You can be forgiven if you own a Nintendo Switch, you like JRPG (or Strategy RPG in this case), and you haven’t bought Triangle Strategy, or even played the still available free demo.
February 2022, the month that will go down as one of the best and most dense months in gaming history, with major releases including Dying Light 2, Cyberpunk next-gen patch, Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring… is it any wonder you’re looking over at your Switch and it’s gathering more dust than Anne Frank’s drumkit?
Triangle Strategy takes us on a political journey, in a familiarly told story not unlike Game Of Thrones: Realm vs Realm, Kingdom vs Kingdom, where once was peace, has now become a fight for power and in this case… salt. Yes, Salt.
The introduction to the game is slow, we are introduced to the central protagonist Serenoa, and his soon-to-be bride Frederica, who hails from another realm in a marriage being orchestrated in the name of peace, peace which obviously cannot last…
A band of merry men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes will soon join our team, and you will have a whole arsenal of characters to choose from (one might argue too many), thus giving you a variety of fighting styles. If your battlefield has high vantage points, you’ll want to prioritise your archer characters for example.
The slow start dissipates quickly, and soon we are thrown into our first battle, and this is when our Strategy JRPG comes into its own, and where the strength of the game shines. Triangle Strategy uses a turn-based mechanic, very much like Final Fantasy Tactics, but it’s more than just good vs bad, a fight to the death. Not every battle is the same, or what you may associate with most JRPGs.
Your battle arena becomes alive, it plays an integral part in your strategy, to the goal at hand. That goal could be to kill only one particular enemy, or it could be to get a particular character from one end of the battlefield to the other, regardless of how many enemies you kill along the way – this variety in the battle makes everything more intriguing and essentially negates repetitive battle grinding too.
Part of your strategy is knowing when and where to move your character for the perfect attack. Think of it almost like a game of chess: move your character behind an enemy to get a rear attack, but that leaves you open for being attacked yourself.
A key tactic in the game is to properly move characters in such a way you sandwich an enemy, coordinate one character to the square in front of the enemy, and another directly behind them, this creates a double attack: Attack the enemy with one of those characters from the front or back, and your character in the opposite front/back does an automatic follow up attack, hitting the enemy twice.
Play this right, and if both characters’ turns are before the enemy in our hypothetical sandwich, you can have a turn from both characters, making four hits on the enemy. It’s worth noting, your enemy can, and will use these tactics against you too, and they rarely miss the opportunity…
As with all JRPG games, you have a typical variety of character types, your hero as usual is sword-wielding all-out attack, but as expected: mages, healers make up others, and you have characters on horseback which itself offers a different strategy in movement and attack variety.
Attacking from behind, attacking from higher positions, mages casting into groups of enemies, sandwich attacks, as it appears I’m calling them, are just some of the tactics you will need to deploy to be successful in these carefully constructed battles. One such battle was 45 minutes in length, these aren’t quick-fire boring fights, they are enthralling events that look wonderful in our 2D world.
The game offers a live EXP gain, attacking an enemy, or healing a character gives live experience points, therefore levelling up and learning new abilities as a battle progresses. What this offers is satisfaction, as even in defeat, all of your gains aren’t taken away. Even if you go into a battle a little underleveled, it won’t be long before that isn’t the case.
Visually the game is so charming and subtly beautiful. The 2D world comes alive with lovely detailed backdrops, and elegant touches of light from candles that you see flickering around you, adding to the vibrant world that has been created. It’s a setting that works perfectly on a handheld device like the Switch. Playing the game via the Switch dock on a TV doesn’t quite feel the same, it loses a bit of that charm.
Not all is rosy in our fantasy world though; There are a lot of cut scenes, a lot of dialogue, at one point I found myself going nearly an hour without actually doing anything. This of course won’t bother seasoned JRPG fans, and it didn’t bother me that greatly, but sometimes it can be a bit much (I felt the same about Scarlet Nexus and Tales Of Arise…).
There is also no proper open-world exploration. The game is technically linear, as you fast travel from quest marker to quest marker moving on the story and competing in battles when it’s part of the narrative.
That lack of open-world exploration does make the game feel a bit empty. For me, exploring the open world in an RPG game and going off the beaten track between points is part of the game and not having that actually feels a little strange.
The only exploration you do is when the story dictates that you can speak to characters and various NPCs in a town or particular area, sometimes these conversations actually lead to information that helps the story and offer instances to change the direction of your game.
This narrative change is important though, a big part of the game is a voting and conviction system. Your lead character, Serenoa, believes all of his teammates should have a say in what actions you take in the story. All characters get a vote, and the biggest vote is where your story goes. YOU as the gamer via Serenoa can help gaslight, sorry persuade, your fellow team to vote the way you want them to, and this is aided by information that the aforementioned exploration offers.
Dialogue choices will open up with the information you gather, allowing you to use that to your advantage and persuade characters down a particular line (If you want to go down that line of course…)
These choices make an impact on the story, and thus the ending you get. There are multiple endings to Triangle Strategy and each one is affected by your convictions and the story path you take.
I think it’s fair to say, I love Triangle Strategy. I’m a fan of turn-based combat, but I do believe this is a game worth trying even if you have little experience with the genre.
Despite being a bit long-winded at times, the story is great and offers a few genuine holy shit moments. Visually it’s brilliant, and the combat is just a joy to be a part of. It’s just a crying shame that the game launched this month, where I can’t give it the full attention it deserves, and I suspect I’m not alone.
Clear your backlog, and dive into this wonderful game. Worst case scenario, grab the free demo which gives you around 3-4 hours of the game, and then you can decide if it’s for you.
-Dony
