Soul Sacrifice (Vita)

[Cube]

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012/06/01/soul-sacrifice-for-ps-vita-is-coming-to-europe/

 

Has been announced for Europe.

 

Gameplay footage:

 

 

 

What I wanted to illustrate in this game was a “reality blended into a fantasy world”. The word “fantasy” normally points to a story that is fictitious; however, with Soul Sacrifice I wanted to illustrate a “reality” within a fantasy that wasn’t sugar-coated. It’s not about focusing on the strange, but to flip the commonly held concept of what a fantasy theme should be with the concept of “reality”.

 

Cruelty is a reality in our world, and we have to make sacrifices and pay costs on a daily basis. I wanted to blend this “reality” theme into a fantasy world, one filled with magic, and create a new type of gaming experience that relied on the player making sacrifices in order to obtain great power.

 

There is a “dark pleasure” lying in between fiction and reality that none of us knew was there. If you simply think of it as a “dark fantasy,” then your expectations will be betrayed – but in a good way. Please look forward to Soul Sacrifice. It will be a game that players around the world will surely enjoy. — Keiji Inafune, Comcept

[Daft]

New details and a Famitsu review.

 

Soul Sacrifice Famitsu review: 10/9/9/9 37/40

 

-Over 300 types of magic with a deep crafting system.

-About 25 hours to complete story on single player, multiplayer content expands this to several hundred hours.

-Superb storytelling through the grimoire system and its journal entries.

-Story is quite moving and definitely worth the time to experience.

-Huge variation of spells makes for extremely deep tactical multiplayer experience.

-Team work and role assignment in multiplayer has immense potential.

-Dying and being sacrificed is still fun and does not affect rewards.

-Being able to continue fighting even when dead is extremely welcome feature.

-The dark fantasy theme is well portrayed and written, although it may be too dark for some people's taste.

-Difficulty level is very high, but the high speed action is extremely fun and rewarding to learn.

-Salvation and Sacrifice system adds surprisingly profound and meaningful choice to the game.

-It might be "another hunting game" but it is overflowing with originality.

-Single player is fun in its own right, but multiplayer is where the game really shines. The more the merrier!

 

Sounds good.

[Cube]

European box art:

 

 

It can also be reversed for the original Japanese box art

 

 

And pre-order bonuses

 

[Shorty]

If you had played One Piece Pirate Warriors, you wouldn't put much stock in Famitsu reviews any more.

 

yeah I'm still butthurt about that, what of it

[Cube]

Are you trying to say that Nintendogs isn't a perfect game?

[Ike]

Japanese voices are preorder bonuses now?

[Daft]

Why the fuck haven't Amazon got a pre-order page up yet?

 

They've got really sloppy lately. I'm waiting to pre-order a PS4, the Injustice Collector's Edition took ages to be pre-orderable.

[Shorty]

Why would you use amazon? You just hate getting your games on time?

 

http://shopto.net/video%20games/psvita/PSPVSO01-soul-sacrifice

[Daft]

Never had trouble with Amazon but I'll give ShopTo a try.

[Cube]

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/04/16/soul-sacrifice-demo-out-tomorrow-saves-transfer-to-full-game/

 

Demo details

 

- Entire first chapter.

- Local and online co-op included.

- Save carries on to the main game.

- Bonus item for carrying on save in main game: Spirits’ Heart! It summons a powerful stone golem that will fight for you.

- Out Tomorrow.

[Daft]

I've got this pre-ordered. I'll see if I'll keep my preorder after playing the demo, I'm looking forward to it.

[drahkon]

US version of the demo won't work on a European Vita/memory card, right?

[Magnus]

The European demo is out tomorrow, so just download that?

 

The only thing that matters is the account you're using, so if you're on a US account, you can download and play the US demo.

[drahkon]

Been playing this for 45 minutes.

Hope it gets better. So far it's just button mashing with occasional evading.

 

The worst thing is: You can't really explore areas. When you killed all enemies, the quest is complete and you have about 10 seconds to pick up items before you're forced to quit the level.

Very annoying since so far many enemies just prevent you from picking up items as it takes some time to 'charge up'.

 

Skipping the story because if I get the full game I'll be starting from scratch anyway.

 

 

Edit: Played some more, including multiplayer.

 

It got better.

Enemies in multiplayer are much stronger, and you need the strength and attack power of others. I had to kill a 'boss' alone, because all my team members couldn't be saved. It took me 15 minutes. But it was fucking fun.

 

Love the game's take on equipment: You get so called offerings as a reward for quests. These allow you to use 'magic' in battle.

 

Example: Swordsman Icebrand. Use this offering in a battle and you get an ice sword (duh). Then you can slash the shit out of enemies for a limited amount of time.

 

Offerings can be set to square, triangle and circle and have 5 uses (considering they aren't upgraded). When used up, they break and can't be used again unless you 'reactivate' them after a battle.

 

Different types of offerings have different uses: Shield, healing, weapon, long range.

 

 

Pre-ordered the game form ShopTo so I won't get it on release day, but there are no pre-order bonuses in Germany -.-

 

 

Edit²: I am now maxed out for the demo. At least when it comes to leveling up Life and Magic (level 20 being the max for now).

 

Edit³: Played even more. Online is hella fun, even though some people seem to not have any common sense and just run around getting hit and dying over and over again.

And my god...the Cerberus is fucking hard to beat. Apparently he was easier to kill in the Japanese demo/game, but it's been changed.

 

People here need to give it a try.

 

Edit #4: Finally. Cerberus is dead. Took us 15 minutes

 

This game's awesome. You have to be focused, time your attacks, use healing wisely.

Can't wait for the full release!

Edited April 18, 2013 by drahkon

[drahkon]

Nobody playing it? :p

[Sheikah]

I'll download this demo when I get back home on Sunday. I'm getting a Demon's Souls vibe though, is it anything like it?

[Daft]

Yeah, downloaded the demo, just not had a chance to get round to it. Sounds promising, though.

[drahkon]

I'll download this demo when I get back home on Sunday. I'm getting a Demon's Souls vibe though, is it anything like it?

 

Hm, a bit, but Soul Sacrifice is much more fast paced. It's hard, though.

 

The strongest enemy in the demo...well, I have only been able to kill him once. Had good teammates and we finished him off after 15 minutes (as I've already posted :p ).

 

Don't know if he's possible to solo in the demo. Some players said he was in the Japanese demo, but the developers patched him. Now he's a fucking pain in the ass.

 

I'll try to solo him, though

 

 

Playtime: 6h 32min

And it's a freaking demo with 'only' the first chapter available.

[Dcubed]

Wow! This game is great! The demo is super impressive (especially now that I can understand what's actually going on - the Japanese demo was just baffling lol)

 

I like how you're really limited in your moves that you can use, sort of reminds me of Pokemon and how you can only take 4/6 moves with you while you have to manage how much PP/casts you have. The actual combat control mechancs dont seem as deep as say Monster Hunter, but there's more of a focus on preparation and resource management so it has a very different feel to the gameplay.

 

The story is also really good from what is in the demo and there's a real sense of history to every monster and area in the game

 

Good stuff. Will probably end up getting this

[Daft]

So just been playing the demo (for like over two hours) and I've never played a MH clone or MH so I've got a few questions.

 

So you have this skills but you can only use them a limited time before they run out (and break), I was just in a 25 minute online battle...how the hell do you not run out of ammo, so to speak? There are a few limited points around the level to rebless your spells, or whatever, but they're one use and few and far between.

 

...basically, could someone explain the fighting to me like I'm a five-year-old because while I'm enjoying it, I'm not really 'getting' it.

[drahkon]

how the hell do you not run out of ammo, so to speak? There are a few limited points around the level to rebless your spells, or whatever, but they're one use and few and far between.

 

1. Try not to waste offerings. E.g. when fighting Harpy, whenever she's flying, don't activate a melee offering. It sounds obvious but I've seen sooooo many people doing exactly that, and you also wanted someone to explain it to you like you're a five-year-old :p

 

2. Try to upgrade offerings. Yes, a bit of farming is involved and in the Demo you can only upgrade up to third tier but it's already worth it. It increases the amount of usages you have for an offering.

 

3. I've found out that healing offerings suck (at least in the demo, maybe/hopefully this is different in the full version). So take another offensive offering instead.

 

 

If you still 'run out of ammo' in an online battle, then try to act as a diversion. Make the boss attack you, allowing others to bash it into oblivion.

And if everything fails: Die and make sure you get sacrificed ("Sacrifice me").

As a ghost you have the ability to weaken an enemy's defense or increase an ally's attack.

It's actually not as bad as it sounds

Well, there's also the obvious ultra-mega-giga attack when being sacrificed.

[Daft]

So I get upgrading increases the usage but I was online fighting the Harpy for 25 minutes and I ran out of pretty much everything after a good 10 minutes. And I was reblessing them around the arena and such, too. I died after that and then did the ghost thing (which was kinda cool but got dull quite quickly).

 

Just seems there's a point where you will run out of resources, no matter what - especially considering how long that battle was.

 

Yeah, I also noticed healing offerings blow. Is there any other way to get health back?

Edited April 22, 2013 by Daft

[drahkon]

So I get upgrading increases the usage but I was online fighting the Harpy for 25 minutes and I ran out of pretty much everything after a good 10 minutes.

 

To be honest, beating Harpy shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes and even after 15 minutes I always have a lot of usages left.

 

Your allies probably just suck. Normally you shouldn't have to go all out with every attack offering. Save them up for perfect opportunities.

 

Or try to find a better team

 

I died after that and then did the ghost thing (which was kinda cool but got dull quite quickly).?

 

Yeah, being a ghost gets boring, but you should only sacrifice/be sacrificed when the enemy is at low health (i.e. glowing orange/red when using the...what's it called...'eye of the mind'? Can't remember -.- ), then it's over more quickly.

 

Yeah, I also noticed healing offerings blow. Is there any other way to get health back?

 

Saving dead monsters, I think. Not sure though, will test that later today.

[Daft]

Really? I only get like 4/5 maybe 6 uses out of a lot of my spells.

 

There were four off us. Maybe most of us were just playing it wrong. So I'm guessing it's not really a hack and slash and more to do with nailing an attack correctly?

 

The last guy, who basically had to take off half the thing's health when everyone was dead, kept running away and recharging his health to full...somehow.

 

I like it, I'm just not 'getting' it. So far it's fun, though.

[drahkon]

Really? I only get like 4/5 maybe 6 uses out of a lot of my spells.

 

More than enough

 

So I'm guessing it's not really a hack and slash and more to do with nailing an attack correctly?

 

Exactly. Whenever you activate an offering you have a set amount of time to use it (normally between 20-30 seconds). That's enough time to beat the shit out of a boss while perfectly avoiding attacks.

But you have to time the activation just right.

 

 

We should do some quests together sometime.