Trinity 4: The Prince of Nightmares review: A decipher game on a boat ride

After the "Trinity 3" play up, Frozenbyte pain, and finally pulled "Trinity 4" back to the players most familiar with the painting style. Back to the horizontal version of the decryption, but also back to the classic setting, but time has changed, this game back to the old line of the game can continue the classic? As far as this work is concerned, they have done a good job, at least people are willing to admit that this is another "Trinity" after the mountain and the peak.

This time, "Trinity 4" chose the most familiar battle hunting combination of players, the mage can create out of thin air, mental movement, hunters in addition to shooting elemental arrows, but also pull nets to build Bridges, soldiers are responsible for some physical work and reflection with shields, three roles complement each other, but some of the warriors are isolated, because the cooperation is mostly established between the hunter and the mage.

On top of this, the game also added a character development system, players can collect materials in exchange for skill enhancement. All skills are divided into two categories, one is unlocked according to the progress of the game, such as the warrior's double dream shield and kite shield, hunter's fairy rope, etc., these skills mainly serve the game's exploration, which is the core of the game: decryption. The other is a simple battle strengthening, can let the player better defeat the enemy, but the main decryption, so the fighting skills are better than nothing, the point will indeed make the battle easier.

With a clear division of skills between combat and exploration, and the ability to unlock skills according to progress, the core of this game's puzzle design is naturally to constantly test the player, how to use the many skills of the three characters to cooperate, and the difficulty of the game is focused on analyzing the puzzle and building the solution. Based on this, we can divide the puzzles in this game into two types: analysis and construction, each with its own focus.

Some of the puzzles are those that have a fixed idea, such as getting a key, unlocking a door, and we call them fixed puzzles. In fact, this part of the game is moderate in difficulty, mainly testing the player's ability to analyze puzzles. These puzzles as a whole use the trigger mechanism decryption method, more interesting is that there are many "circuit" organs in the game, requiring players to put props in a fixed position to continue to play a role, props will fail when offset.

Under the above mechanism, the logic of this kind of puzzle is relatively close, the luck component is almost non-existent, and the player's analysis ability has certain requirements, but the overall difficulty of the game is not high, the most difficult will only bother less than 5 minutes, coupled with the game setting can adjust the "card tip", so it is relatively easy.

"The flame arrow cannot pass through the water, and around this point, the decryption idea becomes very clear."

Of course, there are also types of fixed puzzles that require coordination between characters, and these puzzles are more interesting than circuitry, because part of the original "analysis" is added to the exploration mechanism. In the game, hunters can shoot ice arrows and rockets, ice arrows can not only freeze enemies, but also freeze some organs, and a lot of puzzles in the middle of the game need to use this skill. Compared to laying all the clues on the screen, this kind of design is obviously more interesting, making some clues become hidden, and hiding the key to decryption in the player's hands.

The above are two common forms of fixed puzzles, "Trinity 4" fixed puzzle part is also clever, the overall difficulty is not high, as long as the observation and analysis in place, you will soon be able to explore the secret ideas. So compared to the slightly more rigorous fixed puzzles, another form of puzzle in this game is more free, this type of puzzle mainly tests the player's ability to construct solutions, so we call it "free puzzles", the corresponding way of solving is relatively free.

There are often some grand canyons or high platforms in the game, visually it is easy to judge that these levels need players to leap, but what way to use, it is entirely up to the players themselves, which is another charm of the game, players can freely combine character skills to create several ways to decrypt.

Now to review the abilities of the three protagonists, the mage can create things out of thin air and move with mind power, the hunter can shoot arrows and pull a rope between two points, if the mage creates two blocks and has the hunter pull the rope between the two blocks, then you have a rope bridge to help you cross obstacles.

"The character animation of this film is also very careful to express the character image."

Of course, the above is a very simple combination, when the hunter gets the fairy rope, you can lightweight the object on one end, and build a strong enough connection, in simple terms, you have a balloon, so ask the mage to create two boards and connect them with the fairy rope, jump on them and control them through the mind, then you have a movable platform, Can help you solve more problems.

"I don't think it's a standard solution, but it works."

There are many "free puzzles" in the game that can be tackled with interesting combinations, such as the frequent large high platform, which can be easily solved with a movable platform and rope ladders, but the shortcomings are also obvious, that is, the player may be solved in a rush before the analysis.

Another point is that early in the game, the puzzles related to warriors and shields are rarely impressive, so later in the game, there are a lot of puzzles that use shield reflection, which can be seen as compensation.

Under the free combination, the "free puzzle" also has some luck components, by establishing a physical connection, so that the two elements interact, the player can grasp the timing, but also rely on luck to pass. There are many times in the game are so, see the danger behind, can not help but sigh: good luck, invisible and make the game more interesting. However, too strong and free skill configuration in the later stage, it is likely that players will find the answer to the puzzle before they see it.

"Like this place."

The main puzzle of the game is light, with a fairy-tale style, and rarely makes you feel "malicious", even if the story itself is about nightmares. At least in terms of level design, the more difficult puzzles are all focused on the side lines, and the main line is very smooth and easy to play.

The side puzzles of the game are good and often come in composite form. The later side puzzles are not only about analysis, but also about construction and luck, such as my personal favorite this light bulb, the player uses almost all the elements including characters and environment, and the solution is very diverse, everyone has "freedom to answer", a very interesting side level design.

There are many side levels in the game where clues can be found with a little attention, and high difficulty means unique rewards. In the game, you can collect a variety of rewards in the side levels, including letters between characters, some items, etc., if a single item is collected, you will see the corresponding elements in the main interface, and letters make each character's image more full.

The story is so simple that players can quickly guess what will happen in the future. It mainly tells the story of three heroes in pursuit of the prince, during the journey, they will face their fears and conquer themselves, and finally complete the mission successfully, full of positive energy and fairy tale sense. Fortunately, the character image created in the game is more interesting, the timid and cautious mage, the proud hunter and the reckless warrior, which completely corresponds to the player's inherent impression of the three professions.

In order to match the plot of such a fairy tale, the picture has become cartoonish. The topography of the five chapters is designed respectively. The diverse topography design makes the picture elements very rich, including gardens, snow mountains and castles, etc., especially the scenes in the forest, which make people feel very comfortable visually, with a sense of obscurity and dreaminess coming out. There are also many display scenes in the main line process, so that people can adjust their senses after nervous decryption.

"The movement of detail in the foreground and the relatively static picture in the distant view create a visual spatial gap."

Although Trinity 4 is essentially a 2D horizontal puzzle game, its sense of space is good. In the middle of the environment there are a lot of detail elements, when they appear together, the details between the actions stack each other, the picture is more dynamic, and the vision is the atmosphere of the whole picture accentuates in place, can be seen as a complement to the world view, the visual experience is very comfortable.

In addition to decryption, the other main gameplay in the game is combat. The little monster war is basically to send experience, the monster types are few, the mechanism is relatively simple, and the character can stand next to its dead body to accelerate the resurrection after death, which makes the overall combat difficulty is not high.

"Ice arrows are pretty good at killing monsters."

The more eye-catching is the BOSS battle, in addition to the regular turn-based battle, but also includes multi-body BOSS, as well as decryption BOSS battle, the mechanism is different. The first few BOSS designs are obviously centered around the skills of the three protagonists, in order to test the player's proficiency with each character. In contrast, too mediocre the final BOSS will inevitably make people feel sorry for not allowing the player to vent freely after learning. However, the main theme of this game is a decryption game, so this point is not particularly critical.

"The presentation of the battlefield combat experience is very beautiful, flying in the rain of arrows"

Trinity 4: Prince of Nightmares has finally returned to the classic mode of the series, proving once again that this IP is still good. The variety of puzzle designs examines the different abilities of the players, allowing for both rigorous analysis and free structure of gameplay. The rest of the game, like its graphics, is comfortable, including the main difficulty and length. The difficulty levels that focus on the side lines are good for encouraging exploration and challenge, and improve replayability, but the overall low difficulty makes the game a bit mediocre and difficult to move to the next level.

Under this design, Trinity 4: The Prince of Nightmares has become a smooth sailing decryption game, without too much brain burning it, bringing players a good game experience, but if you want to have a more hardcore decryption experience, I am afraid this work can not meet you.