You've seen the first review for Triangle Strategy by Famitsu, and also our own review for the game, and now here's a look at the general summary of the game here in the west.
Of course, if you haven't caught our own review yet - we gave the game an "excellent" nine out of ten stars and said it was a total tactical triumph. Here's part of our conclusion:
"Triangle Strategy is an absolute triumph for Artdink and Square Enix, a fantastic mix of satisfyingly strategic battles, an excellent choice-driven campaign narrative and top-notch world-building, all of which come together to form one of the finest tactical RPGs we've played in a very long time."
So, what did other critics think of it - VGC said it was "enormous but enjoyable", awarding it 4 out of 5 stars:
"Triangle Strategy is an enormous tactical RPG with a solid turn-based battle system. Its epic plot and lengthy dialogue may be a bit overbearing, but anyone willing to take on an extremely detailed story will have a wealth to do here."
Australian Nintendo website Vooks.net also gave it a 4 out of 5-star rating:
"Triangle Strategy is an excellent strategy game with a heavy focus on a very good, very malleable story. Characters are well-written and very likeable, the story goes to some absolutely fascinating places, and the game’s strategy combat is best-in-class amongst its peers. Unfortunately, inconsistent visuals and a gameplay/story balance skewed far too heavily on the story side hold it back at times — but looking past that is easy when the rest of it is so good."
Our friends over at Eurogamer thought it was enjoyable, even though they did think it was a bit of a slow burn:
"Triangle Strategy is a dramatic, often engrossing tale of medieval conflict - and one that can sit proudly next to the games that inspired it."
GamesRader+ was a little bit more critical but still gave it a final score of 3.5 out of 5:
"Triangle Strategy is a great strategic battler, meshed with devilish politicking and weighty decisions. It’s just a shame the cast of characters never gets a chance to shine just as bright."
And one more - Comicbook was consistent with other scores, awarding it 4 out of 5. Here's what it had to say:
"Triangle Strategy is a very solid tactical game that rewards smart decisions. The conviction system that drives the story reminds me of the older Ultima games, and I appreciate that positioning is as important as a character's abilities during combat. While Triangle Strategy suffers from some of the same issues as Octopath Traveler in terms of its slow pace, the game is still a worthy successor to the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics. This is a game that you'll want to pour hours into, even if some of those hours are eaten up by cutscenes and monologues."
Triangle Strategy is out today on the Nintendo Switch. Tell us in our poll and down in the comments if you'll be adding it to your own collection.
Comments 38
Not very interested in tactical RPGs, maybe I will get this one on discount at some point.
The game looks right up my alley. Will pick it up after work today.
I will play Fire Emblem three houses, thanks.
I love the complaints about the dialogue, meanwhile I am like “thank you for tailor making this game for me”.
Day 1.
You shouldn’t play RPG games if you want a bunch of action and next to no dialogue. If people can tolerate Persona 4 back in the day where you had to wait awhile for your first actual fight then they should have no problem here.
I set an alarm to go pick up my physical copy. This is likely GOTY material for me.
I'm gonna be so torn between playing this and Elden Ring over the next while.
If I played chess with anyone here, it wouldn't matter what the board and pieces look like we both (assuming we play chess) would know the basic rules.
Why can't there be some basic rules for the strategy in rpg's? That would make the learning curve shorter and the game more enjoyable.
I might give this a whirl at some point but I'm still playing Three Houses for my tactical RPG fix. That game is just stuffed with content.
I always like to look at more negative reviews. They tend to highlight things like technical issues more and give less of a pass for things that may be not to everyone's taste - like the slow pace and more story than gameplay in this example.
They seem pretty mixed… do any say if the story gets better as the game goes along? I found the story in the demo a snore fest, does it get more choice based after that or does it stay at a similar pace?
@Askalt I’m hoping for that too, but lot of RPGs on switch retain their high price at one point. Seems to be a window, and if you miss it you’re screwed.
This looks quite good. Honestly, I’m pretty interested in a long, choice-filled story that I can properly sit through.
Happy about the reviews, all very positive, there was 1 very low score, 50, on Metacritic that didn't like the politics but other than that it seems everyone has been enjoying it.
I beat both demos and they were great, full release has also been great so far.
@SmaggTheSmug Definitely, but it's a mixed bag, sometimes negative reviews are clearly from a person that doesn't like this type of game. Metacritic does not cherrypick reviews from people that know what they are talking about, so in general I don't put much stock into it, I prefer doing my own research for any given game, and maybe reading or watching a couple video reviews from people I trust.
RPG without audio dialogue it's very boring in some moments. Who knows when we will hear some voice in Pokemon games
Metacritic has the average review scores at 83% so far which is good. Together with the reviews in this article it re-affirms my insta-buy "strategy". It sounds compelling when you are involving "choice" a fair bit as well
I LOVE the dialogue and politics. And a deeper story makes the combat feels much more "personal" and close. So I really like the long sequences with dialogue and story building. But I am also someone that read all the books I encountered in Skyrim
i love tactics games but i just cannot stand the dialogue, all of their talking is... weirdly forced? I dunno man, just feels like they're slamming in as much posh gobbledegook they can to make them sound more dignified
This game should be shunned for its stupid name alone. Haha. They need to immediately fire the man who keeps naming these games.
Imagine if FF7 was named "Big Sword Guy Game".
Can’t wait to try it, other than Balan, Square has been releasing great game after great game.
Just got my copy! A little weary of the heavy focus on dialogue, but feeling ready to dive into an epic tale and am happy it’s voice acted so I don’t have to read everything!
@neogyo Enjoy! 😍
If those didn't like Octapath or Mercenary Wings series then they will not like Triangle Strategy to start with.
@invictus4000 I mean, "Final Fantasy" is nothing special as a name, either...
Switch Up gave it a 9.5 out of 10. I trust those guys as much as Nintendolife, and also I really like the look of this game. Will get the game for sure, sooner or later.
@Troll_Decimator haha so true. It’s funny because I think since it’s such an established franchise, and most of us first heard the name when we were so young, the generic naming doesn’t feel so basic. It has the impact of the series behind it.
That said, I’m not bothered by Triangle Strategy. If you ignore the obvious, literal meaning it can take on it’s own energy just like FF did.
@the_beaver ah I love Switch Up reviews. Like you said they loved this game which really was encouraging along w this NL review
Really looking forward to picking this up.
My only issue with the demo is how long it can be between gameplay segments. I had the same issue with Persona 5 and Valkyria Chronicles 4... some days I only have 20-30 minutes to play and some sessions I feel like I did nothing but press ‘A’ and watch story.
I can get through a whole island on Into Thr Breach in 20 minutes!
Still, will get someday and just hope it can hold my attention over the slow days.
@the_beaver SwitchUp has a pretty high curve for reviews, but they also have an unabashed enthusiasm for games that I share so I appreciate their reviews over the more critical for the sake of it sites.
@Spinal I feel the opposite. I can read a lot faster than they can talk and the voices are more of a distraction than anything.
I guess it’s just growing up in the 8-bit era or just preferring to read fantasy over watching it.
@invictus4000 I agree. The name is actually very important, especially for a game that is not going to have a huge marketing budget. A lot of people will not know about it, and Triangle Strategy is a title that will get overlooked more often than not when browsing the eShop for a new game. It's a really bad decision.
It doesn't make sense either... this is meant to be a game that is driven by story. How do I trust their writing when they couldn't even come up with a name for the game?!
I wonder if they'll change the name? There was that Tom Cruise movie Edge Of Tomorrow that essentially got renamed Live Die Repeat. They need their marketing team to work some magic on this or it's going to flop.
This is either something I would really get into or would buy it play a few times and never play it again.
@zool To be fair, it's not like the game is rocket science. Move the guy next to the other guy and choose what you want to do to him from a list that clearly tells you what each thing does. I honestly don't understand the complexity here. Chess is much more complex than the average strategy rpg. Like there are literal lines that tell you what will happen the next turn of you move someone somewhere. Things couldn't feasibly get more clear.
There's also the bit that if you've played any ff tactics game or tactics ogre or the Valkyrie chronicles strategy game or the suikoden strategy game or kinda disgaea and fire emblem a little you know how this particular game works. Especially if you played any of the ff tactics or tactics ogre. This game is an actual spiritual successor to the PSP tactics ogre game. To the point you can play that game and pretty much say you played triangle strategy. Triangle strategy is the bigger game, but list the qualities of each and you got the same exact game.
@nocdaes It's kinda like how I wish the just called octopath saga. They clearly were influenced by it, they must have at some point considered that it was similar to saga, it may have been been pitched as a saga game, yet they didn't go with it probably thinking the franchise didn't have enough recognizability.
Similarly, triangle strategy is tactics ogre let us cling together for the PSP 2. It's literally all the choice and branching paths and exceedingly similar battle system, presentation style, and tone to the point I'd be surprised if they aren't just going through they're catalogue and picking obscure games to rehash. Triangle strategy is an expansion on tactics ogre, but it's at the heart of it the same game. I also can't imagine that at some point they didn't consider calling it final fantasy tactics for the brand recognition, but maybe they wanted, I'm guessing like octopath, technically new ips that could spin into their own franchises. That's literally the only reason I can think of for not calling these games what they clearly are. since they're remaking front mission, my next guess for the next one is Valkyrie profile. They already tried chrono trigger with I am Setsuna and lost sphear. This is their second recent attempt at just recreating old games and it's definitely more successful.
I think the scenes are overly long. To be fair, they were just as bad in war of the lions, but there wasn't a focus on having so many scenes after so many scenes. Like go back and play war of the lions, it's just as pretentious and weirdly Elizabethan as this is, but since there's a whole mechanic around votes and politics here it's just given more weight that some people find too much. I like it, but I understand why people don't. Like id like to play through again to see the other routes, but I mean, it's a lot to go through back to back.
The game is a gem. I might even go so far as to that Triangle Strategy is quite possibly my favorite Square game since the 90s.
@invictus4000
It's not that at all, the Triangle in the name references the 3 houses, the strategy references what kind of gamer it is. I really do see no issue.
You quote Final Fantasy, but lets be honest, that name is no worse or better than Triangle Strategy, there is an argument to be made FF is worse, it's only because we know of at that we let it slide and have grown to adore it.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...