If you were looking forward to playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero on PS4, you may want to keep your expectations in check, as it looks like PlayStation players will be saddled with a graphically inferior version of the game compared to the one releasing on PC and Nintendo Switch.
There are a few reasons as to why, as James Galizio over at RPG Site relays, but in a nutshell, it comes down to a difference in ports. Nihon Falcom developed Trails from Zero, and it was originally released in Japan for PSP in 2010. A remaster for PS4 and Vita known as Trails from Zero Kai was released in 2020, again only in Japan. Neither ever got an official English translation. Kai features improved visuals and more voice acting, among other things.
In 2020, an English fan translation was released by a group of talented fans known as Geofront, and using this work as a base, and the features added in Kai, publisher NIS America is releasing the version of Trails from Zero that is coming to PS4 later this month.
The issue is that the PC and Switch versions of the game were handled by PC modding icon Durante AKA Peter Thoman, and his studio PH3. Both will receive quality of life and graphical enhancements above and beyond what was present in Kai, and so will not be present in the PS4 version of the game. If you want some further misery, Durante outlined in full all of the added features coming to PC and Switch over on Steam.
You can see some comparison screenshots for yourself, PS4 is above, and Switch/PC below.
This in and of itself isn’t necessarily the end of the world (although that may depend on your level of Trails fandom), but it does put PlayStation players in a sticky situation. We know, thanks to the Japanese version of the upcoming Trails into Reverie, that players are rewarded for having save data from both Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure on their system. Is it worth playing a graphically inferior version of the game, simply for recognition of having done so on the same platform?
What do you think of this whole situation? Will you be picking up Trails from Zero on PS4 regardless? Commiserate with us in the comments section below.
.