considering that our primary point of reference was the little girl whose parents apparently sold her into sex slavery at the age of five, you can forgive players for taking a dim initial view of the place but it still has a powerful underworld with ties to City Hall, sharply divided politics and police that are generally perceived as useless. Oh, and it is still internationally known as the City of Sin.
• We Sell Everything: The newly renovated Genten Orbal Store on Central Street that is visited by the SSS in the prologue is noted by them to sell every kind of orbal object known to mankind.
• Western Zodiac: A series of twelve extremely powerful Quartz found in Zero are named for the twelve constellations.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Lloyd and an SSS member of your choice don fancy clothes to infiltrate a posh auction run by the Mafia. It's done less to fool anyone that might recognize them (it doesn't) but to make them look like they belong at the event.
• Would Hurt a Child: The D∴G cult, in two different ways.
  • At multiple lodges, the cult repeatedly experimented on children in order to perfect the formula for Gnosis. The vast majority of these children died.
  • They also operated "Paradise", a child brothel they used in order to gather blackmail material on powerful politicians who themselves would hurt children to get off.
• You Bastard!: Played for laughs in Zero after inspecting the chest the Armored Hydras were guarding in Mainz Mountain Path.
  It is unbecoming for a law enforcer to be this greedy. You lose 15 DP.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In Zero: Renne technically can go home after the events of the game but she chooses not to, believing it best for all concerned if her parents don't learn what happened to their missing daughter over the past eight years, especially as she is wracked with guilt once she understands their side of the story. It isn't all bad, though, because she has a new home by the end of the game.
• "You!" Exclamation: One of the empty chest phrases reads "I came here from Liberl to hide from a bracer couple that kept looting my fri— YOU TWO!" which refers to the fact that Joshua and Estelle Bright, the protagonists of the previous arc (Trails in the Sky), are in your party.
• You Shall Not Pass!: During the crisis at the end of Zero, Sergei and Dudley stay behind to buy time for the SSS to escape with KeA and Shizuku. The party then does this themselves, holding the line at the IBC against the controlled CGF forces attacking the city. Fortunately, multiple Big Damn Heroes prevent the scene from turning into a Last Stand.