The Legend of Heroes Crossbell Duology from NIS America and Nihon Falcom brings us a pair of classic JRPGs in the beloved long-running series, now on Nintendo Switch 2. Learn more in our The Legend of Heroes Crossbell Duology review!

 

The Legend of Heroes Crossbell Duology from NIS America and Nihon Falcom brings us a pair of classic JRPGs in the beloved long-running series, now on Nintendo Switch 2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure follow Lloyd Bannings, Elie MacDowell, Tio Plato, and Randy Orlando, who are members of the Special Support Section, a newly formed department under the Crossbell police. This pair of long JRPGs is part of the Crossbell Duology because, as the name suggests, both take place in Crossbell, a city that is engulfed in political tensions, many cases of corruption, as well as organized crime. This is all due to its geopolitical setting, with both the Erebonian Empire and the Calvard Republic claiming sovereignty over Crossbell.

Lloyd Bannings is a rookie detective and is considered the main character of the game. His brother died in the line of duty, which drove him to live abroad for three years. After graduating with top marks, he’s following in his brother’s footsteps for the greater good. Elie MacDowell is the granddaughter of Crossbell’s major, Henry MacDowell. After witnessing first-hand the effects that the political bickering and plotting have had on the people of Crossbell, she studied abroad and joined the Crossbell police force.

Tio Plato is a girl who works for the Epstein Foundation, which happens to be one of the continent’s leading technological institutes. She was assigned to the Crossbell police department to supervise the field testing of the orbal staff, a new weapon that has been developed by the aforementioned foundation. As for Randy Orlando, he’s a former member of the Crossbell Guardian Force who’s… well, a bit of a case. He was about to get himself expelled from the unit, but he was taken in by the Crossbell police department to be part of the newly-created section.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero was originally released back in 2010 for Sony’s PlayStation Portable – that would be the PSP – and was followed by an enhanced port for Sony’s PlayStation Vita in 2012. Both versions remained as Japan-only releases until the community worked on a fan translation to English, which NIS America used to bring us ports on the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4.

 

This was followed by the sequel The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure, which was released in 2011 on the PSP, and that one also got a PlayStation Vita port in 2014. It was also ported to the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4 in 2023, which marked the first time the game got to release outside of Japan. It’s now 2026, and we’re getting native ports of both releases on Nintendo Switch 2.

And for this new Nintendo Switch 2 native port, you’ll be able to pick between different options for the game’s presentation. You can start by choosing whether to use FXAA anti-aliasing. The display option for when you’re playing in Portable or Tabletop Mode can be set to either 1080p at 120 frames per second, 1080p at 60 frames per second, or 1080p at 30 frames per second. Do know that the first option will consume more battery life. As for the Docked Mode options, you can pick between 1440p at 120 frames per second, or 4K at 60 frames per second, based on your TV’s display options. There’s also support for mouse movement so that you can move around the field by clicking and holding down the mouse button, as well as enable camera perspective correction for mouse movement.

You can also pick between classic, classic with point sampling, or modern for the texture style, as well as activate or deactivate character glow, dynamic shadows, and the water shader. Other options include picking if the battle trigger will be a contact with the party leader or with any party member, setting your default movement to walking or running, having map transitions fade animations work at their regular speed or have them sped up, the interval for autosaving, the UI scale, and if text should advance automatically, to name some examples.

There are some difficulty settings for you to consider: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare. The Easy difficulty setting is balanced for quick and easy battles, making it ideal for those of you looking to experience the game’s story. The Normal difficulty setting has been balanced to offer a moderate challenge, and it’s the intended experience. The Hard difficulty setting will present you with battles that are definitely a bit more challenging, so you’ll need to make the most of your character’s abilities and skills. As for the Nightmare difficulty setting, it’s one that is best reserved for those of you who have taken on each journey at least once, so that you can have a better idea of what you’re getting yourself into, since it bumps up the challenge to 11!

The events in The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero directly follow from the ending of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd. If you want to learn more about the game’s story, you can check out Ceid’z The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero review on PlayStation 4. The story for The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Azure follows from the ending of The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero, and you can learn more about the game and its gameplay systems by checking out Ceid’z review for The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Azure on PlayStation 4. Yes, he’s pretty much played every entry in the franchise!

The Legend of Heroes Crossbell Duology brings us a pair of classic JRPGs in the beloved long-running series, now on Nintendo Switch 2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure follow Lloyd Bannings, Elie MacDowell, Tio Plato, and Randy Orlando, who are members of the Special Support Section, a newly formed department under the Crossbell police. This pair of long JRPGs is part of the Crossbell Duology because, as the name suggests, both take place in Crossbell, a city that is engulfed in political tensions, many cases of corruption, as well as organized crime. This is all due to its geopolitical setting, with both the Erebonian Empire and the Calvard Republic claiming sovereignty over Crossbell.

Over the course of both games, you’ll be diving into a journey that will easily take you 100+ hours to complete, with an extra 20-30+ hours on top if you’re the type of gamer who likes to 100% games and see everything that each experience has to offer. You will soon be able to add The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero as well as The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure to your Nintendo Switch 2 collection, which are the fourth and fifth games in the franchise, respectively. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on September 9 with a $39.99 price tag. The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure also launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on the same day with a $39.99 price tag.

Disclaimer
This The Legend of Heroes Crossbell Duology review is based on Nintendo Switch 2 copies provided by NIS America.