Trinity: Souls Of Zill O'll

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Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll is a game that I've had my eye on, but didn't know if I would actually purchase it. When it was released, it was during a dry patch in my gaming so I figured why not. After spending a good 10 hours or so playing it over the past couple days, I've finally been able to make a decent first impression on the game and the pro's and con's that may help you decide if you're interested in getting it. Keep reading to find out.

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll (Trinity from here on out) is an action RPG from Koei, the team behind the Dynasty Warriors series. You can see this in some of the gameplay elements but besides that this is a completely different game. The game starts with a nice cutscene describing the story. You play as Areus, a half elf who is destined to kill the emperor, your grandfather. When the evil emperor finds out about his fate, he has his pregnant daughter killed and your father murdered. Your mother manages to escape with you on a boat but his men are in hot pursuit. Fast forward many years and you're an adventurer who fights in the arena in a major city. To avenge your father, you need to get stronger to be able to take on the emperor. By doing quests and going on missions, your character knows that the experience will come which ultimately will lead up to the final confrontation with the emperor.

The story is fairly decent for an RPG game. Don't expect anything out of the ordinary though. It's told through nice cutscenes and text dialog between two static pictures (a very popular Japanese RPG style). Along your travels, you'll meet two new characters who will join your party who each have their own story and secrets about them. Finding that out and having them trust you isn't as easy as it seems though. While they'll divulge the knowledge over time, you are left hanging for long periods of time when the story does feel to get a little stale. It does pick up though and it seems it's right before it gets overly tiresome.

The gameplay in Trinity is similar to a Dynasty Warriors game in theory only. You control one of three characters and each button on your controller does something different. X jumps, while square, triangle, and circle all have skills mapped to them. You can change the skills at any time and they can even be upgraded with orbs you collect by killing enemies. When you get really good at fighting, you can even combine attacks from multiple characters and have one character kick someone in the air while the others jump up and beat them down. These attacks take skill and patience, but it comes easy enough through some trial and error.

The RPG elements in the game are light compared to others on the market but they are still pretty decent. You'll be able to find items, sell them to stores, and pick up new armor and weapons to equip. You can talk to people at the tavern or find quests at the adventurers guild. This game is really for the hardcore RPG fans only though, and the reason I say this is because of the way the non combat gameplay, especially in cities, was created. Everything is done from a menu and when people interact, a dialog pops up between two images. The artwork is good, but some people may be put off by this decision.

The game costs 60 bucks at launch and I'm sure it will come down over time. I am really enjoying playing it, but looking back, knowing what I know now...I don't know if I would have paid full price for admission. The game feels like a decent full priced game, but a great bargain priced game. So, who should play this? If you're starving for an RPG, give it a try. If you have other games you're currently working on and don't care too much for the RPG genre, this is a definite skip.

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Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll (Trinity: SoZO) is a game that was given a very harsh review by the big companies; perhaps too harsh. While Trinity: SoZO is not a fantastic RPG, it isn't a bad one either. With well over 40 hours of gameplay here, and a solid storyline Trinity: SoZO will be a game that you simply can't put down until the final credits roll.

GAMEPLAY

Trinity: SoZO feels a bit like Dynasty Warriors with a more solid RPG element to it. You will have a party of 3 and can switch between characters at whim. Each character has skills you map to the controller (12 skills, can map a total of only 6). For much of the early part of the game (first 6-10 hours) you can expect to partake in tons of quests and arena fights to boost your skill level. Once you get past the initial early grind the game begins to open up and allow a much more free roam feel in terms of what you can do. "Quests" are randomly handed out be it from the Adventures Guild or by partaking in conversations in various taverns or shops. When you aren't in towns you will be out in the world in a large variety of areas fighting mobs. The game plays like a bit like a hack and slash then; plowing through lots of trash mobs with the occasional tough mob or even a boss grade mob. Just when you think things might be getting far to repetitive, the game will throw in some new features (such as chain combos). Overall the gameplay is quite a lot of fun and provides a non-stop flow of action but can get a little repetitive due to quests often taking you back to the same areas

GRAPHICS

The graphics are okay. They aren't mind blowing but they feel early PS3 in quality(720p). The part that hurts the game graphically is this annoying "filter" that is put over the game. You can not turn this filter off. "During gameplay" the filter is actually rather nice. It gives the game this nice PS3 water-painting look to it. However during cut-scenes the filter was just down right horrible! I mean the center of the cut-sceen looked gorgeous but the surrounding area had this dried up water-painting look (at times it looked like PS2 graphics due to the filter). There should of been an option to turn this filter off at least for cut-scenes

SOUND/STORY

The audio quality isn't bad. Combat sounds get a bit repetitive as does constantly spamming your skills. The main cast does a decent job with the voice acting but at times you could clearly see "edits" in the dialogue and awkward pauses. It isn't bad, but it isn't Final Fantasy quality here either so basically average. The story is actually quite refreshing. At first things will start slow but once the end of chapter 2 hits the storyline will draw you in. Rather than going around owning mobs or grinding the Arena I found myself plowing through storyline quests anxious to dig up more of what is going on. Even asking around at Taverns became a bit more eventful as rumors would be going around that might give clues to the overall picture being drawn here. Overall the storyline wasn't a masterpiece , but it actually was easy to follow and very interesting!

OVERALL (84% 8.4 / B)

Trinity: SoZO gets an 84% from me. It is a solid RPG that might start slow but will actually get better the more time you put into it. Questing can be a lot of fun and has plenty of variety to the quest types (hunting, escort, rescue, gathering, etc). If you enjoy RPG's and enjoy Hack and Slash gameplay, this game does a pretty good job blending the two elements together. What comes out is a fairly good RPG that brings adventure, story and lots of gameplay to the table

PROS

Over 40hrs of gameplay (not including extras I have yet to attempt)

Plenty of quests to do including a 50 level Labyrinth!

A nice variety to the combat system (12 skills per person; only 6 usable at one time... can chain skills together to make long combo chains)

Enjoyable Storyline

CONS

While there are tons of quests, it can be very easy to over level and end up with quests that are low level / incredibly repetitive (you revisit the same 2-3 areas over and over)

Filter really ruins the cut-scenes

No replay value (you can platinum trophy the game in one play-through, and there is little reason to start a brand new game over again)

The game isn't very straight forward at times with main quest hints like "Continue to work on advancing while separated from your party". You could spend hours just running around when all you had to do was go to Town C and speak to the Adventure Guild (Town B's guild wouldn't do anything for you)

Buy Trinity: Souls Of Zill O'll Now

This game is one of the best game from KOEI, it combines RPG with KOEI's "WUSOU" action style, Weapons and missions are random like diablo, and a long fine storyline, it takes me more than 50hrs to finish most of the side-missions before I hit the final stage. It's a very nice game in all!

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I am not a rpg gamer, i do like them but hardly finish them. I got this game because i like dynasty warriors and samurai warriors and this is made by the same people and has been compaired to them. The combat is similar and thats about the extent of the similarities ive seen. I really enjoy this game alot and its a shame that it was released around the same time as mass effect 2 and dragons age 2 because im sure it will get overlooked. One thing i want to say is this game really should be played its a good solid effort by koei and a rpg. The story is typical fantasy stuff and the graphics are far inferior to mass effect and other rpgs ive seen/played but it is really fun. I know this isnt much of a review its just my opinions on a game that seems to be really overlooked and its a shame cause its a good game. I agree with others that you should wait till it goes down in price and then pick it up as the 60 new game price is a little steep for what you get (i'd say around 30-40). Also as a side note this is the 3rd game in the series and the first 2 never made it to the states but i've never played the 1st two and i can follow the story just fine.

Want Trinity: Souls Of Zill O'll Discount?

This will be very short i'm not much for leaving feedback. Well , let's just start by saying this game is well under rated i'm very surprized at ign's review also after playing this well made "rpg", and honestly now question their reviews and wonder if they really enjoy gaming or do it just to say ok i'm done with it , anyway it takes a good 8 hours to really kick in and get to the real action the whole lever up system and arts/fighing has a great feel to them don't feel cheap or thrown together like a lot of the never games do, you know those man this feels cheap moments, it has none! i'm about 37 hours in and it just keeps getting better and better i almost can't put down the remote anyways i'm an older gaming vet this will be my 27th year playing console games old school gamers rejoice this ones for you!! don't miss this if you are a big rpg fan like myself . Enjoy!!