Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY™ (working title) Debut Demo (hereto after referred to as Triangle Strategy because I do not have all day) is a tactics game from Square Enix and developed by Artdink that use the same HD-2D technique engine that was used in Square Enix's 2018 Octopath Traveler (originally title project: Octopath Traveler so there is a good chance that Triangle Strategy will be the name that sticks).
The demo itself is interesting, at least for me, in that it starts you off at Chapter VI "Remember Me" which takes place in the middle of the game, presumably after you have already had some character-building time with who I believe to be the main characters of Serenoa, Benedict, Roland, and Frederica. What I kind of do not like about this starting-in-the-middle business is that by this point in the game, it would be assumed that you already know a lot about the combat system, the best way to cast spells both instantaneous and delayed spells, as well as the best way to use Corentin Jenner's ice magic or Anna Pascal's thriving and backstabbing abilities. Being thrown into the middle of the story did not bother me so much, because it happens all the time in video games, movies, books, etc, but I was not feeling totally comfortable with the abilities of the characters is where I came to issue. Which then made me wonder why not just include the opening of the game or the tutorial levels as the demo? I guess there may not be one, but thinking about the tutorial stages for Final Fantasy Tactics and the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series, they all had introductory stages to orient the player. Or maybe it is still being worked on? Whatever the reason, this is the section of the game we were given to demonstrate the overall feel of Triangle Strategy.
During this opening section, what appears to be the "triangle strategy" is introduced, which thankfully did not have anything to do with the weapons triangle that is often used in the Fire Emblem tactics games (where sword beats axe, axe beats lance, and lance beats sword; or red beats green, green beats blue, and blue beats red; you get the idea). The triangle appears to be more of a moral compass imagined as a scale, tipping one way, the other, or not at all. I think it might have just been a coincidence that my decision, being the second of the listed three answer choices gave me a balanced decision, as later in the game I got a balanced decision outcome again when I chose the answer that was the third choice of three. I do wonder how much of an effect this has on either the outcome of the game, the reactions of other characters and NPCs, or if there is just a reaction to your choice then the game and story unfold regardless of your choice. The illusion of choice I guess.
The two battles that I fought in (although it appears that there were more depending on previous choices, as evidenced by the questionnaire that was emailed to me about a week after playing), the mechanics were pretty straightforward tactics battles. On a turn, the game would highlight the area blue where you could move your character, the enemies attack range was highlighted in red, and if those two areas overlapped, being where you could be attacked if you moved into that space, would be highlighted purple. As mentioned above, because this section of the game happens after five previous chapters, I did feel less than prepared starting the first battle as far as unit placement goes, not knowing anyone strengths, weaknesses or how characters could react to the environment and the terrain elevation (with there being ladders in a couple of areas on the map). The mechanics felt pretty familiar, and the bottom of the screen showing turn order as well as being able to move your character back to their starting location after moving them (if you do not like their position for attacking, defending, etc) was nice to have, especially being new to this game, but I do like it as a mechanic rather than the touch-move in Final Fantasy Tactics.
Outside of the scripted scenes and the opening battle, you could scan over the map area, which did feel kind of small if this is the entire playable area in the game, but the map contained colored markers for where events were happening; although I did not really take notice of the green markers until my second time on the map. There are red markers on the map which denote main quest events and green markers which denote side quests which are all optional. Once I realized that green markers did not always remain after playing through the main quest, I made it a point to witness all of the game events, mainly because why not? Most of the optional events added flavor and exposition to the greater world at large as well as the conflict going on in this world, while others seemed to be quite integral to the story. Leading up to the final battle in the game, I managed to acquire another member to the party, a character who essentially sounded like a Geomancer, but once the last battle started, I realized that they were not in my group. So either you can only have a limited number of characters per battle and there is a swapping mechanic that I was unaware of, or you can have more characters than what you start out the demo with, but you have to manually place new characters in your party, again, with a mechanic that I was unaware of. So this last potential party member went unused. Another optional event had a Bannerman of Roland pledge himself and his troops to his aid for the final battle, but once the battle started, it was only the main characters in your party, so I do not know if the show of force from them was theatrics, or if there was no real in-game effect that their troops coming to your aid offered.
By the time I finished the demo, I had sunk a few hours into the game, about 2/5ths (maybe?) dedicated to the two battles, and thoroughly enjoyed the majority of the experience, even if the battles caused about as much stress as they usually do in tactics games. I was probably a bit more cavalier with the lives of some of the characters than I would have been had this been the full game seeing as how nothing could be transferred (which again makes sense since this demo happens in Chapter VI). As mentioned above, I was not 100% on board with the voice acting, but that could change with time or an entire re-recording, but I doubt that will happen.
One last thing that I want from Triangle Strategy is the ability to recruit random characters that have no in-story ties to anyone else. Randomly generated characters like what made up 90% of your party in the Final Fantasy Tactics (and FFT Advance games) and Darkest Dungeon. I just like mentally creating personalities for these characters outside of the main characters that populate your group in games like Fire Emblem. Like in Darkest Dungeon, I recruited two Templars at the same time and decided that they were twins and that they would only go on missions with each other. If one had to be rehabilitated in the church or bar, the other would stay behind to make sure they were alright. I guess I just like role-playing characters who do not have built in characteristics, but maybe that is just me. There is probably more of a wishlist to come, but that may just have to wait until the final demo that will probably be released a month or so before the final release.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
One Goes to the Morgue, and the Other to Jail
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