As we’ve covered many Rogue-lites in the past, one such genre fusion I tend to shy away from is Metroidvania. While I find this meshing to be the most reliant upon RNG and brute forcing through some areas ignoring enemies to survive a run, it can still be executed well, such as in the case of Rogue Legacy 2 and Dead Cells. As such, I’m willing to give newcomer, Trinity Fusion, the old college try. I was keenly interested in the cyberpunk setting and the hook of being able to control three different characters to make for some diverse playthroughs. So, does this title change my mind?

The premise of Trinity Fusion lies in that humanity’s only hope lies with one of three mirror versions of a sentient host that must navigate through multiple biomes of varying enemies and bosses. This is introduced with a scripted loss boss fight at the end of the tutorial and a lengthy meet-and-greet after your first death. It’s in this safe zone where you learn you can navigate your Rogue-lite progression to upgrade a myriad of tools, like bonus health and status effect multipliers, to make the next run just a tad easier towards finishing your goal.

Overall, the difficulty in Trinity Fusion is about where it needs to be, but some enemies are just too much of a nuisance to quell. Take a flying enemy in the Underworld that will instantaneously dash with not enough ample reaction time for you to move. The game tries to counteract this by making their health bars small, but the red flash that precedes the attack comes too late. Past a few annoying enemies, the rest can be defeated with all the tools at your disposal and respecting their attack patterns that you’ll learn through trial and error.

What kept me playing Trinity Fusion was the diversity between weapons and skills. Immediately, I found some strong synergies and went farther than I thought I would in most runs thanks to them. As you’re required to land melee attacks to charge your skill, striking a competent balance between the two was a cinch to pick up on and never leaves the player feeling too overpowered early on. Several playstyles can be accommodated thanks to this, as I took my slow and steady approach quite far into Trinity Fusion with a keen eye on saving resources for upgrades and only grabbing health when I truly needed it.

For the average Metroidvania/Rogue-lite fan, it’s safe to say Trinity Fusion should be worth it for most. It’s quite polished in terms of gameplay, and even if it doesn’t do anything new, it has a strong hold on meaningful progression and that addictive sense of getting better at it over multiple runs. It’s priced well at the $14.99 mark and can easily be recommended when it hits a sale price. So long as you temper your expectations that you’ll have to do some necessary grinding and learning, Trinity Fusion should be a worthwhile endeavor for those so inclined.

A PS5 review copy of Trinity Fusion was provided by Angry Mob Games for the purposes of this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Trinity Fusion

$14.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Strong Setting
• Deep Rogue-lite Elements
• Wealth of Upgrades

Cons

• Sharp Difficulty Spikes
• Some Enemies Too Fast