Netmarble’s The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is the next challenger in the burgeoning free-to-play open world RPG space, and with its obvious ties to Nakaba Suzuki’s The Seven Deadly Sins anime and manga series, it’s one that will have many eyes on it to judge. What does The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin offer compared to Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, and all these other games? This is the question I had going into the closed beta test, and thanks to Netmarble, I had the chance to experience The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin and what it brings to the table in its early hours.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is a character-driven action RPG that takes place in Britannia, the same setting of the anime. It’s worth noting that the game follows an original story, so it doesn’t follow the events of The Seven Deadly Sins and Four Knights of the Apocalypse to a T. Players take on the role of Prince Tristan of the Kingdom of Liones as he goes on a journey with his fairy companion, Tioreh, to restore order to Britannia, which is now being thrown into chaos when a mysterious darkness encroaches on the land. You’ll begin to notice that the flow of time isn’t right, either.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Follows the Formula
Right away, you’ll notice a very familiar action RPG combat system in The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin in the tutorial section. Each character, including Tristan, has a range of elemental abilities that can target weaknesses and make your combos more potent. I’m really enjoying the combat for how flashy it can be, especially when you start to pull some of the more powerful characters to your party, which can hold up to four characters at once. In addition, two characters can link their Ultimate attacks together in spectacular fashion to deal major damage. As fun as the combat is, there’s nothing that really makes it stand apart from other games right now, besides the Ultimate abilities.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin also has plenty of weapons and gear of varying rarity. Weapons and gear can be acquired from treasure chests and in-game events, which were abundant with rewards in the closed beta test. Each item also have corresponding stat boosts and effects, very similarly to Genshin Impact’s gear system. Since I was essentially showered in items and characters at the start of the beta, I was able to make a very potent and powerful team that was well-equipped for early World Level content.
In-game movement is very straightforward, as you can walk, run, and climb to reach points of interest, chests, and other locations across Britannia. You also get access to a glider and Hawk as a mount, so the game does well in giving you plenty of mobility options early on. This is welcomed, since the scale of The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is vast. After completing the tutorial section of the game, I immediately noticed how vibrant and otherworldly Britannia feels—a world rooted in fantasy with enemies and creatures roaming the wilds. There are tons of waypoints to discover across the map as well, serving as checkpoints you can teleport back to when you need to reach a certain area or explore. There’s an abundance of materials to use for cooking, fishing, and other activities as you explore as well.
As you progress the story, you’ll slowly gain access to more and more repeatable boss battles and dungeons, and in turn, you get more access to materials and character upgrades over time. There’s also a World Level that increases as you level up, explore the world, complete main story missions and side quests, and generally progress the game. In short, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way at all, but rather puts its own spin and leverages the IP of The Seven Deadly Sins. In this aspect, I think The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin shows effort was put into making a respectable adaptation.
The Standard Gacha Systems
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin doesn’t stray from the norm when it comes to its gacha, as characters and gear can be acquired from the in-game event banners with an in-game currency known as Star Memories. Star Memories can be acquired from numerous sources, including completion of events and achievements. It’s the standard free in-game currency that you can expect to earn as you play, and I don’t expect any real issues regarding in-game rates from the banners, either.
Once more, the closed beta test was very generous, so the experience could be different at launch. However, I don’t anticipate anyone being really short of Star Memories early on or needing to spend money at all. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is a very sound game, and its monetization is essentially relegated to the gacha banners and in-game shop, which aren’t intrusive to the main story or side content.
The Seven Deadly Sins, Through and Through
Not only does The Seven Deadly Sins have fan-favorite characters from the anime and manga, but there are a number of new and original characters that fit right in. These characters are able to do so thanks to the stellar Japanese voice cast, which is full of returning cast members and new cast members to fill the roles of the original characters. The main story missions are all fully voiced, and there’s a great soundtrack that makes The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin feel like a cohesive part of the franchise.
One problem I’ve had with some game adaptations of anime titles in recent years lies in the overall quality of the game itself, whether its from a graphical or gameplay standpoint. Thus far, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin does manage to impress in both visuals and gameplay, despite the latter being formulaic to an extent. The game’s art style is a great representation of the source material, and nothing feels out of place here. This is The Seven Deadly Sins, through and through.
Since this is the beta, the issues I did have could be remedied entirely by the time the full game launches this January. Nevertheless, I did experience some issues on PC, including stutters, frame rate dips, and some obtuse menu navigation with controllers, despite meeting the recommended system requirements. Although I was reaching over 60 FPS at 1440p, the experience wasn’t smooth, so I had to drop it down to 1080p to ensure the frame rate was as close to locked as possible.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is a Promising Competitor
Despite some of the issues I had, I can see the potential in The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin due to its intriguing main story, vibrant anime-inspired open world, great voice acting and cast of characters, and simplistic-yet-fun gameplay systems. Going back to my initial question, I think The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin stands out with its scope and quality from the start, even with the performance issues, and the game faithfully carries over the aesthetic of The Seven Deadly Sins without feeling tacked on or incomplete. Netmarble is already planning to make more optimizations by launch day, so I’m hopeful that the game move in a positive direction from launch and beyond.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin launches on January 28, 2026 for Android, iOS, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. For more insight into the game, you can read Final Weapon interview The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin executive producer Do-Hyung Koo, where we discussed the game’s development, the team’s initial goals, consultation with manga creator Nakaba Suzuki, and more.
