Topic: Triangle Strategy

I waited to buy this until 11pm at which point Amazon UK reduced the price to £44.80.

I'm on 4 or 5 right now, not sure. Some stuff definitely happened lol

I do wish offensive spell effects would also happen to friendlies in the target area just like in FF Tactics. Made spell targeting much more tense in risk/reward calculations.

Lol, you want to kill your allies for exp, etc, just like in those older games, @rallydefault ....?

I have a question - if I play the Triangle Strategy Prologue Demo from the eShop, but then buy the game physically, would my progress still cross over?

Yeah, @BabyYoda71 ... I got the game physically & transferred my demo save to it! Because saves are on the system separately from games, it doesn't matter whether they're digital or physical copies
Where's @JaxonH with his promised walls of text about this game, though?

@BruceCM Ok thanks! I wasn’t sure because I don’t usually buy games that have demos.

@BruceCM
Reposted from Switch thread (wouldn't want to disappoint!)

Just wrapped up Chapter 4 in Triangle Strategy. Again I say, this game is straight🔥 🔥 🔥

The story is exceptionally compelling. Far more so than I ever anticipated. I love Fire Emblem to death. But this game has the story I've always wanted Fire Emblem to have. It's just soooo good!

The battles have immaculate strategy gameplay. It feels so much more "strategic" than Fire Emblem. And that's not to bash FE, because I love that series, but there's no denying Triangle Strategy has much more depth. From archers gaining accuracy the more off angle they are from the front, to gaining range and power from elevation (and the reverse if at lower elevation), from elemental mages having AoE attacks which some enemies are weak to, to combos with elemental attacks such as freezing AoE, then Fire to melt the icy ground and turning to water, then Electric attacks traveling through the wet ground, to follow up attacks activating when sandwiching enemies with your units... the sheer complexity and depth on offer is staggering, yet, still rather user friendly.

The characters are rich and multifaceted, grounded in reality and well voiced (speaking of which, nearly all dialog is voiced, which makes Triangle Strategy all the more immersive). Each character has good qualities and flaws, personal motivations and agendas, and there are so many characters spanning the Kingdoms and so many plot points developing simultaneously across the kingdom, it's never a dull moment.

And the story... oh the story. It's remarkably gripping and almost pulls you inside the world with it. I feel like I'm in Norzelia myself. I've grown attached to these characters. I know them. I feel for them. I cheer their accomplishments and squirm at their dilemmas. This is the most spellbound I've felt from a story in a video game in years. Not even modern AAA games with professional voice acting, facial capture and focus on realism have managed to captivate me in the same way Triangle Strategy has managed to with nothing but 2D sprites and B-list voice actors. It's a testament to the cohesive narrative and vision of the developers.

Idk what it is specifically, but something about this game makes it far more than the sum of its parts. It just hits hard, in a way I haven't felt since Fire Emblem Awakening (and yes, I enjoyed Three Houses also, even Fates and Shadows of Valentia, but FE Awakening just hit in a way those games didn't- not saying it's "better" necessarily, just that, like Triangle Strategy, it too came together as more than the sum of its parts).

I cannot recommend this game enough. There is a lot of dialog. For sure. But to me, that's part of what makes it so engrossing. Because it's actually good dialog, good narrative, good plot development. Not wack C-tier JRPG tropey shenanigans, but genuine gritty story that almost feels reminiscent of Game of Thrones, strangely enough. It's a slow burn, but one that I can't help but savor.

I was pretty happy with Three Houses' story myself, which felt satisfyingly gritty compared to Awakening/Fates. Probably helps I also adore the cast.

I like TS' worldbuilding so far (based on the demo), but the story itself is an incredibly slow burn, so I guess we'll see what happens in the full release. I don't mind the build-up if it starts paying off soon.

That's OK, @BabyYoda71 ....
The actors definitely do a good job, as well, @JaxonH but yeah, it does show how important the writing & everything else is as well .... Missed your post in the Switch thread but good to put it here, anyway!

I'm on chapter 7 or 8 now. The story really is impressing me, but moreso, this is the first new RPG since... I don't even know where I've stopped to appreciate how they're actually building the characters' personalities as a TEAM. I like Octopath, but we all know how it has zero team-building due to its nature. Even stuff like Setsuna didn't give me the old-school team story depth that I was used to from SNES/PS-era JRPGs.

Oh, and the gameplay development is awesome, too! I love the skills these classes learn, and I love the elemental/environmental effects and interactions.

Anna is so far my go-to haha Get a poison hit, cloak, lurk on the backlines, then pop back out for some backstabbing while my main group works to meet up with her. So awesome. The toolkits just feel so right.

I'm on chapter 8 and very much enjoying it so far.

Man, the further I get in this game, the tougher these decisions get. The demo's decision of Hyzante or Aesfrost was fun, but a few more in and now they're pretty serious. Totally changed my mind on the latest one halfway through the deliberations lol (chapter 10 or perhaps 11, I believe).

@rallydefault The story definitively gets better and deep the more you get into it. I'm on chapter 9 now.

@komodo182
Oh does it ever!

I’d say chapter 4 is the turning point where things kick off into high gear. First 3 chapters set the stage. Chapter 4 is the inciting incident, and Chapter 5 and beyond is where the game comes into its own. You unlock character stories on the world map, recruits, and the story is in full swing at that point.

Which makes the demo incredibly appropriate being the first 3 chapters, as it really is the primer for what’s to come.

By the time you’re in chapter 5, it’s like… you’re hooked. Absolutely hooked. This game is so freaking good, I love it even more with every passing chapter.

I’ve been playing through the Demo today and just finished Chapter 2. I’ve been enjoying it so far… it seems like it has a bit of a slow start but it definitely has potential to be great.

I love the HD-2D aesthetic, I’ve never played a game in that style and I really like it. The gameplay is okay… it’s mostly been cutscenes so far, but the battle gameplay is quite fun. It has a lot of features I haven’t seen in other games that are really cool (the only one that comes to me now is the ability to look at past dialogue, but there’s others. All the characters different abilities are cool and I like how there’s not a three or six-person roster limit like most other games like this I’ve played.

The dialogue is a bit strange, but it doesn’t bug me as much as others. I won’t mind all the cutscenes when the story becomes interesting (which I hear is after Chapter 3), but currently it’s a bit boring… one thing I have noticed is there’s a LOT of typos. One I noted was “Mine will be writ large for all to see”, writ should be written I think? They also spelled domain really strange once, like deamoine or something around those lines. The voice acting says normal words, which makes me think they are typos that just got lost in translation or something?

Anyway, I’ve been really enjoying this and am looking forward to playing more.

@JaxonH lots of different characters to try which is nice. I played most of the day and want to continue but its bedtime in my area.

@BabyYoda71
"writ large" is an expression meaning easy to understand. That's not a typo.

Neither is demesne, which has a few meanings but is basically land owned by a lord.

Any time you think you see a typo I'd recommend Googling it, because chances are it's just vocabulary you're unfamiliar with.

I'm excited to hear that you have to make difficult decisions in this game, and that the choices are meaningful and impact the direction of the narrative.

Also glad to hear that the characters develop well as a team. That was, IMO, what was missing from Octopath.

@JaxonH Ah… I had a feeling some of them were words (like writ) but the thing that confused me is that the voice actors say more common words (written and domain in those two scenarios).

Thanks for letting me know though.

@Ralizah
Not only does it have difficult decisions, it's not afraid to use death and genuine, gritty emotion, which is something I've always craved from Fire Emblem. I remember Chapter 9 in Fire Emblem Awakening, and it hit hard. Especially with Chapter 10's map being in the rain, with music that really meshed with the events that just took place. It was one of those rare moments in video games I will remember the rest of my life.

I like it when games aren't afraid to go there. And this game goes there. It feels epic in a way very few games do nowadays. Honestly, the story is so good (and by story I mean everything in totality, the events unfolding, the characters, the dialog, all of it), I'm struggling to think of a game with a story I actually enjoyed this much. Maybe Trails of Cold Steel? Even then, I don't think so. Trails has great world building and tons of dialog for you to become acquainted with the characters, but this hits harder. Xenoblade Chronicles? Perhaps, but that was a different kind of story. It doesn't feel like an apples to apples comparison.

I think it's the sprites that really drive it home. If it were in a different graphical style I'm not sure if it would hit as hard. There's something about gritty war and political sabotage that just gets enhanced when told through the medium of a sprite based video game. At least for me (which would explain why I loved FE Awakening so much).

I fired up Final Fantasy Tactics the other day (mobile version of War of the Lions) and... all it did was make me appreciate how much better Triangle Strategy is by comparison. I know it has its fans, but that was my genuine response. "Wow, this makes Triangle Strategy seem even more sick".

This is by far the best Team Asano game to date. They finally nailed it.