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Triangle Strategy ("HD-2D" SRPG from the creators of Octopath Traveler) announced for Nintendo Switch in 2022, demo available NOW!
- Thread starter Taka
- Start date
Well I still managed to convince everyone I needed, but that's odd, I wonder if I missed something. Maybe you can unlock more options in the final game?
Also I
decided to protect the prince, and I used 1 trap, but I failed to lure the other enemies in the upper trap of the map like I wanted despite setting walls etc. lol so in the end I won the battle without them. Is there a different story result if you win this battle without using the traps?
And my god this demo is long... :O
Finished the demo. That was fun. :) I'm excited to see what happens and how much of an impact things have down the line. Like does me choosing to burn the village down cause things to happen later.
My main thing for the survey will be portraits. But also potentially it needs more gameplay, SOMETHING added to the gameplay loop between all the cutscenes.
My main thing for the survey will be portraits. But also potentially it needs more gameplay, SOMETHING added to the gameplay loop between all the cutscenes.
Checks out. Einhander is the first game in the series. After the techno apocalypse society rebuilt as medieval kingdoms.
I wonder if some are locked based on some of your conversations earlier, before the exploration of the town? For example, what you said during the exploration scene on the drawbridge etc, or maybe decisions in the game prior to that point (and the demo) lock out some options? Otherwise it would be a bit simplistic that just talking to everyone in the scene before let's you get all the options you could want.
Yeah, that's possible. It would have to at least be mildly challenging to unlock all the options and not just "talk to everyone".
Einhander
As opposed to zweihander
I should bump that "things you didn't figure out until way later" thread
If the game makes some decisions a real challenge to get the vote to go the way you want, as some of your allies think you are being disingenuous based on your past arguments and actions (as defined by the three values of loyalty, liberty, utility or whatever is was!) then that could be really interesting. I want to come out of some of these debates feeling like I've convinced people due to integrity and good arguments, and that not everyone was possible to convince, not that I've collected all the right tools to convince everyone to do exactly what I want after a five minute stroll :D
I finally found the time to sink serious hours into the Triangle Strategy demo and I am super impressed. The 2D HD aesthetic is beautiful and shines even more with these battle maps. I loved the village battle. The detailed sprites, simple PS1 era JRPG animations, good writing, and decent voice acting help the story and drama shine without me feeling like I am watching a Hideo Kojima movie. The map and side stories are pretty cool too. It gives me massive GoT vibes.
And the combat is really tough! I barely survived the 2nd battle with just 3 units facing off the last 4 enemies. I love messing with the turn order to my advantage. This was the hardest rpg battle I've played in a long time.
Earlier this year I was wishing for a FF Tactics like game on Switch and this demo delivered. I was practically stalking the month Nintendo downloads threads hoping for this very game to exist. The story, gameplay, and aesthetic have me looked. The only downsides right now are somewhat lengthy load times and indistinct music.
And the combat is really tough! I barely survived the 2nd battle with just 3 units facing off the last 4 enemies. I love messing with the turn order to my advantage. This was the hardest rpg battle I've played in a long time.
Earlier this year I was wishing for a FF Tactics like game on Switch and this demo delivered. I was practically stalking the month Nintendo downloads threads hoping for this very game to exist. The story, gameplay, and aesthetic have me looked. The only downsides right now are somewhat lengthy load times and indistinct music.
I played till finishing the drawbrige battle and really liking it. I do have a few problems though.
-the game really need some portraits, i know is harder because they talk with speech bubbles instead of textboxes, but they should be added. I was pressing the x button every time a character talked and that shouldnt happen.
-the game needs a japanese voice option for any language thatbis not english. Not because i thing the english voices are that bad, but because for example the spanish text seems to be directly translated from the japanese script and not only that but its a great localization with sentences rearrange a little bit of olde spanish flair.
So what happens?
You are hearing the english voice actors, which i understand perfectly, saying COMPLETELY different stuff 80% of the time of what you are reading in the spanish text, and is impossible concentrate in one on another.
As i would enjoy voice acting still, i would prefer if the japanese track is also an option so i csn read the spansih text at my own leisure with that excellent localization.
-still need to understand how the turn order queue works. Battle did seem a tad slow compared to FF tactics advance and sometimes it seems better to let characters wait so you can use better abilities.
Other than that great, cant wait for the survey and changes (everyone, please, as for real portraits while in dialogue and japanese language track).
-the game really need some portraits, i know is harder because they talk with speech bubbles instead of textboxes, but they should be added. I was pressing the x button every time a character talked and that shouldnt happen.
-the game needs a japanese voice option for any language thatbis not english. Not because i thing the english voices are that bad, but because for example the spanish text seems to be directly translated from the japanese script and not only that but its a great localization with sentences rearrange a little bit of olde spanish flair.
So what happens?
You are hearing the english voice actors, which i understand perfectly, saying COMPLETELY different stuff 80% of the time of what you are reading in the spanish text, and is impossible concentrate in one on another.
As i would enjoy voice acting still, i would prefer if the japanese track is also an option so i csn read the spansih text at my own leisure with that excellent localization.
-still need to understand how the turn order queue works. Battle did seem a tad slow compared to FF tactics advance and sometimes it seems better to let characters wait so you can use better abilities.
Other than that great, cant wait for the survey and changes (everyone, please, as for real portraits while in dialogue and japanese language track).
I don't recall this in Octopath, but in here it seems like the blur effect on the screen moves around based on whose speaking which is bugging me. I like the way the game generally looks aside from that, maybe being able to move the camera is adding to that.
Just started the demo and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.
I remember having the same issue with Octopath and even asking for it in the feedback survey but looks like these devs just hate portraits.
It's not like speech bubbles with portraits are uncommon either, so many RPGs have them.
Whenever the survey comes out I really hope people mention this.
So Triangle Strategy is a reference to Tactics Ogre, Octopath is a reference to SaGa, but the series as a whole... is really a giant tribute to Sting's Dept. Heaven series. I like it!
Yeah, I think I would agree that the purple is too close to the blue.
this.
I enjoyed the demo, although I prefer having less characters (I think FFT was perfect with 5). It's also excruciatingly slow so I hope they can speed it up.
I agree the game could be sped up slightly somehow, but I strongly prefer having more characters to work with. FFT had minimal tactical depth with its super small deployment sizes and maps.
I did the first battle a couple of days ago and it was enjoyable enough, but did feel tough. Most all of my SRPG experience came in the form of Final Fantasy Tactics (where the job system allowing for the creation of some extra busted units is a big part of what made the game enjoyable for me) or some of the Fire Emblem games (where weapon triangle and character leveling made it relatively simple to give your side advantages) so this felt a lot more even in terms of enemies being able to damage me. One wrong move almost got Roland killed thanks to enemies being able to utilize the bonus backstab attacks, so it makes things like covering your back feel way more important here than it does in the FFT games. I still need to push through the rest of the demo but I do kind of hope there are ways to make sure the final game doesn't end up too punishingly difficult, as I love the aesthetic but don't really have the time or the bigbrain powers to calculate my way through everything to such a level.
I do hope they change the name a bit this time. Octopath Traveler felt a little funny and awkward at first, but there's a certain "flow" to speaking it out that makes it work, and since "Octopath" on its own isn't exactly a real word, it's easy to just say "Octopath" as an abbreviation and everyone would know what you're talking about. Saying you're playing "Triangle" doesn't really have that same standout quality. Similarly, I don't find "Triangle Strategy" rolls off the tongue nearly as well as Octopath Traveler does. I'm not exactly sure what would sound better while still being as plainly descriptive of the game, though.
I do hope they change the name a bit this time. Octopath Traveler felt a little funny and awkward at first, but there's a certain "flow" to speaking it out that makes it work, and since "Octopath" on its own isn't exactly a real word, it's easy to just say "Octopath" as an abbreviation and everyone would know what you're talking about. Saying you're playing "Triangle" doesn't really have that same standout quality. Similarly, I don't find "Triangle Strategy" rolls off the tongue nearly as well as Octopath Traveler does. I'm not exactly sure what would sound better while still being as plainly descriptive of the game, though.
Played the first battle of the demo. Ended up losing right at the finish line because Serenoa had to miss a 96% chance to hit attack. Felt like I was playing X-com for a minute there.
Tokyo RPG Factory was actually founded based on the success of Bravely Default. They wouldn't exist at all if not for Asano Team.
I just finished, and one of my complaints was actually how much everything blends in combat. I don't know what I would change, but I feel like there is too much going on during battle with the blue grid, the red grid, the UI overall, and then the way the characters blend in with the scenery. Just not digging that.
I really like it, enough so to quit in the middle of the second battle so I could do it for real in the full game, but I sure wish the whole game is not so plodding.
I loved how distinct all the classes were, really outstanding job on that, but that same solidity of identity just doesn't extend to the character work. Ser Maxwell was the only character I wanted to see more of.
Also the damage numbers are really unsatisfying, but I don't really have any hope of that changing. At least it will be tactically rigorous in ways a certain other series no longer attempts to be.
I loved how distinct all the classes were, really outstanding job on that, but that same solidity of identity just doesn't extend to the character work. Ser Maxwell was the only character I wanted to see more of.
Also the damage numbers are really unsatisfying, but I don't really have any hope of that changing. At least it will be tactically rigorous in ways a certain other series no longer attempts to be.
Like others did, I reloaded my save and picked the other story option where you hand over the prince. Really cool how it massively changes the story and even gameplay. The alternative battle you fight is completely different. Not only it's a different map and enemies, but uses entirely different terrain gimmicks to work with, too.
Although I'll say that, unless there's additional context we don't have because it's not the full story, it really seems to be the worse choice in terms of story payoff. It's basically a huge self-own, lol.
If I had some feedback to give to the devs, for now it would be this:
Although I'll say that, unless there's additional context we don't have because it's not the full story, it really seems to be the worse choice in terms of story payoff. It's basically a huge self-own, lol.
It allows Gustadolph to successfully pit the great Houses against each other (almost comically easy how he fucks them over -- the Falkes lord is pretty damn dumb and gullible but both Roland and Wolffort capitulating to his demands so easily was a bit silly), he successfully paints house Wolffort as disloyal and cowardly, he gains a valuable hostage in the prince, and THEN he finds a perfect excuse to arrange for his execution. lmao, good job Glenbrook peeps, no wonder you got invaded so successfully. There isn't even the "oh well at least we didn't burn down the homes of innocent people like the other choice would have us do", because Lord Falkes does burn his own farms as a final act of spite too. Geez. It felt a little contrived how dumb Falkes behaved though, honestly.
I hope the final game will have "harder" choices, because here it seems like saving the prince is the obvious "right" choice. Not just morally, but in terms of story consequences for Glenbrook (in terms of gameplay, I'd say the Falkes battle is easier overall too). By the time you finish the demo with the story path of giving up Roland, Gustadolph is dominating over Glennbrook with an iron fist (with only some faint, vague hope hinted at by Benedict in the graveyard scene), but with the other choice of saving the prince, Glenbrook is still in a decent enough position to fight back.
But, maybe we're missing something. Perhaps Roland is actually a complete shithead and by the time we reach this story choice in the full game, we'll be glad to hand him over because he sucks so much. Perhaps there's a previous story choice that fucks you (or everyone else/civilians etc.) over catastrophically if you choose the "resistance" path compared to yielding, and so it'd make more sense to have second thoughts this time around. And perhaps the path where you give up the prince and fuck your own country over as a result, yields a story that is more tragic and dark, a desperate story of last ditch attempt at survival and resistance that ultimately ends up being more compelling dramatically, maybe even with some brave rescue mission for Roland, saving him from execution and turning the tide of the war completely. Who knows!
...Or perhaps these scenes were written just for the demo and stuff will happen completely differently in the final game. xD
I hope the final game will have "harder" choices, because here it seems like saving the prince is the obvious "right" choice. Not just morally, but in terms of story consequences for Glenbrook (in terms of gameplay, I'd say the Falkes battle is easier overall too). By the time you finish the demo with the story path of giving up Roland, Gustadolph is dominating over Glennbrook with an iron fist (with only some faint, vague hope hinted at by Benedict in the graveyard scene), but with the other choice of saving the prince, Glenbrook is still in a decent enough position to fight back.
But, maybe we're missing something. Perhaps Roland is actually a complete shithead and by the time we reach this story choice in the full game, we'll be glad to hand him over because he sucks so much. Perhaps there's a previous story choice that fucks you (or everyone else/civilians etc.) over catastrophically if you choose the "resistance" path compared to yielding, and so it'd make more sense to have second thoughts this time around. And perhaps the path where you give up the prince and fuck your own country over as a result, yields a story that is more tragic and dark, a desperate story of last ditch attempt at survival and resistance that ultimately ends up being more compelling dramatically, maybe even with some brave rescue mission for Roland, saving him from execution and turning the tide of the war completely. Who knows!
...Or perhaps these scenes were written just for the demo and stuff will happen completely differently in the final game. xD
If I had some feedback to give to the devs, for now it would be this:
- Bad voice acting, especially Serenoa. Since he's the main character, this will be excruciating. I really hope the VA is replaced or his lines are re-recorded. Dude is literally reading his lines
- Let me select an enemy or character and "lock-on" to it to see its movement/attack range as I move the cursor around the map. The attack lines when you select a target is a very QoL feature, but I still like knowing an individual's own range.
- Hughette needs a name change (seriously it's horrible), and she needs more range for an archer riding a bird IMO.
- Portraits for dialogue, agreed with the consensus. It's not super necessary but it would be very nice.
- There's an occasional bug when selecting an enemy/unit where the HP damage preview isn't displayed. You can usually de-select and re-select and it comes back, but it's strange, and happened to me fairly often.
- I kind of dislike the pacing of story scenes. Having to pick story scenes on the world map, sitting through loading screens every time, coming back, picking another one, etc. was a bit tedious and slowed things to a crawl.
- The TP system is good, but it really gimps mages early in the battle. I had many opportunities for them to attack right away but couldn't because they didn't have enough TP to cast their offensive spell, and then by the time they did, the opportunity was gone. I know it also affects mage enemies, thankfully, but it still feels a bit unsatisfying. Perhaps having passives (through gear or abilities) where you start the map with +1 TP or something like that would mitigate that, though.
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I watched Direct earlier today with my young one and I had the wrong assumption it was a RPG like Octopath, not a SRPG like Tactics Ogre. I wonder if the weird name had something to do with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 3. Triangle for 3 sides? FFTA3? Anyone? *crickets* Oh well, can't wait to try the demo but the Switch is other hands right now.
Agreed, honestly. Many of his lines need to be recorded, or else the final product's quality is going to automatically be compromised.
I don't know if it was just circumstances -- maybe with COVID, they weren't able to provide proper context or voice direction, or maybe these were just temporary rushed line readings for the demo, either of which could've advantaged experienced actors while disadvantaging inexperienced ones -- but it's a major issue.
All that said, the bad voice acting on his part unintentionally sold me on handing over Roland, haha. When Roland despairs after getting news of Maxwell's "death," and Serenoa lets out an annoyed grunt rather than consoling his friend (which is what the scene & dialogue called for), I couldn't help but bust out laughing.
That, and the monotone "father, father" line. Maybe Serenoa is just intended to be an emotionless, antisocial guy who's straining against the lordly expectations he's been raised under.
I suspect 'three' is a theme throughout. The balancing of the values (Liberty, loyalty and utility?) in your decisions. The three main factions, representing three resources. The three houses of the player faction.
Sometime he's alright but it 100% sounds like they recorded the actor reading the lines of a page having never seen them before.
Haha, there's a way to act this type of character still, though. Take Wolf in Sekiro, he's very stoic and fairly emotionless, but the acting reflects that naturally.
This guy was just reading his lines and it's... painful.
Yeah, it makes more sense. I haven't played it yet but it seems to have more a Tactics Ogre / FFT feeling to it than the more cheerful FFTA ones. And since Project Octopath became Octopath traveler, I guess it will have Triangle in the name somehow. But man, I'm so happy seeing a new SRPG in that tone. The trailer didn't sold me at all but watching the Direct this morning become a day-1. Well, I should try it though; Bravely Default II demo last year pretty much killed my hype (maybe I should try the new demo as well...)
I believe one of them does have a passive starting them with 1 TP. You can also utilize that card action thing though I don't know if it was available right off the bat or if you had to accumulate a point for it?
I'm hoping the scaling of the demo is way off from the actual game, because I can't imagine going through six chapters before you start unlocking as many options as we're given in the demo.
Sorry if this has been asked before but how many battles are in the demo? I just completed the drawbridge one.
3, kinda, though you can only play 2 in a single playthrough (there's a choice made in the second chapter of the demo that changes what battle happens in that chapter)
I replayed the demo to try the other path and was instantly surprised by how different it was. It seems like Triangle Strategy is taking player choice seriously with lots of branching paths, or at least that's the impression I get from this debut demo. I actually caught myself feeling some FOMO based on the choices I was making.
There was a post on the subreddit explaining which options to pick to recruit all 3, but I'd have to dig for it.
He sounds very much like a "hey who do we have around the office that can get in the recording booth" sort of thing that we used to get in a lot of early years of voice acting in games.
Yeah. The voice acting direction is a bit weird. A bit comes off natural but a lot comes off as...reading off the script directly? I can't describe it but it's rather odd.
hoping it can get better, there's plenty of time but who knows if this is the extent of it or it was more for the demo.
hoping it can get better, there's plenty of time but who knows if this is the extent of it or it was more for the demo.
Yeah, the visual style looks great, but actually trying to play with it is awful. The second map in my playthrougth, when you hand over the prince was really difficult to maneuver around. The terrain and different levels were very misleading and everything was in a very similar color tone, and I especially struggled with ranged attacks.
Somebody else mentioned it, but I'd love if the game used portraits during conversations. That's a pretty big ask but it would make conversations a lot easier to follow. I clicked "Profile" far too many times.
The MC is pretty rough at times, along with a few others. I don't know how often VA work is revised, but I hope that the content in the demo isn't final.
The MC is pretty rough at times, along with a few others. I don't know how often VA work is revised, but I hope that the content in the demo isn't final.
I really enjoyed the demo. The battles were great, I like a lot of what they were doing with the story, and I really appreciate that someone at Square-Enix is trying to keep the legacy of Tactics Ogre alive. It even has a character personality/morality system that seems good for once, which is its own miracle. That voting scene was just fantastic.
That said, I really hope they make a few aesthetic and gameplay fixes. The voice acting is a real weird mix of good and kind of flat and awful. The way the camera slowly rocks back and forth during story scenes just looks terrible. And a few other QoL changes might help.
But most of all, mages are kind of bad right now. The TP system just doesn't work for Frederica at all. She can barely keep up with battles due to her slow speed, low movement range, and unexceptional attack range. She needs to kill enemies to get bonus TP, but she needs to spend two TP to even make a decent attack. And every turn she passes in order to build TP is a turn in which she isn't gaining exp. You need to invest other character actions and resources just to make her functional. Meanwhile, Roland is zipping around the battlefield doing cool stuff at no TP cost and Anna is acting twice a turn and raking in tons of exp. Something here clearly needs to be adjusted.
That said, I really hope they make a few aesthetic and gameplay fixes. The voice acting is a real weird mix of good and kind of flat and awful. The way the camera slowly rocks back and forth during story scenes just looks terrible. And a few other QoL changes might help.
But most of all, mages are kind of bad right now. The TP system just doesn't work for Frederica at all. She can barely keep up with battles due to her slow speed, low movement range, and unexceptional attack range. She needs to kill enemies to get bonus TP, but she needs to spend two TP to even make a decent attack. And every turn she passes in order to build TP is a turn in which she isn't gaining exp. You need to invest other character actions and resources just to make her functional. Meanwhile, Roland is zipping around the battlefield doing cool stuff at no TP cost and Anna is acting twice a turn and raking in tons of exp. Something here clearly needs to be adjusted.
To people who played the demo, are the battles slow or fast paced? I ask maybe I found a lot of the Tactics Ogre style SRPGs have REALLY slow combat. Takes 20+ minutes just to clear a map with 6-8 enemies. In Fire Emblem, even if you turn on animation, it's quite possible to take out 6 to 8 enemies within a few minutes.
EXP per action is just an inherently imbalanced and unfun system that needs reworking -- especially when turn order is based on speed. Other tactics games have found solutions to this.
It's slower paced.