Triangle Strategy reminded me that sometimes, it's good to be patient with a game. Had I not stuck with it, I would've missed out on a great tactical RPG experience that may even get better when I come back to it. Be forewarned, this game has an incredibly slow start, but don't let that deter you. The plot threads and background these opening hours set up are vital to its successes later.
The game is structured a bit oddly to be fair. Every chapter has multiple events, some main plot events and others side events, that you must go through to complete the chapter. The odd bit though is that cutscenes themselves are most of these events. In the beginning, especially, you'll go through a few chapters that are JUST cutscenes. It can be quite dull despite the overall high quality of the writing regardless of what part of the game you're in. Stick with it though, and you'll slowly get introduced to the other types of events you'll actually interact with: Battles, Exploration, and Decision moments. Once a clearer structure comes into play, the pacing evens out much more nicely, and I at least found myself hooked as I experienced the various toils and troubles this land of Norzelia had in store for the main cast.
You play as Serenoa, a high lord of the kingdom of Glenbrook, who after a major turning point breaks the long lasting piece on the continent becomes a pivotal player in a game of war and political scheming. You'll weave through nefarious plots, decide who to ally with or turn against, and battle your way through tough foes to achieve your goals. It's a neat blend of your typical TRPG combat with good writing, and a smattering of dialogue and decision systems reminiscent of games like Mass Effect.
Throughout the story, you'll have moments to respond in conversation to others, building one of three Convictions that will later affect which characters you can recruit and how persuasive you are in the major decision points. These points are vital as you the player don't just get to choose what your party does next. Not that that would be any easier anyway as these decisions are not easy to make! Your party actually gets to vote for what course to take with the Scales of Conviction, and you as Serenoa cannot vote but only persuade and tiebreak a deadlocked vote. It's up to you to convince the characters who would choose against you to change their minds, and there's no guaranteed success. I had a few votes get very close, and the last one in particular was tied between two of the three options, forcing me to break it. It's a fascinating system, one that not only forces you to make interesting, touch decisions but to think through them in order to convince others of your conviction.
This of course leads to multiple branching points, and while it's clear by looking at your narrative path that most decisions don't heavily alter the overall plot, things still play differently enough to encourage subsequent playthroughs. I'm excited to go back after a bit of a break to see what changes, big or small, the other paths lead to. Not to mention, on New Game+ you can actually see how much of each conviction you've earned and what is needed to recruit the remaining characters in the game, so going back to get all of them sounds satisfying as well.
Regardless, my own first playthrough was still engaging and emotionally captivating. Going through blind, I fought for the choices I really believed in and felt the game did a great job at allowing me to craft a version of the story that really catered to the values I input myself. It ended up having a bigger impact on me because of that.
All that being said, the cool narrative systems wouldn't work nearly as well if the battles you fight in each chapter weren't entertaining themselves. Thankfully, while Triangle Strategy doesn't reinvent the wheel, it's battle system is still very well done. Similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, you control units in your army that are each their own individual characters on an isometric grid. You take each turn to move, perform an action such as attacking, casting a spell, using an item, etc., and then pick the orientation you want your character to stand in. This last part is especially important as backstabbing a character guarantees a critical hit, attacking from higher ground makes your attacks do more damage, and flanking an enemy allows for follow up attacks from your allies. Positioning is vital if you don't want your character units to get obliterated in a single turn. That's really it from the battles themselves; the depth really comes from the variety of actions you can take and how they affect characters' status effects and stats as well as turn order of the individual units.
It helps too that the arenas you fight in are never boring. Whether it's just an interesting field to navigate, a unique requirement to win (or lose), or a case of the game putting you on your back foot by sticking you in a ravine and surrounding you with enemies, I was frequently challenged and never bored. As someone who's played some but not many TRPGs, I found the game very challenging, with a lot of battles in the mid to late game requiring multiple attempts from me on Normal difficulty. While some of this could be frustrating, by the time I did conquer a particularly tough battle, I was able to see how my mistakes and misunderstandings of the system held me back. You're going to have to really learn not just the game's systems but how to strategize with them as well to succeed. I enjoyed this, with some battles going heavily my way after a couple attempts and others turning into nailbiting fights of attrition where I won with like 4 characters left standing.
Outside of battle, you can augment your combat capabilities by upgrading character's weapons at the blacksmith to bolster stats, buff abilities, or even unlock new ones, upgrading the characters themselves to evolve their class and open them up to new abilities, and manage your item inventory at the shop. The class promotion in particular was a favorite of mine, reminding me a lot of Fire Emblem. It was cool seeing a unit not only get new abilities that opened up new strategic avenues, but also get a snazzy new costume that makes them look badass in combat.
All of what I've described is of course given a fantastic audiovisual treatment that should come as no surprise to players of Octopath Traveler. Similar to that game, Square Enix and Artdink have used Unreal Engine to create a hybridized pixel art meets 3D view, and it's just as gorgeous as it is in OT or the Live a Live remake. I really hope they continue to push this style a it's super unique and very nice to look at (looks like I have nothing to worry about with this year's release of Octopath Traveler II). The music too, while not as good as Octopath in my opinion, is still very well done. I particularly liked Frederica's theme which really stuck out in a good way each time it played. It represents her character beautifully. The voice acting is nice too. I went with the Japanese voice actors, and I thought their performances were all well done.
Overall, Triangle Strategy is a tactical RPG that finds depth in both its narrative and gameplay. I definitely plan to come back to this to not only unlock the other story paths and true ending, but also to continue to play with its combat system. This won't be for everyone; if TRPGs have never been your thing, this game won't change your mind. However, for anyone interested in this game, I doubt you'll be disappointed.
The game is structured a bit oddly to be fair. Every chapter has multiple events, some main plot events and others side events, that you must go through to complete the chapter. The odd bit though is that cutscenes themselves are most of these events. In the beginning, especially, you'll go through a few chapters that are JUST cutscenes. It can be quite dull despite the overall high quality of the writing regardless of what part of the game you're in. Stick with it though, and you'll slowly get introduced to the other types of events you'll actually interact with: Battles, Exploration, and Decision moments. Once a clearer structure comes into play, the pacing evens out much more nicely, and I at least found myself hooked as I experienced the various toils and troubles this land of Norzelia had in store for the main cast.
You play as Serenoa, a high lord of the kingdom of Glenbrook, who after a major turning point breaks the long lasting piece on the continent becomes a pivotal player in a game of war and political scheming. You'll weave through nefarious plots, decide who to ally with or turn against, and battle your way through tough foes to achieve your goals. It's a neat blend of your typical TRPG combat with good writing, and a smattering of dialogue and decision systems reminiscent of games like Mass Effect.
Throughout the story, you'll have moments to respond in conversation to others, building one of three Convictions that will later affect which characters you can recruit and how persuasive you are in the major decision points. These points are vital as you the player don't just get to choose what your party does next. Not that that would be any easier anyway as these decisions are not easy to make! Your party actually gets to vote for what course to take with the Scales of Conviction, and you as Serenoa cannot vote but only persuade and tiebreak a deadlocked vote. It's up to you to convince the characters who would choose against you to change their minds, and there's no guaranteed success. I had a few votes get very close, and the last one in particular was tied between two of the three options, forcing me to break it. It's a fascinating system, one that not only forces you to make interesting, touch decisions but to think through them in order to convince others of your conviction.
This of course leads to multiple branching points, and while it's clear by looking at your narrative path that most decisions don't heavily alter the overall plot, things still play differently enough to encourage subsequent playthroughs. I'm excited to go back after a bit of a break to see what changes, big or small, the other paths lead to. Not to mention, on New Game+ you can actually see how much of each conviction you've earned and what is needed to recruit the remaining characters in the game, so going back to get all of them sounds satisfying as well.
Regardless, my own first playthrough was still engaging and emotionally captivating. Going through blind, I fought for the choices I really believed in and felt the game did a great job at allowing me to craft a version of the story that really catered to the values I input myself. It ended up having a bigger impact on me because of that.
All that being said, the cool narrative systems wouldn't work nearly as well if the battles you fight in each chapter weren't entertaining themselves. Thankfully, while Triangle Strategy doesn't reinvent the wheel, it's battle system is still very well done. Similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, you control units in your army that are each their own individual characters on an isometric grid. You take each turn to move, perform an action such as attacking, casting a spell, using an item, etc., and then pick the orientation you want your character to stand in. This last part is especially important as backstabbing a character guarantees a critical hit, attacking from higher ground makes your attacks do more damage, and flanking an enemy allows for follow up attacks from your allies. Positioning is vital if you don't want your character units to get obliterated in a single turn. That's really it from the battles themselves; the depth really comes from the variety of actions you can take and how they affect characters' status effects and stats as well as turn order of the individual units.
It helps too that the arenas you fight in are never boring. Whether it's just an interesting field to navigate, a unique requirement to win (or lose), or a case of the game putting you on your back foot by sticking you in a ravine and surrounding you with enemies, I was frequently challenged and never bored. As someone who's played some but not many TRPGs, I found the game very challenging, with a lot of battles in the mid to late game requiring multiple attempts from me on Normal difficulty. While some of this could be frustrating, by the time I did conquer a particularly tough battle, I was able to see how my mistakes and misunderstandings of the system held me back. You're going to have to really learn not just the game's systems but how to strategize with them as well to succeed. I enjoyed this, with some battles going heavily my way after a couple attempts and others turning into nailbiting fights of attrition where I won with like 4 characters left standing.
Outside of battle, you can augment your combat capabilities by upgrading character's weapons at the blacksmith to bolster stats, buff abilities, or even unlock new ones, upgrading the characters themselves to evolve their class and open them up to new abilities, and manage your item inventory at the shop. The class promotion in particular was a favorite of mine, reminding me a lot of Fire Emblem. It was cool seeing a unit not only get new abilities that opened up new strategic avenues, but also get a snazzy new costume that makes them look badass in combat.
All of what I've described is of course given a fantastic audiovisual treatment that should come as no surprise to players of Octopath Traveler. Similar to that game, Square Enix and Artdink have used Unreal Engine to create a hybridized pixel art meets 3D view, and it's just as gorgeous as it is in OT or the Live a Live remake. I really hope they continue to push this style a it's super unique and very nice to look at (looks like I have nothing to worry about with this year's release of Octopath Traveler II). The music too, while not as good as Octopath in my opinion, is still very well done. I particularly liked Frederica's theme which really stuck out in a good way each time it played. It represents her character beautifully. The voice acting is nice too. I went with the Japanese voice actors, and I thought their performances were all well done.
Overall, Triangle Strategy is a tactical RPG that finds depth in both its narrative and gameplay. I definitely plan to come back to this to not only unlock the other story paths and true ending, but also to continue to play with its combat system. This won't be for everyone; if TRPGs have never been your thing, this game won't change your mind. However, for anyone interested in this game, I doubt you'll be disappointed.