The R18 Patch is free to download on the Publisher, Eroge Japan’s website. SiNiSistar 2 is, in no uncertain terms, a worthy successor to the title that precedes it. Building upon what is predecessor established, it brings a bevy of improvements and additions to the point the two are night and day. It’s a game where you can feel all the devs’ hard effort, passion, (figurative) spilt blood, and white fluids oozing from it. Especially those last two. This is that kind of game, after all. The game follows the two Purification Sisters, Lelia (renamable), the busty nun who you will play as in the game, and Haanja (not very big) who plays a more background support role - but don’t worry, she’s cool. Tasked by the Church, the two travel to Arcezon to purge the abhorrent abominations that have slowly corrupted the lands. TL;WR If you’ve played any Metroidvania, you’ve pretty much seen this game already – minus the long list of NSFW genre tags that apply. This game isn’t groundbreaking, but it knows its target audience and sticks to it. Its real value lies in how it evolves from the first game, which if you aren’t interested in seeing, maybe the game isn’t worth your time. But if you’re a fan of the first, or you like what you’ve seen in the game, play it. At the start, you will undoubtedly say, “Whoa…”, because you’re staring at Lelia for TWO BIG reasons. The first: the portrait is a traditional illustration rather than the exquisite dot work of the first game. The second: Lelia’s hot and her chest is huge. What more do you want me to say? I’m not judging. Then you’ll notice the world was crafted with a blend of 3D objects and 2D sprites for a HD-2D style – a minor, yet substantial departure from the first game’s pure 2D dot visuals. And then you’ll soon discover the world is interconnected. No more loading through each level from a menu Castlevania-style, now you’re walking between major areas room by room (granted with minimal loading) Simon’s Quest-style. These three are the biggest changes/additions SiNiSistar 2 brings. There’s a list of smaller inclusions, like dialogue/lore, NPCs, status effects, and more. None of these are groundbreakers, but they showcase the evolution from the first to the second. Core Gameplay The gameplay is largely unchanged from the first, just simple moving, attacking, and aiming with a bow. The biggest difference is the MP gauge replacing arrows from the first, which you can expend to have Lelia perform magic melee attacks or fire magic arrows. What you see in the trailer is what you get. The game is as difficult as you choose to make it. Playing normally is an easy experience overall. Enemies deal more damage than you’d expect and there’s the difficulty of learning how enemies behave. You might get stuck on two, three bosses, but with items, stat and weapon upgrades, it’s very manageable. The game is hard with self-imposed challenges, like with the Wand of Hardship (no stat upgrades), not using consumables, All Chests/Bosses… Which is what I did to celebrate the game’s release on Steam. I don’t recommend it or would at least take off one of those challenges. I did this playthrough on the newly added Hard mode, which boosts enemy stats, gives some of them new attacks, and most prominently, removes heal/save points before every boss, among other things. The removal of timely healing adds a layer of difficulty with MP management while trekking to the boss, as most of your damage comes from magic. This, combined with the increased stats, and that I wasn’t at max HP, gave me more trouble on some bosses than I thought. If things got bad, I could always “FromSoft” leave, heal, and run back to the boss with most resources unused. This didn’t work for the two “damage race” fights (Large Mutant, Giant Pig) where you need to kill them before they you. I couldn’t figure out a way to preserve more MP on a runback, so I’d run out and would need to spend time to refill. It required a level of precision and a bit of RNG that I didn’t want to deal with, so I used MP potions to finish the fights. Otherwise, I did everything else WoH, itemless, hard as it was. The runtime for my Hard playthrough is about 6-7 hours, a little more than the average run, of 4-5 hours. Core Gameplay SiNiSistar’s emblematic HUD portrait of its protagonist transitioning to a traditional illustration is a lamentable loss of gorgeous dot work but allows it to more easily alter itself live in response to whatever is going on in the game. An easy example is found in Lelia taking damage – her expression will wince briefly, then return to normal. Take too much and Lelia’s clothes will tear, turning her expression shy until mended. Praise the heavens for her God-Given-G-Cups. It also reacts to certain status effects listed in the upgraded circular status indicator. For example, getting “Slimed” will put totally-not-suspicious white fluids on Lelia until it goes away. Unfortunately, there’s only a few that will majorly change her portrait beyond facial expressions. Most of them are relegated to the window on the indicator, adding imagery to show something going on inside her body, and otherwise, don’t affect gameplay other than being tied to SiNiSistar’s claim to fame: torturing its 12/10 bombshell poster nun through several, context-sensitive game over sequences. When she falls, Lelia will meet with a terrible fate depending on where she fell and to what. None of them are pretty and will leave you mortified and saddened. Or hard. Whatever happens to her will reflect in both her portrait and sprite. There are variations of every sequence if Lelia has Enlarged Breasts or is Pregnant, but none match the level of the Lab Acid Bad End with White Outfit Rabiane. That doesn’t make the ugliness of all sequences any less beautifully portrayed, animated, and wonderfully voiced. The scenarios are about the same as in 1, with a few new additions. Overall, gore has been toned-down and leans more toward… procreation. Quite fitting, considering 2’s lore. There’s a lot of… childbirth. SiNiSistar showing its Bloodborne influences, I suppose. And yes, Haanja’s not safe from terrible fates, either. Masochistic Yearnings One of the taglines for SiNiSistar is that they’re games “centered on themes of masochistic tendencies, yearning for death, ruin, and the despair at being attacked by terrifying beings.” I find the first two particularly fascinating because that’s exactly what develops in you, the player. Once you’ve tasted one steamy Bad End, the seed has been implanted and now you’re falling to every enemy to see what happens - at Lelia’s expense. It extends to this subtle agency you’re given to indulge these urges, or to starve them. For example, you can get Lelia drunk and have a drunkard “take her home.” You can refuse knowing better, or you can indulge and watch her be ravaged. You can choose to eat Haanja if Lelia has a zombie curse. It’s up to you to satiate your yearning or ignore it and get cured. The game’s easy enough that you can avoid the NSFW without trying. Playing poorly becomes a choice YOU make if you want to revel in the decadence and debauchery of each Bad End. It’s an idea was present in 1, but is much more prominent in 2, due to the numerous additions it brought, and I like that it results in such a subtle but substantial degree of expression of both you as a person, and a reflection of Lelia’s character. This game means a lot to me, if you couldn’t. I’m a bit of a late bloomer to SiNiSistar in 2021, but it’s genuinely heartwarming to see the crazy amount of growth and support from the devs and players for these games about busty nun guro ryona. Cheers to Rabiane’s big chest, Lelia’s bountiful bosom, Haanja and her scribble board, Natsuki Nogami and Haru Amachi, Nennai and Miikun, and of course, to SiNiSistar.