We had excessive hopes for Trinity Fusion after enjoying it at PAX East two years in the past, and we’re pleased to say, it doesn’t disappoint. The idea is nice. A human-made multiverse — made up of Prime, the Overworld, the Underworld, and the Hyperworld — is collapsing, and the one technique to repair it’s to merge the entire completely different worlds again collectively.
You play as three completely different variations, referred to as counterselves, of a girl named Maya: Altara, Kera, and Naira. Every comes from a distinct world and has completely different skills. Altara has entry to distinctive ranged weapons because of her prosthetic arm and a double bounce. Naira can wall bounce. And Kera can launch enemies into the air and carry out air combos. Every part’s higher with air combos.
After you choose your character, you’ll enter their realm, full with distinctive biomes and enemies. One is a failing agricultural world overrun by wildlife that has mutated uncontrolled; one other has been taken over by Machines who view people as oppressors; and the final places you right into a post-human metropolis taken over by cyborgs referred to as the Ewer. Every of Maya’s counterselves can solely enterprise to their very own world, no less than initially, and also you’ll have to clear all of them to fuse the worlds. It’s a extremely cool idea, and it means you at all times have one thing else to do should you get caught.
So the setup’s nice. In follow, Trinity Fusion is a — cease us should you’ve heard this one earlier than — sidescrolling Metroidvania roguelite. As you progress throughout every run, you’ll achieve Amplifiers that present boosts for that run. One would possibly decelerate enemy projectiles once they get near you, as an illustration, whereas one other would possibly provide you with a better vital strike probability when attacking an enemy from behind or giving defeated enemies an opportunity to drop bombs that restore well being and deal harm to their buddies while you decide them up. Stacking three of the identical sort of Amplifier will reward you with a Powerup, an much more highly effective impact that lasts your entire run.
So, the vanity is nice and the in-run improve methods are there, however what is going to hold you coming again to Trinity Fusion is the fight. Every model of Maya begins with two weapons: a Major weapon, which builds power while you land hits with it, and an Power weapon, which requires power to make use of however typically does extra harm. Power weapons are what make every character really feel distinctive: Naira makes a speciality of weapons and rocket launchers; Kera has a pair of melee weapons to maintain these air combos going (and get them began); and Altara is all about traps and standing results.
Typically, you’ll need to construct up power along with your main weapon after which money out along with your Power weapon for large harm, however Trinity Fusion’s enemies are difficult. They’re not going to only stand there and allow you to hit them. You’ll should dodge by their assaults (and typically them), keep away from projectiles and standing results, get round shields, and so forth. Studying every biome’s enemy lineup, how they work, and what the reply is with the weapons you will have (and discover all through your run) is what makes Trinity Fusion’s fight enjoyable.
What’s extra, you’ll be able to spend forex you purchase throughout runs to fuse two characters collectively, providing you with entry to extra weapons and talents. Kera lacks a double bounce of her personal, so combining her with Altara or Naira not solely provides her extra motion choices, it expands her air combo sport. Including Kera to Altara or Naira, then again, provides them entry to her elevated harm potential, and so forth. It’s an ideal system that encourages you to experiment and alter who you fuse relying on the Amplifiers you will have.
And naturally, there are bosses to battle, and beating them opens up new traversal choices. Beating Altara’s first boss within the Underworld, as an illustration, unlocks a drone that she will be able to ship out. Put it the place you need, and you may teleport to its location, opening up new areas you wouldn’t in any other case get to. However Trinity Fusion isn’t a linear, “go right here, do that”-style Metroidvania. As a substitute, every space has two exits: one that can take you to the subsequent biome, and one which results in The In-Between, a liminal area between worlds that capabilities so much like Hades. Select a path and full its challenges, and also you’ll get some very sturdy upgrades… however you additionally run the danger of dying and ending your run. In a pleasant contact, conquering The In-Between additionally permits you to take the character you’re enjoying to completely different worlds, opening up new choices.
Whenever you die, and you’ll, you’ll be despatched again to the Citadel, Prime’s staging floor, which is the place all the pieces occurs between runs. Right here, you’ll study extra about Maya and her heroic trio, chat with the remainder of Trinity Fusion’s colour, attention-grabbing, and well-voiced solid, and spend particular assets that carry over between runs on issues like extra beginning well being, the power to resurrect as soon as per run, weapon and harm buffs, and so forth. And then you definitely’ll decide your protagonist, head out to her world, and do all of it once more.
Trinity Fusion is a type of video games that simply works. It’s received an attention-grabbing story, nice fight, an attention-grabbing visible type (although I want characters’ mouths moved once they talked), and a implausible ambient soundtrack. Oh, and it runs nice each docked and never, although the load instances on Change are a tad lengthy and it’s not working at 1080p when docked.
The one actual drawback we had with Trinity Fusion was how a lot it crashed on us, which occurred typically. As soon as, we needed to restart our save file after ‘dying’ the place we had been alleged to within the tutorial as a result of we ran right into a bug the place neither we nor the enemies might assault. Bizarre.
Conclusion
Its stability points are minor qualms in comparison with all the pieces Trinity Fusion does proper. It seems to be good, performs properly, has an ideal fight system, and nails the little issues you might want to get proper to make a great, fashionable roguelite. And it runs properly on the Change, one thing no one ought to take with no consideration given how previous this {hardware} is, on this or any multiverse. Now should you’ll excuse us, we’ve received to get again to it. These enemies aren’t going to air combo themselves.
