The battles in the demo are rather elaborate, and took me a while. Most of the time taken was spent considering actions and figuring out the best strategy. I can't say it is much different from Fire Emblem for me though.
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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
I don't understand how after all these years we still can't get an SRPG with battle effects that sound as meaty/weighty as Final Fantasy Tactics. I played the demo a 2nd time and enjoyed it a bit more, but the effects are pitiful.
What I mean is in Fire Emblem, I could take just as long or longer to clear a map, but the pace of the battles in Fire Emblem means I can take out many enemies in a short span of time (and it doesn't mean you'll clear the map). In the Tactics style games, I can spend a long time just to take out a handful of enemies. That style isn't for me.
Sounds like this game isn't for me either when I do get a Switch.
I think it's a case where FFT probably created those sfx through more old school synth techniques (like stuff they did on 8 and 16 bit), while modern games go for realistic recordings and sounds. FFT definitely has a synthy punch to it's sounds that we lost with realism.
It is slow, on the slower end of SRPGs. The second battle probably took me nearly an hour, but part of that was also trying to grasp all the mechanics, abilities, and UI.
Could you post a link of the reddit please? I can't seem to find anything by searching besides a reddit with just two threads.
How long does it take to get through the demo? Excited for this after Octopath and being letdown by Fire Emblem.
I only ask because I would go grab my switch that I am lending to a friend atm if its meaty.
Also do weapons change the look of the player? Or is it the same model?
I only ask because I would go grab my switch that I am lending to a friend atm if its meaty.
Also do weapons change the look of the player? Or is it the same model?
That's my number 1 complaint! It makes it so hard to figure out who's talking and remember who's who
Played through the end of the demo and thought it was great on the whole. Really enjoyed both battles, I liked the maps and the mechanics and the abilities of your characters. The voting thing was cool and I was kind of getting into the story, I do want to know more about this world and what's going to happen next.
I agree with some of the commonly expressed sentiments that in general the game feels a bit slow, and some of the voice acting isn't great, particularly the main character. I checked out the Japanese voice acting and I like it more, so hopefully that option is there in the final game, Octopath Traveler had it anyway. Although I did notice that the person who voices Fredericka is the same person who voices Ryne in FF14 and that made me happy, so that is one point in favor of English at least.
I will say my complaints are minor, and overall I find it a unique and compelling game. I really can't wait to see more of it!
I agree with some of the commonly expressed sentiments that in general the game feels a bit slow, and some of the voice acting isn't great, particularly the main character. I checked out the Japanese voice acting and I like it more, so hopefully that option is there in the final game, Octopath Traveler had it anyway. Although I did notice that the person who voices Fredericka is the same person who voices Ryne in FF14 and that made me happy, so that is one point in favor of English at least.
I will say my complaints are minor, and overall I find it a unique and compelling game. I really can't wait to see more of it!
I've never been a fan of EXP per action for this same reason, it boosts fast classes and also incentivises units handing out useless buffs/heals that units don't need on their turn just to keep up and have made an action. Fire Emblem is much the same, where melee cavalry units with high movement and both a ranged/melee attack can shoot ahead in comparison while support units are slow and trying to dodge being in attack range while also finding someone to support/attack.
Just finished the demo. Like it a lot but I do think there's some clear spots to improve, the VA being the roughest patch right now.
I'm not a fan of EXP per action, I was often using Bulwark for the hell of it just because it was paying off even if I didn't need it. Anna's double action makes her level super fast considering if nothing else she can just move and go stealth.
The mages felt pretty clunky overall, but I'm not sure if that'd change with different equipment in the full game. The shaman seems cool but by the time you cast rain, and then can cast thunder a LOT of turns have passed and she's not exactly quick to begin with, plus still needs to move to target tiles for thunder without being in a mass target zone. I found their abilities to be the most interesting but they take a long time to really come online.
I'm not a fan of EXP per action, I was often using Bulwark for the hell of it just because it was paying off even if I didn't need it. Anna's double action makes her level super fast considering if nothing else she can just move and go stealth.
The mages felt pretty clunky overall, but I'm not sure if that'd change with different equipment in the full game. The shaman seems cool but by the time you cast rain, and then can cast thunder a LOT of turns have passed and she's not exactly quick to begin with, plus still needs to move to target tiles for thunder without being in a mass target zone. I found their abilities to be the most interesting but they take a long time to really come online.
Think I did everything in this demo and had fun with it.
Things that concerns me are:
- long loading times and battles speed with relations to battery life
- no option to have fast-forward constantly on, or control speed
- overall I felt the controls were a bit iffy, like cancelling actions, camera control etc
- magic that could affect mutiple tiles, but not one's units...why did it affect my wall of ice ( ; _ ; )
- exploiting items and special skill (R3)
- no permanent unit deaths (maybe it is just this demo)
What I liked were:
- investigation work on the maps before battles, (imagine if you could set up traps aso...)
- skippable story parts
- not being able to save during battles
I wasn't bothered with the voice acting, I skipped them anyway. It is faster reading, than listen to someone reading from a script, plus it is funnier to image how the character sound in my head. I had more fun with this demo than BDII...
Hopefully we get another demo in the future.
Things that concerns me are:
- long loading times and battles speed with relations to battery life
- no option to have fast-forward constantly on, or control speed
- overall I felt the controls were a bit iffy, like cancelling actions, camera control etc
- magic that could affect mutiple tiles, but not one's units...why did it affect my wall of ice ( ; _ ; )
- exploiting items and special skill (R3)
- no permanent unit deaths (maybe it is just this demo)
What I liked were:
- investigation work on the maps before battles, (imagine if you could set up traps aso...)
- skippable story parts
- not being able to save during battles
I wasn't bothered with the voice acting, I skipped them anyway. It is faster reading, than listen to someone reading from a script, plus it is funnier to image how the character sound in my head. I had more fun with this demo than BDII...
Hopefully we get another demo in the future.
I hear you, what is said in the VA vs what's read in the spanish (and I presume other languages) differs quite a bit, even though in the end the meaning is the same.
Finally got through the 2nd battle, man I am SLOW at this genre, it took me +2h! I didn't use the "secret weapon" though, that might have sped up things. I made a save just before the decision, so I'll definitely check the alternative scenario.
One suggestion I'd like to make is a fixed rotating camera option (+90º angles, fixed height options). The free one used makes it look cool, but isn't the most practical for gameplay.
BTW, they better change the font used for text, it's not well designed and has quite a few readability problems. And look at that uppercase R 🤢
All that said, I'm really looking forward to the final game, if they can polish the not so great aspects and make it a bit snappier, they have a winner in their hands.
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Found the reddit post with someone recruiting all three optional characters in one playthrough of the demo:
www.reddit.com
Spoilers obviously~
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
Spoilers obviously~
BTW, they better change the font used for text, it's not well designed and has quite a few readability problems. And look at that uppercase R 🤢
All that said, I'm really looking forward to the final game, if they can polish the not so great aspects and make it a bit snappier, they have a winner in their hands.
It's perfectly fine, what's wrong with this font?
How much content is there in this demo and can you skip story stuff? I'd like to get a feel for the battle system without consuming a lot of the story that I'll only have to repeat when the game finally comes out.
Seeing a lot of complaints a out the VA too - is language locked to your system location?
Seeing a lot of complaints a out the VA too - is language locked to your system location?
Agreed. Not to derail but I hold a similar opinion with the original SSB's bowling pin punch/kick sound effects. People hit HARD in that game. Not so much in Melee and beyond.
It is tied to your system langauge settings.
the demo has both audiotracks, but doesn't have an option to select it in-game
I am not a strategy game person, but I want to be. I love the idea of these games, and have played many. Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, X-COM 2--I'm just really bad at them.
I beat the first battle on this demo without losing anybody. Meaningless as it is, this excites me.
I beat the first battle on this demo without losing anybody. Meaningless as it is, this excites me.
Am I the only one who gave away the prince on their first playthrough? Like, if I didn't they would bring the war to me, and as ruler my people come first.
This was something i've been thinking about since i played the demo.
They definitely need to add fixed camera rotation, because the free camera is not as practical, and it was particularly slow in the demo.
If you do both route splits and don't skip the story stuff you can probably get 4-5 hours out of the demo. Take off 1-3 hours if you skip every cutscene or skip letting all the voice acting play out. Of note you'll have to experience a bit of the story as the demo contains a route split to introduce the scales of conviction mechanic.
Let me put on my typography nerd hat for a sec 🎩
I threw up a quick comparison, with ITC Barcelona serif font from Monotype (who appear in the "special thanks" section of the credits):
There's two main problems with Luminage:
- General character width: d, g, n, e, u... are way to wide. t, f and i, really narrow. (the w is atrocious).
- Too much contrast between the strokes (thin vs thick parts of each character).
I hope there's a timeline option similar to Tactic's Ogre PSP version, so you can easily revisit scenarios.
Like many, I enjoyed this demo immensely, with many of the same complaints. Inconsistent voice acting, uneven pacing, long load times; even a bug where some lines were not voiced, even within the same character's scene.
I had just begun another playthrough of FE3H this week (Golden Deer) so playing 4 hours of this right in the middle was an interesting change of pace. I was literally surprised when a character that had fallen in battle was back for the cutscenes afterward.
I am very happy another epic RPG is being made in this style. I enjoyed Octopath, and I enjoy SRPGs, and I am intrigued by some of the concepts hinted at in the demo. While I was able to sway everyone to my vote, I know there are things I missed in then investigation phase in the village because I didn't realize you could rotate the camera. I hope this part of the game will be meaty as well.
I will miss the huge, detailed enemy and (especially) boss sprites from Octopath. I wonder if we will see anything comparable. But they won't fit on the grid.
And the name needs help, and I am offering: TRIANGLE TACTICS! Problem solved.
I had just begun another playthrough of FE3H this week (Golden Deer) so playing 4 hours of this right in the middle was an interesting change of pace. I was literally surprised when a character that had fallen in battle was back for the cutscenes afterward.
I am very happy another epic RPG is being made in this style. I enjoyed Octopath, and I enjoy SRPGs, and I am intrigued by some of the concepts hinted at in the demo. While I was able to sway everyone to my vote, I know there are things I missed in then investigation phase in the village because I didn't realize you could rotate the camera. I hope this part of the game will be meaty as well.
I will miss the huge, detailed enemy and (especially) boss sprites from Octopath. I wonder if we will see anything comparable. But they won't fit on the grid.
And the name needs help, and I am offering: TRIANGLE TACTICS! Problem solved.
Wow, why is the English textbox so largeLet me put on my typography nerd hat for a sec 🎩
I threw up a quick comparison, with ITC Barcelona serif font from Monotype (who appear in the "special thanks" section of the credits):
There's two main problems with Luminage:
I must say that for titles it's not so bad and choosing a font with a high x-height is good in this case, as you want to stay as close as possible to japanese characters, which lack ascenders and descenders (d,b,p,t,y...). That's why they are bigger using the same space. Just check "Serenoa" (a different font) in latin and japanese characters, it's around 60% smaller!
- General character width: d, g, n, e, u... are way to wide. t, f and i, really narrow. (the w is atrocious).
- Too much contrast between the strokes (thin vs thick parts of each character).
I hope there's a timeline option similar to Tactic's Ogre PSP version, so you can easily revisit scenarios.
Let me put on my typography nerd hat for a sec 🎩
I threw up a quick comparison, with ITC Barcelona serif font from Monotype (who appear in the "special thanks" section of the credits):
There's two main problems with Luminage:
I must say that for titles it's not so bad and choosing a font with a high x-height is good in this case, as you want to stay as close as possible to japanese characters, which lack ascenders and descenders (d,b,p,t,y...). That's why they are bigger using the same space. Just check "Serenoa" (a different font) in latin and japanese characters, it's around 60% smaller!
- General character width: d, g, n, e, u... are way to wide. t, f and i, really narrow. (the w is atrocious).
- Too much contrast between the strokes (thin vs thick parts of each character).
I hope there's a timeline option similar to Tactic's Ogre PSP version, so you can easily revisit scenarios.
Had no issue whatsoever to read them lines. Maybe that's just me.
Make sure to submit your complains to the devs as they are really open to criticisms and feedbacks.
Is it just me, or is there no option to Act first, then Move, like in most other games of this type...?
Once you are familiar with the game, you've built up your characters and know your favorite strategies, and know where the commands are, things speed up considerably. It also feels faster paced, as well. I'm playing through Tactics Ogre on my Vita right now, and a battle with 6-8 enemies is down to a 10-15 minute affair atm.
Usually there are also options to skip animations, speed up movement, etc. although I think Fire Emblem has many of those options too.
Once you are familiar with the game, you've built up your characters and know your favorite strategies, and know where the commands are, things speed up considerably. It also feels faster paced, as well. I'm playing through Tactics Ogre on my Vita right now, and a battle with 6-8 enemies is down to a 10-15 minute affair atm.
Usually there are also options to skip animations, speed up movement, etc. although I think Fire Emblem has many of those options too.
You can do that. Just select the tile you're already on, act, and you'll be able to move after.
Yeah once you have worked watch each of your people do best and how you use them, your strategies are much more concrete and smooth, even when the battles are hard.
Part of the difficulty of this demo is you are dropped right in it, which is great to see what is possible, but also awful cause you haven't built up that slow experience of how you use a character and all their abilities.
Let me put on my typography nerd hat for a sec 🎩
I threw up a quick comparison, with ITC Barcelona serif font from Monotype (who appear in the "special thanks" section of the credits):
There's two main problems with Luminage:
I must say that for titles it's not so bad and choosing a font with a high x-height is good in this case, as you want to stay as close as possible to japanese characters, which lack ascenders and descenders (d,b,p,t,y...). That's why they are bigger using the same space. Just check "Serenoa" (a different font) in latin and japanese characters, it's around 60% smaller!
- General character width: d, g, n, e, u... are way to wide. t, f and i, really narrow. (the w is atrocious).
- Too much contrast between the strokes (thin vs thick parts of each character).
I hope there's a timeline option similar to Tactic's Ogre PSP version, so you can easily revisit scenarios.
Love this post. Games need more font analysis (and better fonts)
I didn't had the time to finish the first battle this morning, I suspend it and my daughter went playing Splatoon. Will the suspend game will still be available later on? I would guess so but if you had tried it, please let me know.
I really liked what I saw so far, but there's a lot of jankiness with the controls and it doesn't seems that characters will have a lot of actions (neither classes). So I would think it will be a story driven SRPG without a lot of customization, aka it won't be a new Tactics Ogre unfortunately.
I really liked what I saw so far, but there's a lot of jankiness with the controls and it doesn't seems that characters will have a lot of actions (neither classes). So I would think it will be a story driven SRPG without a lot of customization, aka it won't be a new Tactics Ogre unfortunately.
You unlock several actions while leveling up in the demo.
How did you suspend the game ?
While in battle, I hit "Start?" button and I had the choice to suspend battle, as it was an option for FFT/TO. I would expect that the next time I'll play, it will offer me to resume the battle.
We have no idea what form the progression or customization will take in the final release. Octopath Traveler didn't reveal its job system in its demos, either, so it's entirely possible there'll be one here.
Even if there isn't full job customization, there could be secondary jobs (AKA Octopath's system), or branching job tier progression, etc.
You are right, I don't even remember Project Octopath demo.
Finally finished the 2nd Battle. It was long as people have said, I think the characters have too much HP, or do too little damage, maybe a bit of both. Archer Bird girl definitely has no range. I'm way too used to Tactics Ogres archer mechanics of height giving your more range beyond your expected, hope they add that in. The battles are a bit messy and you can really fuck up the camera too much on your own, some of the colors bleed into eachother and hard to tell what is what.
The voice acting is atrocious. But otherwise I am loving the game a lot. Really love the presentation, I think the story and the writing is very interesting. I love how you can poke around other parts of the map for different scenes and reactions to what is going on. Really excited for this game and they have something really special here.
especially in the squares where you are going to set the village on fire in some parts was hard to tell what would light on fire for me
The voice acting is atrocious. But otherwise I am loving the game a lot. Really love the presentation, I think the story and the writing is very interesting. I love how you can poke around other parts of the map for different scenes and reactions to what is going on. Really excited for this game and they have something really special here.
The characters do have classes (for example the main character has the Soldier class), though the jury's out on whether or not they'll be customizable in the full game
I'm really curious what the deal with classes are. Right now they appear to just be flavor text, I'm not expecting characters to be able to change classes and every character seems unique so far. However I'm thinking maybe there will be clone characters that share the same class, that would make balancing multiple routes easier.
I also wonder if optional characters get to participate in voting. Based on Medina's dialogue, I'm guessing they do? Still it just makes me wonder how many characters there are and how ambitious this game is, if they have to write a small dialogue tree for every character for every vote.
I also wonder if optional characters get to participate in voting. Based on Medina's dialogue, I'm guessing they do? Still it just makes me wonder how many characters there are and how ambitious this game is, if they have to write a small dialogue tree for every character for every vote.
I can answer my own question; if you just select the space you're standing on, then choose an action, you get the chance to move again afterward.
Didn't see this earlier. Thank you!
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This is a good thing. Fuuuuuck permadeath.
There's numerous ways to punish the player for losing units, perma death is the least fun one. Those battles are SUPER long too, imagine having to reset (which, let's be real, almost everyone does when losing a unit in games with permadeath) at the very end. Fuck that.
If you lose a unit early on, you're already punished by them missing out on XP. But here's how other games did it that I think are OK:
- Shining Force: paying a fee to "revive" or treat their wounds after the battle. Since Shining Force 2, you also have a death counter of shame lol, funnily enough it was a big incentive for me to try and keep everyone at 0 for as long as possible (I'd usually give up around the Geshp battle... xD)
- Fallen units have 3 full turns before being lost forever (FFTactics). This gives you some time to revive them with an item or a spell. Not my favourite mechanic as there's still potential permadeath/incentive to reset, but it's better than a permanent loss because of an unlucky crit or whatnot.
- "Injury" system (Fell Seal). Units that fall in battle are marked as Injured x1. You can still deploy them next battle but their max HP is lowered. If they fall again, they are Injured x2, losing even more max HP. Benching on one battle allows them to fully recover for the next battle (if they are injured x2 I believe they need to sit out on 2 battles and so on). I really liked this system but it admittedly works better in games with smaller parties where there's a regular rotation of members in and out. In some games it might just mean some characters who fall once, will fall massively behind in XP. But that's still better than permadeath.
Shining Force is the most lenient in terms of punishability. The money loss was rarely an issue unless you lost many units and often. But frankly, it's fine. The loss of XP is enough to disincentivize losing units to begin with.
Any other examples of different mechanics? I don't recall how Jeanne d'Arc or Vandal Hearts did it... maybe I should make a new thread about this 🤔
Yeah you can. Did it all the time.
Edit: oops, missed your follow-up post, ignore me!
I haven't gone through the thread so apologies if this has already discussed to death.
has anyone figured out what triggers certain characters becoming recruitable?
My SO and I both went the same route (refuse to give up the prince) but probably made different narrative choices. I got all 3–with Julio first and the other two right before the map. He got two—the sage first, and then the medic right before the map. another friend who also made that choice said he got the medic immediately.
is it just random when people show up and who is recruitable?
has anyone figured out what triggers certain characters becoming recruitable?
My SO and I both went the same route (refuse to give up the prince) but probably made different narrative choices. I got all 3–with Julio first and the other two right before the map. He got two—the sage first, and then the medic right before the map. another friend who also made that choice said he got the medic immediately.
is it just random when people show up and who is recruitable?
The dialogue choices when talking to people (not necessarily during the voting sessions) represent one of utility, liberty, or morality. I suspect there's some kind of hidden points system where accruing certain amounts of utility, liberty, or morality points allow you to recruit different characters, but I don't think we know exactly how it works yet.
Finally got around to going back and completing the demo. It's alright, I guess. I can see where there is potential there, and I'll likely get and play it, but I'm not sure I'll love it.
-Story is a bit dry -- what I loved best about Octopath was how charming each individual story was; even if they lacked cohesion they were still great on their own and endeared you to each character. This one, in contrast, is pretty much purely political--at least based on the demo. I hope it's just cuz this is a slice mid-game during a high tension point and that the full game will have those same really charming character/story elements sprinkled in.
-Combat is pretty damn slow and navigating it is clunky as heck at times. For example, it's annoying that I have to move the cursor on top of a character before I can cycle through them and view their turn order, I wanna be able to just hit L/R and automatically start cycling through it if I'm not sitting on a character already.
-I really dislike the map and how the whole side story stuff is handled. I either wish I could zoom out on the map further or that it'd have some list option I could use to quickly toggle between the areas of interest, cuz taking the time to wander across the whole map screen after each main story update to make sure I'm not missing anything is a pain, then you have the loading screens in and out of these super short lil scenes... Maybe it'd be better to have a, like, auto-play function for all those side story scenes or something?? Idk, just the way it's laid out currently is kinda obnoxious and overly time consuming for such short snippets.
-I mentioned it already in my initial impressions post, but Seranoa's voice is srsly just atrocious. Everyone else is at least serviceable even if some are still pretty meh. His, though.. phew. It's just so flat and the inflections feel all wrong, and it's mind boggling cuz he's supposed to be the main character?? I'd expect this on some inconsequential NPCs, but you at least want the star of your show to nail it. I really, really hope the final game includes JP voice options.
-I'm fine with characters not having portraits, but I would like some kind of in-game gallery feature. I wanna know what the characters not in my party look like, and I'd like to be able to refresh myself on the appearances of those we do see (like Gustadolph and Avlora, etc).
-Really like the diversity in characters and how well treated the female cast look so far, but I can't help but feel as though the design work overall is lacking a little bit of oomph... like they just need a little something more, to make the characters feel more iconic, you know?
-For a positive note, though: I do find the branching storyline concept super interesting in theory. Real curious to see how that'll play out in the context of the full game.
I hope there's some real magic there in the final game, cuz idk... I'm bummed I feel kinda lackluster about it, esp given how pumped I was when I first saw the announcement. Rather than making me hype for this game, its demo just made me want OT2 real bad instead. 💦
-Story is a bit dry -- what I loved best about Octopath was how charming each individual story was; even if they lacked cohesion they were still great on their own and endeared you to each character. This one, in contrast, is pretty much purely political--at least based on the demo. I hope it's just cuz this is a slice mid-game during a high tension point and that the full game will have those same really charming character/story elements sprinkled in.
-Combat is pretty damn slow and navigating it is clunky as heck at times. For example, it's annoying that I have to move the cursor on top of a character before I can cycle through them and view their turn order, I wanna be able to just hit L/R and automatically start cycling through it if I'm not sitting on a character already.
-I really dislike the map and how the whole side story stuff is handled. I either wish I could zoom out on the map further or that it'd have some list option I could use to quickly toggle between the areas of interest, cuz taking the time to wander across the whole map screen after each main story update to make sure I'm not missing anything is a pain, then you have the loading screens in and out of these super short lil scenes... Maybe it'd be better to have a, like, auto-play function for all those side story scenes or something?? Idk, just the way it's laid out currently is kinda obnoxious and overly time consuming for such short snippets.
-I mentioned it already in my initial impressions post, but Seranoa's voice is srsly just atrocious. Everyone else is at least serviceable even if some are still pretty meh. His, though.. phew. It's just so flat and the inflections feel all wrong, and it's mind boggling cuz he's supposed to be the main character?? I'd expect this on some inconsequential NPCs, but you at least want the star of your show to nail it. I really, really hope the final game includes JP voice options.
-I'm fine with characters not having portraits, but I would like some kind of in-game gallery feature. I wanna know what the characters not in my party look like, and I'd like to be able to refresh myself on the appearances of those we do see (like Gustadolph and Avlora, etc).
-Really like the diversity in characters and how well treated the female cast look so far, but I can't help but feel as though the design work overall is lacking a little bit of oomph... like they just need a little something more, to make the characters feel more iconic, you know?
-For a positive note, though: I do find the branching storyline concept super interesting in theory. Real curious to see how that'll play out in the context of the full game.
I hope there's some real magic there in the final game, cuz idk... I'm bummed I feel kinda lackluster about it, esp given how pumped I was when I first saw the announcement. Rather than making me hype for this game, its demo just made me want OT2 real bad instead. 💦