Triangle Strategy Thread

[Etrurian emperor]

Yeah I can see Aesfrost being Daein and Hyzante being Begnion. Most endings seem to agree that one of those two countries is a lot more deserving of destruction than the other.

Its strange that you never seem to have a mission in the Citadel of the Sands. It features pretty prominently on the map as one of the two settlements within Hyzante, its the lair of a prominent early game villain and from a military perspective the huge fortress on the border seems a very weird place to just ignore when you're fighting a war with Hyzante. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by Etrurian emperor

[Alastor15243]

Hilariously, I just failed my first scales of conviction, and it was what I think was the last one. I wanted to go with Frederica, but thankfully at least Benedict won and not Roland. If Roland had won I would have broken my resolution to let the chips fall where they may and reset for the outcome I wanted, because what the actual fuck. When Roland revealed what he wanted to do I genuinely thought he was impersonated or mind controlled. It was such a farcically abrupt change of character, obviously done just so someone was suggesting it.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Alastor15243

[Etrurian emperor]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hilariously, I just failed my first scales of conviction, and it was what I think was the last one. I wanted to go with Frederica, but thankfully at least Benedict won and not Roland. If Roland had won I would have broken my resolution to let the chips fall where they may and reset for the outcome I wanted, because what the actual fuck. When Roland revealed what he wanted to do I genuinely thought he was impersonated or mind controlled. It was such a farcically abrupt change of character, obviously done just so someone was suggesting it.

You had a good outcome. Its a great route both in terms of story and the stages you get.

It definitely reflect really badly on Roland and he's definitely deluding himself, but I don't think its quite abrupt. Especially if you investigate Patriatte it becomes clear he just wants to get away from it all.

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

It definitely reflect really badly on Roland and he's definitely deluding himself, but I don't think its quite abrupt. Especially if you investigate Patriatte it becomes clear he just wants to get away from it all.

Spoiler

Maybe, but whether or not it makes more sense of him then, it's kind of a joke that, after everything we know about Hyzante, putting them in charge of the whole continent is somehow the "morality" option. They're the least moral country on the continent.

 

[Sasori]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Maybe, but whether or not it makes more sense of him then, it's kind of a joke that, after everything we know about Hyzante, putting them in charge of the whole continent is somehow the "morality" option. They're the least moral country on the continent.

 

Spoiler

The Roland route is actually the utility route since the game frames it as accepting the missery of the few for the happiness of the many. It might work a bit better if Hyzanthe wasn't so much viler then the rest though.

Its interesting to see all three of the characters do a shift from their usual roles with Roland going utility, Benedict going for Liberty and Frederica taking the morality option.

I went with the Roland route to see where it would go, but I did keep thinking 'oh do shut up Roland' whenever he opened his mouth in that route.

 

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Sasori said:

  Hide contents

The Roland route is actually the utility route since the game frames it as accepting the missery of the few for the happiness of the many. It might work a bit better if Hyzanthe wasn't so much viler then the rest though.

Its interesting to see all three of the characters do a shift from their usual roles with Roland going utility, Benedict going for Liberty and Frederica taking the morality option.

I went with the Roland route to see where it would go, but I did keep thinking 'oh do shut up Roland' whenever he opened his mouth in that route.

 

Ah, i see. I wasn't paying attention to which colors represented which over the course of the game.

[vanguard333]

I recently completed the demo. Now, I'm trying to decide whether or not to get the game. The game is definitely interesting, and I think I'm starting to get more used to how turns are done via individual units rather than player phase & enemy phase. I'm still not a fan of the isometric layout as it can lead to some confusion when inputting directions, but I am enjoying the gameplay overall now that I've gotten more used to it. I'm just not sure how much I truly want to play it; I'm still not a fan of the conviction system that's kind-of at the core of the game; I'm all for having choices in games, but I don't like when numerical values are assigned to them.

By the way, for chapter three, did the choice only affect where you go and which character you get, or did it factor into the conviction system?

[Dark Holy Elf]

I've been playing on Hard without any of those optional missions and the game certainly has teeth. There have been a lot of fights (basically everything from chapter 6 through 11) where I lost once, but each time I was able to see where my errors were and adopt a better strategy. I'm a bit walled at chapter 13 though.

Spoiler

I made the choice to blow up the bridge to isolate the castle, and am now fighting off a pincer attack by Erika and Thalas on said bridge.

Obviously I could grind out of trouble but I'll set the difficulty down to Normal rather than do that. May try once or twice more first, though.

 

On 3/14/2022 at 4:28 PM, vanguard333 said:

I'm currently playing the Hyzante version of chapter 3. I'm trying to be careful since I'm up against all mages, but the AI ally unit Exharme just rushes out and gets himself killed every time. Uncontrollable AI ally units are one of my least favourite things about strategy RPGs, so I was wondering: are there any consequences if Exharme is defeated in this chapter?

As far as I'm aware there are never any consequences for a guest character being defeated, unless of course their defeat is listed as a loss condition.

 

[vanguard333]

1 minute ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

As far as I'm aware there are never any consequences for a guest character being defeated, unless of course their defeat is listed as a loss condition.

I see. Thanks for the info.

Personally, I would rather that strategy RPGs just stop with guest characters; they're a nuisance rather than a help.

[Dark Holy Elf]

They do have great potential for frustration but on the whole I've been happy with Triangle Strategy's implementation. So far I've only seen one fight where a guest character was a loss condition and they had a very sensible, defensive AI so were easy to protect. And I wouldn't want to get rid of them entirely because often they do serve a good story purpose.

[vanguard333]

16 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

They do have great potential for frustration but on the whole I've been happy with Triangle Strategy's implementation. So far I've only seen one fight where a guest character was a loss condition and they had a very sensible, defensive AI so were easy to protect. And I wouldn't want to get rid of them entirely because often they do serve a good story purpose.

Fair enough; they're alright for "protect this character" missions. I guess I just don't like them for offense-focused missions, especially when they kill enemies and steal valuable experience points.

[Saint Rubenio]

Oh, I didn't know we had a TS thread. I'm already on my NG+ run. On my first run...

Spoiler

I tried to pick all the most obviously evil options, to see how the game would react. I went to Aesfrost in chapter 3 to disappoint my wife, I gave up Roland to Dolphacula, I willingly murdered Landroi, I smuggled salt for Sorsley, I surrendered the Roselle to their oppressors, I flooded the capital... Aside from revealing Roland's secret to Svarog because I liked him too much not to and going with Freddie to beat up bandits in the abandoned Rosellan village, I mostly listened to Benedict's cold-hearted ass at every opportunity.

Then it turned out Benedict wasn't the evil one. In fact, I was surprised by how emotionally charged his motivations were, in the end. No wonder his conviction turned to liberty, when his whole reason for being the way he is was his frustration at himself and his superiors for the way Destra was used and pushed around until the day of her death. Also a surprise how well his route ended. Things aren't perfect, but all things considered, the man did produce a better Norzelia than what we had at the start.

Between that and how well he lives up to the plot's claims that he's a master strategist, something that doesn't always happen in stories like this, he solidified his position as my favorite of the main eight. He started there just based on his design and he only kept getting better.

Loving the game so far. It does so much just how I like it. Difficulty is on point, unit design and variety are off the charts, the maps are fun, the soundtrack is good, the visuals are good, the story is good, an excellent implementation of NG+... Great game, in my humble opinion. Best strategy game on Switch at the present time for me. We'll see how Mario XCOM 2 measures up.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Saint Rubenio

[Alastor15243]

Incidentally, biggest disappointment in the game so far: Jens.

I picked him because his screen tip said he could make automatic turrets, which sounded hilariously awesome for a medieval fantasy game. I stuck with him the whole game, basically having him do nothing but spam those spring traps to varying effect, only to finally figure out that the turret is a weapon skill you have to unlock at tier 3. Costs 4 TP. But I finally, excitedly used it at this point near the very, very end of the game.

...Cue it missing four consecutive times, and then I discovered it only has 5 ammo and I can't even check its stats to see how much of a fluke that run of terrible luck was.

...Yeah, I think I may be a bit soured on Jens for a while.

[zuibangde]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Incidentally, biggest disappointment in the game so far: Jens.

For me, it's Piccoletta. I saw so many people saying how good her decoy is so I tried using her but I personally don't think the decoy as a distraction helped me that much; especially in late game when the enemies have attacks that targets multiple units. Also, after summoning one, she kinda just sits around and have to wait for her TP to recharge and I find myself prioritizing recharging TPs of mages or units with high power attacks instead of Piccoletta anyways. 

For people that unlocked the three recruits that require high conviction levels, any tips on using Giovanna or Decimal? I feel like their kits are fun to use but also quite hard to use during story mode as they just seem less productive than other characters. Giovanna, in particular, requires so much setting up!! The dancing barrel has one of my favourite recruitment stories and I'm committed to making it work.

It's crazy how so much better Quahaug is compared to those two though (also why is he named after a clam?).

Edited March 17, 2022 by zuibangde

[Neoleo21]

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, I didn't know we had a TS thread. I'm already on my NG+ run. On my first run...

  Reveal hidden contents

I tried to pick all the most obviously evil options, to see how the game would react. I went to Aesfrost in chapter 3 to disappoint my wife, I gave up Roland to Dolphacula, I willingly murdered Landroi, I smuggled salt for Sorsley, I surrendered the Roselle to their oppressors, I flooded the capital... Aside from revealing Roland's secret to Svarog because I liked him too much not to and going with Freddie to beat up bandits in the abandoned Rosellan village, I mostly listened to Benedict's cold-hearted ass at every opportunity.

Then it turned out Benedict wasn't the evil one. In fact, I was surprised by how emotionally charged his motivations were, in the end. No wonder his conviction turned to liberty, when his whole reason for being the way he is was his frustration at himself and his superiors for the way Destra was used and pushed around until the day of her death. Also a surprise how well his route ended. Things aren't perfect, but all things considered, the man did produce a better Norzelia than what we had at the start.

Between that and how well he lives up to the plot's claims that he's a master strategist, something that doesn't always happen in stories like this, he solidified his position as my favorite of the main eight. He started there just based on his design and he only kept getting better.

Loving the game so far. It does so much just how I like it. Difficulty is on point, unit design and variety are off the charts, the maps are fun, the soundtrack is good, the visuals are good, the story is good, an excellent implementation of NG+... Great game, in my humble opinion. Best strategy game on Switch at the present time for me. We'll see how Mario XCOM 2 measures up.

Does it stack up well to the strategy game cano in your opinion?

[Etrurian emperor]

6 hours ago, zuibangde said:

It's crazy how so much better Quahaug is compared to those two though (also why is he named after a clam?).

I thought he was named after that town in Family guy 😄 But yeah he's leagues above the representatives of the other convictions. Just about every skill he has is insanely useful. Speeding up your slow unit, turn back time on units which is essentially a heal attack that can restore any damage and status effect, warping units around the battlefield or stopping time for everyone, and then abuse turn back time to ensure one of your units isn't frozen. Even his boring non elemental magic bomb seems kinda powerful against bosses. 

Unlike the other two Quahuag also has some big importance to the story even if he's an optional unit.

Spoiler

He's heavily implied to be Lyla's child and that Idore forced her into servitude by threatening to kill Quahaug. This in turn makes the kid responsible for important plot points like Aelfric or the robot pope. 

Giovanna is really weird. I took her with me two times. One time she was practically useless with me having to divert the attention of my mages to her just so she could do something, but the next stage where there was both a big grassfield and lots of snow she was actually kinda fun.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Etrurian emperor

[Saint Rubenio]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Incidentally, biggest disappointment in the game so far: Jens.

I picked him because his screen tip said he could make automatic turrets, which sounded hilariously awesome for a medieval fantasy game. I stuck with him the whole game, basically having him do nothing but spam those spring traps to varying effect, only to finally figure out that the turret is a weapon skill you have to unlock at tier 3. Costs 4 TP. But I finally, excitedly used it at this point near the very, very end of the game.

...Cue it missing four consecutive times, and then I discovered it only has 5 ammo and I can't even check its stats to see how much of a fluke that run of terrible luck was.

...Yeah, I think I may be a bit soured on Jens for a while.

Ohhh so he does get a turret! I thought that was a lie lol. I'll look forward to that.

I thought Jens was pretty fine, though. Those ladders are situational, but when the situation calls for them, they can break some maps hard. The trap is great for disabling enemies, and the ability to put enemies to sleep is not something to sneeze at.

6 hours ago, zuibangde said:

For me, it's Piccoletta. I saw so many people saying how good her decoy is so I tried using her but I personally don't think the decoy as a distraction helped me that much; especially in late game when the enemies have attacks that targets multiple units. Also, after summoning one, she kinda just sits around and have to wait for her TP to recharge and I find myself prioritizing recharging TPs of mages or units with high power attacks instead of Piccoletta anyways. 

The decoy was pretty good at first, but I'll admit it doesn't last long enough anymore. It gets killed in no time. Still, items are cheap enough that you can just use her as a magicstone cannon while she recharges her TP.

Picoletta is a fun meme, though. (Massive spoilers for Benedict's route, be careful if you click!)

6 hours ago, zuibangde said:

For people that unlocked the three recruits that require high conviction levels, any tips on using Giovanna or Decimal? I feel like their kits are fun to use but also quite hard to use during story mode as they just seem less productive than other characters. Giovanna, in particular, requires so much setting up!! The dancing barrel has one of my favourite recruitment stories and I'm committed to making it work.

I got Giovanna right on the penultimate chapter of my first run. She's really situational. If there's a lot of grass, she can be really good. If the map mainly has pavement, though, don't even bother, she's going to be useless. You can also use Ezana to make it rain and let her do some healing. After she promotes, she gains an ice spell, which synergizes well with Corentin and Narve. That probably makes her a lot more consistent, but well, proofs of valor aren't so common.

5 hours ago, Neoleo21 said:

Does it stack up well to the strategy game cano in your opinion?

It's a pretty great game, in my opinion. Among the better strategy games I've played, but that's just me.

[Alastor15243]

Okay, finishing off the final boss of Benedict's route with Frederica was beyond satisfying. But the ending utterly solidified my hatred of what Roland's become.

Spoiler

Using the people Roland was entirely prepared to condemn to an eternity of self-loathing, back-breaking slavery as emotional fuel for his implied upcoming religious peasant uprising was pretty tone-deaf of the game. As if the game were suggesting I failed the newly-upgraded-from-enslaved-to-marginalized Roselle where he would have done better, when... uh... no.

I saw a fourth path for the endgame on the map. Please tell me I don't have to do all three main paths to unlock that one. I don't think I have the stomach for Roland's.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Alastor15243

[vanguard333]

20 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I saw a fourth path for the endgame on the map. Please tell me I don't have to do all three main paths to unlock that one. I don't think I have the stomach for Roland's.

You don't; you just have to make certain outside-the-box choices beforehand to unlock it, such as defending Roland without using the traps and stuff like that. I won't say the full list of stuff you have to do to unlock it here, but I will say that you can easily find the list online by searching "triangle strategy golden ending". Yeah; that fourth route is considered to be the game's golden ending.

[zuibangde]

24 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I saw a fourth path for the endgame on the map. Please tell me I don't have to do all three main paths to unlock that one. I don't think I have the stomach for Roland's.

I think you need to play the game 4 times to unlock all playable characters. Regarding Roland, I've seen many people say that supposedly, if you follow him for the Chapter 15, his BIG decision at the end will make a lot more sense. I'm on my second run and I'm planning to go with Roland for all the decisions to see for myself. I was pretty shocked at his decision at first too but the longer I think about it, the more I think it's actually quite in character.

I think the game made it pretty clear that he's unfit to rule. Prior to his father and brother's death, he already doesn't really do what is expected from the royal family. Even though he wants to unite the people and bring peace and happiness to Norzelia, the game made a point (multiple times) that after taking back Glenbrook, there were people that actually preferred the Aesfrost's rule over Roland's. He wasn't even able to provide for his people in Glenbrook let alone the whole of Norzelia. I think the game also suggests that Glenbrook is on the verge of civil unrest and turmoil even after chasing Aesfrost out. I think by the end, Roland is so defeated that he resorted to the extreme to guarantee happiness of most of the people. It seems really out of the blue here but I hope following him in C15 will provide a lot more context for his thought process. Anyways, this is classic utilitarianism and I think it's less Roland suddenly thinking Hyzante is 'correct' but more like he's so desperate that he decided to resort to the extreme as a way out.

Obviously, I'll have to play his route to see whether the game can justify his reasoning well but from what I've seen, people seem to not agree with him but are satisfied with the reasoning.

[Alastor15243]

16 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

You don't; you just have to make certain outside-the-box choices beforehand to unlock it, such as defending Roland without using the traps and stuff like that. I won't say the full list of stuff you have to do to unlock it here, but I will say that you can easily find the list online by searching "triangle strategy golden ending". Yeah; that fourth route is considered to be the game's golden ending.

Awesome. Also, how does new game plus handle the finite nature of healing items? Do the stores' supplies keep expanding, or do I have to farm healing items from spoils or something if I want more eventually?

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh man, if we're talking about Roland,

(spoilers up to the end of chapter 14)

Spoiler

If you choose to blow up the bridge as your method of recapturing Glenbrook, he stabs Cordelia! After literally ignoring every word that comes out of the mouth of his last family member whom he supposedly loves. And then afterward there is zero self-reflection and zero apology. What an asshole. Please don't let this man be king of anything after that; he has clearly shown he does not have the judgement necessary.

I haven't finished the game yet but the character is already squarely on my shit list for that. I don't think he's a badly written (will reserve judgement on that until I've seen all the story, obviously), but ugh.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, finishing off the final boss of Benedict's route with Frederica was beyond satisfying. But the ending utterly solidified my hatred of what Roland's become.

I finished it off with Ezana for similar satisfaction. Frederica was kinda dead at that point. She reaped a TP point after killing an enemy which brought her above the ''get three TP or die'' gimmick of the map. But it still worked, given Hyzante wanted to burn Ezana on the stake. All in all a pretty decent route aside from Roland being an idiot.

13 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Oh man, if we're talking about Roland,

And its all down here from there with Roland. The longer the game goes on the worse he gets. He's well written about it but definitely an A grade prick.

Quote

Awesome. Also, how does new game plus handle the finite nature of healing items? Do the stores' supplies keep expanding, or do I have to farm healing items from spoils or something if I want more eventually?

Its honestly kinda worse about it. Because enemy level and damage gets increased but the reward for your maps don't. So you could use some powerful healing items and the money and healing items you get from it are about 800 gold and 1 minor healing pellet for the first few chapters. So you have to spend more money on healing items while probably also having to use em a bit more than you're used to. Not cripplingly so and all your money carries over too but early game NG+ isn't good with healing items. 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Etrurian emperor

[vanguard333]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Awesome. Also, how does new game plus handle the finite nature of healing items? Do the stores' supplies keep expanding, or do I have to farm healing items from spoils or something if I want more eventually?

I don't know; I haven't finished my first playthrough; I just know about the golden ending because I stumbled upon info about the golden ending online.

[Etrurian emperor]

I'm not sure I actually like the idea of a golden ending. The two endings(not yours Roland) seem to be decent and interesting enough to stand on their own, and I suspect the drawbacks in both mainly exist to sell you on the idea of a golden ending.