Since July 1st, 2020, I've been playing SINoALICE (SINO for short). Almost everyday, I logged into the game, farmed any events that needed farming, cleared any conquests that needed clearing, and committed at least 20 minutes to participate in the guild vs guild battle (aka Colo). For over three years, this routine has been a part of my life. And now it is gone. As of November 15, 2023, SINO's Global servers have ended.
This blog will cover my journey through SINO -- my experiences, thoughts, etc. Kinda like a record of my existence in this twisted game. This may not be interesting to you. Even if you are a SINO fan, I blab a lot so this may still not be interesting to you. You've been warned! :x
Also, a heads up that I use a lot of terminology specific to SINO. While I try to explain most things, my apologies if this is a bit hard to follow.
THE BEGINNING
The only reason I started SINO all those years ago was this guy: Yoko Taro. Yoko Taro is the director of the Nier, Drakengard, and other video game series. While I hadn't played any of Yoko Taro's video games at the time, I did read a couple of his translated interviews and thought he was really funny, random, and sarcastic (just my type). So when I found out that Yoko Taro directed a mobile gacha game in Japan, I looked for any news of it coming to the West. In late 2018, I caught such news and eagerly awaited its release... until an announcement came two days before launch that it'd be delayed. D:!
Then in early 2020, the publisher changed hands and it was on track to be released on July 1st, 2020. I dove in completely blind. What I found was something... unexpected.
I wrote about my first exposures to SINO below if you're curious to check it out. Some of my thoughts have changed since then:
My noob account. I had been playing for five days. My name was IronixGirl.
THE GUILDS
Back when I was in my lonely 1-person guild (AFKs), I thought Colo was a slight annoyance. Colo is a guild vs guild battle done in real-time and would last for 20 minutes. I knew the chances of me winning against another guild was very slim since most times it'd be 1 vs 15. Even when a couple more members joined, it still felt quite lonely since barely anybody showed up to Colo. When I got invited into a full 15-person guild (Rhodes), that's when my perception on guilds slowly changed.
My first win against a guild with multiple members.
My guild's stats before I dissolved it. One of the members went with me to the new guild, and the other one went inactive.
I saw that a guild could be a place to work together and help each other. In the beginning, it was also a place to figure out how things worked and a place to try out different strategies in Colo. Simply, for me, a guild was a place to feel "togetherness" and "fun" -- where we did things together and experienced the highs and lows that same way. I think I was lucky that my first full guild was such a positive experience.
Random guild conversation in Rhodes.
Discussing event strategies and efficiencies back when we were all figuring things out.
The results from our first GC (Gran Colo -- a more serious version of Colo with greater rewards).
Rhodes made S rank once! We regretted our achievement when we faced a whale guild the day after.
When more and more players became inactive, things started to change. The feeling of togetherness wasn't there anymore and instead there was a creeping feeling of hopelessness. For the rest of us who still logged on, we were seeing Rhodes slowly dying. When Blood Colo started, an event that gave rewards based on how many guildmates participated in Colo, another guildmate (Sanokun [Sano for short]) and I left to another guild.
That guild plus the next guild had some issues (I won't name the guilds). One of those guilds had a daily voice chat for Colo, where the Guild Leader would talk about what was lacking whenever we lost a match. For many days and weeks, I listened to a voice saying that the guild lacked debuffs (my class' specialty). The Guild Leader also messaged me on Discord once saying it'd be a good idea for me to MLB (max limit break -- getting five copies of the same weapon) a specific book. It didn't seem to matter that a minstrel and cleric went inactive since the Guild Leader swapped the cleric with his own alt healer account and the Guild Leader kept having faith that the minstrel would come back and would not replace her. The only feedback voiced when we lost was we needed more debuffs. For the first time in my SINO journey I felt like my best wasn't good enough. I felt weak and slightly depressed. There was a gnawing pressure to spend more money than I should and I wasn't happy. I probably would have quit SINO then if Sano and I didn't leave for another guild.
Back when LB (limit break -- raising the level and skill cap) was introduced for armors, the guild leader mentioned it would be a great advantage to MLB all the armor sets. I had my account auto-ing for days straight just trying to get the material drops (the material would drop randomly). Certain members got called out if it didn't look like they were farming the event.
The other guild, despite having a few friendly members, had leaders who were very closed to new suggestions or different strategies during Colo. Even when new NMs (Nightmares -- timed summons that granted skills / buffs / benefits) with new skills were released, the NM list stayed pretty much the same. It took months of back and forth before a combo building strat was implemented. Loiza (a NM that allowed members to switch grids an additional time) wasn't added to the NM list until weeks later, even though a couple members had the NM since its release. There was also inequality, where certain members' thoughts and opinions mattered more than others. I was among the latter, where any ideas or suggestions were either ignored or shot down in a belittling way. From my perspective, the guild's leaders were self-sabotaging their own growth.
When Sano and I joined Materia, I was excited but also nervous. The trauma from the previous guilds were still with me. While I continued doing my best, I had worries I wasn't good enough. Fearing my voice being ignored or such, I opted to stay quiet most times. If I did any talking, it'd be in the Event verses if I wasn't auto-ing. It took a long time for the relief to settle in... the relief that for the most part, I was left to my own devices. Aside from targeting certain classes and weapon skills, I didn't feel any pressures. There was competitiveness with Materia, but also an air of lax. At least, that's how it was for me. For the first time in a long while, I was able to relax.
A new thing I encountered while in Materia was the idea of piloting. It was the act of letting somebody else have access to your account to play your role during Colo (via sharing login details through Discord). This would happen if somebody couldn't make it to Colo for one reason or another. From all my experiences of gacha games, it was always understood to NEVER give anybody access to your account, for fear it could get misused, abused, stolen, or worse. For piloting to work would involve a level of trust between players and I thought that was really amazing.
For my own records, below is a timeline of my guild journey:
-My lonely guild (July 1st, 2020 - July 21st, 2020)
-Jumped to Rhodes (July 21st, 2020 - October 1st, 2020)
-Jumped to the next guild (October 1st, 2020 - July 9, 2021)
-Jumped to the next guild (July 9, 2021 - November 28, 2021)
-Jumped to Materia (November 28, 2021 - November 15, 2023 [the end])
The highest Overall Rank and Time Slot Rank we got in GC.
We won the Super Division once in Colo Sin (A much more serious version of Colo -- more serious than GC)!
THE PEOPLE
I met a variety of people during my time in SINO. There were a number of bad apples... but overall I'd say there were many decent and friendly / helpful people. Similar to playing an MMO or another game with a social aspect, I'm grateful to be able to have met some people I never would have any other way. To all the people who consistently joined me during conquests and verses, thank youuu!! <3
Without naming names, below are some people I met throughout my SINO journey:
-somebody who had a wife and kids and was in financial debt. I tried helping him with his budgeting and got him to pay off almost half his credit card debt before things went South between us and we stopped contact.
-somebody who was super friendly and open. We talked about various things about Life (nothing that would reveal identifying info) and we played Genshin Impact together for a few times. Eventually the person ghosted me, though I have no ill-will towards him.
-another who was also super friendly and open. We talked about many things. A couple times I felt bullied / mistreated and it got to the point where I expressed myself and retaliated. I definitely had some shameful moments. We've reconciled since and still keep in touch sometimes.
-somebody whom I often joined conquests that ran at 7:30 AM EST (whenever I remembered to do conquests then). We'd usually spam the "Yes, My Lord" stamp and sometimes say "Good luck in GC" whenever GC was going on. When the End of Service announcement was made, we added each other on Discord and currently talk about Baldur's Gate 3.
The stamp we spammed each other for fun.
-somebody who joined my verses consistently. We never talked aside from the occasional "Thanks" and "Good Work" stamps. The person even joined me as I was playing through story verses on the last day of SINO. I suggested that the person add me on Discord and they did. We've talked a bit about our gacha-playing history.
-somebody who claimed to have spent $10,000 CAD on SINO in its first year. We found that we both liked the Diablo games and played Diablo III together a couple times. After Diablo Immortal's release and my disgust with that game's monetization tactics, I decided to skip out on Diablo IV completely. We eventually lost touch.
I do have to name one person, though, and that is Sano. We met in Rhodes and have stuck together ever since. I considered him the best healer and have relied on him at times to help me through tough conquests and verses. I often griped to him when I had frustrations and we'd sometimes talk about Life stuff. If you are reading this, Sano, thanks for everything. I appreciate having an anchor to keep me sane during the rough times. May we meet again in another game :)
I changed my name briefly as a joke.
THE MEMORIES
Below are some random memories I had during my SINO journey:
-When I had trouble clearing the Emil head conquest, I asked the guild for some help. Sano and a couple VGs (vanguards -- aka DPS classes) joined me. While we did clear it in the end after multiple tries, Sano made a passing comment that he almost had to almost sacrifice me (meaning he would let me die to keep the others alive). While he may have said that as a joke, I took it to heart and prioritized getting arcanas (upgrading material) that increased my HP. During my time with the next couple of guilds, my character had more HP than some of the VGs.
Rhodes helping me with the conquest. I did get "sacrificed" in the end, lol.
-Early on I somehow roped one of my real life friends to try out SINO. He ended up joining another guild before joining Rhodes. When Sano and I left, my friend stayed with Rhodes and went inactive. He would come back occasionally just to see how SINO was doing. I caught him running a verse when the Code Geass collab was going on. Thanks for trying out SINO! :)
-Before Change Gear Set was implemented in Colo, I remember facing a few guilds that had one or two spamming the Halua Head (a weapon that added +5 to combo) to build up combo early on. Whoever had those roles must have been so bored.
-During one GC, we faced off against a guild whom we were sure would go AoE at the end (changing into classes that could hit multiple opponents at a time instead of only one). Only thing was that we noticed the other side didn't summon a NM to allow that class switching. It was amusing in a sad way.
-There was one Redux Armor Event that came where the only multiplier was a paid weapon. I made a disapproving face and did the event without buying the weapon. I hope many others did the same thing because that kind of event never came back again.
-There was one character in one banner I agonized with not getting. I forget when the banner came out but it was the one with Snow White/International. She looked so beautiful -- I wanted her so badly!! I only had enough TC for one round so I did it... and got a sword D: After that, all my TC would be saved up to roll on an upcoming spec banner that gave out extra medals to exchange for more weapons. It was very hard to resist the banner. When her banner came back next year, though, I got her.
The Snow White class I wanted so badly. I nicknamed her "Umbrella Snow".
-While in a guild where daily voice chat wasn't mandatory, the guild leader posted the strategy and then another post saying that he'd be on voice chat casually if anybody wanted to join. Only Sano and I joined him on voice chat that day... Sano and I usually stay muted, so what ensued was 20 minutes of the guild leader making commentary and some predictions of the opponent's next move but nobody saying anything back to him. O_O At the end of the match after Sano left the voice chat, I unmuted and said, "I hope you didn't mind the silent company." He responded by saying, "It's alright. I'm used to talking to myself." That was the first and last time he ever heard me talk, hahaha... :)
-There was one day where I woke up to no internet. Confident that it'd come back on eventually, I did other things. By the afternoon, there was still no internet. I was getting antsy. I had considered going to my sister's place to ask if I could use their wifi to get on
SINO and my other phone games, but thought it would be a bit weird and too sudden. Around 5 PM (about 4 hours before colo), I had the idea to connect to the city's transit wifi. I went to the nearest subway station and connected to the wifi. I left my login info to the guild leader so that my account could get piloted and then I went home. Internet was restored the next day. If there is something I learned from that day, it is to keep your wifi and data providers separate!
THE STORIES, EVENTS, AND CHARACTERS
The main stories in SINO were quite macabre. I think it's the first M-rated gacha game I ever played. Many of the stories in the later acts were unsettling, mentioning topics like teen pregnancy, bulimia and self-identity, love affairs... how well can you imagine those topics meshed with fairy tale characters? It's dark and twisted and I find it quite interesting.
A snippet of Cinderella's story and how it twists.
Events happened frequently in SINO. I started off reading each event story, but stopped when Life got busier (and my drive to maximize my event farming time). While some events were structured similarly (complete the verses and collect event currency), other events had unique elements. I will always remember the event that introduced Lammy (a cute clam that talked), and a Valentine's event where parts of the story was presented like a visual novel.
The aftermath of the Lammy event. The event had the player befriend a clam and at the end of the event, everybody received the Clam Chowder item as a gift.
This is just proof that I got all my individual rewards for that blasted Tin Heart event. This was the most boring event ever.
An event that involved voting for your favourite character.
All my votes went to Cinderella.
The Valentine's event where part of it played out like a visual novel.
This is me trying out the different options at the bottom.
Part of the story for an event. I thought the imagery was amusing.
Something I took some pride in collecting were armor sets. Whenever an armor event came, I'd make sure to get at least one or two sets. If arcanas could be farmed (the LM materials), I'd always make sure I'd farm enough to upgrade those armor sets to their best potential. When I started overflowing in armor sets, I created an Excel sheet to keep track of what I had and what those sets were good for. Yeah, yeah, I'm a nerd ^^;
Part of my armor set Excel sheet.
There was one Collab I really wished had come to SINO Global and that was the Higurashi Collab. I'm a fan of the Higurashi series and I thought it would have made a lot of sense with SINO's dark atmosphere. Of the Collabs we got, I aimed to get all the classes and arcanas for FFBE, Kakegurui, and Black Butler. Funnily enough, I watched the Kakegurui anime series only because it was an upcoming Collab for SINO and I found myself enjoying it. The Space Invaders Collab was also fun pitting guilds against each other to score the most points, and the Tensura (That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime) Collab had a fun event layout.
Part of the story for the Space Invaders event.
Part of the story for the Tensura event.
The fun layout in the Tensura event. It makes me want to play an RPG!
Part of the story for the Rozen Maiden event.
Facing Bahamut in the FFBE event. I was the last one standing!
Hype for Kakegurui!
When I started SINO, Snow White was my favourite character. I liked that she represented justice and I liked her overall design. My loyalties shifted when I started Cinderella's story. Cinderella was a sassy woman with attitude. She criticized her role and the prince's interests in her story and I liked that. I liked that a lot. Cinderella became my favourite, with Snow White being a close second.
I think this outfit matches Cinderella's spunk very well.
THE EOS ANNOUNCEMENT
When the End of Service Announcement came, I was surprised... but at the same time I wasn't surprised. With how frequently new Banners came (more on this later), I had a feeling the End was coming sometime. I just didn't think it'd be that soon with a fair amount of players still active and competitive.
With a clear end in sight, I set some goals for myself:
-Try to reach max rank (250)
-Level up every weapon I wanted to level up
-Level up at least one of each armor set
-Get as many TC (Twilight Crystals -- the gacha currency) that was still possible to get
-Play as a VG in Colo
My Rank when the End of Service announcement was made.
My final Rank. I did not quite make it to 250.
During my SINO journey, I'd prioritize leveling weapons for my class, and then any other weapons I happened to MLB through the gacha banners. Then if I felt I had enough materials, I'd level any other weapons I'd need to clear events and conquests. I would always keep a healthy amount of leveling materials in case a new banner came with a strong weapon for my class and I'd need to level it right away. As for the armor sets, I'd usually level its skills to 15 and prioritize levelling to max level any armors that gave the strongest defense. With no more new weapons or armors to look out for, I was free to use my leveling materials to my heart's content.
My Armor sets in the end. All the skill levels were maxed. You may need to click somewhere on the video to enlarge it.
As a way of saying "Thanks for playing", the publisher had some missions that would reward TC. Why we couldn't get an infinite amount of TC when the game was ending and when buying TC was no longer possible, who knows. I decided to complete all those missions just to see how many the publisher decided to give us. It totaled to 6030 TC. That would be enough to 5 full rounds of a 5-step Banner (possibly getting at least 5 SR weapons). Even in the end the publisher remained stingy, hmph! >:|
In Colo, my main class was a Sorcerer (somebody who debuffs the opponent). I was this class because that's what Rhodes needed at the time. Secretly I dreamed of being a VG (a class who attacks the opponent), and was happy whenever I had rare chances to fill in when a VG couldn't make it to Colo. In Conquests and events, I'd play a VG class most times and I'd often level up weapons that would be good in Colo.
After being defeated in Colo Sin, I put together my VG grids and tested them out. The first couple times I switched to a Mage (another guildmate did the same the second time). I saw how little damage I was doing and changed back to my Sorcerer class at the end. I noticed that some of the guildmates were in their combo grid and worked up the courage to ask the guild to change to their main grid so there'd be a better chance of winning. A number of them came through. <3 From there, I was able to try out each VG class. If I had lived another life in SINO, I would have been a Crusher (somebody who attacks opponents with hammers).
Me as a VG in Colo. I'm in the bottom left.
All the lifeforce I took!
My Crusher Grid.
On the last Colo day, we were up against a tough guild. Another guildmate made a call to arms. As more of us showed up, we won in the end. :)
The last Colo match.
The guild's last stats. Thanks for all the memories!
About three weeks before the end, I found out that my phone could screen record. Then and there I decided to try screen recording all the story verses (why did I decide to do this?!). I haven't had time to double-check each one (it totalled to over 2000 files), but I did go through the motions of screen recording them all. I pulled a couple all-nighters to make sure I wouldn't run out of time on the last day, though I was very close!
My last push into getting the story verses screen recorded.
One of my screen recordings. It's Chapter 3-6 of Cinderella's story in Act of Hatred.
THE $$$
I already knew before starting SINO that I was going to spend some money. I wanted to support Yoko Taro. When it came to spending on SINO, I always wanted it to be my choice. I never wanted to feel that spending money was a solution to any problem.
I calculated that the original price for TC packs were too expensive so I waited until sales to purchase them. I used to buy them whenever they came (about once a month) but spaced it out when the sales came too frequently. For NMs, I'd buy when I thought they could be useful in Colo and in events and Conquests. For classes and weapons, I'd buy only if I wanted them. When the Royal Twilight Crystal pass was introduced (a pass that would give TC each day for 30 days), I always bought it because it gave the best value for TC.
What I got after spending 19,800 TC. The spear and harp loved me too much.
In total I spent... $8646.24 CAD!!! This is the most I've spent in any gacha game and hopefully it'll stay that way. Below is a breakdown of where the money went and how much I spent each year (yes, I'm weird).
I looked through my payment history just to count all this up.
How much I spent each year. I should note that 2020 only covers July 1st to end of December.
MY FEEDBACK
Below are some of my feedback on SINO:
-Offer more ways to earn TC for free. This would have helped retain more players and give the high spenders some breathing room between purchases. Even if more players would likely have remained free-to-play, it could have attracted more players who may have spent some money. I've read online that players in SINO JP were able to earn about 4500 TC for free each month (if I'm wrong, please correct me). In SINO Global, before monthly conquests were introduced, about 1500 TC was the most a player could earn for free each month.
-Space out the new banners. Unless my memory is failing me, new banners used to come once or twice a week. I think that was a decent pace, especially since earning free TC was slow. Later on, new banners consistently came out three times a week. For any players hoping to collect all of a certain character, the banner frequency would become a barrier and ultimately a quit moment.
-Offer some kind of incentive for new players to start playing SINO from the beginning. While I'm sure this was against Terms of Service, I heard of a number of players selling off their accounts. If a new player starts SINO with a bought account, that's money SINO would never see. But maybe from the new player's perspective, it was a more cost effective way of staying current in the game.
-Figure out another way to rank GC instead of by total lifeforce. I think, once many players realized that constantly downing the opponents and taking their ship was an inefficient way to gain lifeforce in a match, this way of scoring ruined the spirit of GC. Instead of utterly destroying the opponent (taking their ship multiple times and breaking their spirit), GC matches that maximized lifeforce gain involved downing 3-4 players at a staggering pace (to avoid downing them all at once to get to the ship) while debuffing defense / buffing attack and summoning certain NMs. I am not criticizing the strategy, but the scoring criteria that resulted in that strategy being devised. While I admit that pulling off a high lifeforce farm would take a lot of coordination, cooperation, and good timing, I have to question if that's what GC is all about and would have wanted a scoring criteria that could have encouraged different kinds of strategies.
That's it for this blog! If you've read up to this point, thank you so much for reading! I'm going to put some scrolly lines and then dump some miscellaneous images and videos, plus some of my character collection.
To those who have played SINO and still think about it every now and then -- *huuug!* (>'.')>
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop something in the comments box or through the contact form.
Take care, stay safe, and until next time. :)
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MISCELLANEOUS PICS / VIDEOS
The alarm I set for myself everyday to set my grids and to remind myself to get on Colo. This worked about 99.9% times.
I got all the Demon classes and awakened them all.
My final grids.
My NM collection.
A video showing purification (what you need to do to refill your energy). My phone's screen protector has circle marks because of this.
MY SELECTED CHARACTER GALLERY
During my SINO journey I got 375 classes. Here are some character outfits / designs I liked (excluding the two I already posted earlier). This is kind of a long scroll. I will not have commentary on all of them, lol.
Alice/Traveller. This is one of my favourite outfits for Alice.
Alice/Luxury. If a dress like that existed in real life, I'd wear it.
Alice/Greedy Crow Paladin.
Cinderella/Halloween. This was one of my favourite outfits for Cinderella for a long time.
Cinderella/WGC. Cinderella really has some nice minstrel outfits.
Cinderella/Motherhood II.
Dorothy/Gunner. I love her curiosity but she really scares me sometimes, hahaha.
Dorothy/Cleric. Apparently this was Yoko Taro's response to being told that gacha need to show skin to succeed. I love it.
Princess Kaguya/Minstrel. I think this is a very unique outfit for her.
Princess Kaguya/Gluttonous Tiger Sorcerer. I like her hair and scroll.
Princess Kaguya/Greedy Crow Paladin. I'd wear that dress.
Little Match Girl/Gunner.
Little Match Girl/Wisdom's Divine Sorcerer.
Rapunzel/Wrath Wolf Crusher.
Snow White/Slime. I thought this was really funny.
Snow White/Autumnal Ardor.
Snow White/Swimsuit. She looks ready to hunt.
A2/Breaker. I pulled her after 14 tries. She was my birthday gift for myself.
Kaine/Breaker. One day I'll play the Nier series.
Lelouch/Sorcerer. I've never watched Code Geass, but this character looks cool.
Fina & Dark Fina/Gunner. I wonder how FFBE is doing these days.
Kirari Momobami/Sorcerer.
Edward Elric/Paladin. I don't know why I felt compelled to get all the characters in the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Collab since I still haven't finished watching the series... But I did.
If you are here, you are awesome :)
Thanks again for reading!
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