Hands-On: Deft Visuals, Deep Gameplay Make Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll an RPG to Watch
TOKYO — Some may look at Tecmo Koei’s Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll, the latest in a series that has never seen the light of day in the West, and quickly pass it off another generic action role-playing game. But after all the mind-melting moe madness of Tokyo Game Show, I found the mature visuals of Trinity quite soothing.
The art and design of Trinity, which will be released for PlayStation 3 in Japan on November 25, reminds me of the olden days of fantasy console gaming. I suppose that’s because artist Jun Suemi also did the art for the Wizardry and Brandish games on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES. His art has an orthodox, yet unique Japanese flavor to it, and I’m glad to see it utilizing the power of the PS3.
I was nervous, however, when I noticed that the game was developed by Omega Force, the developer behind the Dynasty Warriors series of historical fiction beat ‘em ups. But I was pleasantly surprised, for Trinity is in no way a fantasy-skinned Dynasty Warriors.
You control three characters who run in a triangular formation, a la Final Fantasy XII. You can manually control any of the three, and the switching is unbelievably fluid. By hitting L2, a little blue sphere will bounce to the next character down the list, who will continue finishing whatever attack combo they’re in the middle of doing.
This is great, because no time is wasted, no cancellation happens, and it gives the time a player to get their bearings after they’re suddenly warped to a different section of the game. This can be done in succession ad infinitum. As I tried jumping from character to character rapidly, the game experienced no slowdown or skipping.
The three characters all play very differently. First came Areus, a half-elf swordsman who uses a magic sword that could spit fire in the demo I played. From what I could tell, he isn’t a loudmouth kid or a gritty antihero, but somewhere in between, a man who has experienced much prejudice that has given him a cold view of the world.
Next was Dagza, a brutish man who is actually the smartest of the group, for his age and abundant experience in battle has given him much wisdom about the way of the world.
The third member of the party was Selene, a vampiric mystery woman who uses ice magic, and about whom we know the least. Selene can double-jump, Dagza can swing around and throw broken objects, and Areus can… well, to be honest, he was the character I used the least in the demo, but he seems to be the most well-rounded.
The game seemed big on environmental interaction, but to be honest, the only thing I either saw or experienced was environmental destruction — not necessarily a bad thing. Players were encouraged to try destroying the beautiful landscapes around them in order to open up secret passages or free chunks of stone or pillar for Dagza to hurl at foes. Areus can burn down shrubs and fallen trees, while Selene can freeze lakes and water with her ice magic.
Each character had about nine different attacks in the demo, which could be switched through using the right trigger. There were a lot to choose from, and I don’t even think I used them all in my numerous times going through the demo area. The moves were fluid, and while locking on to an enemy is possible, the player really needs to move up to them and get close to whatever area they’re targeting to do any damage.
All enemies have weaknesses and special areas where more damage can be done, so it requires a bit more brainpower than games like Dynasty Warriors, where players can just mow down lines and lines of enemies by mashing the attack button. Tecmo Koei even held a time attack tournament for the demo, in order to show people just how much quicker players can get through the level if they think carefully and employ special strategies to defeat each enemy.
More importantly than all of that, however, was the fact that the game was just fun to play. I actually went back to play the same demo again just because it had continued to linger in my mind. The main story in Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is supposed to last around twenty hours, with a slew of side areas and sub-quests.
But now for the real question: Will I finally be able to play a modern Japanese fantasy RPG with a story that doesn’t make me cringe? I know, I know, but a man can dream, can’t he?
Images courtesy Tecmo Koei
I live for the burn...and the sting of pleasure...
I live for the sword, the steel, and the gun...
- Wasteland - The Mission.
) for quite awhile , a lot of people are turned off by the fact that its made by the sam people behind Dynasty Warriors but this is an RPG it had some games on PS2 that i think never made into outside japan.
