As a fond Trine series fan, I enjoyed the games from the first to the more recent Trine 5, and I was looking forward to Trine 6, the soon to be latest game in the series.
However, I came across recent news about that game. After its demo launched, and many players feeling... unsatisfied of its present state and specific mechanics that derived from what they enjoyed in many past games, it got delayed, by 6 months, after being close to its former release date, which was September 2026.
For those at VGMaps that don't know, Trine is a 2.5D series created and developed by Frozenbyte, stationed in Finland. It features three heroes, Amadeus the Wizard, who mainly does boxes, Zoya, a thief who prefers to be called an entrepreneur, and Pontius, an aspiring knight who longs to fight off evil by becoming one.
The first game, launched in 2009, had them as regular people with their own lives, but in a kingdom that was prosperous fell into darkness because its Old King died with no planned descendant to rule it, and more than just domestic life alone was destabilized, it was under siege by an evil undead horde that took advantage of the madness. At the midst of the mayhem, these people met at the particular spot beneath the abandoned Astral Academy's pile of treasure and laid physical contact of an ancient artifact that dragged them together into its grasp, leaving them unable to leave each other's company. There, they would be later tasked in saving the kingdom from that horde and restoring peace and order in it, and that would be the first of their adventures to come.
After the first Trine did well, Trine 2 was made and launched in 2011, and continued the 2.5D gameplay and placed the now established heroes on a new adventure in a different land, held under siege by a wicked witch and her jealousy of a particular sister... and goblins. Many goblins. It had a story expansion, The Goblin Menace, months later, and gave additional levels focusing on the goblins' attempts to take over the kingdom, with new powers that are retroactively applied to all past levels.
Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power, released in 2015, would follow, but this game went full 3D and featured the backstory beneath the being called Trine and her sister, Rona, and their struggle against the vile sorcerer, Sarek the Deathless. However, an experiment with Steam's Early Access, and underestimating the costs of a 3D game left the story incomplete... and the series on a hiatus.
But, that ended with not only a spin-off set in the same universe, but Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince, released in 2019, and returned to its proper blueprint the previous two games set, and focuses on a particular student seen in said spin-off, Prince Selius himself, whose attempt to learn magic by himself created a crisis involving nightmares manifesting to life, and placing the heroes on a new quest to save him, which leads them to confront their own nightmares in the midst. It received its story DLC, "Melody of Mystery", centering on the Astral Academy's students under deep sleep by a particular music box, and under Selius' guidance, the heroes trek through the students' dreams to save them from the box's influence. Its on PC, but still not on consoles YET. I really hope it can be brought to consoles before anything else happens.
Later, Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy, launched in 2023, and it thrusts the heroes into an evil scheme of royal intrigue and treachery involving the use of mechanical constructs, not robots; completely different, and tarnishing the heroes' name through psychological manipulation and some essence exploitation. With their good images smeared, and allies in danger, its up to the heroes to stop the villains, Lady Sunny, a self-proclaimed royal mistress who seeks dominance, and Lord Goderic, the inventor of the Clockwork Knights, and her criminal accomplice, and come to the rescue... and keep their morale together.
That brings up to Trine 6: Together in Time, and it not only continues the blueprint, but adds in two new characters to add in the hero roster, and have more characters for multiplayer to play, rather than using color-swatched clones of the three heroes, who have fallen into the exact grip by messing with Trine's magic and properties the three heroes still feel, and they will have no choice but to cooperate, whether they like it or not, and save the kingdom from a villainous warlock.
Now, I don't like delays to games for numerous reasons, but in such a case as Trine 6's, I can understand why it is so; there's much revising work to be done to make sure its better than before. Now, its set to March 2027. Honestly, the delay will do that game good. I saw and like how it continues the blueprint, but I couldn't bear to play it in its present state.
So, while we wait, I'll ask you this; have any of you played Trine's games before? If so, what do you like about the series, the heroes, and their adventures?