Well, it's been a great journey...
(This writeup is very late to the party because I've been busy, sorry!)
As of the end of November 2023, SINoALICE has been shut down. Looking back it's wild how fond I had grown for the game in the 3 years I played Global.
The story was very edgy and outrageous at points but I discovered characters who I latched onto and found their motivations interesting. The biggest one (obviously) being The Little Mermaid; her desire to revive her author to make her story even sadder because she believed the tragedy is what made the story beautiful was an interesting character twist. Like, she's not wrong! The story of The Little Mermaid wouldn't be what it is without the tragic ending (well...it would be a Disney movie I guess 🙄). And her constant desire to find delight/beauty in the tragic could be played for both laughs and seriousness. Every time a new class of hers was released on a banner I grinded for it like crazy, and I ended up with a collection of cute Mermaid outfits that I was really proud of!
My second favorite character was Dorothy, a cheery mad scientist with no regards for boundaries or ethics. Whenever Dorothy was added to a story event, you knew you were in for a good time. I really liked her design as well; she had the most outrageous outfits! If I was ever going to cosplay a character from SINoALICE it would probably be her. And of course many of the other characters worked their charm on me and it was fun every time we got to see a new combination of characters interact with each other.
Any time there was a collab event I really enjoyed myself, even if I had no familiarity with many of the IPs being collabed with. I particularly have fond memories of the 'Fishing Star World Tour' collab because of how hard I grinded in order to obtain the eye-popping fishing pole nightmares that were available as raids...I got both of them AND enough to max limit break them! I also couldn't get away without mentioning 'An End to Summer Dreams', the clam-fishing event that introduced the beloved Lammy; it was one of the first medal events that I participated in after I joined and it felt really fun to be part of the Lammy zeitgeist.
And of course, I can't go without shouting out my amazing guild, JellicleCats...what a fun gang to be a part of. We never aimed to be super colo competitive but we did our best, had some really nice victories, and the slimiest losses! Everyone in the guild was so good-natured, making jokes and swapping strategy advice. At the very end I worked my way up to being the top-ranked vanguard of the group and #4 ranked overall; I'm so happy I could work hard and do well by my teammates!
I am not one to play a lot of gachas in general, SINoALICE was definitely my first foray into playing a gacha fairly seriously, but I don't think I could've asked for a better experience. I was a F2P player and proud that I never once felt coerced into making a purchase. Some people may deride me for being proud of that fact, that it means I never gave the game my support, but I believe that a healthy gacha atmosphere crucially depends on making space for people who wish to be F2P without suffering gameplay-wise for it. I supported SINoALICE with my passion, with logging in every day to see what new twist the game would bring, with making good friends.
SINoALICE took up a lot of my time and I won't say I'm a tiny bit glad to be free of the obligation of constantly being on my phone, but I definitely will miss it. Thank you to all the developers who worked on the game to make this bonkers story come true, and thank you to everyone who played and who I ever got a chance to meet throughout the game!
