Trinity Trigger – PC Review

Genre: Fantasy action JRPG
Developer: FURYU Corporation
Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc
Release Date: April 25th 2023
Edited by AlexKnight2005

Trinity Trigger is an Action RPG made by FURYU, and published in the West by Marvelous and XSEED. Inspired by some of the classic JRPGs of yore, we take up the sword of the salvager of Cyan, a salvager turned Public Enemy Number One by a strange twist of divine fate. Not only was is he a Trigger, able to use a fairy-sprite as a weapon (more on that later), and the so-called “Warrior of Chaos—which of course makes him the primary pawn (and greatest enemy) in a wargame the Gods or Order have been playing since time immemorial. It should stand to reason that he’s in for a bad day.

All is not lost, however—he makes a few friends here and there, including two stalwart companions on his quest to bring things to a head and end the gods’ game: Elise, a woman with a burning desire to save him, and an Oracle for the Sun God, Zantis, who got a vision from his particular God to join in the quest. Add in their weapon-partners Flamme, Olise, and Rai, and the mix of personalities can make for some interesting conversations around the campfire.

Cyan’s world is a hodgepodge of different biomes, each or which are found in the last place you’d think to look—the gods of Order have made a chaotic mess of the climate (as you do), and each settlement along the way has a different biome. From temperate forest, to eternal night, next to a glacier, leading to a straight-up desert, complete with sand, and more beyond. It can be a bit jarring, but in the context of the game, it kind of makes sense… sort of. For the record, each of eight weapons was tossed at the continent, each with an element and type—Dark bow, Ice spear, etc. Cyan and Company have to dive into dungeons called “Arma,” each with its own shrines that grant weapons for a Trigger of its element, and there’s a boss in there somewhere that uses the local element. Pretty predictable stuff.

The game itself is done in a three-quarter isometric style with a close camera (so your characters are clearly detailed, and not postage stamps against a huge background). It makes it easy to see where you are on the battlefield, and the telegraph marks for enemy attacks that the devs were gracious enough to include. There’s a limited enemy selection in the trash-mob department, however. Palette Swaps abound between themed environmental niches, and each performs all the same attacks. Some attention was paid to the bosses, which have significant variation in both appearance and mechanics.

 The background music is really quite nice, and blends into the environment after a bit, but still has sufficient presence to be noticeable when it stops for whatever reason. Sound effects are mostly by weapon, with voice-acted yelps and small exclamations to tell you how your party members are doing on the other side of the arena. Connected to all of this is a Ring system, one for weapons, and another for items of all sorts, broken down by type—HP recovery, buffing, debuffing, and so on. With eight weapons types, it can get interesting to find just the right attacks type for a particular enemy. Getting it right can bring even the strongest foes down quickly. Less likable is the stamina wheel that goes down quickly, and regenerates slowly in comparison. Your attack goes down sharply when the little when is exhausted, and you have to run around and avoid enemy attacks while it returns to full. It requires a bit of strategy to get around, however. If you can manage that, you’ll be in good shape, but it does make some battles longer than they really should be.

At its outset, the game is thin on the ground in terms of story, but as you play through the Fifteen to twenty hour campaign, little bits and pieces are added—enough to give you a clear idea of what’s going on and a general idea of why, but not a lot else. The games needs more worldbuilding, to give everything we see in the game a sense of… Dare I say it? Order. Consistency. It’s a bit lacking to my eye, but then I’m the story guy. Good writing in a game is everything, especially in an RPG. Tell the story. Show us all the fun things as well as the exciting things. Here, you get parts of it, and the rest falls down.

Trinity Trigger is intended to be played with a controller, to the point where if you have a controller connected, it will happily ignore the keyboard. To each his own, I suppose. It works well with a controller, and can be a bit slow on the uptake if you’re not intimately familiar with the keyboard controls. It works well, in the first instance, and can in the second if your touch-typing skills are up to snuff. Mine aren’t, so it was the controller for me.

 End of the day, Trinity Trigger is okay for what it intends to be—a love letter to a certain JPRG of the past, with new characters, situations, and a fresh coat of paint. I can recommend it if you liked that game, but if you’re looking for an intro to Action JRPGs, this one’s bit pricey for the runtime compared to others of its type. Many others can be had in a more complete form for less. Buy it if you love this kind of thing, or wait for a significant sale otherwise.

Pros:

• Nice Music
• Clean, responsive controls
• Strategy required, button-mashing not encouraged

Cons:

• Worldbuilding is lacking
• High price point
• Keyboard controls have a learning curve

Lord Crocosquirrel gives Trinity Trigger 5.5 out of 10.0