Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll User Review

First off I would like to mention I am not a very good writer and I am totally biased towards JRPGS, and I am enjoying this game immensely! (I am only about 15 hours in) I have never written a review before so please bare with me and I will try and put down everything that I think is important.

Story: I am not going to write anything about the story because that is one section of a review I always skip. I do not care if it ruins anything but I always like to go into a game knowing nothing of the story.

I will say this though, the story is not very original, but the game focuses more on the characters. Personally I love JRPGs for the characters and thankfully there is character development. The story is average, but the characters are enjoyable with decent voice acting and is executed very well. As for any JRPG fan who loves cut scenes Omega Force did not let us down there are tons of cinematic cut scenes and they are very well done, especially the scenes that involve action.

Graphics: While the graphics are not the best they defiantly are not the worst either. The character and monster designs are well done and have a lot of detail. As for the environments of the various dungeons they are somewhat bland and uninspired but are nice to look at. Everything is detailed from the characters to the environment. There is one thing that must be mentioned that some people might not like. The graphics have some what of a grainy filter to make the game look more like an oil painting on a book. It is very apparent in the cut scenes but barely noticeable in actual game play. As for me I do not mind it at all, it gives the game its own personality and it fits well with the feel of the game. There is no drop of frame rate that I have noticed even when there are massive amounts of enemies on screen, same goes for screen tearing, they do not exist in this game.

Gameplay: The game play is very similar to Y's Seven on the PSP. You choose between the 3 main characters in battle. (yes all of them are playable by pressing L2 to switch between them) The battle system is very simple yet very deep with a lot of customization. You assign skills you would like to use to the square, triangle and circle buttons. What I like about this game is since there are only 3 buttons to use as skills you can press R2 and it will switch to a different set of skill sets that you assigned allowing you to use up to 6 skills per person in battle.

The fighting is a pretty straight forward hack and slash and use the various skills to determine enemies weak spots. (upon killing an enemy your bestiary gets updated telling you what magic and or character it is weak against) This is what is beautiful about this game, it never really gets repetitive because you are always switching between characters. Another fancy feature that separates this game from most hack and slash is the use of the environments. For example you can knock down pillars on enemies by attack it then use a specific character to pick up the remains and use it as a weapon. If you are traveling along a river or any water you can use another character to freeze a portion of the lake freezing all enemies in radius to allow quicker kills. This spices up the combat immensely and is very fun to do.

All skills are upgradable even the basic attack skill. To upgrade each skill it requires skill points which you obtain from defeating enemies or finding certain items. Each skill can be upgraded 3 times changing the animation of the attack and increasing its damage or radius. The downside is you do not obtain skills by leveling up but by buying it at the magic shop. Each character has 3 classes which have different skill sets under each, this further increase the depth and customization and is most welcome.

There are plenty of armor and weapons to buy or obtain in the game. Just like with most RPGS even the same type of weapon will have different characteristics which give you hundreds of options.

As for the progression of the game, most people might get turned off. The premise of the game is all in doing quests. You can not travel on the world map but instead choose what cities or dungeons you want to go to. (no world map exploration)You obtain new quests by going to the adventure guild or brought upon cut scenes. The quests are sorted by order of importance, meaning there are the quests that advance the story and side quests. (there are usually 3-5 side quests in between each story quest) The quests range from defeating certain enemies, gathering certain items to rescuing people. Though all the cities are menu based Omega Force did an excellent job of executing it. It still feels like a living city with people in it. Mostly every time you go to a shop or tavern you always hear or talk to people to learn more about the land and folklore surrounding the world of Zill O'll. It is very important to talk to people in shops or taverns because it gives you special quests.

The dungeons are massive, with tons of different areas to explore. There is really no set path in each dungeon so it leaves a lot of room for exploration. Another nifty feature I like is when ever you encounter a treasure or gathering spot it saves the location on the map. Each time you revisit the dungeon the treasures restock themselves so you will always know where to look.

Sound: The first thing I noticed was the music. It is not the best I heard but it fits the game so well. It ranges from emotional to intense to even eerie. The score is beautiful.

Controls: everything about the controls is tight EXCEPT for the camera movement. it needs a lot of work. There is a lock-on feature that helps greatly. Friendly AI is very well done as well, they do everything you would need them to do.

Overall anyone who enjoys hack and slash JRPGs will likely find something they love about this game. It reeks of old school and I am loving every moment of this game.
One big plus I forgot to mention is the load times are barely existant.