Trial experience of Project Triangle Strategy:; HD-2D” Another way to retro

Although the three works of "The Moment Plan" have made many new players feel some old-fashioned JRPG atmosphere, what has provided players with a clear experience is also "The Traveler on the Wrong Road" led by Tomoyo Asano. The combination of pixel matrix and edge blur, combined with 3D scenes and Unreal Engine, gives it a sense of difference as a "90s game that can only be made today." This style is called "HD-2D" by Square Enix.

At the Nintendo Face to Face Conference on the 18th, the new HD-2D style game "Project Triangle Strategy" (PTS) was announced, but the battle this time changed from a turn based RPG in "Traveler by the Road" to a "grid based" SRPG. After the face-to-face meeting, SE immediately provided a trial version of PTS. What was the first impression it gave people?

It inevitably reminds people of

Since Taiji Matsuno returned to SE, whenever SE does something slightly serious, netizens can't help but think of him, including myself. This time, SRPG, the story setting of three countries, and the background setting of the Middle Ages, all of these will remind people of "The Royal Knights 2" by Matsuno. Of course, whether it was Final Fantasy 16 or this time PTS, Taiji Matsuno denied any involvement in the production.

Okay, you always say it's not you, so what did you do when you went back?

Roast ends here. The reason why we were so surprised by the emergence of PTS is that after SE made their games generally "action oriented", suddenly there was a SRPG with a noticeably slower rhythm, which made the appearance of this game particularly "untimely". But when combined with the HD-2D style, we will find that it may be one of the best solutions to revitalize SRPG today.

Of course, in terms of gameplay, the design orientation of PTS is still very "traditional", with two typical points:

One is the XYZ axis, and the other is to determine the order of action based on the "speed" attribute.

Height difference map of XYZ axis

To be fair, the XYZ axis has long been popular in today's SRPG, and "The Tale of Things" can be considered as a series of AVGs, with the addition of the XYZ axis, also known as the height difference, in the combat section of SRPG. The height difference involves many combat variables, such as skill range, building occlusion, drop damage, and so on.

These provide players with various possibilities for tactics, such as if the enemy is on the edge of the field and there is space below, using the ability to repel can achieve twice the result with half the effort; If the enemy's rear is friendly, the player's repelling skill will become friendly damage. For example, a player's ranged units can climb up high places, with a larger field of view and a larger attack range.

"Speed" is equivalent to providing a variable for the order of action of both the enemy and ourselves, and players can use corresponding skills to reduce the enemy's speed or increase our order of action. But currently, the trial version of the game does not provide too many skills. How to adjust the order of actions to make tactics more versatile still depends on the subsequent trial version, and even the official version.

The yellow dots next to skill are TP points

These two are not new things. What truly sets PTS's battles apart are the common numerical design of the Asano group and the unique elements of the HD-2D. The former is similar to the TP points of the BP points in Traveler by the Road, while the latter benefits from the engine's elemental effects and attack prediction.

In short, TP points replace the action points used in the previous SRPG concept of MP. The characters on the field will earn some TP points every time they start taking action, and skills other than regular attacks will need to consume TP points when used.

This requires players to plan and arrange the TP points of units during their actions, because as long as they release skills, whether it is damage, gain, or loss reduction, the character will gain corresponding experience for upgrading. However, if too many skills are released, there may be a situation where there is a lack of TP and the ability cannot be released at critical moments. Therefore, how players make choices is the core element of this battle.

The skill effect of is very HD-2D style "light pollution"

The elemental effect is the effect on the area when a unit releases elemental magic. For example, when casting icicle magic, the area will have a frost like effect after the icicle disappears, and the hit and evasion of units in the area will decrease; If there is rainwater in the area, it will increase the range of lightning magic transmission.

Although there is not much content in the trial version, we can still vaguely see the advanced gameplay of this game, including how to set element traps to make element magic that consumes more TP more unexpected. This can also be attributed to the content presented by the HD-2D style.

Element effect of ground

As for attack prediction, different colored blocks are used to represent whether the area is safe: blue represents the safe area that the enemy cannot attack, purple represents the dangerous area that the enemy can attack during their actions, and red represents the player's own attack range. This makes it more intuitive and indirectly reduces the difficulty of the game.

In addition, in the trial version, it can be seen that the level map also has mechanisms set up, allowing players to surround and ignite the area, annihilating enemies. I believe the official version of the map will have more interactive content. At the same time, there is also a buff effect called "Ace" in the game that players can choose for themselves, such as taking two actions. However, as it is a trial version, there are not many areas where the "ace" elements are reflected, and the way to obtain them is through the station.

Explanation of "Ace" System

Due to being a trial version, the game does not provide equipment and systems, and many functions of the station cannot be used. As an important job transfer system for SRPG, it is not provided (although it is not ruled out, the possibility of not having it is very small).

The equipment system and building system of are not provided in the trial version

But overall, the basic framework of the game has been built, and the core is still how to allocate TP points reasonably and how to use element effects. This is indeed a new idea and a good continuation of the HD-2D prequel, Traveler by the Road.

However, the biggest highlight of PTS is not "combat", but rather the game's interpretation and selection of the plot.

Story Background

Scale and Selection

Although the trial version only has two short episodes and two battles, I have no doubt about the importance of storytelling in this game. Based on the player's choice, the seventh episode can present levels with different scenes and enemies, which undoubtedly makes us look forward to the official version of this game. Obviously, although this game has a Strategy in its title and gameplay, it is clear that the Asano team still places their ambitions on the RPG as usual, which is what they excel at, and this time the core lies in choice.

Option is very common in conversations

We seem to hear many players complaining online that JRPG's choices are too routine, providing options but actually having minimal impact on the direction of the plot. This is also why people constantly mistakenly believe and expect many works to involve Taiji Matsuno. He has incorporated a lot of Western PC game elements into both of Quest's "The Royal Knights", the first generation's RTS gameplay, and the second generation's introduction of complex variables to SRPG to create a lot of gameplay. He did bring something different, and obviously, the PTS of the Asano group inherited this.

Because HD-2D characters are very blurry, the game provides the function of viewing speaking characters

Seeing this, many players may ask, isn't it just a choice? Not to mention anything else, don't both SRPG's Flame Emblem and Super Robot Wars have them? What's there to boast about?

The reason is that the choice of PTS is not just for players to make simple judgments about dialogue options, but to collect as much information as possible to guide the route they want to complete.

In the daily plot of the game, a hidden value such as "belief value" is designed, and various actions and choices of the player will have an impact on this belief value, forming three value orientations - utilitarianism, intuition, and freedom. This orientation will affect the joining and leaving of subsequent partners, and even affect the overall plot direction of the game.

After completing the sixth episode, the player will enter the selection stage. Unlike previous games where players make choices directly, the design of the game involves persuading those who oppose them to join in after determining their own choices. Finally, the final direction of the plot is determined by the number of people in each option. During the process, players need to collect more clues and persuasive arguments in the city, and then unlock hidden conversations to complete persuasion.

Voting and Persuasion

Players who have played Longteng Century Trial may recall the protagonist's role as a judge who listens to various opinions multiple times in the game, then makes decisions based on the situation, which in turn affects the favorability of each character in the team. PTS has taken a somewhat opposite path in gameplay. Everyone has their own opinions on which one they like, but in my opinion, the feeling of PTS, where fate is not in their own hands, is obviously more interesting.

The background of the game is set in the Three Kingdoms of the Middle Ages, and obviously there is a lot of room for plot development in the power struggles. The selected content in the trial version is a typical "Prince's Revenge", which is easy for players to understand and accept. In the main map, there are also green marked side storylines that expand the world view. We can see that even within the same country, various lords have ulterior motives and are using their own small strategies. Such a trend surge is enough to make players daydream.

: A staunch royalist party

Of course, as the saying goes, eating a pit leads to gaining wisdom. JRPG often has a plot where the plates are laid out very large but the results are disappointing. So now the content of the trial version can indeed boost players' expectations for the plot. Whether the complete plot can reach the height that players imagine, we still need to wait for the official version to know.

As a game that will only be released in 2022, the current trial version naturally won't have much content. A few short words cannot give us enough understanding of the system, and it is even difficult to say whether these two parts are the sixth and seventh parts of the official version. Perhaps the longer read and load times that appear now will also be improved when the official version is released.

Interactive Scene

The most stunning aspect of PTS is that in today's fully accelerated JRPG, developers are able to let go of their pursuit of speed and rhythm and choose to create a slower SRPG, which is itself an encouraging aspect. And its development team also has HD-2D style gemstones like "Traveler by the Road," and now has released a new work that reminds people of the "Royal Knights" series and "Final Fantasy Strategy Department.".

It's difficult not to pay more attention to the follow-up actions of PTS.

The design of many characters in is very clever and worth looking forward to