Trinity Fusion on Steam Deck Review
The success of indie titles such as Dead Cells and Hades have led to a renaissance era for the rogue-lite genre. These days, plenty of different flavors of genre are being constantly fused together with rogue-lite mechanics looking for that fresh new experience people crave. Trinity Fusion aims to bring a blend of Metroidvania exploration along with some buttery smooth action combat to create a pretty neat gameplay loop.
The backstory behind Trinity Fusion is that a multiverse of a few different worlds has become fractured and will implode on itself without the intervention of the main protagonist, Maya. The heroine connects to different versions of herself in each of the three dimensions with the goal of merging each world into one entity. This goal is accomplished by activating devices in each world that just so happens to be behind legions of enemies and some fairly large and difficult bosses.
Some of the story lore does come up from time to time, but for the most part it simply acts as a backdrop and a compliment to the main focus of the game, which are the terrific combat mechanics. Trinity Fusion boasts some well designed, high paced combat. Maya’s counterparts utilize a high agility style of attack, consisting of double jumps, dodges, a primary physical attack and a secondary projectile attack. The combat just feels really good. Enemies typically need a few hits depending on their strength, but the most can be easily taken down with a couple of whacks and some quick feet.
It wouldn’t be a rogue-lite without some random power-ups, and Trinity Fusion delivers those in spades. Multiple stations are spread throughout each world that give the player three options of boosts along with an incentive bonus to encourage sticking with the same types of power ups. A vast amount of enhancement options ensure that most playthroughs are going to feel quite different. Trinity Fusion even boasts some cursed treasure boxes with high risk and high reward options.
Enemy variation feels fairly diverse as each of the three environments has its own theme that the foes are based on. Some of the larger, more difficult enemies have some neat attacks and behaviors. The end bosses show some personality by taunting the protagonist throughout the level, ending in a fairly satisfying final battle. One of the nice things about the game is that each run doesn’t require a complete beginning to end completion. The lack of progression has turned many away from rogue-lites, but thankfully Fusion Trinity breaks up the progression into sections where a run ends once the player activates the fusion generator in one of the three worlds. Knowing that progression can be done in steps and never having to pray for the perfect run means Trinity Fusion can be enjoyed at your own pace.
These types of games are a dime a dozen, with hundreds available on Steam. Trinity Fusion stands out among the herd for many reasons, but most importantly because it just feels good to play. Its style of progression allows for either an in depth playthrough or a more casual relationship with the game thanks to its level structure and ease to pick up and play. For anyone who enjoys these types of video games, it’s an easy recommendation.
