A tribute to Square's more strategic role playing endeavors

In what feels like forever, Triangle Strategy arrives in hopes to alleviate the Square SRPG fans of forever waiting for anything to come out from the JRPG developer and publisher. Despite technically being developed by a different developer from the Octopath Traveler game, it mostly shares the DNA that Team Asano games have started to come out in recent times with the Live-A-Live and Dragon Quest III remake sharing similarities with the use of different art and the utilization of the HD-2D engine. That said, Triangle Strategy is an obtuse name for a game but I personally think it's actually unique in a sense. So many Japanese role playing games have some generic names especially with long time series just using the same name followed by a numeral but here we have shape and noun or genre as the title of the game and despite how some people protest the name, the fact that people are talking about the name itself is ironically marketing the game for them and it's a good thing because Triangle Strategy really hits it home for me that is a budding SRPG fan at this point with some trips and falls along the way.

The surprising best part about this game is actually the story if you can believe it. The game's advertisement campaign really focuses around the story and the "choices" you make and I'm happy to say that the story is excellent here. It's more grounded than other stories in the genre leaning on political drama but they did a great job building the world up along with the main cast having clear motivations and have reasons for each vote they case during these important "choices". The choices you make in this game are actually pretty tough to make in this game and do impact what you see and who you get to join you and it's rarely a black and white case of doing mega evil thing versus a mega good thing. So the agency you have in these choices are a bit different in that you yourself don't decide but the retainers in your own house that do and how you can convince them in your favor or the choice you actually want depends on how have you've been playing the game up until that point. If you've been playing one style of conviction and then you want to convince the others to vote for a choice that sort of goes against your principles that you upheld until then, it'll be harder to convince them otherwise. Everything here about the world and story keeps you on your toes and you're mostly quickly intrigued into what happens next that gives the feeling of binging a good tv show in a sense. One of the most important parts is obviously the gameplay and the gameplay is pretty great in its own sense. It follows a 3D square grid map of tiles of varying heights in an isometric view following a turn order. The way your team is set up is that each character is unique and has one set class/job throughout the whole game. Now sadly you can't change classes but you can promote the existing ones to improved versions of said classes and with no permadeath, you will always have one of each class/job at least and it promotes not resetting constantly like in other games of the genre. Each character feels mostly really useful and there's some creative jobs/classes here that are really fun to use depending on the map. Now with no permadeath and retaining experience and kudos which are a special currency for playing well on a retry, you might think the game might be easy and lacking a challenge but I'm here to report that this is not the case at all here. The game throws a lot of tanky units at you and hit hard even on normal here and with the way you get very little experience after hitting a certain level in each battle means you will never be extremely overleveled to the point the game becomes a breeze. I feel like this is a good compromise of not wasting the player's time with being able to keep the experience if they're undeleveled at the attempt of completing a level and the challenge itself being just being able to get through the level as it is and with no permadeath, you can truly stick out until the end instead of one mistake essentially means wasting your time. If you don't like retaining experience however, you can always just reload the save anyway. The soundtrack here is great with some standout tracks with the battle themes taking the crown for some of the best tracks here. The epic orchestration really sells you on that this is war and this won't be pretty at all by the end but in the rough drumlines there is also a twinge of hope in the piano keys fluttering during the themes to remind you of your conviction. Characters are mostly great but mostly the really important ones such as Benedict, Frederica and Roland to be specific with me personally thinking Benedict as a whole knocking it out of the park for me as one of if not the best character in this game in my opinion. The visual design for them in general are great and clean here as well.

Despite how much I love this game, there are some obvious flaws in the presentation and things that I feel the game overall lacks that might turn some people off from this game and I wouldn't blame them. The gameplay to cutscene ratio here is sadly a bit more in favor of cutscenes here at least in the beginning as you will probably go the first 3-4 hours of the game and only playing 2-3 battles at most as the game spends this time building up the world and the characters but with that said, the game's ratio gets better as the game progresses and you get trial battles at your encampment that essentially lets you battle whenever you want for money or resources if you need them to give you a break from the story. The writing or how the story is presented might be a bit too cut and dry for some people as it doesn't have any flavor to it often, it's almost literal in a sense with the occasional medieval slang inserted in. The English voice-over is alright for me with Benedict being the best voiced in my opinion but a lot of them sound bored especially the protagonist which I feel lacks the emotion needed for some scenes here, you can technically turn off the voices here and I believe you can change it to Japanese if you insist on it.

Triangle Strategy will ask for a bit of your time and the demo will sadly confuse some people about the ratio of cutscene to gameplay here but if you want to jump into SRPGs, this is a great option with changeable difficulty during your playthrough, experience scaling that makes it so you never have to grind nor get over leveled, no permadeath, keeping the experience and kudos after death so you don't completely waste your time in attempts to beat some of the game's hardest and longest battles. All of this wrapped up in one of the most grounded japanese game plot I've experienced in a while. Triangle Strategy is a love letter to fans of Square's old SRPGs and RPGs in general you don't want to miss out on. If you can put up with the lack of gameplay and sometimes dry writing, you truly have something special here.

I will forge my own path and follow my own convictions until I breathe my last. That is the only way I can truly live and enjoy what life I was given.

this game you have to be in the right mindset in to fully enjoy. if youre looking for a sweeping, multifaceted political tale that is thoughtfully built, you have found your game. it isnt very character driven, which is somewhat unusual for the modern switch tactic/strategy games, but more than makes up for it with how enveloped the story gets.
my first playthrough was about 35 hours, which i completed in a period of 3 days. it was easy to get lost playing the game. the first 3 chapters are story heavy, but most of it is voiced and is used to setup story points to be used later. there is also supplemental material if you wish to read more about the world.
of the four main characters, frederica stands out by far. there is an element of fantasy racism here, though i argue it is one of square enix's better attempts at it. shes also one of the best voiced characters in the game. the voice acting can be all over the place, but it was nice to see that emma balentine do such a great job with the most compelling character in the story.
the branching path element is also a welcome edition. i know it isn't the best game to compare it to, but it did a LOT better than three houses in terms of branching story and replayability. the maps, characters you get, and story reflects the decisions you make which is very refreshing. the choices are also hard to make, there isnt an obvious good and bad paths. this also extends to the main endings. i made what i thought was the best choice on my first playthrough, but i still felt awful about how some things turned out at the end. and thats great! war is complicated and not everything will turn out great.
as for gameplay, i think the difficulty settings are great, it doesnt feel like theres a huge jump from easy to hard. it is harder than a typical strategy game, but there are ample settings. replayability gameplay wise is great, as you keep your levels/items/characters you got from your previous playthrough in ng+, and its easier to see where your alignment is at any given time.
the HD-2D graphics are perfect for this game, with gorgeous lighting effects. the soundtrack is also amazing, especially the rosellan themes ones.
the only complaints i really have is the at times lackluster voice acting, especially with serenoa. there can also be a bit of clunk with the camera controls in battle, but these are really minor compared to the game as a whole.
tldr great game great story, just play it with the expectation that youre going to get less character stuff
adding half a star for having a woman with pink hair

I'm not good at reviews so I don't know how if this will be shit but here I go.

It had been a while since a strategy game got me interested ever since I played FE3H, but I looked at this game and since it looked so pretty I gave the demo a try.
First impressions were nice, characters were simple but had their charm (of course since I couldn't see them as a whole because demo), the art style looked very good and the gameplay was fun, being simple to understand but fairly challenging.
I got the full game as a gift, and it was one of the best gifts I've had.
After the first 1/4 of the route I was on, bosses got quite challenging and made me actually think what to do instead of just charging at them, which I appreciate.
The story was good, and the decisions you have to make feel quite impactful. Near the end of the route my favorite character abandoned me and I got sad :(
The only complaint I got is that I don't like how you sometimes gotta grind, otherwise the enemies will likely stomp you.
Other than that, I feel like this is an amazing game, I can't wait to finish the other 3 routes.

Triangle Strategy is okay!

The story is heavy on political intrigue, which is usually totally my bag. Sadly, the villains are largely very video game-y, and tend to “mwahaha” in lieu of interesting characterization. Many of the heroes fall victim to similar one-dimensionality, and unfortunately political intrigue is only as intriguing as its characters. On top of this, the dialogue is redundant and all too ready to explain every minute detail to you instead of letting you figure anything out for yourself.

Luckily the gameplay is a lot of fun, although not without its own problems. It’s much shallower mechanically and strategically than benchmark SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics, but not having to deal with constant class micromanaging may appeal to those looking for a more streamlined experience.

For what it’s worth, I did three playthroughs, getting two of the three regular endings as well the true ending. And at the end of the day, I’m not totally convinced it was worth more than one, as seeing multiple endings did little more than reveal how ramshackle and malleable this story really is. The branching paths are cool on the surface, but what the game gains in flexibility, it loses in specificity. Characters must fill several roles depending on what story branch you’re in, and that means they can’t be TOO well-defined or a decision they make in an alternate path might not quite line up. So what we get are some stock archetypes that never really get much development outside of some optional cutscenes strictly for character-building (side note: don’t make learning about the people you’re supposed to care about optional! Integrate it into your story, you dorks!)

Truthfully, the only foolproof way out of this problem is to simply NOT have the branching paths. I would have preferred one story done well than four mediocre ones.

Overall it’s decent enough. But if Final Fantasy Tactics is an amazing steak (and it is), this is a fast food steakBURGER. Which is fine, but let’s not kid ourselves.

This game is amazing, a fantastic experience with tons of variety in both story and gameplay. Greatly encouraging replays to make different choices, see how different events play out and use different units. I only played one playthrough, so I haven't experienced even half of everything this game can offer yet. But I'll write about my first playthrough, as there's enough there by itself.

Story
The story was amazing. The branching paths that form when you use the Scales of Conviction are interesting and always fun to try to get the path you think best. But even aside from the decision points, all the consistent content is great too, great world building that's conveyed in the overworld map and the lore you find throughout the game. It is dialogue heavy, but the story being delivered in multiple different ways makes it more digestible I feel. From main story cutscenes, to side story events and individual character stories. As well as having interesting ways to acquire lore and information.

Those being exploration in the free roam sections, where you can gain information by talking to certain people or interacting with certain objects. Or you can buy small lore entries and stories from a shop (very cheap it's not a big deal) to read at your leisure. This lore is all neatly organized in a dedicated information tab in the menus.

The story starts out as your classic medieval fantasy tale usually does. A young lord is suddenly thrust upon a conflict he isn't ready for. During a seemingly mundane trip for the arranged marriage of said lord, fighting breaks out, as a result of scheming from people in power of this world. Quick to react, Lord Serenoa Wolffort and his army embark to find their path through the growing conflict. And how does Serenoa and the player find their path through it? With the game's core mechanic, the Scales of Conviction.

The Scales of Conviction are an interesting way to handle route splits and character decisions. Instead of the player simply picking whatever option they want. Serenoa puts the path they take up to a vote with his seven core allies, the results of said vote using the Scales of Conviction will decide what they do next. The player gets to contribute by trying to sway Serenoa's friends into voting for their desired outcome. This element is changed by a number of factors, certain information you discover in exploration phases will unlock more convincing dialogue options when trying to sway a characters opinion. Serenoa's own convictions, which the player gets to choose through a variety of dialogue options in the main story and a number of other factors, will also factor into this. In some decisions certain characters will be easy to sway, in others they may be so thick headed you might not be able to convince them to side with you. As well as some Scales of Conviction scenes having certain characters lock in their opinion before the player can begin to choose a path. Making the player pick which trusted ally they side with most and find the most reasonable.

As alluded to in the last paragraph, Serenoa's convictions play a big role in how the story and even gameplay plays out. As certain characters will join your army depending on what decisions you've made up until that point. I found that the choices you make and convictions you hold for Serenoa affected how I picked certain options, as I did not feel the Serenoa I've been playing with would make certain decisions, based on what I've chosen previously.

But apart from all of the decision elements the story is also great. Great character focused moments, a great main cast of Characters to see the story told through. Some entertaining characters to alleviate the drama and intensity of the bigger events. A large world and history to discover and a large array of characters to learn about, all of this combined provided a fantastic story, and again, I only played through once! Many differences big and small await me in the future.

For those who know I got the Morality ending and I thought it was a great ending. The final Scales of Conviction scene was quite conflicting. Each outcome having its' share of pros and cons. And each one forcing to side with or go against certain trusted allies. My only big story complaint, I can't really comment on now, as it's a decision I did not choose, at the time of the decision, it seemed dumb and out of character (those who know probably know what I'm talking about) but that could change when I play that route. Maybe it'll make sense when given more time. I'll play the other routes eventually, but for now. Just wow. Amazing story.

Gameplay
The gameplay was amazing as well. As a fan of Strategy RPGs this game definitely delivered while making itself stand out. It having an individual unit Turn order, based on unit speed and items, instead of a traditional "player moves all units then enemy moves all units" deal made the combat a lot more intense I felt. You needed to look ahead to see what enemies are moving when to determine how you should act. And the player and enemy both having ways to affect the turn order was great. Core combat elements were cool too, crits being guaranteed when striking from behind, and units being able to do follow up attacks when attacking an enemy with an allied unit on the opposite side made the positioning and directional orientation of your units important.

Map wise it was great. Not too big, some maps are even pretty tight on space to work with, but you have the tools to make it work. The elevation factor was really interesting and helped with strategy and was aided by your units different movement type and mobility skills. What I found most interesting was that the exploration phases you played, in which you walked around the different towns and other areas you visit in the story, would most of the time be the maps you fight in that chapter. So the player can gather information and learn the lay of the land before the fighting is even close to starting. The map elements all work together to help the player stay mindful of their surroundings, terrain, ally and enemy movement, choke points etc.

Unit wise, man it was incredible. Every unit is unique, there's no class or role overlap. Even if two units share a movement type like horse or hawk, they had vastly different roles. The different roles units can take from your classic dps, tanks, healers, supports etc. All provided an incredibly unique array of characters to play around with. Some units have skills that change how they use consumable items, some set traps, some can provide ladders to play around with map elevation, some units have buffs or nerfs, those of which even being unique between said units. Every unit has a unique role to provide your army, some maps will benefit or hinder different units, encouraging the player to experiment with each unit instead of just sticking with the same army. I used every unit at least a few times in my playthrough.

The way this game handles exp gain is great for this too, lower level units catch up quick while higher level units exp get restricted to stay on target with the recommended level of the map you're playing so you can't have any super over leveled units easily. The mock battles used as grinding both aid getting your weaker units up, getting money or materials to upgrade and buy items, but they make it extremely difficult to level your highest level units. You technically could, and it's fine to do so to cap off a really close level up, but over leveling is extremely time consuming and not worth it.

Difficulty
This game is pretty tough, and I played on normal. Had some rough spots in the early game, but I attribute those mainly to my adjusting to the game and learning everything about it rather than map difficulty. But some maps are pretty tough. But it never felt overly unfair. It felt like my failures came more from improper planning and execution of strategies rather than the game being too hard/me being under leveled (cause I was a few levels under the recommendation during some chapters, but again this didn't feel like why I was having difficulty).

Realistically, I think only a few maps I had to wholely retry and rethink my strategy on, and I never had to do more than like, 2 or 3 attemtps before finding something that worked. Whether it was investing in some upgrades I didn't get the first time, choosing different units or just approaching the maps in different ways, I found a way that worked reasonably quickly and without headache. Now I say this, but imagining some of these maps on hard is making me shaky. Especially chapter 18. That one was definitely the hardest map in this playthrough.

I say all this but again, it's more of a fun difficulty than an unfair feeling one. This feeling is aided by the game not having a perma death mechanic. If a unit dies on a map, it sucks of course as they miss out on some experience and it makes it more difficult, but you can continue on with no problem afterwards. So you can fight tooth and nail down to where your last unit is left to win the map and that is a perfectly fine way to play it out. There are some rewards and benefits to not losing units, but none game breaking to force you to reset over and over.

Some smaller gameplay elements I liked
I like that elemental magic and items could affect the maps and enemies. Freezing tiles slowed movement, burning tiles did damage, lighting magic spread through water etc. I like the shops, you can technically grind for infinite money, but you're probably gonna be spending more than you think on items and weapon upgrades. The weapon system was cool, gaining additional skills and stat increases depending on how you choose to invest in your weapon upgrades was fun. Promotion felt well balanced, it doesn't reset your level so there's no point in waiting, promotion items themselves were limited, you definitely won't fully promote a full army in one go, so it makes you consider your promotions wisely.

Having an array of usable items to play with was fun, from healing potions with varying ranges, to items that could temporarily buff you or nerf enemies, to elemental battle items that could allow any unit to use an elemental power when needed (but much worse than a magic unit of course). And a couple units having skills that boosted how they use these consumables was cool. Equippable gear was fun, overall they were mostly stat buffs, but had some pretty unique items that made you think and rework who got what equipment each map.

Characters
I enjoyed all the characters I got, overall they were fun at minimum and each got deeper content as the game went on. This is helped ny the character stories feature, which is kind of like bonus cutscenes that primarily focus on one character to develop and tell the player more about. All the ones I saw were great, I don't know exactly how you unlock them at the moment. But I got a lot just by playing normally.

Serenoa
Serenoa is a great MC, the player choices don't feel like they overpower the core of his character, but his convictions you build still carry weight and importance. Overall he's your traditional young lord that tries to do his best, honor bound and wants peace. But I think his convictions gettong tested in a number of ways help Serenoa develop and add to the player's view of him and how they think he should act. Serenoa often gets put into situations where he must work against the wished of one of his most trusted friends. This results in powerful moments that test his resolve and convictions. The gameplay, Scales of Conviction, dialogue options all combine with the main story elements Serenoa gets to form a strong protagonist that the player views the story alongside.

Main Cast
I enjoyed the main cast, some more than others. You have a core of 8 characters you follow along the story events with and the 7 that aren't Serenoa, the main character, are who vote during the Scales of Conviction scenes. So you get to hear all of their opinions and points of view on each issue which I think greatly helps developing them. My favorites being Frederica, Anna and Benedict, as their stories I found most interesting and they have some fantastic scenes. But Hughette, Geela, Roland and Erador all have value as well. All of these characters are good at a bare minimum. Hughette and Geela I didn't think had too much that made them super interesting, but I enjoyed the moments they had a lot.

Other characters
The other playable characters you only get to see in their joining cutscene and individual character stories but like I said, all the ones I saw were good. My favorites being Narve, Piccoletta, Ezana, Julio, Medina and Trish. They all varied from just being fun characters to having some pretty compelling moments in their character stories. I liked how this game turned the classic NPCs of an RPG into playable characters, those being Jens the Blacksmith, Hossabara the Barkeep and Lionel the Merchant.

The non playable characters were good too, Symon was a lot of fun, though he unfortunately suffers from protagonist father disease :(, but he's still great. I liked the villains too, Thalas and Erika were great hateable pieces of shit. Gustadolph was a really cool villain. Exharme Marcial was my favorite minister, though Lyla was cool too. And characters like Dragan and Sylvio were fun too.

Other small things I liked about the game
The music was fantastic, really nails the medieval feel, my favorite track was definitely Until That Day, Frederica's main battle theme. It just felt so bountiful, hopeful and uplifting.

Voice acting was great. I played the game in English this time, I'll do Japanese next playthrough, but I loved the cast. Specially Serenoa, Frederica, Benedict, Roland, Erador, Symon, Gustadolph, Jerrom and Trish all had great performances from their VAs.

The visuals are great too, simple pixel styles come right are my weakness. The environments always felt so detailed and looked great visually, especially the water. I love the art style of the character portraits, definitely some great designs too.

New Game Plus seems very interesting and I am excited to play the other routes when I can, until then, this was an amazing experience to play. Just a fantastic game.

I'm one of those people that fairly enjoyed Octopath Traveler. While the story and party interactions were a little weak, the artstyle, music, and overall charm carried it a long way for me. I am happy to say, Triangle Strategy is a dramatic improvement.

The story and characters have superb writing, and many of the choices feel genuinely difficult to make. They actually do shape the course of the story rather well. The music is just as good as it was in Octopath really makes some of the battles memorable.

From a gameplay standpoint, what makes it stand apart from other TRPGs I've played is that each of the ~20 or so units you have gets a totally unique moveset and role to play. Several different kinds of healers, magicians, mounted units, and so on can really be used to customize your ideal party composition. For example, one healer is a traditional mage with a basic heal spell that later can cure ailments, do AoEs, etc. While another can use items from distance and use multiple per turn, so they have a different sort of versatility since that also means damage items. While there's no permadeath like in other similar titles, this also allows for freedom in battle where you could end up fighting to the last without a compulsion to save scum.

Admittedly, I'd love to play it on a platform that isn't the switch because it drains the battery hard and has some noticeable performance hits (though not a huge deal for this genre). However regardless, I'd like to play it again soon just to see another one of the multiple endings. What a fantastic game.

Triangle Strategy is a breath of fresh air in the current market of games, and an amazing return to form for the Tactics RPG genre. After putting around 50 hours into Octopath Traveler, I was a little weary of what this team would offer when they first announced Project Triangle Strategy. I will admit though, when I saw that they were pivoting from the grindy JRPG sphere into Tactics, that piqued my interest greatly as FE:3H is one of my favorite games of all time. The initial advertising and trailers pinpointed a new focus into story, something Octopath lacked greatly. With the spotlight on story and a navigation into a new genre for the team, I put in an order for Triangle Strategy without having played any of the demos and going in mostly blind.

What I got out of the experience was an absolutely gorgeous and well crafted strategic experience. The presentation of this game is top tier in every aspect. The 2D-HD pixel art is incredible especially when paired with the elegantly designed backgrounds. Every navigatable zone felt different from the rest in terms of art, every side character discernable from the others, every cutscene full of life. I was genuinely impressed with how nostalgic of an experience this felt like for an era of games I never got to play, solely due to the phenomenal execution of the art direction. Castles felt regal and realistic, despite their 2D limitations, making me wonder what a Chrono Trigger or FFVI would look like in this style if redone by this team.

Gameplay was also very well done for this game, however is unforgiving if you play lazy! I went in on normal, as I do with most games, and found myself having to play a LOT smarter than I did with FE:3H or any other tactics game I've played as of the past few years. Enemies constantly seek synergy attacks and will crit whenever given the opportunity, bosses hit like a truck, and you are penalized by the opposition for grouping on top of each other. Missions are also set up to make you think each time, with only a few main story (and mock battle) missions making the objective to clear out all enemies. Often there is a gimmick attached that begs the player to adhere to a certain playstyle in accomplishing objectives. Sometimes these could be a little aggrivating, but over all I felt were a great refresh in creating a non monotonous experience. Each character in your fairly large party feels unique, something that goes MILES further than you might imagine. Creating a carefully crafted party throughout the game is rewarding, as playstyles for using certain party members carry different results in varying ways. Some of my friends used a build that relied on Anna (the assassin) getting as many attacks as possible, whereas I relied mostly on ranged mages and archers to get my melee characters into combat safely. I loved this aspect, as even FE:3H felt like I had my Mages and Physicals that all were prescribed to "do damage." In Triangle Strategy, each character compliments the others with something they bring to the table. My tank Erador was great for grabbing aggro and taking the brunt of damage, my archer Rudolph was great for setting traps and playing the midrange, and my mage Frederica was perfect for taking out heavy armor. I enjoy games that emplore the player to use their full arsenal.

Now previously I mentioned that this game had a heavier focus on story in comparison to the team's previous effort with Octopath, and it does. The game is loooong, and there are a TON of cutscenes with story relevant dialogue and discourse amongst the three kingdoms of the game's land. This might be a lot for some people, however I found it to be a great way to add life and fluff to a game rather than making it a battle between the good guys and the bad guys. Politics and economics take the forefront of Triangle Strategy's story, but neither are talked in a way that is necessarily offputting or grating. This serves as a double edged sword however, as the brevity that the game's narrative speaks with on any possible themes doesn't go much further than telling the story as it is. The political infighting of the Glenbrook houses and their neighboring kindgoms is... simply that. For some people that is alright, and for me it was just that, simply alright. The story being not AMAZING is one of the major things that prevents this game from getting 4.5 stars. I still do think the story was enjoyable, and the narrative was quite good, but I think "good" is how I would describe it, not "great." All in all that's alright, because the story was just enough to go along with the fun mechanics of the gameplay and perfect art/music direction.

Triangle Strategy is a genuinely enjoyable experience and a great return to form for the Tactics RPG genre. Anyone who is a fan of the old school tactics games should consider checking out the demo. I had a great time playing this game.

I really really enjoyed this game and am already planning a second playthrough. Though at first, I couldn't get hooked, mainly because the game is heavily story based and it takes a good amount of time for it to get set up, so there is A LOT of cutscenes towards the beginning and I just felt like I was playing through a narrative. But as the plot starts to unfold, this set-up is absolutely justified. This is a very emotional, politically driven story with heartbreak around every corner. I really appreciate how the decisions of the player significantly impact the direction of the story. I for one, can't stand games where they give you a dialogue decision and no matter how you answer, it doesn't change anything. This game absolutely makes you live with the consequences of your actions, making every decision a hard one. The characters are extremely well written, Frederica being on of my personal favorites. The fact that each character plays completely different then one another is so fun to mess around with. There are no identical classes so it gives you an excuse to use each and every character and find what works best for you as the player. Overall, the narration, voice acting, gameplay, and story make this a real treasure of a game, one that I can certainly go back to since there are so many other paths to take.

I don't think Triangle Strategy is an exceptional game, but it does show some marked improvements from Octopath Traveler - there's more of an individual identity here, and it feels like it actually has something to say rather than being a proof-of-concept for this nostalgia-laden minefield that is "SNES games but with quality of life features," which is essentially the mission statement for the HD2D series.

That said, I was left feeling a little cold by the end once I realized Triangle Strategy wasn't able to make good on its promises; though I never felt particularly invested in the story, the arc it goes in by the end felt flattened by the austere presentation and emotional beats, which often feel sidelined, unearned, or otherwise compromised. Like, when you recruit Maxwell you don't even get a scene with Roland at all..

I will say Frederica's story is probably the best of the bunch, and I did overall grow to like the main cast, but none get to do anything particularly exceptional and outside of Roland, Frederica, and Benedict, they're there to essentially be yes men and obstacles to overcome during the scales of conviction scenes.

Speaking of, I did enjoy the conviction and decision systems for the most part - after looking at a flowchart I can see how the game doesn't hang on them as heavily as it might seem, but the little moral Crusader Kings-esque dilemmas you have to answer questions about were fun enough to ponder, and if you play honest to yourself, it's interesting to see where it leads you. I was shocked to learn I was on the path to the golden route by the first time I looked up a guide, around the time when you choose who to accompany during a split-up segment.

The gameplay is another place where I felt a little disappointed by the end despite having a lot of fun with it up until then - it's pretty annoying that you're unable to access even half of the abilities of your entire party because it refuses to give you rank-up items beyond five or so. The lack of resources available in the game also makes it feel like the game never truly gets going; you never feel flush with money, which deincentivizes you from using a couple characters who rely on items and therefore cost you to even use.

There's a lot of interesting recruitable characters in the game and I really, really enjoyed how individualized each one is - no character does the same thing whatsoever - but there's some very clear leaders of the pack in terms of usefulness an utility, and most of those are the required characters you start with. At the very least, the core party is the more practical group of deployable units; there might be some more gimmicky or specialized versions of your mage (like Corentin or Ezana), your tank (like Groma or Flanagan), or your archer (like Archibald or Rudolph), but each one feels a bit more niche and situational. I found myself relying on Anna, Geela, Frederica, Hughette, and Erador a lot, so I only really alotted a few slots to experiment with the other characters. I will say I had some pretty crazy wins - in the fight against Thalas and Erika I wound up only having Medina, Frederica, Piccoletta, and Narve left over and spent around 100 turns paralyzing two healers and tricking Thalas into exploding Piccoletta's decoy until I whittled the three of them down enough to finish them off.

Despite how experimental you can get with your strategy, it oftentimes doesn't feel worth it to explore because of how difficult the battles are; the bosses in this game are absolutely brutal and there's really only a few characters that are raw damage dealers that can stack up against them. This coupled with the fact that you'll only be able to unlock a few special abilities in the game really pressures you into picking the more logical ones like nuke abilities and really excellent support ones like Geela's. I think the only wacky one I went with was Ezana's, which I wound up regretting because of how time-consuming the setup is for it.

I can tell this game really flourishes on a second playthrough, especially playing on hard, but after getting the golden ending I don't really feel the impetus to play again and I'm not sure if I will end up taking the plunge - there's some things here I would love to see implemented in other SRPGs, but in the end it doesn't stack up against the complexity of FFT and Tactics Ogre or the replayability and pick-up-and-play nature of Fire Emblem. It's one for SPRG lovers only!

This is the highest 4.5/5 rating I can possibly give a game. As much as I absolutely adore this game to death, I cannot justify giving it a 5/5 because there are certain flaws that shouldn't be ignored.

First, the good. This might be my favorite story ever told in a video game. It's at least up there in my top 5. Benedict, Frederica, and Roland are phenomenal characters and they perfectly evolve alongside the growing politics of Norzelia. Decision-making in this game is incredible. The combat, while weird at first for someone more used to games like Fire Emblem, is very engaging. I especially like how each character is given a specific niche so that it's worth bringing in a more gimmicky character for a particularly tough chapter.

Tragically, though, this game has some missteps that made me reconsider giving this game a perfect score. Some voice performances are far from stellar. Even Serenoa, the main character and one you will hear talking constantly, has several very stilted lines. Serenoa is actually written very well, but it's harder to see that when he sounds so...wrong at times.

I played this game on hard mode, which was a very fair and fun challenge for about 70% of the game. For the remaining 30%, I wondered if those chapters were even playtested on hard mode. They genuinely seemed impossible - maybe hard mode is meant for a new game plus playthrough, but on a standard new game it was a fairly uneven and frustrating experience.

Still, solely for the phenomenal story, characters, and decision-making, this game is a masterpiece. I can't wait to do another playthrough once 2022 stops bombarding me with other masterpieces.

This is an SRPG made for me. TS on Hard has some issues, the UX isn't as good as FE, unit balance isn't perfect though it's better than most games, there can be some awkward parts where the game doesn't quite react to a choice well or reconverges in a little too quickly there's some element of grinding up newcomers with mock battles though you can't really over level in the game. There's some lacking polish with how music can cut off strangely in scene transitions. The depth of field doesn't look great, there are some technical performance issues. It's easy to make all these critiques but it falls away in face of chapters like 7, 9, and 17 where the desperation is genuine. Where the narrative and gameplay are both fleshed out to an extent where you never really stop thinking about the consequences and variety of options in combat, many of which remain relevant throughout the game. It is among those games that beggars consistent imagination and reflection. I've no qualms calling games that reach that level of completeness and cohesion as masterpieces.

Triangle Strategy is a quality tactical RPG, though I did start getting burned out on it by the last few chapters so that's why i felt it was pretty good instead of great; but that's just me. The game does demand you actually strategize on Normal, you need to take into account stuff like heights in the environment and unit placement to avoid back attacks. The game is forgiving though in that EXP carries over in the case of defeat or you restarting the mission and you can always go to the encampment screen before a battle where you can train and buy items. The choices do actually matter, giving you entirely different missions to play through with some recruitable characters being initially locked to certain paths. The writing is pretty solid too, the characters are put more on the backburner to the plot compared to a game like Three Houses but its still engaging and I like how Serenoa and crew aren't dumb, even when you play Serenoa as a honorable guy, which lesser dark fantasy stories are wont to shit on. Overall Triangle Strategy is a definite recommend if you want a good tactical RPG.

After deciding to torture myself on Hard mode for 75 hours and nearly two months, I've finally beat this game and can write something about it.

Despite the occasional seething frustration of spending five hours of attempts on a single map, my overall takeaway from this game is very positive. The RPG mechanics of Triangle Strategy are fantastic, and I truly loved the feeling of progression and customization that was developed over the course of playing.

The combat itself is something that unavoidably I have compared a lot in my head to Fire Emblem, and I honestly cannot quite decide which I like more. Triangle Strategy's one-by-one turn-based system, as opposed to FE's "everyone moves at once" system I think increases both potential of both strategy and difficulty. I would not necessarily say it is flat-out better than Fire Emblem, but it at least rivals it. In some aspects I can comfortably say TS's mechanics are better, specifically when to the variance of approach one can take on some maps due to the difference in the turn-based systems.

My biggest issue and overall frustration by far with this game was the map design, and I guess further the Hard mode balancing. This is not the worst Hard mode I've ever played before, far from it, but it does have many of the negatives associated WITH those bad hard modes, specifically ridiculous stat inflation and at-times annoyingly weak units. To be blunt, the bosses in this game are some of the most over-tuned bullshit that I have ever seen. They are more or less the equivalent of like 10 enemies all on crack and more than once ruin the balance of otherwise hard-enough maps.

My issue with the map design is really just that most maps are too cramped. I mentioned how this game has more of a variance in ways you can approach some maps, and by some I mean MAYBE half of them at best. Several of the maps are so small that there are two ways to go: forward or nowhere, and nowhere tends to be the best option (i.e. waiting for the enemy to come to you). The bigger maps I enjoyed the overall flow of a lot more, but there are very few of them. The map size becomes particularly noticeable as more and more archer and mage units appear, all of which have at least 4 range on all their attacks, which will do at least half of any given unit's health. There is nowhere to run, and on one particular map near the end of the game, this was such egregiously bullshit, combined with the most busted boss in the game, that I had to swap to Normal for risk of genuinely losing my sanity.

Triangle Strategy has a unique, political story that I appreciated quite a bit. Although I was a little unsure at first, I am confident in saying that the game has some solid dialogue and great voice acting throughout. Throughout the game there are decisions you must make, and they lead to truly meaningful changes. I'm always skeptical when developers advertise games as having "decisions that matter," however each one of Triangle Strategy's significantly altered the course of the story, and towards the end there is a real, meaningful moral dilemma to an extent that I have rarely seen. I do wish that the game had at least a few animated cutscenes or something, ala Fire Emblem, just to help the characters and plot situations feel a little more 'real', but generally the voice acting is enough.

Despite the horrible name, Triangle Strategy has some unique ideas that in most cases are impressively well-executed. There is plenty of room for improvement, and more personally I'm not a huge fan of the HD-2D art style, but I really am happy I decided to play through this game. On a first playthrough, I do highly suggest avoiding Hard mode unless you are a masochist or have a 500 IQ in strategy games.

8/10

Combat and music in this game ruled, and I loved making Serenoa's choices entirely based off of what his wife thought was best.

However. Whew Boy!!!! The orientalism was off the charts with this one!!!! That scene where our European-coded characters are in a desert city (a scene that not all players will see, given it has branching paths) and are startled and horrified by a daily call to prayer that is very reminiscent of Muslim calls to prayer was wild. How is it scary when Muslims have daily calls to prayer but not when Christians drink the blood and eat the flesh of Christ? It's classic Edward Said Orientalism all the way down in this one.

To quote from the article on Said's work from Wikipedia: "These cultural representations [of the Middle East] usually depict the 'Orient' as primitive, irrational, violent, despotic, fanatic, and essentially inferior to the westerner or native informant, and hence, 'enlightenment' can only occur when "traditional" and "reactionary" values are replaced by "contemporary" and "progressive" ideas that are either western or western-influenced."

I finished the game largely to see just how islamophobic it gets and it is rough. I was pretty unsettled not to see it mentioned in most critical reviews of the game, either.

The tactics were great and I loved most of the characters, but I cannot forgive them for that.

Overall, a pretty solid SRPG! The visuals and soundtrack are obviously incredible, and the maps and boss fights are actually pretty cool this time around. I don't know if I prefer this or Fire Emblem gameplay wise but it's overall not a bad attempt.

What dragged this game down was the story, pacing, and voice acting. The Voice Acting is whatever for most characters, I can tell that some of the actors are doing a good job, but there are a select few that are just not doing a good job. And that may be a biproduct of the quality of the story. Because the story is INCREDIBLY boring throughout. None of the dialogue or characters or ESPECIALLY the writing is good enough to demand as much time dedicated to it as it asks. Because there are many instances where you can go decently long stretches without gameplay, and the stuff OTHER than the gameplay is just super boring.

It's not endless, but It definitely feels that way at times. But I think that besides the story and just about everything surrounding it, the game is great! It's just that the game needed a story overhaul to really make me say that it's as great as everyone says it is.

The second playthrough fell a bit flat, but the game remains great nontheless.
Triangle Strategy features an intricate story that can be played and enjoyed multiple times, as intended in the games' design. Decisions have consequences and shape the turn of events and players can see up to four different endings yada yada this has been done many times and what's actually setting this game apart: the story is pretty good on a subsequent try and if you enjoy political mysteries this game's gonna be a field trip. It's not the most complicated thing, but many twists can be foreseen just the right amount of time and a few will surprise you like red circles on a clickbait thumbnail.

Story-wise I cannot regret playing this again, but the gameplay elements were not balanced at all. So you really feel like the person responsible for common sense in game design did not show up for work at a certain point. Places visited before will not contain new items, and battles yield the same loot that they did beforehand. So you need high-tier materials and a lot of money and the game gives you three bananas. Leveling up in the second playthrough is more of a nuisance. There are plenty of characters to recruit and even more are playable in later playthroughs, but you cannot equip and pull up their stats fast enough and the game becomes a grind festivity. This is such an oversight in an overall well developed game.
As for positive elements of gameplay the developers outdid themselves on the flow of battles. Even though they can be long, it never feels boring to play them out. Difficulty can be changed anytime and whenever you lose a battle you don't lose the EXP gained by the characters. This is massive and I hope this will be the gold standard mechanic in all future games of this genre. Overall it was a nice experience.