A great title that manages to tell a gripping political thriller while entertaining you with great tactical battles that are simple at the core but offer a wide range of possibilities. A great, slow, relaxing game to keep your brain occupied. [Issue#319]
Triangle Strategy is a terrible name. It tells little about the game besides that it has something to do with triangles and strategy. This name ultimately fails to share anything that implies the adventure offers an incredible narrative, fantastic combat, and possibly the best implementation of choice and morality I have seen in a video game.
One of the best games I've ever played, as a tactical jrpg it comes close to the greats in the sector and does so in an excellent way. Regarding the gameplay, the character classes are all unique, the battles are not too complicated but in some cases you might have to redo them. The scaling of the enemy levels, even for the NG+ is fair and regular. From the point of view of the story it can only be said to be simply fantastic, the fact that it is structured according to the choices you make and that the choices also depend on what you do while playing is simply incredible. Not only do some recruitable characters depend on this, but also the fact of being on the same level as the ending since the choices within the game almost always fall on an objective common to the beliefs. The characterization of the characters is well defined and this makes them easily recognizable and personable. There are more than one endings already mentioned, all very different from each other and we must mention the presence of a "bad ending", a sort of game over that takes you slightly back into the story. Still talking about the story, the setting of the war between the 3 countries may seem banal but it is developed so well (even considering that the story is made by you as far as possible) and with so many particular elements capable of plot twists it is simply fantastic
I completed this game on the hard difficulty for my first play through. Turn based strategy, whether it be RPGs or tactical games like this are my favorite genre and this goes up there with some of my favorites that I've ever played. Yes, the dialogue is long, drawn out and the story isn't incredible, but I never felt bothered by it and after some of these long mind-bending, stressful battles that often are close, a time to relax and listen to dialogue and story was often welcomed. The level of advanced strategy and combat far make up for any slight downfalls in story/dialogue which is why I believe this game deserves a perfect 10. We buy games like this to experience great turn based combat and this sits up there with some of the best ever. I am a huge fire emblem, final fantasy tactics fan fan as well. This game also rewards you so well. The class/job progressions of each character are perfect. This isn't a game you want to play halfway or 3/4s and stop, trust me! By the time you get to that half or 3/4 point of the game you start unlocking the best abilities for each individual and those abilities are game changers! By that point in the game the battles can be extremely difficult (but in a good way! and still fair) and require such tactical precision that the strong abilities are more than welcome.
It has honestly been a couple years since I beat this game and it is still vividly in my mind. Also, for all of the complaints with dialogue/story it needs to be said the replay value should be extremely high as there are many branching paths to take and decisions made through the game that appear to affect all of these paths. I have been yearning to go back and test this out and go through the game again at some point. For anyone who likes this genre, buy this game! Immerse yourself in it. Play the hard difficulty. Often sacrifices needed to be made in battles where I would be down to my last few units and this made the battles all the better knowing my guys would be back next fight. Rarely would I have a hard battle where at least one of my units (often many) didn't die from what I recall, but most of these battles I would win and by the skin of my teeth. Again, get this game. Show Square that these are the types of games we want more of!
Lastly I'll say I'm still not sure why we can't have a game like this where there is PVP online play. I think that would change the entire industry of strategy games for the better. I play games like Wargroove 2 PVP online and that is fantastic, but to have a Fire Emblem or Triangle Strategy or FF Tactics type of game PVP online on console would be a dream come true and I feel like in 2024 this should be more than possible. It would seem to me developing AI to fight as well as they did in Triangle Strategy in single player would be much more difficult than just having a server, giving a map and just let 2 human minds duke it out. I think the only reason this isn't possible is because these games still aren't mainstream. If these games were even 1/1000th as popular as call of duty everyone would be having these amazing strategic battles against each other. Anyway, rant over and all the more reason to get this game and maybe one day we will get that! Enjoy it strategy gamers!
Playing Triangle Strategy’s battles is probably the easiest and most carefree part of the experience. There’s a lot of fun in strategizing and watching your characters’ abilities shine, and I loved outsmarting the competition. The hardest part of the journey is the choices alongside the bleak realities it makes you confront about injustices of the world. The game has multiple endings, letting you pick your vision for the future. Even with my ending, which was one for a much more idealized, compassionate world, I was left a little disheartened. But, maybe, that’s the point. And for that, Triangle Strategy isn’t like most games you’ll play, which is what makes it special, even if it’s not always perfect in the delivery of its harsh truths.
You’ll get the most out of Triangle Strategy if you bring a little patience to the proceedings. It starts slow. It throws a lot of story at you. The most interesting tactical powers show up in later levels. And you only see some of its compelling narrative beats in a second or third play. It’s destined to be a game you either shrug off in the early hours or add to your list of favorites.
Triangle Strategy is within reach of strategic perfection, even if some of the efforts that have been made to set it apart falter. Square Enix’s return to the tactical RPG genre may not be an outright triumph, but, despite the imbalance between narrative and action on the battlefield, there is much more to applaud here than there is to criticise.
If you are a fan of FF Tactics, its a must.
I gave it 10/10 because its a fantastic tactic game BUT you also need to like cutscenes and history because its like 65% of the game. So there is like 1h block of history then a fight and repeat.
Also your choices MATTERS.
Ultimately falls short of being an epic like Tactics Ogre LUCT & FFT due to its lacklustre story, atrocious voice acting, and cringy dialogue. Top that off with one of the most boring and re-used endingsI have ever seen in a game.
Let me first say that I had the 'perfect ending' in TS. This should have been the reward for doing your due diligence and making the correct choices. Unfortunately, the payoff for this is 3-4 RE-USED maps, concluding in a boring flat map with a final boss that i didn't even bother finishing off. I just got to bored and annoyed that this was the 'payoff' that i had spent hours working on.
I will say that this game exceeds Tactics Ogre and LUCT in combat. The concepts of intractable environments, two-sided attacks, stealth, are way more advanced in TS.
The story tries really hard to be Game of Thrones but is so predictable, poorly written, and uninteresting, that i didnt care who won. The game should be called 'Salt Wars' because that's what this game is about. Salt.
Did they hire Buzzfeed interns to do the english voice overs here because not only is the script not good, but the line-reading is atrocious and worse than most anime english dubs by a long-shot. I eventually turned off the voices, but then opted to play in japanese with english subs, which was a huuuuuuge improvement. The Japanese voice actors at least put emotion in the boring lines they are reading.
Anyway, i think this game should get a 6 but because i want to see more games like this, i will tip it to a 7.
Interested concept, nice game, but it gets frustrating with trying to get others to agree to your choice. The battles, at times, feel like they are WAY above the recommended level and some made me think they were devised by a vengeful 5 year old that wasn't given ice-cream.
As many others have stated, this game is more of an audiobook than a strategy **** for a game that is so heavy on story, at least make the story and dialogue interesting. I honestly sounds like the characters are voiced by AI scripts not actual Human voice actors.
Gameplay is repetitive and lacks strategic depth. The TP system is far too simple and RPG elements are lacking. The world map is a gimmick.
The 3D pixel art presentation is the main draw here, however that is not enough to save this game.
Very disappointing. The story was incredibly dumb with typical, predictable plot twists. The character reasoning for the different endings is nonsensical: especially Roland’s, but Frederica, and Benedict’s are not much better. Golden Route designed to be obtained on new game plus, even if it is possible it would be a miserable experience for a player on the first playthrough. Scales of Conviction are pointless, just have a vote.
The dialogue is 40% formalities (“Pray forgive me my lord” or “Thank you for receiving me” blah, blah, blah), 50% redundancy (characters having to put in their two cents and doing absolutely nothing for the story) and 10% actual substantial plot elements. THEN the narrator literally repeats everything that was just said. The entire story is in reality paper thin (one nation hoards salt and is insanely wealthy at the expense of the other nations; leadership of all nations is despicable and incompetent) and made worse with Square Enix’s desire to inject pointless plots twists. Now remember that you have to do all of this at least 4 times for completion.
The balancing of battles seemed like a rush job, often giving enemies way better skills than what is available to you. Percentages to hit and status effects are an outright lie. Many skills with status effects are next to useless, because in reality they land at a 40% rate. Progressing the story is a slog as you need to grind to meet level requirements, and have enough money for upgrades. However, I did like the option to replay story battles, if only to see the demise of Thalas and Erika multiple times. They’re the worst and if the game was rated M; Frederica should have special cut-scenes to explode their heads, and/or melt them into goo.
Music for the most part is underwhelming, and the encampment (where you do all upgrades) is awful. Had to mute it because it’s so repetitive.
The cast is completely whitewashed with next to no diversity. Less than a handful of characters have Asian features, the rest white.
Main character, Seranoa is generic with next to no development, aside from a completely pointless plot twist. Frederica is the only character with a decent story arc. Roland has almost the opposite of a story arc, didn’t even know such a thing was possible. Benedict is all over the place. The remaining characters are mostly one dimensional, and nothing more than character archetypes: assassin, big brother, big sister, manipulative woman, gifted child, gifted child but with magic, etc.
Overall this game was not fun and not interesting. I would not recommend.
SummaryThree nations battle for control of the dwindling resources of salt and iron. Command a group of warriors as Serenoa, heir of House Wolffort, in a tangled plot where your decisions make all the difference. Key choices you make will bolster one of three convictionsUtility, Morality, Libertywhich together make up Serenoa's world view and i...