[TGS 2021] Sin Chronicle , SEGA’s new mobile RPG Won’t Let You Roll Back Your Choices

Sega has announced Sin Chronicle, a “successor” to the Chain Chronicle series for smartphones releasing on December 15th, 2021. The game is also available for pre-registration now. You may also sign up to join the closed beta until October 7th, upon which the test itself will run October 14th – 21st. There’s no apparent player limit, with vague minimum specifications set at iOS 13.0 / Android 8.0 or above.

According to the presentation at TGS 2021, the game will feature its own story, capped out at the end of each chapter with big choices to determine the direction of the story.

They’re also upping the ante for anyone who likes to roll back their choices- the game will save your decisions on their own server, so you won’t be able to go back to see the other outcomes from the game’s branching pathways.

Hanging Out With The Boundary Knights

You’ll be recruiting members of the Boundary Knights- warriors who protect your walled city. Which characters you recruit will be tied to your choices- such as an early decision you’ll have to make choosing between Sera and Chloe. Who you recruit will lock the other one out of your adventure, so you’ll really have to think about who to take with you.

You’ll also have bond episodes, with vignettes between various party members. During the presentation, they showed characters interacting independent of the player character, and you’ll be notified mid-adventure if you’ve unlocked another of these bond episodes.

It looks like the gameplay will be primarily about exploring the abyss- with a map of areas spiraling downwards. We don’t know too much about the setting yet, but it looks like you’re not the only Boundary Knights sent into there, and you’ll encounter more during your journey.

Combat

While Sin Chronicle uses a turn-based combat system, it looks like they’re making a lot of design choices to mix it with action elements, such as having your character’s position remain when they move to attack. This looks like it’ll affect your characters’ position on the aggro table, since it looks  like most enemy mobs will attack what’s in front of them.

Aside from your own party, it looks like the level you’re on will also give you a Guest character, who will join your party for the sequence. They’ll even show up behind your character, tailing you as you explore the game’s world.

Bosses also have their own gimmick, where they can raise shields that go down after a predetermined number of hits. You’ll have to choose your moves wisely, since your priority will be to break the shield as quickly as possible.

Your moves are split into 3 options per character, with a BP limit controlling how  you use them. We haven’t seen too many of the different types of skills you can use in the game, but it looks like balancing out your party’s skills is gonna be important for planning an effective party. There’s a turn order that shows up at the start of combat, too. There looks to be a damage multiplier the higher your combo, among other things.

Of course, it’s a full-fledged JRPG- so that means lots of typical tropes like pre-emptive attacks, as well as gathering items which you won’t be able to get via a gacha system.

Monetization

We actually know surprisingly little about the monetization strategy for Sin Chronicle. From the presentation they’ve outright said weapons won’t be subject to a gacha, and it looks like recruiting party members is too integral to the story to also be a part of the gacha system.

Judging by the fact the game aims to have pre-registration rewards, it’s likely there’ll be some sort of gacha system, but we’ll have to wait to find out more. At this juncture, there’s no apparent mention of a global release.

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