Soul Sacrifice

I have played Soul Sacrifice for over 60+ hour. It has been out in Japan for a while and I am glad it finally arrived in NA. This game is what the Playstation Vita needed and I'm disappointed that Sony did not put more effort to advertise it. There is a demo of the game on the Playstation Network Store, however it is now more limited than prior to launch. Story: I will only give a broad description as I don't want to give any spoilers. You a prisoner that is eventually going to be sacrificed. Luckily, duo to some circumstances which I wont mention, you find a magical book that belong to a mysterious sorcerer/res. This book is capable of showing you the past events of this person. It even gives you the ability to alter the content of the book. By experiencing the events of the past, you slowly become knowledgeable enough to use magic in reality. There story branches slightly depending on who you choose to save or sacrifice. The theme is pretty much humans flaws and emotions. You can read about how the bosses in the game ended the way they become. The story is told naturally in a story book format(With illustration), with some cut scenes between battles. Sound: The composer Yasunori Mitsuda(Also made Chrono Trigger Music) did an amazing job. Many people I've played with praise the music. I would link sound track if I could. Just look it up online or better yet, wait until you actually play the game. Gameplay: I see many people comparing this game to Monster Hunter Series. Honestly, I don't think that is an accurate comparison. Using other games as basis of comparison, this game atmosphere is that of Dark/Demon Souls and Nier. The controls feel more like Infamous, very smooth and precise; You can cancel attacks midway and roll out of danger. The only thing that it resemble Monster Hunter is the big boss battles and working to improve your items, but that is something that really apply to many games. Is kinda like when people compare other shooters to Call of Duty, when there has been shooters way before Call of Duty ever existed. The game has two component: Story missions. These are where you progress your story driven content obviously. You get allies but they are AI base and only if you choose to save certain people. Sacrificing leaves you without allies to fight with except when the story plot requires it. Almost all the bosses in the story line are playable in the multiplayer aspect (Without the story plot). Online missions. You go to a lobby(in this game is a screen of options not an actual place to walk in), host picks a mission, everyone gets ready, then off to combat. There is a large variety of missions, more being unlock as you play. The goal is to aim for the best score possible while attempting to break bosses parts for extra loot. The fights are usually challenging, some almost requiring you to sacrifice a partner or two. If you die a lot, prepare to be sacrificed by a team mate. You get the option of either saving them at the cost of half your health or sacrificing them for a massive damage to the boss. This adds a bit of a moral choice to the online aspect. Some people get really upset if you sacrifice them. You will have to live with the consequence. General rules tend to be that if you don't want to be sacrificed, perform your best and avoid opening that option by not dieing. It really is fun, specially when you debate if a person is more useful to the team dead or alive. The online aspect is easily my most favorite part of the game. As I mention before. You get the choice to save or sacrifice. There is a key difference beside the morality. There is two path in which you can level up, depending on your choice. Saving give you higher health and defense but no damage. Sacrificing gives you higher damage but no health and defense. You can choose to go all out in one or the other (Actually recommended by veteran of the game) or you can go the neutral route and balance out damage with health. Not something that you have to worry too much about as you can lower the level of whichever side you choose. The max level is 100 (99 of which is interchangeable. You cannot level both side to 99). There is not a permanent risk, your free to edit everything at any time including the story, character appearance, name, level, gender, and clothing. Improving your spells is the best way to get stronger. Farming bosses for their special spells to make even stronger ones. I could go on and on about this game. To me, this game is on par with Persona 4 Golden as the best games for the PSV. Gravity Rush being close to that ranking. I can see myself putting more hours of enjoyment to this game than any other. The online is fun, the story is great, and the controls is responsive and fluid. Try the demo if you unsure although the online aspect of it was removed when the official game launched. This game is a must have for Playstation Vita owners. There will always be people who don't like certain games. There's not a single game out there that EVERYONE loves. I do believe that a majority of people would enjoy this. I wish there was more advertisement for this game.I know people who bough the vita just for this game. I would too, if I did not buy it for Persona 4 Golden.

I must admit, this game is a lot more addictive than I ever thought it would be. Since I started playing I just can't put it down! There is a lot of fun to be had in this game - solo or cooperatively. The magic system is pretty deep, and I find the save or sacrifice mechanic is very interesting, especially when you're in a boss fight (the minions). The game is designed so you won't overuse your powers and you have to use them wisely. Even the really powerful attacks have a cost so it encourages you to employ balance. I love how the game gets you to try and figure out the weakness of a boss in order to secure victory. Weakness in terms of area and the elemental type (that's like the rock paper scissors thing in Pokemon ... fire beat grass, grass beats water but water beats fire). The partner AI is okay (not horrible, but not great). It's good enough to get you through the game, but don't expect an Einstein or anything. Playing the game with a friend is best. I was supposed to play it for 2 hours wit my friend yesterday before studying, and that quickly went to 5 hours. Before we knew it we spent all night playing the game. Apart from the AI other issues I had were related to the lack of enemy variety. The game could have used more enemy types for the minions. However, the diversity of bosses compensates for it in some way. The graphics are good, but nothing ground breaking. They're good enough to get the job done. I like how they story was told through the book as well. Some may not like it, but when you consider the context it makes a lot of sense (I don't want to spoil it for people). All in all it is a great game and I can't wait to play the DLC, and hopefully there will be a sequel.

When i first got my psvita I knew that one of the first games that I wanted to get was Soul Sacrifice. It had tremendous amount of hype, possibly an "app killer" and after watching many trailers and gameplays and hearing from people this would be sort of like monster hunter (a franchise which I love), I was sold. Now before i actually bought the game I played the demo and I was struggling to beat the game.... yes folks I'm talking about the demo. The levels were all but too familiar, your weapon choices were limited, and these "bite-sized" missions felt too short and didn't feel like it escalated into an epic boss battle. Granted I thought since it was a demo, there were a lot of features that were left out and hence the real game would be a lot better..... right? Well here is where the problem lies. EVERYTHING YOU SEE IN THE DEMO IS WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET the game basically recycles all the same weapons, same enemies, same levels and just gives them different elements, making the illusion that there is more than meets the eye. For example: In one stage, you may fight "normal" rats, and on the VERY NEXT LEVEL you may fight "grass-type rats" or "poison-type" rats. They all do the same attacks and the only strategy here is to fight them with their counterparts "fire-type" sword > "grass-type" rats. The weapons you get are basically the same thing with different elements. You get your swords, big hands, explosives, throwing shurikens, "fire-type" "poison-type" "stone-type" and they all do the exact same thing. The levels are all pretty linear and really the only 2 missions or varieties in the game are "wipe-out all the enemies" or "collect shards" items which you collect by running around the map and don't even have to fight a single enemy. Now after a lot of fighting, running, leveling-up, and doing missions you eventually get to the boss, the big meat of the game, and for the first couple bosses beating the crap out of these guys is really satisfying. The sheer difficulty and the skills needed to beat these guys are so rewarding that once you beat them you feel like you just defeated Goliath. But this get old pretty soon when the bosses ARE RECYCLED THROUGHOUT THE GAME. Once you beat the first couple bosses you feel like you're getting the hang of the game and you're ready for the next challenge.... but NOT WHEN YOU FIGHT THE SAME BOSSES OVER AND OVER WITH DIFFERENT ELEMENTS. My guess is the developers got lazy as hell and just decided to re-use old bosses and give them different elements. might as well call this game elemental hero. Now to be fair there are different bosses in-between here and there but for the majority you'll be fighting the same bosses you fought in the first 5 levels. Now some of the positives is the leveling system where you choose to save (gain health) or sacrifice (gain power-up) and this really affects how you approach the game. The graphics are really pretty and fits the setting well and the bosses once you beat them, feel really satisfying the first couple times. The music also compliments the settings and the locale. The story is actually pretty good in this action-rpg game and found myself playing the game more for the story than the gameplay. Sadly the story does not make up for the lack of gameplay which you will be doing most of the time and after 20+ hours of gameplay I really wanted to like this game and even forced myself to keep playing it just in case in wasn't just me but I couldn't find myself to finish the game. If you like repetitive stuff and fighting the same 5 enemies over and over again this game is for you but for people like me, try the demo first and you be the judge of the game

Heard good things about this game so I bought it and gave it a try. Here is what I though of it. ************************************************************************PROS****************************************************************************** Great combat:- This is the best aspect of this game. In the beginning when you have limited weapons and knowledge of the game, it won't be fun but once you gain different type of weapons and magic, the combat becomes very engaging and addicting. To save or sacrifice choices make the combat strategic and fresh. Amazing bosses:- This is other aspect that promoted me to move forward in the game. As you finish more, you face more and more interesting bosses with different abilities. It was fun to come up with different strategy to beat bosses. Great Weapon/Magic variety:- As mentioned before, there are great variety of weapons and magics you can unlock in this game. What is more impressive is the combos you can do with different elemental weapons and magic, which make battles very enjoyable and addicting. Decent challenge:- Different mission are ranked in terms of their difficulty. So you can finish them according to your comfort. This way if you are not ready for harder missions, you can refinish the easier missions, collect more items, strengthen your weapons and magic and then take on the difficult missions. Good Story:- I was not expecting much in this direction but this game has probably one of the better stories I have experienced in games. CG scenes and Graphics:- Very gorgeous. Definitely a plus. ************************************************************************CONS****************************************************************************** Redundancy:- This is the most frustrating aspect of the game. The game is long but you end up variable version of the same boss over and over and over again. Weapon evolution method:- Again you have to beat the same level again and again to evolve certain weapons. Not fun. ************************************************************************CONCLUSION****************************************************************************** All and all it way enjoyable. Now that prices have dropped, definitely worth getting it.

Soul Sacrifice is a bit of a tough game to review. It's fairly different from most games in the public eye, and its not for everyone. It was one of the first big exclusives to come to the PS Vita since Uncharted and Gravity Rush, but it's not the game that will save the PS Vita from being condemned for lack of games. But first things first, the game itself and how it works. Soul Sacrifice's( from hereon referred to as "SS") central conceit is centered in the game's lore, namely sacrificing or saving the monsters that you fight. Each of the abilities that you use in SS draws from a limited number of uses or from your health pool. As you defeat smaller enemies, you can choose to either save or sacrifice them. Sacrificing the enemy will provide you with more uses for your various abilities. Saving them will refill your health. Either of these actions will also add to one of two experience bars. When the Sacrifice bar is filled, the player's character does more damage with their attacks and gains more uses for abilities when sacrificing creatures. When the Save bar is filled, the player character's health pool is enlarged and the amount of healing they receive from saving creatures or using healing spells is increased. The actual gameplay itself is a flurry of dodging attacks, dealing out your own, and managing your limited abilities. I've heard it compared to Monster Hunter quite a bit, and from the little Monster Hunter I've played, I would say that the two are similar, only SS is faster paced. For those not familiar with Monster Hunter or its like, this means that fights with monsters are rather long and very reliant on skill. You will need to be able to see the ways a monster telegraphs its attacks before they happen and you will need a firm grasp on the range and timing of your own attacks. This makes for a compelling progression of skill in which the player is able to progress not only because their stats are higher but also because they are better at the game. The real treat of the game is fighting the boss monsters, each of which has a well-written backstory for the player to read in the game's menus. Really, this speaks to the game in general. The main story is good, but not great and the world only really becomes fleshed out when you read the logs that the game has tucked away. But boy, does it become an intriguing world. Graphically, the game looks pretty stunning. As someone who has been playing video games since the late 90's, it's shocking to see how far handheld games have been able to progress in such a short time. The character and monster models in particular make me wish that I could see the lovely work done by the game's artists on a much larger screen. And the game has always run at a nice, solid framerate for me. That said, you've probably seen better graphics on your PC or home consoles. Some of the textures aren't as refined as they could be and the arenas are a tad lifeless sometimes. This brings me to the biggest problem with the game. It ends up being a fairly repetitive arena fighter with above-average gameplay and very good world-building. The map selection isn't overwhelming and there are only about 20 different bosses to fight, with more being released as free DLC for the next couple months. I typically hate grinding in RPG's and this game has certainly pressed my limits some, but it's much more tolerable here than in RPG's with turn-based combat systems. That is to say, that if you want to get your $40 out of this game, you will grind a fair bit. Sometimes it's not too bad because the core gameplay is pretty good, but other times, you'll wish that you just did more damage or had more health so you could move along. The game also supports multiplayer, both local and online, for its non-story missions. I haven't actually gotten around to trying this, but I've heard lovely things about putting together strategy with others to try and take down especially difficult monsters. Ultimately, I think that Soul Sacrifice is a pretty good game, but that it's not for everyone. People who need action or spectacle every second will be bored by SS's re-use of similar assets and monsters. It is, unfortunately, not the game that the PS Vita needs to bring itself to mainstream appeal. But those looking for a meaty game to sink their teeth into will be charmed by Soul Sacrifice's solid mechanics and well written world.

This is a great must have game from sony studios and the creator of mega man, a great long game. Amazing gameplay very smooth, I love the online play watching all 4 people in online match and all the stuff going and blowing up is a site to behold. Especially how there is four humans and over eight monsters on sceen, the bosses are huge and tough I love the challenge this offers. Its also good you customize to sacrifice or save each boss to get stronger in health or magic really customizing the way you play. The graphics are very good and i love it have been playing for close to 10 hours and still havent seen anything yet. There is tons of things to customize the character your skills and create tons of new items which is addicting. This may be the best game on the vita other than uncharted, highly recommend its worth buying a vita alone, and way better than monster hunter on 3ds and i have a 3ds to qualify. I actually would compare this more to dark souls on ps3 than monster hunter on 3ds for the way it plays and being an excellent system defining game.

If you liked the Army of Darkness & Dante’s Inferno (cartoon) and truly engaging story then you will absolutely love this. What was really surprised me was how much better this was based on the previous reviews I have read. Definitely an underdog in the pack. The attention to art and presentation of telling the story through a talking book (sounds crazy but well done) is second to none from all the games I have played (to date I have all the top games). The only game that comes close to storytelling is Persona 4 Golden...but you really cannot compare because it’s a very different game. Everything feels right the controls the complexity of spells (combining them to make other spells is a nice touch), decisions to sacrifice or save at what cost?, using special sight abilities early in the game not only help you take down bosses but clue you in to secret environment weapons and armor, decisions to place what type of magic on the limited slots on your arms, you appearance changes depending on the decisions (reminds me like Fable in a way). Overall a very smart devolpment team on board to continally release more downloadable content for extra missions. I almost finished the game but I always want to keep coming back to play. Outstanding production and savy development team...my hat is off to them.

Best game I ever played for the vita so far I've been playing it non-stop since I've received it. There is Online co-op if you need help on certain things.Fusing of your spells to create new ones.Large portion of quests available to played.Fun combat and fast pace gameplay there are around 20 bosses to be fought but are given different types of quest such as scavenging for soul shards,beating bosses under a certain time limit or collecting soul shards without being injured,and killing foul creatures. At times the side quests can be very complicated that not even the A.I can be a helping hand but that's what you are given online coop for so don't be sad.The story component of the game was very interesting and might take some time to complete if you're not doing side quests to help you gain nice spells and more xp.Graphics are nice for a portable game.

Was as described. game works well. well packaged.

Best adventure game

Arrived as promised in time for X-Mas

Phenomenal game, you can easily put hundreds of hours in and enjoy it all!

Not good enough. Not memorable at all.