New Information On Vita’s Soul Sacrifice
Soul Sacrifice first appeared in the Japanese Magazine Fatmisu in April, though the spread was largely an advertisement. As IGN reports, the game was officially announced for the PlayStation Vita at a Sony conference on May 10th in Tokyo and the presentation showcased some of the fundamental aspects of the game. Playstation have also translated the event to English and posted it online.
Japanese Developer Marvelous AQL are developing, with Studio Japan overseeing and supplementing. At this stage you’d be forgiven for drawing comparisons with From Software’s Demon’s Souls, especially as Teruyuki Toriyam (who worked on the title) is producing, as is Kentaro Motomura, one of the minds behind the criminally underappreciated Dark Cloud. The core gameplay reflects an amalgamation of some of these past titles and is primarily about third-person hacking, slashing and casting.
The narrative sounds like it could be standard fantasy fare, involving magical books and malicious hidden powers. ‘Dark’ certainly seems to be the operative word here, especially as the premise entails gaining power from sacrifices, asking the player how far they are prepared to go for victory. Small yields come from surrendering certain common items, whereas substantial boss-ending advantages come from giving up, say, your leg. The ultimate sacrifice is of course surrendering up your life, the reward taking the form of ‘Excalibur’ – an entity, like the concept at large, that is yet to be elaborated on substantially.
Admittedly, sacrificing your own life sounds like a curious mechanic in a single player game. It is good news therefore that Soul Sacrifice makes full use of the Vita’s multiplayer capabilities. From the brief demo shown, the gang were trying to take down Cerberus (think more three-headed dog of myth than extremist antagonistic organisation of Mass Effect) and in the end one of the four guys heroically sacrificed himself to gain an exponential amount of power and the eventual victory; this wasn’t the end of the mission, and the team of four become three. It’s an interesting idea that takes the risk-reward paradigm to new levels.
Despite the somewhat substantial presentation there are still many things to learn about Soul Sacrifice. If it can rise to anywhere near to its spiritual predecessors, this could certainly be a reason to invest in Sony’s latest portable.
Souces: IGN, Andriasung