If you’re like us here at Honey’s Anime then you probably love the Dark Souls series—Bloodborne included—for its epic fights that test your mettle as a player. What if you could play a similar game that is hard and focused on just boss battle after boss battle? We know some of you are shaking your heads “yes” frantically and we don’t blame you. Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption from developer DarkStar Games and published by Another Indie might be your game if you care solely about boss fights. Continue reading our review for more information about Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption and what to expect from this truly tough indie title.

Similar to Dark Souls, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption focuses on testing player’s skills and patience as they fight tough bosses but with a big twist. Before each boss players must sacrifice a stat or ability to enter the boss arena and do battle with the being within. The sacrifice continues to haunt the player too as they must endure each boss and continue to lose their powers. You’ll need to challenge the bosses in an order that suits your play style and that will allow you to reach victory. Can you endure numerous bosses and face your sins now in an actual form? Find out in Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption.

When one commits sin, do they allow the sin to forever brand them or do they face their punishment no matter how grave it is? In Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, you play as a young man named Adam who has decided to face his sins…one at a time. Each sin has taken form and wishes to kill Adam for his wrongdoings. Can Adam face down his past in the form it has now taken or will he forever be branded a sinner, forced to forever roam the land with a curse of pain and sorrow? Grab your weapons, face your demise and show your resolve in Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption!

The Dark Souls franchise by developer From Software has been such a success in the gaming world that many other developers often try to mirror the themes in Dark Souls…with varying results. That isn’t to say other developers are copying what made Dark Souls great, but you can clearly see where attempts are made to be like Dark Souls. Yet, they just can’t do it. We here at Honey’s Anime are thus always a bit skeptical on a game totting itself as anything akin to Dark Souls but with Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, we saw some interesting gameplay mechanics that seemed very unique despite developer DarkStar Games clear use of the ideas taken from Dark Souls. Does Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption redeem the past games from trying to be knockoffs to such a great series? Let us answer that very question in our review of Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption for the PS4!

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is a very strange game that truly throws players into the fire first before giving themselves a chance to prepare. You’ll start off hearing about a young man—Adam—who is facing his past sins in a very literal sense. Adam must defeat several sins before he can find redemption and peace. This ends up being the player’s primary goal as they begin to learn quickly that Adam’s sins aren’t going to simply go down with a “I’m sorry,” but instead, will need to be beaten down with swords, lances and various other weapons. While the challenging bosses might scream Dark Souls, in some ways, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is actually harder than Dark Souls because of the fights and the sacrifices you must make prior to them.

Like Dark Souls, players fight bosses in a third person action style with a defense button, two forms of attack—light/heavy—and various items that both heal and damage. You’ll need to learn the bosses’ various abilities before you can go in and just swing away to defeat them. The thing that makes Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption so difficult though is that, when you enter a boss arena, you are forced to sacrifice something that will be kept sacrificed the whole game! You are basically de-leveled each time you enter a boss fight and really need to figure out what you can live without before entering a new boss arena. Can you endure with half health for several fights or would you prefer having your shield break if your stamina runs dry?

In many ways, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption could be considered akin to Mega Man where players need to learn who can be beaten first before the next boss is taken down. Be warned too, folks; If you decide to regain a lost sacrifice—which you can always do—the boss respawns in that arena and you’ll need to refight them eventually. We learned that the hard way unfortunately and it meant redoing several fights which we thought were long done with.

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption’s biggest weakness—and we say that with some hesitance—is the graphics. While the boss and arena designs range from triple a level quality to meh, the models themselves look kind of plastic looking. Does that mean Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption looks bad? Heck no; the graphics are pretty darn unique if we do say so ourselves. Yet, we think some should lessen their outlooks on graphical quality to judge a game lest you want to go into Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption expecting top tier graphics to find some minor disappointment.

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption might seem like Dark Souls with its tough boss battles and themes of being less about simple explanations and more about learning yourself but its not truly trying to rip-off the well-known series. Instead, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption yearns to be something akin to Dark Souls but equally its own title and it works because of this goal. With a focus on fighting bosses and constantly having to improve your own skills rather than leveling up—in this case, you’re being weakened with each bout—Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption shows that publisher Another Indie and developers DarkStar Games have a true talent for taking an idea from another series but making it their own. We raged hard while playing Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption—especially when we made that grave mistake causing us to redo boss battles—but there was always a way to win and we just needed to learn how to do it. If you love tough games like Dark Souls but only want the boss battles of Dark Souls then we fully recommend Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption.

The feeling of adrenaline pumping as you enter a boss arena and try over and over to win is just something games like Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption do so darn well. While Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption might not be winning the best-looking game award for an indie title, its gameplay—which is always an important concept—truly shines as how not to just copy Dark Souls with your Dark Souls inspired title. Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is tough but fair—as Another Indie and DarkStar Games both agree on—with a focus on challenging the player to get better and not just rely on pumping your stats up to astronomical levels. It’s why we think you folks might really like Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption and hope you guys and girls will pick it up when it releases this month.

Are you going to take our advice and enter the world of Adam in Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption? Let us know in the comments below! For all your game reviews and article needs be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.