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The Dreamcast refuses to die and
has become to shooting fans what the Neo Geo was to fighting fans. Trizeal
was released on April 7th 2005 in Japan but just how does is compare to
the likes of Chaos Field? Well, personally I loved Chaos Field BUT I’m
getting a bit sick and tired of all these study the bullet pattern type
shooters so Trizeal is a breath of fresh as in that it’s actually going
back to the old school (or skool for the trendies out there) style of
play. Gone are the “Where the F*ck do I go now” mazes of bullets that
games such as Chaos Field, Psyvariar II, Shikigami No Shiro II and Ikuraga
have. Trizeal is more like Border Down by G-Rev which quite a few people
slaged at first until they got in to it. What I’m trying to say is that
Trizeal is a very good, not the best but like I said a very good shooter
that will remind you more of games from the mid to late 90’s than the
latest Dreamcast shooters.
Graphically Trizeal is pretty nice with decent enough enemies and
backgrounds. The enemies do seem to have a chunky look to them but I’m
guessing this is just the style that the programmers went for rather than
a lack of artistic skill. However there is one bad point regarding the
graphics and that is the colour. I played this game through VGA and
S-Video with both methods giving me the same results. Now, the colours are
vibrant which is no bad thing until you realize that the shots that your
ship shoots out look pretty much like he ones the enemies shoot out
(different shape though) which makes it quite hard on the eyes at times. If
the colours weren’t so vibrant then this problem wouldn’t exist but as it
is, it does exist. Still, don’t let this put you off buying the game since
this isn’t the case on every stage plus it sounds worse than it actually
is and besides it may just be my eyes (-_-;)
As we all know a shooter needs a good thumping soundtrack, preferably a
techno type one such as Psyvariar II so how is Trizeals? I’d say it’s
quite like Border Down’s soundtrack which I liked but then again others
didn’t and dubbed it as being Elevator music. While I can see why they
thought that I really can’t think of any elevators that have music as good
as Border Down played in them. Trizeal's music however while in the same
category as Border Downs’ is a bit more upbeat giving you that little bit
more adrenalin. The sound effects on the other hand are very nice indeed.
Loud beefy explosions!
So we’ve talked about the Graphics and sound but how does it play? Very
good is the answer. Pick up the pad and off you go. No special maneuvers
to learn like in Psyvariar II. No memorizing what type of mode you ship
needs to be in like Ikaruga. And no two plains of play like in Chaos
Field. You just pick up the pad and go. There are 3 weapons which are
powered up in the old fashioned way by picking up power icons. Be sure to
power them up evenly though because they will eventually blend in to each
other. By this I mean if you select the laser weapon once it’s fully
powered up it will contain elements from the other two weapons as well (as
long as they are also powered up) giving you some very heavy fire power.
My personal favorite is to use the Wide shot with a blend of laser and
missile. Oh, let’s not forget the bomb as well. Simple isn’t it? That’s
what we need in a shooter, simplicity.
There are quite a few modes of play which open up the more you play the
game. At first you have he normal arcade mode then later you are presented
with time attack modes which include the normal levels plus some Omake
(Extra) goodies that I’ll let you find out on your own. There’s also the
internet ranking that must be done via a PC since Trizeal has no built in
web browser but that’s no big deal. Non-Japanese speakers will be very
happy to know that the entire game is in English with Japanese subtitles.
You can really tell that Triangle Services wanted this to sell outside of
Japan even though officially it shouldn’t be. Game options include four
different screen set ups. The default one is quite small while the next
one up does improve on the size it’s still too small though. These two
modes are tate modes for normal TVs. As most of you know though the only
real way to play a vertical shooter on your TV is to stand it up on its
side and set the game to Tate (Vertical) mode. Of course not all TVs are
capable of being stood on their side which is why we are given the normal
TV modes that look tinny. This isn’t a fault of Trizeal though. All
shooters that were originally vertical in the arcade have this problem on
normal TVs. I seriously recommend playing in the full screen vertical mode
though but don’t hold me responsible if you kill your TV. If you do want
to try it then first switch off your TV before you turn it on its side
otherwise you WILL kill your TV. TFT monitors however are fine to turn on
to their side while they are switched on or at least my 17” Mitsubishi
DimondCyrsta is.
This version of Trizeal that I have is the Sega Direct pack which includes
a special 3 track (plus one hidden track) audio CD and Triangle Services
bandana.
 
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