Soul Sacrifice... Oh! I play this game!

Soul Sacrifice is a action adventure game developed Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. It was released on April 30th, 2013 for the Playstation Vita. The original concept was created by Keiji Inafune, the co-designer of the Megaman and Dead Rising franchises. Upon the release of the game, Vita sales tripled in Japan. Soul Sacrifice can be compared to games like Monster Hunter or Dark Souls, though the combat is significantly easier.

Story - 9.5

Librom, the Sorcerer's Journal

Captured by an evil sorcerer you are going to be sacrificed to fuel his immortality. You are thrown into a cell to await your demise, but you soon run across something quite peculiar: a talking book. This book, who calls himself "Librom", offers to help you escape and defeat this evil sorcerer. He explains that he is the journal of a deceased sorcerer, but not just any journal, a magic journal. Through reading his pages you can actually experience the events written within. Any knowledge you gain inside the world within the journal stays with you when you come back to the cell. As you read Librom, you learn spells and abilities that will help you defeat the evil sorcerer. You flip through the pages, one after another, learning more and more about the world you are experiencing, the past of this mysterious sorcerer, and gaining the knowledge you need to make your escape.

Overall the story is very well written, and quite emotionally charged. The story is told from the perspective of the sorcerer who wrote Librom. There are several chapters to the main story, and between twenty and thirty side quests for other adventures. Soul Sacrifice starts off slightly slow, and confusing, but as you play the characters develop well and you find yourself quite attached to Librom's author. The story is told mostly through narration as you read through the pages of the journal. It is done well, but it would be nice to see more actual interaction in or outside of the journal to help flesh the story out more.

Audio - 6

There are literally know big name voice actors in Soul Sacrifice. I can't even find information as to the cast for the English version. The voice acting for this game is not bad, but its not really that good either. Librom and the msyterious sorcerer who wrote the journal are the only voices that really stand out at all. I really wish I could find who played them, but it seems that they're pretty new to the voice acting industry. The music is also pretty un-noteworthy. The boss battle theme added to the intensity the first few times, but after that it was just background noise and I hardly noticed it.

Video - 8

Like the audio, the video is fairly disappointing, but has more redeeming qualities. In the few cutscenes that do exist, there are no mouth movements. When Librom speaks he has mouth movements, however, his lips randomly stop mid sentence. The game does have very interesting and beautiful environments going for it. They range from waterlogged castles and deep forests, to molten volcanoes and quaint towns. The enemies and bosses are grotesquely beautiful to look at as well. All of the basic enemies are all deformed versions of actual creatures, like cats, birds and mice. Bosses are twisted versions of mythical creatures, like elves, centaurs and hydras. Though it has its downsides, the overall appearance of the game is still nice to look at.

Gameplay - 9

The gameplay is one hundred percent action oriented. There is no real exploring, or roleplaying, just spell slinging and sacrificing. Soul Sacrifice is made up of a series of quests, mainly to hunt down large monsters. When you accept these quests you choose which spells to bring with you. As you use your spells, they lose charge, and as things die, their souls become exposed. You then have the choice of what to do with them. You can either save them, and regain some of your health, or sacrifice them and regain some charges for your spells. This also yields experience depending on which option you choose. If you sacrifice, you gain "magic" experience. Magic levels give you boosts to your spell attack power and make you good at killing things faster. Life levels give you better defensive abilities and effect the potency of your healing spells. You can have a combined total of 100 levels divided between the two trees.

Save or Sacrifice, You Choose

When you start Soul Sacrifice, you may also customize your name and appearance. You may choose between several different heads, and various costumes. This is especially important because there is an online multiplayer feature, where you can team up with other "sorcerers" from around the globe to hunt down more difficult monsters. You can party with up to 3 other players and fight monsters that you do not see in the single player mode. The the multiplayer lacks story, but is quite fun.

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Overall, I think Soul Sacrifice is a very enjoyable game. If you have a Vita, get this game. It is definitely one of the most fun games on the Vita. Soul Sacrifice is rated M for Mature for blood and gore, suggestive themes, and violence. I would consider this one of the borderline Teen games. It has a lot of blood and gore, but it doesn't really look realistic. The atmosphere and story is dark, and there are minor sexual conversations that fly by, but there's nothing you don't really see watching Lord of the Rings. I'd say that this game is ok for someone at least 13-14 years old, with your own parental discretion of course.

Soul Sacrifice gets a final score of 8.1, but personally I'd say its a 9 on the fun-o-meter. I really enjoyed this game, and if you enjoy games like Monster Hunter, you will too. Don't forget to check back on Thursday for another At My Limit where I'll talk about the game Overstrike, and what it turned into. Also check back on Saturday for Breaking News and you'll be sure to get new info on the upcoming Xbox One. Next week, Zach and I will both be reviewing games. If you have a Google account, you can subscribe for updates whenever we post new content.