Sin & Punishment

Nintendo's other rail shooter

Sometimes a game isn’t able to reach its intended target audience, like in the case of Sin & Punishment, a rail shooter for the Nintendo 64 that was developed in Japan yet meant to appeal to western audiences. However, it released too close to the end of the system’s lifespan, and so despite already featuring English voicework, was never released in English speaking countries.

Thankfully the game got a second chance on the Wii, where it was finally released to its target audience thanks to the system’s virtual console, which allowed older games to be purchased and played. This was followed by a sequel made for the Wii, subtitled either Star Successor or Successor of the Skies depending on where you live.

The original Sin & Punishment places you right into a three way conflict. The protagonists, Saki and Airan, belong to the Savior Group, an organization aiming to liberate Tokyo from the tyrannical Armed Volunteers while also fending off the monsters known as Ruffians. However, the Savior Group’s leader, Achi, appears to have secrets of her own.

Gameplay is mostly what you’d expect from a rail shooter, which is characters running through stages automatically while the player handles the aiming, shooting, and movement in directions other than forward/backward. Saki and Airan are equipped with gunswords that let them both shoot and slash, and their slashes reflect any projectiles they hit.

You can lock on to enemies to save yourself the trouble of aiming, but it reduces the power of your shots, so it’s a trade off. Do you simplify things by locking on so that you can concentrate on evading enemy attacks, or do you take the risk of aiming and dodging simultaneously in the hope of eliminating the enemy faster? That’s a question you have to ask as you play through the game.

Sin and Punishment has a lot of variety within its short playtime, with multiple segments that change things up and distinct bosses who require different strategies to defeat. The difficulty is also rather high, so don’t expect to beat each stage on the first try. This game is best enjoyed by those who like going for high scores, but for someone like me there was enough to feel satisfied with a single playthrough.

While the plot is fast paced and so low on exposition that it feels like you’re tuning in at the third act, there’s enough detail given that you can connect the dots with some thinking. Replaying the game while working on this write up gave me more appreciation for how many implications a few lines in the script or a moment in gameplay can offer.

In the sequel (referred to from here on as Star Successor) Isa, the son of Saki and Airan, defects from the organization he was part of after falling in love with the ‘monster’ he was supposed to kill, an amnesic girl he calls Kachi. In response Isa’s superiors, the creators of humanity, send a group known as the Nebulox to hunt Isa and Kachi down.

Most of the plot stands on its own from the first game and can feel rather disjointed from it. Yet at the same time several key moments will only make sense if you’ve played the first game, which in turn had several hints towards Star Successor’s plot, so it’s ideal that you play the series in release order.

Gameplay has some slight changes from the first game. Both Isa and Kachi have ways of flying all around the screen as opposed to the ground based movement of the original. There’s also new attack where you can hold the shooting button to charge up a powerful shot.

Rather than swapping characters between stages as the plot demands like the first game, Star Successor lets you pick at the start if you want to play as Isa or Kachi, who have slightly different mechanics. Isa retains the lock on mechanic from the first game and has a single explosive charged shot. Kachi on the other hand will automatically lock on to enemies and can fire eight charged shots at once.

Once you clear the game on both Isa mode and Kachi mode, you unlock Isa & Kachi mode, letting you freely swap between them. This is more than a bonus, Isa & Kachi mode adds a new scene after the credits, and it is impossible to discuss the story of the game without bringing up the post credits scene. It also has a different credits theme, a song I’ve often listened to and take inspiration from.

Do not look up anything about Star Successor’s plot until after you see the post credits scene in Isa & Kachi mode.

Like the original, Star Successor maintains the combination of a short length, varied gameplay, and notable difficulty. Thanks to the shortness clearing the game three times isn’t too tall of an order, especially since on repeat playthroughs you’ll already have strategies in mind for the tough enemies.

Sadly, there are reports of Star Successor’s English script being a rather unfaithful translation. Since the game is niche it never got enough scrutiny for people to really dig into it, but I haven’t seen a kind word about the translation. Among the changes I’ve seen described is a clear effort to downplay or remove religious themes from the narrative, like Isa’s atheism.

While the first game didn’t truly need the world building in the manual to have a comprehensible plot, Star Successor leaves some rather major details in the manual and promotional material. Thankfully this footnote from a promotional short story quickly summarizes most of the rather complicated world building Star Successor has.

(This is alluded to somewhat in the plot, but the fact that both games take place in Japan makes it less than obvious that they’re on separate planet’s versions of Japan.)

I also find the Nebulox to be less interesting as antagonists than the Armed Volunteers despite the former having more screen time. The Armed Volunteers were humanized by the way they clearly had a history with each other, meanwhile the Nebulox have a lot more individual flair but barely acknowledge or mention each other.

For the story of the series as a whole, I’d say that love is one of the central themes. The first game essentially climaxes with a message about how love takes work and can’t be rushed, while Star Successor’s presentation of love depends entirely on how you read its final scene. The narrative also questions what makes someone human, most pronounced in Star Successor where Kachi directly asks that question.

Series Legacy

Shortly after the release of Sin and Punishment on the Wii virtual console, Saki appeared in Super Smash Bros Brawl as an assist trophy, a character called upon to assist players. When revealing Saki’s inclusion, the director of Super Smash Bros commented that a Sin & Punishment character could also work well as a full fledged fighter.

Saki returned as an assist trophy in the next Super Smash Bros game. Then Super Smash Bros Ultimate changed things around, removing Saki as an assist trophy but adding a costume that lets Mii fighters dress as Saki. It’s not a slot on the roster, but I’ve made do with playing as Mii Saki and teaching some friends to fear him.

Both Sin and Punishment games can also be downloaded off the Wii U eshop (until it closes) while the original is available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription. Even without a new game, it can’t be said that Sin & Punishment has been entirely forgotten by Nintendo, as there have been consistent efforts to make the series accessible to new players.

Star Successor’s post credits scene placed the series on a cliffhanger that hasn’t been resolved in over a decade. While I’d love to have a third game to definitively answer that question everyone asks, there’s also a way in which the ambiguity adds to the narrative and works as the final word in the series. Regardless of if Sin & Punishment ever becomes a trilogy, I believe the games are worth playing.