Soul Sacrifice, aka cthulhu hunter.

[Perkel]

Since i didn't find even one thread about it (or even half a thread) and i started to play it i thought i could make proper thread for it. This is for both Delta(base game + expansion) and normal edition.

So i finished Dragon's Crown few days ago and i wanted something more akin to Monster Hunter. Since SS was hailed back in the day as answer for monster hunter i guess ss should be game to play, right ?

I expected Monster Hunter with 0 story and just gameplay fun but i got game with really fucking deep and amazing lore. I am not super deep into game so far but game really is interesting in therms of story, dialogs, themes and so on. Each and every monster is weird spin on some legends which are really creative and interesting. Like Elven Queen being just woman child kidnaper who fell into ravine while people pursued her and there she merged with dendelions as she craved for offspring and later on she came back and started to hunt children fusing them with plants. That Elven Queen story is like 5-6 pages long and that is just one moster type.

Then there is gameplay. I though this will be straight up MH just with different monsters and weapons but here it is more about item based skills almost no armor or weapons to begin with.

Skill system also is really deep and you can mix several skills. Like axe and feathers to have quick slash axe skill for a time. Or iceballs and axe to have ice axe.

My only gripe so far is that combat feels clunkly like they skimped on animations or something like that so ton of things don't feel impactful or have 0 effect on monsters.

Story itself also is suprising as it reminds me more of Sacrifice (by Shine ent.) or Torment rather than anything else. Basically you are prisoner of some mage waiting to be sacrificed but you found some book of some mage and that book is actually living book that can give you ability to relive moments and learn stuff. So you "read" book reliving different aspects of sorcerer life from initiation to various events.

Writting is really really really good. Mostly in book form but voice acting on characters in story really does writing justice.
Main character voice acting is interesting as it is both famale and male voice at the same time which sound really weird but fun i guess...

Also world is uber grim. Like really fucking grim. Even bastions of humanity (sorcerers) are basically bloodthirsty maniacs wating to kill one another rather than clear monsters and they often sacrifice one another in blood rittes to gain power.

 

[Siveon]

Damn I should've made this thread :D . I kinda 100% the game solo (there's a lot of multiplayer stuff but I didn't do it) and I have to say I really really liked the story. While the game is grim (ha!) I'd say the setting is akin to Fist of the North Star grim than say Berserk grim. No spoilers so I'll just leave it at that.

I bought the game for $5 and got 100 hours out of it, worth it. At least if you like a lot of non interactive reading, action rpgs and book UIs. There's a demo too so, yeah.

 

[Perkel]

I'd say the setting is akin to Fist of the North Star grim than say Berserk grim.

Yeah but from what i read it looks more like they took Dragon's Age mages being corrupted on new level of fucked up.

I mean ogres are just cats who first absorbed after effects of spells and then they started to hunt sorcerers.
Goblins are rats who carried plague and were killed by people. They grew hatred to people and they managed their hands on magic which mutated them.
Then there are bosses like trolls or pegasus which all of them are people who were made into those things via different events.

Challice thing is interesting. It keeps showing up in different stories pushing people into sorcery though i guess this will be explained later on.

Just finished Sympatha story. And as usuall it is great though a bit to classikal (about vengence and emptyness after it). Still even with such classical story it gives proper finishing to one of the factions especially in context of MC which seems to be cruel person from get go as member of avalon.

What i would want to see would be some proper RPG made in that setting.

Still combat is janky as at the beggining. I guess they had to scale back production on different things since they wanted to put as many skills as humanly possible.

BTW does skills get more fun later on ? I mean skills i already got (like 30 of them) are mostly fun to use and some seem to nicely mix together offically or unoficially but that clunkyness of combat is really driving me mad at times.

BTW2. Do i get more customization later on ? From what i can see there isn't any armor but only costumes and i don't see how i can get new ones.

 

[Expon]

You get more buffs from completing more side missions i think, and there is no armor in the this game, there are spells that mimic armor with specific status ailments like say if you use a spell that covers you in vines, you'll take mlre fire damage. As for the the male and females voices, the male one is the arthor in the story the female one is because

Spoiler

he sacrificed nimue

 

[Rahdulan]

Yeah, I think it's pretty much the only MH clone, so to speak, that actually differentiated itself enough with more than just a setting change. Quick pace and short missions format is still there, but Soul Sacrifice oozes with atmosphere and great design, not to mention that goddamn story which is usually just filler in these games.

Make sure you get free DLC if you don't own the Delta version, which has it all already integrated. US PSN link below.
https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/soul-sacrifice/cid=UP9000-PCSA00092_00-SOULSACRIFICEUS0:ADD-ONS

 

[Siveon]

BTW does skills get more fun later on ? I mean skills i already got (like 30 of them) are mostly fun to use and some seem to nicely mix together offically or unoficially but that clunkyness of combat is really driving me mad at times.

You get more variety of skills later on, but generally you're gonna find one sweet spot of a loadout and just interchange it for each element. I was a defensive spear guy who focused on healing himself, attacking body parts, doing the elemental special or generally just surviving. I pumped the shit out of an OP Delta Spear that was neutral and had a good 'ol time with that.

BTW2. Do i get more customization later on ? From what i can see there isn't any armor but only costumes and i don't see how i can get new ones.

Your armor is basically those tattoos you put on your arm. That's about it. I don't even think titles do anything. Aside from the bracelet item that you can use that Expon mentioned, which gives some defense and resistance/vulnerability.

As for the the male and females voices, the male one is the arthor in the story the female one is because

For the sake of brevity call her Sortiara. Googling names in a conversation is a hassle. :S

 

[Expon]

Spoiler

 

[Siveon]

Hot damn, is that official artwork? That's amazing.

EDIT: I swear this is the last game Keiji Inafune will make that's above an 8/10.

 

[Expon]

I'm used to calling characters by thire original names (used the jp voice pack since day 1) so the localization sounds a bit werid

 

[Expon]

He'll do a sequal if sony WANTS one. So this might very well be the last

 

[Perkel]

Yeah, I think it's pretty much the only MH clone, so to speak, that actually differentiated itself enough with more than just a setting change. Quick pace and short missions format is still there, but Soul Sacrifice oozes with atmosphere and great design, not to mention that goddamn story which is usually just filler in these games.

Make sure you get free DLC if you don't own the Delta version, which has it all already integrated. US PSN link below.
https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/soul-sacrifice/cid=UP9000-PCSA00092_00-SOULSACRIFICEUS0:ADD-ONS

I have delta.

 

[Perkel]

Do AI companions are per mission or i can get someone to help me like cats in MH ?

edit:
love music it is really great stuff and fits well tone of the game.

 

[Siveon]

Do AI companions are per mission or i can get someone to help me like cats in MH ?

You can choose two AI companions on non-story based missions or you're stuck with a prerequisite AI partner or two depending on the scenario. The list of AI companions can be the random sorcerer's that you save or the people you meet in the story. You can increase your "Affinity" with allies depending on the faction that they associate with. Avalon dudes like it when you murder, Sanctuarium likes it when you don't murder, and Grim likes it when you flip the coin. Increasing affinity gives them better stuff to fight with. Typically just a higher level of weapon they were using before.

 

[Perkel]

Spend like 15 hours already. Definitely game is v.good. Wonky gameplay at start changed into crazy mash up of different skills that are used constantly, non stop action.

Also i have like 20+ allies now. What is the point of sacrificing someone in fist place if you get only some small magic boost...

 

[Siveon]

You need the magic boost to be able to do decent damage to foes, and later on only sacrificing random mobs can make leveling up a bit tedious, and you would also lose out on certain mission opportunities. Since you could always undo it with a bit of Librom tears, it was never that big of a deal though.

 

[Perkel]

Hot damn. This game rocks. Story is waaaaaaaaay better i though it would be. Especially for Monster Hunter Clone.

Persona 4 Golden was my favorite for Vita but this takes the cake currently. There is some repetition but story, voice acting and generally how game plays is waaay beyond typical clone.

Currently doing true ending path. 50h spend and i found only the begging being mediacore. Once story properly builds up themes and events you want to follow it.

 

[Perkel]

I finished main story and all i can say is that this game has awesome story.

I am talking here near Torment level of weirdness and awesomeness. This game is perfect case for "good writing creates good story not cutscenes"

Game mostly aside from like 4-5 don't have any cutscenes. And yet story told via book and voice actor is way better than almost any story i played last few years. Despite lack of animations and fx most of characters in game are vivid as you don't have problem with character names.

Game is fucking grim. Like 10 levels deep grim and not "edgy" grim. I love lore and world.
If you have vita fucking play it. Bare few first chapters and you will see that this is a real gem.

 

[Siveon]

You have way too much free time, but yeah I agree with your sentiment. :D

 

[Expon]

Now if only sony will let keiji do a sequal

 

[Perkel]

Wrote more about it in here, sorta review:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...u-wasting-time-on.50372/page-339#post-4762329

Yeah i would love sequel but judging it sales and what sony does currently (axing devs left and right) they don't care about it as well as severlal other ips they have.

 

[Amn Nom]

I finished main story and all i can say is that this game has awesome story.

I am talking here near Torment level of weirdness and awesomeness. This game is perfect case for "good writing creates good story not cutscenes"

Game mostly aside from like 4-5 don't have any cutscenes. And yet story told via book and voice actor is way better than almost any story i played last few years. Despite lack of animations and fx most of characters in game are vivid as you don't have problem with character names.

Game is fucking grim. Like 10 levels deep grim and not "edgy" grim. I love lore and world.
If you have vita fucking play it. Bare few first chapters and you will see that this is a real gem.

Yeah no kidding, I consider it the Vita system seller. People always hype up games like Persona 4 Golden and you have this amazing experience left ignored.

The lore was the best, and I'm not even talking the main story. Those boss monsters all have some kind of grim story on how they became like that, really puts into perspective what I'm fighting.

 

[Perkel]

yeah but it is Sony IP so they won't port it. Again something Sony Japan does and again Sony overall will shit on it because they are chasing next multimilion seller axing developers left and right.

What i liked the most about SSD is fucking lore. The chalice, souls residing in right arm after sacrifice of someone, those souls taking tool on its wielders, Avalon and main factions, state of the world (at time of book writting not player imprisonment) which is basically pockets of civilizations with constant war with monster, role of sorcerers in this as they fight in that war, how perceptius is made i mean each and every character, place, is filled with lore that usually isn't straight monsters are bad we should kill them type and takes a moment to set in.

It is not often i get invested in lore these days. Last time it was literally torment for me that i really get into it.

Honestly if this was constructed as isometric RPG and get PC port we would be talking top 3 of rpg stories/lore and frequent top 5 dex contender. Though i must say that monster hunter element to game feels good and kind of works like busy work of sorcerer in that world rather than lol here is monster and kill it.

Still. That Librom voice actor is god tier. I think that giving him murderous voice of new Avalon member was awesome choice. Think just how mediacore normal voice acting would take away experience from game.