SINoALICE – 2020 First Impressions and Thoughts

So, SINoALICE just launched globally and I feel as though I’m pretty much obligated to do a video on it at this point, right? It’s only one of the most anticipated Mobile titles of the entire year!
Does the game live up to the hype? Let’s take a look.

To begin with, you’re met with these weird.. puppets. Like, real weird, creepy little things. Which is to be expected, considering who’s mind this came out of.
After some introduction to the game and its story, you’re presented with the option to choose who you want to begin the game as. The choice doesn’t matter as you unlock each of the protagonists after doing their introductory battle either way, taking what, 30 seconds?
Then you’re.. well, there’s a very short tutorial, lasting maybe 5 minutes, but otherwise, you’re thrown right into the game without much direction, which is exactly what I like to see in my games.

SINoALICE is a very interesting RPG. While yes, the game is a chapter-based RPG, it’s done very differently to what I’m used to.
See, traditionally, you have a Chapter revolving a certain zone, then after clearing the Chapter and its subsequent Missions you move on to the next Chapter and the next zone.
In SINoALICE each character has their own selection of Chapters each with their own stories and characters associated with them, including the areas they’re located and played in.
If I’m correct, they even have converging points as you move through them, but since the game just launched like.. a day or two ago I haven’t gotten as far as I would’ve liked through the game yet.

Combat is interesting, you have a selection of cards that take the form of weapons, each which you’re capable of upgrading outside of battle.
Each character has their own selection of weapons they can equip so you need to make certain you’re upgrading a wide variety of weapon types, lest you end up with some extremely underpowered heroes.
There’s a lot to upgrade, at that. The characters themselves, the gear you equip, there’s even an evolution system in place to break beyond your limits, but I was more interested in playing the actual game.
The characters themselves have very interesting stories, and I love not only backstory for characters, but a solid form of progression in my games. I don’t like slow-moving stories, and I dislike it when stories aren’t fleshed out.

Thankfully, from what I can see SINoALICE looks to be a very high quality RPG from Yoko Taro and Square Enix.
This is a beautiful RPG that looks amazing, plays well and is something we can definitely dedicate some time to.
I don’t know what endgame’s like, obviously, but from what I’ve played over the last 48 hours I’ve been enjoying myself. I look forward to seeing what the game has to truly offer over the next week or so.