It has been a long time since Square Enix put out a strategy RPG on consoles like Triangle Strategy. It has been even longer since they have made a Final Fantasy Tactics game despite fan outcry. Will fans ever get a new one or even a re-release of one of the classics? The future is unknown but Square Enix is not shy about remasters and remakes.
What is known is that Triangle Strategy is here and it has been doing great in reviews. It is a return to the classic formula, satisfying in almost every way. However, it's seemingly impossible to release a game without any problems. These are just a few examples of the things this lengthy game gets right and wrong.
8 Best: The HD-2D Graphics
The most jaw-dropping thing players will notice right away is Triangle Strategy's art style. What began as a one-off has turned into a series of games. The HD-2D aesthetic is seemingly here to stay with Live a Live also receiving the same treatment, and it’s easy to see why Square Enix is keen on this graphical style.
It brings both old school and modern values into the light. Triangle Strategy is an impressive-looking Switch game five years into its life cycle.
7 Worst: A Lack Of Character Portraits And Cutscenes
There is something about Triangle Strategy's production value that feels missing. Where are the character portraits? There are so many characters in the RPG that keeping track of them all is near impossible. There is art for every major character in the game too. They just aren’t spliced together.
One thing that is missing completely is cutscenes. The PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics added cel-shaded cutscenes to some major plot points, and they looked great. They aren’t needed in Triangle Strategy but they would have rounded out the package nicely.
6 Best: Satisfying Tactics
It’s been a while since a big-budgeted tactical RPG launched on Switch. It’s as close to a sequel as Final Fantasy Tactics as fans are going to get for now. That’s not to say Triangle Strategy is an example of beggars can’t be choosers – far from it, actually.
Every aspect of combat is satisfying. The one downside is the lack of interchange job classes. Autobattles would have also been nice. Those are small nitpicks in an otherwise simple but robust strategy RPG.
5 Worst: Mock Battles
There aren’t many opportunities to grind in the game outside mock and story battles. Mock battles reuse old maps to put the team against an assortment of soldiers. This is a great way to level up experience; however, leveling up isn’t the only way to strengthen characters. Players must acquire materials that then go into a type of skill tree.
There is also money needed for various items like in a typical RPG. It’s harder to get materials or money in mock battles, which again, makes upgrading certain aspects tricky. It gets better the deeper players get into Triangle Strategy, but it can still be a struggle.
4 Best: The Music
The score in Triangle Strategy is purely outstanding. This may look like a fancy 16-bit RPG but it sounds as mesmerizing as something on modern consoles. The battle music, in particular, feels like the spirit of Final Fantasy Tactics coming through. It will get players pumped up for battle.
It’s the type of game that should get a lot of players online to buy the CD whenever it is out. It shouldn’t be surprising by now that Square Enix hires great musicians for their RPGs and yet Triangle Strategy still manages to stun.
3 Worst: Too Much Talking
There is an aspect of the sound that is not perfect. The voice acting, for about 80% of it, is great in English. The acting isn’t the problem though, it’s the amount of dialogue. Many fractured scenes take players back and forth on the map, even if a scene is continued from that same point.
It would have been preferable to have one giant cutscene rather than a bunch of them. In general, there is way too much talking. The characters and story are well-done, but it could have been tighter and presented better. There is nothing worse than a meandering conversation in an RPG.
2 Best: Autoplaying Dialogue
Even though there is a lot of talking in Triangle Strategy, it gives players options to skip past them. There is a fast-forward button to get through some of the more dead conversations. There is also a complete scene skip button.
For those that want to enjoy the story but do not want to pay perfect attention, there is a button for that as well. Players can autoplay the dialogue. This negates the need to hit a button to skip to the next speech bubble every time. It’s been done in RPGs before, but it still deserves applause here.
1 Worst: Game Of Thrones Troubles
Triangle Strategy suffers from the same thing that plagued Game of Thrones. There are a lot of characters with relationships to others, each presiding over distant lands. There are the three main kingdoms of Glenbrook, Aesfrost, and Hyzante, but then there are houses and factions within each.
There is a button players can hit during conversations to get brief character highlights. This can help, but it’s still tricky to keep track of them all. It is a double-edged sword and can be a nice problem to have in a story. Multiple characters give the world a more lived-in feeling at the cost of being confusing at times.
Triangle Strategy was released on March 4, 2022 and is available on Switch.