It’s certainly a simpler take on tactical RPG battles than in the likes of Disgaea or Fire Emblem, trading things like friendship mechanics or battle systems designed to build to ludicrous, outsized damage numbers for a more gradual, grounded progression. A large part of it is the combat, which is a wonderful streamlined and yet pleasingly varied combat and character progression system that leads to exciting and challenging encounters. That’s something that this crew, led by producer Tomoya Asano, are still chasing.Īnd yet… maybe it actually is more than the sum of its parts, despite what I just said? Maybe that’s why I’m still playing it, still muddling through even though it’s not the sort of game that’s hooking me and keeping me absolutely glued to it. In this manner, this latest HD-2D endeavor from Square Enix bears a great resemblance to its predecessor Octopath Traveler – which was a game crammed with wonderful ideas drawn from all-time classic inspirations that struggled to fully weave them together into something that was more than the sum of its parts. These creations of Yasumi Matsuno (who, to be clear, was not involved in Triangle Strategy in any way) were also pretty waffley and self-serious, though I also think it’s completely fair to say that they executed on their Shakespearian ambitions much more strongly than Triangle Strategy ultimately does. The largest touchstone in the development of Triangle Strategy was obviously Final Fantasy Tactics and its spiritual forebear, Tactics Ogre. It’s a game that’s often a little too navel-gazey and long in the tooth for its own good – and yet it’s also compelling enough that I keep returning to it, chipping away at it in little chunks here and there to work my way through an intriguing narrative and engage in thrilling, deeply tactical battles. The start of the game is especially slow, but even once the story gets truly underway and begins to roll at its natural speed, it still feels quite glacial. Specifically, Triangle Strategy is – as the headline says – a slow burn.
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