We had excessive hopes for Trinity Fusion after taking part in it at PAX East two years in the past, and we’re joyful 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 solution to repair it’s to merge all the totally different worlds again collectively.
You play as three totally different variations, referred to as counterselves, of a girl named Maya: Altara, Kera, and Naira. Every comes from a distinct world and has totally different skills. Altara has entry to distinctive ranged weapons because of her prosthetic arm and a double soar. Naira can wall soar. And Kera can launch enemies into the air and carry out air combos. The whole lot’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, at the least initially, and also you’ll must clear all of them to fuse the worlds. It’s a very cool idea, and it means you at all times have one thing else to do for those who get caught.
So the setup’s nice. In observe, Trinity Fusion is a — cease us for those who’ve heard this one earlier than — sidescrolling Metroidvania roguelite. As you progress throughout every run, you’ll acquire Amplifiers that present boosts for that run. One may decelerate enemy projectiles after they get near you, as an illustration, whereas one other may offer you the next essential strike probability when attacking an enemy from behind or giving defeated enemies an opportunity to drop bombs that restore well being and deal injury to their buddies while you choose them up. Stacking three of the identical kind of Amplifier will reward you with a Powerup, an much more highly effective impact that lasts all the run.
So, the self-esteem is nice and the in-run improve programs are there, however what’s going to maintain you coming again to Trinity Fusion is the fight. Every model of Maya begins with two weapons: a Main weapon, which builds vitality while you land hits with it, and an Power weapon, which requires vitality to make use of however usually does extra injury. 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 vitality together with your main weapon after which money out together with your Power weapon for large injury, however Trinity Fusion’s enemies are difficult. They’re not going to simply stand there and allow you to hit them. You’ll should dodge via 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’ve gotten (and discover all through your run) is what makes Trinity Fusion’s fight enjoyable.
What’s extra, you’ll be able to spend foreign money you purchase throughout runs to fuse two characters collectively, supplying you with entry to extra weapons and talents. Kera lacks a double soar of her personal, so combining her with Altara or Naira not solely provides her extra motion choices, it expands her air combo recreation. Including Kera to Altara or Naira, then again, provides them entry to her elevated injury potential, and so forth. It’s a fantastic system that encourages you to experiment and alter who you fuse relying on the Amplifiers you’ve gotten.
And naturally, there are bosses to combat, 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 ship out. Put it the place you need, and you’ll 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 an alternative, every space has two exits: one that can take you to the subsequent biome, and one which results in The In-Between, a liminal house between worlds that capabilities rather a lot like Hades. Select a path and full its challenges, and also you’ll get some very robust upgrades… however you additionally run the chance of dying and ending your run. In a pleasant contact, conquering The In-Between additionally lets you take the character you’re taking part in to totally 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 every little thing occurs between runs. Right here, you’ll study extra about Maya and her heroic trio, chat with the remainder of Trinity Fusion’s coloration, attention-grabbing, and well-voiced forged, and spend particular sources that carry over between runs on issues like extra beginning well being, the power to resurrect as soon as per run, weapon and injury buffs, and so forth. And you then’ll choose your protagonist, head out to her world, and do all of it once more.
Trinity Fusion is a kind of video games that simply works. It’s obtained an attention-grabbing story, nice fight, an attention-grabbing visible type (although I want characters’ mouths moved after they talked), and a unbelievable ambient soundtrack. Oh, and it runs nice each docked and never, although the load instances on Swap are a tad lengthy and it’s not operating at 1080p when docked.
The one actual downside we had with Trinity Fusion was how a lot it crashed on us, which occurred usually. As soon as, we needed to restart our save file after ‘dying’ the place we have been imagined to within the tutorial as a result of we ran right into a bug the place neither we nor the enemies may assault. Bizarre.
Conclusion
Its stability points are minor qualms in comparison with every little thing Trinity Fusion does proper. It seems good, performs properly, has a fantastic fight system, and nails the little issues you’ll want to get proper to make an excellent, fashionable roguelite. And it runs properly on the Swap, one thing no one ought to take without any consideration given how outdated this {hardware} is, on this or any multiverse. Now for those who’ll excuse us, we’ve obtained to get again to it. These enemies aren’t going to air combo themselves.
