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Trinity Fusion: An Early Indepth Look At A Sci-Fi Action Roguelite

3K View2023-04-30

Hey folks- I recently had the opportunity to poke into Angry Mob Games Early Access Roguelite, Trinity Fusion. While the game is still -very- much up to change, especially given how much is yet to come- I did my best to cover what's currently there for your viewing pleasure. As ever, I'll be tackling the story, the gameplay, and the aesthetics- so, let's get to the good stuff.

A Multiversal Meltdown

The Multiverse had been their greatest experiment - a sprawling endeavor meant to push the very limits of civilization, creating three reflections which had been altered in order to best serve the source of them all, Prime.

And for a time, the exploitation of the mirrored realities and their talent even worked. At least- until the very alterations which made them so useful ran rampant, plunging each shard into chaos. In a matter of days, body counts rose, and all contact between the worlds was lost.

And yet, it wasn't just the rising body count that became an issue. Without the resources and co-operation of their multi-versal counterparts, the delicate system that holds everything together is threatening to come apart at it's seams, and collapse the whole of existence.

Thus, the Trinity System. It allows a Prime self to Synchronize and sustain their alternate selves - but only if one exists in each sub-reality. A statistical anomaly given the ongoing calamity, and one which leaves our protagonist, Maya, and her alternates as existences' last hope.

Still, while this may sound promising as a premise- I ought to temper your expectations. As it currently stands, the crux of Trinity Fusions story is essentially an introduction to the premise as a whole. There’s a brief intro video, some sparse dialogue that plays the first time you run through each of the characters' starting stages- and, that's it.

Yes, there's NPC chatter you can engage with at the games Hub- but well, what’s there feels more like flavor. And even then, what few lines of dialogue exist seem to be pulled from a relatively small pool, given I repeatedly came across repeating instances, even early on. What’s more, navigating the hub itself to talk to people feels like a bit of a hassle, since it’s fairly spacious despite the relative lack of characters or things to do.

Also, while there -are- ingame references to bestiary lore being unlocked- that isn’t fully implemented yet. You can unlock images, but that's it for now.

Moving Through the Multiverse

But how does it play? Well, the basic premise is simple. Trinity Fusion is a stage based hack and slash roguelite that tasks you with navigating a randomly generated world, and loadout- with a faster-paced focus, since there’s no stamina to fuss over for your attack or dodge (Which, I should add, can also be done in the air).

Even your limited character-specific sub-weapon energy fits the bill here, since it’s replenished on hit- emphasizing a more aggressive approach. Really, the only thing in your arsenal you’ll really need to fuss over is the consumables, given the overall limited quantity at your disposal.

Still, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some overarching decisions to make- that will make or break a session. For one thing, you have the weapon level system- which essentially levels up as you kill enemies, and increases the power of any items -dropped- in the current run- rewarding diligent exploration and bloodlust. Admittedly, there were definitely times I ignored new drops in favor of a weapon with decent modifiers, and a better attack animation- since, while all the combos are fairly simple, they do stand apart.

Another system to play with is the perks. Essentially, you’ll encounter shrines which grant you a choice of several passive modifiers. While it’s implied there can be rare and epic variants- in practice, I only really saw them for the ‘Deal damage on being hit’ modifier- which, also, wasn't that impressive compared to its peers. Especially since you have a -very- limited number of slots to equip things in.

Frankly, I found these to be a bit of a bust often- and more often prioritized the collection of meta resources- given there’s also some permanent progression to be had.

Remember that obviously large hub I mentioned? There -is- something useful in there- since Maya can provide her reflections Psychic augmentations, for a price. Essentially, these are passive skills you can purchase and slot into your build- with different skills costing a different point amount. Admittedly, it does start out somewhat limited, since the overall slot points you have are sparse, and upgrading them is costly- but I found picking the right ones (like Crit and replenishing health shortly after being hit) - went a long way towards not dying. Which also made it a lot more viable to progress towards the last major decision you’ll need to make.

Character-choice. While I could have talked about this earlier, you’re actually limited from exploring the other characters -until- you reach the world associated with them- and I’ll admit, that there were some awkward moments where I found myself getting smeared. Such as my fondness for picking up the glass cannon perk that doubles the damage received and dealt.

And this is a bit of a shame, because it’s the character selection that really provides you your first real look at what Trinity fusion -might- potentially provide. For instance, the default girl’s kit has a series of support powers she can acquire as her subweapon, including such lifesavers as ranged freezes aaaaand- big fucking lasers. She can also double jump from the word go -and- she unlocks a neat teleport drone power after you clear the first boss.

That said, once you beat the first boss, you also unlock the second girl- who not only has an entirely unique starting area based in the overworld- she also gets some hefty two handed weapons as her subweapon. …And that’s, uh, it- initially. She actually has the -worst- mobility out of all the characters, as she doesn’t naturally get a double jump- and requires beating her boss to gain access to a grappling hook ability.

The third girl, and inarguably the hardest to unlock, is also by far the most powerful to start as. Her mobility options alone are stellar, given she starts out with a double jump -and- a wall jump. Add in the fact that her subweapons are -guns- including things like hyper powerful sniper rifles and missile launchers, and well. Clearing her segment took substantially less time than the rest.

And that was even factoring in the fact that I had a brand new area to explore, and figure out the nuances of, since she starts out in her own unique slice of the hyperworld.

Then again- it’s, uh, not like there’s all that much to explore, per say. That’s not to say the stages themselves aren’t broad, or have their own distinct enemies- but well. Despite this being a roguelite, the random generation for the stages feels incredibly lackluster. You will, in fact, come across the same overarching level designs and set pieces to the point that it’s -easy- to forget stages are supposed to be random. At least, until you find a ladder to nowhere that just launches you straight off the map.

And it’s made even more disheartening by the fact that diligent exploration will frequently land you in front of glowing red doors that -promise- more to come, but don't offer anything currently, leaving you to simply trundle through the same old stages.

Really, the biggest upshot to everything, was that there were at least different variants for the Underworld and Overworld if you happened to tackle them as the other characters- though I’m unsure if it’s simply a matter of tackling them -as- specific characters, or in a given order, since, Naira (The third girl’s) segment actually -ends- after her initial area- and she doesn’t even get a unique boss to herself, or an unlockable movement item like the others do. I mean, technically, it is thematically appropriate for her area- but, well, her boss is also the second boss the other two characters will face off regardless of wherever they go.

And, speaking of bosses- I have some things to say, and mostly, it’s the fact that they -really- like making them tanky. Even with the glass damage perk, and a -lot- of points invested in better crits, I found the Hyperworld and Overworld bosses to be nuisances to fight. For the Overworld boss, it’s mostly a matter of its second phase. See, while all of Trinity Fusions bosses changes things up in the second half of the fight, the Overworld one becomes a -lot- more mobile- which somehow translates to it’s wheels just becoming tiny little chip damage inducing hit boxes. Combine that with needing to -constantly- bunny hop to do any real amount of damage, and the fight gets a bit tiresome.

Though even that pales in comparison to the Hyperworld boss. Not only does this one -also- require you to bunny hop like crazy, it also has a habit of consistently cycling a somewhat tanky damage shield in the midst of its patterns, drawing out the fight even longer.

Honestly, that overall sense of tankiness isn’t even limited to the bosses, either. Once you get to the second Region for the first two characters- combat does start to feel a bit like a slog- making the glass cannon perk feel almost required. And yes. While enemies -do- have stagger bars you can fill up to stun them for free hits- the rate at which it fills, especially later, still feels vastly inferior to simply..sporting a chilling weapon, or a freeze spell.

Fusing In Style

Still, Gameplay Gripes aside, I can say I don’t mind the graphics. Overall the stages don’t look too bad, and the enemy design is decent, with some solid attacks and tells- with the real show stealers being the bosses, and their more elaborate animations and transformation.

Really, if there was something I was especially iffy about, it’d be the protagonist's attacks’, since some of them don’t seem to loop as smoothly as others, but that’s quite minor.

As for the audio- on the whole it’s fairly decent. While I wasn’t blown away by the music or the sound design, it was certainly serviceable. I also do have to give the game credit, since there’s voice acting, and it’s solid enough.

At The End of It All
Still- I can’t say I was charmed by my experience. While I was initially intrigued during my initial runs of the game, I rapidly hit a point of tedium, due to the relatively limited scope of the exploration and randomization. I rapidly became exhausted by my efforts to nose about the map, only to find myself repeatedly encountering yet another ‘This will be added later’ room. Especially when it was gated behind the ability I’d earned from clearing the area boss. It was a very anti-climatic feeling.

Speaking of which- there -is- a mechanic I skimmed over in the central section, if only because I -still- don’t know what to make of it. Namely, the fusion mechanic. See, after you unlock your first additional character, you’ll be able to use the weird shrines you may have stumbled across.

What’s notable about these, is that they give you the ability to fuse one of your other characters into the new one- granting you an additional sub weapon slot which aligns with their specialty, and folding the other characters movement ability into the existing one. Hypothetically. In the case of the gunner- this didn’t actually work, when I tried it- and given she already had a double jump, the only thing she gained was an additional subweapon.

And for the first two characters- their movement abilities will overwrite each other- which is a bit of a shame- at least until you unlock the gunner, since that gives you the ability to maintain the melee characters movement ability -and- gain a double jump + wall jump.

Overall though, it just feels weird in its current state. And I suppose that really is a good summary of my experience at large. While there was an interesting enough premise, the narrative in its current state more or less felt like a demo- and the actual gameplay only took me so long to get through because of the sheer tankiness intrinsic to the whole thing. I imagine if I’d toggled on the optional ‘You die and gain defense’ accessibility option early on, I -probably- would have sped through a bit faster, but. Yeah.

As things currently stand, I wasn’t really -wowed- by the time I spent in Trinity Fusion. I will, as ever, keep an eye on this title as it updates- and even potentially dive in when it fully releases to give it a fair review when it’s ‘feature complete’. But, right now? I don’t overly feel inclined to spend more time with it, now that I’m done talking about it.

(Though, I will give the developers credit- since they actually reached out to me in response to my video to actually mention they are working on some of the issues I'd addressed- so- that's at least something to look forward to.

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