Those are non-issues at most. Rosabell in Trine 2 was forgiven, remember? And Trine 2 was the best game in the series. The real issues are the occasionally horribly obtuse puzzles, like the magnetic clock in the tower. Trine 2 was the by far best, but "DEI" is not the problem. It's how limited the options for puzzle solving are. Trine 2 let you rotate objects very precisely and conjure boxes and planks where you WANTED, not just above Amadeus' head, Zoya's hook could attach to every wooden surface and not just some rings and there were many places you COULD actually make use of Pontius' shield glide.

I definitely fell flat on my face on several puzzles, few of them forced me to check guides and how they did it. Some felt like i literally blocked myself and had to cheese to solve them.

I definitely felt extremaly annoyed at the Amadeus rotating items at 45% angles and if the item clipped something it'd just fly off with huge force.

All in all i do agree with you that game got "simplified". Still it just hurts me that FrozenByte jumped at easy social score points by playing ideolo politics.

We're talking about a fantasy world where goblins, skeletons, magical creatures, etc. exist. Do you really have a problem with different skin color? Amadeus might be a stepfather, but his wife might also have brown skin that's why is their children are not white, it's a genetic lottery.

The plot was very interesting and it was even dark. Evil characters ran away and probably died because the narrator said that the heroes of Trine never saw them again.

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

Those are non-issues at most. Rosabell in Trine 2 was forgiven, remember? And Trine 2 was the best game in the series. The real issues are the occasionally horribly obtuse puzzles, like the magnetic clock in the tower. Trine 2 was the by far best, but "DEI" is not the problem. It's how limited the options for puzzle solving are. Trine 2 let you rotate objects very precisely and conjure boxes and planks where you WANTED, not just above Amadeus' head, Zoya's hook could attach to every wooden surface and not just some rings and there were many places you COULD actually make use of Pontius' shield glide.

You're absolutely right about the puzzles

Originally posted by SSJ Rick ム:

We're talking about a fantasy world where goblins, skeletons, magical creatures, etc. exist. Do you really have a problem with different skin color? Amadeus might be a stepfather, but his wife might also have brown skin that's why is their children are not white, it's a genetic lottery.

Trine 1, 2, 3 and 4 avoided the topic and instead used Amadeus family as faceless plotpoints (goblin DLC)... But the very moment the DEI rised its ugly head suddenly everything changed. I don't mind there are characters with different skin colours, but amadeus kids literally reeks of "look at how DEI-ally we are, one kid might be even gay next game, who knows wink wink"

From my POV it's just cheap way to diversify. It's devs that hold the the magic pencil to will anything they want into the story and they have decided to go that route, not "hurr durr it happens in genetic lottery"

I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, I started speedrunning the game, and tend to focus more on technical details more than the story now that I've played through it countless times. Each character (as of Trine 4) received a pretty major redesign to go with the new rendering engine if I recall the T4 artbook.

I think it could be argued that Zoya been given a modesty makeover in many ways, although if I didn't know what her previous designs looked like (imo she looked the best in T3), I wouldn't really care, and can't bring myself to care even now. They did lampshade the redesigns in 4, where Zoya comments that Amadeus is no longer running around in flip-flops and very short pants under his wizard robe. She then confirms that yes, she's wearing long pants now, for reasons related to cold weather and... joint pain and arthritis, I believe? That said, I recall more temperate climes in 3, and a number of very cold-looking levels in 4. But they're literally in a fantasy puzzle game. I don't quite buy the """realism""" excuse, personally. I do think it was a deliberate choice to show less skin, rationalized post-hoc.

As far as the voice actors, it may just be personal preference, but their performances have always sounded good (even great) to me. The three leads, plus the narrator, have had the same actors across every title, which is pretty cool, so I'm not sure what makes this one different. Perhaps the voice direction is a bit different to the first three? Still, contrasted with the first title, I'd argue they have more dynamic range and sound more "like themselves" now than ever.

Amadeus' kids... I'll have to agree there. Although Margaret is an unseen character, it does kind of imply she's been unfaithful (which I'd expect given how poorly she treats him and her atrocious personality), but more than that, it feels like tokenization, or DEI, or whatever you wish to call it. Honestly, none of them look like they're his biological offspring.

Regarding Zoya being gay... it's never made explicit, but I'd have to at least say it's absolutely heavily implied that Zoya and the librarian are, as the game put it, "traveling companions" by the end (is that what they call it now?). Which I'm just fine with, but then I'm a big yuri weeb. No problem there, even if it was done to check a box.

I think the most glaring issue with 5 is the lackluster story. You're told who the villains are in literally the *first cutscene*. They could easily have built up the necromancer as a fake-out villain otherwise, but he's put to very little use. Hell, every single one of the students in Trine 4 (largely due to the DLC) have more screentime and voice lines than this character, whose main function seems to be comic relief, such as it is.

When they visit the Royal Castle to tell the council about Sunny, they only find Goderic, and despite Zoya always being the most cynical of the three, only asks who he is, and how he came by the information that the device at the Tallest Tower controls the clockwork knights. He's half ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clockwork himself — given he says he's an engineer, you'd think she would at least suspect he had a hand in creating the clockwork knights, and why couldn't he stop them himself if that were the case? I can see Pontius, naive and well-meaning as he is, taking his word for it and leading the charge, but Zoya being that easily tricked after 4 other titles have built her up as the least gullible of the three is a bridge too far, to say nothing of the, as you said, Saturday morning cartoon presentation of the villains. Prince Selius, while not strictly a villain, was infinitely more interesting and less predictable. Also, Trine 4 had Clockwork Owl, which aside from his tiny cameo in 5, makes it the superior game.

Not sure how they fell so far in one title, but it makes me wonder what future there is for the series, as despite its mostly-beloved but nonetheless uneven history, the lack of DLC and the developers' own statements feel like this could be a swan song, especially if they're no longer profitable or are bought out by another company. I desperately hope that isn't the case, as when Trine works, it works *really, really* well. I even enjoyed 3, despite its many flaws, especially the level with the storybook presentation. There's clearly a lot of talent at Frozenbyte. Just hope they can put it to its best use if and when there's another entry in the series. Until then I'll be trying my best to break Trine 5.

Nice bait, but I don't believe you when you say that you have a friend.

I had no complaints about the puzzles. But the DEI propaganda spoiled the experience. It felt intrusive and out of place.