October 20th, 2010 at 1:02 am
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Available now as a demo on the Japanese PSN store, Trinity Zill
O’ll Zero is most likely completely overlooked by most PS3
gamers. Yes, it’s an exclusive. Essentially, it’s
another Koei game, in the same vein as Dynasty Warriors, Samurai
Warriors… or any other Koei warriors game for that
matter.
Except Trinity attempts to spice things up. Sure, you
still slice through hordes of enemies (monsters of legend, in this
case), but the player will control three characters,
and the game has base RPG elements. Characters level up when they
gain enough experience, and it looks like there are a host of
skills, abilities and moves to learn along the way.
Since the demo was fully in Japanese, my
impressions are based on gameplay alone, and simply how
the game looked and felt. The graphics, for starters, have a nice
edge to them. Like Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles,
Trinity uses a canvas effect throughout the game. That is,
the visuals are all seen through a canvas
‘lens’. The result isn’t bad, it does
give the game a colourful feel, aswell as making it seem prettier
than it actually is.
As for gameplay, the demo revolves around killing a bunch of
enemies, traversing through a linear (albeit
pretty)Â forest, and killing more enemies. Maybe a boss.
Sounds similar to other Koei games then. Even the controls are
almost identical to Dynasty/Samurai Warriors; square for a standard
combo, triangle for a more powerful attack that can be linked, and
cross to jump. Even if the demo seemed a little repetitive in
combat, there were moments when it seemed more sophisticaed than
the Warriors games.
For example, the male character who wields a sword can freeze
water solid, or torch enemies with a firey magic attack. While
water is frozen, the other characters can run on top of it, and
launch attacks from a solid surface, rather than jumping out of
water. While the player controls just one character of the three
(switching to another via L2), the games AI handles the others.
While I was playing, the AI seemed competent in combat, at first
probably butchering enemies better than me.
The three characters in Trinity are well designed, but
seem cliche. The main hero looks like the main hero.
Spikey hair, slender build, carries a sword. He’s accompanied
by a huge giant of a man who seems rather gruff, and of course he
can be used to smash obstacles away during play. That means the
final character of the three must be female. Blue hair, slim, big
breasts? Check. She’s fast, agile, and from what i could
gather from the demo, she’s the best at cutting up flying
enemies. Oh, and the big guy’s good at taking down the bigger
enemies. But you knew that already didn’t you?
Despite the characters being walking cliches, Trinity ZIll
O’ll Zero does have a certain charm about it. The combat does
feel quite satisfying and special attacks pack a meaty punch, all
the while the game itself is rather pretty… even if
it’s in a colourful, simple way.
There will be a story running through the game, something about
these three having to save the world and whatnot, but judging from
the demo most of your time will be spent running from one small
battleground to the next in repetitive fashion.
So to sum it up, Trinity Zill O’ll Zero seems like another
hack and slash built on a story of monsters and magic, swords and
elf women. I did enjoy the demo, but just can’t see the game
being much more than what’s on offer here. If you are a fan
of Koei’s Warriors games, then this may be of
interest to you – like Dynasty Warriors, there is fun to be
had in slaughtering enemies and feeling stupidly powerful.
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