Bullet Hell… for love!
Title: Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire
Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4 and Xbox One (reviewed)
Developer: AlfaSystem
Publisher: Chorus Worldwide Games
Release date: Out Now
tl;dr: Shmups are alive and well!
Price: £12/ $14
Family Focus: Click here for more information.
Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire tells the story of five uniquely talented sisters who are in a fight to determine who will have the opportunity to marry the angel, Yashin. Experience the game through all five perspectives! This is also the first new game from AlfaSystem in 12 years, the team who brought you, Castle of Shikigami 3, in the Castle of Shikigami series, so how does their design hold up after a decade? Let’s dive in and find out!
Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire is a bullet hell shmup, (a.k.a. Shoot ’em up) where players go through a handful of levels surviving waves of enemies and an onslaught of bullets. Every level has a mid-boss and obviously, each level ends with a boss fight; which ends up being one of the sisters.
Each character has three different attacks: basic shooting, bombs, and what is called Summoning; this is basically a strong attack that will deal more damage than the regular shooting. Bombs will obviously destroy every enemy and bullets on screen. Each of the five has different types of Summoning and Bombs making playthrough slightly more different than one another.
The level difficulty and boss battles ramp up progressively; it doesn’t get too hard or unfair but requires quick reflexes. Levels are easily manageable, with a reasonable amount of enemies and bullets on screen, however, bosses are hectic as hectic can be. Some of the later bosses leave little to no margin for error as there’s barely any room for your character to move.
Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire looks fine; obviously it will not push any console to its limit, but it’s bright, colourful, and entertaining to look at. The amount of bullets on-screen during boss battles is quite impressive, but nothing for fans of the bullet-hell genre. The story is told through comic book-like scenes with characters banting with one another. It’s funny to watch at first, but unless you need to know every detail of the story, you’ll skip through everything. Audio-wise, it’s fine. Nothing special. Characters’ lines are delivered a bit over the top to go with the nature of the game; the score is easily forgettable.
For those up to the challenge or testing the waters of the bullet-hell genre, Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire is a must-play. It’s short and the character diversity gives the game some decent replay value; along with the multiple levels of difficulty. If you have some time and money to spare, Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire is a great way to invest.
The Good
- Crazy and intense boss battles.
- Great character diversity.
- Evidence that shmups are little alive and kicking.
The Bad
- Playthroughs are pretty short.
- Can get overly hectic at times.
Family Focus
Sisters Royale: Sisters Under Fire is rated T for Teen and PEGI 7 due to the presence of fantasy violence and suggestive themes.
This review is based on a review copy of the game provided by the publisher.
