I don't usually do non-Fire Emblem videos, much less game reviews at all. But my hype for this game and the time I put into it so far inspired me to write a review on it. Its not FE, so I don't know how well it will do. But if you do end up watching it, please leave a like and comment down below on it or your general thoughts on the game itself! And if you're new to the channel, consider subscribing! Subscribe: goo.gl/1xHJzR Patreon: www.patreon.com/GhastPatreon
Honestly, i'd love to see content about other strategy games. I am playing the hack and it is very obvious that certain things came from a speciphic SRPG that is not Fire Emblem.
@@grassypond i know that but how narrow it actually is? It is not like he is talking about entirely different genres. Ans then, there is always the possibility of framing it as "3 houses vs triangle strategy", wich i suppose would be 100% within the scope of the channel.
I know there’s a large segment of people who complain that there’s “too much story” in Triangle Strategy, but as a long time Fire Emblem fan I WISH we could get an entry in that series with as deep and grounded a story as Triangle Strategy. The shallow, evil anime dragons are wearing a little thin.
@@enymetouche2558 Oh I’ve played FE4. I love that game. It’s a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. I meant more so the modern Fire Emblems. A lot of them still have fun gameplay, but the writing and stories have really devolved.
@@TIDbitRETROTrue enough, but like I said play Kaga's post fire emblem games since he quit after FE5. Tear Ring Saga, Berwick Saga, and Vestaria Saga are probably what you're looking for.
I appreciate the spoiler-free. I've been interested in the game since it's initial demo back when it was first revealed, and was happy playing more from the new demo. That being said, I was reluctant to pay 60 USD for the full game from what I had seen at that point, mostly in regards to the story/branching path system. This clears things up without ruining what made it good, so thank you.
I am very picky with the tactical style games I've played because it has been so hard to find a strategy game that is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics in regards to gameplay and story. While I feel that the story is a bit cheesy, only a little bit, it is still intriguing and the gameplay is awesome. I like that it gives you several different levels of difficulty, in case someone wants less or more of a challenge. What really bought me about this game is that the mechanics of height, position, weapons, etc. is all part of the strategy you need to utilize to win the battle. It is by far one of the better tactical games I've seen in a while.
To give you an idea on game size, I'm 80+ hrs on a NG+, on I'm near the end of my 2nd route, and there's still 3 more endings after this route. Also I'm still missing 2 characters, so there's alot to this game, so I see why they charged full new game price.
I am loving this game so far, honestly my biggest complaint about it is that you can't see the beautiful character portraits when characters are talking.
Dumbest misstep ever. Pressing a button to bring up a profile is no substitute. Human brains are hardwired to be looking at a face when someone is talking. Honestly, the early game isn't nearly as bogged down in dialogue-to-gameplay ratio as people say it is, it just seriously feels like it is because of how mentally taxing it is to absorb all that dialogue without the portraits attached. Changing that one thing would make the game so much easier for people to get into.
Gaslighted my Fiance to sell her people into slavery as a prank, then played a game with my butler to see who could commit the most war crimes 10/10 game.
benedict is brutal as fuck when he needs to be. I mean, think about it. someone died to do one of the big turning points of the game probably by his hand.
Absolutely love this game. I know what you mean about getting sucked into the story. It's very difficult to put down once the hammer drops and shit hits the fan. I agree about the map/camera/range thing and as someone with a switch lite, I find it difficult to see things with all the clutter on the screen from the turns, menus, etc. Still, the ost is great and I like the isometric pixel art too.
For someone who likes the customization and deep gameplay mechanics of FFT, but usually skips the cutscenes and isn't so interested in lore, would you recommend this or Fire Emblem?
@@Trotskers this game is very cutscene heavy, and if youre not interested in lore, then i'd definitely recommend to stay away from this and rather go for Fire Emblem instead. But you can play this just for the gameplay itself, because its very fun too.
@@Eclin 3 months late but absolutely. The only 3D game I feel has nice graphics is SoV, the animations themselves are great, same with the scenario design, but its limited by the 3DS hardware. Three Houses looks awful tho, I hope the next game on the Switch takes notes of SoV
FE3H was my first ever t-rpg game introduced to me by my brother, then it was octopath, also introduced by my brother, but triangle strategy was the first ever game I took an interest from the get go. I'm not the best gamer (I'm not the worst either) but I'm here for the story, so the super long dialogue scenes absolutely don't bother me. But I can see how it would bother others that just want to play lol. I can't wait to by the game and play the heck out of it over summer break.
This game has been really great so far imo. Playing on Hard for my first playthrough and unfortunately had to cheese a few maps, but sacrificing units for advantage has been really helpful for pushing forwards
Ive been playing through blind, and some of the choices have actually caused me to take a break and consider my actions. We're all walking away from this game as master military strategists.
Fire emblem 3 houses was my first tactics game ever, and Octopath Traveler was my first Rpg ever. This was a truky magical experience combining my two favorite games into one. The artstyle and music werw enough to sell it to me, but the story and layered combat has me hooked.
Huge props for blurring out the roster when you were showing off the character menu. Super easy to miss that during editing and i def appreciate that as im only on chapter 8. I share the same sentiment on the early game. Played the demo and almost didn't pick up the game because of it. But i bit the bullet, spent my 90 Canadian and I'm loving it so far!
In my opinion, I loved this game way more than three houses. The characters just felt so unique to play and the game rewards you for experimenting with each and every one. This, combined with the difficulty made it super fun to play
This review gets extra kudos for mentioning Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. I know people want to compare the game to Final Fantasy Tactics but what a majority do not realize is that the team who made Final Fantasy Tactics also made Tactics Ogre on the SNES. Also Triangle Strategy basically borrowed the decision making aspect of Tactics Ogre and copied/expanded upon it. If you want great political intrigue and deep unit customization play Tactics Ogre the story holds up incredibly well to this day. Edit: Also play Triangle Strategy it’s really good.
As a guy who grew up on Tactics Ogre and haven't really played FFT (yes, I exist lol), I appreciate people remembering TO. To add a thing, I'd like to mention that TO came first, and FFT was the second, watered down version of TO when Square bought the team. FFT was the one popularized, and I'm sad too many people think it came first. Especially in the West. Since you guys got the TO ps1 port after getting FFT. A shame, really. Don't know how Triangle Strategy compares to FFT, but as hardcore fan of TO I approve. It's a good game.
I found this review very helpful. As a broke college student I can't afford many games much less ones that costs $60. So even though I played through both demos and loved them I wasn't sure if this game would be something that I would be willing to drop 60 dollars on. Still not one hundred percent sure yet I might have to wait till after finals next month to decide. I do have a question about the game though. I was wondering who some of your favorite characters are and what characters you find fun to use.
The characters are all so unique and have completely different functions, so I think everyone has their own favorites. Personally, I'm a big fan of Corentin (he was in the demo; so I'm not spoiling anything), he has a lot of abilities to slow down and stop enemies. Anna and Hughette are super fun too, sneaking around the battlefield and spreading status conditions.
Yeah. I would wait until after finals. I still HIGHLY recommend the game, but it's a time sink. You can focus on finals and give it yourself as a gift for your hard work.
On one chapter I was faced with a fight where I had to defeat someone very strong. I had the option to use some mechanisms to burn down buildings to make things easier, but instead used my character who was able to create a ladder, put ALL MY MAGES on top of a building, and eventually the enemy NPC's all parked themselves at the bottom of the buildings while I just blew them away with Magic. It was really funny. (Didn't bring up chapters and etc to avoid spoilers) Fun thing was, because I didn't use the mechanisms, it actually effected the story. So that was really cool. That aside, yeah, the AI kinda bricked.
The spoiler free part of this video was really nice. I trust your opinion on things so it was great to be able to hear your thoughts without giving away anything important
I can't wait to get this game!!!! I've been saving up to get it in April and man has it been difficult to not spoil the game when I wait for my next paycheck. So thank you for the spoiler free review!
I appreciate this video. I’m guessing I’m about halfway through my first run and have been kinda wanting to see what people thought so far without spoilers. The voting system has been interesting so far. At least one time my cohorts have rejected my personal decision and made us go a different path (and amusingly probably saved me from disaster as a result). It’s a fun part of the game.
I got a tie on one of my decisions since I only convinced one character to change their mind so the player gets to choose where to go. Oftentimes in war though, there are no good decisions.
@@clammmin3098 It is interesting playing the game and trying to figure out which arguments will work on which characters. I'm already looking forward to my next playthrough.
Around 70 hours in. . . Haven't yet finished my first playthrough, but absolutely have loved my time with the game so far. For what it's worth, I like the game a lot more than FE: Three Houses.
I think one of the only major debby downers here is the fact that either way, you go down the same general path no matter what. While the game does give you entirely different story events that lead up to it, and the story does change likewise, you still somehow end up in a very similar spot and the story will progress down a similar road in one way or another. Its almost like yet another game that lies to you, a game that boasts that your choices matter but they don't, or at least don't as much as it claimed to. Thankfully, the changes are still immersive and strong enough to where it IS true, I just wish there weren't as many funnels. What I think needed to happen was for there to be three major sets of branching paths that you can go down, with rare moments that let you loop around to another branch. Instead of one straight path with a final set of endings to acquire, what if there were three major paths, and each path ended with a final set of morality, liberty and utility endings? The morality path can have a true morality, morality liberty, or morality utility ending The liberty path can have a true liberty, liberty morality, or liberty utility ending The utility path can have a true utility, utility morality, or utility liberty ending The difference is that the first word is the dominant trait of the path in question, and heck, maybe the golden ending can occur, or each major path has their own secret endings to them. Or better yet, just dont have set endings. Instead, do what Fallout does and have only one or two major set events, but your ending is mostly a collection of the long-term effects of your deeds throughout the story, how all of the smaller, individual actions affected the world as a whole, instead of just one static ending event playing out. Like, surely theres a difference between a Liberty Ending that did one set of choices leading up to it vs another Liberty Ending with mostly or entirely different choices leading up to it, right? The world MUST have ended up in a different spot despite the same ending, since your actions affected things in different ways, right? Fallout New Vegas had a few slides dedicated to how your chosen faction affected the wasteland, yes, but there were other slides that sometimes involved it and sometimes not, which were about your other, smaller actions and how they affected the world on top of it. But no, you don't get that. I think the game just barely skirts away from the uncanny valley of disappointment, and it reigns itself in by making the choices dynamic and different enough overall to offset the inevitable funnel. It just sucks that no matter what you do, you'll inevitably come to the same three choices anyway...
@@nolanburke3669 Mhm, I think the game definitely has the awareness on how many branching path-based games fail to live up to the promise, so it was able to push juuuuuuuust enough to where it avoids it by tipping the scales in such a way that, while the paths do funnel eventually, the paths are so diverse and immersive that it outweighs the impact of the funnel I feel. I just wish they could have done more is all.
My thoughts exactly. The branching paths are honestly so fucking well done and immersive that it's a shame they all converge... but not ENOUGH of a shame to ruin it or anything. Really hope we get a Triangle Strategy 2 some day because clearly there's a lot of genuine talent at this studio that's actively learning their lesson game to game
@@Tyler-ob4qp I think Hyzante having one too many implications of being unsalvageable is another unfortunate implication since it’s the one non-European coded nation in the game and while it has plenty of redeeming qualities like superior medicine and technology, and the groundwork for an equalist society, they warped the words of the Goddess to oppress the Roselle. This wouldn’t be as bad if siding with them wasn’t making things worse during one of the endings (and I really tried helping them in earlier chapters since I think they have great things going for them and I thought SURELY they can’t be all bad right?). Reforming the faith and liberating the roselle, the latter only happens if Hyzante is destroyed while the former never happens at all.
I get some people have this line of thinking but I really think this game handles it better than most. The problem with this line of thinking is that it is nigh impossible to make every little choice matter because its way too complex of an issue. If every choice did matter you'd be looking at a far shorter game with like 20 diverging paths. Its unrealistic to expect anything else. The convictions system helps alleviate that. Yes most of the choices don't matter in general except to shape your convictions. The convictions are what help you convince your allies to take a particular route. So if your convictions aren't in line it may force you down a specific path. Despite the routes constantly converging there's still many different paths you can take and it will take several playthroughs to get through them all. I think they did a pretty good job of handling it personally.
With as much choices as the game gave you I felt like I was constantly restricted to a path. Sure that path splits but I'm still on that said path. Glad you mention the AI exploits because it definitely trivialized some fights and took me out of the experience.
I'm sold, thanks for the infomative review. Two key things: the grinding-friendly mechanism, the story. (I don't mind the low pacing, dialogue heavy story as long as they;'re good eventually.)
I haven't played too much yet (literally just the first map, and up to when the delegates arrive at Glenbrook) but the story so far is hitting a lot of the boxes for what I enjoy in fantasy. Glad to hear that the decision system will be some good stuff that actually varies, too.
Great to hear you've been enjoying the game! Just started my NG++ playthrough aswell, after doing Benedict route and the Golden route I'm excited to see what the other two routes have in store.
Solid review. I'm on my second playthrough right now, and I think you nailed the positives/negatives (especially the enemy ranges and the moving of the camera)
I actually like this. You're a very good UA-cam commentary channel but I always thought it would be awesome to see you branch out and you definitely didn't disappoint, dude!
I finished my first playthrough this morning. I'm 47 and can't stay up late like I used to but this game pushed me to my sleep limits. If you can put up with all the cut scenes it's a masterpiece
That's the difference between have a somewhat "inserted" personalized main character that the player can choose to make decision for or a silent protagonist that most JRPG have so you self insert yourself into that character instead. I like both, but I definitely see where both has their pros and cons.
I'm Canadian and the price of Triangle Strategy is the same one as any Switch exclusivity like Fire Emblem Three Houses (80$) without tax. With tax, the price up to 92$, but if you buy it on the Eshop (digital) you can pay less if you know what to do.
I was pretty hesitant about this game given that there have been 2 demos, one for receiving player feedback and the other covering the first 3 chapters. I gave it a try but didn’t really offer much feedback other than “it’s good” or go any further than 1 chapter the day before release. I ended up going in blindly on a hard difficulty, made decisions I really struggled over with, and I don’t regret my experience. Maybe I’ll change the difficulty after one decision gave me ptsd about what it means to make reckless decisions but it’s still a good game I decided on getting.
9:34 While true that you don't have to worry *that* much about the choices, they do actually matter. At certain points you can get a game over if you make the wrong choice. Of course, you can reload your save and make a different one, so it's not a huge deal. Still, while having a flowchart of all the paths certainly isn't necessary, the game does clearly want you to think about what choice you're making and consider it carefully.
Glad I got to see this. There are two things I rely on more than anything: enemy threat ranges & fast speed text/menus/animations. It sounds like thats not the case here. Might still try it, but at least I know I'm gonna struggle with the UI
The only thing I looked up about this game was the NG+ and the benefits. I didn't know how I would manage the idea of playing the entire game from start to finish, but then I learned that NG+ was well aware of the strain, so that became a non-issue.
The story plot, the character development, the in-game politics, the faith towards a "Learning / religion".. man this game is a blast, complex yet fascinating to play despite its only in a small world, take a place, and a heavy dialogue. dude this is a gold amongst turn based Strategy-RPG. relieve the glory of golden era, Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Tactics
Really glad this was spoiler free and a great review of it from what you said it seems like the game picks up after the demo because the demo to me seemed like a visual novel that had some tactics gameplay involved.
Having all that choice does make sense for those of us who'll play through the game more than once. I don't have the time for that, unfortunately. I want the best choices when I go through, because I'll only be going through once. The best choices will be those that give me the best ending. I'm sure there are guides out there which don't spoil the story and simply say, "PICK THIS". I love the ambition of choices with consequences, but they only really matter when you're going to play through it more than once. If you're only playing through a 40 hour game one time, and you get to the end only to get the "You bad crappy choices. Evil wins" ending - it's going to leave a very sour taste because that's the only ending you'll see.
I really appreciate this video! Irl has been busy so Im not very far into the game, but my biggest worry was how much the story might or might not grab me. It's good to know I should be okay on that front.
I got the demo with the idea that I’d just do that to get my fill and play later when I wasn’t as busy. I bought the game after finishing chapter three and I’m hooked tbh. I’m on chapter 5 right now on normal and it’s insanely fun while remaining difficult. It’s still got a little clunk from the original demo but other than that the game play is super fun. I wish my midterms weren’t coming up so I could play it more
I remember watching previews and it giving similar impressions mentioned, a Tactics Ogre vibe, for so long wishing there were more games like that. I didn't know this game finally came out until this video, what made me most interested on watching it was the "Spoiler Free" part. Progression and letting unused units catch-up sounds exciting. Watched the video twice and must say you made me look up my switch to charge it to get the demo. I grew up playing Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Tactics Ogre. Your video made me excited to want to play it, seriously!
artdink, the developers of this game, were actually the studio that ported the original Ogre Battle and Tactics ogre to PSX. while those ports were...not very good, this project is so good, I am convinced Quest's developers (the creators of both ogre battle and Tactics) ended up in artdink after the studio collapsed over 20 years ago. It doesn't quite replace those games, but it's by far the closest we've gotten in ages, definitely worth the time and money.
I just bought a Nintendo switch a few days ago, something to bring with me when I travel for work. I’ve always been a huge fan of Rpgs, especially jrpgs. I planned my first expensive game purchase to be Zelda BOTW, but no store has it in stock. So I dl this demo. And yes, it’s very dialogue heavy but man I love it. Right up my alley. Strategy, politics and turn based combat. Just picked up the physical copy. Great review 🎉
I can finally watch this review after having experienced everything the game has to offer just now! I absolutely loved Triangle Strategy and it has become one of my favorite games of all time. Your few criticisms are definitely fair though and I can see where you're coming from with them.
I bought this game yesterday and played until the first scales choice was made. So I'm very early in, but so far my impression is: the game will probably benefit from such a heavy focus on story and characters. And I am vastly grateful for the ability to let the dialogue autoplay - I took the opportunity to get up and stretch during the long expositions, while listening to the dialogue unfold. But the fact that after 4 hours of gametime I'd only been in two battles - that's crazy. I think they could have split the expositions with a couple of minor battles thrown in - Serenoa and Roland facing off for fun in a 1v1 or something - just to break up the flow a bit.
One of the better videos on the game that I've seen, I am still pretty early in the game but I am digging it and I am looking forward to seeing what the story has to offer.
i really enjoyed it too! like you, i bought it for about $90 canadian and that's really steep.... but there's a lot of replay value and with the pace i'm going, i'll get over 90 hours on it so i'm fine with that. there are undoubtedly some notable flaws but it was super enjoyable, definitely no regrets on the purchase for me! i think the choices kinda follow a mass effect system where the main storyline remains the same despite branches, but i was still satisfied with the whole "choices matter" aspect because different decisions have different resulting battles/maps/recruits. great review & it would be cool to see more tristrat content from you!
I have played this game, and you echo all of my sentiments exactly. While it is slow, once it gets going, all of that buildup at the beginning really pays off! I recommend this game. 9/10. Not perfect because I feel like the UI in some places is a little rough, but really enjoyed every aspect of it. Story, Combat, Characters, it's all here.
Thought this was a great well structured video! I’m still not 100% convince on trying out Triangle Strategy as money is tight for me but I’d love to hear more from you and your thoughts on the game and other games that you’re interested in!!! Cheers!
Just try the demo and see if it’s your thing. Although, tbh even in the demo, the most exciting parts of the plot don’t come in until at least chapter 5. So if your only criticism is “eh….the story is meh and it’s going too slow” trust me, it gets MUCH better past chapter 5
Beat the game on Normal and about half way through NG+ on Hard. Funny thing is, the game clearly intends for you to see one of the 3 "suboptimal" endings before going for the Golden ending in NG+, but if you follow the standard JRPG tropes path, it's easy to inadvertantly get locked into the Golden ending on your first run. I had to literally screw myself out of the Golden path on my first run at the very last moment for sake of replayability. Gameplay wise, it's a little rough around the edges, especially for a FE fan, since IS clearly has decades of know how and a well tested template to fall back on with this genre of games. IMO this team has great vision and are master storytellers, and I certainly hope they stay in the SRPG business.
Super glad to hear you're enjoying this game, I hope you make more videos about it. My main gripe with the story of this game is a certain important cutscene from around chapter 3 that gave me vibes from Azure Moon chapter 17 if you know what I mean. But oh well. I'm not finished with my first playthrough yet, only about halfway. Some of these maps I just get destroyed on
Someone goes insane and has to be saved? Or someone wanting to mass murder bandits in a firey rampage? You were sorta unclear. That sort of plot detail seems like something in the mid-late game, not the early game. (unless it's the villain)
My first run through the game is on hard.. and its amazing, the balance is great and often the first run at a map feels imposible but the second is doable one you know what to expect from the enemies and the map itself. Skirimishes feel easy compared to story battles which i appreciate as not everything has to be hard. I do agree the utilities characters feel unusable on hard, cant have more than a couple of them on your team.
Took me 40 hours to get through my first playthrough on hard mode. I should've saved that difficulty for new game plus as that would've been a bigger challenge. But I enjoyed it nevertheless.
I picked Hard for what seemed like good reason at the time ("I wanna milk more hours for a game at this price!!!").... and not a battle to date had been played and won IN ONE ROUND. Most of my EXPs are Retreat EXPs. 😂 Serves me right for going waaaaay over my own head, but I've settled into Hard mode now that going back down will dampen my experience of the game. Have you beaten it already under 40 hours?? I don't think I've even passed the mid-story mark at all. I repeated the same battles sooooooo many times damn
@@lyndiss.2017 haha no. Same on my end most of the maps took me hours to complete and I was shocked that I was able to do a handful of them in one try. I did spend a lot of time in encampment and doing those mock battles and getting a feel for some of my units but I'm glad I did as I got to appreciate the game a lot more.
@@darkhandguy Oh, mock battles! I skimped on that because I can't fork up enough precious coins hahaha. My gang is always so too close to being broke, good grief
ive been hoping for a video exactly like this since the game released, so thanks a ton for making it! i didn't know this game got 2 demos so i'll check them out and hopefully end up getting the game itself; it looks like a quality title for sure.
The game took a month to arrive for me in Brazil so I'm just playing it now. It's really slow and all. I loaded my save from the demo (which I played on hard) and I'm really hating the grind right now. Just got from a "lvl 7 recommended" to a "lvl 9 recommended" and spent 3 hours to try to level up the party to lvl 9 and still haven't done with everyone. As I'm having more and more units to join, I'm still unsure about who I should use in any map so I'm trying to level up everyone and it's taking a hellish time to do that, as even in the recommended level you could get overhelmed pretty easily. So I take by your review I probably shoud focus on some units and forget about the others for some time...
I resonate with the review here. The battle system is fantastic and varied while making sure that you aren't just going to trivialize and pubstomp it. It really tries to make you build a strategy and I've certainly developed a turtling playstyle most of the time myself. Though it may be because the background story going into the fight and layout of the map forces you to do so for some chapters, and in some others it is set up for you to be the aggressor I enjoy the story very much as it makes me think about choices for the sake of the game, choices for that reflect my beliefs, and also choices that challenges reality (likely influenced by the unfortunate world situation we are in). That said, I agree that Serenoa as a main character, is very much like a blank slate (and perhaps this is why some may consider his voice acting, uninspiring or lacking... conviction). I am on my first playthrough of the game on hard mode for the so called "Serenoa ending" and though I haven't experienced the other routes, this particular ending definitely forces you to go back and forth between various convictions. At times you may feel inconsistent with your choices and from my experience, the game doesn't shy away from hinting you are making contradictory choices over what seems to be similar situations but with slight nuances. Some may dislike this, but I take it that this is one of the stories/impressions that the writers/developers want to impress onto the players, that between morality, utility and liberty there is a time for everything. And you get this sense from your NPC allies too as they come to grip with the in-game situation and reality at hand For the gripes, everything said about the UI and UX jank, the heavy exposition which may come off as unnecessary or extra unnecessary at times (though I love the character deep dive) is definitely there but it's not enough to detract me from the game at least P.S yea I noticed that enemies do not like going through fire (not always), which makes me want to try out more oil jug + frederica strats
I go straight to Hard mode (instead of doing so on NG+) because I think it will prolong my gameplay and milk out all the hours on a game at this price, which is my default gaming philosophy. Of course, I actually suck at gaming by default 😂, so no battles have been won on ONE TRY... not even chapter goddamn 1 with the pirates! Hahahahha! Damn, the EXPs I got from retreating... Frederica + oil jugs (other times, Frederica + grass) is actually one of my oft-visited tactics as soon as oil jugs are introduced and made available from merchants. I usually combine them with Jens' boing-ing-ing! traps to _try_ to restrict the enemies' attack angles. Catapulting them out of high ground to lower terrain as they barrel through fire I set up often incur way more damage (and *glee* ) than having my units engage them in true melee, haha! I haven't even finished my first run. Hell, I doubt I've reached the mid-story mark, too. I kept losing and retreating and restarting over and over again... because I really bit off more than i could chew by picking Hard Mode, heh! What are your favorite tactics to go to when playing? Maybe I can learn something from others better than me!
@@lyndiss.2017 Later chapter fights definitely require more attempts for me. Also, some NPC AI would be programmed in a specific way that is not immediately apparent just from seeing the map format. Once you notice some quirky patterns, often it is to your benefit and you can tune your strategy to be more aggressive/defensive as needed As much as there's fun in strategizing beforehand, it is equally fulfilling to re-strategize as you proceed Oh and one more thing I've found useful is to embrace letting your units die in battle. I think hard mode is partly optimized around losing your units in exchange for a favourable outcome
Story has been the gem of this title for me so far. Personally felt like the difficulty wasn't as challenging as other TRPG's (FFT, Tactics Ogre, Fell Seal, and BG3 all felt more difficult) so I switched to hard mode within 2-3 battles. As to your comments on laggy screens, that must be a console limitation. It's run flawlessly on PC. If you haven't played FFT, you'd be shocked at how far combat QoL has come. The camera on FFT was abysmal, you couldn't preview actions, there were no color coded squares or line of sight indicators etc. This title would be a lot easier for someone new to the genre to dip their toe into than others, imo. Thanks for your honest review 👍
Excellent review, short, precise, and straight to the point. I was on the fence as to whether or not I wanted to buy this game, but you completely convinced me.
I really love this game. I agree do not look up walkthrough. I never felt like I made the wrong choice. Every choice feels like it was the correct one, the one the devs intended. Which is very rare for branching path games. I usually have to save/reload many times in games with branching paths. In my play through I always saved before just In case I didn't like the choice but quickly forgot about that save just to overwrite it the next time
I quite liked your spoiler free review, havent started yet so its nice being able to hear about gameplay and I very much appreciate the insistence on playing blind. I know I can be bad for trying to play a game the "right" way lol. Also nice to have some solidarity on how much the game costs in CAD! Games are so expensive these days
I’m taking a break from it as we speak! I’m only 10-20 hrs in but the more I play it the more I like it.. I’m not sure if it’s quite on the same level as FE or Valkyria.. Nevertheless it’s perfect for spring 2022 and especially in light of the Advance War remake delay it brings the title a little bit more to the forefront..
I love the way this game felt during the demo, and I want to get the full version. However I'm waiting until it goes onto steam because I'd rather play it on the steam deck than the nintendo switch. I wish that they'd hurry up and release the game to steam though!
Yeah, it’s really smart of them to make it so 1. It’s not really possible to over level, for example, it’s going to be VERY rare for you to be over the recommended level for a particular battle. HOWEVER 2. If you are BELOW the recommended level, it is ridiculously easy to REACH that recommended level. That’s a really nice trade off and smart way of doing things, even if every unit you have is at the recommended level, the map will still pose SOME challenge every time. It’s not like in fire emblem how you can just steamroll with one unit or an elite team of 4-5.
Gotta say, this game has hooked me in way I have not seen since I first entered the worlds of fire emblem. The only thing I regret is doing just what you warned about and overthinking my choices and looking up guides due to my time with bioware games and the 5d mental chess it usually takes to get a golden ending
With Russian Eshop not available for SOME reason, the only way to by the game would be physical copy, which might costs around 6000 roubles (granted that Nintendo of Eurooe converts prices from Euro to Rouble without any regional prices)
Haven’t run into the framerate issue, but definitely noticed the AI sometimes struggles during moves and will take a significant amount of time to take a turn even on sped up.
I've been playing this game for a couple of days, first tried the demo to see what it was about and it got me hooked. It is very dialog heavy but I personally see it more like a movie that you interact with and its been very enjoyable. Although I have to say 60dlls for the game felt a little expensive for me, still got it though
I deffo agree with the UI colours, wish those were editable or something. Or like yeah, im so used to FE3H gameplay UI i kinda wish they just took what they did, but love the game still
This game was an instant grab for me since the 2020 demo,My first FE game was 3 houses and I put 600+hrs into it.To me this game is so similar and fun like 3 houses that it’s only right you do a video about the 6 strongest units in triangle strategy.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I don't usually do non-Fire Emblem videos, much less game reviews at all. But my hype for this game and the time I put into it so far inspired me to write a review on it. Its not FE, so I don't know how well it will do. But if you do end up watching it, please leave a like and comment down below on it or your general thoughts on the game itself! And if you're new to the channel, consider subscribing!
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Honestly, i'd love to see content about other strategy games. I am playing the hack and it is very obvious that certain things came from a speciphic SRPG that is not Fire Emblem.
UA-cam seems to hate it when a creator changes their content, but if you aren't going to say what you want to say, who will?
@@grassypond i know that but how narrow it actually is? It is not like he is talking about entirely different genres. Ans then, there is always the possibility of framing it as "3 houses vs triangle strategy", wich i suppose would be 100% within the scope of the channel.
Imo Tactics Ogre and other SRPGS feel very on theme for the channel, and I found this review very helpful for my decision to purchase the game.
I know there’s a large segment of people who complain that there’s “too much story” in Triangle Strategy, but as a long time Fire Emblem fan I WISH we could get an entry in that series with as deep and grounded a story as Triangle Strategy. The shallow, evil anime dragons are wearing a little thin.
Play FE4 or one of the games that kaga made after fire emblem then.
@@enymetouche2558 Oh I’ve played FE4. I love that game. It’s a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. I meant more so the modern Fire Emblems. A lot of them still have fun gameplay, but the writing and stories have really devolved.
@@TIDbitRETROTrue enough, but like I said play Kaga's post fire emblem games since he quit after FE5. Tear Ring Saga, Berwick Saga, and Vestaria Saga are probably what you're looking for.
Is three houses grounded?
I appreciate the spoiler-free. I've been interested in the game since it's initial demo back when it was first revealed, and was happy playing more from the new demo. That being said, I was reluctant to pay 60 USD for the full game from what I had seen at that point, mostly in regards to the story/branching path system. This clears things up without ruining what made it good, so thank you.
I am very picky with the tactical style games I've played because it has been so hard to find a strategy game that is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics in regards to gameplay and story. While I feel that the story is a bit cheesy, only a little bit, it is still intriguing and the gameplay is awesome. I like that it gives you several different levels of difficulty, in case someone wants less or more of a challenge. What really bought me about this game is that the mechanics of height, position, weapons, etc. is all part of the strategy you need to utilize to win the battle. It is by far one of the better tactical games I've seen in a while.
To give you an idea on game size, I'm 80+ hrs on a NG+, on I'm near the end of my 2nd route, and there's still 3 more endings after this route. Also I'm still missing 2 characters, so there's alot to this game, so I see why they charged full new game price.
@@blrolz3544 does the game tell you how many endings you have left
I am loving this game so far, honestly my biggest complaint about it is that you can't see the beautiful character portraits when characters are talking.
Same, man. The portraits are so pretty.
Dumbest misstep ever. Pressing a button to bring up a profile is no substitute. Human brains are hardwired to be looking at a face when someone is talking. Honestly, the early game isn't nearly as bogged down in dialogue-to-gameplay ratio as people say it is, it just seriously feels like it is because of how mentally taxing it is to absorb all that dialogue without the portraits attached. Changing that one thing would make the game so much easier for people to get into.
Lol why wouldn't they do this
@@Shalakordumbest complaint ever
Gaslighted my Fiance to sell her people into slavery as a prank, then played a game with my butler to see who could commit the most war crimes
10/10 game.
Send this message to ssethtzeentach and we are going to get a review as soon as be get out of the Togashi
Bud the way I CACKLED, Benedict is such a vicious fuck lmao
benedict is brutal as fuck when he needs to be. I mean, think about it. someone died to do one of the big turning points of the game probably by his hand.
You monster.
A fellow edelgard and cao cao fan i see
Absolutely love this game. I know what you mean about getting sucked into the story. It's very difficult to put down once the hammer drops and shit hits the fan. I agree about the map/camera/range thing and as someone with a switch lite, I find it difficult to see things with all the clutter on the screen from the turns, menus, etc. Still, the ost is great and I like the isometric pixel art too.
I finished all 4 endings. Such an amazing game. Truly one of the best stories I've played in a long while. Really enjoyed all my time in Norzelia.
Amen to that!
@@@@@@@@@@@SPOILER@@@@@@@@@@@@@@the rolan's ending is disgusting to me tho. especially in comparison to benedict's ending,
@@vincentwong3156 True. Its regarded as the worst ending out of everyone ive spoken with.
For someone who likes the customization and deep gameplay mechanics of FFT, but usually skips the cutscenes and isn't so interested in lore, would you recommend this or Fire Emblem?
@@Trotskers this game is very cutscene heavy, and if youre not interested in lore, then i'd definitely recommend to stay away from this and rather go for Fire Emblem instead. But you can play this just for the gameplay itself, because its very fun too.
I really like the 2d hd art style, this game looks beautiful
Imagine seeing a fire emblem game in this style...
@@DinfarManshad i think Fire Emblem looks the best when it was still 2D not gonna lie
@@Eclin yeah that is true. I mean fire emblem 4 onwards still hold up
@@Eclin 3 months late but absolutely. The only 3D game I feel has nice graphics is SoV, the animations themselves are great, same with the scenario design, but its limited by the 3DS hardware. Three Houses looks awful tho, I hope the next game on the Switch takes notes of SoV
For those worried about the price, look up rentals in your country/region, or wait a while for the secondhand market to catch up
FE3H was my first ever t-rpg game introduced to me by my brother, then it was octopath, also introduced by my brother, but triangle strategy was the first ever game I took an interest from the get go. I'm not the best gamer (I'm not the worst either) but I'm here for the story, so the super long dialogue scenes absolutely don't bother me. But I can see how it would bother others that just want to play lol. I can't wait to by the game and play the heck out of it over summer break.
This game has been really great so far imo. Playing on Hard for my first playthrough and unfortunately had to cheese a few maps, but sacrificing units for advantage has been really helpful for pushing forwards
Ive been playing through blind, and some of the choices have actually caused me to take a break and consider my actions.
We're all walking away from this game as master military strategists.
Or warmongering monsters. :P
Fire emblem 3 houses was my first tactics game ever, and Octopath Traveler was my first Rpg ever. This was a truky magical experience combining my two favorite games into one. The artstyle and music werw enough to sell it to me, but the story and layered combat has me hooked.
Huge props for blurring out the roster when you were showing off the character menu. Super easy to miss that during editing and i def appreciate that as im only on chapter 8.
I share the same sentiment on the early game. Played the demo and almost didn't pick up the game because of it. But i bit the bullet, spent my 90 Canadian and I'm loving it so far!
In my opinion, I loved this game way more than three houses. The characters just felt so unique to play and the game rewards you for experimenting with each and every one. This, combined with the difficulty made it super fun to play
Yep, I loved 3 houses, but I thought this game was a clear step up from it. No one else makes SRPGs like SE does
I've been loving this game myself. Really hits that itch a lot of tactic games haven't been able to do in ages.
This review gets extra kudos for mentioning Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. I know people want to compare the game to Final Fantasy Tactics but what a majority do not realize is that the team who made Final Fantasy Tactics also made Tactics Ogre on the SNES. Also Triangle Strategy basically borrowed the decision making aspect of Tactics Ogre and copied/expanded upon it. If you want great political intrigue and deep unit customization play Tactics Ogre the story holds up incredibly well to this day.
Edit: Also play Triangle Strategy it’s really good.
As a guy who grew up on Tactics Ogre and haven't really played FFT (yes, I exist lol), I appreciate people remembering TO. To add a thing, I'd like to mention that TO came first, and FFT was the second, watered down version of TO when Square bought the team. FFT was the one popularized, and I'm sad too many people think it came first. Especially in the West. Since you guys got the TO ps1 port after getting FFT. A shame, really. Don't know how Triangle Strategy compares to FFT, but as hardcore fan of TO I approve. It's a good game.
Im playing TO and for me i like It more than FFT just because is "more serious"?@@user-un-known
I found this review very helpful. As a broke college student I can't afford many games much less ones that costs $60. So even though I played through both demos and loved them I wasn't sure if this game would be something that I would be willing to drop 60 dollars on. Still not one hundred percent sure yet I might have to wait till after finals next month to decide. I do have a question about the game though. I was wondering who some of your favorite characters are and what characters you find fun to use.
The characters are all so unique and have completely different functions, so I think everyone has their own favorites. Personally, I'm a big fan of Corentin (he was in the demo; so I'm not spoiling anything), he has a lot of abilities to slow down and stop enemies. Anna and Hughette are super fun too, sneaking around the battlefield and spreading status conditions.
I don't know the exact sites but im sure you can illegally emulate this game on a computer. If you would rather not spend money
I got it for 50 at walmart
Yeah. I would wait until after finals. I still HIGHLY recommend the game, but it's a time sink. You can focus on finals and give it yourself as a gift for your hard work.
It tends to cost less at Walmart (50$) so try there first if you decide to buy it!
A year later and I'm listening to your video to help decide on this one. Might be late to the party but loved the review
On one chapter I was faced with a fight where I had to defeat someone very strong. I had the option to use some mechanisms to burn down buildings to make things easier, but instead used my character who was able to create a ladder, put ALL MY MAGES on top of a building, and eventually the enemy NPC's all parked themselves at the bottom of the buildings while I just blew them away with Magic. It was really funny. (Didn't bring up chapters and etc to avoid spoilers) Fun thing was, because I didn't use the mechanisms, it actually effected the story. So that was really cool. That aside, yeah, the AI kinda bricked.
The spoiler free part of this video was really nice. I trust your opinion on things so it was great to be able to hear your thoughts without giving away anything important
I can't wait to get this game!!!! I've been saving up to get it in April and man has it been difficult to not spoil the game when I wait for my next paycheck. So thank you for the spoiler free review!
I appreciate this video. I’m guessing I’m about halfway through my first run and have been kinda wanting to see what people thought so far without spoilers.
The voting system has been interesting so far. At least one time my cohorts have rejected my personal decision and made us go a different path (and amusingly probably saved me from disaster as a result). It’s a fun part of the game.
I got a tie on one of my decisions since I only convinced one character to change their mind so the player gets to choose where to go. Oftentimes in war though, there are no good decisions.
I tried so hard to surrender the rozelle but Huguette just wouldn’t have it
@@clammmin3098 It is interesting playing the game and trying to figure out which arguments will work on which characters. I'm already looking forward to my next playthrough.
Around 70 hours in. . . Haven't yet finished my first playthrough, but absolutely have loved my time with the game so far.
For what it's worth, I like the game a lot more than FE: Three Houses.
I think one of the only major debby downers here is the fact that either way, you go down the same general path no matter what. While the game does give you entirely different story events that lead up to it, and the story does change likewise, you still somehow end up in a very similar spot and the story will progress down a similar road in one way or another. Its almost like yet another game that lies to you, a game that boasts that your choices matter but they don't, or at least don't as much as it claimed to.
Thankfully, the changes are still immersive and strong enough to where it IS true, I just wish there weren't as many funnels. What I think needed to happen was for there to be three major sets of branching paths that you can go down, with rare moments that let you loop around to another branch. Instead of one straight path with a final set of endings to acquire, what if there were three major paths, and each path ended with a final set of morality, liberty and utility endings?
The morality path can have a true morality, morality liberty, or morality utility ending
The liberty path can have a true liberty, liberty morality, or liberty utility ending
The utility path can have a true utility, utility morality, or utility liberty ending
The difference is that the first word is the dominant trait of the path in question, and heck, maybe the golden ending can occur, or each major path has their own secret endings to them.
Or better yet, just dont have set endings. Instead, do what Fallout does and have only one or two major set events, but your ending is mostly a collection of the long-term effects of your deeds throughout the story, how all of the smaller, individual actions affected the world as a whole, instead of just one static ending event playing out. Like, surely theres a difference between a Liberty Ending that did one set of choices leading up to it vs another Liberty Ending with mostly or entirely different choices leading up to it, right? The world MUST have ended up in a different spot despite the same ending, since your actions affected things in different ways, right? Fallout New Vegas had a few slides dedicated to how your chosen faction affected the wasteland, yes, but there were other slides that sometimes involved it and sometimes not, which were about your other, smaller actions and how they affected the world on top of it. But no, you don't get that.
I think the game just barely skirts away from the uncanny valley of disappointment, and it reigns itself in by making the choices dynamic and different enough overall to offset the inevitable funnel. It just sucks that no matter what you do, you'll inevitably come to the same three choices anyway...
Agreed hopefully the dev's can expand on the branching paths in a sequel since from what I heard the game is selling well for a new IP
@@nolanburke3669 Mhm, I think the game definitely has the awareness on how many branching path-based games fail to live up to the promise, so it was able to push juuuuuuuust enough to where it avoids it by tipping the scales in such a way that, while the paths do funnel eventually, the paths are so diverse and immersive that it outweighs the impact of the funnel I feel. I just wish they could have done more is all.
My thoughts exactly. The branching paths are honestly so fucking well done and immersive that it's a shame they all converge... but not ENOUGH of a shame to ruin it or anything. Really hope we get a Triangle Strategy 2 some day because clearly there's a lot of genuine talent at this studio that's actively learning their lesson game to game
@@Tyler-ob4qp I think Hyzante having one too many implications of being unsalvageable is another unfortunate implication since it’s the one non-European coded nation in the game and while it has plenty of redeeming qualities like superior medicine and technology, and the groundwork for an equalist society, they warped the words of the Goddess to oppress the Roselle.
This wouldn’t be as bad if siding with them wasn’t making things worse during one of the endings (and I really tried helping them in earlier chapters since I think they have great things going for them and I thought SURELY they can’t be all bad right?). Reforming the faith and liberating the roselle, the latter only happens if Hyzante is destroyed while the former never happens at all.
I get some people have this line of thinking but I really think this game handles it better than most. The problem with this line of thinking is that it is nigh impossible to make every little choice matter because its way too complex of an issue. If every choice did matter you'd be looking at a far shorter game with like 20 diverging paths.
Its unrealistic to expect anything else. The convictions system helps alleviate that. Yes most of the choices don't matter in general except to shape your convictions. The convictions are what help you convince your allies to take a particular route. So if your convictions aren't in line it may force you down a specific path.
Despite the routes constantly converging there's still many different paths you can take and it will take several playthroughs to get through them all. I think they did a pretty good job of handling it personally.
With as much choices as the game gave you I felt like I was constantly restricted to a path. Sure that path splits but I'm still on that said path. Glad you mention the AI exploits because it definitely trivialized some fights and took me out of the experience.
I just finished my 3rd playthrough and only 1 ending left to get out of 4 and loved every run ive done so far.
Thanks for the review! I’m almost done with my first route and I agree on most points! I hope you do more triangle strategy in the future!!
I'm sold, thanks for the infomative review.
Two key things: the grinding-friendly mechanism, the story. (I don't mind the low pacing, dialogue heavy story as long as they;'re good eventually.)
I haven't played too much yet (literally just the first map, and up to when the delegates arrive at Glenbrook) but the story so far is hitting a lot of the boxes for what I enjoy in fantasy. Glad to hear that the decision system will be some good stuff that actually varies, too.
Great to hear you've been enjoying the game! Just started my NG++ playthrough aswell, after doing Benedict route and the Golden route I'm excited to see what the other two routes have in store.
Solid review. I'm on my second playthrough right now, and I think you nailed the positives/negatives (especially the enemy ranges and the moving of the camera)
Thanks! I was hesitating on this, so it's very useful to have someone actually expert on SRPGs give a detailed review without ruining the story.
I actually like this. You're a very good UA-cam commentary channel but I always thought it would be awesome to see you branch out and you definitely didn't disappoint, dude!
I finished my first playthrough this morning. I'm 47 and can't stay up late like I used to but this game pushed me to my sleep limits. If you can put up with all the cut scenes it's a masterpiece
It's got as much cutscenes as PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics. This game is practically FFT but smoother.
That's the difference between have a somewhat "inserted" personalized main character that the player can choose to make decision for or a silent protagonist that most JRPG have so you self insert yourself into that character instead.
I like both, but I definitely see where both has their pros and cons.
I'm Canadian and the price of Triangle Strategy is the same one as any Switch exclusivity like Fire Emblem Three Houses (80$) without tax. With tax, the price up to 92$, but if you buy it on the Eshop (digital) you can pay less if you know what to do.
I was pretty hesitant about this game given that there have been 2 demos, one for receiving player feedback and the other covering the first 3 chapters. I gave it a try but didn’t really offer much feedback other than “it’s good” or go any further than 1 chapter the day before release. I ended up going in blindly on a hard difficulty, made decisions I really struggled over with, and I don’t regret my experience. Maybe I’ll change the difficulty after one decision gave me ptsd about what it means to make reckless decisions but it’s still a good game I decided on getting.
9:34 While true that you don't have to worry *that* much about the choices, they do actually matter. At certain points you can get a game over if you make the wrong choice. Of course, you can reload your save and make a different one, so it's not a huge deal. Still, while having a flowchart of all the paths certainly isn't necessary, the game does clearly want you to think about what choice you're making and consider it carefully.
I definitely appreciate a video like this. i want this game so bad, but without enough money I'll have to wait to see it on sale to get it.
I figured you were grinding this game out the past week, and man, was I right. Great review, Ghast!
Would love to see more Triangle Strategy stuff from you! you bring a very interesting perspective with you
Still on my first blind playthrough, hard mode and at chapter 10 and im loving it soo much
Commenting for the algorithm, but thanks for the review Ghast. Looking forward to this game.
Glad I got to see this.
There are two things I rely on more than anything: enemy threat ranges & fast speed text/menus/animations. It sounds like thats not the case here.
Might still try it, but at least I know I'm gonna struggle with the UI
The writing on some of the side characters, especially Benedict, is super underrated.
The only thing I looked up about this game was the NG+ and the benefits. I didn't know how I would manage the idea of playing the entire game from start to finish, but then I learned that NG+ was well aware of the strain, so that became a non-issue.
The story plot, the character development, the in-game politics, the faith towards a "Learning / religion".. man this game is a blast, complex yet fascinating to play despite its only in a small world, take a place, and a heavy dialogue. dude this is a gold amongst turn based Strategy-RPG. relieve the glory of golden era, Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Tactics
Randomly recommended this video by UA-cam. Not really a FE guy but your style of video is really chill. Good content in my opinion
Really glad this was spoiler free and a great review of it from what you said it seems like the game picks up after the demo because the demo to me seemed like a visual novel that had some tactics gameplay involved.
Having all that choice does make sense for those of us who'll play through the game more than once. I don't have the time for that, unfortunately. I want the best choices when I go through, because I'll only be going through once. The best choices will be those that give me the best ending. I'm sure there are guides out there which don't spoil the story and simply say, "PICK THIS". I love the ambition of choices with consequences, but they only really matter when you're going to play through it more than once. If you're only playing through a 40 hour game one time, and you get to the end only to get the "You bad crappy choices. Evil wins" ending - it's going to leave a very sour taste because that's the only ending you'll see.
I really appreciate this video! Irl has been busy so Im not very far into the game, but my biggest worry was how much the story might or might not grab me. It's good to know I should be okay on that front.
I got the demo with the idea that I’d just do that to get my fill and play later when I wasn’t as busy. I bought the game after finishing chapter three and I’m hooked tbh. I’m on chapter 5 right now on normal and it’s insanely fun while remaining difficult. It’s still got a little clunk from the original demo but other than that the game play is super fun. I wish my midterms weren’t coming up so I could play it more
I remember watching previews and it giving similar impressions mentioned, a Tactics Ogre vibe, for so long wishing there were more games like that.
I didn't know this game finally came out until this video, what made me most interested on watching it was the "Spoiler Free" part.
Progression and letting unused units catch-up sounds exciting.
Watched the video twice and must say you made me look up my switch to charge it to get the demo.
I grew up playing Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Tactics Ogre. Your video made me excited to want to play it, seriously!
artdink, the developers of this game, were actually the studio that ported the original Ogre Battle and Tactics ogre to PSX. while those ports were...not very good, this project is so good, I am convinced Quest's developers (the creators of both ogre battle and Tactics) ended up in artdink after the studio collapsed over 20 years ago.
It doesn't quite replace those games, but it's by far the closest we've gotten in ages, definitely worth the time and money.
Thanks! Was trying to decide if I was going to buy it. Good info here.
Loved the spoiler-free review!
I just bought a Nintendo switch a few days ago, something to bring with me when I travel for work. I’ve always been a huge fan of Rpgs, especially jrpgs.
I planned my first expensive game purchase to be Zelda BOTW, but no store has it in stock. So I dl this demo. And yes, it’s very dialogue heavy but man I love it. Right up my alley. Strategy, politics and turn based combat.
Just picked up the physical copy. Great review 🎉
I can finally watch this review after having experienced everything the game has to offer just now! I absolutely loved Triangle Strategy and it has become one of my favorite games of all time. Your few criticisms are definitely fair though and I can see where you're coming from with them.
I bought this game yesterday and played until the first scales choice was made. So I'm very early in, but so far my impression is: the game will probably benefit from such a heavy focus on story and characters. And I am vastly grateful for the ability to let the dialogue autoplay - I took the opportunity to get up and stretch during the long expositions, while listening to the dialogue unfold. But the fact that after 4 hours of gametime I'd only been in two battles - that's crazy. I think they could have split the expositions with a couple of minor battles thrown in - Serenoa and Roland facing off for fun in a 1v1 or something - just to break up the flow a bit.
I really like this game and want it to do well, i would love to see more Triangle video's ! (Also there isn't much Fire Emblem going on anyway)
Thank you for going more in-depth about the game mechanics than basically all the big-name reviewers
One of the better videos on the game that I've seen, I am still pretty early in the game but I am digging it and I am looking forward to seeing what the story has to offer.
i really enjoyed it too! like you, i bought it for about $90 canadian and that's really steep.... but there's a lot of replay value and with the pace i'm going, i'll get over 90 hours on it so i'm fine with that. there are undoubtedly some notable flaws but it was super enjoyable, definitely no regrets on the purchase for me!
i think the choices kinda follow a mass effect system where the main storyline remains the same despite branches, but i was still satisfied with the whole "choices matter" aspect because different decisions have different resulting battles/maps/recruits.
great review & it would be cool to see more tristrat content from you!
I have played this game, and you echo all of my sentiments exactly.
While it is slow, once it gets going, all of that buildup at the beginning really pays off!
I recommend this game. 9/10. Not perfect because I feel like the UI in some places is a little rough, but really enjoyed every aspect of it. Story, Combat, Characters, it's all here.
This game has a few things that I would like Fire Emblem to do, most notably route splits and the exp curve that discourages overleveling.
Helped convincing me in getting the game. Definitely would like to see more vids like this my guy.
Literally just sold me the game. Loved the review.
Spot on review, i agree with everything here and I was pleasantly surprised by the normal difficulty and the deep of strategy required.
I’d love to see your spoiler thoughts on the game. Hearing your particulars would be very fun.
Thought this was a great well structured video!
I’m still not 100% convince on trying out Triangle Strategy as money is tight for me but I’d love to hear more from you and your thoughts on the game and other games that you’re interested in!!!
Cheers!
Just try the demo and see if it’s your thing. Although, tbh even in the demo, the most exciting parts of the plot don’t come in until at least chapter 5. So if your only criticism is “eh….the story is meh and it’s going too slow” trust me, it gets MUCH better past chapter 5
Beat the game on Normal and about half way through NG+ on Hard.
Funny thing is, the game clearly intends for you to see one of the 3 "suboptimal" endings before going for the Golden ending in NG+, but if you follow the standard JRPG tropes path, it's easy to inadvertantly get locked into the Golden ending on your first run. I had to literally screw myself out of the Golden path on my first run at the very last moment for sake of replayability.
Gameplay wise, it's a little rough around the edges, especially for a FE fan, since IS clearly has decades of know how and a well tested template to fall back on with this genre of games. IMO this team has great vision and are master storytellers, and I certainly hope they stay in the SRPG business.
Super glad to hear you're enjoying this game, I hope you make more videos about it. My main gripe with the story of this game is a certain important cutscene from around chapter 3 that gave me vibes from Azure Moon chapter 17 if you know what I mean. But oh well. I'm not finished with my first playthrough yet, only about halfway. Some of these maps I just get destroyed on
Someone goes insane and has to be saved? Or someone wanting to mass murder bandits in a firey rampage? You were sorta unclear. That sort of plot detail seems like something in the mid-late game, not the early game. (unless it's the villain)
Yeah I'm Canadian too and the price really caught me by surprise.
My first run through the game is on hard.. and its amazing, the balance is great and often the first run at a map feels imposible but the second is doable one you know what to expect from the enemies and the map itself.
Skirimishes feel easy compared to story battles which i appreciate as not everything has to be hard.
I do agree the utilities characters feel unusable on hard, cant have more than a couple of them on your team.
I love these I played said hours reviews. They help alot! because i get to be okie I go buy and then also tips etc but not too many!
Took me 40 hours to get through my first playthrough on hard mode. I should've saved that difficulty for new game plus as that would've been a bigger challenge. But I enjoyed it nevertheless.
I picked Hard for what seemed like good reason at the time ("I wanna milk more hours for a game at this price!!!").... and not a battle to date had been played and won IN ONE ROUND. Most of my EXPs are Retreat EXPs. 😂 Serves me right for going waaaaay over my own head, but I've settled into Hard mode now that going back down will dampen my experience of the game.
Have you beaten it already under 40 hours?? I don't think I've even passed the mid-story mark at all. I repeated the same battles sooooooo many times damn
@@lyndiss.2017 haha no. Same on my end most of the maps took me hours to complete and I was shocked that I was able to do a handful of them in one try. I did spend a lot of time in encampment and doing those mock battles and getting a feel for some of my units but I'm glad I did as I got to appreciate the game a lot more.
@@darkhandguy Oh, mock battles! I skimped on that because I can't fork up enough precious coins hahaha. My gang is always so too close to being broke, good grief
ive been hoping for a video exactly like this since the game released, so thanks a ton for making it! i didn't know this game got 2 demos so i'll check them out and hopefully end up getting the game itself; it looks like a quality title for sure.
I don't think you can actually download the first demo anymore. It's been delisted like the first BD2 and Octopath ones.
Re: framerate stuff. I played on a new OLED, so it’s not just your older switch acting up. The game does lag a bit.
The game took a month to arrive for me in Brazil so I'm just playing it now. It's really slow and all. I loaded my save from the demo (which I played on hard) and I'm really hating the grind right now. Just got from a "lvl 7 recommended" to a "lvl 9 recommended" and spent 3 hours to try to level up the party to lvl 9 and still haven't done with everyone. As I'm having more and more units to join, I'm still unsure about who I should use in any map so I'm trying to level up everyone and it's taking a hellish time to do that, as even in the recommended level you could get overhelmed pretty easily. So I take by your review I probably shoud focus on some units and forget about the others for some time...
I resonate with the review here. The battle system is fantastic and varied while making sure that you aren't just going to trivialize and pubstomp it. It really tries to make you build a strategy and I've certainly developed a turtling playstyle most of the time myself. Though it may be because the background story going into the fight and layout of the map forces you to do so for some chapters, and in some others it is set up for you to be the aggressor
I enjoy the story very much as it makes me think about choices for the sake of the game, choices for that reflect my beliefs, and also choices that challenges reality (likely influenced by the unfortunate world situation we are in). That said, I agree that Serenoa as a main character, is very much like a blank slate (and perhaps this is why some may consider his voice acting, uninspiring or lacking... conviction). I am on my first playthrough of the game on hard mode for the so called "Serenoa ending" and though I haven't experienced the other routes, this particular ending definitely forces you to go back and forth between various convictions. At times you may feel inconsistent with your choices and from my experience, the game doesn't shy away from hinting you are making contradictory choices over what seems to be similar situations but with slight nuances. Some may dislike this, but I take it that this is one of the stories/impressions that the writers/developers want to impress onto the players, that between morality, utility and liberty there is a time for everything. And you get this sense from your NPC allies too as they come to grip with the in-game situation and reality at hand
For the gripes, everything said about the UI and UX jank, the heavy exposition which may come off as unnecessary or extra unnecessary at times (though I love the character deep dive) is definitely there but it's not enough to detract me from the game at least
P.S yea I noticed that enemies do not like going through fire (not always), which makes me want to try out more oil jug + frederica strats
I go straight to Hard mode (instead of doing so on NG+) because I think it will prolong my gameplay and milk out all the hours on a game at this price, which is my default gaming philosophy. Of course, I actually suck at gaming by default 😂, so no battles have been won on ONE TRY... not even chapter goddamn 1 with the pirates! Hahahahha! Damn, the EXPs I got from retreating...
Frederica + oil jugs (other times, Frederica + grass) is actually one of my oft-visited tactics as soon as oil jugs are introduced and made available from merchants. I usually combine them with Jens' boing-ing-ing! traps to _try_ to restrict the enemies' attack angles. Catapulting them out of high ground to lower terrain as they barrel through fire I set up often incur way more damage (and *glee* ) than having my units engage them in true melee, haha!
I haven't even finished my first run. Hell, I doubt I've reached the mid-story mark, too. I kept losing and retreating and restarting over and over again... because I really bit off more than i could chew by picking Hard Mode, heh!
What are your favorite tactics to go to when playing? Maybe I can learn something from others better than me!
@@lyndiss.2017 Later chapter fights definitely require more attempts for me. Also, some NPC AI would be programmed in a specific way that is not immediately apparent just from seeing the map format. Once you notice some quirky patterns, often it is to your benefit and you can tune your strategy to be more aggressive/defensive as needed
As much as there's fun in strategizing beforehand, it is equally fulfilling to re-strategize as you proceed
Oh and one more thing I've found useful is to embrace letting your units die in battle. I think hard mode is partly optimized around losing your units in exchange for a favourable outcome
Story has been the gem of this title for me so far. Personally felt like the difficulty wasn't as challenging as other TRPG's (FFT, Tactics Ogre, Fell Seal, and BG3 all felt more difficult) so I switched to hard mode within 2-3 battles.
As to your comments on laggy screens, that must be a console limitation. It's run flawlessly on PC. If you haven't played FFT, you'd be shocked at how far combat QoL has come. The camera on FFT was abysmal, you couldn't preview actions, there were no color coded squares or line of sight indicators etc. This title would be a lot easier for someone new to the genre to dip their toe into than others, imo.
Thanks for your honest review 👍
Excellent review, short, precise, and straight to the point. I was on the fence as to whether or not I wanted to buy this game, but you completely convinced me.
I really love this game. I agree do not look up walkthrough. I never felt like I made the wrong choice. Every choice feels like it was the correct one, the one the devs intended. Which is very rare for branching path games. I usually have to save/reload many times in games with branching paths. In my play through I always saved before just In case I didn't like the choice but quickly forgot about that save just to overwrite it the next time
I don't plan on playing but I'll watch your videos about the story and characters and stuff👍
Thanks for the review. Been teetering over on buying it or not but thanks to your review I'm gonna get it
I quite liked your spoiler free review, havent started yet so its nice being able to hear about gameplay and I very much appreciate the insistence on playing blind. I know I can be bad for trying to play a game the "right" way lol.
Also nice to have some solidarity on how much the game costs in CAD! Games are so expensive these days
I’m taking a break from it as we speak! I’m only 10-20 hrs in but the more I play it the more I like it.. I’m not sure if it’s quite on the same level as FE or Valkyria.. Nevertheless it’s perfect for spring 2022 and especially in light of the Advance War remake delay it brings the title a little bit more to the forefront..
I love the way this game felt during the demo, and I want to get the full version. However I'm waiting until it goes onto steam because I'd rather play it on the steam deck than the nintendo switch. I wish that they'd hurry up and release the game to steam though!
Yeah, it’s really smart of them to make it so
1. It’s not really possible to over level, for example, it’s going to be VERY rare for you to be over the recommended level for a particular battle.
HOWEVER
2. If you are BELOW the recommended level, it is ridiculously easy to REACH that recommended level.
That’s a really nice trade off and smart way of doing things, even if every unit you have is at the recommended level, the map will still pose SOME challenge every time. It’s not like in fire emblem how you can just steamroll with one unit or an elite team of 4-5.
Gotta say, this game has hooked me in way I have not seen since I first entered the worlds of fire emblem. The only thing I regret is doing just what you warned about and overthinking my choices and looking up guides due to my time with bioware games and the 5d mental chess it usually takes to get a golden ending
With Russian Eshop not available for SOME reason, the only way to by the game would be physical copy, which might costs around 6000 roubles (granted that Nintendo of Eurooe converts prices from Euro to Rouble without any regional prices)
Can't wait too play this next month when it releases on PC.
My favourite game in a long time. I have a hard time but this game really helps
Spoiler free reviews are awesome. Well done.
Just a question but why is 90 cd (around 60 euros/usd) "steep". Isn't every Nintendo game that isnt very short that price?
Damn, rock solid review! Great work!
Haven’t run into the framerate issue, but definitely noticed the AI sometimes struggles during moves and will take a significant amount of time to take a turn even on sped up.
I've been playing this game for a couple of days, first tried the demo to see what it was about and it got me hooked. It is very dialog heavy but I personally see it more like a movie that you interact with and its been very enjoyable.
Although I have to say 60dlls for the game felt a little expensive for me, still got it though
I deffo agree with the UI colours, wish those were editable or something. Or like yeah, im so used to FE3H gameplay UI i kinda wish they just took what they did, but love the game still
This game was an instant grab for me since the 2020 demo,My first FE game was 3 houses and I put 600+hrs into it.To me this game is so similar and fun like 3 houses that it’s only right you do a video about the 6 strongest units in triangle strategy.