Entertainment

Triangle Strategy review – a long story

March 7, 2022

Triangle Strategy – an uneven balance (pic: Square Enix)

Square Enix’s follow-up to Octopath Traveler is a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics that tries to mix the best of new and old.

One of the intrinsic problems with video game storytelling is that the average narrative-based game lasts at least 15 hours, and often much longer, which is the equivalent of over half a dozen movies or multiple seasons of a TV show. Triangle Strategy takes around 50 hours to play through, which is more than the time it takes to read War and Peace. And while most video games at least have the excuse that the majority of their running time is pure action, that is not the case for Triangle Strategy.

That’s not a dig at this being a turn-based strategy; far from it, as those are easily the best bits. The problem is that they stand as oases of gameplay in a sea of never-ending exposition and attempts at political intrigue. No doubt some will find the ponderous plot engaging, but what has been implied to be a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics comes across more like a visual novel than an actual strategy game.

So if you’ve played the demo and were looking for more of the same you need to be prepared to sit through a lot of very dry dialogue in order to get there.

PIC 1

As you can guess from both the HD-2D graphics and the peculiar name, Triangle Strategy is by the same team behind Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default. Octopath Traveler had a similar problem with its inability to ever shut up, but it benefited from considerably more engaging characters and more frequent action sequences. The problem with Triangle Strategy, right from the very start, is that it just won’t stop talking and it becomes increasingly hard to understand why.

Square Enix’s HD-2D graphics engine is marvellous, and we very much look forward to the upcoming remake of Live A Live, but its one problem is that it does tend to make everything look very dark. Maybe that’s just the team’s style but the mixture of deathless dialogue, ultra serious plot, morose looking backdrops, and cute little 16-bit characters requires a very particular appreciation of video game history and tropes to take seriously.

It’s hard to know for certain what Triangle Strategy’s story influences are but from a Western perspective the immediate point of comparison for a medieval fantasy world locked in a cold war of Machiavellian politics is Game of Thrones. The root of the disagreement between the game’s three warring kingdoms is resources, with one controlling salt, one iron, and the other trade. This led to the Saltiron Wars 30 years previously, but the game starts with a new generation of nobility trying to put the past behind them with a royal wedding.

This quickly (well, as quickly as anything happens in Triangle Strategy) goes to pot though, when the king is deposed and the groom-to-be is forced to go on the run. The plot machinations include a neighbouring kingdom invading under false pretences and with the intention of installing a puppet government, following a false flag operation, so despite all the fantasy stylings there is an unexpected topicality to the plot. Even one of the flags – the one on the box art – is curiously reminiscent of Ukraine.

There’s obviously no way Square Enix could’ve known that ahead of time (which in itself shows how depressingly predictable the business of war is) but it quickly becomes a meaningless coincidence as the game starts to bury you under several appendices full of invented history, confusing names, and baroque dialogue. The script is well written but the pace of the spoken dialogue, and the storytelling in general, means it takes forever for conversations to come to any kind of conclusion.

You quickly begin to realise that the HD-2D style is the complete opposite of what was needed for such a densely plotted game. If you were watching realistic-looking characters with nuanced facial animation it would’ve all been a lot more engaging but as it is you’re just watching tiny little sprites, with purposefully stilted animation, go on and on about nothing that ever seem as important to you as it must’ve to the developers.

There is a certain level of interactivity to the dialogue though, via the much vaunted Conviction system which… the game never proper explains. Japanese games always seem to prefer a more opaque approach to moral choices and here you’re frequently told to make a decision between doing the humane thing, and the more militarily expedient, but it’s usually never made clear what difference that makes to the story, or indeed the characters.

This coyness is a particular shame because when you have to make a big decision – equivalent to the one big moral choice in a Life Is Strange episode – it’s made much clearer what impact it will have, one which often comes at the expense of the local peasantry. In these situations you have to listen (at great length) to advice from the other characters and try to talk them round if they’re not leaning you’re way, often by using arguments and evidence collected elsewhere.

This is usually quite compelling but outside of the battles it’s the only element of the game that is and considering how much of your time is spent just listening, or making minor decisions in a vacuum, it’s not enough.

Eventually you give up trying to follow what’s going on and just wait for the next excuse for a fight; to illustrate just how fun the battles are this usually does feel like being worth the wait. The basics are similar to any isometric strategy role-player, as you move your units one at a time and try to take advantage of the high ground and various terrain bonuses that can shield you from damage.

The basic concept is not complicated but the main failing of Final Fantasy Tactics is that it tried its level best to make it seem that way. However, Triangle Strategy does very well in ensuring all the systems are as straightforward as possible. There’s no permadeath, no friendly fire, and auto-targeting is implemented as much as possible. We imagine some will consider this an act of dumbing down but go back to the original Final Fantasy Tactics and you’ll find it has a very finnicky, long-winded interface that simply would not fly today.

Triangle Strategy – the game needs more action and less plot (pic: Square Enix)

Triangle Strategy’s modernisation includes the reward of literal kudos points if you complete optional goals, such as making use of elemental weaknesses, which are then used to gain access to super powerful Quietus powers. The lack of friendly fire is questionable, since it robs the game of some additional tactical considerations, but the only point at which the game definitely goes too far is the surprisingly simplistic approach to job classes, which cannot be customised, only upgraded, and are set in stone for each character.

Not only are the job classes strangely inflexible but you spend surprisingly little time buying new weapons and equipment. You can upgrade weapons but it’s a minor element, that makes you wonder whether the streamlined battle system isn’t so much an attempt to modernise but simply the developers being keen to get back to the story as soon as possible.

The only reason listening to the narrative doesn’t take up even more of the play length is that the lack of equipment upgrades means the level of characters is of vital importance and so you end up having to do a lot of level grinding via mock battles at your camp.

Triangle Strategy will certainly find its fans but why it’s so fixated on pleasing them and no-one else is a mystery. The battle system is great but everything that surrounds it, especially the storytelling, is an indigestible rock of long-winded exposition and mostly uninteresting characters. Despite what the name implies strategy is not the focus here, but storytelling – so it’s a serious problem that so much of it is so boring.

Triangle Strategy review summary

In Short: A visual novel that offers the occasional diversion into some engaging turn-based strategy but would’ve been infinitely better if it had curtailed it’s long-winded storytelling aspirations.

Pros: The strategy gameplay is great and a successful modernisation of Final Fantasy Tactics that deserves far more time in the spotlight. HD-2D graphics are equally good, if often a little drab.

Cons: The story and characters are not only dull, they take up so much time you can almost forget this was supposed to be interactive entertainment. Static job classes and lack of item options.

Score: 6/10

Formats: Nintendo Switch
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Netchubiyori and Artdink
Release Date: 4th March 2022
Age Rating: 12