Early this year, I had planned out some pre-orders for the first half of the year. I had a good idea of what games I wanted to pre-order and put them in, but then I saw a game called "Trillion: God of Destruction" and saw that it was developed by Compile Heart and published by Idea Factory. I seem to gravitate to a lot of the games that have these two companies involved ever since I got Hyperdimension Neptunia. Having a bit of faith in the names of those two companies, I went ahead and pre-ordered Trillion: God of Destruction as well. I did a little bit of research and saw that it was a Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler. I was busy with other games when it released and didn't quite get to play it right away. A month or two after its release, it dropped down to $15 from its original $40 (I got it for $32). I was upset that I paid so much for it when I could have gotten it for a lot less. It was around that time that I decided to start it up and play it. Then I found out that it wasn't a Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler. It only made up a very tiny portion of the game and was its mean of participating in combat.
Trillion: God of Destruction is a Simulation game that mixes elements of management simulation, visual novels, dating simulation, and Rogue-like dungeon crawlers where you ultimately have to take down a monster with a Trillion HP. The plot of the game is that a monster arrives at the gate of hell and starts eating and destroying the underworld. The great overlord of the underworld faces the monster when he hears that his brother's counter-attack had failed. The great overlord also fails to thwart the rampaging monster and meets his demise as well. He then hears a girl's voice calling out to him and offered to save his life if he were to agree to fighting the monster once again and to relinquish his own soul after it is defeated to the girl. He awakens to a patched up, almost zombie-like appearance, version of himself and is to agree that he uses his ability to train each an overlord to fight in his stead using his power. This is where the roller coaster of emotions begins.
The game caught me off-guard on so many different levels that it became one of the more memorable games I played this year. First, I got the genre wrong, then I realized the games doesn't play the way I thought it would (I thought I could choose any character and train them all together, but you don't since you can only train one at a time), and it completely blindsided me when it mentioned "hey, the overlord you're training will probably die". They don't mention this until after you've picked a character and started training them already. In the beginning, you have the choice between 3 of the overlords. I'll be mostly talking about all the characters and overlords. So I started off the game choosing Perpell (the one in orange) because she was incredibly cute. As you choose the overlord's training regiments, you'll also spend time with them, give them gifts, and run into certain events that could reward you, add more to the story, or curse/injure your overlord. For the most part, the game is bright, colorful, light-hearted and funny. But it keeps going back to the theme of despair and absolute hopelessness. I was already informed that the overlord will die if they do no successfully take down Trillion at the beginning of the game, but I had no idea how they would present a character's death. I was expecting a quick and silly "oh, they died" sort of event to occur, but that was not the case.
Characters:
Zeabolos - He's the main character and the Great Overlord that everyone seems to adore. The player assumes the role of Zeabolos and finds that for a leader of the underworld, he is kind-hearted, loyal, and empathetic. You can't help but understand why all the female characters seem to hold affection for him and all his subjects are so loyal and respect him. I really liked him as a character, though as generic as he may be. His comedic reactions in contrast to his more serious attitude was likable.
Faust - I didn't get to play her. You have to do some specific things throughout the game in order to play 3 of the other characters other than the 6 overlords and I didn't want to play the game anymore. Faust is the girl that saves Zeabolos' life and asks for his soul in return after Trillion, the monster attacking the underworld, is destroyed. She has a serious and logical personality that evokes little to no emotion, which often times rub the other characters the wrong way. She's mysterious and has seemingly shady motives throughout the game. It isn't until you get near the end of the true ending that you realize who she is what she's after. She's the daughter of a great overlord of the underworld from another dimension that was destroyed by Trillion and wishes to use Zeabolos' soul to revive her father and restore her dimension and underworld. If you defeat Trillion with Faust, you get her ending in which she refuses to take Zeabolos' soul as she had fallen in love with him from the time they spent together. She then marries Zeabolos and stays with him in his dimension and world.
Perpell - The overlord of gluttony. She's the adorable niece of Zeabolos and daughter of Zeabolos' brother, Astaroth. She's quite child-like and is often seen or heard eating sweets. When Zeabolos' offered the throne of the great overlord to whichever overlord defeats Trillion, Perpell wanted to become the Great Overlord and filled the castle with sweets. She's honest, innocent, and cheerful which easily makes her the most amiable characters in the game. Zeabolos' does his best to be a father figure to Perpell after he makes a promise to his brother in his dying breath that he'd take care of his two daughters. That's why it was the most hardest death to get over when it happened. Perpell was the first overlord I trained and sent out and I had a fatherly attachment to her where I just wanted her to succeed. When Trillion kills an overlord, it does it slowly and you hear the overlord crying out in pain and expressing unfulfilled wishes and regret. I was devastated when Perpell died and wasn't sure if I wanted to continue playing the game. It definitely made me cry. But I was thinking I wouldn't like any of the characters as much as her and decided to continue.
Mammon - The overlord of greed. She's a treasure hunter that likes to track down valuables and pawn them off. She expressed her wish of being the great overlord so she would have access to the royal vaults. I nicknamed her "underboob-girl" just thought of her as the tomboyish thief that did things her way and muscled through everything rather than thinking. But then you learn that she takes all the money she earns from treasure hunting and uses it to better the lives of those in the slums where she was born and raised until she was adopted. She has a difficult time expressing herself and eventually claims that Zeabolos "will belong to her" when she becomes great overlord. I then sensed the pattern within the game: it makes you interact, learn and become attached to a character and then have them die if you fail to kill Trillion. You not only invest time into each of the overlords but emotional investment as well. This made for a good story and character investment, but a cruel ride for your heart.
Levia - The overlord of envy. I really liked Levia, but I knew I would. She's voiced by Imai Asami, who voices Noire (my favorite character from Hyperdimension Neptunia), has a tsundere personality, is the prettiest character out of the 6 overlords. She denies her emotions often, but makes it fairly apparently for the player that she really likes Zeabolos. They're childhood friends and so there is much that the two characters understand of each other. I don't recall what she exactly wanted as great overlord, only that she could be near Zeavolos.
Ashmedia - The overlord of lust. I honestly thought I wouldn't like her very much as the "giant-boobed, 'I love sex'" archetypes are generally my least favorite of characters. She constantly talks about delivering pain to others and enjoy hearing the screams of agony from her victims. She flirts with Zeabolos a lot and makes lewd remarks that causes him to fluster. But then you get into an event where Zeabolos finds Ashmedia more docile when she's usually the domineering one. Zeabolos takes up on Ashmedia's suggestion to "sleep" with her and teases her until she nervously admits that she's "never done this before". Zeabolos is taken aback by this remark and realized Ashmedia is not who everyone thinks she is. Ashmedia then says something along the lines of "the more outgoing and open a girl seems, the more wholesome and pure they actually are". It was just so funny and cute how scared and nervous she looked. She was a girl that was misunderstood and everyone projected their ideas of who she was and she just went with it.
Ruche - The overlord of pride. She's a complicated character. She goes a bit beyond being tsundere. She is the niece of Zeabolos, the older sister of Perpell, and the daughter of Astaroth. She has the princess complex and looks down on everyone, especially Zeabolos. But there are a great number of times where she subtly expresses concern, kindness, and empathy while still trying to hold up a strong front. She's proud of her own abilities and expects a lot from herself and those around her. But she's not very honest about her feelings and it leaves a lot of confusion for everyone. She'll often scold Zeabolos for being dense and foolish, yet always reminds him that he's the great overlord and should act like it because she believes in him. She doesn't like being treated like a child and often hints that she actually has feelings for Zeabolos despite being related. She claims that she'll take the title of great overlord and become the greatest leader the underworld has ever known and would be sure to have Zeabolos bow to her abilities. When you fight Trillion with her, you will have to fight a reanimated version of her father who became a messenger for Trillion. When you defeat him, she repeated bashes the body and yells at how it wouldn't die and let her father's spirit rest in piece. When the body finally ceases to move, she breaks down and reveals the broken sad girl that she had held in throughout the game. It was a very emotional moment and felt so bad for her. To be in such an awful situation where she loses her father, then her little sister, then having to fight an abomination of what used to be her father and then having to fight a monster that threatens to destroy her home world, how could I not feel bad for her. If you get her ending, she drags Zeabolos along to help save Faust's father and home dimension rather than having him give up his soul. Years pass and she's shown to be grown up and looking more like an adult. She still expresses her concern of other girls taking Zeabolos away which still hints at her having affection for Zeabolos.
Fegor - The overlord of sloth. The older sister of Zeabolos sleeps throughout the game. She'll be asleep in the middle of the road, in the garden, under the library table, everywhere. But if it gets to the point where she has to train and fight, they start explaining that she is actually incredibly powerful and was once on the front of the war that took place between heaven and the underworld. I didn't think much of her, but she's actually a pretty cute character. She has a certain charm to her. If you get her ending, she just continues to sleep. She also has Zeabolos give her a kiss on the mouth.
Cerberus - Once a fearsome dog-like guardian, Cerberus was turned into a tiny little puppy due to the miasma that Trillion exuded. Towards the path of the true ending, Cerberus is a playable character that fights Trillion. If you get his ending, Zeabolos blows up and becomes a ghost that advises for Cerberus. I didn't get to see any gameplay or events besides the ending for him, so nothing much to say.
Elma - The sickly, younger sister of Zeabolos is a playable character towards the path of the true ending. She takes on the role of an overlord and fights Trillion, of which the power from the ring that each overlord wears that connects to Zeabolos' power cured her of all her illnesses. For her ending, she becomes the great overlord and is said to be an incredible worker on domestic matters. She then expresses her feelings that she has always wanted to be Zeabolos' bride. WHAT?! I honestly didn't see that coming at all. But then she goes on to say that "she'll be happy whoever Zeabolos marries as long as he continues to praise her".
True Ending - Everyone has to die and you have to do very specific things. That is when all the power accumulated from all the overlords flow into Zeabolos where he regains power once again to thwart Trillion once and for all. After defeating Trillion, everyone is suddenly revived and each of them sacrifices a small portion of their souls instead of having Zeabolos give his entire soul to Faust. Everything goes back to normal, and yet everyone is a bit happier, healthier, and stronger.
Which ending did I get? None of them. I played through what I could and couldn't beat Trillion and didn't want to start over with a method I knew I could win with, but I simply did not want to invest anymore time into the game. I spent at least 30-40+ hours on the game without actually finishing it. I mainly wanted to get to know all the characters as best as I could. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and thought the writing for the game was great. The voice acting (for Japanese at least) was incredible and really brought out the personality of each character and their emotions beyond anything the graphics were doing. Gameplay wise, it's rather tedious and monotonous just to get to events and to the actual fights. I laughed a lot, cried a lot, and had some fun fights. I really enjoyed the game for what it was and thought it was quite unique, but it's not a game I could easily recommend due to its difficulty and tedious gameplay. But if you're still interested and don't have a PS Vita, the game is releasing this upcoming Monday on Steam/PC.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/451780/
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Nintendo Switch Revealed
Copy-pasted from what I posted on Facebook:
Summing up how I feel about the Nintendo Switch: “Worried,
but hopeful.” It doesn’t quite do
anything new and innovative that we haven’t really seen before. I think this was ultimately what Nintendo
wanted to do with the Wii
U.
Nintendo finally revealed their new system. The system is a home console/portable system
hybrid where you can play games on the TV like a traditional console and take
it along with you like a portable system. Here's a break-down of my thoughts on
the reveal.
Positive/Excited Opinions:
-Name: I don't particularly like the name, but I think it'll
catch on. At the very least it's straight-forward (much like the N64 being a
64-bit console, the Gamecube was cube shaped). The Wii U name caused confusion
and grief for marketing.
-Portable Console Quality: This might be the first time a
portable system has the exact quality of a console (I haven’t played with the
nVidia Shield so I’m not sure if that counts).
-Company Focus: Having to focus on one system that supports
both home console play and portable gaming on the go gives fans hope that 1st/2nd/3rd
party support will ensure a large library of games will be available for the
system (something that the Wii U sadly lacked).
-Easy LAN parties: Games like Splatoon are generally played
online, but the way it’s previewed they could potentially allow you to connect
several systems together (much like the 3DS does for local multiplayer) for an
easy setup for a LAN party.
-Cartridge-based: I hope this means faster loading for
everything. The one thing that has
bugged me to no end since the introduction of the Sony Playstation is that
Disc-based games take so long to load everything.
Negative/Concerned Opinions:
-Controllers: At a glance, the switchable controller looks
ugly, uncomfortable, and delicate. The
Wii U gamepad and Pro controller were also uncomfortable, but I eventually
adjusted to them, so it might be okay. My
main concern stems from its main functionality to detach from the controller
and onto the portable screen and back: will it wear out quickly? Is it sturdy enough? Will it hold the portable screen securely? Using the mini-controllers also looks
uncomfortable. That dedicated home controller
looks particularly ugly (it makes the Wii U pro controller look amazing). Ugh, I hope these are prototypes…
-Portable screen: When I had the original B&W Gameboy
and Gameboy Color, one of the problems I ran into was that the screen was
unprotected. It would get dirty, oily,
or scratched. But ever since the Gameboy
Advance SP, the clamshell design has protected the screen and buttons while
keeping the device portable. It’s cool
that the Nintendo Switch will have a large screen to play on, but now there isn’t
an implemented method of protecting the screen and it won’t easily fit my
pocket anymore because of the protruding joysticks. These were probably ignored due to conforming
to our tablet culture (the Wii U was half way there, and now it’s all the way
there).
-Battery life: The portable
screen looks small, but it has to be strong enough to run a console quality
game on it. How long would a battery
hold out before it knocks out?
-Exclusive support: It’s great to see that games like Skyrim
and the NBA2K series being supported, but I hope it’s not ONLY going to be
multi-platform game support. The Wii U
tried to regain its core gamer audience that it lost during the Wii Era by
bringing a lot of multi-platform support. The problem is that a lot of people playing
those games will already have another console that plays those games and won’t
go out of their way to pick up the version for the Nintendo console. Games like Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X
and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE really set it apart from other consoles and was a
great addition to the library of games available, but it wasn’t nearly enough
for Wii U. The Nintendo Switch needs a
lot more games like those and I’m hoping that a lot of developers are willing
to create a tons of games fans are craving specifically for the system now that
they only have to focus on one system rather than 2.
-Audio: The Nintendo DS and 3DS finally had stereo audio for
the portable system! From what I can
tell in the preview video, the audio might come out from those holes on the top
of the screen. Does this mean it’s going
back to mono? I hope not! At least there’s still a headphone jack.
Overall, I’m not THAT excited since it doesn’t really seem
to bring anything new to the industry that the Wii, DS, Wii U, and 3DS did;
however, I am hopeful that we’ll get a lot more games for the Nintendo console
this time around. Despite the public
complaints about the last generation of Nintendo systems and its seemingly poor
sales, I really enjoy playing my Wii U and I absolutely love my 3DS which
currently holds a ridiculous backlog of 20 games on it. I wish Nintendo the best and hope they’ll
continue to provide innovative and entertaining games for many more generations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)