Thanks to Idea Factory International for the review code

Title: Trillion: God of Destruction
System: Playstation Vita/TV
Price: $39.99
Release date: 03/29/2016

The main game/story

In the realm known only as The Underworld, you take control of the Great Overlord, who barely escaped a deadly fate when the invader known as Trillion broke into the Underworld and began to cause havoc! With the help of a mysterious woman named Faust, the Great Overlord begins to train those next in line in an effort to stop Trillion once and for all! An odd mix of Strategy RPG and some minor Dating sim and Roguelike elements, Trillion is a game that’ll catch you off guard at first.

Graphics

In terms of the visuals, they are decent for the most part, considering how the majority of the game consists of menus which are colorful and also easy to navigate. During the few times you enter a battle however, the visuals look rather mediocre at best, with lazy character models, bland backgrounds and not too much when it comes to the variety of enemies. The good news is that in cutscenes the anime artstyle looks really nice, and the characters all have something that makes them stand out in terms of appearance.

Music and Sound

With most of the game taking place in menus that you’ll be switching between a lot, its not likely you’ll have much time to listen to the themes in the game. Luckily if you do manage to leave the screen still for a bit you’ll find some decent compositions that fit each of the locations well, although I personally found the cutscenes to have more memorable music. Voice Acting is another big part of the sound, with both Japanese and English Audio tracks for the characters, both of which fit the characters well with the slight edge going towards the Japanese VA cast due to them having a bit of a more serious tone compared to that of the English cast. While not every single thing is voiced in this game, there’s still a good portion that is and should help you get acquainted with the overlords you’ll be using throughout the game.

Gameplay

Normally when I review a game, I go in-depth on the gameplay of the title and analyze it to try and describe it to my readers so they can get an idea of how it felt when I played through it. Sometimes its easier to describe the gameplay than it is at other times, but in the case of Trillion…

…I literally have no idea how to explain this. Its clear right off the bat that it wants to feel like a strategy RPG of sorts, with the main goal being to power up the overlords to defeat the titular beast known as Trillion. In order to do this, your selected Overlord must train very hard every single day in order to boost their stats, as after a certain amount of “Cycles”, the rematch against Trillion will begin. Of course, it wouldn’t be fair if you only fought Trillion during the game, so at the end of every cycle Mokujin will be available for you to fight, as a training dummy of sorts, mimicking all the moves Trillion does as you lower his health down, allowing you to get an idea on what attacks are better to avoid and what moves would deal the most damage to him. Just like with Trillion, the enemy’s attacks take multiple turns to “charge”, allowing for you to move around to a safe spot in order to minimize the damage. With no major penalty for losing, this is a great way to train your character, but since it happens at the end of every cycle, it can feel a bit repetitive after a while, especially if you happen to do nothing of importance during a cycle. Luckily there’s the option to retreat, which in the Trillion battles is crucial to preventing the overlord from suffering permadeath, which will cause you to have to select a new one with some of the traits carried over.

Essentially, the game comes down to having a cycle all of its own, which is pretty much train stats, practice Mokujin, repeat a few times, fight Trillion, lose or retreat, and repeat until Trillion changes form or is defeated entirely. Not too long after starting this game I got sick and tired of doing the same things over and over, which is what made me try out some of the other things that can improve your overlord, options that I feel arguably make the game somewhat more fun. For one thing, doing well during the training sessions get you medals that can be used to play a roguelike mode called The Valley of Swords, a fun mode that allows you to get treasure and other items by making every step you take count and finding a safe route to the exit. Items found here can be used to improve your characters equipment or to buy items, and the EXP gained can be pooled into upgrading certain stats or gaining new skills to perform in battle.

During the course of training, you’ll occasionally get to talk to one of the other characters, learning a bit more about the backstory behind the Overlords along with other interesting plot points. The occasional conversation with the Great Overlord or the offering of gifts to your character will increase the amount of Affection Points that character has, which are in a way bonus health points and a necessity for retreating from the Trillion Battles. If you do end up falling to the powerful boss, however you can unleash a last-minute death skill that will give you a bit of an advantage for the next overlord in training, either by weakening Trillion or allowing you to train longer with the new character. And then repeat until the game is done or if you mess up a lot. The main goal of the game seems to be finding ways to defeat Trillion more quickly without losing any Overlords, but considering how I lost interest after just a lot of time spent going through menus and training, I honestly don’t know how anyone could tolerate doing the same actions for so long.

Conclusion

In the end, Trillion has a cool concept going for it: Defeating a Super Boss enemy as fast as possible while facing his overwhelming power from the very beginning. It seems like a no brainer idea for a challenging strategy game! Unfortunately, just going through the same motions each and every single day felt like a chore in itself, and after a while I just lost interest and couldn’t get the motivation to really go anywhere. With so much training yet not too much gameplay to spend the training on outside of Mokujin or the Valley of Swords, Trillion is a game that WILL test your patience to its limits, and if you’re willing to stick around, you’ll find a game that certainly keeps its promise of an engaging strategy game. For anyone else hoping for a more fulfilling experience that isn’t too repetitive, however then I just can’t recommend this game much at all. I give Trillion: God of Destruction a 4 out of 10, and only recommend it to those with incredible patience and for those who don’t mind the incredibly repetitive nature of this title. Tread cautiously on this one.