以罪之名 / In the name of sin

(Loud protest) "I am a straight! Straight!! I will not participate in this gay game!"

Despite all the mixed reviews, I decided to give this game a shot and I was glad that I did. This game is very similar to Danganronpa/Zero escape series. A group of people are trapped at specific location and are forced to play games for survival. As a added bonus, you also get a chance to choose one of the two handsome guys to have a romance with. The puzzles are fairly easy which is nice since I don't have to look for hints/guide to solve them. The translation is not that great but it is understandable and you can finish the game fine. Also has nice CGS and the plot itself is very much worth playing.
If you are a fan of Danganronpa/Zero escape series, I would definitely recommend that you give this game a try.

There is no way to know if you save at a point that always result in a bad ending, I have to watch a walk-through to know I do not have the stat to pass.

Played Character Route Order: Yi Weihang ◈ Tang Yao

In the Name of Sin is a Visual Novel developed and published by 橙光游戏. We take on the role of He Chuyan, a girl that unwillingly has to take part in the Killing Game and at best withstands against a total of eleven opponents. All of them, including our heroine herself, committed crimes that are either against the law or morality, and these are also the reason for their participation in the first place. Some phases of the game require the participants to work in groups in order to make progress through the different stages. The last three players compete against each other until only one sinner is left that will be considered as the winner of the Killing Game and will be granted to live. The other eleven participants are expected to die trying.

Something I really liked about the narrative is that you are able to see how He Chuyan evolves and matures while working together with her teammates. Despite the serious storytelling, you also encounter some funny and delightful moments that lighten up the glum mood greatly.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1197508976

We meet several side characters, most of them are rather obnoxious, but a few are quite capable to evoke sympathy. I don't want to go into any further detail since it's best to know as little as possible about the story, and I feel like I've already said too much. The soundtrack and sound effects add a lot to the dark/mysterious premise and are quite good, but the audio quality itself is pretty poor.

There are only two romance interests, but I didn't feel like I need more romance options at all. Both represent the opposite of the other. You can either fall in love with the smart and intellectual Megane Yi Weihang, who is capable to find a solution even for difficult situations while keeping a cool head, or go for the funny and easygoing Tang Yao. Both guys are quite handsome, to say the least. The CGs are very nice to look at and the artwork is beautiful, even in spite of its blurriness. This Visual Novel also provides some extras, such as a Christmas Scenario, which takes place after the main game. It was a nice reward to spend an hour for the extras alone.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1197508932

Now, I don't blame you if you are wondering why I wrote a negative review, so let me explain. The English translation is not as bad as in Desperate game or Behind the Truth and you might be able to understand most part of the story if you are willing to spend some time with riddling that is. But the poor translation absolutely kills the atmosphere in this one as well for me which, admittedly, saddens me way more than it was the case for other games 橙光游戏 has published so far on Steam. I tried really hard to understand everything, because In the Name of Sin is really exhilarating, especially if you like the vibe and setting of games like Danganronpa. However, the only reason I'm able to tell you all of this is because I've wasted hours to catch the context, and that is an absolute no-go for a text-based game. I'm not even confident in saying that I understood everything the way it was supposed to be. Damn, I can't even tell you if it's the game that was so amazing or if it was my own imagination.

Alas, 橙光游戏 don't spend much effort into fixing their games, whether regarding the translation or the bugs that occur for some people. This is really unfortunate because all their games technically have the capability to be enjoyable, especially this one. It could've been an enrichment for the Otome genre in general, instead, it's nothing more than wasted potential and I know that many people won't even give it a chance just because of that and I'd lie if I say that I can't sympathize with that.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1197509013

I can overlook quite a few typos, although in this case it just takes away a lot of the thrilling atmosphere of the story. Many situations simply seem ridiculous, unintentionally funny, or they just don't make any sense at all. That's fatal and intolerable, especially for a Visual Novel that requires a lot of interaction. A puzzle, in this case, solved by decisions you make, quickly turns into a ridiculous guessing game; either you just don't understand what you actually have to do or the options the game offers you are unclear. That ruins the illusion of tactical thinking and is not challenging at all. There is nothing to achieve because all you are doing is to guess, no more thinking is required at this point.

It would be great if 橙光游戏 could hire a proofreader to clean up the translation and at the same time fine-tune the UI and graphics, which on the other hand would also allow setting the selling price higher as well. However, I doubt that will ever happen, therefore, I simply can't recommend the game in its current state at all.

[quote]𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐤𝐚𝐢'𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐑𝐏𝐆 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬[/quote]

"In the name of sin" was a (barely) decent otome/mystery visual novel, similar to Dangaronpa, but with some differences in quality. The errors and mistakes of translating the game into English is noticeable. There is no way around it. I normally can ignore typos and grammatically errors if they are kept to a minimum, but it was hard not to notice the difference here. The second issue is the bugs. No matter if you followed the decisions exactly, you would get a bad ending. The only way around this is if you start each chapter from the pick your chapter option in the main menu, and start from there.

It was a little frustrating because even if I had the correct choices originally, I would literally have to go through these means just to make sure I could finish the story properly. This is turn made it difficult to try my own luck and see where fate leads me.

If you are looking for a game that passes a level of polish you expect a game with a price tag to provide, then I honesty have to say no - this is not recommended. There are simply too many errors. It is something I might expect from a free game, but not from a selling one even if the selling price is low.

I hope the producers fix the terrible English translations and that one major bug. It is really the only thing that keeps me holding me back from saying "Yes! I absolutely recommend the game!"

But I'd feel wrong and guilty saying it just by the amount of English errors I found. Fix these issues please!

I really want to like this game. I love the concept of it as it is similar to the Nonary Games and Dangaronpa. I love the music and the art is really well done. The downside is that the English translation of this game is pretty bad since there are multiple spelling and grammatical errors. However, that's not a deal-breaking for me since the game was pretty enjoyable.

However, the reason why I do not recommend this game is because I think the game itself has some bugs to work on. I spent approximately 14 hours on this game, trying to get the good ending. This game should approximately take about 2-3 hours for one play through and less time when you can skip through. So, I spend a lot of time trying to get the good ending. By the 10th hour, I caved in and youtubed a playthrough. I followed the choices exactly and I did not get the same ending as the playthrough. I checked the ending tab in the game and the ending that I got did not match its description, prompting me to ask if there is a bug in the english translation. Curious, I replayed the entire game in Chinese, using the same walkthrough and thus, choices. I get an entirely seperate ending (which was different from the one in the walkthrough and the one I got in the English translation). However, this ending also did not match its description in the endings tab in the game, making me (in the 14th hour of this game) think that the game might have bug with its endings in general. So I was pretty frustrated and disappointed. Until the developers fix this, I do not think I will be recommending this game to any of my friends despite its neat concept, art, and music.

tldr; I like the music, concept, and art. However, the English translation has many grammatical and spelling errors. Also, I think that there is a bug with the endings. For more information, read the full review. :)

I like the types of games being made here, I can see that the creator has put a lot of thought in to the creepy storyline and it has good atmosphere.

I think this game has a great underlying concept at a fair price, but it needs work, especially the English translation. I recommend, play the game yourself and see what you think.

Do you like Danganronpa? How about Zero Escape? Ever wonder what would result if a developer took a stab at combining them both while including their own elements? If you answered "yes" to all of the above, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from In the name of sin.

One of the strongest parts of the package is the visuals, as the in-game images and trailer on the store page suggest. At this price point, I was more than willing to give leeway on the graphical side of the equation. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only do the character art, locations, and other visual assets hold up, they represent a level of quality typically seen in VN-based games costing an upwards of 8-10 times as much. They are certainly comparable (if not at times superior) to those found in the aforementioned games that this one is most certainly patterned after.

As for the audio, while simple and mostly subdued, it remains adequate and fits the games locales and events quite nicely. The music is mostly derivative, but still adds ambience to the environment laid out by the games often impressive visuals. Unfortunately, the characters do not appear to be voice acted, with only the occasional sigh, grunt, groan, or surprised reaction being heard.

Another fairly solid and engaging part of the game can be found in its setting and thematic elements. 12 "sinners" are gathered together to play the Arbitration game... a series of five events where the winner can receive atonement for their crimes, with the losers suffering the penalty of a horrific death. Scoring is kept track via a collection of coins the player possesses at any given time. While additional coins are added to a players total for winning events within the Arbitration game, they are subtracted accordingly for losing, failing to meet objectives, etc. If a players coin total is reduced below zero, they are effectively ejected from the game and subject to a grisly demise. Time limits are also put into place, heightening the tension and adding to the dark mood the game is trying to convey.

The characters, along with their personalities and interactions, also assist in setting the stage for the events that play out. The player character, He Chuyan, is written as the typical "golly gee, I'm not sure why I'm here, but I'm going to do my best anyway" stereotype found in entries of the Danganronpa series. Likewise, most of the other characters consist of high-level archetypes made popular in other visual novels. Still, they are serviceable and fit well into the thematic elements of the game. Just don't be surprised if this game fails to tread any new ground in its character personalities or overall designs.

The weakest part of the package, and the one that unfortunately holds the game back quite a bit, is in it's English translation. For the Visual Novel portions, this is less of a deal breaker and a fairly fluent English speaker can likely piece together not only the story at large, but the individual character emotions without too much concern or rereading. However, the events that take place during the Arbitration game suffer quite a bit in their far less than optimal translation. This is particularly true when the rules of each game are explained and the character dialogs during those events are concerned. I found myself having to play through each game several times before I was successful... not really due to any lack of skill or reasoning, but because the details were incredibly unclear regarding what I was supposed to be doing at any specific time.

A better English translation is certainly possible as I was able to rearrange and reword things in my head to provide something closer to what the developers likely intended. Perhaps a future update, via developer DLC or fan made, will become available and the game would be far better for it. Also, native controller support would be a nice update as some of us enjoy these games from the comfort of our couches. Until that day (maybe?) comes, controller support can effectively be had via the various mouse emulation programs available.

Overall, In the name of sin is certainly worth the extremely low price of admission, particularly if you've played and enjoyed Danganronpa, Zero Escape, or both. You won't find much that strays too far away from those well-worn franchises, but it's a clone that is both serviceable and even impressive at times as it attempts to stand on it's own. Unfortunately, the less than stellar English translation represents somewhat of a stumbling block throughout.