It’s been five months since I delved into the closed beta test for The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin for my initial preview, and in that time, Netmarble has been making great strides in development of this new anime open-world action RPG. The beta offered a glimpse of what’s to come, and ahead of launch, I was able to really delve into The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin for a final preview and a full picture of what this game offers. The free-to-play RPG sector of gaming is incredibly competitive for players’ time, but I believe The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin will carve out a space for itself, especially among fans of the anime. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin takes a successful blueprint that was popularized with the release of Genshin Impact and puts a twist on it while offering the quality and experiences that anime viewers would expect from a game adaptation.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin transports players to Britannia, the same setting of the anime adaptation of Nakaba Suzuki’s successful manga series. However, the game doesn’t follow the exact events of The Seven Deadly Sins and Four Knights of the Apocalypse as one might expect from a game adaptation. Instead, players will take on the mantle of Prince Tristan of the Kingdom of Liones as he ventures forth with his fairy companion, Tioreh, to discover the source of a strange spread of corruption on the land. While investigating with Howzer, the trio begin to discover that time itself is malleable with the Book of Stars, a strange artifact that has become physically linked with Tristan. In fact, the flow of time seems to be disrupted, as characters like Hawk and Holy Knight Marmas are still present in the world. A strange scholar named Clotho also warns Tristan and the party of vague threats and dangers that lurk as they continue their journey, which builds intrigue as you play through the opening acts.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is an Open-World RPG Full of Adventure
From the get-go, I noticed that The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is more vibrant and colorful compared to its previous state in the closed beta test, and it’s a bit more optimized on top of that. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin really captures the essence of the anime series, despite the open world being a little generic in some respects. This is a character-driven action RPG that puts emphasis on adventure and discovery, and there’s a slew of optional side quests, challenges, and bosses to take on in the world. Every challenge, treasure chest, and landmark is more distinct, too, thanks to more pronounced visual effects and icons on the map. The quality of life and performance improvements made me want to explore every nook and cranny that I could so far, and I can definitely see myself spending well over 100 hours exploring and building up my team.
My overall thoughts on the action RPG combat system are relatively the same from my initial preview, but there are some improvements that I found helpful. At its core, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin follows much of the standard that anime-inspired action RPGs have set in recent years—equip up to a team of four characters with elemental affinities and switch between them at opportune moments to deal great damage on enemies. Combat is very flashy, and Ultimate Moves each have cinematic animations that really make them feel impactful. Normal Attacks deal damage and apply modifiers, and Special Attacks and Normal Skills deal bursts of damage or support party members quickly, though there’s a brief cooldown before you can use them again. Tagging between characters leads to some massive damage potential with Tag Skills, especially if timed well as a counter to a bosses’ unique attacks. The counter window was modified slightly, and there’s now a distinct blue glow around enemies and the party members you can tag in when such an opportunity presents itself. Further, characters can also link their Ultimate attacks together in cinematic style to deal extra damage.
Movement is relatively the same as it was in the closed beta. You’re able to walk, run, swim, fly, and climb to reach objectives, points of interest, chests, and other locations across Britannia. Mounts and gliders can be used to quickly navigate stretches of land, and mounts have an auto-move feature that let you traverse to a quest’s objective by letting the mount take the wheel. While exploring, you’ll get a sense of how vast the game world feels, and although some of the world design becomes second nature to the experience, there’s still some locales that are breathtaking. You’ll want to access the many waypoints across the map to teleport between key locations and level up the Book of Stars, which gives you rewards for leveling up and exploring. In addition, you can procure resources like ore and ingredients to craft items and equipment at your portable workshop or cook at a fire. As you progress the game, your World Level will also increase to reflect your overall mastery of the game, and as it increases, the rarity of loot and danger that enemies present will increase. This is really par for the course when it comes to open-world RPGs now, so there’s nothing really noteworthy when it comes to this game’s World Level implementation.
Like most free-to-play and gacha RPGs, there’s an established equipment and upgrade system that easy to get understand, so if you’ve played Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves, you’ll automatically know the deal here. Each character has dedicated weapon, gear, and accessory slots to empower them with stat bonuses, and the loot itself comes in varying rarity. It’s up to you to determine which set of armor and gear works best with your characters, and since there’s so much equipment to consider, I definitely see character build guides becoming quite useful in no time. With certain in-game materials and duplicate characters, you can also upgrade their Mastery and Potential, respectively. It’s relatively easy to earn Mastery EXP potions and the materials you need out on the field by defeating enemies and bosses, completing side quests, or opening treasure chests.
Draw or No Draw?
Unlike the closed beta test, I wasn’t treated to a boatload of characters right off the bat, but I’d say the game is still really rewarding. By regularly playing the game, exploring the world, and completing quests, you’ll earn Star Fragments, which can be traded for Star Memories—one of the currencies used for draws. You can also earn Draw Tickets to get skins, weapons, and heroes, and from what I played, you can get these tickets quite easily over time. Limited-time events will most likely give players more tickets and rewards as well, but it’s worth noting that I didn’t have any access to events while I played.
Overall, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin doesn’t stray from the expectations I had after playing the closed beta test. Star Fragments can be acquired from numerous sources, including completion of achievements and other objectives in the game, and there’s an in-game shop where you can buy bundles of Star Memories if you want to fast-track your way to getting all the heroes. Monetization isn’t intrusive to the game, and I’m sure players who don’t spend money on gacha will still be pleased with the overall experience. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is very hands-free when it comes to monetization, but you will need to draw using those aforementioned free currencies in order to have the best team possible.
A Delightful Anime Aesthetic and Presentation
Presentation-wise, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin looks impressive and stays faithful to the art of the source material for the most part. Some of the game’s original characters, such as Clotho, have a design I’d associate with some of Netmarble’s other anime-inspired offerings, such as MONGIL: STAR DIVE, for example. At first, those character designs do clash a little with Suzuki’s original designs, but I still think they’re all great. Fans of the anime will be right at home with The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, since the game has a returning cast of Japanese voice actors.
The main story’s dialogue is fully voiced with some exceptions, such as minor NPCs that aid the progression of quests, for example. There are plenty of talented voice actors that fill the roles of the game-original characters as well. When paired with the anime’s fantastical soundtrack, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin definitely feels like an extension of the anime, and there’s plenty of that tropey charm that goes along with it. You’ll notice it right away when the game opens up with Tristan and Tioreh, or when the comedic banter music plays after meeting Hawk. This is all to say that The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin does well right in as a companion piece to the anime and manga.
As I mentioned briefly, the quality of life improvements come a long way, and that extends to the UI/UX experience. The in-game HUD is more discernible now, and I immediately noticed the new and improved health bar. Status indicators for enemy health bars were also improved, and overall, I just think The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is presented more cleanly with its UI. I can see it translating well onto all sorts of display options. For this preview, I mostly played at 1080p at Very High settings to get the best picture out of the game. Although there were some improvements, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin still appears to be somewhat CPU intensive, thanks to its sprawling world.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is Shaping Up to be Worthwhile for Anime Fans
Fans of The Seven Deadly Sins will definitely have a lot of fun with The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, as it faithfully carries the aesthetic and charm of the anime and manga. The colorful open world, the compelling voice acting and cast of characters, and the action RPG mechanics are all really great, and I can also see this being a very cozy game to play thanks to its rewarding exploration elements and pleasing soundtrack. The scope of The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is still as impressive as it was in the closed beta, and I can see this being a big time sink for players who really get invested in the gameplay and story.
That being said, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is a game that mostly caters to anime fans, and gacha players who’ve played Genshin Impact will likely feel some déjà vu when it does come to gameplay and exploration due to the similarities. Since The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is free-to-play, it’s still worth trying out, and the overall consensus of the game will be clear once there’s a better picture of long-term support, which includes events and upcoming gacha banners. For now, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is looking really good for launch, and I’d love to see a Switch 2 version down the line.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is available now for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam, and the Android, iOS, and Google Play Games versions will launch on March 23. Before launch, Final Weapon had the opportunity to interview The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin executive producer Do-Hyung Koo to discuss the game’s development, the team’s initial goals, consultation with manga creator Nakaba Suzuki and more.
Disclaimer: Netmarble provided access to The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin for coverage purposes.
