Identity V

After months of hype, the long-awaited collaboration between Identity V and the anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has finally arrived! With less than a week to go before the official start, while the overall presentation is quite solid, some unexpected modeling issues have come to light.

Let’s start with the three purple skins in the Essence pool and the free purple skin, Sein. Fern and Stark both have round faces that make them look quite cute. Sein, of course, carries that mature and charming vibe typical of older male characters. Aura is very faithful to the original—without a coat or robe to cover the figure, she actually has the most proportional design of the four.

The Essence Gold skin, Frieren, has a beautifully crafted facial model and finely detailed hair. Her showcase animation includes several iconic scenes from the anime, such as the flower field and the mimic chest.

Surprisingly, there are three different forms shown in matches. While drawing the Weather Bottle, magical effects appear around her. When casting Stratocumulus, she changes into a winter outfit. After interacting with Warm Rain, she switches into a third form wearing a black cloak. However, the transitions between these forms lack smoothness and feel a bit abrupt.

Her matching accessory, the Grimoire, gives off a strong sense of magical protection—like casting defense spells with every step. It comes with exclusive actions, multiple visual effects, and even chase music. The flower field spawns during flight and when Warm Rain is triggered, and the magic circle effect when slashing with “Mistblade” is extremely flashy. The FX is honestly top-tier!

As for Sinnel’s proportions… something just feels off—almost like a hallucination of a rat costume. Compared to Dazai Osamu (who also comes with a Gold skin + accessory combo from a major collab), Dazai has much better shoulder proportions. Sinnel’s “double-door” shoulders make his head look smaller, and his arms appear thinner and stiffer. The cape only emphasizes the widened shoulders further.

Interestingly, these modeling issues aren’t as noticeable in actual matches. He has a unique idle animation and even a custom chair animation (giving chair effects to a rescuer? That’s unexpected). When he successfully rescues someone with the Resonance of Honor, a statue rises from the ground. If the statue has collision physics, it might get in the way a bit. In the original work, Sinnel builds statues after helping people too—creepy, but faithful. Clearly, a lot of thought went into this.

The Golden Accessory “Hero’s Sword” also comes with its own unique actions and chase music, plus a vaulting animation. All effects are themed around Eintagsgras (Moonshade Grass). The helmet transforms into a flower, and when worn, it turns into a flower crown.