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Unfortunately here at RPGamer, we've not done a great job of covering independently developed RPGs. It's often hard to cover all the mainstream RPGs out there, let alone smaller indie projects. It's not that we don't care; it's more that we often get spammed with so much indie stuff and lots of times those games are not even RPGs. I'm not here to make excuses; I just want to explain why the coverage isn't there. It often takes someone we know pointing out a good project in order for us to know to check it out. Well, that's just what happened with Deadly Sin 2. We missed the initial release a couple months back, but I heard good things, so I decided to try out the demo. I'm very glad I did.
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"It's of the level of quality one expects from a retail console RPG."
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Deadly Sin 2 is a downloadable PC title built on the RPG Maker engine. It has no ties to the original Deadly Sin in terms of story, so players should have no problems jumping right into this installment. The demo starts off with an assault on a castle town where the player is controlling the hero, Carrion, and friends. Things are not going well for the defenders and soon it is clear that everyone needs to escape. Carrion tries to hold off the forces for as long as possible while his companions evacuate the city. The scared mob doesn't want to wait on Carrion and quickly overwhelm the heroes, apparently leaving the defending warrior all alone. Next, the screen fades out and we flash back months before the attack when things are just beginning to boil. Carrion and his adopted brother Maric are tossed into the midst of political intrigue pretty quickly and that serves as the basis for the story. What little I was met with in the demo was enough to make me want to see more. The story seems fairly deep and the characters each have their own unique and charming personalities. The plot and character development reminded me a lot of classic SNES RPGs like Final Fantasy IV or Final Fantasy VI. I consider that a good thing, as I had the same feeling as the first time I played Final Fantasy IV many years ago.
The gameplay is always something I'm leery of in games developed on RPG Maker. I fear them being too slow, too cumbersome, or too stale. Thankfully, the battle system in Deadly Sin 2 was none of those, as it was a speedy affair with lots of customization options. Characters are awarded skill points for completing quests and upon leveling up and can use those to select how to develop their combat skills. Players can pump a mage full of points to enhance her fire attack or can spread the love across multiple elemental attacks. During encounters, each unit gets a turn based on speed, equipment weight, and the burden they can carry. The turn order is displayed on the right side of the screen, so it's always clear who will attack next. There is also a threat meter for each character, much like in an MMO, where the character with the highest threat level will be attacked first. The usual array of attacks and skills are available and in my hour of playing the demo, I found things to be well-balanced. Right before the demo ended, I got to fight the boss of the first area and was met with a fair challenge on normal difficulty. It's possible to swap between easy, normal, and hard at the menu anytime outside of combat, so the challenge is variable if things get too tough or are mind-numbingly simple.
When the hour demo was up, I felt one thing I've not really felt with many games lately, even full retail releases: the urge to play more. I'm not typically someone who games on the PC, so it's not the most natural system for me to want to play on. This type of RPG has been historically on a console, so that also is likely making me a tad biased as well, but I think this game would fit well on a console. Not saying that it's bad on PC, because it's not. However, it's of the level of quality one expects from a retail console RPG. If Deadly Sin 2 hit the DS, I'd be all over it. Deadly Sin Studios has a solid RPG on its hands here and hopefully more people will give it a look. It was well worth the hour I spent with the free demo. It's what everyone hoped Black Sigil was going to be: a retro throwback with modern gameplay.
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