Set in a world under threat, Daba is about a clay puppet that’s become human and who sets out to find water fragments within an ancient city. There are various environments to explore, including the aforementioned ancient city, abandoned ruins, a floating settlement, vast snowfields, and more. Levels are interconnected and nonlinear but also teeming with threats (including some massive bosses).

As the puppet collects the water fragments, they learn more about the world and themselves. Combat appears to mix Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty-style counters with Souls-like dodge-rolling. Stay tuned for more details on the action RPG in the coming weeks.

Development

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption was first announced in 2017, and confirmed for a launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in April of 2018. However, two weeks before the game’s originally intended release date, it was delayed to October of 2018, while a Nintendo Switch version of the game was also confirmed, which would be releasing simultaneously with all other versions in October.

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption’s developers at Dark Star have stated that they draw heavy inspiration from FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series in terms of difficulty, combat, and boss design, while they have also cited games developed by Team Ico, such as Shadow of the Colossus, as having influenced them in terms of character designs and boss structure.

Story

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption takes place in a dark fantasy setting called the Kingdom of Cavanis. Players play as a nameless warrior, a man who has lost his memories, and must atone for his past, which he recollects bit by bit, by fighting against seven deadly monsters, who are the manifestations of his own sins from memories he cannot recall.

Gameplay

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption’s gameplay is heavily influenced by Dark Souls, and features similar movement, combat, and mechanics. Players have light and heavy attack options, and can also use projectile weapons, while there are also options such as sprinting, blocking, or rolling. These moves are dependent on a stamina meter and require stamina. Unlike Dark Souls, however, SINNER does not have any exploration or larger levels to speak of. Instead, as a boss rush game, it focuses solely on boss fights and encounters against large enemies. Storytelling is sparse, and is either done through short cutscenes, or through background lore, which is also similar to FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games.

There are eight bosses in total, with seven of them representing the Seven Deadly Sins of the protagonist, the nameless warrior, while the eighth boss is the final boss of the game. The developers describe the game as being purely skill based, and as such, have said that though nearly everyone can play the game and understand its mechanics, not everyone will be able to finish it and beat all its bosses. There is a short tutorial at the beginning of the game before any of the eight boss fights that familiarizes players with the most basic mechanics. Before fighting each progressive boss, players have to sacrifice something from their abilities to be able to face the boss,. which means players have to “level down”. This sees their character’s abilities and powers diminshing, and the “sacrifices” remain permanent even after the boss fight.

These penalties can range from being more vulnerable against heavy attacks or having weaker attacks to having lower health, stamina that depletes more quickly, or being able to use fewer items. The seven bosses can be tackled in whichever order the player prefers. These are access through a hub location that has seven shrines, and players access each boss by going into their corresponding shrine. Put together with the “level down” mechanic, this encourages players to strategize and plan in which order bosses should be tackled. Bosses also have multiple phases during fights. Several bosses might require specific strategies for which players have to be careful about what abilities have been levelled down and which ones have been retained.

Each boss also presents specific and unique challenges that player must sometimes tackle using cues or aid in the environments. After defeating each boss, players are also given an enhancement to one of their stats, which helps offset the incurred penalties, or “sacrifices”. In the eighth and final boss fight of the game, the player is forced to incur every single penalty, but can choose which order to take them in. One players have completed the game, they unlock new weapons that can be used in further playthroughs as well. There are several new weapons that players unlock, which can provide unique advantages or even disadvantages.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

DARK STAR’s SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption is out next week, and to celebrate the occasion – especially following delays – it has a new launch trailer. Check it out below and marvel at the Souls-like gameplay. In case it wasn’t obvious, the game is aiming to be tough (but fair).

Though it looks distinctly like Dark Souls, especially when it comes to fighting against eight unique bosses, SINNER’s gameplay is more about giving up strength. Each time you defeat a boss, you must “level-down” and sacrifice some of your stats to keep progressing. The Kingdom of Cavanis is apparently wallowing in “blasphemy”, and it’s up to the protagonist Adam to redeem himself (and probably save some of the people he wronged).

Along with different weapons to unlock – including items that might help with the strength you lose – there will be multiple endings to experience. After completing the game, there are new challenges to be had, thanks to new game modes. SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption will release on October 18th for Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

To learn more about the game and its development, Gamingbolt reached out to the developers with some questions and they provided the following answers.

"We wanted to have a non-linear game allowing for people to play the game’s content in any order they chose but we also needed to have the difficulty increase."

This game seems to tie in some grand themes into the gameplay itself, with Adam’s trials against the Seven Sins eventually leading to his redemption. Was this something you aimed for from the start?

Absolutely- We always wanted the game to be about the character’s redemption and the seven deadly sins provided us the structure needed to tell Adam’s story.

What inspired the idea of leveling down which is one of the main new features of this game?

We wanted to have a non-linear game allowing for people to play the game’s content in any order they chose but we also needed to have the difficulty increase. The sacrifice system allowed us to do that while being true to the game’s theme and style.

What would you say are some of the inspirations for this game?

Souls games are a massive inspiration but we also feel that Team Ico had a big inspiration on our character designs and our boss structure.

Seven bosses in the game are based on the Seven Deadly Sins. Are each of these bosses totally unique?

100% unique. Only the final boss isn’t inspired by a deadly sin.

Is there anything you can tell us about the eighth boss in the game or is that meant to be a surprise?

Surprise! And we hope you enjoy it!

 What are some things that players can do to stay strong even while leveling down?

Practice! The game is entirely skill based so the only thing people can do to get better is (and I apologize) “git gud.”

Does the game feature a fully fleshed out story or is it more in the background in the form of lore?

It’s a mix of both. A lot of it will be up to the player’s to figure out but there is a fully fleshed out story about Adam, his life, and what happened to the Kingdom of Cavanis.

Can you tell us a bit about the different weapons in the game and how they affect the gameplay?

There are other weapons in SINNER but they are only unlocked upon completing the first run of the game. These weapons add extra variety to the combat and also add an extra level of challenge as one weapon in particular is designed as a challenge to ambitious players.

"It’s accessible in that everyone can play and enjoy the majority of the game’s content but we don’t know how many player will be able to complete the trials."

Would you say that this game is accessible to new players to these kind of games? Has it been a challenge to balance difficulty and accessibility?

It’s accessible in that everyone can play and enjoy the majority of the game’s content but we don’t know how many player will be able to complete the trials. We will be analyzing what happens when the game launches and if we have to make tweaks- we will do.

The game is now confirmed for the PS4 and Xbox One, which also means it will support the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Can you please let us know the resolution and frame rate it will run at on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X?

We cannot confirm this yet as we are still pushing to get more out of both of the top versions.

And the resolution and frame rate on the base PS4 and Xbox One versions?

Cannot confirm this yet as we are working to push all consoles to their limits.

Given that you are now working on both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, what kind of technical differences did you found between the two?

Nothing that we can talk about! But both companies have been really helpful and supportive of SINNER.

"We may have DLC down the line but a lot will depend on the initial success of the game."

Does the game have any sort of microtransactions or loot boxes?

Nope! We may have DLC down the line but a lot will depend on the initial success of the game.

What is your take on the recent trend of Games as a service model and the possible controversial monetization practices arising from it?

We are a Chinese company and have been involved in the Free-To-Play economy for a long time. It’s not inherently bad but it seems certain companies are going too far when they charge full price for a F2P ecosystem.

The current generation of consoles will probably end in the next couple of years. What is your biggest expectation from the next PlayStation and Xbox?

More digital- less physical- 4k resolutions and minimum 60FPS on everything.

From a developer perspective, do you think the next-gen console era will be the 4K/60fps era?

Yes- otherwise what’s the point!

Is there anything more you’d like to tell our readers?

This is a really hard time for indie developers and SINNER is a very ambitious project for an indie team so please consider wishlisting us and joining us on discord to provide feedback and join our community.

Sinner: Sacrifice For Redemption has been pushed back from its nearly imminent release date of April 25th, to sometime in Q3 2018. But for the trouble, the unique take on the boss rush game will also come to Nintendo Switch with a simultaneous launch and come with a wide variety of supported languages.

Sinner is being published by Another Indie, and developed by Dark Star Game Studios, an indy studio comprised of many AAA veterans from a variety of backgrounds like Ubisoft, Konami and Blizzard. The game follows a soldier who must face down monstrous representations of the seven deadly sins, giving up a part of himself with each battle and a permanent debuff. Should he hit a brick wall, the player can roll back his conquests and try the challenge anew.

When the game does finally launch, it will hit all modern platforms including PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC and Mac, cost $18.99 and support English, Spanish, German, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Russian languages. Check out the new trailer just below.

IGN had recently shared a video of a tough boss battle in Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption. The game’s visual style and insane difficulty are bound to draw comparisons to the Dark Souls games. However, this game has some of its own tricks up its sleeve.

The unique twist that this game brings to this genre is that every time a player fights each of the seven bosses in the game, the player character levels down. This is certainly an interesting concept and will surely make players think hard before picking their battles. Since players can fight any of the 7 bosses in any order, it would make sense for players to go up against those bosses they find difficult later on in the game. As you can see in the video, the bosses appear to be quite tough and they also hit quite hard, with some attacks even requiring  perfect timing in order to be parried.

Sinners: Sacrifice for Redemption is set to release on April 25, 2018.