Triangle Strategy

I finished Triangle Strategy a couple of days ago and since then I’ve been mulling over how to best approach it for a post. It’s the sort of game that I know I’ll still occasionally think about years from now. As a game – as a fun experience – it was fantastic, but it’s also got some real depth to it. I think I know how to approach talking about it now, so let’s get into it.

I will begin by talking about the game on a high level, without any spoilers, before moving on to more detailed and spoiler-filled discussion. I will clearly mark when the significant spoilers begin.

What is Triangle Strategy? (No spoilers)

Triangle Strategy is a tactical RPG, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and Ogre Battle. It was led and produced by Tomoya Asano, which clearly shows from the game’s aesthetic similarity to Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. The similarity to Octopath is actually what hooked me – Octopath is easily one of my favorite games of the last decade – but in terms of actual gameplay Triangle Strategy is in a different genre altogether.

For this post, I’ll abbreviate tactical RPG to “SRPG” for “simulation RPG,” as the genre is most commonly known in Japan. I’d like to use “TRPG,” but that’s overloaded to refer to both tabletop and tactical RPGs, so SRPG works better.

Is it safe to assume that most current SRPG fans have played Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem: Three Houses? Whenever I need to make a comparison here, I’ll mostly lean on Final Fantasy Tactics and Three Houses. There are plenty of other excellent games in this genre, but my impression is that most SRPG fans in 2022 are familiar with these two.

If you aren’t familiar with this genre at all, you should really give it a try. I don’t want to spend too much time here explaining the genre, but basically, SRPGs are similar to other RPGs in many respects but are set apart by the way battles are fought. Battles are still “turn based,” but rather than having rows of combatants simply take turns using abilities, the battle takes place on an isometric grid where distance and terrain are important factors. If you’ve played a tabletop miniature game, it’s pretty similar.

The game’s loop alternates between cutscenes and battles. In between these cutscenes and battles are moments when you can choose whether to head to the next story event, move to your camp to manage upgrades and fight “mental” battles to grind out experience and resources, or see any character side stories that you’ve unlocked. Cutscenes are mostly comprised of dialog, told via both voiced lines and text bubbles. The story is very good, I’ll get into specifics later on when I can bring in spoilers, but it is pretty involved: one complaint I’ve seen about Triangle Strategy is that the cutscenes are too long. I don’t agree at all – I think they’re excellent – but they’re certainly not short. This isn’t a mobile game: expect to play it in large chunks of time.

In terms of tone, Triangle Strategy feels closer to Final Fantasy Tactics than to the most recent Fire Emblem titles. The story is as much about political maneuvering as it is about battles and although the characters are excellent, they’re defined by the world they live in and the events they’re involved with. There are plenty of character-specific stories and lots of party banter, but the character stories are very deliberately woven into the history of Norzelia, the continent in which the game takes places.

This feels very different to me from a game like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, where characters have a more immediately impactful and symbolic design but less integration with the world. It’s a subtle difference, but basically, the characters in Triangle Strategy feel much more real to me, but because of this verisimilitude, there’s less freedom for head-canon. I can’t really imagine having tea with Serenoa (who would I even be in this world?), but I expect that I’ll still remember the details of his story long after I’ve forgotten the details of Edelgard’s story. This isn’t to say that the characters in Triangle Strategy are better or worse than those in Fire Emblem, but there’s a clear difference.

Perhaps this is just a long way of saying that Triangle Strategy’s story, world, and characters remind me of a good fantasy novel, whereas Three Houses reminds me more of an anime or cinematic universe. Between the two, I definitely prefer Triangle Strategy to any Fire Emblem game, but I think this will be a matter of personal taste.

In terms of the actual gameplay, Triangle Strategy is – for the most part – what you’d expect from an SRPG. The major difference compared to Fire Emblem is that there’s no punishment for allowing a character to die during a battle: they’ll just “retreat,” keeping even their experience gains from the fight. If a battle is too difficult at first, it’s a perfectly viable strategy to just keep trying and failing until your characters are a high enough level. There’s also an option to grind extra “mental” battles at the tavern to get extra resources and levels and you can do this as much as you want. So, in terms of finishing the game, it’s much more forgiving than Fire Emblem, but the battles themselves can be very difficult, so the overall difficulty is still pretty high. On normal difficulty, I found the game more challenging than any of the Fire Emblem titles I’ve played. The difficulty felt similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, but that was one of the first SRPGs I ever played, so I’d bet that Triangle Strategy is actually a bit harder. In any case, I don’t think that any but the most hard-core SRPG fans would call Triangle Strategy easy (unless you’re playing on a low difficulty, in which case you have the option to make the game trivially easy just to blow through the story.)

Progression is similar to other SRPGs, but things are a bit more streamlined. Characters can be promoted to new jobs, but the only choice is whether to promote them: you cannot pick which job a character takes. Abilities are gained purely by reaching a certain level. Each character can benefit from a number of weapon upgrades specific to that character which unlock new bonuses. Most of these bonuses are just a stat increase or a situational buff (more fire damage with clear weather, longer range when at a higher altitude, making one ability cheaper to use, etc.) but each character also has one super ability that can be unlocked. For the most part, progression boils down to just which characters you invest in and which of their upgrades you pick up first, as you can eventually unlock everything (though not on a single playthrough.)

Experience gains are significantly increased for low-level characters, making it very easy to catch up to the group but very difficult to over-level any encounter. A severely under-leveled character will level up on nearly every action until they get within a couple levels of the encounter you bring them to, but you’d need to grind for hours to level up a full party of overleveled characters. You’ll generally find that characters you bring with to every encounter will level up naturally with the story while characters you don’t use as often will require some protection when you first dust them off.

Usable items, notably, exist in a single pool that anyone can use: there’s no need to equip potions or grenades to specific characters or manage inventories beyond swapping around trinkets. Items you use in a battle are only consumed if you win the battle, so there’s no reason to hold back if you think you might lose.

This might sound limiting compared to other SRPGs, but it’s mitigated by each character being truly unique. There’s a character who can build traps and ladders on the battlefield. There’s a character who just has a ton of buffs. There are multiple types of healers with very different methods of healing. Some characters can fly, some can walk through enemies and leap vast distances, some can climb without a movement penalty, and some can only trudge across the battlefield. Different forms of magic have different ways of interacting with the terrain, allowing you to erect walls of ice, set the ground ablaze, blow enemies out of position, or strike lightning into water to hit everyone standing in it. You can combine these effects by freezing the ground, melting it, then calling down lightning into the pool of melted water.

The combination of simplicity in progression/customization and complexity in individual abilities meant that I spent more time thinking about who to bring to each battle than I did building up a handful of powerful elites to carry the rest. Having all this variety without the option for multiple copies of any particular job forces you to consider synergies between characters in a way that many other SRPGs don’t.

The soundtrack was composed, arranged, and produced by Akira Senju – not Yasunori Nishiki, who did Octopath (among many other things.) I liked the soundtrack quite a bit, but it’s not as good as Octopath’s: I don’t really see myself listening to the soundtrack much outside of the game. That said, it’s very cinematic and most scenes are enhanced by the track. I definitely recommend playing the game with the sound on and using headphones for important moments. The overall sound design and voice acting is also very good. Sound effects feel impactful and the voice actors are excellent (in both English and Japanese.)

I’ll try to show off the art in screenshots throughout this post, but it’s fantastic. The battle scenes area bit retro, looking very much like Final Fantasy Tactics but with better lighting effects. Most cutscenes use the same engine as the battles but with more varied camera angles and water effects. Character portraits are absolutely beautiful. Some cutscenes switch to a broad scope made to look like a strategy table with wood blocks representing forces and miniatures representing the broad terrain. I love this. Not only does it feel thematically appropriate, as though we’re discussing the events gathered around a large table set with miniatures, but it also helps to keep the plot and geography straight.

Probably the most unique aspects of Triangle Strategy are the conviction and voting systems.

The conviction system is a bit like the karma system in many other RPGs, but with far more nuance. Everything you do contributes to your Liberty, Morality, or Utility score. This includes both simple actions, like using items or healing characters, and choices you make during story events. Your conviction levels are pretty much only relevant for determining which characters you can recruit. As a gameplay mechanic, it’s good, but it doesn’t really stand apart from similar systems in other games.

The conviction system is related to the voting system. Although you occasionally get the opportunity to simply choose one of two or three options, the greatest decisions in the game are not solely up to the player. In divisive moments, Serenoa will call for the scales of conviction to be brought out and each of his closest advisors will cast a vote. As the player, you can only talk to each advisor and try to sway their vote: you cannot directly intervene.

Granted, it’s pretty easy to always sway the vote the way you want, so you essentially still have the final say, but as a storytelling element, I really like this. You’re forced to confront the people who disagree with your choice and convince them, in terms they understand and appreciate, why your path is better.

What I love about the conviction and voting systems is that they’re not just another good vs. evil or paragon vs. renegade vs. snark morality system. For most decisions the game forces you to make, there isn’t an obvious best answer. For example, some of the most significant decisions are whether you should help the most people, help the people you have a direct responsibility to help, or help the people in the most dire need.

Again, I’ll get into this more later when I can bring up specific examples.

Triangle Strategy has multiple endings including one “best” ending. You can achieve any of these ending, including the best one, on your first play-through, but be warned that some of the final fights of the best ending are pretty rough if you haven’t recruited enough characters. Another thing I really like about the game is that it provides some additional options for managing your choices after your first play-through. Similar to many visual novels, you can view which decisions you’ve unlocked in the past, making it simple to choose a different option on your next play-through. You can also skip dialog and cutscenes to quickly move passed anything you’ve already seen. Choices also indicate which conviction they increase, making it much easier to grind out your convictions to recruit any missing characters.

New Game + allows you to keep all of your items and characters but it also really ramps up the difficulty. I was surprised to find that the very first fight in my New Game + run was surprisingly hard. Just as you get to keep your levels, the enemy gets access to higher level abilities as well, making the fights far more complicated than they were the first time around.

Overall, I really like Triangle Strategy. If you haven’t played many SRPGs, this might be a good one to start with, particularly considering how forgiving it is for character deaths and grinding. If you’re an SRPG pro, I still think it’d be a good choice, as hard mode and New Game + are actually really challenging. The variety of difficulty options is really well-done: the easiest difficulty is basically just a cinematic mode, normal is challenging without being too frustrating, and hard mode is actually pretty rough.

With the basics out of the way, let’s move on to the deeper themes and bring in some spoilers.

Spoilers after this point

Alright, let’s get into what I really like about Triangle Strategy: the absolutely stunning writing.

The plot

Concretely, Triangle Strategy is about salt and iron. Thematically, it’s about the necessity of having faith in other people. But, let’s lay down some context before jumping in to analysis.

In the continent of Norzelia, there are three great kingdoms. The Kingdom of Glenbrook lies in the south and west and is a primarily agricultural power. Its government is feudal and manorial, with a king sitting above several lords. Serenoa, the game’s primary protagonist, is the son of Lord Symon Wollfort, who leads the most powerful demesne other than the king’s. In addition to agriculture, Glenbrook has the greatest military power and controls the Norzelia River, which is important for trade.

To the north lies the Grand Duchy of Aesfrost, whose primary trade resource is iron. Aesfrost’s government is theoretically similar to Glenbrook’s, but the current Archduke Gustadolph is a fervent meritocrat, so the country is in the process of converting into something similar to a capitalist dictatorship. Aesfrost is a cold place with little agriculture of its own, so it must rely on not only raw iron but also on worked iron goods in trade. Because of this, Aesfrost’s technology is quite advanced for the region, culminating in a project to create the Deathsknell canon, theoretically capable of destroying even Hyzante’s might defenses.

To the east lies the Holy State of Hyzante, which is a theocracy following the Goddess. The words of the Goddess are relayed via the hierophant, who resides in secrecy, only speaking to one of the Saintly Seven, a position currently held by Idore. The Saintly Seven are all equals charged with governing different aspects of the state. The people of Hyzante are all equals under the Goddess, even with the Saintly Seven. Jobs are all assigned based on aptitude and wealth is shared evenly, making Hyzante’s government something like a form of theocratic Communism. Hyzante is a desert country with no real agriculture, but the state controls the Source: a saltwater lake that serves as the sole source of salt for all of Norzelia. The Source is not merely critical for all life in Norzelia, but also serves as the greatest proof of the Goddess’s love for her believers. Hyzante is protected by a mighty wall – the Goddess’s Shield – that keeps the state safe from attack.

So, we have three kingdoms with three different government systems and cultures all fighting over limited resources. Note, by the way, that disputes over salt and iron are really old. Iron is very important, but salt is necessary for life. Now, if it seems a little odd to you that Norzelia only has a single source of salt and nobody’s tried looking for alternate sources, such as rock salt… then you’d probably like Dragan Aesfrost, a rising star in Aesfrosti mining who makes a very important discovery early in the game. I actually really liked that it’s fairly obvious to the player that Dragan has discovered rock salt almost immediately, but it takes the characters in the game ages to figure this out. It’s not that the characters are stupid or that the writing is bad: Norzelia has lost knowledge of other sources of salt in part due to Hyzante’s intentional protection of their sole resource, which also serves as the greatest proof of their religion.

Hiding this secret hasn’t been easy and neither is the task of producing salt from the lake while keeping their population happy. Both problems dovetail in the Roselle, a race we learn about in the first scene of the game.

Triangle Strategy opens with Frederica arriving in Glenbrook to marry Serenoa. We quickly learn from both notes and character dialog that Norzelia is currently enjoying a period of tentative peace following the brutal Saltiron war thirty years ago, which was ended by the military might of Wollfort and the diplomacy of Glenbrook’s king. Shortly before the game’s start, a large vein of iron was found in Glenbrook near the border of Aesfrost and Hyzante. A treaty was signed to form a joint mining venture where Aesfrost would supply the technology, Glenbrook would supply the labor and security, and Hyzante… would basically just get a cut in exchange for continued salt trade.

To further improve relations alongside the treaty, Frederica of Aesfrost will marry Serenoa of Glenbrook. Frederica is Gustadolph’s half-sister, but she’s the child of a Rosellan concubine. The Roselle are a slave race owned by Hyzante and the sole laborers at the Source. Hyzante’s religion teaches that the Rosellan once tried to claim sole ownership of the Source and must now work to atone. Frederica’s freedom is due to her status as a Lady of Aesfrost, but it’s not lost on either Serenoa or Frederica that the relationship between Glenbrook and Aesfrost is being sealed by a marriage between the second most important family in Glenbrook and a lesser lady from Aesfrost: neither country is willing to risk a more significant marriage on such a shaky alliance.

Alright, let’s move a bit quicker so we can get into more analysis. Dragan discovers rock salt in the mines and plans to use this knowledge to improve the world (and win a major career advancement for himself.) Gustadolph has Dragan murdered to keep the secret safe and claims the salt for Aesfrost, quickly moving to conquer Glenbrook and kill the royal family, accusing Glenbrook’s royal family of murdering Dragan as casus belli. In an open war, Glenbrook would have likely won, but Aesfrost’s quick betrayal wins them a victory: the men of the royal family are dead and Cordelia Glenbrook – the king’s sole surviving child, or so everyone believes – will become Gustadolph’s bride. Glenbrook and Hyzante are confused as to why Aesfrost is willing to risk losing their salt trade, but assume that they must have stockpiled a large quantity, or else made a deal with the Consortium that manages trade throughout Norzelia.

From this point, what happens differs based on the player’s decisions. In the “true” ending, Roland – the king’s younger son who secretly survived the culling – is protected by Serenoa, who also manages to defend Wollfort from Aesfrost’s invasion without resorting to the secret fire bombs hidden throughout the demesne as a lost resort. Serenoa also learns that he is actually Roland’s brother, adopted by Symon, but he chooses to hide this fact and win back the throne for Roland by pushing out Aesfrost – a win that is accomplished with little bloodshed and no damage to the common people by using a magical bomb from Hyzante to destroy the bridge to the castle, allowing them to negotiate a mostly peaceful surrender.

Serenoa continually outwits everybody else, at times allying with Hyzante and at others with Aesfrost, eventually coming to hold the position of one of the Saintly Seven while remaining a lord of Glenbrook under King Roland and having a secret arrangement with Minister Svarog, Dragan’s father, who is convinced by Roland that Gustadolph is his son’s real killer. Svarog also has the completed Deathsknell canon, which could be used to blow a hole in the Goddess’s Shield.

Serenoa also manages to protect a small group of Roselle that have been living in Wollfort since the Saltiron war and from them he learns the truth of the Roselle: they never aimed to claim the Source as their own, as Hyzante claims. The Roselle had discovered that rock Norzelia was once covered in salt water and has rock salt strewn throughout. They intended to share this knowledge with Norzelia but were brutally stopped and enslaved by Hyzante to preserve their monopoly over salt with Hyzante accusing the Roselle of the very crime they’re committing. Moreover, there exists a pillar of rock salt standing in the Source, hidden in the statue of the Goddess. A small piece of this statue was broken off and hidden away, which could serve to prove that not only is salt not a gift from the Goddess only to Hyzante but also that Hyzante’s leadership knew this all along and intentionally hid the truth of the Roselle for their own profit.

The climax

This all comes to a head in a major decision point. Serenoa has seized the salt crystals from the mine, knows the secret of the Roselle (and can prove it,) has a potential alliance with Svarog, and has kept the secret firebombs that could be used to defend Wollfort. He has all the pieces, but Wollfort is caught in a tough situation between Aesfrost and Hyzante without the military strength to stand up to either. At this point, Serenoa’s friends are torn.

Roland wants what’s best for the common people of Norzelia. He’s seen how war and trade disruptions affect them and isn’t willing to risk more of that. He also mistrusts Aesfrost as they murdered his family. He wants to give the salt crystals to Hyzante and accept Hyzante’s religion for all of Glenbrook. In this plan, all people would be equal… except the Roselle, who would serve as a relatively small sacrifice to safe the rest of Norzelia. Roland believes so strongly in saving his people that he’s willing to give up his throne and crown (though, frankly, he’s kind of been looking for an excuse to dodge this responsibility.)

Frederica wants to save the Roselle at all costs and isn’t willing to pass them by “temporarily” and hope that it’ll be more convenient to help them in the future. She would use the existence of rock salt to prove that the Roselle are not a race of sinners and that the Goddess did not grant control over salt to her believers. From there, she would lead the Roselle to Centralia, the ocean that once covered Norzelia and still – according to Rosellan legend – exists to the south.

Benedict, Wollfort’s steward, wants to protect Wollfort at all costs. Allying with Aesfrost provides the best chance of maintaining Wollfort’s independence from Hyzante, who he sees as the greatest enemy of all. Aesfrost can be reasoned with, but the theocracy will never relinquish control once their religion is allowed to spread.

Let me just quote the entire section, including Serenoa’s response in the best ending, as this is just fantastic writing.

Roland: There is no need to prepare for war. I have decided that we will surrender the salt crystals to the Holy State of Hyzante.
Frederica: What!?
Roland: Furthermore, I hereby declare that the Kingdom of Glenbrook and its people shall submit to the Goddess and Her Teachings. There is no way to bring happiness to all Norzelia with the salt crystals. Which is why I have chosen a path that will allow the greatest number of people to live in equality and harmony.
Frederica: How could you… Do you not see that Hyzante’s dominion over Norzelia’s salt is why we are in conflict already!? Is the suffering of the Roselle not proof enough that the Goddess’s vaunted equality is a lie?
Benedict: She speaks the truth, my king. Handing over the salt crystals is tantamount to giving Hyzante’s Goddess free rein of Norzelia. Will you so readily surrender the realm to the hierophant?
Roland: I acknowledge the abdication of my kingdom and kingship alike. A small price to pay, in my eyes, in exchange for the security and prosperity of the many.
Frederica: And the sacrifice of the Roselle? Is that a small price to you?
Roland: It is.
Frederica: How could you say such a thing to my face?
Benedict: I, for one, oppose. I would prefer to ally with Aesfrost and strike back at Hyzante. The salt deposits within the mines give us the leverage we need to convince Gustadolph to join us.
Roland: Ally with Aesfrost? You dare suggest we ally with the man who murdered my father!
Benedict: I see no reason why we should not. You proposed abdicating the throne for the sake of the kingdom and its people. So you should have no trouble putting aside your own feelings and judging this matter dispassionately.
Roland: I cannot believe my own ears… I will not have you lecture me on feelings when it is not your father he murdered!
Frederica: None of you can see beyond your own grievances… It’s no wonder my people have suffered for generations. We’re told to believe in the Goddess while our own lives are thrown away to make a few more grains of your precious salt… And now, even with proof that the Goddess is a lie you would watch us dig our own graves for your comfort!?
Benedict: Lady Frederica, please. We shall speak of the Roselle in due time.
Frederica: No, I’ve heard that before. Your “due time” is never, and I will not have you cast us aside for another three decades or more. All else is in disarray. If Hyzante seizes the salt crystals, we forfeit the best opportunity in decades to free my people. We know the truth. We must act upon it. We must be a light in the darkness.
Benedict: We cannot afford to dilute our forces when the enemy marches on us as we speak.
Frederica: So we are a distraction to you?
Benedict: I am merely being rational. Liberating the Roselle would be extremely dangerous. We cannot take such a risk. Suppose we succeed. How do you propose we fend off the fury Hyzante will rain down upon us?
Roland: Aesfrost would pounce on us, sensing weakness at the undue burden we’ve taken upon ourselves.
Benedict: Precisely. We would be without allies, and ripe for the taking.
Frederica: There is another way.
Benedict: And what, pray tell, would that be?
Frederica: We set out alongside the Roselle in search of Centralia.
Benedict: Centralia is a myth.
Frederica: The legends of my people are true.
Benedict: I care not one whit if they are – I will hear no talk of forsaking the Wollfort demesne!
Serenoa: Silence! I have heard enough to know where each of your stand. Do you all hold the courage of your own convictions?
Frederica: I do.
Benedict: Nothing I’ve heard here has swayed me.
Roland: I feel the same.
Serenoa: Very well. I would ask for some time to think on the matter.

From here, the player has the option to call a vote. No matter which of the three you chose, one of the others will leave for the rest of the game. You can find a degree of victory in any of these paths, but each ending is pretty bad for at least some people.

I understand each of you keenly, my friends. You have not arrived at these decisions lightly, and I do not doubt your convictions. Yet choosing any of the options before me risks creating a schism among the others. I cannot afford to lose any of you. Not after how far we’ve come.

>There must be another way!

Nay, I mustn’t give in so readily. There must be another way! One that will bind us together, not tear us asunder! Now then, to find it. Certainties first: We cannot afford to relinquish control of the salt crystals to any one nation. Salt necessarily belongs to the people, and on that point I shall not waver. There must be a way to bring about the lasting peace Roland desires without the need for Hyzante’s warped Teachings. Hyzante moves to take the Grand Norzelian mines as I contemplate this… They must be stopped. They will no doubt make an ostentatious show of power in an attempt to intimidate us. What’s worse, they’ll soon be at our door, and we’ll not defeat them with our army alone. Surely there is a way we can hold them off…

>Greet them with the Wollfort demesne’s wildfire.

The wildfire, of course! We’ll draw them into the village and set the vast majority of their forces alight! The hierophant will never relent, however. Hyzante will bear down on us with the full force of their army. We’ve no chance of winning a protracted war. Hyzante must fall, and quickly. We need Aesfrost.. We need the Deathsknell. ‘Tis the only way we’ll pierce the Goddess’s Shield. I hardly relish the thought of asking Gustadolph to come to our aid. He’ll no doubt demand the salt crystals in return. Who might help us get our hands on that weapon?

>Might Lord Svarog be the key?

Lord Svarog…yes! He swore to fight alongside us. It’s time he made good on his word. We share a common enemy in Gustadolph. He’ll be a boon! There is still the matter of how we invade Hyzante and incite the Roselle to rebel.

>We can expose the truth hidden within the Goddess’s statue.

Yes, we’ll blast away the statue and reveal the Hyzante’s lies for all to see! If the Rosellan legends are true, an enormous pillar of salt rests within the Goddess’s statue. Revealing that will prove that the Roselle spoke truth all these years. Goddess and hierophant alike will lose all claim to authority, leaving them open to a revolt from a united Roselle. And now we have the means to make the explosives that will bring Hyzante to its knees. Just one problem remains: How will we manage to pass through the Goddess’s Shield? No banner could pass into Hyzante without arousing suspicion. Unless…

>They’re of the Consortium.

…Unless they’ve no banner at all! The Consortium-of course! One glimpse of the salt crystals ought to bring Clarus to the table. So long as I play to his self-interest, the rest will follow. …I have it. I’ve found a way to give everyone what they want most, in one fell swoop. The salt crystals will belong to all, and not just a privileged few. The people of Norzelia will finally be lords and ladies of their own making – masters of their own destinies!

Benedict’s fervent desire to protect the demesne’s integrity… Roland’s yearning for equity… Frederica’s resolve to free her people… I hear you all, my friends. You are not alone. Nor are the countless others who look to me at this late hour. If ever there were a time to heed my father’s last words, it is now. I must forge my own path and lead my people. The scales cannot save us this time. The words of my closest confidants have revealed a way forward that the scales never could. All that remains is to convince them to follow me down the path I have made. As lord of House Wollfort, I solemnly swear an oath by which all future lords shall be bound:

I will never turn my back on the promise of a better world.

From there, the plan goes pretty much as described, though the battles are very difficult.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Japanese RPG without some weirdness in the final boss. The hierophant is revealed to be an automaton created by magic and Idore has gained the secret of immortality using Hyzante’s advanced medical research.

Idore reveals many more automatons, most of which appear to be made from the bodies of the Roselle, before becoming giant and shouting a bunch of cool lines in a warped voice. You know, standard final boss stuff.

Now, to be fair, this is actually fitting with the game’s plot thus far and there’s been a fair bit of foreshadowing, so it’s not really fair to lump this in with any Final Fantasy boss. I thought it was a pretty solid final boss. I also really liked that Idore is the man in front of the curtain with the illusion hidden inside.

From there, you defeat Idore, offer him a chance to join you that he refuses, and then we get the epilogue. In this ending, we see Rosellan children playing in the streets of Glenbrook as the leaders of Aesfrost and Hyzante arrive to peacefully discuss business. Benedict nearly resigns in shame over proposing such a selfish ending, but is talked into staying by Serenoa. Serenoa finally reveals to Roland that they’re actually siblings, but quickly discards any notion of making a claim on the throne, even if Roland willingly offers it, as Roland is a kind king with great love for his people. Just when you think that it can’t get any more sickeningly sweet, Roland makes a demand on Serenoa and Frederica: it’s far past time for them to finally get married.

The credits roll, ending with the doors opening to reveal the new couple the image at the top of this post.

Analysis

So, that’s the plot, but what does it mean?

Well, as I said before: Concretely, Triangle Strategy is about salt and iron. Thematically, it’s about the necessity of having faith in other people. Let’s talk about some of the main themes, some of the things the game did particularly well, and some of the things that fell flat.

I will never turn my back on the promise of a better world

The main reason I love this game and the primary takeaway I intend for this post is that the morality system here is fantastic and I think it’s a really important message right now.

Throughout the game decisions are made by vote and reasonable discussion. This sounds perfect, and I love the idea that all disputes can be resolved by debate, compromise, and voting, provided that everyone involved acts in good faith. It’s a great fantasy, but the reality is that sometimes this doesn’t work: you can’t find a perfect solution without any risks.

Now, I can already feel you thinking: isn’t the true ending exactly that? A perfect solution for everyone?

No, it’s not.

The best ending for the game can only be achieved by repeatedly risking utter disaster by trusting that other people will do the right thing. Revealing that Roland is alive to Svarog would have gotten Roland killed and perhaps Serenoa as well if Svarog hadn’t listened to reason. Any of Roland, Benedict, or Frederica could have betrayed the other two to get what they want with less risk if they’d wanted, but they didn’t. Even Clarus Brokker, the resting villain face merchant who is constantly telegraphing that he’ll be a major villain, withstands torture to give Frederica more time to free the Roselle. Over and over again Serenoa is able to succeed only be having faith that other people will do the right thing when the course of history falls on their shoulders.

Idore’s final speech, after you defeat him, calls attention to this theme.

Idore: Gah! Serenoa Wollfort… It must feel good to wield your blade for your ideals… But you will regret it in time… Human greed will fill the void left behind by the Goddess… Those you sought to bring happiness to will criticize and condemn you…
Serenoa: …I know. That is the fate of a leader of men. But I will never stop believing in people. I will walk beside them toward a better tomorrow.
Idore: …I once believed in the same ideals. I prayed to the Goddess endlessly for the people’s salvation… But She never answered my prayers and the people remained fools… Only then did I realize the Goddess did not exist! That I had to save my people by mine own hand!
Serenoa: Idore…Why not put your faith in people once more?
Idore: You would forgive…even me?
Serenoa: You must atone for your wrongs, of course. But after that, you would be free to walk a different path.
Idore: Hahaha… You naive fools…

It’s only by risking both betrayal and failure that the best outcome can be achieved. I think this is a message that’s critically important right now. I don’t want to get too political in this post, but it seems like a lot of modern political platforms – particularly if not exclusively on the Right – are built on the idea that risking abuse of a right or benefit is unacceptable: that it would be better to have a risk-free bad ending than a risky best ending. If someone could act in bad faith then we must assume that they will and that as many people as possible will, and we must therefore lock down any possibility for abuse even if this creates a worse system than the abuse itself would.

I see this in discussion of the risks of abortion, trans rights, gay marriage, defunding the police, welfare, UBI, the assumed-guilty approach of our criminal justice system, and the general unwillingness for anyone to discuss anything with anyone who doesn’t already agree with them. Fears that providing aid, permission, or trust may result in being taken advantage of are used to justify massive unnecessary suffering and humiliation. You don’t need to agree with me on these specific issues to see that we’re having a real problem in finding some faith that maybe other people won’t always do the worst thing you can imagine if given the chance. Risk is necessary unless we’re willing to drastically limit our options.

We would rather accept a bad ending of our own choosing than have faith that others will play their role in achieving a better reality. But, if we could learn to have faith in others and hold on to the promise of a better world, we could find better endings than any of us could achieve alone.

Religion

So… this is both a Japanese RPG and a game with a medieval setting, so it’s not really a surprise that the portrayal of religion is terrible. It’s practically a tradition for the church in any JRPG to be nothing but a con that everyone involved in is aware of, and this is also basically the way that religion was treated in Game of Thrones. This is a topic covered better by a number of Bret Devereaux’s posts, so take a look here if you’d like a deeper dive into this particular topic.

In Triangle Strategy, Hyzante’s religion has some real problems. The most glaring is the assumption that showing that the Goddess status hides a rock crystal would immediately dismantle the religion. That’s just not how religion works. It might be enough to cause some riots, but the religion’s leadership could easily find ways to explain this away. The Source is more readily available, so it could still be argued to be a gift from the Goddess, and perhaps the rock crystals are a new gift to usher in a new age? Perhaps the rock crystals are somehow tainted. In 2022, we have people worried that the COVID vaccine might make you magnetic or that it could contain microchips – I don’t doubt that Idore could convince his people that the rock crystals are somehow unsafe.

How old Hyzante’s religion is and whether anyone in a position of power actually believes it feels inconsistent to me. At times, it feels like the religion was manufactured from nothing within Idore’s lifetime and that only the common people believe it. Charitably, I’d say that the intent here is that worship of the Goddess and the Source is very old and Idore has simply added on some new beliefs, but it still doesn’t really feel like it was fully thought out.

In Idore’s final speech he admits that he no longer believes in the Goddess, which could have felt like a very bitter and empathetic moment for an old man who used to be faithful and want the best for his people but was jaded by decades of disappointment… but it didn’t really feel like a revelation at all, as it was obvious that he didn’t believe in his religion: he didn’t really try to hide it. Some of the Saintly Seven occasionally seem to be devout believers… but they often contradict themselves.

On top of all of that, I kept asking myself what other faiths even exist in Norzelia. I don’t think that the game needed an in-depth religion for each faction, but was there a single reference as to Glenbrook or Aesfrost’s religion?

Again, this is pretty common for the genre. If anything, Triangle Strategy does a somewhat better job than Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but that’s a pretty low bar.

Government

I really liked the different forms of government in the game, not just in what they were but in how they were portrayed.

Notably, nobody in the game tries to anachronistically assert modern notions of democracy at any point. We have votes, but only for advisors. Gustadolph is meritocratic, but he also grants favors to family members and takes his right to rule from his name. Roland is practically defined by his love for the common people, but he makes multiple references to “royal blood.”

I also liked how the flaws in both Aesfrost’s meritocracy and Hyzante’s equality are called out (most often by Frederica, who clearly sees the flaws in both.) Gustadolph’s philosophy sound like freedom, but it is – in essence – the freedom of the strong to dominate the weak. Hyzante’s equality sounds great in theory, but in practice we find that the Saintly Seven are corrupt, finding ways to enrich themselves in a supposedly equal society, and then there’s the entire race of people slaving to support the “equality” of the rest.

Glenbrook, too, has its problems. We’re fortunate that Roland, Serenoa, and their fathers are all good people, but we can also see that this is more a matter of luck than of intention. There’s a great deal of corruption in Glenbrook’s lesser houses. In a side story, I caught a noble claiming food in Serenoa’s name from starving peasants who were only saved because one of my characters happened to overhear. How many other farmers starved due to theft from Glenbrook’s elites?

Triangle Strategy doesn’t really make a firm commitment to any one system, but rather does a good job of showing the strengths and weaknesses of all three. That it managed to pull this off without feeling overbearing is really impressive to me.

The battles

I discussed the battle system quite a bit already, but I want to add on just one thing. Overall, I like the battle system a lot. The game can be either very difficult or very easy depending on your settings, accommodating both SRPG pros and n00bs alike. The progression system is engaging without being overbearing.

So, when battles are hard, they’re often really tedious in a way that other modern SRPGs usually aren’t.

Does anyone else remember Wiegraf Folles from Final Fantasy Tactics? If you were like me, you probably only beat him after just an insane number of turns running around the room applying buffs to finally get in one hit before running away again. The battle wasn’t just hard, but it was frustrating and time-consuming (unless you were either overleveled or knew what to expect and were properly prepared.)

Many of the hardest fights in Triangle Strategy feel like this. When things went well, difficulty was about using the right characters and abilities to set up good combos and counters for the situation, but there were multiple battles where the difficulty came more from patience than anything else.

More recent Fire Emblem titles do a much better job of making difficulty more of a puzzle to be solved, often within an intentionally limited number of turns. When you play well, fights are – if anything – often shorter than if you play poorly, and they often feel more thematically appropriate as tough characters absorb blows to protect weaker characters and glass-cannon characters hit huge damage numbers.

Having everyone hide to carefully bait out enemies just a couple at a time got really old by the end of the game. The battles were still fun, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely feel like there were some opportunities for improvements.

The characters

I’m just about ready to wrap this post up, but first I’d like to emphasize just how great the characters are. Overall, Triangle Strategy wasn’t particularly long: finishing my first playthrough took a little over thirty hours and I wasn’t rushing at all. Compared to most of the other story-rich games I’ve played over the past few years, this is actually pretty short. Yet, the characters managed to have a lot of depth.

They also just… popped. Symon is really likeable, though he’s very tropey. Gustadolph had a lot of sides: I loved hating him, but I often had to wonder whether he really did have the best plan for Norzelia. Idore’s a monster, but he’s still fairly sympathetic: it really seems like he had tried to do the right thing for a long time and finally just gave up.

I’ve been posting the character portrait cards throughout, but here are a few more. I won’t dump all of them here, but seriously, the designs are so good!

Another thing that particularly stood out is that the characters talk to each other, not just to you. I’ve come to expect that most games with “good characters” feel a bit like a harem: everyone wants to talk to me and anything really important must happen with me present. Not so for Triangle Strategy! Character side stories usually don’t involve Serenoa at all. Erador and Hossabara open up over drinks, which sometimes include Corentin. Flanagan and Hughette bond over their hawks. You really get the sense that these people exist in the world, and not merely as objects for the player to play with.

Well, I think that’s about all I have to say about Triangle Strategy. It’s a fantastic game and I’ll probably jump back in to see the endings I didn’t already get and to recruit the characters I haven’t met yet.