Review: The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, a new anime action RPG based on The Seven Deadly Sins anime, launched on Steam recently (technically, ahead of the official global launch slated for March 23). Those who have been keeping a close eye on the game, or are fans of the IP, have likely formed their opinions on it by now, but with as many games as there are releasing on a regular basis, there’s a pretty good bet some of you haven’t gotten around to checking it out. So here we are with a small look at the free-to-play gacha game.

Before we start, I’ll admit, I haven’t read manga or watched the show, so the universe is completely new to me. I played through the game’s first chapter, which means I didn’t get to see any of the endgame content. But my goal was just to see if the game was worth spending time in in the first place. After all, you have to get past the initial gameplay to get to all that stuff. (Note that with the exception of the top image, everything else in this article is screenshots from a pre-release version of the game, and some things may differ.)

In general terms, the game offers what you’d expect from an action-adventure offering. It starts out with the main character(s), Prince Tristan of Liones and Tioreh, a fairy, doing some exploring. It doesn’t take long for the two to get into trouble and stumble across a big mystery, only to find out that something much bigger and scarier is happening.

They decide to investigate and eventually report back to Tristan’s kingdom, where they relay what happened to them and the discovery of a mysterious artifact unwilling to leave Tristan’s possession. There’s a bit of debate about what should happen next, and eventually the kids are allowed to set off on an adventure, with the supervision of an adult and the shape-shifting pig Hawk. This is a gacha game, so of course, there’s a somewhat less-than-human mascot companion.

The world’s visual design is nice. Liones really feels like a medieval city, and the area around it is fun to explore, and navigating it isn’t bad. In fact, in some ways, it’s easier than some other open-world gacha games. Yes, there are the standards, running around, or gliding. But the game also offers players the ability to tame creatures and use them in various ways, including as ground-based and flight-based mounts. And, in some cases, players can just rent a mount that will take them where they need to go. I’m not sure if this is something that’s story-specific yet. But even if it is, it makes pushing the quest forward easier.

While out exploring, I noticed that mobs respawn almost immediately after being eliminated. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the type of player you are. Personally, I prefer for them to stay gone for a bit so I can explore the area without having to stop to fight as frequently. But, having them respawn quickly does make collecting drops easier.

As for dungeons and bosses, once I got far enough along in the first chapter, some of those did unlock. The ones I attempted are accessed via the game’s menu. I have to admit that the descriptions feel a bit backwards to me. The one labeled “dungeon” sends you straight into a room where you fight a boss, whereas the one labeled “boss” takes you to a dungeon-like environment with mobs that you can explore before making your way to the boss. Either way, make sure you have your characters as well-equipped as possible when you go in. It would probably be unwise to only build up a portion of your team because they all share the same health bar.

Combat-wise, things should be pretty familiar to anyone who plays this type of game. Players build a team of four characters, either given to them through the game or unlocked via the game’s gacha system. As always, if you’re given a character through the game’s narrative, you’ll still be rolling to get additional versions of them to aid in making them stronger. That is, unless you’re like me and acquire characters based on vibes.

In combat, you’ll have one character out at a time and swap between them, doing your best to make use of their different abilities to achieve victory. But, as I noted before, the team’s health is shared. So, you can’t simply swap to one character when another’s health gets low and brute force the whole thing. This is another one of those things that can be good or bad depending on the type of player you are.

Obviously, there’s probably a good bit I haven’t covered here, such as the gacha mechanics. Honestly, as I was playing before the game launched on Steam, I really didn’t play with that too much. I rolled enough to add a character to my team, and that was it.

That aside, the game’s experience wasn’t bad. I didn’t immediately want to bail and enjoyed the overall world and what the story seemed to be building. There’s a lot to explore. The combat was more or less normal, so that was fine. However, I don’t really see myself adding it to my collection of games.

At this point, I have enough games in my rotation that adding another requires some consideration. While everything else was decent enough, including the puzzles and other exploration bits I ran into, the fact is that I’m just not overly fond of the characters that were presented to me at the start. That is, of course, a personal issue. But it’s enough for me to put the game on a back burner. But, for those who are fond of the IP and want to know what comes next, it’s worth a try. You can decide from there.