I was in the mood for a nice in-depth RPG, and remembered checking out a demo for TRINITY: Souls of Zill O’ll (possibly one of the worst named games on the PS3.) Not only is it a fast-paced action RPG, but it was developed by the fine folks over at KOEI. That being said, the general feel of combat is very reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors. It’s just like playing Dynasty Warriors but with a lot of RPG goodness like magic, goblins, quests, and other features. The game may be a tad obscure, but so far it appears to be a decent RPG.

You start the game playing as Areus, a half-elf who is all about exacting revenge on an evil emperor who killed his father years ago. When the game start Areus is training as a gladiator, but soon sets off on his own to make a name for himself as an adventurer and to gain enough experience (real-world experience in terms of the story, not XP necessarily) so that he is ready to challenge the emperor. As a half-elf, Areus has  minor proficiencies in both melee combat (with a sword) and magic, but as you make your way through the campaign you will come across other characters that can be recruited to your party. Some are heavy melee fighters, some are true mages, while others may have a mixture of both just like Areus does. Your party can consist of up to three characters at a time, and they all share XP as it is gained in the game.

Combat is very basic and easy to master. It’s basically a hack-and-slash fest with the square button being your primary attack with the equipped weapon. The triangle and circle button can have skills hot-keyed to them, and you can also hold down R2 to switch to a second configuration to which three more skills can be set to. Once you and your party inflict enough damage, you can activate a special radial attack by pressing down L1 and R1. Enemies will always drop skill points (SP) which can be spent to upgrade your character’s attacks and skills, or to unlock new ones.

Navigating the areas of the game is fairly simple, and reminded me to a degree of Final Fantasy Tactics. You don’t actually walk around towns, but all the options are present on the screen, such as the arena, the Adventure’s Guild (where you go to take on side quests) shops, and other points of interest. There is no large world map to explore, and each location shows up as an icon that you just click on to instant travel to. Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics there are no random encounters while traveling between areas. The story progresses in a mixture of gameplay, videos, and still-frame dialogue scenes.

About two hours in, TRINITY appears to be a very solid action RPG game. The combat is very basic with no menus to shuffle through during battles, yet there are still skills to upgrade and equipment to find and purchase to raise your stats. There are plenty of side quests to be had in order to gain the extra XP as well as adding plenty of campaign time to the game. I’m very happy I found this little gem of a game and I hope I continue to get enjoyment out of it until the end of the game.

Once of my most favorite games from the PS2 was Dynasty Warriors 4. I had never played any of the previous games in the series, and it was by far one of the best co-op games the PS2 had to offer. It was a perfect hack-and-slash game where you and a friend could just run around with swords and cut up minions and tough bosses. I’m not joking when I say that one of my most fond gaming memories was when Steve and I first laid eyes on the badassness that is Lu Bu. That being said, I have played the older and newer games from the series, and I have always compared them to Dynasty Warriors 4. The older ones were a bit too slow, and the newer ones tended to focus more on strategy and unit management more than just tried and true mindless hack-and-slash action. Luckily, Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce is extremely successful in focusing a lot on the action, while at the same time intergrating a great RPG aspect, bringing the game to be the best in the series.

For those who are not familiar with the series, let me just take a moment or two to explain why it’s so awesome. Dynasty Warriors is loosely based on actual Chinese history, and you take control of one of many historical figures who were in China when the game takes place. To be more specific, it is based on the text “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” Now, I say loosely because there are near-invincible characters, magic, and, depending on which faction you play as, may not be entirely accurate (ex- your faction lost a battle historically, but you won that battle when playing.) So the game revolves around you choosing a faction (Wei, Wu, Shu), and taking their officers into battle against rival forces. Since it takes place in ancient China, the weaponry is basically swords, spears, bows, etc., with some other ones thrown in (like fans and clawed gloves.)

But enough of that. Let’s get into what makes Strikeforce such a great game!

So right off the bat, the game is a mixture of hack-and-slash and RPG. After selecting a faction and starting character, you begin the game at your city. The city is a central hub/lobby in-between the action where you go to do most of the RPGish stuff. You can buy usable items, which is a great improvement over previous games. In the past, to get health you had to hope that you found food items either in boxes or dropped by enemies. With an inventory, you can now use health items whenever you need them when in battle, which is a really good thing since this game is by far the most difficult to play. The items range from restorative (health, fury, remove status effects, etc.) to giving you an ability for a limited time (ex- float for a brief period). You can also sell extra items for gold.

More importantly than the item merchant is the blacksmith. In Strikeforce, every character has two weapons- a main weapon and a sub weapon. The sub weapon can be anything you want, but the main weapon must always be the same. For example, I am using Xiahou Dun, who always has a cudgel, which is a kind of blunt staff/club. You can buy new ones, but the main weapon must always be the same as that characters default, meaning that I can only buy Xiahou Dun cudgels if I want to get him a better main weapon. The blacksmith can also add to or raise the special stats on your weapons. You can add extra attack, defense, range, elemental damage, and more to weapons, though weapons can only hold a specific number of stats, depending on the weapons level.

Using the orb shop and the academy will further give you additional stats and boosts. Orbs can be placed on weapons to give them even more stats, but with more effects, such as increasing the chances of enemies dropping items. The academy is used to get Chi orbs, which are equipped directly to your hands and feet. The Chi orbs give you additional abilities, such as jumping higher, floating, running faster, etc. By using the best orbs and Chi you can get, you can give your character a big advantage in battle. (Note about the below pic- the game is in English, I just couldn’t find a English image of the city)

Enough about the town. Lets get into the action! So once you have your character fully stocked up and ready to go, there are two ways to get into battle. Talking to the guard by the gate will advance you to the next mission in the storyline. On the other hand, there is a “job wall” of sorts, which lists all the side missions currently available. Every mission has an objective (which is usually to defeat a particular person) and one or two bonus objectives, which will get you extra gold, xp, and items. After selecting your mission, you will appear on the battlefield, and the fun begins. Now you (and up to three other characters) will do battle across several different maps as you make your way to your objective. I said “up to three characters”, and what I mean is that this is a four-player game. If you are playing alone, you can assign up to three other officers to accompany you to battle. This is good because it will allow you to level up four characters at once. Unfortunately, you cannot change characters once in battle. You will be able to give them limited orders which consist of telling them what kind of enemy to target (infantry, bosses, or traps) or to just follow you around and attack whatever they see (which is safest.)

Now lets talk about multiplayer. Strikeforce made a huge, awesome leap by being the first in the series on Sony to allow online co-op. Traditionally it has always been two player local split screen co-op, but Strikeforce busts it out with up to four player online co-op, which is a blast. Once you are ready to play online, you can either invite people to your city, or you can find someones to visit. Once there, the host picks a mission, and everyone else joins in. Any items or xp you receive in the other players mission will be brought back to your single player game when you’re done. Also, which I like, is the fact that after each co-op mission, you are brought back to the city, so everyone can stock up and prepare for the next mission. Thus being said, I will say that this game offers four player campaign co-op, which is hard to come by, particularly on the PS3. Another cool feature of the co-op is that your and your friends can trade officers, so that if your friend has a character you want, or wants to help you level up a particular character, you can swap them and then re-trade later on if you want. I had no trouble finding a game to play, and through the city and the mission I experienced no lag or anything else annoying. It seems to be a pretty flawless online experience.

One of the last things I want to get into (gamplay wise) is the Fury mode, which in previous games was known as Musou mode. As you take damage and dish it out, your fury gauge will build. Once it’s maxed out, it is fury time. When activated, your character will become extremely bright and will change physically (some nearly double in size.) While in this mode, your attack and defense rise, and you gain a new, more powerful charged attack. As long as you continue to defeat enemies, you will constantly regain fury. However, as in previous games, once in fury mode you can release your musou attack, which is a powerful combo that will knock down many of the enemies around you. Unfortunately, it seems to be weaker than it was in previous games, and you will not be getting as many kills.

Now no game is perfect and flawless, and Strikeforce is no different. I mentioned earlier that the game is more challenging, which is one of the reasons I think they threw in the usable inventory system. The game is difficult, plain and simple. Like the previous games, there are times when you will get stuck in an enemies unblockable combo and lose more than half your health before you can recover. You will also spend a lot of time knocked down on the ground, all through there are Chi orbs that will help you out in this respect. So I guarantee you will be cursing out cheap enemies from time to time. Another problem is the lock-on system. It’s a real joke, and I wouldn’t recommend using it. If you lock onto an enemy, you will find the camera to be out of whack, and you will quickly lose your orientation in the game. The camera will ofter position behind a wall, so you won’t be able to see your character or your target. The game is very fast paced and camera control is important, and if you are locking onto a particular enemy, you cannot control the camera. That being said, the camera and lock-on targeting could have used a little work.

So Strikeforce pretty much does it all, and it is a huge victory for KOEI. The addition of four player online co-op, the return to pointless (yet highly entertaining) hack-and-slash mayhem, the huge screen filling boss monsters (something new to the series), and the RPG elements all combine to make one beautiful, addictive game. There is a huge amount of replay value between the three campaigns, over-abundance of playable characters, and the online modes. Also, the game’s simplicity will appeal to anyone, and I can’t see anyone not enjoying this game. The few minor flaws are over-shadowed by the sheer brilliance of the rest of the game.

Do yourself a favor, and definitely check it out. It’s a must-play (and in my opinion, a must-buy.)