Review: Triangle Strategy

It's been nine years since I last wrote a straight-forward review. The subject of that last write-up was Persona 4 Golden, a game deserving of a thousand write-ups.

Triangle Strategy isn't P4G, but it has inspired me to write a review.

This is that review.

Triangle Strategy is an SRPG cut from the same cloth as personal-favourites Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics. We follow Seranoa Wolffort, the son of a lord and the loyal vassal of the king of Glenbrook. Glenbrook is one of three domains that coexist in a state of hard-won but paper-thin peace. An opportunity to strengthen the bonds between their kingdom (muscle), Aesfrost (iron and industry), and Hyzante (salt and religion) goes awry and the land is soon consumed by war.

Young Searanoa has to grow up fast, as difficult decisions must be made about where to go and who to ally with. The choices you make are interesting ones, and the outcomes are rarely obvious. Most interestingly, there are few clear distinctions between good or bad - this is a world of greys. One mid-game option has you retaking a key city that was previously lost, seemingly a righteous course of action for our returning heroes. But the people you claim to be fighting for resent the destruction you bring to their streets, and they view you as no better than the newly-expelled invaders. 

At certain junctures you are given the opportunity to ally yourself with enemies, enemies who have done unspeakable things to your people. These options are uneasy ones, especially given that they are often the most logical. At other points you must decide in which direction to travel, who to protect and who to forsake, and those decisions have a considerable effect on the next stage of your journey.

I was drawn in by the weight of these decisions, but was put off by the way that I was forced to make them. House Wolffort has a comically formal method of dealing with quandaries. They wheel out the Scales of Conviction, an oversized scale that is lit up like a Christmas tree, upon which each party members must place their token and cast their vote. It's a very silly mechanic, and one that serves little purpose. However, it did gift me a catchphrase to use on my bewildered family.

Toast or cereal for breakfast? Daughter, fetch the Scales of Conviction!

What comes before the voting is slightly more interesting. Invariably, there will be two options that will split your allies. There will also be party members who will be undecided. Depending on your and their convictions, and the strength of your relationships, you may be able to sway them one way or the other. Hidden stats dictate whether you will have the opportunity to win them over, stats which are being tracked from start to finish but aren't revealed until the end of the game. If these hidden and unexplained numbers aren't high enough, you are barred from taking certain paths as your comrades simply won't listen to you. This invisible barrier forced me into an early-game decision that I wanted to avoid, and I subsequently discovered that it locked me out of the best of the four possible endings. Also, I didn't know enough about each character's personality to accurately deduce which dialogue options would be most effective on them. For the most part, it was guesswork.

I was fully invested in choosing what I felt to be the best of the branching paths, and was sold on the gravity of the decisions placed before me. But I wish I could have affected them more freely, or at least more transparently.

Allow me to pause here for a moment and make something clear, something which I may have failed to convey thus far: I really liked Triangle Strategy. It is a fascinating, imperfect game, and one which I was happy to stick with for its 50-hour runtime. Back to the review.

Seranoa isn't the most convincing of leads, but he's fine. The supporting cast are a mixed bag. I found Benedict to be the most compelling, a learned and trusted advisor to Seranoa, who is the driving force behind most of the biggest decisions, and who refuses to stand idly by as others stake their claim to the kingdom. He is ruthless, a real prick, and could've easily been recast as a villain, had he belonged to one of the other two domains. But he's our prick, and his presence is a boon. Seranoa grows uneasy with Benedict's tactics, but his willingness to still follow them to the letter tells us much about Seranoa and what he truly values.

The roster is bolstered by constant additions, but they mostly remain on the periphery. These minor characters are generally useful, and they provide skills that the core players are lacking. I found one or two recruits who I really liked, and worked them into my team, while essentially ignoring the others and letting them drop out of my rotation. You are given freedom to do this, and aren't penalized if you change your mind and attempt to raise up a once-ignored soldier. The generous levelling system will quickly bring such characters up to spec.

I shouldn't have gone this far without mentioning the core gameplay, which is outstanding. Battles are waged on isometric playing fields, and while I wouldn't call Triangle Strategy difficult, these battles are significantly more rewarding if you put real thought into who to bring to each skirmish, where you place them, and how you utilize them. Different classes bring different strengths and weaknesses, and a mix that works in one battle won't necessarily be as effective in the next. Using elevation and attacking from the rear are tactics that soon become second nature, as does flanking enemies and sandwiching them between two of your combatants. When one attacks, the other will follow suit, giving you a double-attack windfall. Your enemies will aggressively exploit this tactic as well, so you'll ever be wary of leaving yourself exposed.

The levelling systems offer just the right amount of depth. Characters level up automatically, but you have to choose which classes to promote, using limited resources, as well as which abilities and weapons should be improved, at a cost. Armor is limited to accessories, a relief given the number of characters you might acquire over the course of the game. After each battle, I'd return to the encampment - essentially a glorified menu where you tinker with your team - and satisfy myself with ten to fifteen minutes of roster management.

The one flaw of the core gameplay is its scarcity. At its worst, TS feels like a visual novel. Huge exposition dumps take up hours of your time, pulling you away from the infinitely more interesting battles. Fortunately these scenes are cut up into short segments, so you are free to retire to the encampment between story beats. TS goes to great lengths to tell you everything, leaving little scope for the player to read between the lines. I went several evenings without so much as sniffing a main-story battle on more than one occasion.

The encampment hosts mock battles. While they are fun, and invaluable as an opportunity to learn and experiment, they are stake-less affairs. They have no place in the plot, and are mostly there for you to level up your team so that you can meet the suggested level requirements for the story battles. These mock throw-downs gradually unlock over the course of the game and are tied to your level. I completed each of them once, and I consistently found myself 1-2 levels below the recommended number for each mainline battle. While they carried no narrative weight, they were key to my enjoyment, and TS would not have worked the same without them.

Triangle Strategy delighted and disappointed. Whether it was wowing me with its best Final Fantasy Tactics impression, or frustrating me with its heavy-handed approach to storytelling, it always made an impression. A flawed but fascinating game, and one that is worthy of your time.