Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll

Tecmo Koei, most notably known for their Dynasty and Samurai Warrior series, do two things very well; over-stylizing Asian history and churning out annual hack & slashers. This time however, instead of basing a game off a historical time period, they decided to make a story-centric RPG that focuses less on the amount of characters you can amass and more on three individuals and their intertwining story.

Trinity Souls of Zill O’ll is largely a story of revenge that centers around a young half human, half elf named Areus. As a child, his father was slain by the evil Lord Balor due to a prophecy that said he is to die by the hands of his grandson. His plan to stop the prophecy goes awry, of course, as Areus survives and lives by the ideals of one day killing the man that killed his father. Down the road he meets the powerful warrior Dagda, and the roguish Selene that accompany him on his quest.

The lack of originality permeates throughout the entire game, sadly. It is at heart a dungeon crawler, which means the only time you will ever directly take control of your heroes is in said dungeons. Towns filled with various locations are all accessed through menus and static images. There’s also loads and loads of text that isn’t fully voiced, which in 2011 and on the PS3 is unacceptable. The formula is simple; go to the adventurers guild, choose a quest, find the location on the world map, hack, slash and blast your way through the dungeon until you meet the quest criteria, then rinse and repeat. Though I may make this sound terribly monotonous, I’ll admit that I found myself coming back for “just one more quest” many times. Then there are times that the guild doesn’t have any more quests to give out, which means you’re stuck having to scroll through every town on the world map hoping that the next story segment activates or a different guild has one available.

While traversing the various dungeons, you’re able to freely switch out to any of the characters on the fly. Areus is a warrior/mage hybrid, wielding swords and having some powerful projectile spells at his disposal. Dagda is a towering warrior that relies on nothing but brute strength and his fists while Selene is an agile rogue that uses twin daggers and utilizes some handy paralyzing techniques. The hordes of Goblins, Harpies and the like are easily dispatched, but the bigger boss enemies require a bit more strategy. For instance, if they are fire-based, they are easily taken down using Areus’ ice attack. Once their guard is broken, you have the chance to use a powerful joint character finishing move called the Trinity Attack. Besides the offensive abilities, they each have useful terrain abilities that allow them to access otherwise unreachable areas. Areus can set fire to trees that block their path, Dagda can demolish walls, and Selene’s double jump can access higher platforms.

Aside from straight dungeon crawling, you’re able to rise in the ranks as a gladiator. The Arena lets you face off against enemies that you encountered during your adventure and has many rewards that are worth your time, including powerful new weapons for each character. For some reason, even once you have all three characters, only you and Selene can take part in the Arena battles while Dagda sits them out.

Though the gameplay can get addicting assuming you’re in the right mindset, the presentation is where the game comes up short. Dungeons end up being copied and pasted throughout with only a few original locations, and the environments fail to impress with their extreme lack of detail and muddled textures. The characters themselves look decent enough, and the finishing moves are impressive, but the overall look more resembles an early PS2 game.

It’s a valiant effort to focus on a more story driven game rather than the mindless button mashing of the Warriors series, but the game could have used considerably more polish, especially when it comes to presentation.

s and their intertwining story.

Trinity Souls of Zill O’ll is largely a story of revenge that centers around a young half human, half elf named Areus. As a child, his father was slain by the evil Lord Balor due to a prophecy that said he is to die by the hands of his grandson. His plan to stop the prophecy goes awry, of course, as Areus survives and lives by the ideals of one day killing the man that killed his father. Down the road he meets the powerful warrior Dagda, and the roguish Selene that accompany him on his quest.

The lack of originality permeates throughout the entire game, sadly. It is at heart a dungeon crawler, which means the only time you will ever directly take control of your heroes is in said dungeons. Towns filled with various locations are all accessed through menus and static images. There’s also loads and loads of text that isn’t fully voiced, which in 2011 and on the PS3 is unacceptable. The formula is simple; go to the adventurers guild, choose a quest, find the location on the world map, hack, slash and blast your way through the dungeon until you meet the quest criteria, then rinse and repeat. Though I may make this sound terribly monTecmo Koei, most notably known for their Dynasty and Samurai Warrior series, do two things very well; over-stylizing Asian history and churning out annual hack & slashers. This time however, instead of basing a game off a historical time period, they decided to make a story-centric RPG that focuses less on the amount of characters you can amass and more on three individuals and their intertwining story.

Trinity Souls of Zill O’ll is largely a story of revenge that centers around a young half human, half elf named Areus. As a child, his father was slain by the evil Lord Balor due to a prophecy that said he is to die by the hands of his grandson. His plan to stop the prophecy goes awry, of course, as Areus survives and lives by the ideals of one day killing the man that killed his father. Down the road he meets the powerful warrior Dagda, and the roguish Selene that accompany him on his quest.

The lack of originality permeates throughout the entire game, sadly. It is at heart a dungeon crawler, which means the only time you will ever directly take control of your heroes is in said dungeons. Towns filled with various locations are all accessed through menus and static images. There’s also loads and loads of text that isn’t fully voiced, which in 2011 and on the PS3 is unacceptable. The formula is simple; go to the adventurers guild, choose a quest, find the location on the world map, hack, slash and blast your way through the dungeon until you meet the quest criteria, then rinse and repeat. Though I may make this sound terribly monotonous, I’ll admit that I found myself coming back for “just one more quest” many times. Then there are times that the guild doesn’t have any more quests to give out, which means you’re stuck having to scroll through every town on the world map hoping that the next story segment activates or a different guild has one available.

While traversing the various dungeons, you’re able to freely switch out to any of the characters on the fly. Areus is a warrior/mage hybrid, wielding swords and having some powerful projectile spells at his disposal. Dagda is a towering warrior that relies on nothing but brute strength and his fists while Selene is an agile rogue that uses twin daggers and utilizes some handy paralyzing techniques. The hordes of Goblins, Harpies and the like are easily dispatched, but the bigger boss enemies require a bit more strategy. For instance, if they are fire-based, they are easily taken down using Areus’ ice attack. Once their guard is broken, you have the chance to use a powerful joint character finishing move called the Trinity Attack. Besides the offensive abilities, they each have useful terrain abilities that allow them to access otherwise unreachable areas. Areus can set fire to trees that block their path, Dagda can demolish walls, and Selene’s double jump can access higher platforms.

Aside from straight dungeon crawling, you’re able to rise in the ranks as a gladiator. The Arena lets you face off against enemies that you encountered during your adventure and has many rewards that are worth your time, including powerful new weapons for each character. For some reason, even once you have all three characters, only you and Selene can take part in the Arena battles while Dagda sits them out.

Though the gameplay can get addicting assuming you’re in the right mindset, the presentation is where the game comes up short. Dungeons end up being copied and pasted throughout with only a few original locations, and the environments fail to impress with their extreme lack of detail and muddled textures. The characters themselves look decent enough, and the finishing moves are impressive, but the overall look more resembles an early PS2 game.

It’s a valiant effort to focus on a more story driven game rather than the mindless button mashing of the Warriors series, but the game could have used considerably more polish, especially when it comes to presentation.

otonous, I’ll admit that I found myself coming back for “just one more quest” many times. Then there are times that the guild doesn’t have any more quests to give out, which means you’re stuck having to scroll through every town on the world map hoping that the next story segment activates or a different guild has one available.

While traversing the various dungeons, you’re able to freely switch out to any of the characters on the fly. Areus is a warrior/mage hybrid, wielding swords and having some powerful projectile spells at his disposal. Dagda is a towering warrior that relies on nothing but brute strength and his fists while Selene is an agile rogue that uses twin daggers and utilizes some handy paralyzing techniques. The hordes of Goblins, Harpies and the like are easily dispatched, but the bigger boss enemies require a bit more strategy. For instance, if they are fire-based, they are easily taken down using Areus’ ice attack. Once their guard is broken, you have the chance to use a powerful joint character finishing move called the Trinity Attack. Besides the offensive abilities, they each have useful terrain abilities that allow them to access otherwise unreachable areas. Areus can set fire to trees that block their path, Dagda can demolish walls, and Selene’s double jump can access higher platforms.

Aside from straight dungeon crawling, you’re able to rise in the ranks as a gladiator. The Arena lets you face off against enemies that you encountered during your adventure and has many rewards that are worth your time, including powerful new weapons for each character. For some reason, even once you have all three characters, only you and Selene can take part in the Arena battles while Dagda sits them out.

Though the gameplay can get addicting assuming you’re in the right mindset, the presentation is where the game comes up short. Dungeons end up being copied and pasted throughout with only a few original locations, and the environments fail to impress with their extreme lack of detail and muddled textures. The characters themselves look decent enough, and the finishing moves are impressive, but the overall look more resembles an early PS2 game.

It’s a valiant effort to focus on a more story driven game rather than the mindless button mashing of the Warriors series, but the game could have used considerably more polish, especially when it comes to presentation.