Julius Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) Announced during the Direct, HD-2D, Final Fantasy Tactics/Tactics Ogre-looking SRPG. Debut Demo available today! Edited October 1, 2021 by Julius 1
Julius Posted February 17, 2021 Author Posted February 17, 2021 Demo is already up and ready for download from the first page of the eShop for those interested! Think I'll be giving this a spin tomorrow afternoon after work. Still haven't played Octopath Traveler, because although the music is great, I've just heard middling things about it, and given its length, there are quite a few other JRPG's and longer games I've prioritised getting to. Also, this is totally just going to end up being called Triangle Strategy, isn't it?
Jonnas Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 24 minutes ago, Julius said: Also, this is totally just going to end up being called Triangle Strategy, isn't it? Project Octopath was considering a different name before player feedback said "Octopath is a catchy name. Keep it". They're taking player feedback for this one too, so all we gotta do is respond negatively to this tentative title. Hopefully the final title will have "Tactics" in the name somewhere, at least.
Sheikah Posted February 18, 2021 Posted February 18, 2021 Possible unpopular opinion alert...but does this game (going from the trailer) not look generic as fuck?Putting aside the utterly serious tone of the amdram voice actors in that trailer, the platitudes they're saying...man. Does anyone else feel a soullessness to this?Member games like Final Fantasy IX? 1
Julius Posted February 18, 2021 Author Posted February 18, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Jonnas said: Project Octopath was considering a different name before player feedback said "Octopath is a catchy name. Keep it". They're taking player feedback for this one too, so all we gotta do is respond negatively to this tentative title. Hopefully the final title will have "Tactics" in the name somewhere, at least. Ah okay, don't know how I missed that, but that's pretty cool! Not that I'm complaining about Triangle Strategy yeah, they'll totally incorporate 'Tactics'. It'll be Triangle StraTactics and we will regret everything 1 hour ago, Sheikah said: Possible unpopular opinion alert...but does this game (going from the trailer) not look generic as fuck? Putting aside the utterly serious tone of the amdram voice actors in that trailer, the platitudes they're saying...man. Does anyone else feel a soullessness to this? Member games like Final Fantasy IX? In terms of the gameplay footage I think it looks alright, I do feel like Octopath had a bit more oomph to it in its reveal trailer, but that might be down to their overuse of depth of field on that particular trailer. I think the character art does look pretty generic, though, even when compared with Octopath's. If not for how flat the colour palette was as well as how plain the character designs are, I would've thought it was a Fire Emblem game. And that's not a sleight against Fire Emblem (although it kind of reads like it!), I'm more just knocking how this game has a similar shape to it's characters and their faces when it comes to the art style, but just seem so unremarkable by comparison. Soullessness might be a little harsh, so I don't know if I'd say that, but I do see where you're coming from. There's just a bit of a lack of expression to it, at least in the little gameplay we see and the voice acting being so monotone. I'll see how I feel after checking out the demo, but I imagine it's just early days and they've still got some ways to go to hopefully breathe a bit more life into it. Edited February 18, 2021 by Julius
Glen-i Posted February 18, 2021 Posted February 18, 2021 Oh, it's a SRPG? Hmmm... Dampening my hype there a bit. Triangle Strategy is a great name though. It sounds silly.
Jonnas Posted February 18, 2021 Posted February 18, 2021 21 hours ago, Julius said: Ah okay, don't know how I missed that, but that's pretty cool! Not that I'm complaining about Triangle Strategy yeah, they'll totally incorporate 'Tactics'. It'll be Triangle StraTactics and we will regret everything In terms of the gameplay footage I think it looks alright, I do feel like Octopath had a bit more oomph to it in its reveal trailer, but that might be down to their overuse of depth of field on that particular trailer. I think the character art does look pretty generic, though, even when compared with Octopath's. If not for how flat the colour palette was as well as how plain the character designs are, I would've thought it was a Fire Emblem game. And that's not a sleight against Fire Emblem (although it kind of reads like it!), I'm more just knocking how this game has a similar shape to it's characters and their faces when it comes to the art style, but just seem so unremarkable by comparison. Soullessness might be a little harsh, so I don't know if I'd say that, but I do see where you're coming from. There's just a bit of a lack of expression to it, at least in the little gameplay we see and the voice acting being so monotone. I'll see how I feel after checking out the demo, but I imagine it's just early days and they've still got some ways to go to hopefully breathe a bit more life into it. The art style is not quite like anything in Fire Emblem, which usually goes for well defined faces and portraits. Definitely resembles something more stylized, like Bravely, Octopath, and the FF Tactics series. What it does, however, is present/display its character portraits the same way Fire Emblem does, so I think it the similarities you see might be more a question of UI design than the art per se. (Incidentally, I've noticed the Fire Emblem fandom is giving a lot of attention to this game right now. I wonder if something will come of it) As for the title... Triad Tactics, Tripath Traveller, Tremendous Triforce, Tricolour Trepidation, Three Trousers, Triangle Treatise... Wait, I got it: Trihard Tactics. 22 hours ago, Sheikah said: Possible unpopular opinion alert...but does this game (going from the trailer) not look generic as fuck? Putting aside the utterly serious tone of the amdram voice actors in that trailer, the platitudes they're saying...man. Does anyone else feel a soullessness to this? If you mean the voice acting and writing... yeah, definitely. RPG trailers are usually like that. It's hard to sell the plot in a single trailer, so a lot of JRPGs just end up showing some meaningless platitudes and the vaguest of descriptions of their lore and characters. Storywise, the most (only) interesting message I got from the trailer was that it'll focus a lot on diplomacy and political intrigue (though considering the genre, even that can be read as typical). I can forgive the trailer's generic parts though, because it was more focused on the gameplay mechanics than anything else. 22 hours ago, Sheikah said: Member games like Final Fantasy IX? Trick question. There are no other games like Final Fantasy IX 1
Julius Posted February 19, 2021 Author Posted February 19, 2021 (edited) Played through the demo this evening, and I thought it was fine, but nothing to really write home about. For some context, I've only played two SRPG's, and only one of them was a more traditional SRPG experience (that was Fire Emblem Awakening). I know it's a demo, and they kind of just drop you in the thick of it to test the gameplay, but they go out of their way at the start to have multiple cutscenes dump so many names, and so much history, on you before you get to take to the battlefield that it felt more like a "and this is why you should care about this character/place" rundown. Once a battle did start, you could tell they probably just grabbed the tutorial text from an earlier stage in the game and threw it in here, because it throws pages of stuff at you after each turn, but the battle was halfway done and I'd figured a lot of it out by myself at that point. So, just in terms of a demo experience, thought it was a bit weirdly constructed. It's an SRPG, and in terms of what happens in the battlefield, it played pretty much exactly how I expected it to. There are some cool animations (one in an optional cutscene where something happens with the weather was probably my favourite), visually it looks great, and once you get used to the button layout, it feels pretty snappy. The story definitely felt like I'd been there before at points, but I imagine this is placed between the middle and end of the first act, so that's probably not saying too much just yet. The thing is, the world and the politics seem interesting enough, but the characters just felt a bit generic, and the voice-acting wasn't super strong in my opinion, so I hope they can do a better job of making these characters expressive. I also feel like they chose a super weird point in the story to share with us, because it felt like some pretty major stuff went down, so I hope there's a lot more major stuff to come in the rest of the story. Also, there's an option to fast forward through cutscenes which just skips text with no option to rewind, why not have that option, or a transcription of the dialogue to the side to flick back through, or a skip button for the entire cutscene if you have one dedicated to rushing through the scene anyways? Found that a little weird to be honest! The highlight for me was the music, though, because some of it sounded super familiar to me with its heavy focus on using strings for tension, feeling melancholic, and the general melodies used, and I was delighted to find out my hunch was right when checking the credits: the music is by Akira Senju, the composer for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood! So, guess I'll be giving it another listen tomorrow obviously some more generic wartime RPG music thrown in on occasion, but there are definitely some tracks which sound similar to some of his great work on Fullmetal. I might be wrong in saying this, but I've tried looking it up - this might be the first video game he's composing for? And if so I find that really interesting too. The UI is admittedly a bit clunky, but I know this isn't planned to be out until next year, so I imagine they've still got some with they want to do on that. It hints at some cools ideas, like the Scales of Conviction which we saw in the trailer, which has you trying to persuade other members of your group to side with you in making an important decision which they're saying will have a huge impact on the direction your story goes (though I'm not holding my breath on there being any truth to that). From the example in the demo, it throws you out into a town to basically dig up points which could be used to persuade the other characters, but the downside to this is that in the list of options it will show an animation of a third choice being "unlocked", which is very obviously the "correct" choice to get them to side with you. Even for persuasion attempts where I didn't have that third option unlocked, it was so blatantly obvious which I needed to pick, that it wasn't really a strong addition, even if it's a neat concept. Feel like they perhaps should've looked at Persona 5's negotiations on how to do persuasion through options the player picks. Overall, yeah, a fine demo, but it hasn't really sold me on it any more than the trailer did. Worth mentioning that I did enjoy the second chapter's battle much more than the first, but I imagine that's probably going to be the exception in that it has some more unique mechanics to do with utilising the environment and objects around you. Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing how the game evolves after some more feedback, because I do think there's potential for something good here, it's just not clear in this demo how great that potential is. 1 hour ago, Jonnas said: The art style is not quite like anything in Fire Emblem, which usually goes for well defined faces and portraits. Definitely resembles something more stylized, like Bravely, Octopath, and the FF Tactics series. What it does, however, is present/display its character portraits the same way Fire Emblem does, so I think it the similarities you see might be more a question of UI design than the art per se. (Incidentally, I've noticed the Fire Emblem fandom is giving a lot of attention to this game right now. I wonder if something will come of it) Yeah, you're totally right, looking back at the trailer and having played through the demo, not quite sure what I was getting at by saying the art evoked Fire Emblem. I think the thing that gave me a Fire Emblem vibe at the start, looking back at the trailer now, was just the look of the CG scales and walls (which is oddly specific, even for me). Quote As for the title... Triad Tactics, Tripath Traveller, Tremendous Triforce, Tricolour Trepidation, Three Trousers, Triangle Treatise... Wait, I got it: Trihard Tactics. Do it Square, you cowards! Edited February 19, 2021 by Julius 2 1
Jonnas Posted February 21, 2021 Posted February 21, 2021 Finally tried the demo today. I only did the first battle because I think I got what the game was about at that point: Like Julius said, as a demo, it's poorly constructed. Too big of a lore dump, and the battle itself doesn't do much of a good job of teaching you mechanics; Gameplay-wise, I liked what I saw. Namely, I liked the variety in skills, the fact that the description actually tells you a lot of what you need to know, and the turns and UI flow really well, very unobtrusive. I'm impressed, early demos usually have a lot of niggles in this respect; That said, I do have a minor issue: description text boxes should be a different colour/pattern/transparency from the other menus, otherwise, it's hard on your eyes to read; Presentation-wise, I was mightily impressed with the camera work. Didn't expect to have so much freedom with it! (I didn't play Octopath, so maybe I'm just late to the party in this regard). Special effects are perhaps too bright, but I think I can get used to it. I do wish the world had a bit more colour to it, though. Character protraits look lovely, I liked those a lot (and the option to look at them during cutscenes only if you want to is a neat touch). Music was a great fit, truly felt like FMA Brotherhood... or like FF Tactics, even; Voicework was super unimpressive, though. It's been a while since I've thought so many times "That could've used a better take" Plot-wise, things look... oddly mundane. No Pegasi, no wyverns, monsters or dragons... Spells are the only supernatural element. Not a complaint, I'm just surprised. Plus, a lot of medieval (or pseudo-medieval?) spelling, like Ser, desmene, gaol... It's unique. The political intrigue seems typical so far, so I haven't much to say about it. I made a choice, and a medic joined me, presumably because of my moral clout, and I have to say, that side story gave me the biggest hope for the final game: that we get to have these short stories associated with minor characters, that truly engages me with my army Speaking of side stories, it's cool that we get to see further cutscenes only if we feel like it. I wonder if we'll see mutually exclusive scenes in the final game. Also, I agree that QoL during cutscenes could use some fine tuning. Learn from Fire Emblem! The one map I played was bland and straightforward, but I see the potential for shenanigans (freezing water, pushing enemies off ledges, sneaking behind enemy lines with Anna, etc.). Coupled with the fact that one of our units is a friggin' gryphon archer, I echo Julius' sentiment: " I do think there's potential for something good here, it's just not clear in this demo how great that potential is " Rereading Julius' post, it seems I missed the democratic process of the following chapter. I took a quick peek at it in a video, and from what I've seen, the third option isn't always the right one, but it would be better if it didn't "unlock" like that, agreed. Still, even though you can game the process, it does seem like you have a fair amount of freedom on how to choose your routes. Well, my personal conclusion is that the I'm convinced of the game's potential. Resembles FF Tactics in ways that make sense, and I'm glad to see some old school tactics make their way into a mainstream game like this. When the feedback form rolls around, I think I will only have minor flaws to point out, because it seems to me that the game is otherwise on the right track. 2
MindFreak Posted February 24, 2021 Posted February 24, 2021 Nintetndo has released the longer version of the trailer:
WackerJr Posted March 13, 2021 Posted March 13, 2021 On 21/02/2021 at 11:43 PM, Jonnas said: Presentation-wise, I was mightily impressed with the camera work. Didn't expect to have so much freedom with it! (I didn't play Octopath, so maybe I'm just late to the party in this regard). Agreed. This took me by surprise with the graphical style & the resemblance to the FF Tactics games, and was smooth & impressive. Like @Julius mentioned about the Scales of Conviction, there feels like potential here and the possibility of choices affecting the story is certainly interesting. The demo didn’t see it implemented quite as well as I thought from the trailer, but there’s still plenty of time for this feature to play an enjoyable part in the full game. I really enjoyed the FF Tactics games, so I think I wanted to enjoy this demo more than I actually did. Still, I like that they are using the demo to get player feedback. 1 1
Julius Posted October 1, 2021 Author Posted October 1, 2021 New TGS trailer: Direct trailer from last week: 1
Julius Posted October 26, 2021 Author Posted October 26, 2021 Another trailer: Still looks solid, even if some of the voice-acting early in the trailer seems a bit much
Glen-i Posted January 25, 2022 Posted January 25, 2022 (edited) We've got box art! I dig it. Edited January 25, 2022 by Glen-i 1
Glen-i Posted February 10, 2022 Posted February 10, 2022 I kinda want to play it more just because of this out-of-context clip... 3
darksnowman Posted March 2, 2022 Posted March 2, 2022 Weekly Famitsu has rated it 8/9/9/9 (35/40). I haven't seen the comments from the reviewers yet.
Jonnas Posted March 3, 2022 Posted March 3, 2022 I finally got around to finishing the final demo... the day before the release! My thoughts: Holy cow, this game is dialogue-heavy! Thick lore and wordy cutscenes. Beware, make sure you actually enjoyed Game of Thrones (or ASOIAF) before you dive into this game; On a similar note, the Scales of Conviction is likely to reward you investment into the story. I like that the dialogue choices don't actually telegraph which path they represent; Strategy-wise, these are some solid triangles. I played three story maps and one optional training map, and I can say I was having more and more fun with each one. The third one in particular really allowed me to inflict some shenanigans upon the enemy; I played Hard Mode, and it seems good enough to challenge me. I am glad; Voice acting sucks even more than in the first demo. It actively worsens the game. Triangle Strategy was already more adequate to play in portable mode anyway (where sound matters less), but geez; Excellent music, though. Akira Senju was the right choice for this title; On a sidenote, I appreciate that character designs go against typical Anime trends. Hair colours are mostly natural and consistent with their respective ethnicities, and the uncommon few are actually marked and commented upon in-universe. I don't think I'll be buying this right away (mostly due to personal inconvenience), but it seems pretty good, despite the vocal warts. 1 1
darksnowman Posted March 4, 2022 Posted March 4, 2022 10 hours ago, Jonnas said: I finally got around to finishing the final demo... the day before the release! My thoughts: Holy cow, this game is dialogue-heavy! Wow, yeah. I thought it was a bad demo because of this. I reckon it should have been straight to a few gameplay maps to let the player get right into trying out that side of things rather than sitting through exposition. I button mashed as hard and fast as I could to get through the talking. If/ when I get the full game I'll steep myself in the story, but for the purposes of the demo I wasn't fussed on that aspect.
Jonnas Posted March 4, 2022 Posted March 4, 2022 2 hours ago, darksnowman said: Wow, yeah. I thought it was a bad demo because of this. I reckon it should have been straight to a few gameplay maps to let the player get right into trying out that side of things rather than sitting through exposition. I button mashed as hard and fast as I could to get through the talking. If/ when I get the full game I'll steep myself in the story, but for the purposes of the demo I wasn't fussed on that aspect. Might be because this demo isn't exactly a demo: it's the first three chapters entirely. But it's good that the demo is upfront about it, I suppose. You can still press + to skip it all, I think.
darksnowman Posted March 10, 2022 Posted March 10, 2022 This has come flying out of the gates in Japan: top-selling game of the week. Here's the top 5: Quote 1st place (NEW!) Switch TRIANGLE STRATEGY 86,298 (total 86,298) / Square-Enix / March 4, 2022 2nd (NEW!) PS5 Gran Turismo 7 73,399 (total 73,399) / Sony Interactive Entertainment / March 4, 2022 3rd (NEW!) PS4 Gran Turismo 7 64,565 (total 64,565) / Sony Interactive Entertainment / March 4, 2022 4th (down from 1st) PS4 ELDEN RING 55,510 (total 243,800) / From Software / February 25, 2022 5th (down from 3rd) Switch Pokémon: Legends: Arceus 50,481 (total 2,120,30) / Pokémon / January 28, 2022 https://www.famitsu.com/news/202203/10254097.html
Glen-i Posted March 10, 2022 Posted March 10, 2022 Most people would see the excessive amounts of dialogue as a negative, but me? I'm more intrigued by it. Helps that it seems rather lenient with how you have options to grind if you're struggling. (It's why I like Shining Force more then most Fire Emblems) And then there's the gorgeous visuals and the promising soundtrack. But I think the clincher for me is that it's part of Nintendo's game voucher system, which means I can use 2 of them on this and Kirby. So yeah, taking the plunge. 1
Dcubed Posted March 10, 2022 Posted March 10, 2022 I agree @Glen-i. I quite like the idea of a mixture between a VN and a Strategy RPG. I’m gonna hold off on my playthrough until I finish Octopath though.
Glen-i Posted April 7, 2022 Posted April 7, 2022 N-Europe Review Thanks to @S.C.G, for getting it up, @Jonnas for proofreading, as well as a couple of caption suggestions, and @RedShell for the site graphics. 2 3
darksnowman Posted April 7, 2022 Posted April 7, 2022 And thank you Nintendo for the dummies starter tips!https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2022/March/Ten-tactical-tips-for-TRIANGLE-STRATEGY--2181496.html
Jonnas Posted April 7, 2022 Posted April 7, 2022 I'd just like to say I really appreciated Glen's review. Triangle Strategy ticks so many personal boxes for me, it's hard for me to properly recommend it, knowing my bias (especially to those who may be undecided). It's great to see that a more casual fan of the genre can attest to the game's accessibility and depth. 1
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