SINoALICE (2017/2019)

[シノアリス]

Note: Service for this game has been discontinued as of January 2024. 

Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: PokeLabo
Director: Yoko Taro
Platform: Android/iOS

Overview:
Fairy tale characters fight monsters and each other in a bid to resurrect their authors.

Gameplay:
The core of the game is the various jobs for each character (for gameplay purposes, each job is essentially its own character) with their own specialties. You have a weapons grid of up to 20 weapons you can use in battle. Weapons have differing costs depending on their strength and as you level, you can have more higher level weapons in your grid. You also have your defensive equipment and summons called Nightmares. All three of these can be leveled and evolved to higher rarities. Weapons and Nightmares can also be merged to increase their level cap. (It's worth noting that lower-rarity weapons can be merged with their upper-rarity counterparts, so there's no reason not to evolve your weapons at the soonest opportunity.) In combat you click on your weapons to attack (or heal, buff, or debuff depending on the weapon's properties), which is limited by a regenerating SP gauge. Auto-battle is an option and usually doesn't make that much difference. Besides leveling weapons, equipment and Nightmares, you also level your characters' jobs. There are various bonuses for each level and if you want to break the initial level cap, you have to get items called Arcana. It's worth noting that evolutions require various materials that you have to collect.

The main modes are Story, Event, and Joint Battles. When you enter battle, you have four allies (either players or the CPU), so Joint Battles have you join a player going through Story or Event battles. There is also the Coliseum, a 20-minute battle between guilds at 0800 JST every day. The narrow window is a bit annoying seeing as how participation in the Coliseum is part of your dailies, but so it goes.

As your AP gauge determines how many battles you can do, there's a convenient feature known as "Cleaning", a tap battle minigame where you clear enemies to replenish AP (and get EXP while you're at it). It's free until you hit Level 50, after which point you have an 8-hour cooldown, which can be circumvented by using Cleaning Tickets. (You can get one a day for clearing all your daily missions.) There is also Excavation, where you can send up to five teams of five Nightmares every hour to dig up items for you (and gain EXP in the process). It's a nice way to collect maps while leveling your Nightmares. There are also various social functions like an in-game BBS, chat rooms, etc. Another part of the social elements are the guilds which you can join or start your own. Don't expect to last long in the Coliseum with a solo guild in case you were curious.

As this is a Japanese mobile game, it will come as little surprise that there's a gacha feature. There are various banners throughout the month and a special daily single draw where you get one free item, culminating in an SS weapon every 28 pulls. Other banners net you Greed Medals, which can be exchanged for a variety of nice stuff like the available jobs for the month, Arcana and so on. The currency for the gacha is crystals, which can be purchased if you want to whale but you get quite a few through ordinary play. Speaking of medals, certain events and other activities also yield medals for trade. Charm Medals are the easiest to come by, which you get from activities like selling and merging weapons.

Story/Characters:
The main story follows the characters on their quest to revive their authors, each for their own reasons. Because this is a dark take on the fairy tale stories, all the characters are dealing with a range of mental disorders. It can be fun in chapters where the characters cross paths, such as pairing the purity-obsessed Snow White with the debauched and spiteful Cinderella. All the while, they're being strung along by the deranged puppets Gishin and Anki, who also act as the game's hosts. I do enjoy it when some of the characters are so far off the deep end that even those two are disturbed.

Events are side stories that may or may not involve the characters. They're almost always twisted and depressing (or alternatively hilarious if you have a dark sense of humor). It's a Yoko Taro game, so what else do you expect?

Graphics:
The game doesn't try to be a graphical powerhouse, but the art style is a perfect fit for the tone of the game. Character portraits are sort of motion graphics and the in-battle character models move like puppet (rather appropriate for Pinocchio, but everyone else moves that way too). Character designs by Jino are quite good and there is a nice range of costuming for the different jobs.

Music/Sound:
The score by Yoko Taro collaborator Keiichi Okabe is, like the art style, a perfect fit for the tone of the game, usually somber and melancholy, occasionally eerie, with point of manic high energy (such as for boss battles). The voice acting is quite good. Some of the seiyuu really demonstrate first-rate acting chops, such as Maaya Uchida as the delusional Gretel.

Conclusion:
This is a solid game, but there are some annoyances to it that may hamper your enjoyment. The fact that it's so dark may also turn off some folks. However, if you're looking for a portable Yoko Taro experience and/or like the dark fable concept, this is definitely worth checking out.

Rating:
Play It