Trillion: God of Destruction (PS Vita) Review

Trillion: God of Destruction, based on any pictures or quick gameplay videos, looks like quite a fun game. There is a monster invading the underworld that has killed all defence forces, and the only thing remaining is to train up girls that are related to the dead-but-resurrected overlord and send them in one at a time to die, but slowly weaken the boss. The idea is pretty novel that the final boss is the first one encountered, and only through sacrificing all friends and family can it be defeated. It is awesome on paper; unfortunately, it is executed only to a mediocre level.

To understand why, despite the interesting premise, it doesn't deliver to its full level, a quick summary of the game is needed. At the beginning, the player's avatar of the overlord goes to fight Trillion and is killed. He is resurrected by a girl who wants his soul and, in return, will help him train his relatives for battle. What then occurs is picking them one at a time, training them, getting close to them, and then sending them in to die.

The actual training part is where most of the time will be spent, but this gets old pretty fast, as there is not much to do. The rogue-like element is only a small part, as there needs to be enough points accumulated before a single floor can be attempted for a few pieces of gear. This is in complete contrast to games like Guided Fate Paradox or the excellent Zettai Hero Project. Without this element, most of the game is picking menus that simulate training various things. The actual process for players is pick one of a few of exercises, which they have no control over, and, in a few seconds, a screen pops up with some experience points.

Lastly, randomly, there will be events that pop up. It might be something like, "Doctor tells you to rest more: Yes or No?" or "You catch maid eating cookie: Yell or Ignore?" and there is little indication of the correct answer beyond pure trial and error, as one nearly identical choice could have a vastly different effect. A major problem with this is it encourages resetting often to "get the right answer," and even beyond this, a single girl will likely encounter many of the same events, which only compounds when many girls have to be gone through.

Normally, these high stakes plots can be very, very well done in such visual novels like Danganronpa or the Zero Escape series, but it never reaches the level it could in this game. Given the random nature of the events, there is not that deep of a development of the girl. You do become closer to her, and there is a bit of a sadness sending her in to die, and, afterwards, there is the "I can't believe she is gone!" for a few lines, but is then rarely mentioned again, as a new girl starts at the beginning. This gives the impression that the sacrifice never really meant anything. This is really added to by the fact that the repetitive events make it feel like it literally is nothing new - just a new face to send in with which you pick "Rest" to the doctor's question over and over.

The entire attempt here was audacious and a similar game with some minor tweaks could actually be very good. If there was a more coherent plot for each of the girls, rather than purely random titbits, the player would feel each loss more. If the training part was at all fun beyond just menu-driven with the absolute thinnest veneer of a rogue-like thrown in once in a while, there would be something beyond the plot to keep going. Trillion is not bad, but by playing it, it is hard to not think how flawed it is, and how close it is to actually being really well done.