Review: Trident’s Tale (Nintendo Switch)
Tall ship; check. Bandana; check. Big earring; check. Drive to seek treasure; check. Shiny sword; check. It’s all here—you must be a pirate. If you were hoping for something else from Trident’s Tale, that’s not the only thing you’ll need to get over in this game, but I’ll spare you the spoilers. Suffice it to say, there are sword-wielding skeletons to destroy so you’ll be having too much fun to really worry about much else.
Trident’s Tale is a story based, open-world adventure in which you search for the scattered pieces of a powerful relic. You have wanted to be a pirate for some time now, and recent events make it almost a requirement. So, let’s get going.
We’ll start with our usual first impression elements: visuals and audio. The game runs on Unreal Engine and looks good with modestly realistic human characters. The skeleton soldiers and assorted monsters are a bit more cartoonish, but they fit well with the rest of the game. The scenery is rather nice, and you even get a sense of time with an accelerated day/night lighting change. On the down-side, it only took me the first ten minutes to end up in a spot where the player was never meant to be. Once I fell into a crevasse in the rocks, the image started twitching rapidly. Fortunately, I was able jump out of that spot and resume normal play. The other visual oddity was seeing a sort of staggered ghost image as I panned from side to side. This issue didn’t seem to persist, so I can’t say what caused it. Your character’s movement is fluid and, mercifully, does not include the whole swaying side to side “realistic” movement which tends to give sensitive types headaches and motion discomfort. The design elements are well done, creating a world in which you can get immersed easily.
The soundscape is also well done with music and sound effects appropriate to the story. The voice acting is a solid “OK,” but the averageness is forgivable given the inherent whimsy of the game.
Character movement is what you’d probably expect from an open world game; use the left joystick to move and the right joystick to change the camera angle. If you have played games like this before, the controls are well tuned and comfortable with the standard settings. Things like jumping and climbing are handled with standard button and joystick use. Keep your skills sharp, as you’ll need some good run and jump timing in some places. Don’t worry too much at the start; the jumps I missed early in the game didn’t result in damage, it only means you start climbing again.
As mentioned earlier, you get to fight sword-wielding skeletons, so bonus points for that. Don’t get too happy about it, though, these skeletons are not necessarily pushovers. If you don’t use your joystick to keep moving and the A button to dodge at the right time, they will kill you quickly enough. The game starts you with a few healing potions, so you have backup there.
Speaking of healing potions, Trident’s Tale lets you collect all sorts of objects along the way. You can learn to craft things and make potions, but the game does not do a great job of explaining this as soon as you may like. Getting to make new things keeps the player engaged, and it makes for a nice break after a day of cutting down bad guys with your shiny, yet slightly damaged, cutlass.
Another part of the gameplay (as is only appropriate for a pirate adventure) is sailing your ship and playing with…I mean firing your cannon to bring those scurvy dogs to heel. Aiming the cannon is a bit different, but the game has some nice pointers, so it all works out in the end. Practice the sailing and the shooting and so forth; you will need it to explore the waters looking for your treasure, and you need to find all the pieces of the trident to accomplish your goals, fulfil your destiny, and be the best pirate around. It sounds like a lot, but you’ll have fun getting there.
Altogether, Trident’s Tale looks and sounds good, and it has enough story to give you a pause every now and then without droning on. The game does take a moment to get going, but it isn’t too bad. Even with the few oddities I experienced, this was still a fun time.
