It's a common enough feature in role-playing games these days that its absence is often felt, but there was a time when New Game Plus was practically a foreign notion. Few games seized the chance to spice things up on replays, with classics like Chrono Trigger leading the way. Luckily, Falcom's long-running Trails games have dabbled in New Game Plus on several occasions, including with Trails from Zero.
But how robust is Trails from Zero's New Game Plus? How much does it feature, and is it worth your time to run through the game again before Trails from Azure? If you do decide to tag along with the SSS all over again, this is what you'll get in exchange.
Build Record Points To Unlock Future Bonuses
Trails from Zero takes an interesting approach to carrying over various content. After completing the game, you will be able to spend Record Points to unlock things for New Game Plus.
Record Points are accumulated over the course of your playthrough(s). You'll earn a set number of points for accomplishing various tasks. In essence, these are trophies/achievements with tangible rewards. (The rewards, however, are not made apparent until after you've finished the game for the first time.)
You can unlock the ability to view character art, play casino minigames, watch Ilya and Rixia's theater performance, and replay cutscenes.
While this is all well and good, many players will doubtless wish to focus first and foremost on prior accomplishments that can carry over into New Game Plus, ridding them of the need to do them all over again.
|
Feature Available For NG+ |
Cost In Record Points To Unlock |
|---|---|
|
Current character levels |
100 |
|
All Monster Notebook progress |
100 |
|
All Fishing Notebook progress |
100 |
|
All Cooking Notebook progress |
100 |
|
Money |
200 |
|
Weapons, Armor, Accessories |
200 each |
|
Obtained Quartz |
200 |
|
Consumable Items |
200 |
|
Installments of Back Alley Doctor |
200 |
It's not a bad idea to grab the 'Back Alley Doctor' chapters to ease your suffering difficulty retracing them all during New Game Plus. Remember, you can only get one Zemurian Stone for a character's ultimate weapon per playthrough, so turning all these in again at the end of the game is a must!
All-New Exclusive Sidequest
If fresh content is more your style, and you're left unimpressed with the mere opportunity to power through the story with high-level characters, know that there is a late-game sidequest called 'Strange Phenomenon at the Geofront' that can only be triggered on New Game Plus.
Speak with an NPC near the very entrance to Geofront B to get this one underway. The enemies here are the highest level creatures in the game, so you can get your party from the 40s range to the max of 50 in mere minutes. Attempting to reach 50 without New Game Plus is an extreme ordeal, as all foes will begin to drop one experience point by 45 or so.
Trails from Zero's toughest boss battle can be found at the end of this quest. You'll face six foes, including a notably stronger leader. It's the ultimate trial for the Special Support Section before their bigger and bolder adventure in the sequel, Trails to Azure, so don't hesitate to check it out in the meantime.