Game News Triangle Strategy est-il le Game of Thrones de la Nintendo Switch ?
As of February 9, the first three chapters of Triangle Strategy are available via a demo on the Nintendo eShop. Thanks to its first hours of play, Square Enix’s old school Tactical-RPG reveals itself a little more, suggesting a political-fantasy universe that is reminiscent of the books of George RR Martin…
Le Tactical-RPG sauce Game of Thrones
Regulars of J-RPG know it, the genre is not necessarily known for the depth of the scenarios, or at least, of their starting pitch. Without wanting to get into the cliché, apart from the amnesiac heroes, the vile demonic emperors who want to dominate the world and the young teenagers who suddenly find themselves in the place of chosen-on-who-all-rests, there is not much to chew on. However, for their part, Japanese Tactical-RPGs often offer a denser universe, bathed in political conflicts with more or less complex cogs. If a series like Fire Emblem remains light, focusing more on the characters, other games are not afraid to immerse us in a much richer context. This is precisely the case of
TRIANGLE STRATEGYwho plays this card all the way.
The region of Norzélia is divided into three distinct nations. The Duchy of Aefrost to the north, the Kingdom of Glenbrook to the west, and the holy lands of Hyzante to the east. Although peace reigns between these three nations following a bloody war that will have lasted more than 30 years, political and economic tensions remain numerous. As a player, you are the son of the head of House Wolffort, one of the three great houses of Glenbrook. Although you are still learning the workings of politics, you will very quickly have a role to play in this great chessboard, and you will have to make your place according to your own values. Where everything gets complicated is that Triangle Strategy lets you make your own choices, without particularly forcing you to choose one direction or another. Quickly, you understand the complexity of international tensions, but also intra-national ones. In Hyzante, for example, seven “saints” share power, but this supposedly equitable system suggests clear divisions. The Duchy of Aefrost is ruled by a Steward, who has placed his younger siblings around him while treating his more distant family members, including his bastard half-sister, like scoundrels. The half-sister in question being your future wife whom you have just met (the joys of arranged marriages), in other words, it may not facilitate your relationship.
Triangle Strategy – Character Story Trailer
The art of diplomacy
The adventure barely begun, Triangle Strategy drowns you under the characters to such an extent that a button allows you to access a micro-bio each time one of them speaks. Believe us, it’s not too much. Between vassals, ministers, butlers, royal guards, and clan leaders, it’s hard to remember who’s who in the early stages of the game. From the first chapters, you already have a dozen characters in your personal squad, each with a background and a role to play in this universe. But where Triangle Strategy really comes close to Game of Thrones is in the feeling that none of these characters are really indispensable. Understand by this that obviously, almost everyone can die, and Triangle Strategy seems to be one of those games that does not hesitate to kill a good part of the cast. In each dialogue, we have this feeling that everything can change very quickly, the protagonists weighing their words with delicacy in order to avoid starting a war. A work of continual diplomacy in which the player greatly takes part. Thus your words accentuate your character according to three distinct precepts and it is your convictions that will decide who will live the adventure by your side or who will prefer to stay away from you. If this type of system might be likened to karma, it is in fact more ingenious and less Manichean. Strictly speaking, there are no bad choices and, better still, no indication to tell you in which direction your convictions are heading, nor those of the other characters. We will therefore have to play it by feeling, which adds additional tension to all its phases of discussion, especially when we have the impression that the life or death of other protagonists may depend on it even if it remains to be seen on the following chapters.
Triangle Strategy – What is justice in this world?
Triangle Strategy stands out with one last point, that of your choices, which let you decide what happens in the adventure. Indeed, you will not be able to do all the chapters of the game in a single game, some choices closing doors to open others. But where everything becomes strategic is that it is not directly you who will make these choices, but your companions. Since you advocate democracy, your role will be to convince them according to what you want to do, which will be easier if you have managed to collect information through investigation phases. However, depending on the character of your companions and your ability to answer their questions, you may fail and see the majority of your team decide, via a voting system, to go to a city rather than another or to take part to a battle you wanted to dodge for example. Again the political system of Triangle Strategy is very well done and the impression of not having total control of events puts even more pressure on your shoulders.
Although Triangle Strategy has only revealed its first three chapters, we can already see a title much more complete than a simple T-RPG that would take up the codes of the genre. The complex political tensions and dialogue choices with sometimes drastic consequences push the player to never lower his guard, thus making the adventure more intense. We get attached to the characters while trying to discern the true from the false. We look forward to seeing how the story will develop in order to understand the consequences of our decisions, even if the demo already lets us understand that the chapters will sometimes be completely different depending on our strategic orientation.
Triangle Stratégy is out on March 4, exclusively on Nintendo Switch
Through AnagundJournalist jeuxvideo.com
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