Plot:On the continent of Vyashion, two forces have always fought fiercely against each other. One an empire located to the north called Dyneskal and the other the Kingdom of Rostorl, located in the south.
Using a revolt caused by Balor (The emperor of Dyneskal) to its advantage, the former king of Rostorl ordered an attack on the south-eastern part of Dyneskal.
Rostorl’s attack failed and the skirmish ended with the Dyneskal forces victorious. Due to this loss, the current rulers of Rostorl (King Selmonoe and Queen Eris) put themselves on constant alert regarding any possible retaliation made by the Dyneskal Empire.
During all his time in power, the emperor of Dyneskal, Balor, has constantly been plotting the unification of the whole Vyashion continent. Following his malevolent scheme, each force on the continent has been monitoring Dyneskal’s every move in great anxiety…
Impressions: Trinity Souls of Zill O’ll is a mixed bag of good and bad. When first loading the game you are welcomed with some lush cinematics, interesting art design, and a decidedly medival-ish setting fitting all the trimmings of potentially a really great RPG. After the cinematic cut scenes have passed the game instantly throws you head first into what appears to be a boss battle of some sort forcing you to learn the mechanics right off the bat.
The Fighting mechanics are good, but not great. You have access to control 3 characters in this fight with each having varying strengths and weaknesses. You have you basic healer, a brawler, and a balance between the two called a swordsman. You switch characters on the fly at the tap of the button sending the camera to another character you control in rotation. I like the idea of this mechanic as I feel it’s one not explored enough in games and it really adds a unique layer of strategy to gameplay. I don’t have a problem with the 3 individual characters but I did have a problem with their lack of interactivity or any team up attacks. You control one character at a time and whatever that character can do is completely independent of your teammates which begs the question as to what’s the point of introducing the 3 characters at once?
The game has a habit of having your character attacked by large hordes of enemies flanking you from all directions which could spell for a lot of fun or a lot of frustration. Trinity does neither and both at the same time as the seeming intent is to make the action as satisfying and rapid paced as games like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry without really ever achieving the fluidity that those games have attained. Controls rely on the “dial a combo” mechanic of fighting, which would be fine if every key emitted a response from your character. The on screen instructions do their best to help coordinate and understand a method of attack but I think I just had the most trouble accepting the fact that my character couldn’t hover in the air and perform air combos. So while I’m mashing buttons hoping to be dazzled with triple death synchronization with help of my other 2 characters I was instead found disappointment someone was clawing at my back. The fighting mechanics are inspired, if not in need of some refinement.
The graphics are another thing that caught my attention. The art direction seems like they were picked straight from the leftover pages of a Tetsuya Nomura sketchbook which isn’t entirely a bad thing when done well. The characters are definitely inspired by the Final Fantasy artist but aren’t quite as refined as some of his better works and aren’t their only source of inspiration as some enemies could easily be confused for Overloard’s minions.
Trinity suffers from jaggies and lots of em, especially if you learn the hard way that the game won’t display in 1080P and instead defaults to 480P if not configured properly. The spiky hair of the characters and shoulder armor look great under the proper resolution, with fewer jaggies, and are certainly pretty to look at in the right circumstance… but beware as the jaggies will not hide themselves for long which gives me the impression that this game may not have always been intended for home consoles.
The methods of interaction between your character to deliver story is another mixed bag. Sometimes your characters will talk to each, with voice actors, using an ingame cinema’s and sometimes you will instead see the old school method of 2D drawings and text at the bottom of the screen. Either one works fine, but it’s completely disjarring when the method is alternated during a single sequence. My head spun as I would see my character interact in a 3D machinmalistic film only to have things change in mid conversation to a 2D plane.
All in all the game is fun. There’s a lot for players to sink their teeth into if they are in need of a good action JRPG but be warned that this player gets the impression that the game was initially developed for handhelds before being moved to home consoles with characters exhibiting jagged edges when inspected, and multiple methods of storytelling being used to progress the story.
