Developer: Compile Heart, Idea Factory
Publisher: Idea Factory
Platform: PS Vita, PS TV
Tested on: PS TV
Trillion: God of Destruction – Review
It’s no secret that both Compile Heart’s and/or Idea Factory’s games often have a specific kind of humor, which mostly stimulates your dirty mind and on top of that fun, yet complicated, mechanics and quirks are thrown into the mix, all while respecting the basics of JRPG games. Today however, many of those basics are wiped off the board, all being replaced with something new, refreshing, yet probably not for everyone. That being said, we dived into the underworld, only to discover a very refreshing game.
Story
Even though the underworld has always been a part of our mortal world, just like heaven is, it originally knew no structure and was simply a savage place, at least until the first Great Overlord sat down on the throne and for us he is most commonly known as Satan. While we imagine hell to be a very grim place, it’s actually very much like our own world, with different social classes, people that go about their daily lives and someone to try and govern it all. Satan has passed long ago, and his son as well, making it all come down to you, Zeabolos, the third Great Overlord of the underworld. Even though Great Overlord might sound like a rather malicious title, you are actually very kind at heart, and care a great deal about your family and underlings, hoping they can pursue happiness at every corner. Sadly, the God of Destruction is at the gates of hell, and while everyone thought it) he was defeated by Satan himself, it seems the monster is back. Last time it nearly destroyed the underworld and now it will try and do the same thing. After your valiant brother, Astaroth, and his army that counted over ten thousand heads fell in the battle with the God of Destruction, you rush headfirst into the fray as well, only to be utterly destroyed and even die, for a while at least.
When you’re about to slip away from everything you hold dear, you hear a distant voice that offers you a second chance, at least if you want it so badly that you’d do everything for it. Of course you agree, seeing your home is still under attack by a giant monster that will not stop before everything is destroyed, and thus you wake up at home, albeit in a rather pathetic weakened state, in which you will never be able to battle again. The mysterious woman who saved you, named Faust, offered you this chance, only to take your soul after the evil presence is vanquished, but in your current state you would be useless and thus your Overlords (pretty much your six generals) will have to fight the monster one by one. Seeing the God of Destruction, who gets named Trillion by Faust, is protected by a an aura that can slowly kill those who come close, your Overlords need protection as well, namely the ring that Faust crafted with your last ounces of strength. As there was only enough power to craft one, each of your underlings will have to fight separately but the one that comes out as the victor, will be allowed to sit on your throne (even though they don’t know you’ll die anyway). That being said, seeing that Trillion is an all powerful being, it’s more than likely that some of your Overlords will lose their lives, only to make progress for the one that steps in her footsteps (yup, all girls again). This means you’ll have to choose wisely who will be allowed to go after the monster first and second and …
The story itself is brought by visual novel-like sequences, with a lot of text for you to plow through, to either learn what’s going on, or to learn more about the character that is currently training to fight Trillion. Of course this means that this game will also present you with a lot of tear jerking moments, as you’ll lose several, if not all, of your Overlords by the claws of Trillion. When a character dies, you’ll start to learn more about the one that succeeds her, and seeing you can choose who will follow who, you’ll be able to steer the story a bit in a way you like. Overall the story is still rather light (how it’s brought), but it certainly has its moments.
Graphics
Graphically Trillion: God of Destruction is more about the menus, and their lovely backdrops as well as the many visual novel-like conversations you’ll have throughout the entire arduous quest. These semi-wallpapers are all done nicely with enough detail level to keep things interesting, and while the poses of the characters often remain the same, the facial expressions tend to be mixed up from time to time. Overall a pleasant way to present a game that’s more about management and training, rather than action packed JRPG games.
That being said, there’s also a small portion of the game that’s rendered in 3D, namely the battle sequences against Trillion, the training dummy Mokujin, the treasure filled Valley of Swords and an occasional sparring session with another Overlord or monster. In here you’ll find a handful of enemies, which have a rather ‘chibi’ appearance, yet things are still kept serious enough to stay in tune with the situation being sketched story wise. For a Vita game, things look rather clean, tidy and appealing. Perhaps a little more clutter in the different aforementioned battle zones would be nice to add an extra layer of detail to everything.
Sound
As with many games that spawn out of Compile Heart’s and Idea Factory’s studios the sound quality is top notch. This game goes accompanied by rather adventurous music, that certainly suits the ‘end of the underworld’ setting, while implementing enough voice acting to add some life to the dialogues. Only the key dialogues are voiced however, making it rather sad that this game did not get the ‘full-voiced’ treatment, which would have turned it into an even better experience.
Gameplay
It’s hard to describe Trillion: God of Destruction, but perhaps it would be best to call a game such as this a management game with JRPG elements, with a rather interesting, yet grim flow of both the story and the game. This means you’ll be plowing through menus most of the time, with a few battles on the side, seeing you will have to kill Trillion, practice or simply go treasure hunting.
The game has six Overlords you can choose from, even though during your first playthrough you’ll have to pick certain ones in a specific order, to make sure things follow the predetermined path (sort of), but overall every character plays the same, with a few differing base stats, which show the affinity of said character. From here on out it’s up to you, as you’ll have to choose between different types of training, which will gain more ‘resources’ which can be traded in to raise stats, thus certain trainings work better to raise your attack, while others might help you gain more HP and so on. Not only will you have to do conventional training with your Overlords, it’s up to you as the Great Overlord to keep your generals happy, thus ‘spend’ time with them and interact with them, which raises their affection towards you. The affection bar serves as a buffer for your HP and MP, depleting your affection first when taking hits or casting spells. It also serves as an option to retreat (only possible a fixed amount of times), as retreating will cost you affection (only when fighting Trillion).
You’ll notice that Trillion: God of Destruction is grim by nature, as it becomes painstakingly clear that many of your Overlords will perish during the battle(s) with Trillion. Each Overlord can retreat twice, allowing them to continue their training for a short amount of time. Training itself is linked to a fixed time scheme, which shortens every time you retreat. Of course, retreating or dying will cause Trillion to consume more of the underworld, thus coming closer to eat the core that lies in your palace, which would destroy the very existence of your world. If this happens, it’s quite clear that the game is over and not in a good way. When one of your Overlords loses her life after a fierce battle, she is granted a final ‘death skill’ that can either seal a part of Trillion’s body, do extra damage, respawn as a ‘ghost’ that aids in combat, empower her successor or simply slow the hands of time and make sure the next Overlord will be allowed to train for a longer time. Sealing body parts is rather useful, but keep in mind that the sealed part is undone when Trillion changes its form.
Trillion is not only the name of the beast, but also its HP, which means you’re in for a hellish ride to be able to beat him, and it’s quite possible you’ll struggle during your first attempts, making this no game for those who don’t like a challenge or those who don’t want to start over because they failed the first time around. Seeing your characters ‘only’ do around a million damage (even fewer at the beginning, more later on), you’ll have to make sure you’ll do enough damage during each attempt, to make it easier for the Overlord that follows in your footsteps. Of course, you’ll be able to upgrade your weapons and embed certain abilities into them by adding ‘seals’, which have a variety of special effects that can help you raise your stats.
Combat itself is done in a ‘dual-turn based’ way, reminiscent of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, which means that every time you make a move, your enemies does so as well. Trillion’s and Mokujin’s attacks are marked on the gridded terrain, which change color when the actual attack is closing in. This will give you the time to plan your attacks, as well as granting you the chance to (try and) avoid them. If your character has leveled its CAP stat, she will be able to command several Devil Envoys, which are basically expandable soldiers who have been created to withstand the dangerous miasma that Trillion secretes. Nonetheless, these minions don’t do that much damage, but they can help you get the small monsters Trillion spawns off your back. While everything is rather straightforward, the controls of combat itself prove to be quite clunky, especially when it comes to aiming and movement. You’ll have to turn the camera with the shoulder buttons when you wish to move diagonally. If the camera is tilted, showing the grid in a diagonal way, pressing front, back or to the sides will allow you to move in such a manner. Nonetheless, often you’ll find yourself accidentally moving a square, even though you didn’t want to, all because of the camera. That being said, vigilance proves to be quite the savior in the department.
During the time you’ll spend with the Overlords, many events will occur that either grant you training bonuses, affection or even harm or curse your beloved underlings. Most of the time you’ll get to choose between different options, which makes the events a trial and error experience, as some come by more than once.
Even though you’ll get the hang of the many mechanics of the game rather quickly, some items prove to be rather difficult, even with the short tutorials the game has to offer. You’ll find yourself often wondering what you should do, what certain things do and you’ll be bombarded with heaps of passive and active skills on top of your stat possibilities. The latter proves to be the most difficult aspect of the game, because you never know if skills actually prove to be better than leveling your stats etc.
Conclusion
It’s quite clear that Trillion: God of Destruction is not a game for everyone but in what it does it certainly delivers. The atmosphere alone proves to be a stellar experience, as the originality of the main villain and your Overlords is something that truly makes this game unique. Even though the menu portion of the game, and some aspects still prove to be unclear, this game is highly recommended for fans of both management games and JRPGs. Hell hath no fury like six voluptuous women who strive to beat someone to a bloody pulp.
Related Items
1 Comment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] Today we are able to give away physical copy of Trillion: God of Destruction for the PlayStation Vita (also supported on PlayStation TV), which received a fabulous 8.8 out of 10 in our review. […]