Now that Makai Shin Trillion has just launched in Japan, we’ve gotten a hold of the opinions from 3 different writers and reviewers on the Dengeki staff who have played the game. (via Dengeki Online)

Reviewer 1

I love strange games and games with unorthodox play-styles so when playing Trillion I ignored my instincts and focused on just the heroines (demon lords) while playing.

“Compile Heart made me kill the cute girls, I cannot forgive this!”

Fighting Trillion is the main objective of the game but it also features lots of cute girls so it’s natural for guys to expect that there will be bishojo visual novel style events as well. With that being said, I liked the character Mammon who’s very candid and straightforward, so I went with her from the start.

As I interacted with her and gave her presents I was able to see her sweet side which made me love her even more. There are other characters besides Mammon who were also really cute and stood out but after favoring her and raising her up I got really attached.

I really liked Mammon and wanted to skip out of training her up, and of course I didn’t want to let her die so I took it easy on her for a while until it came time to fight with Trillion. I tried to beat him the first time which of course would prove to be impossible.

Mammon died and I watched her event play out like a revolving lantern. One would think I’d cry instinctively over such a sad scene and I did, I cried a lot. Maybe it’s Compile Heart who are the real demons…

Not wanting any of the characters to fight got me really dejected but then I learned that if you max out a character’s friendship level they can be resurrected one time. So in the name of love, I chose my next demon lord and while Mammon was on her way to the netherworld, Revia was also pretty cute!

She doesn’t really seem the brave type though and I can’t even pick one character to send to the slaughter. Trying to defeat Trillion is looking hopeless and I’ve only managed to chip away about 100,000,000 of his HP by this point. I’m sorry the game is fun but I had to lower the score because watching each girl die was way too sad. Ahh my dear Revia died too!!

Reviewer 2

I have an extreme fondness of RPGs and am going to touch upon central parts of the system the others didn’t.

“Train! Fight! Love!?”

The game Trillion consists of two parts, the first is the “dormant phase” where you select a single demon lord out of many and train her up while the monster Trillion sleeps. The second part is the “attack phase” where you go up against Trillion itself.

The basics of the “dormant phase” consists of raising up your demon lord by training her, but there are also event scenes where you can interact with other demon lords as well.

During training you’ll receive gacha medals (lottery tokens) which you can exchange for items and then give to your demon lord. This will cause your friendship level with her to rise, which will change certain events and give you different endings, so be sure not to ignore this aspect of the game.

When it comes to the “attack phase,” a good way of imagining it is as a roguelike, where once you move the enemy does as well. Trillion’s attacks will be telegraphed in advance so the basic idea is to continue attacking while dodging.

I thought, “Hey, I can see his attacks coming so this will be easy!” when in reality a single attack is so powerful that one mistake can send you packing, so the battles were plenty tense.

One would think that they’d just beat Trillion on the first go out but of course the truth is it won’t be that easy. You’ll have to repeat both phases many times which also means you’ll be sending many demon lords to their deaths.

It would be nice if the game had a bunch of filler characters I didn’t care about so I can use them at the beginning and not care what happens, then select a main character to finish the game with, but to be honest they’re all really well developed. There were so many cute demon lords that would make me cry when it came time to part.

Watching the death of so many characters I really grew attached to really made me want to defeat Trillion as fast as I could. When I started I didn’t think this would be the kind of game which you grew such a strong attachment to the characters. I know I’ve written a lot already but even if there’s one demon lord you like or just like character training games in general then I definitely recommend playing this!

Reviewer 3

This reviewer enjoys baseball games where you can train up individual players and gives an overview the appeal of the characters and story.

“Becoming troubled over a difficult selection is fun!”

This game goes full speed right from the opening! It starts with the character Astaroth being defeated by Trillion and entrusting the demon realm and his daughters to you. Then just as Zeabaroth, the protagonist, is about to be killed you are suddenly pulled out to a view of the demon realm.

Furthermore you’re shown Trillion’s true power by way of a miasma that emanates from him in addition to an attack that’s said to kill in one hit. The opening finishes by setting the stage for where the final showdown with Trillion will take place.

At the beginning there are only three demon lords for you to chose from but even then I was at a loss from who to pick. I thought to myself that since it’s the beginning of the game I should pick the one I like the least, but the game does a good job of introducing the characters so I found it to be incredibly hard to chose!

Once selecting a character you’re thrust into an event that tells you more about the character and kinda pulls at the heartstrings! After watching the scene I’d start to regret my decision as I didn’t want something bad to happen to such a good character.

I realized though that it didn’t matter who I chose, I would end up feeling the same about any of the other characters. I ultimately understood that I would need to put their life on the line so I used that as motivation to train them to be stronger.

Training consists of selecting commands and receiving experience points, thus raising up your abilities. It’s pretty easy to tell how much your character has grown but if you want to test your skills your can go up against a mock-up version of Trillion made out of wood!

Going up against Trillion is when you will finally be able to see the fruits of your efforts. I gathered up my confidence and sent my demon lord to fight Trillion as hard as she could, even then she only barely chipped away at its health. I was at a loss for words. I even had trouble choosing which death skill to activate when it came time. I’ve never had so much trouble in a game before…

But that’s the proof how attached I became to the characters. I think that’s why becoming troubled over selections is related to how fun and interesting the game is.

As someone that really understands the appeal of a training style game, I can recognize that there being a game that can really tug on your heart is exceedingly rare.

If there was one part of this game that I would have no doubt raising up above the others it would be the fact that I’m going to buy it myself when it comes out!