Trinity Universe is weird. There’s no getting past it. Nippon Ichi Software always manages to release some of Japan’s more eccentric material, and Trinity Universe is right up there with the best of them.

Set in the castle town of Empyria – a town on a rock floating in space in the middle of the Netheruniverse – Trinity Universe invites you to assume the identity of one of two gods of the Netheruniverse in order to protect Empyria from certain destruction by a barrage of lost items colliding with it. The Netheruniverse is where lost items drift in space and normally they do not crash into Empyria, but something is drawing them towards the town in increasing numbers.

Feel the Fury – combat system that is

Lost items can be anything from a carton of lumpy milk or a chocolate donut to a building, even a whole planet. Much of the action of the game involves exploring the larger objects and destroying the mysterious gravity cores that are causing these items to gravitate towards Empyria.

There are two playable characters in Trinity Universe – Demon Dog King Kanata and Valkyrie Rizelea – and they both have their own storylines which doubles the amount of time that you can spend playing the game. Each character also represents a different level of difficulty with Kanata’s story playing a bit easier than Valkyrie’s.

Trinity Universe cunn

ingly sidesteps the usual huge amounts of wandering that more traditional JRPGs like Final Fantasy feature by having the dungeons orbit Empyria. This means, instead of running about a map the game is controlled form a hub view of Empyria and its orbiting junk. You can have a look at all the different items orbiting the town from here as well as access menus which can allow you to choose which dungeons to explore, to view the next plot events, browse the various shops or access the monster coliseum and test your mettle against some of the game's toughest monsters.

The plot is driven by a series of semi-animated anime-style scenes. These scenes are rather amusing for the most part with the game’s odd translation from the original Japanese adding an extra layer of humour to the game that the original writers may not have intended. The dialogue is filled with overly formal phrases like ”Most commendable” which feel strangely at home with the game’s sense of humour.

Time to slay that… er… dolphin?

Much of the action takes place on the orbiting objects. These fall into two categories – event dungeons and ones to explore just for fun. Trinity Universe also runs in semi real-time meaning that there are certain events and items that are only available at certain times of day and also some monsters become stronger if you fight them at night. The game will stay at a certain time of day until you go shopping, watch an event, explore a dungeon or head to the inn for a nap. Using the inn you can actually choose what time of day to be woken up at, which makes it easier if you are looking to find certain items or avoid tough monsters.

The dungeons themselves are fairly standard affairs built on some modular graphics. Returning to explore some of the dungeons that are there for fun is worth it for the extra items and XP gained, but after a while some of the dungeons start to look the same. The other frustrating thing about the dungeon exploration is the camera. The camera is fixed and follows you around from directly behind you, this makes turning corners and even just turning around much more awkward. Also, event dungeons require you to escape them in a limited time frame once you’ve fought the final battle and the belligerent camera makes this task much more difficult than it should be.

The really interesting part of exploration is actually the battle system. It's turn-based but it is similar in style to the action points system used in SEGA’s Valkyria Chronicles. You have a certain number of action points to use up and you can use them to chain moves together and combine actions with your other party members for additional bonuses in attack, defence or healing.

The Fury system is actually quite nuanced and can take a bit of getting used to but once you master it you will be able to defeat some pretty serious opposition. Attacks can also be strung together in combos to cause more damage to monsters but these do require more action points. This means that the battles are far more strategic than most traditional JRPG titles and consequently they feel more entertaining.

The other distinctive feature of Trinity Universe is the Managraphics system. Weapons can be decorated with a variety of magical designs to improve their potency or add extra effects to the character’s abilities in combat. Managraphics are made from the souls of monsters you defeat and you can equip up to two on your character’s weapon. This allows a wide array of customisation options for your characters and really allows you to develop your own style of play in battle.

This wouldn't be a Nippon Ichi game without Prinnies

Like most JRPGs, Trinity Universe has the potential to be a huge time sink. As the game progresses you will open up the ability to move deeper and deeper into dungeons and more dungeons will enter and leave the orbit of Empyria on a daily basis. It is possible to take a quick path and just play the game through only engaging with the story events but that would be a mistake as you will miss out on a large portion of what makes Trinity Universe unique. The added value of having two storylines to play through really boosts the game’s replay value as well.

Dodgy camera and mildly repetitive dungeon scenery aside, Trinity Universe has a lot going for it. The subtleties of the Fury battle system and the humorous storylines will keep you entertained for hours on end. Trinity Universe is a JRPG through and through, but it moves away from the traditional mould to distinguish itself as an interesting and entertaining play for gamers who are looking for a bit of a change. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but then again neither is Modern Warfare 2.

Top Game Moment: It gets just a little bit surreal when the Prinnies start talking about breasts, but you don’t pick up a Nippon Ichi game for a normal experience now do you?