There’s a lot to celebrate about a modestly laid-back RPG. It’s the kind of role-playing game that doesn’t create a big buzz about itself. It didn’t revolutionize the genre, but built on what worked. The role-playing game genre adopts all the characteristics of the genre and proudly wears them on its sleeve. Activate Trinity embodies such a game.
It’s something Three Rings, developer of Activate Trinity, publicly acknowledged. It’s right on all the store pages that it’s a throwback to old fashioned RPGs. The team has also been successful on that front. I can easily believe this is a forgotten gem from the PS1 days, if not for the not-so-bad dub.
Activate Trinity takes place in a world held in fierce battle between the gods of Chaos and Order. Occasionally, chosen warriors bearing symbols of the gods were born. Their destiny is to fight to the death, with the winner ushering in a new era dominated by their respective gods. Cyan, our protagonist, discovers he is one of these warriors when a seer named Elise appears. She tells him that his chaotic Warrior status leaves him marked as going to die, so they head out into the world to protect him and let him learn more. They are eventually joined by a third warrior, Zantis, who has been mysteriously sent to help.
All three members of the party are aided by Triggers, small Pokemon-like creatures that can turn into weapons after they come into contact with special altars. Much of the game involves you venturing into dungeons known as Armas, all shaped like giant weapons. Inside each, you find altars that turn your friend into a mini version of that weapon. As the game progresses, each party member builds an arsenal of eight weapons that they can switch between on the go.
Each weapon is useful in its own way. Every enemy in the game has strengths and weaknesses against different weapons, and switching between them to maximize your damage is key to victory. They are marked with large red numbers indicating that weapon’s weakness, while small blue numbers indicate immunity to that weapon.
It’s a fun little battle system. It’s completely real-time, with each character having simple combos for each weapon and a dodge move. Weapons are switched using a weapon wheel attached to a button on the right shoulder and a button on the left shoulder providing an item wheel of curated healing, power-ups, and status management items before. It’s a simple yet intuitive system that only gets more interesting as the game progresses. In the end, muscle memory helped me jump in and out of these wheels in a flash.
The party of three is also completely controllable. Tapping the trigger switches between characters instantly, while the AI processes the other two. If this isn’t good enough, you can invite a friend or two to join you instead. I can’t say how much fun the game is in co-op, as I didn’t get a chance to test it during gameplay. However, there are definitely some issues with the AI-controlled characters.
AI characters will never switch weapons on their own, which often means that some battles can unfold as you switch between each character just to prevent them from punching a slime monster that mostly does not cause damage. They’re also not very good at dodging, and I feel like I’m eating through the healing items as neither of the other two members of my party seem to escape the enemy swords or claws. However, this is only a minor issue, simply because jumping between people is so easy and joining co-op multiplayer negates this entirely.
Another minor issue I’ve had with the combat system is the lack of character differentiation. While everyone uses different weapons at first, this will no longer be the case as the game progresses. When all three characters have the same weapon with slight visual changes when moving, it makes everyone feel less different. That can be a concession to cooperation, as it keeps everyone equally balanced. For solo players, it’s easy to stick with a single character, negating the switch mechanics entirely.
Elsewhere in Activate Trinity, the environment is a treat, as each region of the world has its own distinct biome. In some cases it’s a bit too different, such as when you happen to wander from snowy tundra to scorching desert in a single display. The game does away with this by blaming Arma for magically changing the world with god’s power. However, it works because it helps distinguish the different regions. Plus, one of those areas is a volcano that splits symmetrically between a red fire side and a blue fire side, and it’s absolutely stunning. If that’s what divine power does to the world, I can’t complain.
Each Arma also contains a unique dungeon. While dungeon crawling is standard fare, each dungeon has its own gimmick. Bowsong contains mushrooms that have different effects when you hit them. Lance was slippery because of the ice. Duality is two mirrored dungeons stacked on top of each other. It adds such variety that the game can easily become repetitive.
Activate Trinity do this a lot. When you break it down, it follows a lot of the same formula over and over, but never feels tedious. It can get boring at any time, and it never is. I attribute this to two things. First of all, there’s no particularly large area, so nothing really beats its welcome. Second, the game is very charming.
With that said, the game’s story is a familiar one. The content is about a young man living in the Standard RPG Beginning Town who discovers he is the chosen one and sets out on a great adventure. However, I was invested because the English localization writing and dubbing was lovely. The characters joke around with each other, the Triggers are adorable, and more than that, it all feels genuine. It knows it’s simple. It knows it’s familiar, and it relies on both of these to keep you going.
The general vibe that I get from Activate Trinity is coziness. It’s warm, friendly and familiar. The image is designed to look like it was sketched by hand, giving it a rustic feel. The music is catchy and sexy. Its gameplay is simple but engaging. It’s great to play it because it envelops you in a sense of nostalgia.
Activate Trinity do nothing new. It doesn’t push the genre forward, and it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to veterans of the genre. However, as I said at the beginning of this review, it’s hard not to love a modestly comfortable RPG. Especially when it’s as glamorous as this.
Activate Trinity released in North America on April 25, 2023 for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Console version released in Europe on May 16, 2023.
