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IGN Review of TRINITY: Souls of Zill O'll
You can't polish a turd, or so they say. Give a turd a sprinkling of RPG mechanics, however, and you'll make it that much easier to swallow - and that's what Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force has done with one of its rare excursions outside the world of swords and silk, Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll.
A sequel to a PlayStation 2 game that never saw life outside of Japan, Trinity swaps out Omega Force's more typical Eastern easel for an aesthetic of black steel, brown leather and cloying mud. It's a sub-Tolkien charade of the lowest order: Balor, an all-too-literally dark lord, is out to kill his grandson who prophecies foretell will send him to his maker.
And that's quite naturally where Trinity's lead, Aerus, comes in. Half-human, half-elf and 100% RPG cliché, he's a tangle of teen rage and petulance. Balor, in his eagerness to slit Aerus's throat, has wiped out his entire bloodline, leaving him with the familiar motive of having to avenge his parent's death.
So far so mind-meltingly generic, and with each twist it gets steadily worse. Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll is set in a universe that's been worn to the bone, wherein dwarves, elves and humans live together in unhappy unison. The delivery, at least, fits the subject: it's told in a miserable mix of stilted and apathetically voiced cutscenes and dreary static text screens.
It's part of a muddled look that carries over into the game itself. There's a simplicity in the character models that's familiar from Omega Force's other games, although at least in its other series it's smoothed over with some arresting design.
Without that on offer it's instead been pasted over with a parchment look that's been lifted from Valkyria Chronicles. It has little of that game's charm, however, and has been implemented with a heavy hand that brushes everything with a sickly smear.
Looks aren't everything, of course, and given Omega Force's background it's reasonable to expect the combat to make up for its failings elsewhere. Fighting is pinned around the game's eponymous trio, and while it's rooted in Dynasty Warriors' creaking system it's nowhere near as involved.
A three-button system is at its core with combinations strung out of physical, ranged and magic attacks. It runs a little deeper too; there are three characters cut from familiar cloth that are interchangeable, though there's some variety to be had in switching from brute force to athleticism it's all equally anemic in action. Disappointingly, the crowd control that makes up Omega Force's mainline series is also sadly absent.
In its place, though, is a more rigid RPG system that's Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll's one saving grace. Questing is meted out in bars and guilds and comes in many flavors: there are hunts, escorts and rescues among others.
As more locations are opened up over the course of Aerus's quest it becomes a compelling grind through the ranks, and it's perfectly possible to lose a lazy Sunday to the gentle patter of buttons being mashed.
There are even some memorable moments to be had in the midst of the grinding; fighting a fiery beast on a lake in the middle of a sun-flecked woods and realizing you can turn the water to ice, or spending hours battling ever-increasing hordes of enemies in the arena.
©2011-02-24, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
A sequel to a PlayStation 2 game that never saw life outside of Japan, Trinity swaps out Omega Force's more typical Eastern easel for an aesthetic of black steel, brown leather and cloying mud. It's a sub-Tolkien charade of the lowest order: Balor, an all-too-literally dark lord, is out to kill his grandson who prophecies foretell will send him to his maker.
And that's quite naturally where Trinity's lead, Aerus, comes in. Half-human, half-elf and 100% RPG cliché, he's a tangle of teen rage and petulance. Balor, in his eagerness to slit Aerus's throat, has wiped out his entire bloodline, leaving him with the familiar motive of having to avenge his parent's death.
So far so mind-meltingly generic, and with each twist it gets steadily worse. Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll is set in a universe that's been worn to the bone, wherein dwarves, elves and humans live together in unhappy unison. The delivery, at least, fits the subject: it's told in a miserable mix of stilted and apathetically voiced cutscenes and dreary static text screens.
It's part of a muddled look that carries over into the game itself. There's a simplicity in the character models that's familiar from Omega Force's other games, although at least in its other series it's smoothed over with some arresting design.
Without that on offer it's instead been pasted over with a parchment look that's been lifted from Valkyria Chronicles. It has little of that game's charm, however, and has been implemented with a heavy hand that brushes everything with a sickly smear.
Looks aren't everything, of course, and given Omega Force's background it's reasonable to expect the combat to make up for its failings elsewhere. Fighting is pinned around the game's eponymous trio, and while it's rooted in Dynasty Warriors' creaking system it's nowhere near as involved.
A three-button system is at its core with combinations strung out of physical, ranged and magic attacks. It runs a little deeper too; there are three characters cut from familiar cloth that are interchangeable, though there's some variety to be had in switching from brute force to athleticism it's all equally anemic in action. Disappointingly, the crowd control that makes up Omega Force's mainline series is also sadly absent.
In its place, though, is a more rigid RPG system that's Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll's one saving grace. Questing is meted out in bars and guilds and comes in many flavors: there are hunts, escorts and rescues among others.
As more locations are opened up over the course of Aerus's quest it becomes a compelling grind through the ranks, and it's perfectly possible to lose a lazy Sunday to the gentle patter of buttons being mashed.
There are even some memorable moments to be had in the midst of the grinding; fighting a fiery beast on a lake in the middle of a sun-flecked woods and realizing you can turn the water to ice, or spending hours battling ever-increasing hordes of enemies in the arena.
©2011-02-24, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved