Soul Sacrifice PS VITA

I'll be honest I didn't think much of this game, I took one look and thought hello forgettable dungeon crawler no.5712 but what really peaked my interest was this game was created by the mind of Keiji Inafune who has worked on various games like Resident Evil, Megaman and tons more so if anyone could make the Vita's killer app, its this guy.

You are tasked with a quest to overthrow an evil sorcerer named Magusar, who tasked you with this? A magic book that when you read it you relive those chapters from the past, its a great concept but it feels like more could have been done and the story is dull. In game you travel to a random arena to battle monsters and thats about it, repetition kicks in all too fast in Soul Sacrifice but its highly addictive and it offers a lot to keep you playing.

The games hook is you can choose to save creatures or sacrifice them to power your magic, using this ability on bosses can also change what missions you will unlock too, you can change the results of the mission if you redo the mission but it becomes tiring after a while, still the save/sacrifice feature allows you to build your character how you like, if you save you build defence, if you sacrifice you build your attack so it allows you to manage your character how you like and makes you feel like you are making your character rather than levelling up with random stats, its a kind of interactivity that I hope to see more of in the future but it gets better.

You can use magic using 1 of 6 slots to fill in offerings that will let you cast spells, offerings are dropped by completing missions and doing things during the mission, by collecting more types of these items you can upgrade the offering to be able to cast more spells of that type, its makes you feel more like a certain full metal alchemist than a sorcerer but again it makes you have more interactivity with your character as you can choose what spells you want, if there is a complaint I have is that a lot of the spells are the same just with a different elements.

Combat is rather fun but repetitive, there is some strategy to fighting as some enemies are weaker to some elements and you must sometimes stop to refresh your offerings, if you don't and you run out of offerings they are gone for the rest of the battle, plus monsters will change how they will attack as they lose health so you will have to remember attack patterns however opponents will just simply eat your attacks will nothing in the way of defence or attempting to dodge so while there is tactics at hand its not as much as there could be. Enemies do have weak points which, if you attack it enough, will destroy that part but it really only effects 1 or 2 monsters, the rest get stunned for a few seconds.

Online is the most addictive part of the package and will fuel your interest in the game, you and 3 others from around the world can challenge missions from your optional missions and while you can do these missions alone its far more fun to play with others, online works very well and you can help each other by saving dying players or even sacrifice them to attack enemies, it gives a major sense of teamwork even when everyone just kind of does their own thing but it also never feels like your getting in anyones way and when they do need help its never a chore to do.

Soul Sacrifice is not the Vita's killer app but its close, its really close. If there was more variety to the missions, more interactivity to the arenas and more strategy to the monsters this could have been the game to sell the Vita but with an excellent online mode, awesome offering & levelling up system and highly addictive gameplay, if you have a Vita or planning for one, you need this, its a must buy.

Honestly the Soul Sacrifice demo is the best demo ive played and at first i thought i would have a problem with people sacrificing me but what reall works well is people listen to the in game chat when you select save or sacrifice me and most people who a veterans know not to sacrifice a player in the beginning or even middle of the match.

HOURS OF FUN
I've played 20hrs so far, and i would say if you wanted to fully complete the demo e.g get all your spells to 3 stars you would probably be playing the demo 40hrs+.

GRINDING
something i love about the demo is the points you get this makes the grinding fun because you may be trying to get a unscathed achievement(not being hit once in the match) to boost your points and for me this makes every grind you do different because doing certain thing your receive different points

ONLINE
the online multiplayer is where it shines and God its awesome yesterday i went through all the online demo quests start to finish without a break and when your playing with people you know everything falls into place and no one spams Golems or the Boulders.
i actually cant wait to fight the new monsters in the demo and get my butt kicked from thinking im a pro just from them demo :P

And I got 40h of combined gameplay time from both. That realy says a lot about the game. It's the safest pre-order in years. It would literally have to brick my Vita to disappoint me after the release.

Wow, it was amazing. I played whilst watching a play through on you tube. Skygenne 22 I think the guys name is. He lives in Japan so translates the important parts. After playing the demo, I couldn't careless if we get MH or not. Long live SS.

Ive had the japanese demo for months, it was pretty hard to understand the mechanics of the game when i first played it. the game is an excellent work of art, if i had to compare it to any other game i would say its a cross between demon souls and monster hunter.

The graphics are the best ive seen on vita and its an original exclusive title. The music is very fitting wether your in battle or going through menus. Cut scenes are brilliant. The only problem is that not an ounce of the demo is in english. We are not meant to have played this game yet, but i couldnt wait.

The spell system is based on random loot collected at the end of every mission. Also, you have to combine spells to make them more stronger as each spell can break after a certain amount of uses during battle. so far i have combined spells up to level 3, but theres a way to increase the power of the spells once more. Due to my extreme lack of knowledge in japanese i had to learn everything through trial and error. later bosses are very hard but very rewarding. I even unlocked a spell that summons a monster to fight for me and causes great damage too.

The sacrificial part of the game comes into play when you or a comrade dies during a battle. you can choose to sacrifice part of your life to revive them to 50% even if you have 10% of life yourself. The other option is to sacrifice them the cast a powerful area attack and cause massive damages to bosses. being sacrificed may suck, theres benefits to helping your team when you play as a ghost. You cant attack but u can buff your friends by touching them on screen. Debuff you enemies and you can see the enemies life bar and let your friends know how well their doing and how much more to go for bosses. Assuming your party wins the fight you get rated at the end and the loot is decided based on how well the fight went.

Theres so much more to this game and i cant wait for the english release. I hope this isnt a spoiler for some people but more of an insight for what is to come when this game is released.

Ive been waiting for monster hunter to come back to sony but i think this is our alternative.

I rate this game 9/10. If i could understand it i probably would have given it 10/10. My rating is also based on the fact that i love the monster hunter series and i love demon souls.