The Secret of Trinity Trigger

It’s been a good while since I’ve posted about a lower or mid-tier game announced for Japan awaiting a localization announcement, something I used to on the regular here. Most of those games ended up being localized, though some sadly didn’t. (I liked to think I had a special power that willed localizations for some of them — who can say if that’s true.) Most games only announced for Japan first these days, are lower-budget titles and I’ve since largely lost interest in posting about straight news in favor of more opinionated posts. But I’m making an exception here for good reason.

FuRyu announced their newest game within the pages of the still-in-publication Famitsu magazine and eventually online: Trinity Trigger. It’s an action RPG with a largely isometric camera perspective developed by Three Rings which will take place in a very anime-suffused fantasy land. The title is, by their own admission, inspired by those released by the half-dozen in the 1990s on platforms like the Super Nintendo/Famicom and PlayStation.

The story is unsurprisingly rudimentary considering the aforementioned goal. The protagonist is a young man named Cyan (clearly not that one) who hails from a small and quiet village, and learns that he’s the Warrior of Chaos chosen by the gods. He sets out on a quest with friends Elise and Xantice to find out why he’s been cursed with this fate, and to fight his destiny. It’s a story scenario that could have come from a Japanese RPG plot generator, but that’s the point.

In addition to the concept, a couple of well-known staffers from those 1990s games are involved. Nobuteru Yuuki, who provided character designs for Chrono Cross and the original Trials of Mana, is providing the world design. It’s Raita Kazama who’s doing the actual character designs here, previously of Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia and with additional contributions to several other games. (It’s a shame Yuuki isn’t providing the designs, but I won’t undersell Raita’s talents.) Hiroki Kikuta, who provided the soundtracks for the older Mana games, will be lead composer here. There’s also comparatively newer JRPG talent involved, like Yuura Kubota (Bravely Default II, Octopath Traveler) for the scenario.

This game sounds interesting, but I’m mainly making this post due to how good FuRyu is at tickling the nostalgia senses of 30-something adults who played JRPGs (action and turn-based) in their youth. They do so with lower-budgeted titles, a trend Trinity Trigger is evidently following from the trailer that puts its early PlayStation 2-style art direction and polygon usage on display, albeit with some higher-resolution assets thrown in. They’re great at grabbing attention in this manner, though the results of these experiments have been mixed.

Some garnered divisive impressions despite being built on good foundations, like The Legend of Legacy, Heroland, the recent Monark, all attempts at SaGa (notably just before Square Enix revived the franchise) Earthbound/Mother, and Megaten-style games, respectively. Others have turned out good, however, like the more straightforward The Legend of Legacy sequel The Alliance Alive and the little-noticed The Caligula Effect 2. The depressed nostalgic in me appreciates their efforts, but it’s hard not to note how formidable they could be if their efforts were more consistent.

All that said, I’m hoping Trinity Trigger will be added to the list of positively-received FuRyu games. The resume for developer Three Rings consists of anime tie-in games and ports which have largely received okay-to-negative impressions. But many of those are years old (the bulk of them were on 3DS and PSP), so it’s tough to gauge how this could turn out based on their reputation. It is noticeable, however, that the best games in FuRyu’s publishing library are refined sequels to previous installments, so this one will have to buck that trend. That might be a tall order, but I have my fingers crossed.

The game could soon have difficult competition, too. The Legend of Legacy, a 2015 SaGa-style game that featured the efforts of SaGa series artist Tomomi Kobayashi for promotional art and Masashi Hamauzu (SaGa Frontier 2, Unlimited Saga) for the composer, was eventually one-upped in quality by SaGa: Scarlet Grace, the first series installment released in 14 years in 2016. Trinity Trigger, primarily inspired by the Mana games, could be similarly one-upped by the new Mana console title Square Enix announced to be in development nearly a year ago, following the success of the actually-quite-good Trials of Mana remake. But this game could be nice to have in the meantime… if it turns out well.

In fact, you could make the argument that FuRyu is channeling new installments from the aforementioned series into existence. It appears the power only works on Square Enix games, since Heroland didn’t result in a new Mother game, and it’s not like Monark had to force the revival of anything Megaten-related from Atlus. This is me saying that one of FuRyu’s next titles should be a time-travelling RPG.

There’s a good chance of the game being localized regardless of how it turns out quality-wise. NIS America is their most frequent partner, though XSeed has been known to still pick up titles from other publishers when they’re not working on localizing Marvelous games. Trinity Trigger is planned for release on September 15th in Japan for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC. There’s a demo available for Switch and PlayStation platforms in Japan.