SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption - The Action RPG Where You Level Backwards
Game Description
SINNER is a third person action RPG with a theme of sin and sacrifice, made by Chinese developer Dark Star. The unique selling point is that you level down and get weaker as you progress through the game, the opposite of the traditional RPG character arc.
There are 7 bosses, each based off of one of the seven deadly sins, and in order to unlock each boss fight, you must sacrifice some of your power and abilities. Sometimes this can be as straightforward as losing health and stamina or charges for consumable items. Sometimes it adds new mechanics to the game like causing you to get winded if you dodge while out of stamina.
Sinner has snappy, satisfying 'Souls-like' combat, and some really interesting encounters. It a straight boss rush with no trash mobs, so don't expect to get more than a handful of hours out of it, but it has a lot of heart and polish.
Episode Topics
SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption (Starts at 0:37)
Andy: "There's this joke that 'Salt and Sanctuary' is 'Castlevania Souls', 'Nioh' is 'Weeb Souls', etc. This is 'Team Ico Souls'. The main character really looks like a Team Ico character, and it takes place in this sort of quiet, mysterious setting. The 'Dark Souls' comparisons are obvious, but I think there are also some parallels between this and 'Shadow of the Colossus'. "
St0rm: "Each boss is based off of one of the seven deadly sins, but some are done with more aptitude than others. The Envy boss is very interesting, where you fight a single woman who interchanges her heads to become one of two sisters, before fighting both of them as a pair. On the other hand, Gluttony is a fat guy. I was also confused about the theming with the main character. Your name is Adam, but all of the symbolism seems to be Christ imagery, which I guess fits the theme of Sacrifice."
Andy: "In Christianity, Christ is the second Adam--The father to the second phase of Humanity."
Another Steam Controversy(15:38 - 23:38)
Andy: "Valve has been reported on again because of a game on their platform called 'Rape Day', a visual novel where you play as a serial killer rapist. They have since taken it down. This has been happening a lot recently because Steam released a policy where they would censor only poor quality or troll games, and the entire Making of Objectionable Content industry said 'Hold my beer.'"
On the basis of the name sounding like Trolling, I'm completely fine with Valve taking the game down. They are under no obligation to host hardcore pornography or things that they find objectionable on their platform."
St0rm: "If I owned a corner book store, I wouldn't sell some novel called 'Death Rape' with a picture of a lady getting stabbed on the front cover. Look, I'm against censorship in most cases, but I think all of the games that Valve has pulled so far are content that most reasonable adults would find objectionable: 'School Shooter Simulator', 'Rape Day', etc."
Andy: "I think the current system of Valve evaluating questionable games on a case by case basis is the correct way to do it. My only concern is that if they try to create a set of rules to censor games by, groups will use wide interpretations of those rules to try to get any game they disagree with banned."
SINNER Combat Mechanics (28:07 - 32:58)
St0rm: "Maybe I should take a second to talk about how SINNER differs from Dark Souls. You do have regenerating health, though it restores very slowly. The dodge is very whippy and you have a lot of i-frames, so I'd say it's more forgiving. It's a straight boss rush, so the only trash mobs are the ones in the tutorial section.
As we already said, you get weaker as the game progresses, and the 'sacrifices' that you have to make are interesting. You don't just lost straight health and stats, the powers that you lose are more personal.
One of the powers you can sacrifice is your armor, which lowers your defense and takes away your regenerating health. Interesting note, it is the only sacrifice with a visual effect on your character"
Andy: "I kind of assumed this game would have a mega-man style meta--which is the correct order to face the bosses in. Since you can choose which order you want to fight the bosses in, you can also choose which order you lose the powers."
Very Interesting Part Of The Game - Contains Spoilers (37:13 - 43:20)
St0rm: "The Lust boss fight was very hard, so around that time I was about to say 'fuck this game'. But, I pushed through and beat it, and that ended up unlocking the most interesting encounters in SINNER:
After you defeat Chanel, she shows up in the world. You can exhaust her dialogue options and she summons a giant egg that allows you to fight Modic the Cowardly, a giant chicken in Mad-Max style armor who attacks you with pecks and claws and lays eggs that summon malformed chicken enemies. The fight was fun, hilarious, and one of the easier fights in the game. I think it was placed there intentionally as some relief.
For the bosses second form, it's head splits off and becomes an independant enemy. However, if you hit it with consumables like the spears/fire pots, it will become small and inert for a short time so that you can beat up on it. I think this encounter was awesome and really elevated the game."
Andy: "This reminds me of the cow level from Diablo II. I really wish more souls-like games would be colorful and funny. It's a good system and makes for an engaging game, but they are always set in dour, dark-fanstasy settings."
Flambard - Discussing the Wavy Sword (47:09 - 48:18)
Storm: "Do you know why his sword is all wiggly?"
Andy: "There are a number of theories about that. Some think it gives it the weapon the benefits of a saw. Others say it just looks cool. One theory I find interesting is that allows you to have a straight sword with some of the benefits of a curved blade. A curved blade is better for cutting because you have less contact with the target and therefore a smaller surface area, but a straight sword is easier to wield."
Wikipedia Page on the Flame-Bladed Sword
Culture Corner: 'There Will Be Blood'
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