PLAYISM announced on August 27 that cumulative sales of Marfusha: Sentinel Girls and Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 (both part of the Sentinel Girls series) have recently surpassed 500,000 copies. The announcement coincides with the first game’s fifth anniversary, on which creator hinyari9 thanked everyone who played it.
Disclosure: The publisher of these games, PLAYISM, is part of Active Gaming Media, the owner of this website.
Created by Japanese solo indie dev hinyari9, Sentinel Girls is a dystopian 2D shoot-‘em-up series centered on young female soldiers who guard the national border of Kazormia against the mechanized troops of an opposing military power. Marfusha: Sentinel Girls introduces players to the world and its lead character, Marfusha, while the sequel, Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2, picks up where the first game left off with Snezhinka, the adopted younger sister of Marfusha.
Marfusha’s gameplay revolves around simple tower defense controls and purchasing randomized cards after each battle. These include power-up cards that increase the stats of your characters and their defended targets, barricade cards that slow down advancing enemies, firearm cards that unlock new weapons, helper cards that add more allies, chance cards that generate random events, and even canine cards that give you a pet dog that accompanies you in the border.
The main modes pit you against increasingly difficult waves of enemies, with the first game requiring you to survive 40 days of military service and the second game requiring 100 days. In addition to the main mode, a challenge mode pushes you to your limits by testing how many days you can survive.
In between combat, you’ll interact with your fellow child soldiers (and dog, if you have one). Doing so allows you to learn more about their backstories and daily routines.
Marfusha: Sentinel Girls currently has a “Very Positive” rating on Steam, with 93% of 3,102 user reviews giving it a “Positive” rating. Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 currently has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating, with 96% of 2,415 user reviews being “Positive.”
Marfusha: Sentinel Girls is available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows (Steam). Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Windows (Steam).
Related: Marfusha: Sentinel Girls’ source code is messy, but it gets the job done
