Trinity Fusion Review – A Familiar Fight

Trinity Fusion Review 

Roguelikes are a dime a dozen, so it takes something special to stand out in the genre. Games like Hades and Dead Cells were able to soar above their peers due to their addictive gameplay loop and approach to storytelling. Trinity Fusion aims to climb to the same heights of icons in the genre but does it have what it takes to establish a unique identity within the world of Roguelikes?

With the multiverse on the brink of collapse, you play as one of three variants of a young woman named Maya who aims to secure the world. To do so, they must work together, between dimensions to fuse the worlds together. After each run, you unravel more of the mystery which gives you the incentive to venture further. It’s a complex narrative but conversations and audio snippets help to communicate this so you can follow events. While efforts are in place to keep the story at the forefront, the convoluted tale never manages to be the main motivation to continue your adventure.

Time to Fight

At the heart of Trinity Fusion is the gameplay. A side-scrolling Metroidvania, you delve through a variety of biomes and annihilate all in your way to reach the objective. Due to the different characters, each run feels unique. Each version of Maya has a specific ability that slightly alters your approach to them. To further personalize each run, you will collect weapons that include different properties. This means that you’ll constantly deliberate over which item to take and leave as you progress through the world. The weapons themselves greatly differ. Some are short-range and quite slow to deliver a blow whereas others will spiral across the area and quickly hit a number of enemies. While the items you collect don’t carry over, the currency does. This allows you to improve your character giving you an edge on every consecutive run.

Although the roguelike features are by the book, an element that differs is the fact that you can fuse your characters together to improve your skills. At certain points, you’ll find Fusion Portals that give you the opportunity to merge your abilities. It’s a unique mechanic that fleshes out your attacking options. You can combo standard and special attacks to overcome those in your path. While the animation is strong, there is a lack of fluidity which makes fighting feel a little rigid. You can evade strikes with a well-timed press of a button. This gives a small portion of invulnerability which opens up new tactical options.

A Tall Task

Environments are bespoke and differ throughout. Visually, they have character and the randomized structure makes each trip to the location feel different. Enemies spread between with some unique characters per area. Well-designed boss fights culminate segments and require you to use all of your skills to overcome them. It’s at these points that you need to use all of the available items that you collect on your journey. Health boosts, area of attack items and much more can be attained on your way to the boss and become vital. Even with the option to choose your difficulty, there are some spikes that can cause a little frustration.

There’s nothing wrong with the visuals of the game, it just never reaches its true potential. The character models are a little bland and lack detail which gives a mediocre feel to the game. This bleeds into the environments as they never truly step away from typical backdrops that you’ll be familiar with. Variations with lighting effects would have greatly improved the aesthetics, and while they aren’t bad at all, they just don’t do enough to forge their own identity.

Trinity Fusion has a unique premise but quickly falls into the tried and tested conventions of the genre. The gameplay loop is addictive and offers variety through the number of options available and different locations for each character. While elements of the combat are strong, such as evasion, it lacks the fluidity seen with its peers. Trinity Fusion has a lot of interesting ideas and the drip-fed story adds intrigue, however, its reliance on familiar traits makes this blend into the crowd.

***A PlayStation 5 key was provided by the publisher***