I like how after some very poor firsts impressions story wise, the game manages to become a rather interesting tale of societal change in a world at the verge of colapse. And like one could say the world this story takes place in is dull, yeah, like many other games and tv series and whatnot it’s clearly aiming to replicate a certain gameofthronesy vibe without fully committing to the task, or are simply lacking the talent necessary to create a vibrant and believable universe. It’s just too hard, even if you have the talent, it takes too much time to do it right.
Nevertheless, Triangle Strategy succeeds in using these lackluster elements the best anyone could. There are three factions at war, each one seemingly representing an idea that’s also expressed as such mechanically; freedom, morality and pragmatism, but I would say there are clear parallelisms with real world empires. You have the expansionist “freedom” seeking militarists that are developing weapons of mass destructions (the US), the “well meaning” but archaic nation open to invasions for the naivete of its leaders (Japan), and the conservative “egalitarians” that have the monopoly of a key resource they obtain by enslaving a minority (Germany). This is of course highly subjective, but I insist that this es heavily implied by the text. You sure notice my use of quotations marks, and that’s because that’s just a facade. In reality they are just seeking power and profit, they have a world vision that they pursue out of interest, because that’s what in their mind gives them the best chance at standing at the top of the pyramid once the last arrow is shot. They are all wrong, in the end, of course. Ruling over a pile of corpses should not be considered a victory.
The process in which the main characters realize this and interprets what they see is quite interesting too. They are constantly fighting other people’s wars, always stabbed in the back and forced to make tough decisions for a better tomorrow that never arrives. You can sense how every choice they make takes them closer to a breaking point that, depending of how you played your cards, eventually leads them to perpetually participate in this games of thrones or to destroy or escape this cycle.
Again, the story is quite thin in some places, and it’s put there with not a lot of care or elegance, but it tries very interesting things at nearly every moment. I love how each member of your main team is extremely well characterized to a degree that you could know what they are going to say to any event before they do it. If you try to reason with the extremely pragmatic realist who basically lives for the perdurance of his kingdom and tell him that you all should go out of your way to rescue a friend and to do that for honor, he will instantly disagree with you. For him, that’s irrelevant, and while you could convince him by telling him different things, he just doesn’t care about honor and friendship. They are all just great characters.
Anyway, the story explores the shortcomings of these visions, and how all of them lead to cyclic violence and how this violence is suffered the most by the common folk. And while it could be a lot more poignant, it is definitely acute of the problems that plague both the game universe and ours.
In terms of its presentation I found it a bit boring, frankly. There’s much better pixel art done by smaller teams, and the HD2D or whatever it is called doesn’t quite shine here as much as it did in Live a Live, for example. The music it’s not that great either. The character designs are excellent though.
While I don’t like to separate the game’s components in a review, it’s just the way it came out. The combat is robust and surprisingly beginner friendly. There are enough characters to make fun team compositions, even if those characters themselves aren’t that customizable, and the maps, an often overlooked element in strategy rpgs, are perhaps some of the best I’ve seen. There are a lot and they feel tailor made, and they DO affect how you fight, from tiny arenas that basically force a frontal attack, to convoluted mines with platforms and trains. They are just balanced and it is clear a lot of effort when into designing these encounters.
I wish I come back later and edit this in a more organized way, or to make it all coalesce into a single statement about a game that I loved despite its shortcomings, but as of right now, this will do. I don’t think there’s many better games in the genre.
Nevertheless, Triangle Strategy succeeds in using these lackluster elements the best anyone could. There are three factions at war, each one seemingly representing an idea that’s also expressed as such mechanically; freedom, morality and pragmatism, but I would say there are clear parallelisms with real world empires. You have the expansionist “freedom” seeking militarists that are developing weapons of mass destructions (the US), the “well meaning” but archaic nation open to invasions for the naivete of its leaders (Japan), and the conservative “egalitarians” that have the monopoly of a key resource they obtain by enslaving a minority (Germany). This is of course highly subjective, but I insist that this es heavily implied by the text. You sure notice my use of quotations marks, and that’s because that’s just a facade. In reality they are just seeking power and profit, they have a world vision that they pursue out of interest, because that’s what in their mind gives them the best chance at standing at the top of the pyramid once the last arrow is shot. They are all wrong, in the end, of course. Ruling over a pile of corpses should not be considered a victory.
The process in which the main characters realize this and interprets what they see is quite interesting too. They are constantly fighting other people’s wars, always stabbed in the back and forced to make tough decisions for a better tomorrow that never arrives. You can sense how every choice they make takes them closer to a breaking point that, depending of how you played your cards, eventually leads them to perpetually participate in this games of thrones or to destroy or escape this cycle.
Again, the story is quite thin in some places, and it’s put there with not a lot of care or elegance, but it tries very interesting things at nearly every moment. I love how each member of your main team is extremely well characterized to a degree that you could know what they are going to say to any event before they do it. If you try to reason with the extremely pragmatic realist who basically lives for the perdurance of his kingdom and tell him that you all should go out of your way to rescue a friend and to do that for honor, he will instantly disagree with you. For him, that’s irrelevant, and while you could convince him by telling him different things, he just doesn’t care about honor and friendship. They are all just great characters.
Anyway, the story explores the shortcomings of these visions, and how all of them lead to cyclic violence and how this violence is suffered the most by the common folk. And while it could be a lot more poignant, it is definitely acute of the problems that plague both the game universe and ours.
In terms of its presentation I found it a bit boring, frankly. There’s much better pixel art done by smaller teams, and the HD2D or whatever it is called doesn’t quite shine here as much as it did in Live a Live, for example. The music it’s not that great either. The character designs are excellent though.
While I don’t like to separate the game’s components in a review, it’s just the way it came out. The combat is robust and surprisingly beginner friendly. There are enough characters to make fun team compositions, even if those characters themselves aren’t that customizable, and the maps, an often overlooked element in strategy rpgs, are perhaps some of the best I’ve seen. There are a lot and they feel tailor made, and they DO affect how you fight, from tiny arenas that basically force a frontal attack, to convoluted mines with platforms and trains. They are just balanced and it is clear a lot of effort when into designing these encounters.
I wish I come back later and edit this in a more organized way, or to make it all coalesce into a single statement about a game that I loved despite its shortcomings, but as of right now, this will do. I don’t think there’s many better games in the genre.