Triangle Strategy is a game that pays homage to the Final Fantasy Tactics spin-off series while also adding enough new elements to make it stand out.
One game in particular is flying under the radar among Square Enix’s many other high-profile titles in production. While work on Final Fantasy 16, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s second chapter, and Dragon Quest 12 continues, one exclusive is bringing a long-dormant subseries back to life in a dramatic manner.
Triangle Strategy, originally known as the significantly distinct Project Triangle Strategy, is a Nintendo Switch-exclusive strategy RPG in development that looks a lot like Octopath Traveler’s “HD-2D” version. Triangle Strategy has a lot going for it, despite the fact that marketing for the game has slowed considerably until lately.
Of course, there’s probably a quiet, continuous enthusiasm for the game, as the game’s presence alone is capable of eliciting that level of enthusiasm from enthusiasts. Triangle Strategy is a Final Fantasy-style strategy game with the same widely praised aesthetic and visual design as Octopath Traveler. It appears to be a spiritual successor to the Final Fantasy Tactics games. When you combine that with the desire of fans for a new Final Fantasy Tactics game, Triangle Strategy appears to be the next best thing.
While it was never as successful as the mainline Final Fantasy series, the Final Fantasy Tactics subseries did gain a lot of traction in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003) helped restructure the Final Fantasy franchise into a more rigorous strategy framework, maintaining the turn-based foundation but adding a grid-based arena battle system. Players command battalions of forces based on all of the iconic classes from mainline Final Fantasy JRPGs, all in service to conquering the opponents group or army and securing the battlefield, rather than a party of three or four.
Even though Final Fantasy Tactics was primarily inspired by the 1995 strategy game Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, originally published by Quest Corporation, it’s all extremely Fire Emblem-esque. Shortly after the release of Tactics Ogre, many of the game’s original developers went to work for Square (before the Square-Enix merger), which led to the marriage of the two universes with Tactics.
Triangle Strategy clearly harkens back to classic Tactics games with its story and graphic design, while also adding its own unique flavor. For one thing, carrying over the Octopath Traveler aesthetic design components to Triangle Strategy makes a lot of sense, appealing to nostalgia in a very modern and artistic way that fans and critics loved.
Character art, surprisingly, harkens back to old Final Fantasy designs as well, boosting the game’s nostalgic charm even more. Even if the story is more Tactics Ogre than Final Fantasy Tactics, the distinctions between the two games aren’t that great.
The obvious connection is in the gameplay, as Triangle Strategy is quite similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Players fight over a variety of terrain with varied degrees of verticality and advantage, all while taking into account each unit’s unique strengths and weaknesses. Triangle Strategy, on the other hand, offers a variety of diversions from this essential basis, such as unique character abilities, team attacks, and flanking, as well as more diverse and exotic environments. The most significant distinction is Triangle Strategy’s emphasis on a more complicated tale that players can actively influence, with critical moral choices and decisions for players to ponder.
Triangle Strategy undoubtedly satisfies a comparable craving, albeit in a unique fashion that is still very distinct from a Tactics game. The main difference is the emphasis on story, as there is a lot more exposition and conflict background set out beforehand, at least based on the Project Triangle Strategy demo. Furthermore, because players can make decisions that directly affect the story, subsequent playthroughs could be quite different both narratively and gameplay-wise. Triangle Strategy, on the other hand, retains enough of the Tactics DNA for fans of the series to fall in love with it when it launches next year.
Triangle Strategy will be released for Nintendo Switch on April 3, 2022.
