Trillion: God of Destruction (PSVita)

OGUKJay | April 19, 2016 | Review | No Comments

Trillion sees you take up the role of the recently reanimated great overlord Zeabolos, after his humiliating defeat at the hands of the god of destruction herself. Broken and damaged, the great overlord begs for the power to save the underworld and his people, vowing to sacrifice anything for the power to rid the world of this monster. His wish is granted by the mysterious Faust. Overall the story is your standard stop the bad guy at all cost scenario with very little in the way of substance, the story segments are short and to the point, but mostly it’s kill the next in a line of random overlords. However even in its simplicity it is not bad in its writing, just a shame that each of the characters and their back story seemed to have more effort put into them than the main story.

This title takes a somewhat different approach than more traditional RPGs, as despite being the main character and all powerful great overlord ruler of the underworld, you are well and truly useless (save for your soul contract with Faust) and as such defer to the lesser overlords for help. In the battle to save the underworld, 6 charming little ladies are the embodiment of the 7 deadly sins Levia (Envy), Fegor (Sloth), Mammon (Greed), Perpell (Gluttony), Ashmedia (Lust), Ruche (Pride) with Zeabolos himself making up the 7th (Wrath). Using these overlords you have 1 almighty task – to defeat the god of destruction herself, aptly named Trillion – in reference to the massive amount of HP she has which you must hack away at over the course of the game. If the HP was not daunting enough itself she hits like a tank, can use multiple moves together and you have a time limit in which to manage this feat. Yes, this is truly a monumental task requiring planning, strategy and most likely multiple playthroughs.

Game play is broken up into 2 main parts, resting phase and battle. There is also a rogue like mini-game of sorts, this is after the games introduction and tutorial.

Resting Phase – this is where your game truly begins. You will have selected one of the 3 available starting Overlords (Levia, Perpell or Mommon) and Trillion will be resting from the damage (or rather the lack of) she sustained in the introduction. This is where you will spend most of your time with the game and will see you prepare the overlord. In this phase you will “train”, rest and interact with the overlord within a time limit made up of cycles (7 days make up one cycle) until Trillion awakes again and you must do battle. It is all relatively simple to get to grips with, however much more difficult to master as your time is limited and a simple mistake can set you back hugely, cutting down on training time or not being properly equipped in terms of skills and stats to last more than a few rounds with the God of Destruction. As stated you may have guessed the learning curve is pretty steep and formulating strategy is key. Ultimately your first attempt will likely see you saying goodbye to the young Overlord, doing only a few million points of damage before moving onto your next candidate and attempting to learn from your mistakes.

Battle Phase – there are 2 main types of battle in this title one that happens at the end of every cycle being the battle with Mokojin, a sentient training dummy that transforms and mimics Trillion with less HP (the HP increases with each success over him) these battles play a key role in formulating a strategy against Trillion as you can learn attack patterns and weaknesses that your foe will use against you as well as providing highly valuable EXP. The other main type of battle are the fights against the God of Destruction herself, at the end of your cycles you must fight Trillion if you are ready or not these battles play out in the exact same way as they would with Mokojin and you should have devised some way to start chipping away at those hit points without been obliterated from the get go but don’t expect to clear the game your first time there is a 99.9% chance that even if you manage to survive Trillion will cross the line of advancement and see an end to your first attempt with nothing but a few scratches. My first time saw me die dealing a little under 23 million and rethinking my whole plan of attack.

Valley of Swords – The Valley of Swords sees your overlord placed in a randomly generated dungeon full of items, traps and tricky foes. While significantly less of a threat than the games main threat, they can be quite tricky until you learn ways to handle them. From enemy’s that poison you to death to foes that come back to life upon defeat, the aim of this mini game is to gather as many items as you can and get to the exit before you die or run out of turns – 120 turns to be exact. This plays out in a similar fashion to that of the Pokemon mystery dungeon games. The valley is available at any time during the resting phase, provided you have 5 or more training medals, and sees you partake in a rogue like mini game. This area is highly valuable for many reasons as it provides gold, items, upgrades and EXP. This in a way is transferable as the medals you gain in training remain in your stock even if your current Overlord dies, to be used by future overlords to provide bigger boosts. Ultimately it’s a fun addition to the simple mindedness of TRAIN!!! Take on this all-powerful god!! Did you die? Well train some more and try again!! It manages to change the pace of the game as well as add more elements to your strategy, without being too taxing or drawing you away from your primary goal.

Battles with Trillion, Mokojin and ventures into the valley take part on 3D maps divided into a grid, for the most part playing out in a manner somewhat influenced by SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea etc thrown in over the character raising/idol sim style resting phase. Moving a space or attacking takes up a turn and you must watch where foes will strike while formulating your own counter offensive. While the Valley of Swords see more complex randomly generated dungeons battles, with Trillion and Mokojin are a lot more straightforward literally seeing your foes advance forwards mindlessly as you strike them all while performing multiple attacks and bombarding you with minions. Fortunately everything moves in unison so you can take your time and devise the best way to attack. It will likely seem complex at first, however becomes quite simple and allows you to formulate strategy quite well once you get to grips with how everything works.

The title boasts some beautiful artwork on the 2d scenes with the Gothic/demonic anime art style from the Overlords, right down to the text for menus – all of which sets the tone of the underworld beautifully. However, the 3d sections such as those in the valley or battles leave a little to be desired and look like something from the early Ps2 era. Trillion also suffers from some minor drops in the frame rate, which is most apparent when using major skills (mainly death skills) This doesn’t affect battle too much, but is still an annoyance. Much like most of the games visuals, the soundtrack works well in setting the tone of the Underworld and again reminds me of the Disgaea series.

In closing I have to say this game tries something a little different and cranks it up to a Trillion. While not a bad title, I can’t help but feel only the die-hard will stick with it as it is very much a one trick pony and the learning curve will see a lot of players give up in the earlier stages – if not after their first failed run.