Title – Triangle Strategy
Platforms – Nintendo Switch and PC
Release Date – March 4th, 2022
Developer – Square Enix
Publisher – Square Enix
MSRP – $59.99
ESRB – T for Teen
Disclaimer – This product is being reviewed on the Nintendo Switch. A review copy was provided by the Gaming Instincts Staff for the purpose of this review. This review may also contain spoilers for certain gameplay and story elements. Watch at your own risk, you have been warned. Gaming Instincts is an Amazon Affiliate and does gain financial benefits if you choose to purchase this product on this page.
Are you willing to pave a path of liberty? Is utility going to be your driving force? Or will morality be your guiding principle? These three questions will become the stepping stones as your ink dots on the history pages of Norzelia, in Square Enix’s and Artdink’s latest tactical strategy role-playing game, Triangle Strategy.
Continuing the 2D-HD visuals of Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy promised to deliver a thoughtful and engaging story where player choice both on and off the battlefield would dictate the future of the Norzelian continent. Does Triangle Strategy manage to deliver upon its ambitious premise?
Bring forth the Scales of Conviction and let it illuminate the path (and score) before us.
A Story Rife with Ambition
The story draws forth its opening act by introducing a land cloven into three distinct regions: The Duchy of Aesfrost, the Kingdom of Glenbrook, and the Holy State of Hyzante. Each land boasts its own set of ideals, vital resources, and manpower, each capable of teetering the continent towards a prosperous pax or a dark return to days of bloody conflict. Though each country vies for peace in a joint venture of resources, the underlying power struggle that bubbles beneath the surface of niceties and formalities threatens to overturn the fragile peace of a mere three decades, which has remained since the end of the Saltiron War.
Amidst this political brume, players take on the mantle of young lord Serenoa Wolffort, the heir apparent of the powerful House Wolffort, loyal bannermen to the Kingdom of Glenbrook. It is up to the player to shape Serenoa and his convictions (which are actual measurable stat parameters) while wading through the political intrigue, backstabbing, and more in this medieval adventure.
But what good is an adventure if you can’t share it with anyone? Luckily, Serenoa’s journey is not a lonely one as a colorful and varied motley band will aid in his and the players’ many trials and tribulations that lie ahead. Thanks to good writing and story direction, most characters are not one-note medieval cardboard cutouts with a handful of dialogue and stats. Each main party member has their own convictions and beliefs that they fall back on in the many dialogue tree sequences in the game, but we will touch base on that later as it deserves its own section. Just know that characters within and out of the players’ party are all unique, well-written, and invested in the power struggle brewing in Norzelia in their own way.
The game is divided into primarily four phases: Exposition, Exploration, Decision, and Battle (though not always in this order). Exposition is the story-heavy scenes where players learn the lore and current events surrounding Norzelia via cutscenes and an everchanging map of the continent. During an exploration chapter, players can roam a specific location to their heart’s content, finding neat hidden items and speaking with NPCs to gain valuable information. Decision involves the player making important executive decisions that will shape the game (more on this in the next section). Battle is self-explanatory in an SRPG game.
Once the slow opening hours of the story peel away, Triangle Strategy kicks into full gear and then some. There will be no spoilers in the review but know that players will be challenged again and again with what their next step should be as powerful entities and machinations stand in their way. Because this is a tactical strategy RPG, the stratagems and tactics have a place not just on the battlefield but also on the negotiating table, where choices based on Liberty, Utility, and Morality reign supreme. Square Enix producer Tomoya Asano specifically noted this change in direction from standard JRPG to SRPG to deliver a more mature story, which was a good call as players will feel the full brunt of all their actions as they progress with Triangle Strategy’s story.
And that’s perhaps the best part.
It is the players’ hands that will inevitably shape Norzelia (mostly).
Tipping the Scales
At various points throughout Triangle Strategy, Serenoa and the players will face a dilemma of choices, where neither answer is easy nor truly correct. In these moments, Serenoa follows through with a Wolffort tradition meant to handle situations like these: The Scales of Conviction, Triangle Strategy’s defining feature.
With the Scales, the player will choose which path their party will tread next in their journey. Each decision will lead to diverging paths within Triangle Strategy’s story. It is fantastic to see the variety of ways the story can play out based on player choice without merely being something on a surface level. Regions, political landscapes, and NPC dialogue all change according to the events caused directly by the player’s hand.
Serenoa’s companions cast votes with the Scales to make these decisions. Triangle Strategy shines most during these voting scenes since it gives agency not only to the player but to other party members as well. They each have a unique voice and say on the matters at hand, giving way to a neat form of characterization and gameplay. It is in the player’s hands to change the hearts of their companions to sway a vote. Each character possesses a certain principle players must appeal to if they want any chance of changing their vote, but sometimes, they won’t budge no matter how much you persuade them.
This is where all the previous choices the player has made also kick in. Throughout the many Exploration phases present in the game, if Serenoa snoops around enough or talks to the right sort of people, he will become privy to vital information that is capable of swaying a party member’s heart. Be warned though, just because Serenoa can use a piece of information he found in persuasion it doesn’t mean it’s the right answer. The developers had the foresight to not give players an easy way out during these sequences and it is very much appreciated. The feeling of finding the exact detail needed to change someone’s vote, especially in a tense situation, is incredibly satisfying to pull off and rewarding in its own right.
With all that in mind, it almost seems like Triangle Strategy managed to achieve its ambitious goal of making players make hard, game-defining choices. For the most part, it does succeed. Did Serenoa torch his demense to the ground to repel the enemy or did he spare his people the anguish at the cost of many lives? Did Serenoa relinquish a village under his protection to a greater, foreign power, or did he keep his word and role as Lord of Wolffort? The consequences and aftermath of every decision will reverberate throughout the game, both good and bad.
The only issue with Triangle Strategy is that, in most instances, all these player decisions don’t carry a lot of weight when the story converges back on certain plot beats. An in-game “Path Traveled” feature details the long, winding road players will be marching down throughout their journeys, with many forks throughout. Despite some of the choices the players make, eventually and inevitably, the story will resume the course at certain points in the narrative. To the credit of the developers, the journey to each narrative section is well thought out, well-executed, and not contrived. Still, it puts a slight damper on the “shaping Norzelia” aspect of the game when the story plays out the same in the most important points of the story. Some parts of the story should have been completely locked off depending on Serenoa’s decisions and convictions by that point in the story.
Disregarding that one issue, the unfolding story of Triangle Strategy is truly something to be experienced, and shaped, firsthand. With three main endings and a whole variety of sequences needed to get there, Triangle Strategy boasts a game that is to be experienced many times over and over to see how much it has left to offer.
And luckily, it also boasts a worthy, tactical vehicle to keep players enthralled even if it’s their first venture through or New Game+ romp.
Call to Arms
Triangle Strategy is first a tactical SRPG. As such, it needs a finely tuned strategy combat suite to hold in tandem with its burgeoning story. The strategic nature of Triangle Strategy, on a surface level, looks like nothing unfamiliar to veterans of the genre and was extensively covered in my previous previews of Triangle Strategy. Unit turn-based rounds; grid-based map structure; a plethora of unique units, each with their own distinct growth paths; weapon upgrades; swaths of enemy forces; you get the picture.
Strategic depth in combat has remained consistent from the demos to the final product. Players will be constantly vying for optimal positioning, terrain, and movement to come out on top against enemy forces. With how vital follow-up attacks, backstabs, and criticals are, Triangle Strategy constantly tests players to their limits and beyond in each battle. The bonus of Quietuses, special cards players can play to turn the tides of battle, albeit at the cost of limited Quietus points, further amplifies the strategic recipe here.
At the same time, Triangle Strategy is forgiving in defeat as well. Players retain all EXP when a battle or unit is lost, preventing headaches in future EXP grind sessions, letting players retry as many times as necessary while also letting their units grow in tandem with their experience. Because the game scales its difficulty leveling based on the players’ levels, the battles are never needlessly unfair either. The process of experimenting and finding a worthwhile and winning strategy for each battle makes every combat endeavor a gratifying experience. The lack of punishment for failure lets players learn from their mistakes while maintaining momentum to keep pushing forward, adapting, and learning. In a market full of punish-heavy SRPGs, Triangle Strategy’s lack of punishing consequences in battle makes it a unique and fresh experience that is accessible for all sorts of players, veterans, and beginners alike. The option to change difficulty mid-playthrough is another huge boon.
A minor criticism during combat is the lack of certain vital information. In SRPGs, it is important to see the space an enemy force is capable of occupying and reaching within a given turn. It lets players pace themselves and set plans accordingly based on the reach of a particular enemy. Triangle Strategy predicts when a player-controlled unit will enter a square an enemy can reach, but it’s not straightforward or clear. There is no way to know or see how far a particular enemy unit can reach outside of manually hovering the cursor over them mid-turn. I had to constantly flip back and forth between my unit and a specific enemy to avoid its range because of this. It didn’t make battles unbearable, but it did add an unnecessary amount of tedium to an otherwise solid and straightforward system.
Triangle Strategy stands out, however, for how its Three Principles (Liberty, Utility, and Morality) play a key role, not only in the decision-making aspects of the game but also in the tactical combat and RPG elements. Player performance in battle will allocate certain points to Serenoa’s convictions as do his decisions outside of battle when in the Encampment.
The Encampment is the main hub in-game where Serenoa can purchase resources and important items, promote allies, upgrade weapons, and more. His convictions are tested even when doing something as minor as strengthening a weapon or taking a mock battle, Triangle Strategy’s EXP grinding mode. Depending on how much he has invested in a particular conviction, certain allies will become available as the game progresses. It was a neat way to implement player decisions in ways I did not expect in an SRPG and one I would like to see emulated in future games in the genre.
Presentation
Triangle Strategy is a game that oozes charm in just about every corner imaginable. With its adorable sprite models; beautifully crafted environments of towns and battlefields; incredibly detailed artwork of all major characters; a wonderfully orchestrated soundtrack that ranges from triumphant battle fanfare to quieter somber lines, all with a medieval influence; and unique method of presenting it in 2D-HD, you would be hard-pressed to find a game in this genre that comes together so distinctly yet so beautifully. It’s a blessed union of old-timey, nostalgic visuals and the powerhouse ensemble of modern video game magic. Triangle Strategy harkens to simpler days while also possessing the bells and whistles of any current-day game. Fans of retro games and/or retro-inspired sprite work will have a field day with the game’s visuals alone.
Beyond the visual aesthetic, Triangle Strategy’s user interface is anything but old school. Menus are streamlined to make navigation simple to manage and easy to sift through, though some more thorough organization within certain menus would’ve been nice. Compiling relevant and/or connected information and notes in their corresponding menus would’ve been much easier to look through the gigantic pile it eventually becomes. Though, since these areas are entirely optional for the player to look at, it does not pose a big issue while playing.
However, what can’t be ignored are framerate drops. Because of the Nintendo Switch’s limited capabilities, players will encounter noticeable lag throughout certain sequences in the game while exploring and in combat. This usually happens at the start of a battle, on a larger-than-normal battle map, when there are a lot of particle effects going on, or when there are a lot of entities on screen, which is a downer in an otherwise impeccable visual assembly.
Another big issue stems from the audio side: the voice acting.
It was a criticism I had since the first demo and the same conviction I hold to this day. Though some lines here and there were serviceable, in the long run, most of the performances on the English side left much to be desired. It eventually got to the point where I opted for the Japanese voice option, and things have been much better for my ears (though at the cost of me not understanding half of what is being said). The Japanese voice cast boasts much stronger (and even recognizable) talent than the English one. Fans of Japanese media and anime will be pleased to hear many renowned voice actors and actresses playing a role in Triangle Strategy.
The Final Conviction
Triangle Strategy offers a deal that few other SRPGs can boast in equal measure. A strong and compelling story, great importance in player agency, and accessible to veterans and beginners alike, with the sheer amount of paths to take in-game, the price tag is well worth every dollar.
If you’re looking for a mature and engaging medieval fantasy story that gives you almost full reigns of the unfolding events, wrapped in a solid tactical SRPG package, look no further. Triangle Strategy might tip the Scales of Convictions in your favor.
