Parent's Guide: The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

What is The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia?

The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia is a hack and slash adventure based on the anime of the same name, and follows the journey of Princess Elizabeth as she tries to round up the titular Seven Deadly Sins - a band of legendary knights who are her only hope to saving her kingdom. Stumbling on the captain of the Sins, they join forces and set about travelling the land in his mobile pub-on-the-back-of-a-pig, looking for gossip that might lead them to the other members, taking out the traitorous Holy Knights along the way. Before long, you'll have a little posse consisting of a giant enemy-stomping lady, a bad boy immortal demon and a floating fairy - as well as captain Meliodas' partner in crime, a sassy talking pig.

How do you play The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia?

Attempting to streamline all the action from the accompanying cartoon series into short, quick-fire missions, The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia is a game that's heavier on story than it is on gameplay. In between watching cutscenes/conversations, you'll wander the world map in your mobile tavern-come-giant-pig, heading from town to town and forest to forest, before setting down your pub - the Boar Hat - as patrons flock to your bar each evening and start gossiping about rumours and information they've been hearing. Hearing new gossip leads to new missions, and by completing missions and showing off your flashy combat skills, your reputation in each area will grow, which in turn unlocks new quests for you to do.

Each mission takes place in a fairly small arena, and are familiar beat-up-all-the-bad-guys affairs, whether it be mowing down a hundred Holy Knight soldiers, tackling a tricky duo of fighters, or going one on one against a formidable boss. Combat is simple and button-mashing, with each different member of the Seven Deadly Sins having a slightly different attack style - for example, default guy and captain Meliodas is a speedy swordsman, whereas lady Diane, a giant, moves much more slowly, but can unleash some larger area of effect attacks by stomping her foot or smashing her fist into the ground, taking out lots of enemies in one go.

Every so often, you'll get a quest for Princess Elizabeth, which involves heading out into a nearby forest and foraging for raw ingredients. However, as she doesn't have an attack herself, disposing of any bad guys that appear falls to her porky escort, Hawk the talking pig. Essentially, if you line him up with the enemy in question, then press triangle, he'll charge at his victim and defeat them in your stead, letting you get back to picking your berries in peace.

How easy is The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia to pick up and play?

With a fairly simple concept, easy button-mashing combat and generally untaxing missions, The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia isn't the hardest game around. However, occasionally, a rogue tricky mission will come your way, generally asking you to take out a certain number of knights in a short time limit, or face off against an enemy that barely lets you get a move in edgeways - both of which can trip up the less confident player. On the whole, such missions tend to be side quests, and are therefore not essential to complete, and shouldn't get in the way of your progress in the story. However, it is worth noting there's no changeable difficulty level here, so you can't simply dial it down if you're struggling.

In terms of accessibility, The Seven Deadly Sins is fully subtitled in English, and is voiced in Japanese only, meaning being a confident reader is a must. Whether it's Hawk's pork-related puns, story scenes or mission-critical directions, everything requires reading, and you'll miss out on a lot if you simply skip over all the text.

Sample Sentences:

• "I'm looking for the Seven Deadly Sins. Yesterday, the kingdom fell to a coup d'etat orchestrated by the Holy Knights. They're preparing for war as we speak."
• "I heard that even the Holy Knights avoid the Forest of White Dreams. Hunters don't like it either. It's dangerous!"
• "Let's plot a course for Baste Prison. We'll have to contend with a fortress to get there."

A bit less risqué than the anime series it's based on, The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia sits somewhere in the middle in terms of mature content. Players engage enemies, which range from wolves and imps, to knights and other humanoid characters, in flashy fast-paced battles using swords, giant-sized stomps and magical attacks. Accompanied by impact sounds, bright flashes of light and cries of pain, enemies simply fall over and fade away when defeated, with no real blood or gore shown. Female characters are often depicted in rather short skirts or with low cut tops - during the level complete sequence, Diana, the giant woman, is often shown from behind, on all fours, looking into the tavern window, with a focus on her bent over backside. One scene spends a while focussing on a male character admiring a female's buttocks. As you run a tavern in your downtime, characters are often talking about alcohol or getting tipsy. The words 'crap', b*stard and a*s appear in the dialogue from time to time.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Playstation 4