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Project Triangle Strategy demo discussion - available now for Nintendo Switch (new SRPG from Octopath Traveler devs)

Noncanon Ship

Noncanon Ship

Banned




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Game Info:​

As the name suggests, Project Triangle Strategy (working title... hopefully) is an SRPG by the Square Enix team that made Octopath Traveler and will release in 2022. It was announced during the Nintendo Direct on Feb 17 and the demo is available now! Why is the demo so early? Because the devs are planning to take player feedback, just like they did with Octopath Traveler. So if you want to influence the course of the game's development, now's the time to jump in.

You lead a party as Serenoa who is the head of House Wolffort, one of 3 demesnes in the Kingdom of Glenbrook. On the day that you were supposed to marry princess (and fire mage) Frederica Aesfrost, her brother invades the land and seizes control of the capital city, disrupting a very short-lived peace between the 3 nations: the Grand Duchy of Aesfrost, the Kingdom of Glenbrook, and the Holy State of Hyzante. It's up to you, your fiancée, and a coterie of loyal friends and allies to protect the prince, uncover and expose the schemes of the Aesfrosti Duchy, and take back your land.


Working title: ....Project Triangle Strategy
Genre: ...............SRPG
Developer: ........Artdink (assistance on Ogre Battle MotBQ and Tactics Ogre LUCT, A-Train, Wonder Boy remake)
Publisher: .........Square Enix
Producer: .........Tomoya Asano (Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler)
Composer: .......Akira Senju (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Iron Chef, Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike)
Release: ...........2022

​

Demo Features:​

  • Chapter 6 (Remember Me) and Chapter 7 (Forced Hands, Fractured Bonds)​
  • 3 battles: 1 in Chapter 6 and 1 of 2 possible battles in Chapter 7 depending on which choice you make​
  • 3 potentially recruitable characters: Ezana Qlinka, Medina Alliam, and Julio Lightman (your choices in the demo matter)​
  • 3 choice-based alignments for decisions/dialog: Utility, Morality, or Liberty (...you see the 'triangle' trend they've got going on yeah?)​
  • they will send out surveys and take player feedback from you if you play the demo (they implemented player feedback in Octopath Traveler)​
  • actually readable font size unlike FE:3H​
  • a knockoff chocobo mount​
  • a horse that can climb ladders​
  • battlefield terrain has multiple tiers, and attacks have a height range as well as distance - some attacks are strong from a height above​
  • magic attacks, special actions, and special melee/ranged attacks all consume the same resource: Tactical Points. Each party member gains 1 TP at the start of their turn and can store them up. Some have passive skills that allow them to gain more depending on factors like the terrain​
  • turn order in battle is determined by Speed rating - this means that the enemies' turns are intermixed with your party's, rather than having your turn phase followed by the enemy's turn phase​
  • ability to manipulate turn order with TP-consuming special skills like magic and yelling loudly​
  • elemental magic (fire, water, lightning, ice) that interact (e.g. lightning spreads through water and electrocutes enemies standing in flooded terrain)​
  • you explore the battlefield before commencing battle, so you know the layout of the terrain​
  • merc your enemies by making them a sandwich: by positioning two party members on either side of an enemy (back-front or side-side) you will team up on them for a double combo beatdown​
  • tactical stealth spy action​
  • hit & run: you can move a character after they take action​

Demo Link:​

www.nintendo.com

TRIANGLE STRATEGY™ for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Game Details

Three nations battle for control over the realm of Norzelia in Square Enix’s newest HD-2D adventure
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com


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So has anyone played it? How do we not yet have a thread to discuss it. Don't tell me nobody is interested in srpgs...
 
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Tbone3336

Tbone3336

Gold Member
I only heard about it over the weekend looking into Bravely Default 2. Downloaded and have not played this yet, but looks very promising and apparently there are a good 5 hours or so available in the demo from a twitch stream that ran close to 4 1/2 and not completed yet. Cannot wait to dive in tonight.
 
Andyliini

Andyliini

Member
I'll check it out, though I'm not really a fan of this style of game. I'll just play trough Super Mario 3D World, then I'll check this before Bravely Default 2 arrives on Friday.
 
R

RebellYell

Banned
The voice actor for that Serenoa character is absolutely sublime, the most emotive and passionate performance I've ever seen for a JRPG.

The rest of the demo was dull as dish water, typical Square Enix rubbish to be fair.
 
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Noncanon Ship

Noncanon Ship

Banned
Did anyone manage to unlock the 3rd option for Erador or Anna when trying to convince them to fight to protect the prince instead of giving him up? I could unlock the 3rd option with every other person except them.

Also, I can't for the life of me figure out what the pattern is for getting the recruitable characters. Like in the last two dialog choices before the big battle, if I pick the Utility then the Morality option, I get Julio. But if I pick what I think is the Morality then the Utility option, I get Medina. If I'm labeling them right, I should get the same character regardless of order.


This is what I think the dialog options are...
(L is liberty, U is utility, M is morality)

Hughette dialog:
1. Flee by yourself (L)
2. Fight together (U)
3. Prince must survive even if we don't (M)

Pre-decision dialog:
1. You expect me to make a decision right now (L)
2. I'm more confused now (M)
3. Both sides have merit (U)

Roland dialog:
1. Don't think of revenge (M)
2. Avlora is yours (L)
3. Don't fight alone (U)

Anna dialog:
1. We must eliminate threats to the town and people (U)
2. I'll offer comp (L)
3. He's my friend (M)

But it just doesn't make sense based on the results I get. For different combos of Roland/Anna dialog, I get Medina whenever I choose Roland's 1 or Anna's 1. I only get Julio if I choose 3/3. I get nobody if I choose 3/2, 2/3, and 2/2. So clearly I'm either labelling things wrong (probably Anna's options) or I don't understand some mechanic.
 
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U

UnNamed

Banned
Good contents, good graphics but a little bit blurry.
It's similar to Final Fantasy Tactics/ Ogre Battle with this new mechanic of multiple choices, it can be interesting but it can be also a slightly different approach to an old formula. In fact, even in Octopath Traveler, the eight paths were a mere excuse, a not so different approach to the classic party. Instead of having a unique group with multiple stories for every characters like every other classic jrpg, you have distinctive characters with their story but in the end it is the same.
 
Manji Uzuki

Manji Uzuki

Member
Played only the first half of the demo so far. It definitely has potential but i'm cautiously hyped. Octopath was a bit dissapointing in the end so lets see how it goes
 
RuneFactoryFanboy

RuneFactoryFanboy

Member
This game came out of nowhere and I am so excited for it. FFT is easily one of my favorite games of all time, although that said this feels more like Tactics Ogre. That's not a bad thing just more the vibe I get.

A SRPG, with a dark political drama theme and realistic setting. I enjoy games like Disgaea from time to time, but that series doesn't capture the same feeling at all. Nothing is goofy, and battles themselves have a real sense of weight to them. Height difference matters, being shoved off a cliff matters, and there are no giant over the top attacks that would have me searching for the animation-off option.

The speed/dynamic turn order really excites me, because too many other SRPGs do the whole take turns system which I don't like. It changes the dynamic when you have to account for the opposing team being able to move all their units at once, because then I end up playing overly cautious and tiptoeing at the very edge of the enemies attack range.

The music so far is.....kinda meh actually. The orchestral arrangements don't sound displeasing, but it's lacking some of the amazing composition that games like FFT and Octopath had. Visually I like the pixel texture work, while I wish the sprite work was a bit better. I remember when FFT got it's high-res sprite update for iOS/Android and it looked gorgeous.

I'm really curious how many supporting systems are behind the scenes that you can't play with in the demo. Are there job classes? What does equipment look like? I'd also be really curious if the game will support any auto-saving systems so you can go back to certain key decision points without having replay much of the game.

Regardless, I'm really pumped to see more and I'm very happy another game in this vein is being made.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
It has some good ideas(namely how the enemy's range is shown through the red pointers), and some GORGEOUS graphical effects, but some of the VA is... woof. I imagine it was on very short notice, though. I'm curious how much choices will really matter, that'll be the kicker.
 
Kikorin

Kikorin

Member
I'm not an expert of the genre, but I liked it a lot. Remembered me of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but with more intuitive combat and lot of fun ideas. Story seems interesting too and I love the graphics and setting.

I guess I'll buy it when released.
 
H

horkrux

Member
cj_iwakura said:
It has some good ideas(namely how the enemy's range is shown through the red pointers), and some GORGEOUS graphical effects, but some of the VA is...
Click to expand...

It's soooo bad holy shit
Might as well turn off the voices altogether lol

I liked what I've seen so far, but I wasn't far in before the game got stuck on the enemy turn. Oh well.. might as well stop there and just wait for the full game.
 
Marvel14

Marvel14

Banned
Am a big fan of turn based tactical strategy games.

Tried it but didn't grab me...the story is soo long and you have to press a button repeatedly to hurry it along., the turn order, movement and action selection are all confusing, the character models are really washed out and don't do justice to the lively graphics of the environment, you need to "grind scan" the environment when in exploration mode to find stuff which doesn't feel intuitive or deliberate....

Will give it another go this week in case I just caught it on a bad day.
 
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Noncanon Ship

Noncanon Ship

Banned
So this guy on gamefaqs sat down and figured it all out. I confirmed his breakdown as well with my results. I've summarized his findings here:


Dialog Choice Impact on Convictions​

Hughette dialog:
1. Flee by yourself (U)​
2. Fight together (L)​
3. Prince must survive even if we don't (M)​

Pre-decision dialog:
1. You expect me to make a decision right now? (U)​
2. The answer escapes me (M)​
3. Both sides have a case (L)​
​
Vote persuasion:
1. surrender him - convince Erador (must see white scales) (L)​
2. protect him - convince 3+ people (must see white scales*) (U)​
* Getting white scales for #2 requires you to have 1 U point already from past 2 decisions​

Protect Him Route:
Roland dialog:
1. Don't think of revenge (M)​
2. Avlora is yours (L)​
3. Don't fight alone (U)​

Anna dialog:
1. We must eliminate threats to the town and people (M)​
2. I'll offer comp (L)​
3. He's my friend (U)​
​
Surrender Him Route:
1. We have to try (M)
2. Fight may be inevitable (L)
3. Wait for opportune moment (U)


Recruitable Character Conviction Requirements​

Ezana: 2L
Medina: 1M
Julio: 2U


Therefore, to get all 3 recruitable characters in one playthrough of the demo you must do the following:​

- in exactly 1 of the first 2 choices, make 1 U choice​
- Vote: protect him (and convince 3) (+1 U)​
- make 1 M choice​
- make 2 L choices​

For example:
- Hughette: #2 (fight together) - L​
- Pre-decision: #1 (expect a decision now) - U​
- Vote protect and convince 3 - U​
[ should unlock Julio now ]​
- Roland: #2 (Avlora is yours) - L​
- Anna: #1 (eliminate threats) - M​
[ should unlock Ezana and Medina now ]​
 
Sejan

Sejan

Member
I really liked the little that I played of the demo. I didn’t finish it, though, because I’d rather wait until it releases to play it. Same thing I’ve done with the Bravely Default 2 demos.
 
Velius

Velius

Banned
I finished it. I enjoyed it a great deal.
Things I really like:
1) Different choices appear to have a profound impact on story arcs and battles. If they take this an run with it, I will absolutely buy and love it.
2) Unique characters- this is a huge upgrade from Tactics. I'm not shitting on Tactics it's in my top 5 games of all time. But the generic troops lineup was disappointing. This appears to give the units a "Fire Emblem" kind of specificity, along with the gameplay complexity of the Tactics characters.
3) The story is truly compelling. The characters are brilliant and you bond with them instantly. They're memorable too, even though there's a lot of them I didn't have any issue remembering who was who. I'm genuinely interested in seeing what happens. It has a strong lineup of interesting villains too which is huge.


Things that worry me:

1) Music kind of sucks-- some of it is really good but most of it is either forgettable or just... unpleasant.
2) Equipment is lacking. I don't think there's any armor. A slot for a weapon, and maybe one or two accessories. That does not make me happy.
3) This is probably nit-picking but... I don't like how there are only four "angles" for each sprite in combat. There should be eight, not just four diagonally facing ones. Also, if you're not going to give fluctuating isometric perspective, don't allow for vertical panning of the camera. It just looks weird.
 
M

Merkades

Member
Think I will wait for the PC version in a few years so I can turn off all that god awful effects garbage (specifically the DoF and vignetting). Octopath Traveler is so much better without that crap.
 
Furball

Furball

Member
It has potentinal but there are flaw .
1. UI kinda messy and complicated , you has to press more button to alchive same result like tactic Orge and FFtactic
2. Overused of Blur and depth of field . Seriously , this make the game look low res and hurt my eye
3. Muisc is a miss . It pretty standard orchestral unlike Tactic orge or FFT which has really distinct sound that focus on Military and war theme , this one feel mismatch . Wonder why they dont just hire Basiscape
4. Game Font and Speech box not look stylish enough .
 
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Shifty1897

Shifty1897

Member
This game is freaking great and I love it. There's a few QoL improvements I'm suggesting on the feedback survey, but this feels like a worthy successor to Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre.
 
Marvel14

Marvel14

Banned
Hawks Eclipse said:
Could you name a few of your favourites so we know where you're coming from? Cheers.
Click to expand...
I've sunk 100+ hours into Fire Emblem 3 Houses.

Age of Empires, Civilization are classics that have been close to my heart for years. Fire Emblem Awakening was great too...I started Disgaea 5 and had to stop because it was threatening to take over my life.
 
J

JunkerWoland

Member
I finished the demo, but did not enjoy my time. Before any usability nitpicks, the judgement system is likely a non-starter; I don't mind being held to decisions, but have no interest in playing mini-text adventures to determine the outcome of my choices.

By the end of the demo, my eyes were tired from the mixture of color palette & graphic filters, size & flatness of the sprites, and the camera's distance from the battlefield, coupled with the various larger structures dotting the terrain. The visuals during battles had me spending most of my time in the overhead view, to limit constantly futz with the camera. The battle menus and controls need streamlining; they didn't see me taking unintended actions, but I'd often get myself lost in turn selections and need to restart. Additionally, if the final game's flow remains jumping between lengthy story sequences before fights, then scene & screen transitions need to load faster.
 
Sejan

Sejan

Member
Furball said:
It has potentinal but there are flaw .
1. UI kinda messy and complicated , you has to press more button to alchive same result like tactic Orge and FFtactic
2. Overused of Blur and depth of field . Seriously , this make the game look low res and hurt my eye
3. Muisc is a miss . It pretty standard orchestral unlike Tactic orge or FFT which has really distinct sound that focus on Military and war theme , this one feel mismatch . Wonder why they dont just hire Basiscape
4. Game Font and Speech box not look stylish enough .
Click to expand...
I’m glad this is another example of SE releasing a demo with the intention of getting user feedback to improve the experience. I liked the little that I played so far, and I have high hopes that they are going to make some adjustments to better the game based on that feedback. This SE actually feel in touch with their fans rather than the SE that releases FFXIII and the first version of XIV (XV to a lesser extent, but they did get feedback on that one. I just think the premise of the game was flawed from the get go). I’d love to see this model from more devs in the future.
 
Noncanon Ship

Noncanon Ship

Banned
RuneFactoryFanboy said:
The speed/dynamic turn order really excites me, because too many other SRPGs do the whole take turns system which I don't like. It changes the dynamic when you have to account for the opposing team being able to move all their units at once, because then I end up playing overly cautious and tiptoeing at the very edge of the enemies attack range.

The music so far is.....kinda meh actually. The orchestral arrangements don't sound displeasing, but it's lacking some of the amazing composition that games like FFT and Octopath had. Visually I like the pixel texture work, while I wish the sprite work was a bit better. I remember when FFT got it's high-res sprite update for iOS/Android and it looked gorgeous.

I'm really curious how many supporting systems are behind the scenes that you can't play with in the demo. Are there job classes? What does equipment look like? I'd also be really curious if the game will support any auto-saving systems so you can go back to certain key decision points without having replay much of the game.
Click to expand...

I agree having the enemy turns intermixed really does change how you approach things strategically, especially when you have abilities to delay an enemy's turn on hit. I find I play far more aggressively. I do wish though that enemies were more distinguishable visually. I toggled the L3 to show turn order on top of everyone because it's really hard to tell otherwise.

I'm really hoping for the music thing they just don't want to show off too much of it or something. They got Akira Senju, who is apparently a bigshot anime, tv, and movie composer in Japan.

I also wonder about what systems are hidden from us. It seems more like we just have characters with skills and roles unique to them. It was looking like the greyed out ability listed for each character unlocked at level 10. I wonder if there will be any choice at all with their level ups or classes. If they're going to focus instead on finding and recruiting a bunch of unique characters then it kinda sucks that the recruited characters don't participate in the story missions.

Velius said:
Unique characters- this is a huge upgrade from Tactics. I'm not shitting on Tactics it's in my top 5 games of all time. But the generic troops lineup was disappointing. This appears to give the units a "Fire Emblem" kind of specificity, along with the gameplay complexity of the Tactics characters.

Equipment is lacking. I don't think there's any armor. A slot for a weapon, and maybe one or two accessories. That does not make me happy.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a good point about the equipment. The encampment seems to suggest that there's going to be a weapon maintenance mechanic in the game and a forging or improving mechanic. I wonder where they're going with that and what it takes to improve weapons.

Valkyria Chronicles had a great solution for the problem of how to create unique characters you care about when they have generic classes, without having their own sidequests or special scenes. Each character had special attributes that would unlock the more experience they had being deployed - and some were unique to them otherwise the combo of abilities was unique - as you got to learn more about them (more information added to their biography page). These attributes reflected their personality and past experiences, like for example they have fear of heights (lowered attack from high positions) or they'll show off (better accuracy) in front of the opposite sex. I grew very attached to those peasants. :'-) Except for the 'humanitarian' girl who would sometimes refuse to shoot.
 
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E

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
Yoshichan said:
I love it, wish the graphics wasn’t so blurry but everything else is EXCELLENT
Click to expand...
I only got through the first battle. I liked it a lot. I plan on continuing it soon. I just got Marion 3D World last week and Person 5 Strikers today, so I'll squeeze the rest in.

How long the the whole demo? I wish the progress carried over, but it's from the middle of the game so I know it can't.
 
Synless

Synless

Member
I liked it and needed something to scratch my Tactics itch. That being said all I thought while playing is that I wish it was Octopath 2.
 
RuneFactoryFanboy

RuneFactoryFanboy

Member
Noncanon Ship said:
I agree having the enemy turns intermixed really does change how you approach things strategically, especially when you have abilities to delay an enemy's turn on hit. I find I play far more aggressively. I do wish though that enemies were more distinguishable visually. I toggled the L3 to show turn order on top of everyone because it's really hard to tell otherwise.

I'm really hoping for the music thing they just don't want to show off too much of it or something. They got Akira Senju, who is apparently a bigshot anime, tv, and movie composer in Japan.
Click to expand...
The look is a bit weird, I'd almost call it too "busy". The horizontal turn order portraits at the bottom does help, but since most of the enemies are generic it still gets a bit hard. I do like that L3 toggle, it's just that puts ugly borders on everyone so toggle it on and off to glance at the units I deem dangerous.

Something else I forgot to mention about the look, unfortunately it looks like the nasty dithering effect on sprites is still there from Octopath. It's fine during normal gameplay and when walking around...but when cutscenes slowly rock the camera back and forth the effect is very jarring.

Music wise we will see, but in my opinion the entire point of a demo is first impressions. The Octopath demo was chock full of amazing music that all made it into the final game. Several amazing town themes, battle themes, and even character themes. Granted comparing it to soundtracks like Octopath is a bit unfair, because not many games have soundtracks that great period.

I do want to fill out the survey because I think the difficulty needs tweaking. Right now the demo feels too difficult/punishing for a newer player. So I'd say either tweak the difficulty or allow the player to grind out levels in random battles to even the odds to their liking.
 
Hawks Eclipse

Hawks Eclipse

Member
Marvel14 said:
I've sunk 100+ hours into Fire Emblem 3 Houses.

Age of Empires, Civilization are classics that have been close to my heart for years. Fire Emblem Awakening was great too...I started Disgaea 5 and had to stop because it was threatening to take over my life.
Click to expand...
Please don't mind me for pointing out that AOE doesn't fit in the TBT genre.

Civ belongs under 4X but I'm not so particular about it being considered as TBT, cause to me the main difference between real time and turn based is that the latter's mistakes are entirely cognitive, whilst the former includes mechanical mistakes in the mix.

Anyway, regarding PTS I get what you mean about the story and while I haven't properly dug into the demo, I don't recall seeing an option to auto-advance dialogue either. At one point I was simply skipping through cause frankly I don't have the patience for most game stories nowadays.
 
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