Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll Impressions

By ttocs February 15, 2011 8 Comments

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll is a game that I've had my eye on, but didn't know if I would actually purchase it. When it was released, it was during a dry patch in my gaming so I figured why not. After spending a good 10 hours or so playing it over the past couple days, I've finally been able to make a decent first impression on the game and the pro's and con's that may help you decide if you're interested in getting it. Keep reading to find out. 

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll (Trinity from here on out) is an action RPG from Koei, the team behind the Dynasty Warriors series. You can see this in some of the gameplay elements but besides that this is a completely different game. The game starts with a nice cutscene describing the story. You play as Areus, a half elf who is destined to kill the emperor, your grandfather. When the evil emperor finds out about his fate, he has his pregnant daughter killed and your father murdered. Your mother manages to escape with you on a boat but his men are in hot pursuit. Fast forward many years and you're an adventurer who fights in the arena in a major city. To avenge your father, you need to get stronger to be able to take on the emperor. By doing quests and going on missions, your character knows that the experience will come which ultimately will lead up to the final confrontation with the emperor. 

The story is fairly decent for an RPG game. Don't expect anything out of the ordinary though. It's told through nice cutscenes and text dialog between two static pictures (a very popular Japanese RPG style). Along your travels, you'll meet two new characters who will join your party who each have their own story and secrets about them. Finding that out and having them trust you isn't as easy as it seems though. While they'll divulge the knowledge over time, you are left hanging for long periods of time when the story does feel to get a little stale. It does pick up though and it seems it's right before it gets overly tiresome. 

The gameplay in Trinity is similar to a Dynasty Warriors game in theory only. You control one of three characters and each button on your controller does something different. X jumps, while square, triangle, and circle all have skills mapped to them. You can change the skills at any time and they can even be upgraded with orbs you collect by killing enemies. When you get really good at fighting, you can even combine attacks from multiple characters and have one character kick someone in the air while the others jump up and beat them down. These attacks take skill and patience, but it comes easy enough through some trial and error. 

The RPG elements in the game are light compared to others on the market but they are still pretty decent. You'll be able to find items, sell them to stores, and pick up new armor and weapons to equip. You can talk to people at the tavern or find quests at the adventurers guild. This game is really for the hardcore RPG fans only though, and the reason I say this is because of the way the non combat gameplay, especially in cities, was created. Everything is done from a menu and when people interact, a dialog pops up between two images. The artwork is good, but some people may be put off by this decision. 

The game costs 60 bucks at launch and I'm sure it will come down over time. I am really enjoying playing it, but looking back, knowing what I know now...I don't know if I would have paid full price for admission. The game feels like a decent full priced game, but a great bargain priced game. So, who should play this? If you're starving for an RPG, give it a try. If you have other games you're currently working on and don't care too much for the RPG genre, this is a definite skip.    

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