A tactical victory
- by Alana Hagues
Triangle Strategy has been quietly doing the rounds here at Nintendo Life, impressing us with its gorgeous visuals and in-depth tactical combat. And it seems like many people around the world agree with our review that it's pretty darn brilliant. You should read it in case you're still thinking about picking it up.
Producer Tomoya Asano has reported that Square Enix's latest (triangle) strategy RPG has sold 800,000 copies worldwide, and for a genre that (outside of Nintendo's Fire Emblem) doesn't seem to be as big as it once was, that's pretty impressive. The game only came out two weeks ago, too.
The announcement came on Twitter, and the producer also shared this rather beautiful drawing from character designer and artist Naoki Ikushima — whose work is also doing the rounds lately!
Using machine translation courtesy of Google, we can see that Asano is grateful for Triangle Strategy's really strong sales:
Two weeks have passed since its release.
More than 200,000 in Japan + Asia and 800,000 in the world soon (shipping + DL)
Thank you m_ _m
The illustration is from Ikushima with gratitude.
Please continue to support us in the future
Asano P
For comparison, Square Enix's other HD-2D game, Octopath Traveler, hit 1 million sales in three weeks, so it seems like Triangle Strategy is following a similar path to success as its cousin.
Have you picked up Triangle Strategy yet? Let us know in the comments or pick up a copy here!
[source twitter.com]
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About Alana Hagues
Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate.
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Comments 66
Just tells Square we need more of these titles and less of the big budget AAA titles that have been failing as of late.
@Rykdrew I felt that way in the demo. Far too much conversation for my liking. However once I've got into the story I can't wait for the next story element. It has me coming back for more.
@Zeldawakening It's only a flop if they lose money on it. 800,000 * € 60 = € 48 million. Even if only a quarter of that is actual profit I doubt the budget was anywhere near that.
@Zeldawakening You realize Elden Ring is only behind the last CoD in sales numbers for 2022 so far right? That's an asinine metric to compare it to. Plus, ER is also on 3 platforms, while Triangle is on one
@BenAV I don't like storytelling in games. I skip the story. I like strategy gameplay. I like the "chess" of strategy. I don't care about story in any game.
That's why I love Advance Wars, XCOM...90% GAME 10% STORY.
But I'm glad so many people like the story!! So, Square Enix can make more games!
I liked the strategy part, but because it has very little gameplay for me, I will play Disgaea.
@Zeldawakening I think it should have sold at least 30 million units in the same time frame, tbh. Especially since Switch's install base is roughly 400 million compared to Elden Ring's paltry 200-ish million on consoles, alone. This game is such a failure!
@Zeldawakening I hope this is sarcasm. Elden Ring had one the biggest launches ever. Not comparable.
Wow! I can't wait to pick this one up, please give us a PC release as well, Octopath sold very well on PC too.
@BloodyMurder lol I do wonder how they set expectations for their sale numbers for games. Since these are perhaps considered lower effort niche games they get some kind of pass? Like Guardians of the Galaxy is the over achieving big brother that still can not get the time of day from Mom and Dad and Triangle Strategy is the lazy little brother that gets a cake for rolling out of bed in the morning.
I'm usually not huge on this kind of story/gameplay imbalance, but the story is actually really good so far, and the choices are very important and dramatically change the course of the game.
The political posturing and intrigue with good and bad people on all sides bring back a lot of the same feelings as early western Fire Emblem games.
The combat itself isn't unnecessarily convoluted like so many SRPGs are. The only issue to me is the inconsistent voice work, though I prefer under-acting to over-acting so I still find it pretty good.
They stuck the landing here. Like Octopath before it, this is a gem, though probably even more so.
@Zeldawakening every game's sales ranking should compare itself to huge hits. Like Call of Duty, Pokemon and Mario titles. That way we can cut down on development costs and publishers can just make about 6 games a year for all of us to enjoy.
@Rykdrew oh gawd right?! I have actually found myself hitting skip until I get to the battle and just guessing the answers when asked. Haha. I'll replay the game later to learn more of what's happening.
@MostHandsieBoy wonder how the execs will view it though? Square’s recent statements about under performance of games seems to suggest they are comparing it to other games in the industry
@Zeldawakening for SE - I just think they way over-exaggerate what sales projections are going to be. For example - The World Ends With You. Before the game released they were talking tie-ins; even sequels. Then it fell way short and most people just weren't that into it the same way they were the first one.
For SE I don't think the sales are the problem as much as they have truly awful, untalented suits over-doing projections.
Imho, if this wasn't considered a win they would have muzzled their staff and told them not to talk about it as a win.
Currently playing a 100% story, 0% combat rpg on Switch, Disco Elysium. After that, sure, I may want to first play a more action focused game before diving into this one. Then again, I play Plants Vs Zombies BFN almost daily, and it doesn't get much more action oriented than that. Got a few other mostly story based games waiting, like Chicken Police and Road 96. And at other times I prefer 'rpg's' like Maneater. Shark, meet and eat humans. Sink boats. Mutate and grow stronger. Sink bigger boats in more luxury harbors. Avenge your mom. Good game.
Gaming really is a rich medium, from reading books to comics to movies to music to puzzles, through competition or co-operation or just observation, for the thinking person or for mindless fun, it can contain it all. The only reading I really NEVER like, is constant tutorial text explaining multitudes of over-complicated mechanics with hardly any time to master them before the next one is explained (like the opening of Monster Hunter Rise, I tried it during the free trial and literally couldn't take a step or five before scrolling through 4 pages of tutorial again, trying it once, and getting the next tutorial... Played MH for more than a thousand hours probably, all combined, didn't plan on returning because I can't play it without feeling terrible about invading those majestic creatures' homes and destroying them, chasing them, killing them and cutting them up, and I didn't even get that far before quitting this time), or just badly written story or dialogue of course.
@Zeldawakening these games have completely different costs and development time, their sales are not comparable.
A game that sells less can be more profitable than a game that sells much more.
Imagine how much more they would have sold had they called it Final Fantasy Tactics 2 instead of Tripod Strategy.
@maulinks 800,000 x 60 = 48,000,000. Likely this one had relatively small promo cost and much less development than higher profile games. 48M (and counting) simoleons is a lot of bread no matter how you slice it.
@NotSoCryptic Probably a lot. But if SE doesn't diversify beyond Final Fantasy they will be become an incredibly niche company. Through the decades SE has made no secret that they wish to be much larger than they are. They usually fail spectacularly but I admire the try they put forward.
@MostHandsieBoy You're looking at about 13 million between dev costs and marketing spent on this game.
However the retail store/digital store gets a cut of that 60, so does nintendo.
@NotSoCryptic sure sure. Minuses expenses of course. SE needed any kind of win with all of their misses lately and a game that might sell 1.5M or so over the long term is probably a sequel worthy win.
Gotta keep the lights on and new IPs a thing. Or it will just be FF remasters from now until the end of time.
@MostHandsieBoy There are times to label things something new and then there are times to franchise.
Calling this Triangle Strategy was a dumb move across the board. It has FFT like themes and combat design.
I agree square needs to diversify its portfolio and stop slapping Final Fantasy on things. Crystal Chronicles was a mistake in every form, World of Final Fantasy should have never happened, Chocobo GP I don't even understand, Final Fantasy XII and XIII both should not have been main line final fantasy titles.
However there comes a point when you make a game and if it walks like final fantasy, talks like final fantasy, smells like final fantasy, and tastes like final fantasy. Then maybe you should call it final fantasy.
Putting FFT aside for a moment. Anything would have been a better name than Triangle Strategy, a generic soul less, and very much unremarkable name for a game that is in every way a spirtual successor to FFT.
I do hope this becomes a new franchise, but I won't be excited about uttering the words Triangle Strategy 2 in the future.
I do hope square continues to try new IP. Forspoken has to be the most interesting thing they've done in years outside of FF7 Remake (which is nothing to shrug at). The changes to FF6 Pixel Remaster have been glorious aside from teh changing of hte opening credits which is a slap in the face to the original team. Still very Final Fantasy centric. I miss the days of Vagrant Story and more. So I'll put up with a bad title for now, but they really need to put more effort into these names.
@MostHandsieBoy They needed a win with all the misses? Can't say they've had too many of those in the last 10 years.
Best I can think of is Babylon's Fall. FF14 has made extraordinary amounts of money for them. With endwalker causing them to shut down subscriptions because of the server load was too high. For a 10 year old game that is outstanding. Regardless of what they say about Tomb Raider the series is still quite successful for them. Guardians of the Galaxy was a win for them as well. Bravely Default, Bravely Second, and Bravely Default 2 have all done well. They've had maybe 3 to 5 bad releases in that time, 7 bad decisions. Given the number of releases they've had in that time. They weren't over due. A small rut at best. One that would get quickly brushed aside with their next 3 big releases.
Anyway in todays industry 1.5m is what you typically need for a AA title to succeed. 2.5m is needed for AAA to be successful depending on protracted development and other unforseen issues that may come up and any licensing involved. Which is porbably why south park studios is giving ubisoft the finger for their next game. Sick of dealing with their BS.
Off to a great start. It's great to see this do well, I'm all for more SRPGs and HD-2D games.
@Rykdrew What are you talking about? Encampment you can literally fight as much as you want and if you go hard mode is kind of necessary to use very often. I spent more time in encampment then reading.
The lore/world building of this game was one of its strong points anyway. Made me care about the characters/setting/etc then 3H in comparison which is scarce on the world building. 3H Literally has a bunch of characters with barely any development
I'm glad it wasn't FFT2 as that game is still far superior. Would love a legit sequel and get to return to Ivalice, sadly Triangle Strategy just isn't it. Lacks so much of the depth that made FFT so amazing.
@QLM17 That would also be quite interesting but I'd prefer to see what happens in that world after the first game
@Rykdrew That's what I liked about it. It drew me into the game's world much more than Final Fantasy Tactics. We have a ton of ARPGs with nothing but battles. This was a refreshing take on the aRPG format.
@xfearxphoenixx I only have fun with the battles. I don´t like all the other "rpg" elements. I´m not a rpg player. But i love the "chess battles". I love XCOM, Advance Wars, Disgaea, Chroma Squad, Wargroove, Monster TRain, Slay the Spire, and games like these you only have the "chess" part. It´s pure fun to me. But I know there are so many people with their tastes. I like competition. I see the "chess" format like a competition: me against the AI. Like a "Kasparov 5000" chess game. Or...against other players...like in Civilization VI or Puzzle Quest. I think the battles are the only important thing in these Strategy-RPG games, or Pure Strategy games. That´s because i was so frustrated playing Triangle Strategy. It is 90% story and 10% battle. So i only have fun 10% of my time. I will not buy this game because that. But, nice 800.000 people still have fun with this! (I don´t like aRPGs...or jRPG..)
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