SINoALICE

SINoALICE feels like a Yoko Taro game - dark stories, flawed and broken characters, gorgeous art that leans on fan service, collectible lore in the form of weapon stories. It reminds me with a gleeful vengeance that Neir, at one point, was going to be about fairy tales coming to life, and that the groundwork goes back years. Even the gatcha element doesn’t feel infuriating here - each new class, weapon, and nightmare is more lore to unlock, and the leveling system rarely leaves you feeling like a repeat draw is a bad thing. Coupled with generous amounts of in game currency and a mini game to reload stamina (and generous tickets to keep playing it) makes it worthwhile to play and keep playing. The combat, sadly, is stale, a Rock Paper Scissors affair you can auto through or glaze over. It’s the same as half a dozen other cell games before it, though guild battles offer a chance to strategize and reward careful gear selection. It doesn’t say much that there’s an auto feature to skip fights- the game seems to know that you aren’t here for that. A pity, given that the battles are the only gameplay. But it is functional and holds up the story well - a grim story about endless bloodshed suits the style. I’d easily recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Drakengard or Neir.

My initial impression of this game was outstanding. And after actually logging some hours in gameplay, I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed. From the dark fairy tale storyline, to the steampunk character designs, this game has done a fantastic job of reeling me in and keeping me entertained. While I do believe the combat itself leaves a bit to be desired, I’m not holding it against the game too much since it’s not that big a deal to me. That said, I would like to suggest a couple features that I think would be very welcome to the game. First and foremost: a world chat. The game DOES have a sort of chat group function, but it’s not really great for meeting new players. There’s also no way to invite players to the said group chat unless you have some other way to let them know first. I’d like to see some sort of World chat added in the near future to make meeting and chatting with other players more convenient. Second: follower notifications. It would be great if I was notified in some way when someone started following me. Maybe not in like an actual phone notification, but just like an in game ping to let me know so that I can follow them back. It would save players the trouble of having to check their followers list manually. Other than that, the game is incredible. The artwork is amazing, the soundtrack is beautiful, and the story is incredibly interesting. If you’re a fan of steampunk and dark fairytales, you’ll love this game!

In honesty, I was waiting for this to be global last year 2019, or what the year was really, after another long wait and me following the HYPE train.... I guess it was sort of worth the wait. I just reviewed Youtubers playing and getting prepared for this game like it’s the best game ever. No. I am happy with the game in general though, the mechanics are slower than I thought through gameplay, and to mention the fighting is not impactful, just swinging away at the enemy and going to the next section, doing the same thing, over and over and over, although, the characters are what you play for! it is meant to capture the mind of the person playing each of the characters! I love the stories of them and how GRIMM each character has been tormented in a realm NOT about fairy tails, just down right creepy eerie and scary at times.... those darn puppets, guiding you through the ark of the game, making fun of the fact that you have no idea about the game or what your doing in the first place. Game is global now and I stand by my review. Forever. And I do hope to play this game a long time, I just don’t want to lose Interest so fast since I did wait a LONG HYPED UP TO THE MAX YEAR. And I did write about me not saying BUTS!

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I love Yoko Taro and his works. They definitely shine in this game. The grim story telling is unique and intriguing. The art is high budget and beautiful looking for every character and alt class. The music is outstanding. At the start screen, you are given the suggestion to play the game with headphones and this doesn’t not fall short. The music is amazing and it adds to the feel of the game to a sublime level. But, the good stops there. I just finished my first Colosseum match and it was honestly a deal breaker. I was already struggling to enjoy the basic gameplay and mechanics of the game. They are clunky, slow, repetitive, and what seems down right disconnected. This game is asking to for a let of depth and integral character and weapon building while trying to spit on the most basic, poorly budgeted gameplay. This game is the largest split between high and low budget cost. Music, design, art, story could easily pull a 4 or 5 star rating in most games. But this horribly disconnected feel of combat is just another pathetic excuse at making a game. They should’ve just made this a text adventure game and it would’ve felt better to play. In the end, I found myself playing the Purification mode more than the actual story. I tried and it failed.

I’m really loving this game. It has a great story that has all of the Yoko Taro vibes (starting shallow, becoming deep and engrossing as you play), a decent combat system that reminds me of a real-time version of granblue fantasy, and a really solid PVP element. The latter is surprising for me because I’m not into PVP, but the combination of the game plus a really good discord and reddit community made it really fun for me. However as the title says, it’s not for everyone. The main focus of the game outside of story is the PVP, and if you are not a whale then you won’t be able to be the top if you want to go DPS. However, the game still makes you feel welcome as F2P if you go support or healing, and there are frequent nonPVP events that you can do. The main PVP function involves a daily live battle that is scheduled based on the time the guild decides, so if you’re serious about PVP, you’ll need to either find a guild that fights at a time you want, or be willing to fight late night or off-hours for you. I can also see that the battle system can turn off people, because like the live-PVP thing it’s love or hate. It’s really hard to explain what makes it click for me and not for other people honestly. Either way, it’s definitely a game you should at least try, for either or both the story and the PVP.