The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Review – A Better Gacha, Not Quite A Great RPG

Overview

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin was pitched as Netmarble’s big redemption arc. After pushing the global launch to March to "refine combat, exploration, and overall quality," Origin finally lands on PC, PS5, and mobile promising a more tactical battle system, a less predatory gacha, and a genuinely open Britannia to explore.

It partially delivers. This is a clear step up from Grand Cross in how it plays and how it treats your wallet, but it also feels like a game stretched between platforms and business goals. When it clicks, it’s a joyful, flashy anime ARPG. When it doesn’t, you feel every recycled event, every samey puzzle, every server hiccup.

Combat: Finally More Than Button Mashing

Combat was the biggest question mark after early previews. The delay period was specifically framed around deepening the "link-up" system, tightening dodge timing, and making elemental synergy more meaningful. On that front, Origin actually hits most of its marks.

You run a four character party and can hot swap between them, chaining skills and ultimates into what the game calls Link Bursts. In the launch build, this system is noticeably more responsive than in the test client. Swaps buffer cleanly off dodges, and enemies telegraph their big swings clearly enough that perfect evades feel earned rather than random. The extra tuning time shows in how consistent the frame pacing is during big raid encounters; even on mobile, the game rarely turns into a slideshow during the busier fights.

The big upgrade is build nuance. Every character now has a meaningful web of passive nodes and gear choices that nudge them toward specific roles. You can lean Tristan into evasive DPS with high-risk, high-reward burst windows or bulk him up as a frontline bruiser. Support units like Tioreh can be min-maxed into full heal-bots or hybrid buffers. It is still nowhere near the depth of a traditional PC action RPG, but compared to the flat, gear-only scaling of many mobile gachas, Origin gives you enough levers to pull that tweaking builds between raids and boss attempts actually matters.

The trade off is readability. Once you get a full team’s worth of skills, pets, and link animations on screen, fights can devolve into particle chaos. The March build adds more on-screen prompts and cleanly color-coded telegraphs, but there are still boss attacks that vanish under your own fireworks. On controller this is manageable. On a smaller phone, the clarity gap is hard to ignore.

Enemy design is a mixed bag. Main story bosses in the second and third regions genuinely test your understanding of dodge windows and elemental break thresholds. Side content, though, leans on damage sponges. You will see the same armored knights and demonic beasts recycled with slightly tweaked movesets far too often.

Overall, combat is where the delay paid off most. The systems feel cohesive, player expression is better than expected, and the core loop of dodge, swap, burst stays satisfying dozens of hours in, even if the encounter variety can’t quite keep pace.

Exploration: A Pretty World That Often Plays It Safe

Netmarble talked a big game about transforming Britannia into a seamless, exploration driven world that could stand next to the genre’s heavy hitters. The final result is a solid but conservative open world that is at its best when it leans into series lore, and at its weakest when it falls back on checklist design.

The good news: the regions are visually distinct, with sharp art direction that translates the manga’s exaggerated silhouettes into a coherent 3D space. Liones’ rolling fields, ruined temples warped by space-time rifts, and the Twilight Forest’s serene waterways all look great, especially on PS5 at higher settings. Traversal tools like gliding, swimming, and pet-assisted jumps are responsive, and the addition of light puzzle mechanics tied to elemental skills helps moment-to-moment exploration feel less like a straight sprint between map markers.

Unfortunately, the density and creativity of content rarely hit the same highs. Too many points of interest resolve into a tiny combat arena or a copy pasted puzzle that you solved five times already in the last zone. Hidden chests are often tucked in predictable corners, and environmental storytelling is surprisingly sparse for a series with such a wild cast. You get glimpses of what could have been in more bespoke side quests that lean into character-driven vignettes, but these are islands surrounded by seas of formula.

The delay clearly brought performance and stability gains, especially compared to early test builds. Streaming between zones is smoother and I hit far fewer hard loads. That said, mobile versions still suffer from texture pop in and occasional pathfinding glitches for AI companions. These rarely break quests outright, but they chip away at immersion in a game that is trying very hard to sell you on its world.

Exploring Britannia in Origin is pleasant and occasionally exciting, but it never crosses into truly compelling. If you come in expecting something as densely layered as the leaders of the open world ARPG space, you will not find it here.

Gacha & Economy: Surprisingly Restraint, With Catches

Given Netmarble’s track record, Origin’s monetization had every reason to be the disaster fans feared. The March launch build is not the horror story it could have been. The extra time was used to rebalance early game rewards and tweak banner pity systems, and those changes show.

The core character gacha is still front and center, but the pity ceiling is relatively generous, and there is a soft safety net that lets you redirect some duplicates into targeted progress toward specific units. Launch events hand out more premium currency than in comparable Netmarble titles, and the daily/weekly missions are tuned so that regular play feels rewarded rather than coerced into a never ending grind.

Most importantly, high rarity characters are not hard gated behind strict paywalls in the main story. The campaign is fully clearable with the starter cast and a couple of lucky pulls supplemented by free units from events. Co op raids start to push you toward more optimized rosters, but are not impossible to clear on a budget if you are willing to learn mechanics and coordinate.

That said, the scent of gacha is never far away. The weapon and pet systems add extra gacha layers unless you consciously ignore their banners, and late game optimization does lean into rolling for specific passive combinations. The stamina system is lenient early on, then tightens noticeably once you hit the post story grind. None of this is as suffocating as the worst offenders in the space, but it also keeps Origin firmly in "free to start, pay if you want to stay on the treadmill" territory.

The delay’s "gacha reforms" are real but modest. Origin will not bleed you dry just to see the ending, and that is a genuine improvement over many competitors. If you are chasing top tier raid performance or meta collections, you are still very much in whale country.

Performance, Controls, and Cross Platform Play

On PS5 and a mid range PC, Origin runs well. Frame rates are stable in most areas, with only the largest co op raids and busy social hubs causing dips. The control layouts feel thoughtfully designed, with accessible shortcuts for swapping and triggering link skills. Controller support on PC and mobile is robust.

Mobile performance is more variable. Newer flagship devices handle the action fine at medium to high settings, but older phones heat up quickly and drop frames in crowded fights. Netmarble’s post launch patches will need to focus here to avoid alienating a big chunk of the audience.

Cross progression between platforms works smoothly in the March build. Being able to grind dailies on a phone and then tackle raids on console is one of Origin’s strongest quality of life wins, and the delay period seems to have been used well to iron out major account sync issues.

Verdict

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin arrives with a lot of baggage and a lot of promises. It does not magically transform into the genre redefining masterpiece some hoped the delay would turn it into, but it is also not the cynical, cash grabbing reskin others feared.

Combat is legitimately engaging, a step above most gacha contemporaries thanks to its flexible party system and polished dodge and burst mechanics. The open world is vibrant but conservative, rarely taking the kind of risks that would make Britannia feel essential rather than optional. Monetization, while ever present, stops short of outright exploitation and respects your time more than expected.

If you love the Seven Deadly Sins universe or you are hunting for a cross platform ARPG with satisfying moment to moment combat and tolerable gacha, Origin is worth your time. Just temper expectations. The delay bought it polish and a better economy, not an entirely new identity.

Score: 7/10