Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is a hardcore action RPG that will test your skills. Learn more in our Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption review!

 

In Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, you will take control of a faceless warrior named Adam, who sets out on a journey to find forgiveness for his great sin. Your adventure will start in a dark land where shadows more around you, advising you on the basics you’ll need to learn if you are to stand a chance in this faraway land where the living are no more, and redemption is the driving force. It’s a Souls-like experience that does away with the exploration and the minor enemies and sends you right into a boss rush mode of sorts where it’s all bosses, all the time.

You’ll move your character around with the left analog stick, rushing forward at a faster speed by pressing and holding down the ZR button. To lock onto an enemy, press down on the right analog stick. Your attacks are set to the Y button for light attacks and the X button for heavy attacks. While rushing, you can also unleash a potent rush attack by pressing one of the attack buttons. You can block with the L button to set up your counterattack, rolling with the B button to get closer to your enemy to deal an unexpected blow. You can switch weapons by pressing up or down on the D-Pad and can change items by pressing left or right. To use the item you’ve selected, you can press the R button.

 

The interesting twist that Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption throws into the mix is that as you progress through the game you will need to take on increasingly more difficult bosses as you are forced to select an aspect of your character to weaken before battle – a handicap that will also carry over to your battles with subsequent bosses. Will you have what it takes to give up everything in order to save your soul? Can you take on the bosses who manifest as the embodiment of each of the seven deadly sins?

The order in which you take on each of the big bosses of the game is going to change how you need to approach each of these battles since before you can battle a sin, you will have to make a specific sacrifice. You might end up losing some of your supplies, become weaker or have your armor be damaged, or you might end up losing some of your stamina. It’s an interesting system that reminded me at times of a reverse Mega Man of sorts since instead of getting a new weapon that can be used to exploit a boss’ weaknesses, you’ll need to give some thought to the order in which you take on bosses in Sinner so that you don’t end up with a crippling weakness that will make it way too hard to beat a boss – not impossible, just extra hard.

While each of the boss fights shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete once you’ve learned a boss’ movement and attack patterns, as well as their tells for how big of a window of opportunity you have to attack before you’re in for a world of pain, learning these is what will take you the longest since you’ll end up dying a lot. Trial and error are key in Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, so the more you die from your mistakes, the closer you’ll be to completely destroy that boss during your next try.

If you’re up for a Souls-like experience where you’ll be taking on boss after boss and nothing more, dying many times along the way as you sort out the dos and don’ts of each battle, then Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is the game you need. It runs nicely on the Nintendo Switch on Docked, Portable, and Tabletop Mode, offers a nice challenge, offering a lite alternative to Dark Souls Remastered at a sub-$20 price.

Disclaimer
This Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption reviews is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Another Indie.