Triangle Strategy decisions and convictions shape the world in this tactical RPG

Test the weight of your convictions and suffer the consequences in this challenging and engaging tactical RPG and fantasy epic

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Triangle Strategy: Nintendo Switch RPG teased in trailer

Switch and tactical RPG fans are excited at the prospect of a strategic and tactical role-playing game with a rich story and complex characters as well as complex choices and consequences called Triangle Strategy.

Originally announced back in Nintendo Direct February last year, as well as the Debut Demo which takes place in chapters 6 and 7, the game has received numerous updates and enhancements since then.

Developed by Square Enix, Triangle Strategy bears more than a passing resemblance to legendry tactical RPG Final Fantasy Tactics as well as similarities to previous Switch title Octopath Traveller.

This is due to Triangle Strategy having the same producer Tumoyo Asano who bought us Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller, and these comparisons are certainly not a bad thing as both games are legends.

In the fantasy land of Norzelia, three factions have fought for dominance over the resources in the Saltiron war.

The Duchy of Aesfrost who hold most iron mines, The Holy State of Hyzante which has the only supply of salt, and in the middle is Glenbrook, a neutral domain of merchants and warriors.

Triangle Strategy begins during a time of unsteady peace being formed between the major powers.

You play as Serenoa Wolfort, a noble, of one of the warrior houses in Glenbrook as he steps into his role as lord and is betrothed to the daughter of one of the rival kingdoms, to strengthen the bonds between nations and bring peace.

But it’s not long before that peace is broken and the cloud of war looms over the land.

Featuring the unique HD 2D pixel art style as well as all the modern bells, whistles and particle effects of the Unreal Engine making it stand out and look fantastic.

Seeing classic looking Sprites rendered in a 3D world will evoke strong feelings of nostalgia from those who played JRPG in the 90s but with some impressive modern effects that look great on the Switch, but won’t be to everyone’s taste.

I’d be remiss not to mention the absolutely stunning Key Art illustrations by Naoki Ikushima on the box and throughout the game that bring the characters to life.

The early portion of the game features lots of story and exposition in order to set the scene and characters to help you understand some of the political machinations going on under the surface.

The game takes place in three phases including a map screen an exploration phase and a battle phase.

The map phase shows a beautiful zoomed out perspective of all Norzelia and allows you to select your next objective this can be story missions or side missions that are only there for a limited time.

With the exploration phase, you can look around the environments and as well as find items and talk to people to gain useful information that you can use later when trying to convince your party which course of action to take next.

Your decisions can have serious consequences on the story and the goals your character strives for by changing his convictions. The convictions are the three pillars of the games story Utility, Morality and Liberty, represented on a Tri scale.

In dialog you are sometimes given three choices that each represents one of the key convictions but they are not labelled or always obvious, so you’ll need to think carefully if you want to follow a particular approach.

Each one you pick pushes your character further to that alignment as well as changes who you can recruit and how your party react to you, it can even cause some to betray or leave you.

Your actions and responses will sometimes cause a scale to appear indicating your courses have shifted your character’s convictions in a particular direction which is measured off-screen.

Scales of conviction each NPC gets to vote on the next course of action. Each characters vote is based on what aligns with their convictions.

But you get a chance to try and persuade them, the strength of Senoa’s own convictions based on previous decisions will determine how effective his persuasion is.

Any useful information you gather can help with this like telling a warrior that another land has impressive marshal skills might win his vote.

Combat is challenging and rushing in trying to overpower your foes will lead to a swift demise. As a tactical RPG there’s is an emphasis on how you manoeuvre around the battlefield and how to exploit the enemies weaknesses and arrangements.

Combat takes place in a small but detailed environment with different levels of elevation, which add another layer of strategy to combat and is very reminiscent of Final Fantasy tactics, with its concentrated diorama-like levels.

The placement of your units is very important as well as the direction they are facing, as hits from behind do critical damage and the enemy will often try to do this to you.

One important very important tactic to be aware of is that units that are flanked from two sides can be attacked twice, when you hit them your unit of the accompanying side will then also automatically attack, which if used can be used devastate the enemy. But beware if you are not careful can be used against you.

You need to be aware of this as higher ground increases your range with some weapons and allows you to do more damage as well as knock foes off ledges.

In Triangle Strategy you lead unique characters with their own special skills and abilities that will help turn the tide of battle, and once you level them up and learn how to use them effectively you can dominate the battleground.

Triangle Strategy is weighing up to be an incredible game with its deep story and rich characters form it looks like it’s going to deliver a much more focused story than Octopath Travellers and could be a standout title for the Switch.

Despite its slow build of scene-setting and storytelling and its layers of complexity, it is a beautiful looking game with an intriguing story and a colourful cast of characters each with their own perspective, with decisions that will give real agency to the player and encourage thoughtful gameplay.

A brand new “prologue Demo” has now been released allow released allowing you to play chapters 1 to 3 with characters levels capped at 5.

It’s defiantly worth downloading and trying out the incredible world of Triangle Strategy for yourself and you will also be able to transfer save data to the main game upon release so you can continue your epic journey if you’ve got the conviction for it.

Triangle Strategy is only for Nintendo Switch and will release 4 March 2022 for £49.99