As first with these things, huge shout out to NIS America for tossing me a review copy of this one. Always love working with those guys and this is no exception.
Right out the gate I was a bit nervous about this one, I had never really heard of it and knew next to nothing about it. It looked interesting tho if not a bit cliche. Japanese school gets locked down by magical powers nobody understands and the students try to figure it out.
This turns out to be a huge over simplification of the story. You will start out taking a small quiz if sorts, there are no wrong answers and they simply help build your characters ego based on the 7 deadly sins. This will change during the game anyway based on battles and choices you make as well as other quizzes. I started out with high lust and 0 envy but quickly passed list with wrath and built up a bit of envy.
The battle system is a tactical turn based of sorts and it is really well done, there are some random difficulty spikes. There isn’t anything we haven’t seen here before, and if you don’t mind some grinding it isn’t to bad. Your spirit however acts as experience and money to buy items.
Leveling up with spirit is done by buying or leveling up new skills for each character and won’t happen automatically. This is both good and bad because if the main protagonist goes down it is game over so you can focus mostly on him if you want or be more balanced about it which is what I chose.
Graphically the game is nice, and the story is definitely more adult than I was expecting. As you attempt to take down the walls stopping people from leaving the school you will notice that students are dying and the game isn’t shying away from the how and why.
This game is definitely worth checking out for fans if the genre, and I actually got a very big Persona vibe from it and with very good reason as it is made by former Shin Megami developers. My only real complaint is that some of the puzzles will have you reaching for a guide to figure out, as some of them make little to no sense. It is still easily an 8/10 game and one of the first must plays of 2022 for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods being you glory.
Savior Gaming 