Sinsations is a game in development by Frigid Delight Studios, a new group of American developers who launched a Kickstarter campaign last month and released a demo that’s around 2 hours long.
You can grab the demo here and check the (ongoing) Kickstarter here. Their goal is set to $19,200 USD.
You play as Kosuke Arai, a 24 years old man who died and was sent to Hell. Then comes a day where he is chosen by Lucifer to become the next Deadly Sin of Lust and tasked with a strange mission: make the 6 other Deadly Sins fall in love with him within the span of 2 months.
Because I found the premise interesting and because I wish to see more BL games with morally-grey characters and a plot that goes beyond just dating a character, I played Sinsations’ demo.
Perhaps the first thing that struck me upon launching the game was that the game build needs some serious improvement: the text is too small and the interface not exactly intuitive. It’s easy to accidentally go to the title screen by pushing the wrong button and a bigger “click-to-continue” icon for the textbox would be welcome. The game also lacks basic visual novel features you see in most VNs: a text history, an option to hide the textbox and adjust the text speed, an “auto-forward” feature, etc…
That being said, the game IS still playable and the devs are taking into account these feedbacks for future builds, which makes me hopeful in that regard.
One unique feature Sinsations has that I have never seen in any other game before is that the entirety of its text, including inner thoughts and exposition, are voiced. There’s a reason such a thing never happens: it’s fucking expensive. I hope they keep doing it for the whole game though.
The voiced dialogue and narration completely changes the feel of the game. Some find it bothersome, but I found the voices made Sinsations all the more enjoyable to play. I’d like to give a special mention for Judas’ voice acting, which made his ridiculous dialogues all the more funny.
As for the story, I round all all the major characters that were introduced interesting in their own way:
– Kosuke is a refreshing protagonist with a lot of street smart while still being quite relatable.
– Sloth is cute but can be ruthless and I have good hope there’s more beyond his smarts and laziness and lack of sexual experience.
– Greed has a somewhat cartoonish obsession with money and talks like a supervillain, yet knows how to look composed and patient in front of other people. I guess there’s something hot about dating bad guys with a lot money and who always wants more.
– Gluttony seems to be the most sane Deadly sin and aside from his huge appetite, looks and acts pretty normal. As far as game theme goes, I find his personality to be the weaker one of the 3 introduced love interests.
– I’m curious what backstory the game has in store for Judas and Lucifer. I don’t feel a particular need for them to be dateable — just hope they turn out well-developped in their own right with more times ot shine.
All in all, Sinsations is a game with a lot of potentials that I hope will not let me down. I don’t expect to read anything deep, but overall playing the demo was a fun and enjoyable experience enhanced by the voice acting, a colorful cast and amusing dialogues.
