To say that Trinity Fusion is missing the mark would be overlooking its other successes as a roguelite. It boasts fluid combat and platforming that keep its gameplay fresh. The weapon/spell management tied with the Amplification system creates a persistent set of variance that avoids becoming stale. My main two critiques of the game are that of its hazy progression system and its lack of a concrete pull that keeps players engaged for longer periods of time. I know that Angry Mob Games has additional content on the way, but waiting a smidgen longer may let Trinity Fusion hit its stride as a roguelite.
The multiverse has become the flavor of the month in many television shows, cinematic universes (looking at you, Marvel!), and games (something something Mortal Kombat 1). Its overuse has created a situation where writer’s rooms can freely write and rewrite stories without fear about events being “canon” in the big picture because of the potential for “infinite” outcomes. While it hasn’t yet become stale, it’s admittedly become overused.
Trinity Fusion bases its world on an in-game universe that was split into a four-part multiverse, breaking apart a main character into three distinct variations with differing personalities, perspectives, and powers. In this universe, the multiverse is the existential threat that is the result of sentient robots gone mad in their desires for world domination. Maya’s role is to merge the multiple universes together and restore order, defeating any robot standing in her way.
The gist of Trinity Fusion involves the player controlling one of three copies of Maya and surviving as long as possible to prevent the collapse of the multiverse. Its 2D platforming hack-and-slash combat is complimented by roguelite gameplay mechanics, ensuring that each attempt feels relatively unique and less monotonous. Its levels encourage mild exploration, involving some hazards, small arenas of enemies, and identifying secrets that grant bonus currency and the occasional worldbuilding audiolog. After exploring a handful of biomes, the player is pitted against a futuristic boss.
Combat feels quite fluid, erring on dodging and slashing rather than timing counterattacks. While the game’s descriptions online mention a reliance on precision, my experience demanded less precision in the form of targeting hitboxes and more on timing attacks in a way that I could keep myself alive. The heavy lean into agile combat makes the game less stodgy and more frenetic. It feels great to slash my way through robots while projectiles fly at me from multiple directions. Enemies’ attacks are clearly telegraphed with red flashes of light, allowing the player to quickly dodge out of the way while maintaining momentum. It’s an all-around pleasant experience to fight in an unleashed fashion.
Not all of the combat relies on melee attacks, however. Two variants of Maya have ranged attacks spanning guns to magical attacks that inflict status elements and damage over time. This also allowed me to fluidly chain attacks together to capitalize on dealing obscene amounts of damage in short bursts. The secondary ability relies on energy (mana), but it recharges after successful melee attacks.
I liked the combat for the most part. It was fluid enough to encourage me to swap weapons and test out newer and stronger combinations when I had the opportunity. If a game encourages me to continuously mix-and-match weapon/spell combinations (Have a Nice Death does this well, by the way), that’s usually a good sign. However, the weapons themselves are too simple. Each melee weapon has a handful of attack combos, mainly using the same input two-or-three times, but not enough utilize directional inputs to vary up the combat in a meaningful fashion. If the weapons themselves feel similar in use yet only differ in terms of their innate perks (like additional elemental damage), things will end up feeling the same.
Regardless of the melee weapon simplicity, there’s enough variation in weaponry to encourage players to test out weapon and spell combinations with varying degrees of success. I never once felt like specific weapon combinations were “too overpowered” and broke the run. Instead, I was continuously looking forward to getting stronger weapons and spells as I became stronger, too.
Trinity Fusion’s platforming gets to the point quickly. Maya’s three variants have unique abilities, like double jumping, wall jumping, and additional upgrades that boost traversal once you’ve unlocked them. I thought that choosing one variant would lock me out from the other two variants’ traversal upgrades, but I was surprised to find that there were “fusion opportunities.” In any given run, I could come across a fusion machine that would fuse my variant with another Maya variant, granting me both of their traversal upgrades AND their unique skills.
On paper, the fusion aspect of merging two characters functions well. Having the ability to access character-specific traversal made me feel like I was gaining power, but…I didn’t understand that power at the beginning of the game. If anything, I felt like I was grasping for straws while I was trying to figure out what each character did and how they upgraded themselves. I wasn’t given a proper onboarding as to what each character did, how they existed in the world, and what powers they could unlock if had selected them on the character select screen.
This is all to say that Trinity Fusion lacks a concrete guide as to telling players how to play. This is not always a bad thing, but in this case there needed to be more visible and/or concrete guardrails. Having the freedom to swap out characters in between runs is great in that it gives me agency to play as I want, but there should be some form of visible progression when I swap characters. This could be solved in the form of side quests, small-form missions, or even reminders to complete runs using each character rather than simply using one.
The roguelite aspects of Trinity Fusion exist in the form of its Amplifiers and Upgrades. Amplifiers function similar to Hades’ boons in that when you come across an Amplifier terminal, you can choose between three options. The Amplifiers are split into categories, meaning that choosing three from the same category during a single run grant you a bonus passive ability. I appreciate the category-specific bonuses because they reward me for going “deep” into one specific category rather than just picking bonuses willy nilly.
In-between runs, I was able to upgrade my characters’ base stats and grant them bonus health, bonus crit chance, a revival mechanic, and more. The upgrades helped me survive longer during runs. Once I had unlocked the revival mechanic, I was able to very easily reach late-game biomes without concern for my health.
You’re now probably wondering: How is the overall roguelite experience? During my 10 hours of playing the game, I felt relatively connected to the gameplay loop while not feeling like I was reaching the power fantasy of longer-runs and surviving multiple runs. On the longer-run front, my character’s innate power level increased based on how many enemies I slayed, giving me access to stronger weapons and abilities. The Amplifiers did some work in making me feel like I was getting incrementally more powerful, but I didn’t feel like I was becoming a force to be reckoned with against the endless robotic enemies that stood before me. I only fought a boss once-or-twice per run. Having a small handful of bosses gave me little opportunity to exercise my power to its fullest extent, too.
Part of evaluating a roguelite is gauging the extent to which it encourages me to do “one more run” despite being unsuccessful moments before. The arcade-y experience of repetitious runs becomes the key to which players stick with the game. In Trinity Fusion, many of the driving forces to push me to try again and again were obfuscated behind menus and briefly mentioned in the form of its story. Not all roguelites need a story, but if a story is going to be included it should have a greater presence in-game rather than beating around the bush and occasionally emerging in-between runs. I critiqued Have a Nice Death for something similar – occasionally talking to NPCs in a central hub in-between runs might be a nice change of pace, but those conversations should reflect my actions and increase my connection with the world around me.
It’s not the most difficult roguelite, mind you. I started the review on the Veteran (Hard) difficulty and then transitioned to the Casual (Easier) difficulty after two runs. I realized quickly that Casual is definitely best to start until several upgrades are obtained that gives Maya and her counterparts more in their arsenal. I was able to complete a run in its entirely by my 15th attempt. Most of the runs lasted a little under 20-minutes, making these runs short and sweet unlike others in the category that can boast 30+ minutes in a single run. Subsequent successful runs ended up lasting in the 20-minute mark, too.
To say that Trinity Fusion is missing the mark would be overlooking its other successes as a roguelite. It boasts fluid combat and platforming that keep its gameplay fresh. The weapon/spell management tied with the Amplification system creates a persistent set of variance that avoids becoming stale. My main two critiques of the game are that of its hazy progression system and its lack of a concrete pull that keeps players engaged for longer periods of time. I know that Angry Mob Games has additional content on the way, but waiting a smidgen longer may let Trinity Fusion hit its stride as a roguelite.
