The tale of sibling rivalry told in bullethell form finally comes to the Xbox One with its colourful and rather odd storyline entact.
Back in February the Switch got a rather strange shmup which saw five special sisters fight it out to marry the same man in a rather colourful bullet hell style filled with as much bickering and banter as there are bullets.
The characters are great and the bickering is entertaining while gameplay is a little conflicted; the general sense of bullet-hell action feels good and has elements of the developers’ previous Castle of Shikigami series but control doesn’t seem to be as fluid as in other shooters, leading to some frustration during the most hectic moments.
Presentation outside of the character narrative is a little paired back, as if all the money went on the story art. It doesn’t hurt the gameplay but it’s quite surprising given most of the competition in this genre has some wonderful background art to the levels and spectacle in these type of game is half the fun.
With just 5 levels, replayability from high score chasing becomes the important focus and it’s well catered for here with a unique Tension Bonus System that multiplies your score and number of coins based on your distance from enemies. Each level does boast unique features, too, such as slippery ice or being under the cover of night.
Sisters Royale is still a solid title that will give you some entertainment, particularly if you find ultra-cute Anime girls fighting for a man your thing (it wasn’t for me) but the generic nature and dated graphics stand in the way of this being another classic of the genre.
Sisters Royale
Pros
- Colourful cast and story
- Score system is unique
- Entertaining storyline
- Mixing of old and new ideas
Cons
- Level design is basic
- Presentation in the main game is poor
- Repetitive
- Fairly short
