Game creation software has made it possible for developers to construct games without a vast team of coders working behind the scenes. Role playing games have benefited from this in a big way, and several near-commercial-quality titles have emerged over the last few years. Deadly Sin is one such game, and its combination of retro stylings and modern gameplay mechanics make it palatable to old-school fans and 21st century players alike. Instead of reinventing the RPG, Deadly Sin chooses the path of flattering imitation. With great art direction, a superb soundtrack, a deep skill tree to explore and the ability to turn off random battles, Deadly Sin hits that soft spot deep inside that's longing for a good RPG to enjoy.
Deadly Sin puts you in the shoes of Lorelai, a young girl who wakes to find her mentor, Winchester, has gone, leaving only a note that instructs her to take a sealed envelope to a man in a nearby town. Without hesitation Lorelai heads out the door, embarking upon an adventure that will uncover surprising secrets about her own past and the future of the world alike.
Role playing games are defined by a number of elements, especially combat, storyline, and how characters evolve over the course of the game. Deadly Sin scores a hit in each of these categories. Combat is turn-based and takes place in a separate screen from the main game. Battles are random, but don't let that turn you away. Deadly Sin features special monster nodes in each level, crystals that, when activated, turn off random battles. Hooray! This sets the perfect atmosphere for exploration without sacrificing level-building, something most RPGs struggle to achieve. Whenever you enter a new area you'll battle a handful of creatures, find and activate the monster node, then creep through every tunnel on the level looking for hidden treasure.
The skill tree is another excellent addition to the game, adding a lot of depth and customization to your characters. Instead of simply gaining levels and earning new abilities at set intervals, each of the five characters has unique abilities you can spend skill points to unlock. Lorelai, for example, is a master of the bow, and from the beginning you can choose to focus on fire, ice or lightning elemental attacks, increase your overall strength, or put a little attention on a healing spell or two. Individual skills level up as well as open paths to new abilities, so look around the tree before you start spending points and see where you want your character to go.
The storyline in Deadly Sin begins with the mundane but ends with a grandiose tale. Predictably so, but not as cliché as one would suspect, although you won't be surprised to see the main character asleep when the game begins. That one's been done a few times before. There's no shortage of interesting events and characters to run across, but don't expect plot revelations at every corner.
Analysis: RPGs are probably the least casual game genre around. Not only do they feature dozens of hours of gameplay, but you have to spend an afternoon playing just to get to the interesting bits, and there's very little instant gratification to keep you in the game. Deadly Sin takes a stride in the casual direction and cuts out a lot of fluff from the beginning of the game. No pages of text to read, cutscenes to ignore, pointless dialogue to skip over, or fetch quests to ease you into the gameplay. Instead, you're dropped right into the game to fend for yourself, and within half an hour your party expands and you have a few skills to play around with. The story and characters continue to develop as the game goes by, of course, but the little boost of speed early on helps to get you hooked.
I really fell in love with Deadly Sin's artwork. Everything is a treat to look at, from the crisp menu screens to the smooth, shadowed tiles populating the towns and dungeons. The enemy art and backgrounds in battle scenes are also gorgeous, even though the animations during combat are a bit jumpy.
Battle is a big part of any role playing game, and unfortunately I feel it's a bit of a weak spot for Deadly Sin. It's a jarring transition to go from smooth overworld action to the stilted animations found in combat. Selecting actions to perform and enemies to attack feels a bit sluggish, and instead of using an arrow to denote targets, Deadly Sin flashes sprites for a brief instant. It isn't as eye-friendly as a big pointer. Combat is still enjoyable, however, especially once you get a bigger party with a full set of skills.
Deadly Sin claims around 30 hours of gameplay, which may be a bit on the generous side for experienced players. The game rewards you for poking around and exploring caves and alternate passageways, so don't be too hasty to get to the end. In fact, the branching style of level construction was one of the high points of my experience. I love games that hide things in dark corners, jars, pots, and secret passageways. Deadly Sin doesn't go to extreme lengths, but there are plenty of treasure chests to kick open and hidden paths to sniff out.
Retro RPG fans and newcomers alike will have a great time exploring the game's environments and building each character's abilities one limb at a time. Deadly Sin doesn't try to innovate beyond the genre's set standards, but it does exactly what it set out to accomplish quite well.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
I absolutely LOVE old school style RPGs like this and was excited to give it a try, but to my dismay the game seems to have a huge bug. I can use the arrow keys to walk around, and use space to interact with things, but other than that I am unable to open up a menu or anything at all. I pressed every single key on my keyboard and it didn't respond! What a bummer...
Nope, that's not a bug! You can't access the menu at the beginning of the game. There will be an event soon that allows you to use it and the skill menu. It's a bit odd, but it's not like you need them for anything when you first start out. So... keep playing!
x = menu.
a = skill tree.
that's NOT a bug? It'd be good if the documentation said that somewhere... I uninstalled the game because I figured it wasn't working. Just wanted to turn off the music.
Sheesh, don't go accusing him of forgetting to include a menu! All you have to do is play for 1 minute and you'll walk into the first battle, after which point the menu is accessible. You need documentation of that? :P
One generally expects menus to work from the get-go, and it's fair to assume there's a bug if they don't. Even the key to shift the game to full-screen doesn't work at the beginning; what's one to assume except that the keyboard commands don't function?
Well, after I've played Shin Megamis Persona I don't expect to use the menu right after the start of the game. Actually you have to play half an hour to get to the menu ^^. So don't cry
Stop blaming the maker for your mistake.
Wait, Deadly Sin? As in yet another somewhat-Bible-based game made with RPG Maker VX (1) like Eternal Eden (2)?
1: http://www.rpgmakervx.com/
2: https://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/05/eternal_eden.php
I just find it funny that a significant amount of the analysis is about the RPG Maker pre-built menus, gameplay, tilesets, rather than the game itself xD
I've always felt that one hour demo is a horrible option for RPG distribution especially ones that "[don't] try to innovate beyond the genre's set standards".
I'm really annoyed by the fact that it is impossible to save the game whenever I chose. I've been in the Fort Midgard for some time now and did not find a portal yet. If I die, I will have to restart this whole segment. Hate that!
Poor interface design is the maker's mistake.
LS, it has nothing to do with interface design. You just have no idea what you're talking about. =)
Matchu: Those are some pretty presumptive statements. The game is not biblical, it merely uses a couple household terms from biblical lore. In addition, very little of the game is made up of said "pre-built" menus, as the entire battle system and the skill tree system are both coded completely from scratch, by me.
LS: As it has already been mentioned, the menu is accessible almost immediately after the game begins. You are claiming that I missed a bug as huge as no menu access. There is no bug.
It's nice to see RPG maker VX getting some more attention in the commercial gaming area. The mere fact that everything is customisable and interchangable, right down to the battle system and menus, is nice when trying to make a game your own.
I hope to see more VX-made games soon!
I have been a visitor to this site for quite a while now and I have always enjoyed the non judgmental nature of the postings, even when people ask questions that seem stupid to others. On this games discussion, however, it seems that people are taking things a little personally and getting upset for no reason. Take a breath and reread the posts, I dont think anyone meant to offend.
I love the game, so far. And the skills make my day. But I don't really understand the skill system...I spent a while getting the previous skill and enough skill points for
Glade to open silly chests
only to find out that enough skill points didn't qualify me for that skill...then I thought "oh silly me, I have to be the level equal to the number on the bottom of the skill screen...but nope, that wasn't it either, cause I'm past it and I still can't get the skill...What gives?
Other than that confusion, though, can't complain ^_^
Oh heavens no, it'll take a lot more than that to actually offend me. :)
I'm just clarifying some pretty big pieces of misinformation. I want players to be well-informed and not mislead.
Apparently it's not a bug, as stated in, what, the second comment? I'm not claiming it's a bug. I'm saying it was a very poor design choice. That's all I'm saying.
Enjoying the game so far. I do feel there are some non-intuitive design decisions that make the game harder to like than it should be.
The decision to make the menus inaccessible at the start of the game threw me, like some others here. Reading the comments made it clear enough that I should just keep playing, but that's not at all obvious if you just load up the game and expect things to work.
Having to press A again to see skill points available and the purchased skills count is awkward. That info should be available on the main skill tree page for each character. Putting a skillpoint number next to each character name on the first A window (where you pick the character you want to manage) would be useful too.
The savepoint mechanism is also clunky. When you walk onto a savepoint, the default action is to use a tent, the alternate option is to do nothing, and if you want to save you have to go into the X menu while standing on the save point. This would be much more user friendly if you were presented with do nothing as the default option and both save and tent were presented as alternatives on the popup menu. (I lost my first two hours of play because I assumed that it was saving automatically when I walked onto the point.)
Lastly, the upgrade scheme is not at all clear. The 5-10-18-30 indicator at the bottom of the screen seems to indicate a required character level. I figured out after much experimenting and wasted skillpoints that it was based on skills purchased instead, but that could be a lot clearer. Some highlighting to indicate which skills are currently valid for purchase would be great too.
Basing skill tiers on number of purchased skills also discourages the purchase of expensive skills. If I'm trying to get a third tier (10 buys) skill, it'll be a lot faster if I buy all the cheapest available skills rather than more expensive skills. This puts a double penalty on the more expensive skills since they already cost more points anyway. Perhaps it would be fairer to base it on total skillpoints spent (400 for second tier, 800 for third tier, etc) rather than number of buys.
Harmonic, you've done incredible work with the esthetics of the game and with the story of the adventure. The game engine design has some questionable choices but I think those can be improved. Grade B.
Oh, also note that there's a complete lack of information about what the different attributes do. Does AGI boost to-hit, or bow damage, or defense, or something else altogether? Does INT change spell damage, magic pool, resistances? Who knows?
If skill A says "synergy: skill B", does that mean that A improves with more B, or that B improves with more A?
Kay, "Deadly Sin" just set off some deja vu alarms in my head xD
Very happy to see that there's hand-coded innovation in here. Mad props for not being the generic game that a first glance would suggest ^_^
Version 1.1 is up!
Lots of balance changes and some user-friendly enhancements. Just re-download the game:
http://www.deadlysinstudios.com/full/deadlysin.exe
Really good game. I wish there was a walkthrough, especially for sequences like the desert. I've been around there twice, died twice and then I had to go all the way back to visiting the airship with Winchester, because I haven't found a save point anywhere.
Any suggestions on how to get out of the desert?
I find it funny that no one mentioned the similarities of some skills of this game with World of Warcraft. Rogues using poisons, the "threat system", the archer "mark" skill...
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I love old school RPGs and really liked this one, even though there are some problems. I understand, though, that this is not a large-company project and Harmonic did a fantastic job with the limited resources he had.
Hope this kind of games keep showing up! : )
Oh, and please, it's "Deity" and not "Diety" :p
Duck: I was a raiding rogue on WoW for like... 2 years of my life. Not the best investment of one's time! But clearly, it did influence my game design ideas, because you have to admit, WoW's a brilliantly designed game.
You forgot the warrior's Overdrive! :D
There has been a great customer response from Jayisgames!
Thanks so much! I really hope you find it enjoyable! :)
@Leona :
As far as i understand it, you have to Invest in 10 Skills. Access the Stat Screen via A when you're at the Skill and it should say : Total invested Skills: 10 to acces this...This means it is not enought just to spend 1 Skill Point on Steal and then go for Lockpicking. I also hate this, cause it means you have to come back to some places after aquiring this Skill, which is a waste.
Tester
Here is a very comprehensive FAQ on the skill menu:
http://www.deadlysinstudios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=44
I love Amaranth Games RPGs, but they are just so expensive. :/
I can't seem to beat the fake adorimetra at the icy place. She'd always 'blizzard' me twice and instantly kills 2/3 of my party. Even with Ice Shield. Any help?
I don't remember having a whole lot of trouble with the ice demon.
Ice Shield should help. Use items that boost intelligence, and Dori's +int chant, as int increases magic resistances. Use Dori's -Int chant on the demon, too, if you have both. If you have a Freezing Ring, put it on whoever gets hit the hardest.
She's weak to fire, so if you use Fire Charms, Magma Enchant, and Glade's fire vuln ninjutsu, you should be able to take her down pretty fast. Her attacks are mostly AOE so don't worry about threat at all, just burn her down.
After a grueling 3 hour battle against Cenalio where I was doing fine the whole time (I guess, my guys were ok but who can tell if the enemy is getting weaker or if statuses are sticking or not?) I died and then the game froze. Not fun. I thought I was leveled up fine because I usually only turned the monsters off once I was killing them pretty quickly. If bosses are going to be that hard and long to fight then they should have a health bar or at least a way to tell if you are successfully inflicting statuses on them.
I am so mad! No, this game is not fun.
Oh, and when you bring someone back from the dead they should not still have statuses on them like blind or silenced. Not fair!
Snarly, patch 1.2 includes the option to view enemy HP and status.
If you got as far as Cenario, chances are you found it fun. Don't let one party wipe break a game for you! :) If WoW players did that, there would be 0 subscribers!
How do you kill wolfgang in the tree because I tried and I died. It's annoying me so much.
Cheats/trainer anyone?
Yes I know we shouldn't cheat, but these days I just don't have the time to fully enjoy games :(
I like the game first of all. I am stuck in the desert. I got to the outpost and left the game for the night. Now I can't remember where I'm supposed to go.
You can check opponent's health and statuses by pressing A. Cenario has an insane amount of 12,000 health :(.
Is there any chance to find a map for the Elysian Trenches?
Yeah, I'll post em at my website some time later today.
There's a new patch btw, that fixes some bugs caused by the new features in patch 1.3.
Is there a way to make the things sold cheaper? Or make the money earned higher? Because it is hard to earn money from battle fields even though I did not turn off the enemies crystal.
The person in fort midgard that can't save, I'm way past that point and I had no problems saving at any point in the game. All you have to do is hit your esc key and arrow down to save then hit the space bar or enter, it tells you from the beginning that you can save anytime you want the real purpose of the save points is to use a tent and heal your characters up.
Well, it's pretty and all that, but I would like to turn off the music and am now indulging in tiresome research because I'm too thick to understand how to kit my trio out in the market! I mean, I bought her and her mate a bronze plate but no one can wear it and worse still, she's a nudist now. I would expect or am missing class rules on armour etc. Another 2 hours of that music will be painful. Not bad for a cheap one though.
It's a good old classic RPG turn base game. I'm battling this boss on an airship, but just can't seem to beat him, and I', tired of running aroung for random battles so I can get my levels up (all my characters now level 50 and over). Or does it really need level way more than 50 to beat this boss?
Anyway a walkthrough guide should help... your help is appreciated.
Dewo
I had so much fun running a big part of the game. But now...instead of having plenty of time to think at what to do, I have to run from that fire thing coming at me and killing everyone! I cannot use escape key (or X) to heal the party (it is disabled), and find this part really annoying because I don't have a ring of dexterity myself and my keyboard is not the best to go with arrow keys. Is there a way to bypass this part? Or a trick shot to attack or kill that darn thing?
Everything was so fun until now. I never thought it would turn into a "real time" part.
Hi. I tried this game, but I am stuck in ardelia place. I already lit three of four lights. There are red, blue, and green. But when I am going to the zone where the purple bulb should be, I get attacked by a flame when using the teleports. Does anybosy know how to avoid or deal with this flame?
Thanks.
Please help!! How do you kill that "VANITY" demon at the end? I beat it a lot, but it keeps on absorbing my players and kills the entire party! Even after about 10,000 damage, it still stood intact and defeated me! Does anyone have a strategy to kill it?
Look at the boss FAQ...
BTW over_cloud9 is making a walkthrough for this...
I'm just getting into deadly sin late i know, better late than never j/k, on Glade must he live? do i need him on each level? i keep getting him killing on the 5th level do i need Gladeon each level?
Oh and this is deadly sin part 1 with Lorelai.
This game set up file gave me a virus warning.
After defeating all the four blue flames i went to Fort Dragonbane... but i don't know how to create new equipment... can some one explain pleas
I really had a hard time overcoming ardelia at the floating palace... somebody... help me...
When I started playing this game it loaded as a full screen. Now it trys to load a full screen but becomes small. I don't know how to fix it. This happens in Deadly sin2 as well. Any ideas on how to fix it. It stops me enjoying the game.
Deadly Sin..I manage to find a bug..Status bug for Lorelai.. ^^v
I have trouble for taking silver treasure in maoseleum. how to get that treasure ?
and i having trouble for fight wolfgang
any ideas ?
and sorry, my english bad
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