Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire

Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire doesn't reinvent the shmup rulebook, but it leverages some interesting wrinkles first introduced by the Castle of Shikigami series to excellent effect.

When it comes down to the basic fundamental aspects of the genre – visuals, music, stage design, gameplay flow – Sisters Royale feels unfinished. It’s hard to care about the scoring system when the structure it is built upon doesn’t satisfy enough to encourage players to spend hour after hour routing and experimenting.

Not the best game, but I am putting out a solid recommend to anyone who is a fan of the top-down shooter drama, or those who just generally enjoy this style of game.

Sisters Royale sticks to established shoot-'em-up conventions, but it nonetheless provides an entertaining time with a diverse roster of characters. These characters' interactions and over-the-top firepower are amusing and worth experiencing.

If you’re a hardcore shoot ’em up fan and are desperate for something new to play, Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire might scratch that itch. For a little while, anyway.

It is a game for a specific audience that likes to play alone or in company and enjoy this type of mechanics as well as its particular aesthetics.

Sisters Royale is a decently fine title for die-hard bullet hell fans (or those that yearn for the craziness of Castle of Shikigami), but some glaring issues and uninspired presentation makes this a quarrel from which you'll want to step away.

Make no mistake; Sisters Royale isn’t a bad shooter. The TBS system is a really cool feature that adds a welcome layer of risk versus reward to the frantic action. However, those hoping for a spiritual successor to the excellent Castle Shikigami series will likely be disappointed thanks to the game’s gimmicky stage designs, lackluster enemies, and a story that’s borderline painful to suffer through for all but the most shameless weebs out there.

A fun little bullet hell that has a ton of replay value and a charming visual appeal. Quite an approachable entry for those daunted by other shoot 'em ups with a scoring system that rewards skill.

Although Alfa System has dabbled in the genre before with the likes of the Shikigami no Shiro franchise, this is definitely not a stand out new entry for the shooter genre, but it’s not like there is much choice out there at present either. It’s definitely a decent effort and one that casual players could enjoy, but fans of the genre will not find it as challenging.