This led to the Saltiron Wars 30 years previously, but the game starts with a new generation of nobility trying to put the past behind them with a royal wedding. The root of the disagreement between the game’s three warring kingdoms is resources, with one controlling salt, one iron, and the other trade. It’s hard to know for certain what Triangle Strategy’s story influences are but from a Western perspective the immediate point of comparison for a medieval fantasy world locked in a cold war of Machiavellian politics is Game of Thrones. Maybe that’s just the team’s style but the mixture of deathless dialogue, ultra serious plot, morose looking backdrops, and cute little 16-bit characters requires a very particular appreciation of video game history and tropes to take seriously. Square Enix’s HD-2D graphics engine is marvellous, and we very much look forward to the upcoming remake of Live A Live, but its one problem is that it does tend to make everything look very dark. The problem with Triangle Strategy, right from the very start, is that it just won’t stop talking and it becomes increasingly hard to understand why. Octopath Traveler had a similar problem with its inability to ever shut up, but it benefited from considerably more engaging characters and more frequent action sequences. So if you’ve played the demo and were looking for more of the same you need to be prepared to sit through a lot of very dry dialogue in order to get there.Īs you can guess from both the HD-2D graphics and the peculiar name, Triangle Strategy is by the same team behind Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default. No doubt some will find the ponderous plot engaging, but what has been implied to be a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics comes across more like a visual novel than an actual strategy game. The problem is that they stand as oases of gameplay in a sea of never-ending exposition and attempts at political intrigue. That’s not a dig at this being a turn-based strategy far from it, as those are easily the best bits.

Triangle strategy