Triangle Strategy was one of the games on my New Year’s Resolutions list for 2025. I may have mentioned a few times throughout the year that I was playing it. And I was, but not very fast. A chapter here, a chapter there. I forgot about it for a while, then started all over again. Played a few chapters again, but I just couldn’t make myself continue.
As the title says, Triangle Strategy is a very fine game. The soundtrack is nice, I like the 2D-3D thing Squeenix is doing lately, the characters are interesting and varied, the localization is very well done. Maybe a little… overcooked, even? It’s not a problem if you play the game entirely in English, but if you play with English text with Japanese audio, it can be jarring sometimes. The Japanese voice will say one or two words, like かしこまりました。(understood) while the English will be something like “Yea, may it be done according to thy will, O honorable one, for lo the postilion hath been struck by lightning.” Not necessarily wrong, but sometimes a slog to read through. I went out looking for examples just now and found too many to count. A little lengthening here and there is one thing, but the whole game felt bloated once you put all those long lines together. Still, not a problem since I could have just played the Japanese version if I’d really wanted to.
“Yo, I caught you stealing. Uncool.”
The problem was the story and the gameplay. I’ve played a lot of tactical/strategy RPGs, too many in fact, and so I’ve seen it all before. Way too many times.We follow Serenoa, the loyal retainer of the kingdom of… it doesn’t matter what kingdom it is. It always plays out the same: evil empire or faction invades, we spend time on the run, we fight back, we win. There may be twists and turns along the way, but that’s the general direction of like 80% of SRPGs. The wordiness of Triangle Strategy makes it even less appealing to play through, because in just five or so chapters, I’ve had to endure several scenes where the dialogue is just variations of “Why? Why are you doing this? Why would Aefrost do this?” It doesn’t matter why, just fight them already! Urgh, they sound so whiny. Especially since I know and you know that the writers won’t answer that question for another 20 chapters at least.
The gameplay also doesn’t do anything different or exciting. 3D isometric RPGs have always been sluggish to play, particularly the ones where you have to pick a direction to face after attacking. Even after setting the game to Story Mode to make battles easier, the enemies still had too much HP and intelligence. IMO Story Mode should have meant every enemy hanging out within easy reach and going down in one hit, maybe two for the bosses. As it was, I still had to do all the maneuvering and attacking and repositioning, just without any risk or excitement. Just to get to a story that I’m not very excited about. Yeah, I quit.
“Heh. Bite me.”
This isn’t to put down Triangle Strategy for being what it is, mind you. It’s a well-done, very typical example of a political intrigue SRPG, and unlike with Harvestella, I don’t feel like I was tricked into paying for a genre I didn’t want. I thought I wanted an SRPG, I thought I could play one again since it’s been years since I last tried one. It turns out my tastes have changed too much since then. I don’t mind turn-based gaming but the turns must be snappy and the pay-off, i.e. getting to see more of game’s world and story, must be worth it.
If you like tactics/strategy RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, etc. then Triangle Strategy is more of the same and you’ll have a good time with it. For me, I overdosed on the genre and it’s going to take a much longer break and a much more special game to bring me back.
Currently playing: Atelier Marie Remake (eh), Potion Permit (eh, eh).
