Trillion: God of Destruction (Makai Shin Trillion) is a brand new JRPG from the lovely minds over at Idea Factory (The same guys who brought us the Megadimension Neptunia games), poised as a new IP, fusing tactical strategy gameplay from games like Final Fantasy: Tactics and Fire Emblem with exploration elements from a title like Etrian Mystery Dungeon; as the name suggests, the majority of stats in the game, such as health and damage, are calculated in gigantic figures often ranging from millions to trillions of points of damage – It’s a bit odd after playing games like Final Fantasy XIII or Dragon Quest, where stats are a bit more calm and restrained.

Set in the bowels of Hell itself (Or the Underworld, as the game defines it as), the player must fight their way through the six levels of Hell, being the Gates of Hell, Arctic Ridge, Inferno Peak, Despair Fields, Arcane Forest and Great Overlord’s Castle, respectively – This is a bit of a twist from the original depiction of Hell in the readings of Dante’s Inferno, with the Seven Circles of Hell, and threw me off with this bizarre, original take on Hell itself!

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The aim of the game is similar to a game like Soul Sacrifice, where the Final Boss and main antagonist, Trillion, is always fightable, however it’s only after completing the majority of side quests, battles and bosses that you even stand a chance against the titanically huge Overlord…And yes. He does have 1,000,000,000,000HP to knock off. Yep. Literally one trillion HP. It’s certainly no easy feat, and the marketing for this game has heavily shown off just how difficult it’ll be to beat this ridiculous monster. Trillion aims to reach the Great Overlord’s Castle, the Underworld’s Core…And who knows what’ll happen if he reaches it…?

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Now it should be noted, yes, this game is one of ‘those’ games – One where you can romance and betroth one of the many minions and companions under your command (Which are all cutesy anime girls) in order to build up Affinity Points, points that act as a shield to prevent monsters, and more important Trillion, from damaging your Overlords (Comrades) – These moments decide which ending you receive, and can help to bring back a fallen Overlord from death whilst you’re in a fight…And yes, like other games like this, you can unlock ‘raunchy scenes’, such as bath scenes, hotspring scenes…Etcetera.

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This is where my thoughts of the game begin to fall; whilst the core gameplay is good, you are limited as to the amount of time you have to complete the game in a similar way to Dead Rising – This is one thing that I really, REALLY do hate in games, as it focuses you more on grinding and never progressing, especially given the enormous power gap between the main antagonist and our heroes; I know that games like the Persona franchise get away with this, but at the very least the game scales with you and doesn’t stress you to finish in an extremely tight schedule (Unless you’re doing a full Social Link run).

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The gameplay too is very hit and miss, with its’ Mystery Dungeon style gameplay, whenever you move, your opponents move – This can be overwhelming in many situations with multiple enemies, since you can’t effectively plan out your attacks and movements like in games like Final Fantasy Tactics; this wouldn’t be such a gripe if it wasn’t for bosses like Trillion spawning enemies around you, whilst they bombard you with long range attacks whenever you try to move – It’s certainly a bit unfair, to say the least.

One thing that can be commended, however, is the visual style and the story; the game looks brilliant, with bright, flashy effects and attacks, densely decorated environments and menus and interesting enemy designs, Trillion does try it’s best to keep you on your toes with visual curveballs – The characters too are a charm to be around, each with unique (Although a bit cliche) personalities, quirks and social types, there are definitley a lot of variety to choose from! With branching dialogue paths similar to, say, BlazBlue for instance, exploring conversations can be a treat, and can open up some…Interesting situations.

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Overall, Trillion: God of Destruction is an interesting take on Hell, with addicting gameplay, good characters, great voice acting and interesting world, but is unfortunately shackled down by a bad mix of difficulty, sound design, limited completion time and over-focus on grinding bring this game straight down to the Seventh Circle.

I would rate Trillion: God of Destruction, a 7/10, with a recommendation to wait till it goes on sale before you rush out to get it.