Trinity Trigger is about as generic as you can yet.
It has dungeons and dragons, your primary character has a mysterious past, and you soon find yourself befriending a creature which is suffering from amnesia. There’s truly nothing original here. But does it really matter? Not a great deal. Trinity Trigger may not be an innovative or fresh action RPG, but it is somewhat fun.
The story of Trinity Trigger is focused around Cyan, a young man who suddenly finds himself being hunted. Why, exactly, is for you to find out, but it might have something to do with his eye, which sometimes mysteriously glows red. Luckily for Cyan, he gets a heads-up about the attempts upon his life by Elise, a stranger who seems trustworthy enough. And so off they go, out into the world in order to keep on the move and also acquire some valuable weapons.
Gameplay-wise, Trinity Trigger will feel very familiar to fans of games such as Ys, or even The Legend of Zelda. From a top-down viewpoint, players make their way through towns, areas of wilderness and even dungeons. Along the way, they’re free to make use of any weapons they have equipped, either to dispatch or destroy objects blocking their path. Slashing at plants, for example, might reveal some materials or coins. And using the right weapon type to destroy rocks might open up a path to a treasure chest.
As you might expect, the dungeons are the highlight here. They’re not particularly difficult to navigate, but they do hold some secrets for those who have a keen eye. Sometimes they require you to put your thinking cap on to progress through, too, with switches to thwack and a whole lot more. But more importantly, by reaching key areas within them you can unlock additional weapons for your characters to make use of.
There are many weapons to unlock in Trinity Trigger, and they can be switched to at any time during combat by either changing characters or bringing up the weapon wheel. And you’ll want to do so often, as some of them are more effective when facing off against certain enemies. It’s also worth taking control of Elise and Zantis, another friend you meet on your adventure, in order to make use of their unique skills. With you being able to define and upgrade three-hit combos for each, and make use of unique Trinity Trigger attacks, there’s a decent amount of variation. When a gauge is full you can even unleash a powerful team attack.
Combat in Trinity Trigger is fun on the whole, even if it is hard to sometime hard to spot and avoid enemy attacks in the melee. It’s when you encounter bosses that your combat skills are most put to the test, and you’ll quickly have to learn when to attack and when to hold back in order to make it through unscathed. Effective use of the dodge button helps, but you might find your computer-controlled teammates getting cornered and subsequently bullied. In fact, their AI is a bit dumb – thankfully friends or family members can step in and take control of them if they’re available.
Irritatingly, bosses have shields. So, you have to wear down their shields first, then deal real damage in the short window presented to you before they put up their defences again. It can be a pain when they put up their shield when they’re down to a tiny slither of health. It feels like a cheap way of stringing fights out. Still, it’s not the most egregious of faults.
Ultimately, there’s nothing really bad about Trinity Trigger, but there’s also nothing that makes you excited about playing it. Its story is enjoyable but very predictable and clichéd, the combat is solid but very typical of the genre, and it looks and sounds just fine. If you’re after a fairly breezy, light-hearted action RPG to work your way through, it’s worth considering, but the experience is not likely to stick with you.
Trinity Trigger Review – GameSpew’s Score
