Triangle Strategy Thread

[Alastor15243]

41 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I recently finished the golden route as well (though it was my first playthrough of this game). What did you think of the golden route?

Gameplaywise it was pretty fun, though it didn't really reconcile the problems with Roland that 17 brought up. I genuinely don't think that guy has any business being king, and 

Spoiler

Serenoa demonstrated in that route that he had the makings of a far better one.

Incidentally...

Spoiler

It's kind of hilarious how hard the game tries to make Benedict's ending seem bad to justify the need for the golden one. Despite it being by far the best ending for the continent of the three main ones, for whatever reason the ending focuses exclusively on the flaws, and it's the only route whose ending image isn't a saccharine feel-good Kodak moment.

 

[eclipse]

I finally got around to getting this.  It's playable with my drifting joycon, albeit frustrating at times.  I'm currently on Chapter 7, Normal mode.  I'll put my thoughts so far in spoilers.  Please keep future stuff to a minimum, I'm doing this blind for a reason.

Spoiler

Went to the desert kingdom first because I don't like cold places.  On the second choice, chose to keep Roland.  We went through two chapters with the objective of keeping him safe, why would I hand him over after all that effort?  Just finished the "burn the town" map, except the only thing that burned was the town square (the only casualties were the boss and a random armor).  Didn't have to use the rest of the statues, because Hughette on a roof kept key things pinned down while my mages slung ice at everything (I am terrible with their names).  Also got Julio, who gave my mages enough juice to consecutively cast.  The question is why the game is treating it as if I hit all the switches.  The worst should be mud all over the place, thanks to all those ice spells!

It feels like my guys aren't doing enough damage, even with counters.   I should probably smith weapons in earnest, now that I'm pretty sure I'm keeping Hughette and Roland.

 

[Alastor15243]

5 hours ago, eclipse said:

I finally got around to getting this.  It's playable with my drifting joycon, albeit frustrating at times.  I'm currently on Chapter 7, Normal mode.  I'll put my thoughts so far in spoilers.  Please keep future stuff to a minimum, I'm doing this blind for a reason.

  Reveal hidden contents

Went to the desert kingdom first because I don't like cold places.  On the second choice, chose to keep Roland.  We went through two chapters with the objective of keeping him safe, why would I hand him over after all that effort?  Just finished the "burn the town" map, except the only thing that burned was the town square (the only casualties were the boss and a random armor).  Didn't have to use the rest of the statues, because Hughette on a roof kept key things pinned down while my mages slung ice at everything (I am terrible with their names).  Also got Julio, who gave my mages enough juice to consecutively cast.  The question is why the game is treating it as if I hit all the switches.  The worst should be mud all over the place, thanks to all those ice spells!

It feels like my guys aren't doing enough damage, even with counters.   I should probably smith weapons in earnest, now that I'm pretty sure I'm keeping Hughette and Roland.

 

Huh, didn't know the game took an all or nothing approach with the wildfire traps. Guess it was too complicated to store and recall whose houses were spared for cutscenes. Interesting.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Alastor15243

[vanguard333]

9 hours ago, eclipse said:

I finally got around to getting this.  It's playable with my drifting joycon, albeit frustrating at times.  I'm currently on Chapter 7, Normal mode.  I'll put my thoughts so far in spoilers.  Please keep future stuff to a minimum, I'm doing this blind for a reason.

  Reveal hidden contents

Went to the desert kingdom first because I don't like cold places.  On the second choice, chose to keep Roland.  We went through two chapters with the objective of keeping him safe, why would I hand him over after all that effort?  Just finished the "burn the town" map, except the only thing that burned was the town square (the only casualties were the boss and a random armor).  Didn't have to use the rest of the statues, because Hughette on a roof kept key things pinned down while my mages slung ice at everything (I am terrible with their names).  Also got Julio, who gave my mages enough juice to consecutively cast.  The question is why the game is treating it as if I hit all the switches.  The worst should be mud all over the place, thanks to all those ice spells!

It feels like my guys aren't doing enough damage, even with counters.   I should probably smith weapons in earnest, now that I'm pretty sure I'm keeping Hughette and Roland.

 

Huh; I had no idea that, if you burn one building in that chapter, the game acts as if you burned them all. I protected Roland without using any of the fire traps by keeping Roland and Erador on the left stairs to protect my units; it was grueling, but fun.

Incidentally, I recently read online about an easy strategy to win the "protect Roland" version of chapter 7 without having to use a single fire trap:

Spoiler

Deploy Hughette and Anna. The lose condition is to lose all units, and there's no permadeath, so, as long as you deploy these two and have Anna turn invisible every second turn, you are extremely unlikely to lose so long as you position these two carefully.

 

[eclipse]

Now up to Chapter 13 (as in, I suspended somewhere in the  middle of it).

Spoiler

The game really doesn't want to give Our Heroes a break.  Of my mages, Narve is getting the most love because Sanctuary has saved quite a few people, never mind Spark being hilarious after Frederica/Corentin have done their thing.  I feel like many of the recruitables are more gimmicky than anything, and I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Feels less like strategy and more like "bring the right gimmick for the map".

 

[Mell]

I'm loving the game, but somehow it's too hard. I had to turn down the difficult to easy, I was playing on hard at first.

[vanguard333]

10 hours ago, Mell said:

I'm loving the game, but somehow it's too hard. I had to turn down the difficult to easy, I was playing on hard at first.

The game can definitely take getting used to; I started on normal difficulty and I remember struggling with the first few chapters. I did stick to normal and things did get easier after a while, and then they got harder.

[Etrurian emperor]

So I ran the characters to a character sorter and apparently these 10 came out as my favorites. I did it twice and the results are more or less the same. Quite scientific. Its a neat little program. Its actually primarely a Fire Emblem character sorter with a Triangle strategy option
https://fesorter.github.io/

 

[Dark Holy Elf]

I do enjoy these sorts of things. Just ran through once, and missed that I could have clicked "Triangle Strategy Extra", which is a shame because I have a stronger opinion on most NPCs than I do of most non-plot PCs in this game. Disclaimer that for whatever reason I've gotten very, very few of the "character stories" scenes so far, so maybe that'd help, but eh, I don't really vibe with the minor characters in this game much.

Spoiler

 

[Karimlan]

On 4/13/2022 at 3:03 AM, vanguard333 said:

I recently finished the golden route as well (though it was my first playthrough of this game). What did you think of the golden route?

Having unlocked the Golden Route on my third (and final) playthrough, it felt satisfying, if not too idealistic.

Spoiler

I picked the Frederica and Benedict paths prior to it, and those are very much rooted in reality, perhaps too rooted in the case of the former, where we see Benedict's sense for realpolitik in full effect.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I've just played through chapter 4, and man, is there a lot of text. If each chapter is an hour, then it's like 15 minutes of battle, 10 minutes of exploration, maybe 5 minutes of prep/encampment... and the rest is story. It's forgivable, since the story is promising thus far, but it can feel like an annoying wait and times. Also, disappointment that (chapter 2)

Spoiler

I didn't even get to face Ser Maxwell in battle. Seriously, giving us a battle scenario, but not actually letting us play it?

Anyway, my opinions on the characters/units aren't changed much from the demo:

Spoiler

Serenoa: all-around boring

Roland: high movement and Double Thrust for days

Benedict: everything I could ever want in a Jagen

Frederica: good when she actually has the points to use Fire magic

Eriador: looks like a Cord, plays like a Draug

Hughette: flier with bow access is pretty absurd

Anna: two actions per turn with great mobility is just busted

Geela: staffbot outta 10

Corentin: actually using more of his attacks now, he's solid

I'm playing Easy Mode, because I figure this won't bey only playthrough, and leaving higher difficulties for later enhances replayability to me. Seen Roland die once when I overectended him, but never been in danger of a Game Over. It's easy, sure, but I'm liking the low stakes as I get acquainted with the presentation and mechanics.

[vanguard333]

19 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I've just played through chapter 4, and man, is there a lot of text. If each chapter is an hour, then it's like 15 minutes of battle, 10 minutes of exploration, maybe 5 minutes of prep/encampment... and the rest is story. It's forgivable, since the story is promising thus far, but it can feel like an annoying wait and times. Also, disappointment that (chapter 2)

Yeah; a common criticism of the game is just how absurdly slowly-paced it is in the first few chapters. As for the 'fight' against Ser Maxwell, the implication is that he bested everyone pretty much instantly; that's probably better conveyed through a cutscene than through gameplay.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Yeah; a common criticism of the game is just how absurdly slowly-paced it is in the first few chapters. As for the 'fight' against Ser Maxwell, the implication is that he bested everyone pretty much instantly; that's probably better conveyed through a cutscene than through gameplay.

I get that, but I disagree. Why not let the player fight him, but give him absurdly busted stats? That shows the player his abilities firsthand, much moreso than a "cut to black". Even though "everyone dies" is usually a Game Over condition, in this case, it could be set up so that once Serenoa is defeated, he yields, progressing the story forward despite your loss.

That's how I'd prefer to see it done, at least.

[Mell]

On 4/26/2022 at 7:58 PM, vanguard333 said:

The game can definitely take getting used to; I started on normal difficulty and I remember struggling with the first few chapters. I did stick to normal and things did get easier after a while, and then they got harder.

I kinda felt that way too. But I don't dare to replay it. 

[Etrurian emperor]

Triangle Strategy seems to have broken the Million sales benchmark which it deserves. 

Still I don't think the game properly gets its due. No pundit, Youtuber or reviewer I follow, or even just vaguely follow gave Triangle Strategy as much as a mention in the ''best games of the year'' discussions. Not one of em.

[Armchair General]

On 1/8/2023 at 1:53 PM, Etrurian emperor said:

Still I don't think the game properly gets its due. No pundit, Youtuber or reviewer I follow, or even just vaguely follow gave Triangle Strategy as much as a mention in the ''best games of the year'' discussions. Not one of em.

Well, FWIW, it's certainly unique. But it takes forever for the game to actually get good.

[CDseedee]

I agree it's an amazing game that didn't get it's due. I found it from the Kit and Krysta podcast where they collab'ed with RogersBase and he called it his game of the year - that pushed me off the fence on trying it out and it has been great so far.

I recently started streaming and playing the game daily. I'm at about Chapter 5 and really enjoying it so far, would love to talk with other enjoyers while playing.

Come check me out, chat, and talk about the finer points of the game!

https://www.twitch.tv/cdseedee

[Saint Rubenio]

People bounced off from the heavy story focus and lack of customization, primarily, and soon enough the game fell off the mainstream and into relative obscurity. Still, it sold well and its communities at Steam and Reddit have a modest amount of activity even now, almost a year after release. All things considered, for such a niche genre, it hasn't done too bad.

Personally, I enjoyed the story a lot, I didn't mind sitting down and reading all that much. And the large, varied cast rendered the second complaint moot for me. No need for customization when every character is a whole different beast.

On a different topic, I'm considering double dipping on PC. It's been a while, I never got around to playing the non-Benedict routes and I hear the PC version is vastly superior. Octopath 2 comes first, though. Besides, that'll give me time to wait and see if TS goes on sale in the spring Steam sale. Double dipping for 60 bucks is just bad, even if I were to sell my Switch copy.

[Etrurian emperor]

On 2/20/2023 at 12:40 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

On a different topic, I'm considering double dipping on PC. It's been a while, I never got around to playing the non-Benedict routes and I hear the PC version is vastly superior.

As far as the endings go I kinda cheated and having a save file before the last choice so I could do all the final routes. The scales of convinctions being easily manipulated meant getting the party members to pick any of the options was easy.

What are the upgrades on the PC version? Graphical enhancements would be the obvious answer but I struggle to see what raw horse power can do for a graphics that's mostly reliant on its sprite based artstyle rather than any fancy graphical specs. 

[Saint Rubenio]

8 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

As far as the endings go I kinda cheated and having a save file before the last choice so I could do all the final routes. The scales of convinctions being easily manipulated meant getting the party members to pick any of the options was easy.

That sounds like a fair way to see the main endings, though you miss out on all the prior branching paths. There are some things worth seeing there.

8 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

What are the upgrades on the PC version? Graphical enhancements would be the obvious answer but I struggle to see what raw horse power can do for a graphics that's mostly reliant on its sprite based artstyle rather than any fancy graphical specs. 

Aside from superior performance and no 30 FPS lock (unimportant for a strategy game, but I will appreciate not having the game chug whenever it rains or the camera goes behind a structure), the big one is vastly improved loading times. I watched a bit of a playthrough and the encampment, for example, loads almost instantly on PC. It's a really sweet advantage.

That, and on a personal level, it's more convenient. I travel home every weekend, and taking the Switch, dock, controller and all the cables from place to place is just not as convenient as... well, the nothing I have to do with Steam Cloud haha. I never use the Switch on the go either, so I don't care for that.

Nothing worth double dipping at full price, of course, which is why I'm waiting for a sale. Then I can sell my Switch copy and get the PC version for peanuts, if anything at all.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Etrurian emperor]

So Triangle Strategy has its birthday today, and it seems we'll get some light new content

 

[Saint Rubenio]

26 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

So Triangle Strategy has its birthday today, and it seems we'll get some light new content

 

Oh yeah, I saw that on the TS subreddit a couple days ago. Funny coincidence that I was just planning on replaying the game soon.

By the looks of it, it won't be that big, but it's anyone's guess. "The looks of it" certainly won't stop me from wishing for a few NPCs being turned playable.

Spoiler

C'mon, Dragan to be the wind mage to Corentin's ice, Frederica's fire and Ezana's thunder (sort of).

Though Dragan's death being as vital to the story as it is, I suppose I could settle for Lyla. I mean, she did heavily feature in the stream for some reason, unlike... Y'know, playable characters. Or Landroi, or Rufus, or Jerrom, or Sycras, or Exharme, or Kamsell, or Svarog, or Symon. I'll take them too.

...no but Dragan would be best. Everyone loves that magnificent idiot.

 

[Etrurian emperor]

For a possible sequel I hope they do something similar to Octopath Travelers and have the setting progress to the next technological stage. In Octopath 2 the setting went from medieval to Baroque with the advent of the steam age peeking around the corner. 

I think it could introduce some fun things to the setting such as gunpowder orientated classes, a faction such as the ''East Centralia trading company'' and having stages with gimmicks centered around steam and machinery. They could even get rid of the scales of conviction and just say the party is getting a vote because the main faction is a democracy, and your units have seats in your parliament.