Triangle Strategy Brings Democracy To RPG Choice

thegamer.com:

Despite buying it months ago (and saying I was really, I mean it, no for real this time, going to put some serious time into it on multiple occasions), I have only played about eight hours of Triangle Strategy. But, at least five of those hours were in the last week, so I'm gaining momentum.

I'm being reminded of what I knew since I started playing it this spring — it's a good video game that combines two things I enjoy in roughly equal measure: turn-based tactical RPG combat and Game of Thrones-style political maneuvering in a low fantasy setting. It's that political maneuvering that led to one of my favorite moments in the game so far.

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As you play, Triangle Strategy frequently presents multiple choice questions to you. These aren't quizzing your knowledge; instead, they're testing who you think your character, Lord Serenoa, the heir to House Wolffort, really is. There are no wrong answers. But, each time you answer one of these questions, a text box will pop up to alert you that "Serenoa’s convictions have been strengthened.” You can't check your stats to see how Serenoa's personality is developing. Instead, he takes shape more like a real person; as the sum of your decisions without the helpful cheats provided by meters or graphs. I don't know how this will pay off 30-40 hours for now, but that's part of what I like — the opaqueness of the system to me as a player.

But Triangle Strategy suggests that its NPCs are, likewise, the sum of their choices and desires. About three hours in, my party ran into a decision point. Serenoa hails from Glenbrook, one of three countries in the continent of Norzelia, and to maintain a new alliance between the nations, Serenoa and his party are tasked by