She’s here!! Sadako Rising is live on Dead by Daylight. Despite dropping on console at 2am, I dutifully took to the frontlines to play her.

But first, can we take a moment to appreciate Sadako’s (aka The Onryo aka Oreo) legendary skin, Rotten Remains? There was ample speculation about what it was going to be, but the devs hit the perfect gruesome note with this one.

Rotten Remains is a reference to Sadako’s discovered body at the end of the first movie. And, honestly, it’s terrifying.

I jumped into a survivor game, cautiously hopefuly that I’d be paired against Dead by Daylight’s first short killer. 2 am is a notoriously difficult time to get a game of Dead by Daylight in Korea.

But you know who also came to servers? The Nurse.  ):<  What type of person plays Nurse when there’s a new chapter out? And what’s worse is that nurses was all I got until 4 am.

Finally, sleep-deprived and barely hanging on, I was paired against my favorite spooky little ghost girl on Léry’s Memorial Institute, the perfect map for a stealth killer. And while Sadako has had a few buffs between the player test base and live, she’s still a killer that has to rely on map knowledge and survivor psychology to land those satisfying “curse” hits.

Honestly, the small adjustments between PTB and live didn’t feel very noticeable to me, while playing both survivor and killer. But there’s joy to be found in using an undetectable build and absolutely scaring the hell out of survivors in low elo games.

But I can’t say I’m not disappointed with the “tape” gimmick of her kit. Survivors can get “Condemned” stacks when they’re near televisions you crawl out of as Sadako, and if they hit 7 stacks you can kill them once you down them. But lowering this status as a survivor is as easy as dropping off a tape at blockbuster.

I don’t care if that reference dates me.

The Condemned system is something I foresee getting a buff in the future, because even with addons it’s hard to get survivors to that state.

Still, she’s the most terrifying killer to date, and while I doubt she’s landing on anyone’s S-tier list, she’s fun to play if you’re in it to scare, not kill.  

Final Verdict

Personaly, I’ve been looking forward to Sadako Rising going live. I love Sadako, and I think she’s an excellent edition to DBD’s entourage of unique, star-studded killers. The marriage between DBD mechanics and her character was executed perfectly, and while she’s not strong, she’s fun and terrifying to play against. And that’s what games are all about.