*This article is compiled from IGN US related content, the original author Rowan Kaiser, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
Triangle Strategy is a slow-moving game, and when you press "New Game", you will find that the opening story events are not very attractive. The opening scene introduces the protagonist, Serenoya Warhold, as well as his particularly boring family members and fiancée. In addition, the game gives you a lot of information about the history of this fantasy country in recent years, and one of the most interesting settings is that there is not much natural salt on the continent.
Cutscenes appear scene after scene, introducing new characters without background introduction. In fact, you don't have to do almost anything but a simple combat tutorial (and that combat system is clearly missing the top stuff).
Aside from the beautiful pixel art, the lack of enough impetus for the game's content does feel a little awkward and frustrating. But despite the intriguing opening, the slow pace of the game gradually became an advantage over my 40+hour experience, making Triangular Strategy one of the most efficient and fun games in the Strategy RPG category.
Don't worry, this game isn't the kind of JPRG that "the first 20+ hours were bad, and the follow-up experience is getting better." The frustrating parts of the opening scene will slowly disappear, and some of the problems will disappear almost immediately, showing the player that "a slow and confident pace is also an advantage".
The banal setting gradually becomes a political struggle that is tense and exciting, testing human nature. A large number of characters will participate in this conspiracy struggle, and once the story becomes bloody, some of the "main" characters will also encounter misfortune, and then the supporting characters will begin to pick the beams.
The game slowly introduces the "Belief Value" system, in which it becomes important to express opinions, gather intelligence, and understand relationships between characters. The combat part is not overly complex, and somehow the combat system feels very coordinated. As for the protagonist... It can only be said that Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones" is more interesting than him (sorry).
At first glance, the most impressive thing about Triangle Strategy is its 2D pixel characters and flexible 3D world, which is a feature of Tomoya Asano, who is also the producer of The Wrong Way Traveler, and the game is also very impressive.
In the map, the player can zoom in, zoom out, rotate the perspective or adjust to a top-down perspective, no matter how you operate, the scene always looks consistent, clear and easy to understand, and the design of the map is a huge achievement. Whether it's TV or handheld mode, the game looks great, but I prefer the latter because the characters are particularly stunning on small screens. Plus, I can easily read all the text on the Switch and small screen TV, which is important for an RPG with a lot of text and values.
"Triangle" game
It is necessary to introduce the plot and setting first, after all, the plot of this game is very rich. In this worldview, magic exists on the continent of Nozelia, but magic is only tools and weapons, not a force that makes up the world. In contrast, different actors wage wars for resources and political authority. The three forces competed with each other and had been vying for control of salt and iron. However, the joint mining project of the three countries is regarded as a symbol of peace. Needless to say, as things got out of hand, everyone started fighting again.
Human stories of robbing resources and fulfilling ambitions may not sound very interesting, but in JPRGs we often see stories of mad mages or ancient gods threatening to destroy the world, compared to Triangle Strategy's setting of human political intrigue.
One of my favorite characters was powerful, but particularly compassionate, and was later ordered to fight. Along the way, they killed a lot of good people, but after that, they realized their cruelty and slowly opened the way to redemption. We tend to compare Triangle Strategy and Game of Thrones on multiple levels, but in fact, this comparison is not fair.
On the other hand, the reason why the four protagonists of Triangle Strategy have endured so many tribulations, I feel that this is because their personalities are too similar, and they are very dull. At all times, the young Lord Serenoa, his fiancée Frederica, his adviser Benedict, his good friend Prince Roland, and most of the members were very kind, responsible, and particularly polite. They never had any evil thoughts, never cursed, never got angry, never confided their ambitions, and did not show any funny performance.
There are even memories of the old characters in the game, showing their youthful restlessness, but at most it stays at this level. Sometimes, they also compete with who can convey the message more efficiently, and it is rare to rebel. In fact, the character design of this type of game is often exaggerated and memorable, such as "Fire Emblem", "Final Fantasy" and "Persona", so it is difficult to imagine that the personalities of the protagonists of "Triangle Strategy" are so dull.
However, the other strengths of Triangle Strategy also make up for the character's personality flaws. First, the plot development gives the characters enough thrust to eventually highlight certain traits in them, even if they still exhibit some positive and responsible personalities (such as Frederica's ardent pursuit of justice, Roland's love for his family).
At a more macro level is the "Libra of Faith" system, where whenever the Warhold family faces a major decision, the seven main members discuss and vote, rather than letting the player manipulate Serenoya to make a choice. Voting is very binding and it can go against the player's wishes. Over time, these choices will have an increasingly profound impact on the character's future and on the continent of Nozelia. Even though everyone is still polite and rational in thinking about the problem, as the situation becomes more sinister, the differences between the motivations of the different characters become more and more prominent.
There are several ways to influence voting in the game. Some small exploration stages allow the player to gather useful intelligence, and knowing the mechanisms of the village of Warhold may make people more inclined to fight. Second, for the character's personality, choosing a dialogue option that fits the other person's values can also affect the vote, for example, Benedict is a pragmatic person, which means that the pragmatic option is most likely to affect his vote, while Roland cares more about loyalty. Finally, depending on the other options of dialogue, Serenoa can use the three "belief values" of "utilitarianism," "morality," and "freedom" to reinforce his arguments.
In general, I prefer the option of kindness and honesty, which leads to me getting into trouble in a certain battle. At the time, I offered to accept some wrongdoing, but members of our side voted to choose the honest course and expose the illegal behavior of the other party.
Voting and the "Libra of Faith" system subtly embody your choices, and all the dialogue options you make (even some of the actions in combat) are ultimately combined to subtly guide Serenoa down a particular route and unlock other companion characters and their memories of the past. For example, this ethical and honest line led me to recruit a fellow corrupt companion, Yurio, who was very powerful in the later stages and allowed the mage to cast spells without interruption.
The system also has some drawbacks, players can't see the specific values of the system for a week, making me wonder what plotS I should know (or shouldn't know) (it turns out that relaxing your mindset and letting the story go with the flow is a better way to experience).
In addition, the selection system is well used in some key places. For example, there is a less dramatic setting in Triangular Strategy that the Royers are the oppressed peoples in the game, whose experiences and religious oppression seem to have been inspired by Jewish history, borrowing from them in such a straightforward way that it feels a little awkward (giving some "special" overhead image to a real-life people who have actually been oppressed may be more uncomfortable). But after I developed an emotional relationship with the Royers, Triangular Strategy has always given me the opportunity to take action to change what happened to the Royers. This oppression is not only about showing the dark or realistic side of the world, it also drives the narrative.
Triangle Strategy's silent confidence is evident in the combat system, and at first, I felt like a common strategy RPG. But as the campaign progressed, I was increasingly impressed by the game's level design and difficulty tweaks, and in terms of level design and difficulty tweaks, it was one of the best strategy games I've ever played.
Triangular Strategy takes the form of combat similar to Final Fantasy Strategy edition and Fire Emblem, with your team of 8 to 12 people, and characters can move sequentially on the grid map. Each character has different skills and attributes: Benedict is a supporting character whose skills can make the character's attacks higher, more defensive, and faster, but his own damage output is not high; Roland is a fast-moving cavalryman who can deal a lot of damage, but once isolated, it won't last long. It's a very traditional format that has been tested in time, not only being efficient and providing players with strategic challenges, but also showing the character's characteristics and personality through behavior.
Triangle Strategy's system also incorporates several strategic considerations: certain spell types can deal more damage to some enemies, and players can also take advantage of the terrain to attack from high places or behind enemies to inflict more damage. However, these are small helpers, unlike the combo system in Demon Wars, which allows players to play as much output as possible. In Triangle Strategy, the system doesn't let players develop super-strong characters from Final Fantasy Strategy. The game also doesn't have a Fire Emblem friendship system, which doesn't encourage players to consider other combat options beyond "maximum damage done".
Relatively speaking, the process of the Triangle Strategy is relatively simple and smooth. Characters will become slightly stronger and will have some temporary advantages, but enemies will also become stronger and have their own advantages. While you won't be able to completely reinvent your character, the game offers enough items and upgrade options through weapon upgrades to allow players to adjust some important attributes.
When I noticed that the heavy infantry Ellader was going to take a lot of magic damage, I upgraded his magic defense so that he could better defend against enemy attacks. At the same time, whenever I think I've gained a big advantage, such as recruiting the mighty legendary archer Archibald, I find that the enemy has become equally powerful, and that's when I need to change my strategy.
In strategy games, balancing difficulty is an essential part, but it is not simple to implement. As much as I love UFO 2 and Fire Emblem: Snow And Moon, my biggest problem with both games is finding the right difficulty to experience the challenge. Therefore, I have to praise the difficulty design of Triangle Strategy.
At the default normal difficulty, the game offers the level difficulty I want almost every time. If I'm stuck in the harder battles, the game also offers a series of optional battles, all of which are very fun, definitely worth a try, and allow me to upgrade my character. In addition, I can change the personnel and positions of the roles involved in the battle. "If I put the Ice Mage here and put the team on the left instead of facing the enemy, I should be able to hold out longer!" That's the strategy experience I want to feel in the game.
In addition, because the game has a diverse and ingenious level design, the combat system can apply the same challenge difficulty across multiple level types. In a later battle, a powerful army comes directly to the front, which is a form of all-out confrontation that the average strategy game rarely attempts to design. I arranged for archers to be placed on the flanks and killed as many enemies as possible to grasp the number of enemies that a melee character would have to deal with. In the end, I finally won the battle.
The battle takes place after the battle in the mine, where there are several minecarts on the map that can move quickly on the map, requiring a very different strategy: given the small teams that are scattered, in order to gain various weak advantages, I need to adjust the surrounding auxiliary characters as soon as possible to get the final victory.
Excellent work of pixel wind
Whether it's the combat system or the aesthetic style, Triangle Strategy handles a variety of key plots or campaigns fairly well. In this type of game, the role of music is crucial, so the music of this game is also excellent, and some of the big battles BGM stand out, and there is a tune that exudes the atmosphere of an Italian Western, which is quite special. There are also some special character dialogues in the battle, and this design is also quite prominent, so that the villains are more inclined to show their personality in battle.
summary
Triangle Strategy may not immediately show the player the best of itself, but it does a great job of presenting a real-world plot that includes elements such as resource competition and upper-class ambitions, and these stories that explore human nature can even successfully make players forget about the boring protagonist group.
Players can make a variety of meaningful choices in the game. In addition, the game includes a voting system (based mainly on the various choices you make in the game), and sometimes, the votes of your teammates will veto your ideas in strange ways. Another core of the game is the combat part, the well-designed combat system is not complicated, and the challenge difficulty is reasonable and moderate. Triangle Strategy may not be a blatant work, but it's still outstanding.
merit
Classic high-low Japanese SRPG turn-based gameplay
The pace is slow but the experience is solid
Huge worldview setting and rich plot
shortcoming
The protagonist's sense of existence is insufficient
The voting system is flawed