Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to play a demo of Trinity Trigger from XSeed Games at PAX East 2023, and I had a great time with the game. Since then, it has been one of my top JRPGs to check out this year. The game was released on April 25th, 2023, for PC, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4/5, and there’s a lot to talk about in terms of combat, crafting, co-op mode, and Steam Deck. Here’s my detailed review of Trinity Trigger, developed by Furyu Corporation and published by Xseed Games & Marvelous USA Inc.
The story takes place in the fantasy world of Trinitia, where in ancient times, there was a battle between the “Gods of Order” and “Gods of Chaos” for control of the world. The gods selected humans as warriors to fight for them and achieve domination. The game follows the adventures of Cyan, Elise, and Xantice. Cyan is an ordinary person from a peaceful village who discovers he has been chosen by the “Gods of Chaos” to be the “Warrior of Chaos.” Cyan sets off on a journey to learn what this means and what he has to do, accompanied by his childhood friend Elise.
Gameplay
Trinity Trigger is an action RPG where you control three main characters in the world of Trinitia. Each character is equipped with a Trigger, a little creature that can transform into any unlocked weapon. However, each character has its own unique set of weapons and designs. During your adventure, you’ll explore different biomes, each with its own set of monsters and several hidden chests. You’ll find one or two treasures hidden behind a rock or a wall sometimes, but you’ll be able to see how many chests are in each area you visit.
While exploring the world, you have a map to show you the way and fast travel to places you’ve already visited. However, it’s hard to know which paths lead to where on the map, so you’ll need “Sign Posts” to guide you. You’ll also come across Shrines, which are dungeons, and each one has a boss you must defeat to complete the dungeon. In these dungeons, you’ll find treasure, puzzles, and traps. Make sure to be well-prepared with items, especially “revive potions,” before visiting these shrines.
When you unlock co-op mode, you can play and explore the world of Trinitia with two other players in the local co-op. However, there’s no online option. While playing co-op, you can control one character, and the other two players will control the other two characters. Potions are shared with everyone in your party, so always make sure you’re well-stocked with them.
Combat and Crafting Mechanic
In Trinity Trigger, most of your gameplay will be in combat while exploring the world or the shrines. The combat mechanic for this game is a fast-paced action RPG, similar to Trials of Mana. During combat, dodging and stamina are your best friends. There’s no blocking system, but you can dodge. Stamina is also important because the more you swing your weapon, the less stamina your character has, which means the less damage you’ll inflict on a boss or monster.
The more you play and unlock weapons, the more Trigger combo moves you’ll unlock, which you can upgrade to increase your skill level and change the order of combo moves for all your characters. You’ll be able to form different combos for all your weapon slots, which will be useful in tight situations, especially if you’re fighting multiple enemies.
During combat the player can switch between many weapons they have unlocked so far in the game, for me I try to not have the same weapons for everyone on the team that way I can be versatile for any given situation, so usually I run with Sword for Cyan, Bow or Lance for Elise, and Axe for Xantice. While exploring the world you will also encounter huge rocks that required a certain weapon to use to break it, to access a secret area to find treasure or resources, this is important because this will lead you to the next step which is crafting.
Crafting is another factor of the game because this will help you craft potions that you can use during exploration but also helps you create other items that will help your character get stronger. The resources players will find throughout the game will help you create items such as “Manatite” which is a strange gem that you can equip to your trigger and these gems can help boost up your character by increasing damage or health bars, or maybe gaining more experience during combats. Also, you will be able to craft potions as well, that will heal you during battle, buff your character temporally, or cure your character either from being silent or poisoned.
Artwork, Audio, Controls
Trinity Trigger is a game that incorporates a lot of JRPGs design elements, the character designs and world designs are nostalgic to me due to it reminds me of a lot of a similar art style to Secret of Mana and the Tales series. The character design caught my attention a lot, especially during the cutscene where you can see the expression of the character when they react to a certain sentence or event. Also when during combat you will see when your character gets damaged and is close to death their character profile icon expression changes.
Between music and the character voice-over, I am on the bar because I love the music of the game. After all, it has the same music style as the Mana series and I saw the composer is the same one as well which is the reason I recognized the similarity. When it comes to voice there is an option to have either Japanese or English dub and both are done so well, my only concern is during exploration especially when I have to go into battles, I find it a little bit annoying that the character keeps saying the same move over and over, I didn’t notice it in the beginning but it became so repetitive afterward that sometimes I have to go to setting to lower the voice volume.
I had no issues with the controls, especially navigating through the multiple menus on the UI system, however, there is a lot of menu like your items menu or weapons menu during battle, which took some time to get used to, but in the end, it became second nature to me. I had no delay when it came to switching between characters that I was able to perform multiple combo moves which made some battles with bosses pretty easy.
One thing to know when it comes to control is that when you turn on co-op the menu options buttons are shared with whoever you are playing with, so when they open the item menu, it will also appear on your screen. This can take some time to get used to because not many games share the same menu screen when it comes to the local co-op.
Is it Playable on Steam Deck?
This is probably the most important question because we know the game is out on Nintendo Switch and that is playable both on handheld and Dock. However, can this game be playable on the Steam deck? The answer is yes and it is fantastic on the same level as the Nintendo Switch version. The majority of my beginning gameplay was on the Steam deck and I had no issues whatsoever, it almost felt like I was playing on the switch and I didn’t see any drops of frames or audio issues, even the cutscene work well. I know when it comes to JRPGs not a lot of game works well on the steam deck. Boss fights and combats were smooth, didn’t see much delay and the UI system on the steam deck text isn’t too small that I can read every line and navigate without a hitch.
Final Thoughts
I have to say I enjoyed the game a lot, especially the story of the game and learning a bit about each of the three main characters. The world environment is the best thing ever in the game, due to that you can experience different biomes and meet so many different bosses and monsters. I love that when you visit each town there are side quests and things to do like crafting and selling stuff, the game is full of life and every NPCs are a major part of what made this game feels amazing. Gamers who are fans of JRPGs will have to embark on a nostalgic journey in this game and they will also have a wonderful experience in co-op mode where up to two other players can play with you. For new players, this will be a great introduction to the genres from the music, characters, combats, and Storytelling of what makes JRPGs great.
A digital copy was provided by XSeed Games for review purposes.
