Acknowledgement

This game was provided for review purposes by the developers. Thank you!

Follow our Curator page, Summit Reviews, to see more high-quality reviews regularly.

The premise is that divine weapons crashed to earth after a war between the God of Chaos and Order, drastically changing the realms around them. These swords represent a multi-story building/dungeon, countless floors high. The main dungeons of each area are also sections of fallen armories of former divine grace, and they are now filled with monsters that guard the sacred altars within. So-called Bringers will summon spirit beasts known as Triggers to serve as both mates and weapons, and then seek out these altars to expand their Triggers weapon-forming abilities. So one of the goals of the narrative is therefore the exploration of dungeons, helping townfolk by doing quests, and the acquisition of new Trigger forms.

The other goal is the continuing clash between the God of Order and Chaos, fought in the mortal world by two champions who are destined to meet in an epic showdown that will decide the issue once and for all. In previous iterations, the issue was settled by an outside group's assassination of one of the champions before things even got that far. This does not seem to please the protagonist Cyan, who happens to be the reluctant Champion of Chaos. The flow of the storyline is a steady line from dungeon to dungeon, with only a few distractions left and right. There could have been more variety in the area layouts or more areas not directly related to the weaponry and alteration.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967004375

In terms of gameplay, Trinity Trigger is still very much an homage to Secret of Mana, with better attack chaining, action gauges, and special moves. All party members can eventually gain access to every weapon type by exploring dungeons, but they all have their own expertise. Cyan excels with the sword, Elise with the bow, and Zantis with his axe. There are a few puzzles here and there, but they're never really demanding. The game is presented in an isometric view with real-time action combat and is ultimately very straightforward and beginner-friendly. Attacking consumes stamina, which refills itself by waiting a few seconds. All of the healing and status effects—like being poisoned—are done via menu, so I found myself navigating through the menus a lot during battle. The only downside is that the AI is pretty useless in group fights and will blindly follow you into enemy traps on the ground, causing you to use far too many healing items for your AI partners.

One gimmick of the boss fights is that the large monsters will always have some sort of shield that has to be worn down before they can be stunned and become vulnerable. In most cases, this shield has one or two specific vulnerabilities to certain types of weapons. While this is a good idea in concept, it doesn't come together very well. Certain bosses escalate into a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" kind of combat with enough shield to take multiple times their total hit points in damage before they are defeated, and that can definitely be annoying.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967146852

A lot of flavor is actually added by the voices of the characters. The music is appropriate for the respective area, even if it isn't a big highlight, and the anime-like cutscenes fit perfectly into the story.




The game definitely has its interesting and, especially gameplay-wise, nice moments, but unfortunately, they are somewhat overshadowed by the simple JRPG cliché of an amnesia story that only gets better halfway through. It's definitely a serviceable JRPG. It takes about 16-20 hours to finish the game, and this includes >50% of the side quests. It really needed more from everything: more optional stuff, more types of enemies (especially among the bosses), and a generally better handling of the plot points. I still had a lot of fun with it, and I hope that FuRyu will continue to make this kind of videogame in the future.

[h1] Trinity Trigger offers a very charming but clichéd experience that is reminiscent of games like Secret of Mana due to its combat. [/h1] [table] [tr] [th]Pros[/th] [th]Cons[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]✔️ The game has animated cutscenes at certain points in the story that feel really high-quality and leave a lasting impression. This also includes fully-voiced dialogues throughout the main story, which both enhance the experience.[/td] [td]❌ Your typical JRPG story about amnesia, heroes, and traveling to fill in the blanks left in your brain. It has cool moments, but it fails to be something unique and special.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]✔️ The combat is dynamic, and you have a choice of three characters, nine different weapons, and even more different abilities. It was unmistakably inspired by Secret of Mana in its combat, but more refined.[/td] [td]❌ For its price, the game is rather short.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]✔️ From a performance and gameplay standpoint, this is top-notch. I had no frame drops or graphical problems whatsoever and had a smooth 144-frame experience.[/td] [td]❌ The variety of enemies is also very limited, unfortunately. A light blue slime in the first area suddenly turns silver in the fourth area and later red, and there is no reason for that.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]✔️ Beautiful music that blends in with the environment. It does not really have a big highlight, but it fits quite nicely into the respective area.[/td] [td]❌There are no adjustable levels of difficulty, very few graphical settings, and the speed of the text is too slow most of the time as well. This causes screen tearing, for example, since there is no v-sync option available.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]✔️ Even though the levels are pretty linear and it's hard to lose your way, it's a nice change of pace from all the open-world games available out there. The map of the world is very clear, and you know right away where the next objective is and where leftover side content is waiting for you.[/td] [td]❌ Most fights have terrible AI, especially when there are numerous objects on the ground. It will constantly follow you, but if something is in the way, it will always run into it. This is really annoying, especially when you're in a fight, because it forces you to focus all of your resources on the AI rather than on yourself.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]✔️ The crafting system also offers a number of ways to improve the equipment you already have. This allows you to throw in additional materials you gain throughout your playthrough to get even better stuff. It's simply fun to experiment with.[/td] [td]❌ The final dungeon including the bossfight is simply uninspiring and a torture from start to finish. The mechanics are simply not AI friendly.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1] Additional Info: [/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Content & Replay Value[/td] [td]It took me 16 hours to finish Trinity Trigger. I see no reason to replay the game unless you want to experience the story another time in the future or tackle post-game content.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Mode[/td] [td]Single Player and up to three-player co-op after a certain point in the story (once you have three party members, you automatically unlock co-op).[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Controller Recommended?[/td] [td]Yes, but you can also use KB/M[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Is it worth buying?[/td] [td]Yes, but the standard price of 50€ is too high for this amount of content, in my opinion, hence why I’d suggest getting it on sale. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [b]Acknowledgement[/b] [quote]This game was provided for review purposes by the developers. Thank you![/quote] [quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/] Summit Reviews[/url], to see more high-quality reviews regularly.[/quote] [h1] In-Depth [/h1] [h3] Story, Gameplay & Sound [/h3] The premise is that divine weapons crashed to earth after a war between the God of Chaos and Order, drastically changing the realms around them. These swords represent a multi-story building/dungeon, countless floors high. The main dungeons of each area are also sections of fallen armories of former divine grace, and they are now filled with monsters that guard the sacred altars within. So-called Bringers will summon spirit beasts known as Triggers to serve as both mates and weapons, and then seek out these altars to expand their Triggers weapon-forming abilities. So one of the goals of the narrative is therefore the exploration of dungeons, helping townfolk by doing quests, and the acquisition of new Trigger forms. The other goal is the continuing clash between the God of Order and Chaos, fought in the mortal world by two champions who are destined to meet in an epic showdown that will decide the issue once and for all. In previous iterations, the issue was settled by an outside group's assassination of one of the champions before things even got that far. This does not seem to please the protagonist Cyan, who happens to be the reluctant Champion of Chaos. The flow of the storyline is a steady line from dungeon to dungeon, with only a few distractions left and right. There could have been more variety in the area layouts or more areas not directly related to the weaponry and alteration. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967004375 In terms of gameplay, Trinity Trigger is still very much an homage to Secret of Mana, with better attack chaining, action gauges, and special moves. All party members can eventually gain access to every weapon type by exploring dungeons, but they all have their own expertise. Cyan excels with the sword, Elise with the bow, and Zantis with his axe. There are a few puzzles here and there, but they're never really demanding. The game is presented in an isometric view with real-time action combat and is ultimately very straightforward and beginner-friendly. Attacking consumes stamina, which refills itself by waiting a few seconds. All of the healing and status effects—like being poisoned—are done via menu, so I found myself navigating through the menus a lot during battle. The only downside is that the AI is pretty useless in group fights and will blindly follow you into enemy traps on the ground, causing you to use far too many healing items for your AI partners. One gimmick of the boss fights is that the large monsters will always have some sort of shield that has to be worn down before they can be stunned and become vulnerable. In most cases, this shield has one or two specific vulnerabilities to certain types of weapons. While this is a good idea in concept, it doesn't come together very well. Certain bosses escalate into a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" kind of combat with enough shield to take multiple times their total hit points in damage before they are defeated, and that can definitely be annoying. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967146852 A lot of flavor is actually added by the voices of the characters. The music is appropriate for the respective area, even if it isn't a big highlight, and the anime-like cutscenes fit perfectly into the story. [h3] My Specs [/h3] [code]CPU: i9 9900k GPU: RTX 2080 Ti RAM: DDR4 32 GB RAM OS: Win10 Resolution: 1440p @144hz [/code] [h3] Conclusion [/h3] The game definitely has its interesting and, especially gameplay-wise, nice moments, but unfortunately, they are somewhat overshadowed by the simple JRPG cliché of an amnesia story that only gets better halfway through. It's definitely a serviceable JRPG. It takes about 16-20 hours to finish the game, and this includes >50% of the side quests. It really needed more from everything: more optional stuff, more types of enemies (especially among the bosses), and a generally better handling of the plot points. I still had a lot of fun with it, and I hope that FuRyu will continue to make this kind of videogame in the future. [h1] Final Verdict: 7.5/10 A very charming but flawed experience. [/h1]