If you are a fan of the Mega Man games, then you should appreciate the kinds of work that Keiji Inafune. And you should feel a void in Capcom when he left back in 2010. Thankfully, he has returned with his latest Playstation Vita title called Soul Sacrifice, which is developed in collaboration with Sony’s Japan Studio and Marvelous AQL. Will we get the same amount of excitement that Keiji offered in his previous games?
The setting in Soul Sacrifice takes place in a fantasy world where you definitely feel the atmosphere as being dark. In terms of the story, you are a prisoner that is held captive by an evil sorcerer. You are about to be sacrificed when all of a sudden, you manage to learn the powers of the dark magic from a demonic book. In particular, you have been transported into the book itself to live through past battles and learn new powers according to the experience you develop.
In Soul Sacrifice, you will be constantly faced with making choices that will test your ethics and morals. Should you end up helping or killing? For instance, the charactesr you encounter could join you as allies if you end up saving them. On the other hand, if you decide to kill them, you could end up getting new magical powers. While every choice has its benefits, it also has its consequences. Being repeatedly presented with possible rewards will bring about temptations. But keep not that consistently keeping on the same path towards the extremes can lead to dire consequences. These situations can also come about when you have to choose between increasing either your Magic or Life points.
A neat but freaky thing about Soul Sacrifice is the ability to sacrifice your own character’s body parts. For example, you can unleash even more magical powers at the expense of your own flesh. Translating to gameplay, this means that your defense can be reduced significantly. However, you can also counteract this by using lacrima, which is rare substance. Be careful though as over usage of lacrima can also lead to consequences.
In terms of the controls, Soul Sacrifice plays pretty well. Moving and navigating around is pretty standard and responsive while the combat seems straightforward. There are a number of magical combinations that you can tailor your combat styles with. And when you translate that into actual gaming, the controls end up feeling solid and intuitive. Taking advantage of the Playstation Vita’s capabilities is the ability to tap on the screen to weaken enemies or boost allies. This gives an added layer of interactivity to the control scheme.
In terms of the game’s length, Soul Sacrifice is huge. There are more than 100 missions packed in this Vita title, thereby keeping you very busy in the long run. Despite its quantity of content, it feels that Soul Sacrifice’s missions are all about going out to target a kill. In time, the overall impression becomes repetitive with such limited variety in gameplay. Despite that, Soul Sacrifice can also be played via online, which a significant bonus considering that playing with a friend or even a stranger gives another level of fun and excitement.
The graphics behind Soul Sacrifice is a mixed bag. Certain characters and creatures are designed with a great degree of detail and beauty. On the other hand, the environments seem to be lacking in terms of artistic layout. In terms of the audio, the music helps to liven things up. The sound effects allow players to immerse themselves in the environment of the battle while the voice acting is superb.
The concept behind Soul Sacrifice is pretty unique. However, its repetitiveness in gameplay and mixed-bag implementation in graphics may hinder players’ enjoyment. Nonetheless, this is one PlayStation Vita game that shows a lot of promise and should last you through with its vast content and epic story telling.
