| The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Overview
What is The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin?
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is an action-adventure RPG that follows Tristan of Liones, a young prince and aspiring adventurer exploring the Kingdom of Britannia. After acquiring the Book of Stars, he becomes entangled in a multiversal crisis that threatens his very reality. As mysterious powers awaken within him, Tristan embarks on a journey with his trusted allies through forgotten ruins, time-shifting battles, and world-altering events in order to save his land.
Players will be able to explore the reimagined open world of Britannia, discovering hidden dungeons, unearthing treasures scattered around the world, and even partaking in more leisurely activities like fishing and cooking.
Real-time combat is an integral part of the game, with formidable enemies to conquer and a diverse roster of heroes to build a team with. Each character possesses their own unique abilities, allowing for mixing and matching heroes for devastating combos. Aside from an all-new cast of original characters, The Seven Deadly Sins fans will be pleased to know that fan-favorite characters across the series will also be part of the game.
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin’s gameplay and story.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin features:
⚫︎ An Open-World Britannia
⚫︎ New, All-Original Story
⚫︎ Familiar Cast of Characters
⚫︎ Full Voice Acting
⚫︎ Multiplayer Modes
| Digital Storefronts | |||
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 Steam |
 PSN |
 Google Play |
 App Store |
| Free-to-play | |||
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Review: Subtitle
The Seven Deadly Sins’ Comeback
The Seven Deadly Sins was one of the most popular anime of the 2020s, especially during a time when everyone was cooped up in their homes due to the widespread pandemic. I vividly remember that it was everywhere on social media, especially when it ended—god, I’ve been spoiled everywhere I look. And it’s made its mark, garnering a sizable audience, up until now. Their main story may have already ended with the anime and the manga’s conclusion, but the series continues to live on through this new open-world action anime RPG, even years later.
So here we are, diving right into The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin (for short, TSDS:O, or also known as NanaOri, a shorthand for the series’ Japanese name and Origin).
Britannia, Reimagined
Set in Britannia, the series’ original setting, you step into the boots of the young prince of Liones, Tristan. While out adventuring with his friend and companion Tioreh, they stumble upon a strange artifact in a cavern. On their way back to the Liones castle, strange phenomena begin to scatter throughout the land. Menacing-looking black buds that turn the earth under them black, long-dead species and heroes coming back to life, entire bodies of water disappearing like air, aggravated monsters and animals…the land is in turmoil, and all of it appears to be connected to that very artifact that has affixed itself to Tristan.
Thus, it is up to him and his allies to get to the bottom of the sudden disorder flooding their realm, which seems to be in pandemonium caused by the very collision of time and space. Moreover, it is apparent that Tristan himself is the central key to all of what is happening.
That’s basically the beginning premise of the game—pretty straightforward, sounds about right for an IP like The Seven Deadly Sins. The prince stepping in to save his kingdom from further destruction; it’s a narrative that never really gets old. It’s a decent premise and is paced well without being too overwhelming. The writing isn’t incredibly outstanding; it's oftentimes quite predictable, but it’s serviceable.
Better yet, you don’t really feel the need to brush up on your knowledge of the series’ original timeline since the game features an original story. There are a few things understood better if you know what transpired, but it’s not a necessity, and you can easily distinguish things using context clues.
Tons of Exploration, Tons of Combat
Similar to open-world action RPG titles such as Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, and Arknights: Endfield, players, as Tristan and his crew of allies, travel across the vast open world of Britannia, exploring, accomplishing quests, and taking down foes with real-time action combat.
Exploration covers a myriad of activities to do, such as cooking, mining, fishing, crafting, and solving dozens of environmental puzzles to unlock more secrets within, while also having the ability to climb, glide, fly, and even swim into the depths. There’s even a bit of a monster-capturing mechanic, which allows you to befriend pets found across the world and have them as capable allies, taking you across the land, the sea, or the sky, or just to have as a cute companion.
Combat, on the other hand, unfolds in fast-paced, real-time battles. Each character has their own weapon preference and elemental affinity, with a unique set of three skills each—a Normal Skill, a Special Attack, and the Ultimate Attack. In battle, you make proper use of these skills along with combo attacks called Tag Skills that allow another character to be swapped into battle with a devastating attack that can stun when properly executed. To get more units, they are acquired through pulling on gacha banners.
The game’s controls are pretty decent for the most part, although it doesn’t feel as snappy as its contemporaries, especially in the field of battle. Attacks feel like they lag a bit behind your button presses, and some combat mechanics, particularly the Tag Points and how to get them, aren’t explained as properly as it should be. It took me quite some time to find out where the Tag Points are on screen because the game doesn’t explicitly show you, not even in the tutorial. (For reference, it’s these three diamond-shaped bars on the left side of the health bar.) Nevertheless, it’s pretty fun for what it is, and I greatly enjoy the flashy animations and ultimates of the characters.
Outside of combat, general gameplay is easy to understand, although there are a few issues in execution. Controls follow through, and the overall UI is pretty easy to understand. Gathering resources out in the wild is easy with a "claim all" option for multiple items, and they are generously highlighted by default so you won’t miss them. The puzzles are simple enough to understand, although that may be because it's still the beginning—I’m looking forward to more environmental puzzles to sink my hands into. However, as much as the foundations are solid, there’s another thing that kind of dampens the experience by a bit.
Decent Visuals, Could Use Some Optimization
For starters, the overall visuals are decent, to say the least. The cell-shaded art style seems to take a big page from the anime, which brings in a sense of familiarity with those who watched it. It’s vivid and bright, giving it that pop of color that is pretty pleasing to the eyes. However, what bogs it down is its lack of proper optimization. The game is made with Unreal Engine 5, which is an engine infamous for its stutters, tendency to lag, and poor frame rates on certain games. Unfortunately, for TSDS:O, it’s quite affected by it.
Combat with too many things going on can stutter the game’s frame rates, and transitions between cutscenes and whatnot are janky, making for a jarring experience. Animations can look odd sometimes, especially when characters are talking or even while just moving on the overworld. They are evidently stiff, making for unnatural movement. It wouldn’t be as noticeable…if you also ignored the fact that there are several scenes where the characters just look flat and dead. There’s a big difference between the cinematic cutscenes and the simpler dialogue scenes, which shouldn’t really be the case if you’re aiming for a good overall experience.
Pleasing Music and Voices
They did quite okay in the audio department, though, with a delightful fantasy soundtrack that accompanies you as you traverse the lands of Britannia, coupled with stellar voice acting from the voice actors reprising their roles from the anime. The Seven Deadly Sins anime already had a brilliant voice cast from the beginning, and that quality shines in the game as well, especially knowing that it’s got quite a lot of dialogue.
Sound design is pretty standard as well, with battle noises and overworld sounds blending in just right, making for that immersive atmosphere as well. There are times of silence in between background music tracks, but you’re accompanied by the sounds of nature anyway, so that’s alright, nevertheless.
Although, there are times when the audio is not even—even with some tweaking in the settings. It’s a bit distracting to have Hawk speak so softly and then suddenly have Tristan or Tioreh come cutting in with their modulated voices.
Bugs Here And There
Also, it’s still evidently unpolished in other aspects too besides visuals, although they are mostly minor. For example, when clicking on any interactable icon on the in-game map, the game won’t just simply let you press the Escape button to exit, even if it indicates right there on the bottom left that the window will be closed if you press it. It’s a little thing, but it’s honestly tedious to have to manually click out of the map screen even if you were just checking something momentarily.
I also encountered another strange glitch when I "investigated" an interactable object in a Giant’s cave, which completely bugged me out and changed my view to…the lake above. I couldn’t see where Tristan and the rest were, nor did the unstuck or in-game Escape function work either. It was easily remedied by logging out momentarily, but it does ruin the focus for a bit, which is a bit saddening.
Is The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Worth It?
A Fair Start To A New Adventure
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin has the makings of being a decent anime-themed open-world RPG to play, but it evidently still needs some polishing here and there to really make it stand out. It’s got ambition and the backing of its fanbase to get it there, but it would need a bit more to prove itself to the masses and to attract attention from those who may want to get more into the series through the game.
Otherwise, it pales in comparison to its contemporaries with similar gameplay and content, such as Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves. If you’re looking for a new game to sink some time in or you’re a really big fan of the franchise, then by all means, dive into the open-world version of Britannia here. But if you’re not, maybe you can steer clear of it for a while.
FAQ
Is The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin canon?
It’s not canon within the anime and manga’s timeline, but is instead an alternate retelling of the story.
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