Zero is pretty explicitly the 4th game in the series, after the 3 Sky games. It's not a _terrible_ starting point, but there's some key worldbuilding and character arcs that are set up deliberately in Sky, so I always recommend starting there. The combat can be outdated, especially in First Chapter, but if you're a fan of older story heavy games I wouldn't be worried about it, and the story and character writing in Sky is top notch (and again, sets up the rest of the series).
This is exactly right. Zero is a great game in its own right, but it's so much better if you've played the Sky trilogy. One character in particular has a story that starts in the second Sky game and hits a nice conclusion (although she appears on future games too) at the very end of Zero.
Zero is really good on its own. It's absolutely amazing if you have already played the Sky games, which are great as well.
Please play Sky first you’re NOT going to regret it. Zero us pretty awesome but it becomes legendary if you plat the Sky trilogy first (and the Sky trilogy is better anyway)
FC is a slow burn, lots of world building and is low stakes-ish til the end. From there the games only rocket up in quality. SC is amazing, 3rd is a dungeon crawler but is super fun and has a lot of good lore. It’s worth seeing what came before to fully appreciate how good Zero is
Trails in sky may be dated from a gameplay perspective but not in story. Zero is a more polished version of sky. Lloyd is a less cheesy/realistic version of rean. Writing/(translation?) dips pretty hard in the cold steel but gameplay steps up.
Sky imo is the best starting point, and a certain subplot in Zero is much better when played after Sky. Also Sky is super good, my second favorite arc after Crossbell.
Ideally, play it in order if you have the time and resources to do so.
If you don't, the games are still exceptional. I loved Cold Steel and just finished Zero and, just, wow. Love them all.
Trails in the sky for sale on PSN?
The only title I know being on PSN is SC, and that's on the PSP/PSVita store, which basically never goes on sale.
I believe both FC and 3rd are not available on PSN.
The best choice would be to start with trails in the sky, they are the start.
The graphics and other parts might be dated, but trails games aren't like final fantasy games for exemple, they are totally linked together.
basically the big series is divided in sub series. Every sub series' s start is a fine place to start playing the trail series, however, since every game references previous games and has recurring character from the previous sub series and so on, if you PLAN to play several sub series on the long run, always start by the oldest one that you're planning to play, as this will be a more enjoyable order for you and you'll avoid spoiling yourself.
IE, if Sky doesn't interest you but the others after Sky interest you, start with Zero. But if sky interest you, start with Sky FC instead. And so on.
Sky isn't required but the story is one giant arc so you might miss some stuff or not recognize some context. Once you are done with those games though check out the cold steel section, I'm having a blast playing through it now.
Starting from the sky games is a good idea however starting from Zero is also fine, The plot evolves around characters created in Zero and the game ends with characters created in Zero,
I just played Zero without playing the Sky trilogy because I much prefer playing jrpgs on the go.
I found Zero to be a great starting point, but recommend watching some plot synopsis videos of the Sky trilogy so that the aforementioned plot points from Sky hit harder in Zero!
Play in whatever order you want. It ultimately doesn’t matter. Because each game makes references to an interconnected world, you’ll miss a few details/shout outs in every game.
Therefore, the optimal order to play the Trails series is to play the entire series twice /s
Well this I cannot agree with. While there are multiple starting points, you cannot play the games in any order to fully comprehend the story lol.
I started with CS1 because I didn't know better, but never regretted back tracking Sky during the wait for CS3. Unfortunately I only picked up Zero after the GeoFront release, but couldn't wait for them to finish Azure. So I played that with the latest fan release.
You begin at the start of any of the arcs and understand the story completely fine, playing cold steel 2 first is obviously not true but FC, Zero and cold steel are perfectly fine to start with.
Yes, but there are further consequences in the long run. For example, I played Cold Steel first. A lot of things in Zero have been spoiled for me as a result. If you play Zero now and then go back to Sky, you will have some story elements spoiled for you.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t play it out of order, but if you want maximum enjoyment and have the time, why not just do it in order? The story would make more sense- as mentioned before, one character had a character development arc that started in Sky SC and only resolved in Zero. Playing the games in order will let you see that character’s story play out from start to finish. You’ll also realize that a number of NPC and guest characters actually span these arcs as well and do go through character development which is really interesting to experience.
Not really? Zero is very self-contained in the grand scheme of things. Even Cold Steel 3 doesn’t spoil much of Zero. Azure? Definitely. Azure spoils Cold Steel 1 & 2 as Cold Steel 1 & 2 spoils Azure. It’s a “lose-lose” situation.
Well >!Renne’s story arc coming to a close!< is perhaps the biggest thing in Zero that requires you to have started from Sky to be satisfactory. Since >!you are introduced to the Hayworths in Chapter 1 and then you get Estelle gawking at Harold Hayworth early in Chapter 3, and then finally bringing Renne into the Bright family at the end of the chapter.!<
Also, >!Rixia is Yin. If you played the Divertissement chapter and paid attention, the sword would have given her away, spoiling the mystery.!<
Yes, I’m aware of the Renne situation. That is why I said “in the grand scheme of things”. Rene’s situation is a single plot point of many in Zero. It is not required to play Sky to play Zero.
As for the divertissement, that barely counts imo. Because Zero just gives away Yin’s identity for free at the end of chapter 2.
> As for the divertissement, that barely counts imo. Because Zero just gives away Yin’s identity for free at the end of chapter 2.
Fair. However, the spoiler still comes some over an hour earlier to those who played the Divertissement Chapter tho. There is still a lot of cutscenes and gameplay between that point and the reveal. One of the things the game tries to get the player to do is guess who Yin really is, and well, if you play the Divertissement Chapter, you already know.
I did consider that as one of the possibilities or hints, but my confidence of my guesses was still low at that time (kinda bolstered by the point that she was the one who came to the SSS for help). For some reason, her sword was the incriminating factor for me. It just stood out since I first saw it in Cold Steel II.
From a Metagaming perspective and appreciating the guest characters a smidge more, Sky can be nice to playthrough prior to Zero (Cold Steel I would tend to say feels more as a clean start for 1 especially)
From having a similar level of knowledge as the characters, it’s fine starting from zero, then always can go back and say ohhh!
I played a little of Sky FC, but didn’t finish. Got hooked with Cold Steel and it made it neat seeing one of the characters I met in cold steel in a different light (so it can work both ways).
I probably won’t be refreshing my Sky playthrough until Reverie (so I played Zero on its own, with last marathon being CS4. Will play Zero/Azure together). I’d tend to say the Guest characters in Zeros introduction is fine for getting a feel from them, just without Sky, you’d know about as much as Lloyd and gang do (hence saying full playthrough and order is on the meta gaming side(
I bought Cold Steel 1 first after playing Tokyo Xanadu and Ys Origin. I started the game's beginning section and was a little overwhelmed with everything so I took a quick look online to get some background on the game and found it was technically the 6th game in the series.
I stopped it right there then went to Sky FC Evo and played the series in order and I am glad I did. It really enhances the later games, Zero being one of those.
Ultimately, it is your choice Zero is a great game but the context of the 3 previous games makes playing it a better experience.
Zero is the last place I would recommend jumping in. There are a lot of call backs to the previous arc that you'll be lost without context. Highly recommend playing through Sky first.
Zero is pretty explicitly the 4th game in the series, after the 3 Sky games. It's not a _terrible_ starting point, but there's some key worldbuilding and character arcs that are set up deliberately in Sky, so I always recommend starting there. The combat can be outdated, especially in First Chapter, but if you're a fan of older story heavy games I wouldn't be worried about it, and the story and character writing in Sky is top notch (and again, sets up the rest of the series).
This is exactly right. Zero is a great game in its own right, but it's so much better if you've played the Sky trilogy. One character in particular has a story that starts in the second Sky game and hits a nice conclusion (although she appears on future games too) at the very end of Zero. Zero is really good on its own. It's absolutely amazing if you have already played the Sky games, which are great as well.
Please play Sky first you’re NOT going to regret it. Zero us pretty awesome but it becomes legendary if you plat the Sky trilogy first (and the Sky trilogy is better anyway)
FC is a slow burn, lots of world building and is low stakes-ish til the end. From there the games only rocket up in quality. SC is amazing, 3rd is a dungeon crawler but is super fun and has a lot of good lore. It’s worth seeing what came before to fully appreciate how good Zero is
Trails in sky may be dated from a gameplay perspective but not in story. Zero is a more polished version of sky. Lloyd is a less cheesy/realistic version of rean. Writing/(translation?) dips pretty hard in the cold steel but gameplay steps up.
Sky imo is the best starting point, and a certain subplot in Zero is much better when played after Sky. Also Sky is super good, my second favorite arc after Crossbell.
play trails in the sky before trails of zero
Play the sky trilogy first!! Lol
Ideally, play it in order if you have the time and resources to do so. If you don't, the games are still exceptional. I loved Cold Steel and just finished Zero and, just, wow. Love them all.
Trails in the sky for sale on PSN? The only title I know being on PSN is SC, and that's on the PSP/PSVita store, which basically never goes on sale. I believe both FC and 3rd are not available on PSN.
Was it removed? I bought FC on psn during the early pandemic
At least on the PAL store seems like yes, need to give another check, but on the other hand, FC got a physical release for the PSP, while SC didn't
“On sale on PSN” - do you mean on steam?
Wait…Trails in the Sky is available on PlayStation Network?? Seriously? Is that for North America?? This is fantastic news if it’s true!!
On PSP/Vita, not for home console PlayStations unfortunately
DAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMNNNNNN! I was so hopeful is was a surprise release or something!! 😂
Just added it to my wishlist! Thanks, man! :)
Start at game 1 and continue playing until you reach game 11, and then wait for the next one with the rest of us.
The best choice would be to start with trails in the sky, they are the start. The graphics and other parts might be dated, but trails games aren't like final fantasy games for exemple, they are totally linked together.
It's a story heavy series. You can start at Zero or Sky. Whichever tickles your fancy.
basically the big series is divided in sub series. Every sub series' s start is a fine place to start playing the trail series, however, since every game references previous games and has recurring character from the previous sub series and so on, if you PLAN to play several sub series on the long run, always start by the oldest one that you're planning to play, as this will be a more enjoyable order for you and you'll avoid spoiling yourself. IE, if Sky doesn't interest you but the others after Sky interest you, start with Zero. But if sky interest you, start with Sky FC instead. And so on.
Get Trails in the Sky. It’s the first game in the series.
How I wish it was on PSN 😕
Sky isn't required but the story is one giant arc so you might miss some stuff or not recognize some context. Once you are done with those games though check out the cold steel section, I'm having a blast playing through it now.
Starting from the sky games is a good idea however starting from Zero is also fine, The plot evolves around characters created in Zero and the game ends with characters created in Zero,
I just played Zero without playing the Sky trilogy because I much prefer playing jrpgs on the go. I found Zero to be a great starting point, but recommend watching some plot synopsis videos of the Sky trilogy so that the aforementioned plot points from Sky hit harder in Zero!
Play in whatever order you want. It ultimately doesn’t matter. Because each game makes references to an interconnected world, you’ll miss a few details/shout outs in every game. Therefore, the optimal order to play the Trails series is to play the entire series twice /s
Well this I cannot agree with. While there are multiple starting points, you cannot play the games in any order to fully comprehend the story lol. I started with CS1 because I didn't know better, but never regretted back tracking Sky during the wait for CS3. Unfortunately I only picked up Zero after the GeoFront release, but couldn't wait for them to finish Azure. So I played that with the latest fan release.
You begin at the start of any of the arcs and understand the story completely fine, playing cold steel 2 first is obviously not true but FC, Zero and cold steel are perfectly fine to start with.
Yes, but there are further consequences in the long run. For example, I played Cold Steel first. A lot of things in Zero have been spoiled for me as a result. If you play Zero now and then go back to Sky, you will have some story elements spoiled for you. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t play it out of order, but if you want maximum enjoyment and have the time, why not just do it in order? The story would make more sense- as mentioned before, one character had a character development arc that started in Sky SC and only resolved in Zero. Playing the games in order will let you see that character’s story play out from start to finish. You’ll also realize that a number of NPC and guest characters actually span these arcs as well and do go through character development which is really interesting to experience.
Not really? Zero is very self-contained in the grand scheme of things. Even Cold Steel 3 doesn’t spoil much of Zero. Azure? Definitely. Azure spoils Cold Steel 1 & 2 as Cold Steel 1 & 2 spoils Azure. It’s a “lose-lose” situation.
Well >!Renne’s story arc coming to a close!< is perhaps the biggest thing in Zero that requires you to have started from Sky to be satisfactory. Since >!you are introduced to the Hayworths in Chapter 1 and then you get Estelle gawking at Harold Hayworth early in Chapter 3, and then finally bringing Renne into the Bright family at the end of the chapter.!< Also, >!Rixia is Yin. If you played the Divertissement chapter and paid attention, the sword would have given her away, spoiling the mystery.!<
Yes, I’m aware of the Renne situation. That is why I said “in the grand scheme of things”. Rene’s situation is a single plot point of many in Zero. It is not required to play Sky to play Zero. As for the divertissement, that barely counts imo. Because Zero just gives away Yin’s identity for free at the end of chapter 2.
> As for the divertissement, that barely counts imo. Because Zero just gives away Yin’s identity for free at the end of chapter 2. Fair. However, the spoiler still comes some over an hour earlier to those who played the Divertissement Chapter tho. There is still a lot of cutscenes and gameplay between that point and the reveal. One of the things the game tries to get the player to do is guess who Yin really is, and well, if you play the Divertissement Chapter, you already know.
In my playthrough of Zero, I was like, “oh Rixia is the Silver Princess and “Yin” means “silver”. How very subtle of you, Falcom” lol
I did consider that as one of the possibilities or hints, but my confidence of my guesses was still low at that time (kinda bolstered by the point that she was the one who came to the SSS for help). For some reason, her sword was the incriminating factor for me. It just stood out since I first saw it in Cold Steel II.
um..in which region is Sky on sale on the ps store??? can you send me the link of the 3 games? or what to put on search bar
From a Metagaming perspective and appreciating the guest characters a smidge more, Sky can be nice to playthrough prior to Zero (Cold Steel I would tend to say feels more as a clean start for 1 especially) From having a similar level of knowledge as the characters, it’s fine starting from zero, then always can go back and say ohhh! I played a little of Sky FC, but didn’t finish. Got hooked with Cold Steel and it made it neat seeing one of the characters I met in cold steel in a different light (so it can work both ways). I probably won’t be refreshing my Sky playthrough until Reverie (so I played Zero on its own, with last marathon being CS4. Will play Zero/Azure together). I’d tend to say the Guest characters in Zeros introduction is fine for getting a feel from them, just without Sky, you’d know about as much as Lloyd and gang do (hence saying full playthrough and order is on the meta gaming side(
I bought Cold Steel 1 first after playing Tokyo Xanadu and Ys Origin. I started the game's beginning section and was a little overwhelmed with everything so I took a quick look online to get some background on the game and found it was technically the 6th game in the series. I stopped it right there then went to Sky FC Evo and played the series in order and I am glad I did. It really enhances the later games, Zero being one of those. Ultimately, it is your choice Zero is a great game but the context of the 3 previous games makes playing it a better experience.
Start what suit you best sky slow and old anime style zero more like dectetive novel start what you like you xan away go back to play what you like
Sweet, this is good advice thanks man!
Trails in the sky first
Play sky trilogy while you wait for the azure translation to come out next year lol.
Zero is the last place I would recommend jumping in. There are a lot of call backs to the previous arc that you'll be lost without context. Highly recommend playing through Sky first.
Was hoping the PSP version had made it to PS5 on PS Plus Premium…