The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero PC Overview Details Sprite Adjustments, Texture Improvements & 3D Asset Mending

Durante has shared the second part in the series overviewing PC features of the upcoming localization of The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero.

• Check out our coverage of Durante’s first Steam update post, which acts as necessary background for understanding the intricacies of what is stated below:

Firstly, sprite work is detailed, with Durante providing a brief historical summation of how sprite presentation altered across each subsequent game version. Then, to attempt striking the best possible iteration, the team decided to initiate with the high-quality Joyoland sprites and clean them up via a particular program so there’d be no out-of-place artifacts.

The following quote best summarizes the faults with the Joyoland sprites:

These sprites are shown at 200% size (400% for PSP), which makes both the dithering artifacts in the Joyoland version as well as the relative loss of detail and some small distortions in the upsampled version quite visible.

Further, an in-game option titled “Character Glow” will be implemented, allowing players to choose which color saturation and brightness they desire between the original and updated sprite work.

Map textures are intricately discussed next, with Durante explaining how the original PSP, Kai, and Joyoland versions all varied in their approach. In essence, the original map textures were low-resolution, Kai did an encompassed upsample with mixed results, and Joyoland utilized a mix of original and redrawn textures at the cost of the original’s visual identity.

To counteract the myriad of potential issues that would arise from managing 2,586 map textures, an impressive program called “PH3 ImageTool” was created to determine how each in-game area should be visually approached.

Lastly, 3D assets are briefly discussed. Since the team did not have access to the game’s original 3D model data, they had to resort to creating new tools meant to adjust various minor graphical imperfections.

For a deep dive into each of the aforementioned facets of this assuredly stellar PC port, I highly recommend giving the full Steam blog post a read. Durante goes into extensively more detail that those more technologically savvy would surely appreciate.

• View our digestible yet extensively detailed beginner’s guide to the Trails series.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Valimar the Ashen Knight MODEROID Figure Available for Pre-Order

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is releasing for Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam on September 27, 2022.

• Check out the Durante AMA primarily regarding this title’s PC features.
• A Steam update post revealed more details regarding the game’s PC version.
• View the newest gameplay trailer.
• Latest website update