I’ve been trying my hardest to get the hours in to play Triangle Strategy. More importantly, I’ve been trying to get in the hours that Triangle Strategy deserves. It gives the game away when I open with lines like that, but I’m long overdue on trying to properly give my thoughts on the classic-style turn-based tactics title that has no business looking as beautiful as it does. Striking from the outset, the almost HD-2D pixel art style that tries to emulate Tactics Ogre with a crisp, depth-of-field-aided beauty with isometric 3D gameplay is breathtaking.

Don’t let that high praise itself act as the entire review, as I’m sure recurring readers will know of my biases when it comes to such a game as Triangle Strategy. Set in a fantasy land of nobles, lords, and ladies fighting verbally and physically over resources, my racism towards the likes of the pointy-eared peasants would normally activate. Similarly, my disposition towards turn-based combat would normally come up as a big issue when it comes to the early Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics gameplay.

There are issues I do have with the PC port by Square Enix, as I’m sure those who’ve played any of the publisher’s titles will also attest easily. Some of those issues are personal gripes too. I’ve said it countless times about games I’ve encountered weekly in the articles on free games on Epic, but screen selection options should be standard in games nowadays. Sure, this is not a problem for everyone, but when you have specific setups and your default monitor isn’t typically your gaming one, it can be particularly annoying.

Similarly annoying (especially on PC) is the fact that it’s impossible to change options while in the middle of what I dare call a cut-scene but is in fact a solid few moments of film. Be it graphical settings you’d rather change or sound and camera settings, you can’t do it for love nor money. Instead, you have to wait for either the scene to end and you return to the overview map, or you get some exploration gameplay or a battle. Both of these are very few and far between depending on where in the story you are. Call me impatient if you must, but those early hours take a lifetime of medieval exposition.

Happily, 90% (a guess rather than a solid number) of the dialogue is fully voiced unlike many of Triangle Strategy‘s primogenitors in the genre of turn-based tactics which it so clearly tries to emulate. As I’ve made apparent countless times  (I’ll be brief), this helps when you don’t typically enjoy such “flowery” and verbal tick-based dialogue due to dyslexia. That said, in exploration gameplay, where you can skip entire conversations in beautiful scenes filled with tiny pixel people, the period drama language and ticks remain but the voiceover doesn’t.

Your main character, Serenoa Wolffort and his wife to be Frederica Aesfrost are prime example number 1 of why typically I’d be turned off by the dialogue alone. The two young nobles in an arranged marriage are constantly restrained. Even Frederica’s cousin Dragan points out “well, the conversation just flows from you two.” Yet somehow, I slowly plowed through the constant restraint and mentions of the needlessly verbose “on the morrow.“

Set in a kingdom of three houses under one king amidst a political slap-fight, you are bestowed the title of lord and have to play peacekeeper in a time of ale running in the rivers and swords on every hip. It becomes clear that you aren’t going to spend your time talking to everyone but you’ll end up in tactics-based battles as some seek to upend this time of peace. As I’ve said, the exposition to get us there is rather lengthy, but that’s the point. Triangle Strategy is a purposefully slow game but once it gets the ball rolling, you’re off to the races or more aptly Question Time to be slapped about because you’re crap at turn-based combat.

Not the most altruistic when it comes to giving you battles, as you may only get one of them per chapter, Triangle Strategy is forgiving where it needs to be but still focuses on story over gameplay. Not typically being a fan of JRPGs, as my editor will testify from our countless back and forths on my inability to generally get into them, Triangle Strategy takes it all back to basics but with some modernizations. Every battle is clear and pristine much like the visual symphony of color and its crisp isometric almost HD-voxel world. 

It is difficult to say whether or not the turn-based combat is accessible to new players of the genre who don’t typically enjoy its sometimes slow nature, especially given that’s often my defense against enjoying older Final Fantasy games. Triangle Strategy certainly cleans up a large portion of that waiting-around period with some basic options. The combat feels impactful with a few simple animations and sound implements. Everything is there to appease my interests that are often ignored with older titles, so I know why I even enjoy the gameplay despite it being rather limited in comparison to the rest of the game.

In your encampment’s tavern, you can do mock battles, which gives you some time to practice with the systems and will sometimes offer rewards by way of spoils for doing so. This also allows you to level up some of your roster of fighters that may otherwise be kept in reserve. This way you don’t go into a battle with entirely underdeveloped characters that better suit going up against specific enemies. Each character has their own class and as you’d expect some of those aren’t going to fair too well against others on the battlefield. Frederica is a pyromancer, Serenoa is a swordsman, Geela (Frederica’s lady in waiting of sorts) is a physician, and so on.

The encampment acts similarly to a trading post, early learning center, and spot to get more detail on the world. However, that is typical of large RPGs to offer things like that, but in an act that I’ve mostly only seen in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there is also a recap tab in your menu called “Path Traveled.” Though it isn’t a cutscene summating all that has happened so far every time you return, you get a brief paragraph telling you what each chapter was about. I wish more 60-hour RPGs would take this idea to succinctly remind me of what I did sometimes because it can be a little confusing otherwise.

I don’t believe anyone would disagree that Triangle Strategy is verbose and dense, both in dialogue and in world-building. In a world that is thrown into political squabbles on top of the magical period fantasy, there is a lot to keep track of. As such, the Path Traveled helps iron out some of those heavier elements. As we can all only give our own opinions, it is difficult to say one way or another how much this helps others that aren’t typical to the vein of JRPGs. From my experience, it is a massive help when you can’t give an entire weekend to consume something like Triangle Strategy.

I honestly don’t think I’m going to give a brand new perspective on the genre or Triangle Strategy that hasn’t already been said or isn’t blatantly obvious in the first place. What I can give though, that many others who’ve indeed played copious numbers of early Final Fantasy games as well as Tomoya Asano’s Bravely Default and highly acclaimed Octopath Traveler cannot, is the perspective of someone who ten years ago would have avoided every JRPG like the plague. Every turn-based tactics fantasy title would also be off my radar too. 

Playing Triangle Strategy not only at its own pace (which is really slow sometimes) but also at my own pace which is not exactly conducive to quickly getting a review out, I found I quite enjoy it. Though some of the characters are shallower than others and the setting can result in quite a few instances of “get to the point already,” I was engaged. That’s not typically a word I use with turn-based titles because a number of them often ask you to call a committee meeting before you down the health potion to save your team from death.

Accessible, that’s what I’d call it. Triangle Strategy, while aiming to give nostalgic fans the flavor of when games had a whole three pixels to render characters, is also very accessible to those that either wilfully passed that by or are too young to have seen it. The easy-to-learn and clean nature of the combat matched with a majority of the lines being voiced set aside a majority of my typical criticisms. To sweeten the deal in a much more superficial way, the art style that is now synonymous with Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy is nothing short of magnificent.

Ultimately, Triangle Strategy is a fantastic turn-based tactics title that brings a breath of fresh air to a classic style of role-play gameplay with a beautiful art direction. Its more than accessible features as well as the simple story of political turmoil make it a great starting point to get into the genres of both JRPGs and turn-based tactics. Though the PC port isn’t the deepest when it comes to graphical options, which is disappointing in some ways, I will say I am pleased by the fast battle and instant text options. Streamlined, beautiful, and a downright joy, the only downside I keep coming back to is its very slow pacing that you have to come down to.

A PC review copy of Triangle Strategy was provided by Square Enix for the purposes of this review.

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Triangle Strategy

$59.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Highly streamlined JRPG experience.
• Look at that art direction, it is stunning.
• An accessible point for the genre.
• The Path Traveled feature.

Cons

• Ask you to rapidly slow down to properly enjoy.
• Not the greatest PC port you've ever seen with options galore.