I think this oversimplification of morality weakens the story’s impact and can make the consequences of your decisions predictable. Additionally, besides Serenoa, there are three other primary characters - Roland, Frederica, & Benedict - who each represent one of the three morality axes. The way Triangle Strategy handles morality is a bit of a disappointment, leading to some jarring bumps on the road of narrative. At times, it feels like the writers tried to make things more complicated than they needed to be, in order to adhere to the game-y structure of needing every major decision to fall under one of the three categories. While I think these can be where the game shines the brightest, the locations in my playthrough were reused almost ad nauseam the further I got into the game. If you aren’t thorough enough in your exploration, you won’t get the story to play out in your favor. You can then use this to unlock dialogue choices when trying to get his friends to vote in the way you want. NPCs can give you information on what's happening in the world, which he takes notes on. Triangle Strategy fully utilizes the 3D maps by offering a similar experience.ĭuring specific points in the story, Serenoa will get to freely walk around an area that will most likely (but not always) end up being a future battle map. However, in recent years, more and more games like this add some focus to offer players downtime by having them roam a hub area. Most of the strategy games that Triangle Strategy draws inspiration from simply move from scenes to battles and back. You’ll need to gather information to manipulate the voting in your favor, which you do during exploration segments. It can succeed in doing this often, making the narrative in the early hours captivating. Who to side with, where to go, what battle tactics to take, and more moral dilemmas that are meant to really push the player’s convictions. Including Serenoa, there are seven party members that have a coin that lets them vote on important decisions the group needs to make. Voting is the major mechanic that branches your story, and it can eventually decide the ending you get. Decisions will affect this the most, and you’ll often get moral questions sprinkled throughout the cutscenes in each chapter. Your choices can change a lot that I can’t get into, but in gameplay, it can decide which side characters can join you. How these values directly affect your playthrough are deliberately kept vague, acting mostly in the background. Almost everything you do will raise Serenoa’s convictions for one of these three values. There are three major morality values the game centers on: Morality, Utility, and Liberty. Serenoa cannot navigate this conflict without your help, as his opinions on the alliances he makes depend solely on the decisions you make. Unbeknownst to him, Norzellia is on the eve of war breaking out, with House Wolffort being in the dead center of the conflict. On the continent of Norzellia, the player steps into the shoes of a young noble named Serenoa Wolffort. What’s important is how Triangle Strategy lives up to the premise of an SRPG revival, and how it stands on its own merit. The tone of the story and gameplay echoes these classics, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It would be narrow-minded to only draw comparisons to those games, but I also think it’d be ignorant to say some of the comparisons aren’t fair. Triangle Strategy, intentionally or not, seems to be doing just that. When you’re trying to evoke the spirit of those two games, expectations will be high. Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre in particular are still beloved today for that exact reason. Many use obtuse difficulty as a crutch for poor game design, but a strong story can do a lot to get you over the challenge hump and the nature of the genre practically begs for creative political war-themed narratives. I will admit though, it sometimes takes quite a lot for SRPGs to click with me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |