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| Title | Trillion: God of Destruction |
| Developer | Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Preapp Partners |
| Publisher | Idea Factory International |
| Release Date | 11/7/2016 |
| Genre | Strategy Role Playing Game |
| Platform | PC Steam |
| Age Rating | ESRB T for Teen |
| Official Website | |
I am an outspoken fan of Compile Heart and Idea Factory games. So when I read that they were combining forces with the director of Disgaea 4, I was totally on board. I might even like the Disgaea games more than I like the Hyperdimension Neptunia games, which is saying a lot. But I’ve long been a huge fan of SRPGs, and Disgaea is my second favorite series in that genre. I played this game on PS Vita earlier this year, and after a quick turn around we have the game ported onto PC via Steam. With a turnaround this quick, there was obviously a plan to make it available on PC early on in development. So that business model is working out for them, but is this release worth the price?
Steve reviewed this game when it first came out on the PS Vita, so you can check out the finer details of the story and gameplay here. Mostly I’ll be focusing on how it has changed with the port. But first I’ll give you an idea what I think about the game itself, since that also makes an impact on my final review score and whether I consider it to be a value proposition. My overall thought is that I ended up wishing I didn’t know that it was two of my favorite developers combining with one of my favorite genre directors. That set my expectations a bit too high for the product that I ended up playing. This game certainly had a lot of the story elements common to a Disgaea game, but it turned out a little bit less fun than that series. The humor was there but not quite as funny, and the gameplay was strategic but not quite as deep.
But the largest issue I had with the game, other than the strategy not being the depth I’ve come to expect from SRPGs, was that the girls in the game were very compelling (and intentionally so) but they gave you every reason to not get attached. I know that there are people who specifically seek out depressing stories; there is an entire genre within manga/anime devoted to that subject, but I am definitely not one of those people. Even though Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force went more serious and tragic than Hyperdimension Neptunia, it didn’t wallow in the muck and there was much to be happy and hopeful about. In this game they do everything possible to get you attached to all these cute girls, then make you choose who you are going to kill off in horrible death scenes. It’s not gruesome visually, but it is quite maudlin. So you can either get attached and put yourself through that or just turn off your emotions towards these girls. That is not my idea of a well designed story, so this ended up being one of my least favorite of the Compile Heart/Idea Factory games. That being said, there are still some interesting mechanics, and nice music (very reminiscent of Disgaea as well) and decent art and voice work.
The first thing you should always check with a PC port is the graphics options. Because there is a wide array of machines that people want to run these games on, that is important information. Two things surprised me about those options with this game. You are seeing the sum total of the graphics options in the screenshot above, which is disappointing to say the least. But even more puzzling is what the minimum and recommended specs are for the game, which you can check out on the Steam page here. Those are some pretty beefy requirements considering this is a PS Vita game. And because there are no filter options in the settings, you will pretty much need to meet those requirements or come really close. But having the game in 1080p is very nice, when it was originally developed for the small (and oddly configured) handheld screen.
There is one disadvantage to having these CG scenes in 1080p. The artwork can look a little rough when it’s blown up beyond the scope of the small handheld screen. There is a bit of fuzziness in the art lines and shading that is not there in other Compile Heart/Idea Factory games. The CG scenes in the Neptunia games and Fairy Fencer F all look wonderful on the PC, so it’s difficult to not feel a bit disappointed in how this game looks in action. The girls are still cute, but they did look better on the PS Vita in my opinion. One way the graphics are unequivocally better, however, is in the combat scenes. Yes, as Steve said in his review, the battle scene does not really change and it can get quite boring fighting on the same field. But the UI is much less crowded and the rendering of all the creatures (and Trillion himself) are nicer on the PC.
The Device setting represents my largest complaint about this port. It is nice that you can configure your controller or your keyboard, but I definitely had some issues. For some reason the configuration would not allow me to adjust my XBox 360 controller to use the left analogue stick at all. Even though the Control remap said that the stick was for movement and the d-pad was for the camera, that never actually worked no matter how many times I tried to configure it. Even after several restarts it would never work out correctly, and I have read other comments online that tell me I’m not the only one with this issue. It’s not game breaking, but it is annoying because Microsoft makes shitty d-pads and even the PS Vita has a better one, let alone how great the PS4 d-pad is. The keyboard controls were functional, as was the mouse sensitivity, but the game was developed for a console with a controller so it ended up just feeling better to use that controller with its limitations.
My favorite addition to the game with the port is in the sound department. This game starts out with the option to have either the Japanese or English voices without charging you extra for the pleasure. I do wish more games from overseas would allow for this; they already put in the work for the other voices so I would love to have the option. And just like almost every other game from Japan, I definitely preferred playing with the Japanese voices than playing with the English ones. Not that the English dub was bad; it’s just not nearly as fun as having all those cute Japanese girl voices coming out of the mouths of all those cute anime girls. The other nice upgrade with the port is that the music definitely flowed a little better when not coming out of those tiny PS Vita speakers. And even if the music wasn’t some epic soundtrack, it was still fun, and it still sounded better.
So for the original game, I didn’t enjoy it any more than Steve did for the initial review. And for the port, if anything it was more of a slight downgrade. It’s available on Steam for $29.99 which is a tricky price. It’s not as cheap as many other Steam ports have been, but this game also was released within the same year that it came out on its original system, so I don’t really begrudge Idea Factory International for the pricing; it is fair if you really liked the original game, and I didn’t really like it all that much. It’s possible that if you read our original review and thought that you would really like that game but didn’t have a PS Vita, then this might be right up your alley. But I doubt that there will be much double dipping on this game to purchase it for both systems. It’s not a terrible game, and I’m glad that I played it; it just didn’t meet my expectations or desires. What I really want is all these wonderful girls to be part of another game that is a lot less depressing and I can spend all the time that I want with them without sending them out to their deaths.
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Review Copy Provided By Publisher
