Some people play shmups for the story ... Who am I kidding!? People play shmups for the high score opportunities! Yep, that's it. Interestingly enough though Alfa Systems shmup "Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire" offers the best of both worlds. A story regarding five fabled sisters destined to stop an ultimate evil known as Seytan (Satan???), and unique shoot 'em up mechanics with which to top the global leaderboards. As far as the story goes it's an interesting tale of sibling rivalry that ends up doing an about face over a man who is the romantic center of attention. The five leading ladies including Sonay, Selma, Nur, Ece, and Lale all have their hearts set on wedding the man of the hour, Yashin. What transpires between them is a wacky war of words, and will. With their familiars, their sharp tongues, and their magic abilities they enter the heat of battle as brides to be or not to be.
Through a series of five stages with their own separate elemental themes, and three different difficulties (Easy, Normal & Hard) you will be guiding each of the sisters, one by one, as they face their own conscience as well as siblings over Lord Yashin's hand in marriage. At their disposal is the use of screen clearing bombs that can be refilled using a summon attack, summon attacks that when continuously fired produce a different elemental attack for each sister, and a different shot type per sister. The scoring gimmick is one of those close shave deals where when firing near bullet hell spray you will earn a score multiplier until you get hit. Added to the multiplying effect are hidden fairies that can be collected triggering a score boosting phase that lasts for a limited time.
As far as playthrough presentation goes it can be set to horizontal, vertical a, or vertical b at the main options menu. You can also turn on or of the story elements that come in the form of art inclusive text boxes. That, and other switches in the "Maniac" menu that change the functionality of different aspects of gameplay. Things like bullet size, bullet speed, slowdown when nearing bullets, and other things that kind of cheat the system. When you get done with all that, and choose either practice for a single stage demo session, or game start for a full playthrough you will be prompted to choose one of the three difficulty settings. The difficulties change the challenge by the number of enemies onscreen, and the amount of bullet hell you'll encounter. Making the playthrough as easy or as difficult as you wish.
Stages in Sisters Royale are an auto-scrolling affair leaving you to guide the leading lady with the left thumbstick in all directions as you dish out damage with your refillable stock of five bombs, your summon attack, or your standard shot. One thing to note is that holding down the summon attack button while dodging close to enemy bullet hell will slowly refill life meter, and bomb stock. Bombs are crucial to the mechanics formula in that boss health bars are beefy, and to properly capitalize on the biggest points you must defeat the boss within the 90 seconds that countdown as you fight said boss. It goes without saying that your three bar life meter is crucial as well, and it will deplete one full bar per hit while simultaneously knocking all of your collected coins out of your character. Coins that drop from downed enemies.
As you progress through each stage you'll face environmental hazards, enemies, and a mid-boss that only lingers around for a short period of time. There are secrets to be found in destructible stage props including the multiplier fairies. Of course by the end you will face off against one of five sisters, or your conscience. In the character versus character instances, in particular, you will be able to read through their textual arguments before engaging. This happens at the start of the stage, and before the final boss fight. After each stage's conclusion your score will be tallied up. Taking in account the time it took to complete the stage, enemies killed, continues used, coins collected, and x8 multipliers reached. The final end tally being somewhat more detailed including things like a collective five stage total with a lettered grade for the overall performance. It is this score that can be found on the local, and global leaderboards with character used, and difficulty showcased along with your overall letter grade. It gives you something to work towards as you try to perfect your playthroughs for each of the characters.
When it comes to the visuals Sisters Royale features a more Western anime character design with a more traditional Japanese chibi anime design for the playable 3D character models. The art is mostly static, and 2D complimenting the exaggerated text with different colored fonts thrown in for added expression. The 3D models, and layout being presented mostly in a semi-top down perspective. Overall It's a decent looking game for the price, and functions quite well for a shmup of this type. The soundtrack is also noteworthy with a Japanese anime style to it.
The Verdict ...
For $13.99 on the PS4 I don't think this is a bad shmup at all. It's not perfect in that the bullet hell is unavoidable at times, and hazards annoying, but it plays well enough with a somewhat funny tale told between the five sisters that goes in line with anime nosebleed humor which is tacked on for extra measure. On top of that it does have replay value, because of the included leaderboards. That, and the easy to earn PS4 trophies makes it a good game to pick up for the price if you are into shmups, particularly Japanese inspired/created shmups. Sisters Royale gets my approval!
Through a series of five stages with their own separate elemental themes, and three different difficulties (Easy, Normal & Hard) you will be guiding each of the sisters, one by one, as they face their own conscience as well as siblings over Lord Yashin's hand in marriage. At their disposal is the use of screen clearing bombs that can be refilled using a summon attack, summon attacks that when continuously fired produce a different elemental attack for each sister, and a different shot type per sister. The scoring gimmick is one of those close shave deals where when firing near bullet hell spray you will earn a score multiplier until you get hit. Added to the multiplying effect are hidden fairies that can be collected triggering a score boosting phase that lasts for a limited time.
As far as playthrough presentation goes it can be set to horizontal, vertical a, or vertical b at the main options menu. You can also turn on or of the story elements that come in the form of art inclusive text boxes. That, and other switches in the "Maniac" menu that change the functionality of different aspects of gameplay. Things like bullet size, bullet speed, slowdown when nearing bullets, and other things that kind of cheat the system. When you get done with all that, and choose either practice for a single stage demo session, or game start for a full playthrough you will be prompted to choose one of the three difficulty settings. The difficulties change the challenge by the number of enemies onscreen, and the amount of bullet hell you'll encounter. Making the playthrough as easy or as difficult as you wish.
Stages in Sisters Royale are an auto-scrolling affair leaving you to guide the leading lady with the left thumbstick in all directions as you dish out damage with your refillable stock of five bombs, your summon attack, or your standard shot. One thing to note is that holding down the summon attack button while dodging close to enemy bullet hell will slowly refill life meter, and bomb stock. Bombs are crucial to the mechanics formula in that boss health bars are beefy, and to properly capitalize on the biggest points you must defeat the boss within the 90 seconds that countdown as you fight said boss. It goes without saying that your three bar life meter is crucial as well, and it will deplete one full bar per hit while simultaneously knocking all of your collected coins out of your character. Coins that drop from downed enemies.
As you progress through each stage you'll face environmental hazards, enemies, and a mid-boss that only lingers around for a short period of time. There are secrets to be found in destructible stage props including the multiplier fairies. Of course by the end you will face off against one of five sisters, or your conscience. In the character versus character instances, in particular, you will be able to read through their textual arguments before engaging. This happens at the start of the stage, and before the final boss fight. After each stage's conclusion your score will be tallied up. Taking in account the time it took to complete the stage, enemies killed, continues used, coins collected, and x8 multipliers reached. The final end tally being somewhat more detailed including things like a collective five stage total with a lettered grade for the overall performance. It is this score that can be found on the local, and global leaderboards with character used, and difficulty showcased along with your overall letter grade. It gives you something to work towards as you try to perfect your playthroughs for each of the characters.
When it comes to the visuals Sisters Royale features a more Western anime character design with a more traditional Japanese chibi anime design for the playable 3D character models. The art is mostly static, and 2D complimenting the exaggerated text with different colored fonts thrown in for added expression. The 3D models, and layout being presented mostly in a semi-top down perspective. Overall It's a decent looking game for the price, and functions quite well for a shmup of this type. The soundtrack is also noteworthy with a Japanese anime style to it.
The Verdict ...
For $13.99 on the PS4 I don't think this is a bad shmup at all. It's not perfect in that the bullet hell is unavoidable at times, and hazards annoying, but it plays well enough with a somewhat funny tale told between the five sisters that goes in line with anime nosebleed humor which is tacked on for extra measure. On top of that it does have replay value, because of the included leaderboards. That, and the easy to earn PS4 trophies makes it a good game to pick up for the price if you are into shmups, particularly Japanese inspired/created shmups. Sisters Royale gets my approval!
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