Soul Sacrifice

[Gokulo]

http://andriasang.com/con0xa/soul_sa..._inafune_maql/

First details on PlayStation Vita's Soul Sacrifice have surfaced from Weekly Famitsu and the usual source for early Weekly Famitsu info, Sinobi.

Via Twitter, Sinobi reports that former Capcom development head Keiji Inafune is indeed working on the project. He's joined by Yasunori Mitsuda and Wataru Hokoyama on music. Development is being handled by Marvelous AQL.

The "Sacrifice" part of the title refers to your magic. When you cast a magic, you'll need to make payment through objects. You can use things like stones and trees as payment. But for more powerful magic, you'll be able to sacrifice your body parts. For instance, you can sacrifice your finger(s) to call out a Gleipnir. Sacrifice your eye(s) and you'll call out a Gorgon.

A separate flying get source is reporting that Soul Sacrifice will be released this Winter and will support one to four players.

Famitsu's feature on Soul Sacrifice spans seven pages and includes story and monster details, so we should have an update later today, and certainly tomorrow when Sony will hold a press conference for the game.

http://andriasang.com/con0xf/soul_sacrifice_magic/

The big catch for Keiji Inafune's PlayStation Vita action title Soul Sacrifice is not the "soul," as many had initially expected, but the "sacrifice." As detailed earlier in the day, Soul Sacrifice has you sacrifice body parts to perform powerful magic.

Weekly Famitsu lists the following sacrificial magics. While we listed these as summons earlier, they appear to be just magic attacks.
Excalibur: You stick your hand down your throat, pull out your spinal cord, and use this as your sword.
Gleipnir: Chop off your five fingers and perform a punch with your extended bones.
Gorgon: Pull out your eyeballs, and use them to blast out magic beams
Gungnir: Your bones and nerves emerge from your body and attack

Why would you torture yourself to kill your foes? This is actually part of the background story. You play as a slave who serves a cruel sorcerer.

It appears that you may be fighting people like yourself. Screenshots show massive creatures who apparently used their powerful magic too much and lost their human form.

There are still a few unclear areas about Soul Sacrifice -- for instance, if you chop your fingers off, do they come back? -- but we'll hopefully get additional details later in the day or at tomorrow's unveiling press conference.

Famitsu lists Soul Sacrifice as 50% complete. The game is due for release this Winter.

Now that you know what Soul Sacrifice is about, see if you can spot any of the soul sacrificing in the video that Sony released yesterday.

http://andriasang.com/con0xm/soul_sacrifice_update/

We forgot to mention one major character in our previous writeups about Soul Sacrifice: a "book." This "book" is a central figure in the game's story.

As detailed earlier, the main character is someone who was raised by a cruel sorcerer. Just as the main character is about to be given as a sacrificial offering, a special book appears before him. This book is a demon in book form. It contains the records of past fights between the sorcerer and monsters.

The player enters the world of the book and experiences the stories and fights depicted therein.

In addition to this background story, Sokuho's Famitsu summary mentions one magic attack that we didn't mention earlier: Salamander. This attack involves burning something (presumably a part of your body).

The game will have a customization component. You'll be able to select from a variety of styles for your character.

Your play style will also affect your form. As part of the game's story setting, the monsters you fight are former humans who used their magic too much and lost their human form. Make the same mistake, and you'll also begin to lose your human form.

Soul Sacrifice has support for one to four players. While we don't know what the multiplayer component will be like, it appears that you'll be able to sacrifice your fellow players' lives.

Keiji Inafune is listed in Famitsu in the game's "planning" and "development" role. Actual development is taking place at Marvelous AQL. The game's music component is from Yasunori Mitsuda and Wataru Hokoyama, with Hokoyama scheduled to head up overseas recording. On Sony Computer Enteratinment's side, the game's producer is Kentaro Motomura , and its assistant producer is Teruyuki Toriyama.

Awesome sacrifices!

[Doombear]

Many many screens from Famitsu:

Spoiler: show

Plenty more art here: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201205/10014403.html

[Kaisha]

Curious to see how that'll turn out since Keiji cannot afford for the game to get average reviews with the things he said a couple years ago.


Am loving the aesthetic at any rate. Looks like the kind of game you'd want running at 60fps just to see all the action happening if you got monsters of that size, although I don't think that'll be feasible with how the game looks currently compared to the current batch of powerhouse Vita titles running 30.

[Doombear]

I am very curious as well. I am really dying for a Monster Hunter or Monster Hunter wannabe title to sink some time into. The most interesting image for me here is the first one that shows all the different character armor and customization. It actually reminds me of this image from one of Keiji's other games...



Sadly, I still haven't even finished Lost Planet 2 and so I haven't even seen most of the customization there. All speculation of course (which I find fun) but some of the Soul Sac characters clearly look like they are wearing pieces of bosses, so that has me hoping that there is a similar armor system to MH. It is entirely possible that those are just possible unlockable player characters, though I hope not. The lack of weapons (actual swords and shit) has me very curious to find out how that will feel to play.

[Insanecyclone]

[Doombear]

A bit more of the Sacrifice mechanic was explained. In co-op when a player on your team dies you will have the option (if you run near his body) to revive them or to sacrifice them. On minor enemies only one teammate is needed to make the decision. Against the bosses all of the other remaining living players must vote.

Some Gameplay from the conference earlier:





Hopeful for an NA release due to some text shown that stated "with gamers worldwide." If not, I will definitely be importing. There are some very cool looking bits in the first video, which is multiplayer.

Looks like you can see a few different types of weapons. Greatsword, long sword, and a fist hammer. All magic based, but very similar to some of the MH weapon types.

The Boss entrance was excellent! Very smooth and well animated I thought. The top left player dies and you see a result of the Sacrifice mechanic. I am assuming the players voted to sacrifice and that is what turns that player into the Salamander at the end, and why he gets no loot at the close of the video.

The game looks smooth (for a cam video of a handheld cam video on a large screen..) and has me much more excited now that I have seen a bit of action. I really hope they show more at E3 and confirm a worldwide release (even if it isn't simultaneous) instead of making us wait until TGS to see more.

[hey]

This looks awesome.

[Doombear]

English Localization is still being decided.

Better videos with English uploaded:
Note: Translators are doing so live it seems, so it isn't the best, and there is a lot here. I personally found some of the footage in the 3rd video (of the multiplayer boss fight) to be the most interesting. The different types of sacrificial items (wood, stone, salamander, plants, flowers, etc. corresponding to different weapons/magics)

[6souls]

English Localization is still being decided.

Confirmed

Hello everyone! I’ve got some great news. A few weeks ago, Soul Sacrifice for PS Vita was announced in Japan and I’m sure many of you are wondering about the status of a North American release. I’m happy to announce that Soul Sacrifice is coming to North America! The legendary Keiji Inafune of Comcept is leading this project with MarvelousAQL, with Yasunori Mitsuda and Wataru Hokoyama working on the music and soundtrack. The theme of this game is “reality blended experience.” You may wonder what that means, exactly. In celebration of the announcement in North America, Inafune-san has kindly sent us a description along with his comments.

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

Another key feature of this game is the concept of “sacrifice.” In order to use sorcery during fierce battles, you must be willing to make a sacrifice – ranging from personal belongings, a limb, maybe even a life. How much would you be willing to sacrifice to gain ultimate power?

We’ll have more info to come at E3, so please stay tuned. For now, check out the video interview from Inafune-san talking about the two main themes of “reality blended experience” and “sacrifice” for Soul Sacrifice.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/...north-america/
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012/...ing-to-europe/

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8007/7...295f3e74_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7221/7...d24a410a_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7223/7...0cef7dfa_b.jpg

[m4th_]

looks awesome and intriguing.
had a mini heart attack cause i thougth it was a new souls game, and the resemblances are all there.

[Insanecyclone]

[Doombear]

The best part of this news to me... is that the game is still going to be called Soul Sacrifice in the NA and EU, meaning that I can once again get a little giddy about Sony registering the Forsaken Souls name. That is just the best part of the announcement, don't get me wrong I am still excited to see confirmation that this is coming over here. I hope that the Vita sees more love when it comes to games getting US releases than the PSP even did.

[Insanecyclone]

The best part of this news to me... is that the game is still going to be called Soul Sacrifice in the NA and EU, meaning that I can once again get a little giddy about Sony registering the Forsaken Souls name. That is just the best part of the announcement, don't get me wrong I am still excited to see confirmation that this is coming over here. I hope that the Vita sees more love when it comes to games getting US releases than the PSP even did.

Well...

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/01...oul-sacrifice/

Yes, At One Time, “Forsaken Souls” Was Considered For Soul Sacrifice

Remember “Forsaken Souls”? Sony registered a domain for a game by that name in the U.S. recently. When the domain name was reported, it was widely assumed that Forsaken Souls would be the localized title for Soul Sacrifice on the PlayStation Vita.



Then, this morning, Sony announced that Soul Sacrifice is headed to North America and Europe with its title intact, which made us wonder just what Forsaken Souls really was.



It turns out that Forsaken Souls was, in fact, considered as a western title for Soul Sacrifice. On the European PlayStation blog, a Sony representative replied to a reader: “‘Forsaken Souls’ was a regional WIP title. The game will be distributed in Japan, North America and Europe under the name of ‘Soul Sacrifice’.”

[Doombear]

No! Damn it. =( Ok well, I am still excited to see more of Sacrifice at E3!

[Doombear]

Spring 2013 in NA.

[Doombear]

[6souls]

[Doombear]

Well goddamn it...

Soul Sacrifice delayed until Spring 2013.

Sony and Soul Sacrifice designer, Keiji Inafune, announced a release window for the game at a pre-Tokyo Game Show conference today.
The dark fantasy Monster Hunter-style co-op game will be released in Spring 2013 in Japan, delayed from its original Winter release window to ensure that it’s a quality title.

Sony will release a demo for the game this Winter, however.

[Doombear]

This game just keeps on impressing the hell out of me in videos and screenshots.



Definite glimpses of MonHun in there, obviously, but the darker nature of it has me very interested. I tried to get into God Eater to sate my MonHun needs, but it didn't feel right. I really hope this does, and so far I am really liking what I see. Sucks that they are already pushing it back, and it makes NO sense why they are pushing it back far enough to line up with a Monster Hunter 4 release... but I can wait if it delivers.

[Souj]