Trigger Saint

 
Developer: Aaron Arcand

Released: Oct 2015

Hours Played: 3.7

Similar To: Brigador / It Came From Outer Space... / Pineapple Smash Crew

Rating: 4/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Trigger Saint is an action RPG that's more Binding of Isaac than Diablo III. You control a mystical spirit encased in a metallic suit and carry a huge musket. Similar to Bastion you set off on a fairly small barren landscape that floats in the clouds and deal with obstacles that stand in your way. These mainly come in the form of other metallic robots that shoot missiles at you or pods that generally impede your journey. You shoot boxes that yield gold coins and pick up the contents of parcels that are automatically equipped in your tiny six-slot inventory to give boosts to your stats. Unfortunately, the game does not come with controller support so it's a case of moving with WASD keys while aiming and firing with the mouse.
 

BALANCE & PACE

You first start a game by going through a small tutorial that teaches you the basics. Here you'll learn about your hit-points, spirit and stamina. Hit-points are self-explanatory while your stamina gives you a short burst of speed (using the Shift key) that gets used up and which needs to be recharged when you're at rest. Spirit is basically your ammo which you'll need to reload on a very regular basis. Boosting your spirit at the right time is the main strategy here because while doing so you cannot move or fire and are thus open to attack and entirely at the mercy of your foes. Retreating is best but sometimes you will have to do this with good timing and right in the heat of battle. Running out of hit-points equals perma-death; you'll either need to start all over again or reload your last saved game. 
      

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 

The game looks as if it were made by a one-man development team and as such is designed with a fairly basic but tasteful hand-drawn tile-set. Portalling from one world to the next mainly means the same apocalyptic-style setting but in a different colour scheme. However, it retains a mysterious and towering ambience helped in no small part by its monster soundtrack that mainly consists of long and lingering notes that gather in force and intensity. Additionally, the game is menu-free. Help and instructions are relayed via notices stuck on the wall at the tutorial area while lore and the semblance of a story is revealed by books that you may read as you go. It is a seamless system that all adds to the mood of isolation and struggle.  

PROGRESS SYSTEM

After completing the tutorial you'll enter a station or hub where you can upgrade stats like hit-points, damage, stamina and spirit with the gold you've collected. It's important to note that you can only save your game at a machine at the hub which you can then continue from via the home page after your demise. You acquire a score as you play which is discreetly displayed in a small font at the bottom of your inventory. There are no local high-score charts to peruse but your highest score along with your highest combo is always displayed and tucked away in the bottom left hand corner of your home page. Progression through the game takes the form of arriving at and unlocking portals to new worlds. The game has fixed environments that aren't procedurally generated but stay the same for every playthrough.      

CONCLUSION

Trigger Saint is a very interesting and arty action RPG with an arcade feel. Your musket comes with the default attack of rapid-fire missiles (left-click) or slower moving but higher damage-dealing bombs that you activate and detonate yourself (right-click). A little bit of aiming, rather than simply clicking on your target, is required along with a large degree of dodging so there is definitely a skill element to the game that you don't get with the more well-known action RPGs. Additionally, the reload strategy is also central to staying alive as well as a tight and limited inventory management system that forever demands decisions as to which items to keep and which ones to sell for gold. Lack of controller support is the only real let-down to a solid game.