Honestly I couldn’t really tell you the story of this game even if I wanted to. Its just so bizarre and seems to have a lot of chunks missing from it. Like its an unfinished game and they were only able to use what they had. I could put some bits and pieces together, but it still doesn’t make much sense. Saki is some sort of dude that is fighting the war against an organization, then like he transforms because he was exposed to some blood or something. Then for some reason his girlfriend or something like then goes out and tries to save him, they end up being together, in a literal sense, and taking down another earth from some alien girl. I wish I could understand more of it, but really the whole thing went kinda fast, and I feel like there really was supposed to be more to this game. I mean its only a port with English as its main language so a lot of things can get mixed up in it, but really its main focus really shouldn’t be the story.
I have to say, that comparing both the story and the controls, well they kind are a lot of like. The controls are hardly understandable when you first go into the game, and it literally throws you in without any sort of instruction or button cue or anything. There isn’t even a cutscene to lull you into this game, its just go go go! Sin and Punishment really wastes no time, throws you into the fray, and by that I mean this game is really hard. Even on the easiest difficulty you still have a bunch of enemies going at you all the time, and you really need to know what you’re doing before you go charging in. Thankfully Sin and Punishment has a training mode, but why this isn’t forced on a player, especially considering how much it is need to know how all the buttons work, I’ll never really know. The main game itself is actually quite fun though, although fairly short for any given run, lasting about an hour. Sin and Punishment is really reminiscence of a game called Wild Guns, but a lot more complex and less fun. The controls aren’t really that great even when you do learn them, and more often than not you will be constantly dying because the controls don’t respond has fast as you want them too. See the game Wild Guns had a lot of tight controls, despite having such small amount of buttons to work with, and always stuck to one mode while going through the game. You always stayed on one screen while all the enemies came to you on either side. Sin and Punishment however decides to one up such a formula and has you do a punch of running and platforming while doing this from time to time. This often makes a mess of the controls having to keep track of all correct buttons, the game itself, and the platforming. It was one thing to keep track of all the shots and enemies while they were coming at you, but to do all this while platforming gets annoying far faster than it should. Other than that hiccup though, Sin and Punishment is still a fun shooter. Utilizing everything properly and learning the ropes is really the only problem with Sin and Punishment, but once you dipped your foot in, the game becomes quite enjoyable.
Final Thoughts:
Sin and Punishment is truly a bizarre game, one that most people would pick as something only Japan could do. The controls are a bit hard to understand and use , and some of actions the game asks you are quite demanding even on the easiest difficulty. But if you stick with Sin and Punishment, and learn its ways the game can be quite fun and rewarding, although you may never actually understand what is going on.