Prepare to forfeit your gaming thumbs, when Soul Sacrifice arrives

 

I thought that  I’d finally gotten over my technolust for a PS Vita, last month. That horrible urge, that intense craving, to own that gorgeous and shiny dust-magnet, was well and truly out my system. Imagine that scene from Trainspotting, only with less creepy babies, and more girlish screaming from me.

And then Keiji Inafune had to pop up, like some sort of shady salesman, and say to me, “Heyu, check this out”, before opening his trenchcoat and revealing Soul Sacrifice, which looks your typical crazy Japanese action game for the vita.

Demons, monsters, magic, it’s all there in Soul Sacrifice, but the hook, is that to fight back against the evil forces that are after you, is to sacrifice your very physical being. That’s right, if you want to cast a powerful spell, you’re going to need to make some sacrifices.

Here’s an example of some of the magic that you can perform, as well as their costs, from Weekly Famitsu;

• 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

All that self-inflicted pain is part of the storyline, which has players taking on the role of a slave, who is owned by a particularly sadistic sorcerer. Our unlucky slave won’t just be fighting against strange beasts, but will also find himself taking on other humans with the same powers as him, but due to them using too much magic, they’ve become warped and twisted.

Further game details are still unclear right now, as to how exactly the magic works, what effects it has on a player and how our protagonist functions without vital organs, but with production at around 50% completion, we should hear more when Soul Sacrifice ships later this year.

After being immensely disappointed by Neverdead this year, which also had a rather cool, Black Knight-inspired premise, I’m hoping that Inafune and co have what it takes to renew my interest in gruesome, strange and crazy combat.

Last Updated: May 10, 2012