Netmarble's The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin arrives with genuine promise. The time-bending story centered on Prince Tristan and Tioreh, offspring of major characters from the original series, twists franchise lore in ways that feel fresh enough to pull back lapsed fans. The cel-shaded world of Britannia gleams with series-appropriate style, and early hours hint at something worthwhile lurking beneath the gacha machinery.
Then the midgame hits, and Origin collapses under the weight of its own design.
The first warning signs come from technical corners. Textures blur when examined closely. Rabbits animate in lockstep like backup dancers. Character movement feels unconvincing, particularly Prince Tristan's laughably stiff climbing animations, a far cry from the fluid physicality of Breath of the Wild. Camera positioning glitches force restarts. None of these issues alone break the experience, but stacked together they create constant friction that disconnects you from the story you actually want to follow.
Exploration initially seduces. Movement abilities unlock early: climbing, swimming, a Da Vinci-style wooden glider. Best of all, you can ride Hawk, the show's iconic garbage-eating pig companion, whose cheerful banter and chunky design provide genuine levity as you zip across dragon-bone graveyards and pastoral glades. A generous stamina bar lets you cheese your way across the map almost immediately. Warp Points open up the topology faster than the game intends.
This freedom lasts until the climbing peak fades. Once you've exhausted the handful of self-directed challenges, Origin abandons exploration entirely in favor of repetitive busywork disguised as progression. The world stops feeling like something to discover and becomes a checklist to complete.
Combat That Sounds Better Than It Plays
The combat system itself works on paper. Each character wields normal attacks, special moves with cooldowns, and flashy ultimate abilities backed by slick animation. Prince Tristan's sword strikes carry volcanic intent. The control scheme stays simple and approachable. It should carry the game.
It doesn't, because enemies barely fight back. Encounters feel less like battles and more like enemies standing in your zone waiting to be eliminated. A sentient shrub spots you? It chases mechanically within its borders and swings. That's the entire vocabulary.
Boss fights expose this problem most painfully. One early encounter features a lumbering beast that pounds the ground like a frustrated infant, raining fire from above. You dodge. You smack its fists. They fall backward, revealing a glowing orb you must scale Shadow of the Colossus style to strike. Then it stands, loses its temper, and you wait for stamina to regenerate before climbing again. Idle moments in the middle of combat kill pacing and momentum.
The design feels derivative by default. Nowhere near the intricacy of God of War, but noticeably lazy even by gacha standards. It's damning to pine for boss encounters from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage while playing a 2026 release. Origin had a chance to lean into its supernatural setting or borrow Monster Hunter's part-breaking depth. Instead, button-mashing to the next checkpoint remains the path of least resistance.
A comparison to Arknights: Endfield stings worst of all. That game's factory-building system provides a thematic throughline that feels inspired alongside conventional structure. Origin offers nothing remotely similar.
Your team grows from Tristan and Tioreh to a four-member roster through gacha pulls. You'll earn Star Memory currency to roll for randomized gear and characters. It's a familiar loop with familiar pricing. After 50 hours of grinding, barely enough currency accumulated for a handful of pulls, most of which yielded nothing of value.
The game doesn't demand spending money to progress, but neither does it reward grinding with meaningful currency. The Shop tab sprawls with convoluted systems that transform beloved characters into marketing products. When pulls land, no fanfare celebrates the effort. Just a menu prompt asking for payment to roll again.
The genuinely interesting story gets lost beneath layers of mechanical friction, repetitive tasks, and constant gacha scaffolding. Origin proves that even a franchise rich with character and lore can't overcome lazy design and shallow systems. The Seven Deadly Sins deserved better than this.
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