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Wednesday, February 24, 2021

What I Think About the Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY Debut Demo (Survey Q&A)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Filling out the feedback survey.

As was mentioned in last week's Nintendo Direct, Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY by SQUARE ENIX exists, and there's a demo available, and now there's a feedback survey available with that. It's a fantasy-setting strategy roleplaying game like Fire Emblem or FINAL FANTASY TACTICS. I decided to give it a try and fill out the survey, so I'm going to tell you what I told SQUARE ENIX. You can access the survey itself here, but the email that Nintendo sent out has coded links in it that you may or may not need in order for SQUARE ENIX not to filter you out.

The first page of the survey opened up with, “Thank you very much for playing the Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY Debut Demo. We’re looking for your input on how the quality of the full game can be improved going forward.”

It then asked for a one- to five-star satisfaction rating. I gave it a 4. It then asked me, “What did you enjoy? Please comment freely using 250 characters or fewer.” It provided me with an open text field. I answered, “I enjoyed the 2D-HD art style a lot. The game was a pleasure to look at. I also liked the world-building that was occurring in-between and during battles, especially the side stories on the world map. I think the voting mechanic has potential!” I couldn't say anymore due to the enforced character limit. Moving on...


Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY voting consensus explanation
You have the opportunity to have your party vote on key decisions in the story to change the story.
You can convince your party to change their preferences by negotiating with them and collecting information.
...Though the mechanics to change people's minds in the demo were brain-dead simple and I hope it's expanded in the real thing.
(This is also probably why there's no perma-death.)


The survey then asked, “What were you dissatisfied with? Please comment freely using 250 characters or fewer.” And right after that, it asked, “From the above, what were you most dissatisfied with? Please comment freely using 150 characters or fewer.” I wrote, “The voice-acted sections should have auto-text (proceed with next text after voice is complete) as well as a text log. Damage formulae and what stats did were unclear due to no tool tips. Turn order was hard to keep track of. No enemy range locking.” and then “On the turn order: You can toggle a number by each enemy, but there's no free-scrolling outside of your unit's action, so it's hard to visualise.”

After that, they asked, “What do you look forward to seeing in the full version? Please comment freely using 250 characters or fewer.” I responded, “Character portraits while they're talking. Seeing how the characters develop as they get stronger, and how the story and world develop as a result of my actions. (Hopefully not in clichés.)”


Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY Wolffort Townsperson getting milk from a bull
This is from the side story where you recruit Ezana. The townspeople doubt she can make it rain.
(I took this particular screenshot because it referenced bovine, which makes any dialogue better.)


The next question asked which route I played in a multiple choice. I personally handed over Roland to Aesfrost, but I have not done the alternative route. It asked me which allies I picked up, and there was a multiple-selection of Medina, Julio, Ezana, and None. I selected Medina (Consumable Item Specialist) and Ezana (Thunder Mage). The following question asked which of those I used, and I used both. ...Medina isn't very good (she functions as a resource-heavy healer) and Ezana wasn't good beyond controlling the wheat field map's fires.

The question after that asked, “Please let us know if any of the following game features were difficult to understand. Please select all that apply.” There were ten options, plus a “Nothing was difficult to understand.” option, plus a free-form option. A lot of the options have to do with camera control or if players knew the shop existed (which was basically a tucked away menu item). I selected “How to control the camera in the top-down view” (I knew how to get it into top-down view, but controlling the top-down view sucks), and I wrote in the free-form option, “Turn Order, damage formulae and how that interacted with the stat buffs, if the different weapon types had inherent damage differences. Determining enemy unit orientation (which direction they're facing) wasn't intuitive.”

The survey moved on to asking about “These questions are about the first battle of the demo set on the bridge.” They asked about the difficulty (I said just right—I actually got a game over because I was too aggressive with Roland after opening the gate. This was my fault, although... the game had reinforcements I couldn't have known would happen on my first playthrough), if it was fun (yes), how long it took me (over 60 minutes because of the game over), and what I thought about the length (just right).

They then asked the same questions but about the battle in the town. ...Since I didn't actually play this battle (you only get it for protecting Roland), and answering it was required to move on, uh... what do I do? I said it was pretty tough, not fun, I don't remember the length, and it was too short. (Because it didn't exist.) Then I got the same questions about the battle in the wheat field, which is the map you get for handing over Roland. This was pretty tough, fun, I can't remember the length, but it was too long. The wheat field had tons of complex verticality to navigate, and I didn't use my flier because the enemies were mostly archers.

The survey kept going by asking, “Would you be interested in purchasing the full version of Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY?” I selected “Interested.” It asked me, “In general, how often do you play strategy / tactics RPGs like Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY?” My options were, “A lot”, “Sometimes”, and “The demo was the first time I played a game like that”. Since my only other experience with the genre really boils down to Advance Wars and Fire Emblem (but substantial amounts of those games, especially Fire Emblem), I said... sometimes. On the same page they wondered, “And which of these aspects are you most looking forward to when playing a strategy / tactics RPG? Please select all that apply.” I selected “The setting”, “The music”, “The difficulty level”, “The story”, “The various characters with their own personalities”, “The amount of content and longevity”, “Thinking strategically and playing at my own pace” and “Taking advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of units and the environment”. I didn't choose “The graphics and art style” (while Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY looks beautiful, it's definitely not something I expect from the genre), “The character development system / class system” (I couldn't bring myself to check this box when I prefer linear character classes in older Fire Emblem games versus the free-form customisability in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, despite that customisability allowing things like Raphael Warnock the Warlock to exist), “Taking decisions that affect how the game will continue” (I think Fire Emblem: Three Houses having four different routes hurt the game quality overall), and “Choosing the best fighters for my team” (because I sometimes like to do sub-optimal things for fun, or because I like the character even if they're objectively a poor unit).


Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY Hughette Hawk's Bane passive skill arrow damage
Flying units also are weak to Bows in Fire Emblem!
And that includes the Hawk Laguz in the Tellius games. (Though Hughette isn't riding a hawk...?)
While you can get tool tips on the abilities, you can't on the Scout class, or the Bow equipment, or anything else.
Fire Emblem games give you tool tips on everything on the stat screens.


The very last question was, “Which, if any, of the following games / series do you really like? Please select all that apply.” And I selected Fire Emblem (which was the very first option) and Advance Wars. Completing the survey then brought me to the Nintendo.com home page.

Well, Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY has a lot of rough edges—I didn't even get to mention the voice-acting quality or the fact that the classes/characters are really unbalanced—but I also think it has a lot of potential, and it could fill my Fire Emblem itch. Some mechanics need to be better explained. By the way, I also think Fire Emblem has a few things it could learn from this, particularly giving the Provoke skill to armour knights. This likely won't be the first demo of the game, so I'm invested in playing the next one now.



What did you think of the Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY demo? Were Ludwig's answers good? Did SQUARE ENIX limit the amount of feedback they could get with such strict character limits? Do you think you can get milk from a bull? Lots of things you could comment on!


Did you know that KoopaTV has its own feedback surveys to make this website better? Check them out. They're much shorter than SQUARE ENIX's.
A year later and Triangle Strategy is releasing, with a final demo. See how the game has improved since 2021!

16 comments :

  1. I think it has a ton of potential, and I'm especially pleased by the amount of story content in the demo. I still haven't gotten a survey emailed to me, though. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe you didn't play the demo at the right time or... something.

      Delete
    2. It occurred to me that I might not have taken my Switch online since playing the demo, so my account wouldn't say I'd played it. I've gone online now in the hopes that I can still get the survey.

      Delete
    3. Alright, lemme know wot happens tomorrow. ^_^

      Delete
    4. ...Alright try to do the survey without the unique link and see wot happens. :x

      Delete
    5. Didn't work, gave me an error message.
      When the email with the survey arrived, was it from Square Enix or Nintendo?

      Delete
    6. From: Nintendo


      If I try clicking the button from the email to get to the survey, it repeats the error message you now see.

      Perhaps that means the survey has closed.

      Delete
    7. I know someone who just took their survey the other day, though, so that would be surprising. Yet I get other emails from Nintendo just fine... huh...

      Delete
    8. Was "the other day" after when you played it? >_>

      Delete
    9. I played it shortly after it became available, actually. It's just that my Switch wasn't online until more recently. Even that was before the other person did their survey, though.

      Delete
    10. Maybe they didn't wanna hear from EVERYONE. Or you're blacklisted.

      Delete
  2. Through the magic of save abuse, I got them to vote for saving Roland unanimously. I'm holding off finishing the demo though, because I want to challenge myself to beat the scenario without using the traps.

    Also SURVIVED MY DENTAL FILLING WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I mean, you kinda died throughout February so I had my doubts. >.>;;

      Delete
    2. NGL, that WAS actually part of why I've been so quiet lately. Partially because between being nervous about the dentist and adapting to my new full time temporary job, I couldn't really pay much attention to koopatv...and partially, yeah to mess with ya after you claimed I would DIE from getting a filling. XD

      Delete
    3. Well, all you did was mess yourself out of getting a $10 eShop code. Hmph.

      Full time temporary job, eh...

      Delete

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