{"id":273497,"date":"2021-07-04T14:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T19:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jbsgame.com\/?p=273497"},"modified":"2021-10-15T13:55:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T18:55:20","slug":"by-the-wayside-sin-and-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jbsgame.com\/by-the-wayside-sin-and-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin and Punishment is a game about delicious meat bugs attacking Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Good morning, Airan<\/strong><\/p> Sin & Punishment<\/i> is a fun topic for quite a few reasons. The most important is that it\u2019s a joint effort between Nintendo and the legendary developer, Treasure. If you\u2019re familiar with Treasure, you know you\u2019re in for a captivating trip. There\u2019s also the fact that it was a Japan-only release during the N64\u2019s sunset days. Thankfully, it was later localized on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console. Then it mystifyingly got a sequel on the Wii.<\/p> We\u2019re talking about the original, though. The Japanese swansong for Nintendo\u2019s 64-bit monstrosity (they didn\u2019t receive a release of Conker\u2019s Bad Fur Day<\/i>). It takes some explaining, but it\u2019s a fun ride, so buckle up.<\/p> <\/p> If you\u2019re unfamiliar with Treasure, let me just list off a few of their accomplishments: Gunstar Heroes<\/i>, Mischief Makers<\/i>, Ikaruga<\/i>, Bangai-O<\/i>, McDonald\u2019s Treasure Land Adventure<\/i>. It\u2019s possible you\u2019ve played none of these games, but if you have, you\u2019ll recognize them as being beyond description and compare. Whether or not you actually liked the games is another story, but in terms of creative direction, they\u2019re unparalleled.<\/p> Sin & Punishment<\/i> sits nicely under that umbrella. Let me see how plainly I can explain it: it\u2019s a story about a race of insect monsters that were bred by the Japanese to replace livestock as a source for meat. The meat monsters, known as the Ruffians, go berserk and start overrunning the country. The Armed Volunteers come in to set things right, but they’re apparently jerks because they\u2019re bad guys too.<\/p> You play as two youngsters, Saki and Airan.\u00a0 They are partnered with a person named Achi whose blood turns people into giant monsters. You\u2019re also down for killing anyone, Armed Volunteer and Ruffian alike, because I guess you have all the answers for fixing things.<\/p> <\/p> Sin & Punishment<\/i> is a mix between the rail and Cabal-<\/i>shooter genres. Its behind-the-back style of gameplay reminds immediately of Space Harrier<\/i>, but the controls feel more like the Landmaster sections in Star Fox 64<\/i>. What feels unique about it is that you run across the ground and have both ranged and melee attacks. You, therefore, have to dodge foreground attacks while dishing damage at the same time.<\/p> That signature Treasure weirdness? If you couldn\u2019t tell by the plot, it\u2019s here. From bosses that throw their grunts at you, to assaults on entire fleets of battleships, to just battling the Earth itself. It\u2019s easy to get lost in Sin & Punishment<\/i>. I\u2019ve practically rehearsed the story at this point because figuring it out on the fly can take some concentration. It\u2019s appropriately bizarre.<\/p> <\/p> What else is bizarre is the fact that it never came to North America. Okay, so 2000 wasn\u2019t the best time to be releasing a game on the N64, but Sin & Punishment <\/i>needed next to no translation. Mysteriously, despite being set in Japan and featuring Japanese characters, the dialogue is completely in English! Moreover, it was obviously done by western voice actors because there isn\u2019t a hint of an accent.<\/p> Maybe it was deemed too out there for North American audiences who were already looking forward to the next generation of consoles, but at least we got it eventually<\/i>.<\/p> It seems like some late-stage concession had to be made. The control scheme was originally designed so you had one hand on the D-pad and another on the stick; working the N64 controller\u2019s unique 3-prong design like it had rarely been done before. However, in the finished version, you can absolutely play with one hand in the C region and another on the stick. It\u2019s not any worse because of this, but you can tell someone reluctantly agreed to change their vision to accommodate players who had grown accustomed to one manner of grip.<\/p> <\/p> The biggest concession, however, is with the difficulty. The original title of Sin & Punishment <\/i>was Glass Soldier<\/i>, and this was largely due to how fragile the protagonists were in early builds. However, as legend has it, the director from Nintendo, Hitoshi Yamagami, found early builds too difficult. He debated with the team at Treasure to lower the difficulty, to which they said if he wasn\u2019t up to the task of playing the game, he didn\u2019t belong on the team<\/a>.<\/p> Yamagami got his way, but Treasure may have had a point because Sin & Punishment<\/i> isn\u2019t a difficult game in the slightest. For every 100 enemies you kill, you\u2019re given an extra life, and the game throws a constant deluge of them at you. As a result, you\u2019ll rack up a surplus pretty quickly, and dying just means continuing from the game\u2019s common checkpoints.<\/p> It\u2019s also staggeringly short, clocking in at maybe over an hour. With no challenge to offset this, the best you can do to add longevity is try for a high score. That\u2019s not something I\u2019m interested in, personally. However, it\u2019s an easy game to crack open every once and a while to fill part of an afternoon.<\/p> <\/p> Because of its unfortunate release window, Sin & Punishment<\/i> wasn\u2019t much of a seller. On the secondhand market, a used N64 copy can go for north of $60. You can still get it on the Wii U Virtual Console, however, which would be the way to go.<\/p>