Games based on popular anime series come out often, but not all of them really deserve attention. Nevertheless, lately, under the wing of Namco Bandai, very interesting projects have been constantly coming out that you want to play, even if you are not a fan of the series on which they were made. But something went wrong, and a project that was curious in theory, which could have turned out to be extremely interesting, turned out to be very average in practice. Not without some finds, but losing outright to other, more eminent games under license.
The story at the heart of the game is unusual and interesting. In the medieval state, the Holy Knights, once defeated by other warriors, who are called Mortal Sins, still seize power, and only the princess manages to escape. And on his way he meets a guy named Meliora’s, who owns a beer shop and who is also the former leader of the Seven Deadly Sins. Together, they begin the journey to gather their motley crew again to defeat the Holy Knights.
The plot is strange, but very exciting. They did not try to fit all the events of the anime or manga into the game, focusing only on key points and events so that you understand how the plot developed, but did not get bored and did not look at the long path of development of relations between the characters. This played a cruel joke with the project, because it was in the relationship that the salt of the series lay, giving depth to the events taking place on the screen. In the game adaptation, the characters turned out to be flat, sometimes even boring, and there was not as much humor as we would like. In the end, to fully enjoy the storyline campaign, you need to know the source. And at the same time, knowledge of the original source shows how much everything was cut and simplified when transferred to the game, which is very frustrating. Such is the vicious circle.
In terms of mechanics, we have a game in the style of Dynasty Warriors. Rather, as often happens, this is essentially a reskin of this formula, with all the ensuing features. The gameplay is divided into two parts. The main gameplay takes place on very small maps, where we fight with the help of the main characters with small groups of enemies and bosses, and their number and quality grows as the storyline develops. On the same cards, sometimes they are allowed to collect roots or solve some simple problem, and such episodes are more annoying and distracting than entertaining. The rest of the time we wander around the large game map, take on tasks, pump our heroes using a large and branchy skill tree, learn new combos and chat with story characters. Doing all this is exciting, especially since all the jokes and interesting moments are mainly associated with communication and unexpected encounters, and not with combat scenes.
The battles are simple enough, they lack depth and some really interesting mechanics that would make them unforgettable. It is easy to cope with hordes of enemies and you just need to kill all waves of opponents, using skills in turn. This will not pose any problems. The boss fights are similar, but each boss has a different style and attack that can captivate you and create a sense of challenge. But then you realize that usually you are slipping opponents whom you can calmly interrupt, without using tricks and evasion, but simply waiting for the right moment. To put a killer combo into it. This tactic works always and without exception, so it will not be difficult to complete the game. Although a couple of battle scenes with bosses will really please you.
Battles against one opponent could become the main trump card of the game, especially since there is multiplayer, where these battles are allowed to unfold to the fullest. You fight other iconic characters of the story in a destructible environment, that is, you can easily break through the wall of the house with the enemy or bring down a couple of trees on his head. During the story campaign, there are too many effects on the screen and you don’t think about the destructible environment, but in one-on-one battles it looks impressive. Moreover, the characters have a lot of health, battles in this version cannot be called fast, so there is time to try new techniques, learn a couple of combo series and have a good time.
The problem with the mode is that the characters are unlocked only when you go through the storyline and meet them in a single-game. To open everyone, you need to go through the whole story – and it’s not a fact that after that someone, other than fans, will want to go and try out the fighting component. Although, if all the heroes, or at least most of them, were open at once, as in modern fighting games, everything could be completely different.
The game graphics and visual style are very good. The quality of Dragon Ball Fighter
does not reach, but everything looks pretty decent. The visual style and presentation of some opponents and allies pull the picture to a high enough level, but at the same time you will not show the game as an example of the best anime adaptation, even in visual style. Unfortunately.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia could have been a great game, but it didn’t work out. This is a good project for real fans of anime or manga who want to play in their favorite setting, but for everyone else the game is just a passing project that seems to be interesting to explore, but I don’t want to recommend it to friends. Typical middle peasant, designed for a narrow fan audience. If you do not belong to it, then you can easily find more interesting games under other licenses.
