Five sisters with magical powers are prophesied to work together to defeat an evil being.  Only problem is, the sisters hate one another.  And instead of working together, they’re fighting each other over the love of a man!  Sounds like a pretty crazy story for a ‘bullet hell’ 2-D shooter, but that’s what this is!  It was available earlier this year on Switch and PS4, but is now on Xbox One as well.  But I’m reviewing it on Switch.

You pick one of the five sisters to play as, each one with their own unique shot pattern, close range attack, and limited screen clearing bombs.  None of the characters really stood out to me, but the one lady wearing green had a neat homing shot.  As a ‘bullet hell’ shooter, you’ll be avoiding screens full of projectiles mostly.  Kind of reminds me of flowery firework patterns.  If you get close to a bullet or enemy, your shots will greatly increase in power, so you’ll want to do that often.  Sometimes you can pick up a flying fairy to double your points for a while.

One neat thing about the stages is that since you’re walking instead of flying, you have to deal with terrain obstacles as well.  Some are just there to block your path and bullets, while some stages have slippery floors, wind, or dark areas where you must shoot lanterns to light the way.  There are five stages in total, and you must fight one of the other sisters at the end of each one, with your love at the end.  But there is a surprise twist!

The game has a few small problems.  It’s short at only five stages, and I do wish there was a two player option.  You can also turn the screen sideways on the Switch to get a full screen effect, but you can’t change the directional controls so that seems kind of useless.  But otherwise this is one of the more playable ‘bullet hell’ shooters I’ve come across, and I like the lighthearted feel and peppy music.  Plus you can select your difficulty, so even I can manage it.  The game was made by Alfa Systems, who is best known for the Castle Shikigami shooter series.  Alfa hasn’t made a new game in about ten years.  I have to wonder what these video game companies do in between long stretches like that!

Kid Factor:

Sisters Royale is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Suggestive Themes.  You do shoot pretty much anything that moves, but defeated enemies just explode or disappear into sparkles when defeated.  Some of the sisters wear revealing outfits, but most of the sexual themes are in the text only.  Because of the high difficulty involved, I’d say it’s best for older gamers anyway.

Tags: Game Reviews