The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Early Access Launch Gets Mixed Reviews on Steam

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Early Access Launch Garners Mixed Steam Reviews

The early access launch of “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin” on Steam has been met with a decidedly mixed reception from players, with the game currently holding a “Mixed” user review score of 52% positive based on over 1,700 reviews. This indicates a significant portion of the player base has reservations about the game, despite its strong initial sales performance, climbing to No. 6 on Steam’s global Top Sellers chart shortly after its early access release.

Developed by Netmarble, this open-world anime RPG aims to immerse players in the beloved universe of “The Seven Deadly Sins,” offering a sprawling adventure with tag-based combat, character customization, and cooperative multiplayer options. While the game boasts impressive visuals powered by Unreal Engine 5 and a narrative that expands upon the original anime’s lore, the mixed reviews suggest that the execution has fallen short for a substantial number of players.

The early access period, which began on March 16, 2026, for PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5, has provided players with their first taste of Prince Tristan of Liones’ journey through a chaotic Britannia. The full global launch, including mobile platforms, is scheduled for March 23, 2026.

Combat System: A Core Focus with Divisive Feedback

At the heart of “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin” lies its tag-team-based combat system, which emphasizes fluid action, strategic character switching, and elemental synergy. Players assemble a team of four heroes and can swap between them in real-time during battles to adapt to changing situations and chain together powerful combos. This dynamic system involves utilizing character skills, tag skills, and ultimate moves, all while managing elemental advantages and a shared Burst Gauge.

The combat mechanics revolve around building the Burst Gauge by using attacks of the same element, which then triggers powerful buffs and special effects. Tag Skills, activated by specific character pairings under certain conditions, unleash devastating joint attacks that can immediately push the Burst Gauge to its activation threshold, serving as effective combo finishers. Furthermore, a weak point system has been introduced, allowing players to target specific physical weak points on bosses for increased damage, though this can also bring players closer to dangerous attacks.

However, this intricate combat system has received mixed feedback. While some players praise its depth and potential for strategic play, others find it clunky and unpolished. Complaints about clunky movement, characters getting stuck on terrain, and animation lock-ins without easy cancellation contribute to the dissatisfaction. The responsiveness of enemy AI has also been called into question, with some players describing them as “pre-programmed sentinels” rather than dynamic opponents.

Gacha Mechanics and Player Progression: A Familiar Loop

As expected for a free-to-play anime RPG, “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin” heavily features a gacha system for acquiring new characters and weapons. The game offers two hero banners: a permanent banner with the regular hero roster and weapons, and a limited-time featured banner that showcases a specific character. The rates for obtaining SSR characters are set at 0.8% on the regular banner, with a 0.4% chance for the featured SSR on the limited banner. A pity system is in place, guaranteeing an SSR character at 80 pulls and a rate-up featured character at 120 pulls.

The game provides a substantial number of free pulls at launch, with around 288 available through story, quests, exploration, and events, which is enough to potentially secure a featured SSR character with careful resource management. Weapons, unlike in some other gacha titles, are primarily crafted through a workbench system rather than being pulled from a dedicated weapon gacha. This crafting system allows players to obtain all weapon types, including SR and SSR, with materials gathered from dungeons and bosses.

Despite the availability of free pulls and the crafting system, some players express concerns about the overall monetization and progression. The cost of pulls and the perceived difficulty of maxing out characters through duplicates have been points of contention. Some reviews suggest that the game is designed to encourage spending, with a significant investment potentially needed to acquire and upgrade top-tier characters for optimal progression.

Performance and Technical Issues Plague Early Access

A significant number of early access players have reported considerable performance issues, contributing heavily to the mixed reviews on Steam. Many users are experiencing stutters during combat, frame drops in open areas, and general inconsistency in performance, attributing these problems to the game’s use of Unreal Engine 5. Some players have even reported that the game causes their PCs and even PlayStation 5 consoles to overheat after only a few minutes of gameplay, a critical issue for long-term playability.

Optimization appears to be a major hurdle, with players detailing issues such as massive character desync even with low ping, characters clipping into walls, and mounts malfunctioning. These technical glitches and performance dips detract from the overall immersion and enjoyment of the game. While the developers have acknowledged these issues and are working on patches, the current state of performance is a significant drawback for many early adopters.

Adjusting in-game graphics settings, such as lowering shadow quality, post-processing, and special effects, can offer some improvement for players on lower-end hardware, but the core performance problems persist for a notable portion of the player base. The game’s demanding nature on hardware has led to comparisons with other Unreal Engine 5 titles that have faced similar launch performance challenges.

Visuals and World Design: A Strong Foundation

Visually, “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin” generally receives praise for its adherence to the anime’s art style and its detailed, vibrant open world. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the game renders Britannia with a high degree of visual fidelity, featuring dynamic weather, environmental depth, and detailed character models. The seamless open-world exploration, stretching from the royal capital of Liones to sweeping plains and ancient ruins without loading screens, is a key selling point for many.

The game’s aesthetic successfully captures the charm and spirit of the anime, making it appealing to both existing fans and newcomers. Players can traverse the world through various means, including walking, climbing, gliding, and riding mounts, with certain characters offering unique traversal abilities. The world is populated with interactive elements and environmental mechanics, aiming to create a lively and immersive experience.

However, some players have noted visual inconsistencies, with certain textures, like rock formations, appearing murky up close, a characteristic sometimes seen in Netmarble’s gacha titles. Despite these minor visual hiccups, the overall presentation and world design are considered strong points by many, providing a visually appealing backdrop for the game’s narrative and gameplay.

Narrative and Lore Expansion: A Multiverse Adventure

“The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin” introduces an original storyline that ventures beyond the confines of the original anime and manga, exploring a multiverse concept. Players step into the role of Prince Tristan of Liones, the son of Meliodas and Elizabeth, who inadvertently causes a Space-Time Distortion by interacting with the Book of Stars. This event causes timelines to collide, bringing together characters from different eras and dimensions, and allowing for “what if” scenarios to unfold.

The narrative also incorporates characters from “The Four Knights of the Apocalypse,” the sequel manga, creating a crossover-style experience with original plot threads designed specifically for the game. This approach allows for a fresh exploration of the franchise’s lore, appealing to long-time fans by revisiting familiar concepts in new ways while remaining accessible to newcomers.

The game’s story emphasizes restoring order to a chaotic world, touching upon themes of legacy, friendship, and high-stakes adventure. The developers have aimed to deliver a narrative that is both engaging and expansive, providing a substantial amount of content for players to delve into, potentially requiring many hours to complete the main questline.

Player Concerns and Future Outlook

Despite the game’s strong initial sales and visually appealing presentation, the mixed Steam reviews highlight several areas of concern for the player base. Performance issues, clunky combat, and the perceived aggressiveness of the gacha monetization model are frequently cited as major drawbacks. The game’s technical stability and the polish of its core gameplay mechanics appear to be the most significant barriers to a more positive reception.

The developers, Netmarble, have acknowledged the issues and are reportedly working on performance patches and bug fixes. The success of “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin” in the long term will likely depend on their ability to address these technical shortcomings and refine the gameplay experience.

For fans of “The Seven Deadly Sins” IP, the game offers a chance to immerse themselves in a familiar world with new stories and characters. However, for those seeking a polished and technically sound gacha RPG experience, the current mixed reception suggests that potential players may wish to wait for further updates and stability improvements before diving in.