As we've already reported, a brand new demo for Square Enix's upcoming tactical RPG, Triangle Strategy, dropped onto the Switch eShop during the latest Nintendo Direct and it's a pretty generous offering, giving players a chance to dig into the game's prologue with all progress carrying over to the main game, should you choose to pick it up when it releases on 4th March.
We've been spending plenty of time with Triangle Strategy over the past week and can tell you that the prologue, which should take you a solid two or three hours to blast through, does a great job of introducing a bunch of the game's central characters as well as giving you a handful of battles to get stuck into that slowly layer on tactical elements, resulting in some pleasingly strategic early enemy encounters.
Triangle Strategy, which shares a similar visual style to Octopath Traveler — dubbed HD-2D by Square Enix and being put to use in other games, notably the Live A Live remake announced in the Nintendo Direct — but is not a sequel to that game, sees us transported to the fictional land of Norzelia in the aftermath of the "Saltiron War", a long-term conflict waged between the continent's three nations Glenbrook, Aesfrost and Hyzante. Players assume the role of Serenoa Wolffort, a legendary warrior and heir to the throne of the House of Wolffort, as he and his comrades set out to navigate their way through a brand new conflict which threatens to erupt from the uneasy truce that's just about being held between the three factions at the beginning of the game.
With regards to the political machinations which are the focal point of the story in the game's early stages, Triangle Strategy employs a "conviction" system which sees Serenoa make key choices in response to certain narrative encounters, and your responses here will bolster one of three convictions – Utility, Morality, Liberty – which together make up the young Wolffort's world view and influence how the story will unfold. You won't get to dig into this aspect of the game too much during the demo, but it's certainly an aspect we're looking forward to watching develop as we dive deeper into this one in the weeks ahead.
Producer Tomoya Asano, who previously worked on both Octopath Traveler and the Bravely Default series, has spoken of how Triangle Strategy would drop some traditional JRPG aspects in favour of a more tactical flavour, and in this regard the gameplay we've experienced so far has made some nice changes to the usual ebb and flow of proceedings. You won't find yourself filling the shoes of multiple protagonists à la Octopath Traveler here, with the story as we've seen so far concentrated on Serenoa's journey, helping to keep the whole experience more focused rather than constantly whisking you off to other narrative strands for extended periods of time.
You won't find yourself filling the shoes of multiple protagonists à la Octopath Traveler here [...] helping to keep the whole experience more focused
You will still have the opportunity to view different aspects of the story and various goings-on outside of camp Wolffort by jumping into story sequences that pop up on the world map from time to time between missions, but the main thrust, at least in these early hours, keeps you locked into Serenoa and his party of friends.
The constant random combat encounters of traditional JRPGs have also been axed — at least as far as we know from our time with the prologue — and battles are now fully contained events that are signalled before they take place, allowing you to prepare your squad, return to the game's encampment area to buy supplies, level up weapons and promote characters before settling in for fights that can last a good long while as you attempt to outsmart some rather tricky foes.
It all makes for a rather nice flow overall, with plenty of detailed exposition sequences and narrative choices to be made, interspersed with big meaty battles and free roam segments that allow you to wander around the game's wonderful little settlement dioramas. Triangle Strategy certainly lays the foundations for its story well, taking its sweet time to introduce factions and characters and very slowly working towards the turning point that sees trouble rear its head towards the end of the prologue demo.
Putting together chains of attacks to take down enemies here is satisfying stuff and making the effort to think a few moves ahead can lead to big rewards
In terms of the battle system itself, it's a turn-based affair taking place on a grid layout that highlights where your active party member can move to during a turn, with plenty of indicators of safe spots as well as information on enemy lines of sight, potential attack damage and which of your foes are currently within range. There's a handy simulation mode that you can use during fights to safely test how your moves will play out, ample opportunity to position troops pre-battle and kudos awarded for pulling off special moves and blazing a trail through your foes with style. Kudos can then be spent as an alternative form of currency, so it quite literally pays to play clever during face-offs here.
Taking the high ground plays a big role in scraps too, with increased damage dished out should you attack from a vantage point, and you'll also need to constantly and carefully consider unit positioning, as placing a squad member on either side of a foe can see you activate follow-up attacks, striking once with your active party member before having a comrade automatically attack from the opposite direction for a double damage combo. Putting together chains of attacks to take down enemies here is satisfying stuff and making the effort to think a few moves ahead can lead to big rewards as you utilise the powers of your entire party to rip through opposing forces.
Even during the handful of hours you'll get to experience in the prologue demo, there's lots of opportunity to tool around with that follow-up attack system as well as getting your head around the various skills that party members bring to the fight. Serenoa, for example, is a straight-up swordsman who does decent damage with his base level attack and can also stagger opponents for a turn with a stronger strike. Frederica gives you pyromancer opportunities, with the ability to set fire to both enemies and grid squares, Anna is a spy who hides in the shadows and can dish out two attacks per turn, Roland takes on foes with his lance from horseback, and both Benedict and Geela work from the rear of the pack to provide all-important healing and defense/attack buffs.
Elemental attacks play a big part in the action here too, and there's strategy to be employed in freezing both enemies and areas of the battle map or even setting fire to frozen areas in order to create wet zones that can then be turned into death traps with a quick blast of electricity. You can also purchase oil jars that give you the ability to lay down fiery traps and create impassable walls of flame to help you decimate your foes and control the battlefield.
There's plenty to get to grips with in the opening hours of Triangle Strategy all told, and although we reckon the narrative pace may be a little on the slow side for some players, we've been thoroughly enjoying what we've sampled of its mix of political intrigue, free roam sections and those great big juicy battles. We'll be continuing our adventures in Norzelia over the next few weeks as we prepare our review of the game, but for now we highly recommend you jump into the prologue demo and check this one out for yourself as it's certainly shaping up to be something pretty special so far.
Triangle Strategy launches on Switch on 4th March. The demo is available now on the Switch eShop.
Will you be diving into the Triangle Strategy Prologue demo? If so, make sure to let us know how you're finding the opening hours of the game in the comments!
Comments 29
Toblerone The Game.
This looks like a game that will be remembered very fondly 20 years from now. Day 1 purchase for me.
@nessisonett I wonder how many people will get that one; it was really good!
NINJA APPROVED
This game is more then Octapath and requires some strategy when fighting. It's like mercenary wings. So those that played mercenary wings will get the game of it. I played so far and it does take some strategy when fighting and which path moral when you choose it as well. SAVE OFTEN this will allow you to try different actions-what I like is the 360 that you can swing around the game makes it more interesting to decide moves.
The artstyle reminds me of Octopath Traveler.
@RubyCarbuncle that’s because Triangle Strategy is using the same engine that Octopath traveler used
Still cracks me up that the singer croons the game's rather bizarre name in the theme song.
Anyway, I'm torn. The demo is fun enough so far, but I'm not sure I'm eager to spend $60 on a PS1 game that goes ham on modern post-processing effects. On the other hand, Octopath rarely dipped in price, so I'm wondering if it's even worth waiting for a price drop.
We'll see. If I'm hungry for more after the demo, I might give in and buy the full game.
The demo does not disappoint, can't wait for the full release. First game I am thoroughly excited for in a while.
Played through the first battle. The graphics and art direction have really improved since Octopath, and the combat was lovely. I just hope the story is engaging!
I love SRPG's but I'm going to hold off on this gorgeous looking game.
I'm still cautiously optimistic but I've heard some kind of annoying things about the demo, namely how there's still no way to speed up the cursor speed in the battles or how they do nothing to incentivize keeping your units alive among other things. And I really, really worry a job system of some kind is going to rear its ugly head at some point, I feel like that would completely ruin the prospect of characters coming in and leaving your party depending on the choices since you could so easily just replace anyone.
@anoyonmus what do you mean? A lot of games are using Unreal engine....
@gabrielthorn both Octopath and Triangle Strategy are using UE4.
BUT
They both use the same visual style which is HD-2D. Live A Live remake is also using HD-2D
@anoyonmus indeed, but you were talking about the engine. Anyways, I love how refined the art style here looks compared to Octopath traveler, it was full of unnecessary bloom. Still one of the most charming games I've ever played, I still open the popup book sometimes.
@gabrielthorn Octopath was the first one I think to adapt the HD 2D style. So first time it’s not gonna be as good . But later games it’s gonna. Get better.
I do hope more games utilize this art style from Square.
Another phenomenal Switch exclusive. Wake me up when competitor consoles start picking up any pace, their current rate of 2 games per year is not too enticing, I see myself playing my 10 year old tablet hardware on Switch for another 5 years by the time they have a library worth looking at.
Already got this pre-order, will be a game I would spend on my Spring Break on.
I remember they said the game would be about 59 hours, I’m curious how close people’s playthroughs will be to that number.
@Troll_Decimator Switch is got a great few months ahead of it but Horizon, Elden Ring and Gran Turismo 7 are literally coming out in the space of two months. It’s possible to appreciate a console without slating its competitors.
(Heavy breathing)
Downloading this now.
I did not like the demo. The pixel art appears extremely blurry on my led switch. Its a huge distraction for me. I’d much rather play a shallow pixel based game like mercenaries because of this. At least with that the pixel art is crisp. I was also a big fan of FFT and Ogre battle back in the day. I feel like those games had a better premise and the art style fit the games. I also found the voice acting to be mediocre at best and lacking emotion. The intro gave me no reason to care. While I know people love this style, it isn’t for me.
Demo put me off a little, I was excited for this one, now I'm not sure if it's for me...
Battles are as good as I could expect, no trouble there. I also love the art design. The main issue is the pace: it's extremely slow. Takes forever to reach the next battle.
Also VO has some weird acting and they make the long story segments even slower. We can read the text faster. Never thought I would say this for a game, but they should have kept VO only on specific importat events.
I felt very underwhelmed with it. I guess it's because I'm a big fan of Disgaea but TS seems soo limited in every aspect. I feel like I'm playing with slugs compared to Disgaea.
Sure it looks great, but being stuck to using story characters and me only really liking maybe 3 of those and add on the voice acting that seems forced and awkward at points and you can clearly tell they're just reading a script..I'll have to wait for a decent sale to dive in when there's so much else to play.
@RenanKJ Totally agree with everything. I usually don't skip voice acted lines, but man they take long pauses and all talk so slow it's like they're trying to add playtime length through it. I was super excited at first, played the first demo and was less excited..and now I'm down to mild interest after this demo.
@philwhite There's an option in the settings to turn depth of field blur off, might help.
@anoyonmus It's not down to the engine. It's Unreal 4 which is the same engine as countless games,but for some examples: Dragon Quest XI, Kingdom Hearts 3, Wasteland 3 and Pokémon BDSP. It's just an intentional reuse of the art style.
I passed Octopath and I will pass this even it's the genre I like most. The graphics engine seems not to be able to produce only one sharp and crisp picture.
I'm too old hurting my eyes this way. They always try to focus until the picture is sharp. But it's not possible...
So sad, really. I'd love to love the games. Both.
@UglyCasanova @RenanKJ - You can turn off the voice acting. First thing I will do. I thought it was terrible in the demo.
I will get the game, but I have some doubts about whether I will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed TRPGs back in the day. But I am going to support this anyways.
I finished the demo and I love every single thing about this game. The writing, music and graphics are superb! Combat is fun as heck!
A 10/10 for me so far.
@Zimon It's definitely shaping up really nicely.
Day 1. I will buy just about anything SE releases in the HD 2D art style. Please give us FFVI and Chrono Trigger using this engine!
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