Soul Sacrifice Delta Review

Soul Sacrifice Delta for the PS VITA, published by SCEA on PSN

The first Soul Sacrifice (an action role-playing game) was released for the PS Vita on April 30^th, 2013. It was well received. But it would appear that it was not as welcomed as it could have been, as Sony has chosen to release “Delta” the expansion to Soul Sacrifice as a PSN only downloadable title. I have had a chance to put a lot of time into the first entry, and I was quite impressed with the experience. The presentation lacks the furious budgets of larger titles, though who can tell if this is a hardware limitation or simply, and more aptly, a design decision; But, even without monstrous graphics, the original Soul Sacrifice captivated the imagination. With a coherent and readable art direction that communicated the “grim” world which your sorcerer inhabited.

You see, monster hunting games tend to bear the title of Monster Hunter clone, this may just be appropriate if said titles fail to establish their own unique qualities and revel only in copycat, derivative mechanics that fail to capture the intended audiences attentions and meet expectations. Monster Hunter is, of course, the dominate hunting franchise from Capcom that has a strangle-hold on what some may consider—at least in the U.S.– a niche genre. Within these games players can co-op and or solo a crafting, resource, technique sensitive experience, in a land filled with both large and small creatures that range the prehistoric gambit, in terms of design. Hunting down resources and harvesting them from monsters and the environment, then crafting armor and weapons this is the spirit of the hunter genre. A clear lack of narrative is neither an exception nor a rule, as some games, such as Monster Hunter, lack it, while others, such as God’s Eater, have veiled story arcs and plenty of dialogue.

As far as Soul Sacrifice is concerned, the new franchise sheds any heavy technicalities that one may associate with a learning curve in other Hunter franchises. The game is streamlined to an extent; superficially it is a snap to dive right in. The water, however, is not shallow. Offerings and the means by which you acquire them offer up reasons to complete and revisit the multitude of pacts that are scattered throughout Librom. With Librom being the book—yes the adventure takes place within a magical text—in which you adjust your characters appearance and take on quests—pacts—and story missions. The story, in short, surrounds a prisoner—you—within a bone prison settled within a post-apocalyptic world, ghastly in its appearance, mirroring the creature and character designs within the pages of Librom. You must acquire the means for your escape, by way of defeating your impromptu warden--a sorcerer of devastating power, by reading Librom and experiencing the tales inscribed within his pages.  Soul Sacrifice isn’t revolutionary or by any means amazing in its writing department, its stories—including the some of its pacts with narrative breaks—have twists, but it is not simply this alone that captivated me so, rather the quality of presentation: voice acting, at times overdone, illustration and music, together with the pangs of emotional weight that the execution of the writing allows—it does not fumble its pacing, and it dwells on what is important and sheds excess prose.

The characters within provide a reason to keep fighting, even if the arenas in which you do battle become repetitive and dreary. This however should not imply a lack of fun captured in the fast paced sorcery action. Spells are executed by way of offerings, throwing magic, blitzing magic, weapons magic—think arm swords and tridents/forks, evasion magic—increases agility/movement speed, explosive magic, healing, etc. Offerings are sacrifices of items that catalyze your magic, this all feeds back to the lore within the universe of SS. Sacrifice is both a boon and a bane. One must give of something in order to attain something. Just as with the offerings, which are the main sources of the players’ power, sacrificing plays a role within the narrative and other basic mechanics within the game. Deciding whether of not to sacrifice teammates, both NPC partners in single-player and co-op partners online, boosting ones magic level and subsequently increasing your attack power or saving them—showing mercy, and restraint in the face of the avaricious thirst for power—often times restoring offering capacities in battle (this was true of the regular version of Soul Sacrifice, but has since been changed in Delta--more on that later) and increasing one’s life level, which increases the players defense and health recovery abilities. The game intertwines these mechanics and adheres to its lore—just sit and read through the many pages of backstory and chronicles of mythology hidden at the back of Librom and then you’ll see, SS is deep—and with this coherency of mechanics, story, presentation and design Soul Sacrifice becomes a distinct entity, it is able to define itself solely on its own crafts/merit.   

            The game can be repetitive; the arenas have personality and ooze with the rust and ruin that lay bare the plight of the world. But the selection only increases with Soul Sacrifice Delta, which released May 13^th, 2014. With this re-release/ expansion of the game expanded battlefields are accompanied by dynamic weather and environmental effects—crumbling terrain and earth shattering levels that open beneath your sorcerer’s feet transporting you to a different arena altogether. Also included are new missions (pacts), new story missions, new offerings, and even more accessible additions, such as the Ars Magica an offering compendium that allows the player to log their offerings and find out the location of some unattained offerings which they may have come across, new outfits that retain the outstanding art direction of the game as a whole. The graphics seem to have been refined, increased resolution and textures. NPC partners seem more aware and useful as a result. Battle mechanics have seen slight tweaking and the viability of melee sorcerer builds has greatly increased, though, as a result of this tweaking; things such as throwing magic have seen added time to their animations reducing their efficiency. All additions seem to be in the name of balance, added depth and increased variety.

            Soul Sacrifice Delta is indeed a vastly superior version of Soul Sacrifice. The original game compelled me to play through its expansive story of love, loss and friendship—sacrifice and choice, solely on the essence of its acutely crafted atmosphere and interwoven mechanics. But now, with Delta, the latest iteration, I seemingly find myself compelled just by the mechanics and the hunt for offerings, which are acquired by exploring the many missions and alignments of Sanctorium, Grimm, and Avalon.  Delta has three factions—hence delta, I guess—and the maneuverability within the three can lead to varying offerings, sigils, and slight adjustments of basic mechanics—remember sacrificing vs. saving allies and monsters. With each faction comes an alteration to faction adhering offerings and sigils, for example, spears are a specialty of Sanctorium. Sigils are not unique to Delta, but they have greater flexibility, these arm carved runes boost the abilities of offerings and basic magic: attack and life: defense abilities. With a limited amount of slots on the sorcerers arm available to customize sigils, players must choose wisely, at times altering the combination of sigils in the pursuit of “resonance” (a combination of specific sigils causes a bonus boost in select properties, for instance, evasion sigil + spear sigil leads to a resonance that boosts the ability of booth offering types strengths) or, if not resonance, tactical/strategic advantages in battle. The faction system is not so much restrictive, but fluid. It functions as a class system. It allows you to stick to the abilities you’re comfortable with or switch at will, all the while retaining the abilities—sigils and offerings—that you obtained in the other faction (read: class/ class changing). The issue would be that however powerful some abilities are, factional perquisites will ultimately cause some offerings and associated sigils to weaken greatly, thus causing players to choose a side or switch back and forth—though at will, it costs Lacrima—tears from Librom that are acquired simply by completing missions. This leads to the alterations to sacrifice/save mechanic. As a member of Avalon sacrificing: refills offering capacity—gives you more uses in the current battle  and saving: refills health, but being in Sanctorium, Sacrifice: leads to a temporary boost to attack power and increased magic level (which is true of all factions) and saving renews offerings capacity. These alterations, however slight, do, in fact, alter play styles and offering/sigil choices.   

            Soul Sacrifice and Soul Sacrifice Delta are great games, but if one had to choose, Delta is the optimal choice. The mechanics, the world building, the presentation and art direction all yield an enticing experience. If, however, a tale of despair, melancholy and loss wrapped tightly in a dark fantasy fable doesn’t seem appealing, then, possibly, the fast-paced combat and deep mechanics—in so far as their interconnection implies—may appeal. With added lore, monsters, story, slight improvements to graphics (though noticeable next to the original) and mechanics, more options—environments, outfits, etc., Soul Sacrifice Delta is the complete Soul Sacrifice experience. I give Soul Sacrifice Delta an:                                                           

8/10

 *Soul Sacrifice and Delta are such big games that there may be a bit of information that I have neglected selectively, any questions that I can answer, feel free to ask. The games both offer up 20 to 30 plus hours within the story pacts alone, then there is online co-op, which--in Delta--is quite stable and active. I did neglect to talk about Black rite offering, these ultimate sacrifices come with the price of debilitating effects after they are utilized-- these include the inability to use sigils and severely crippled evasive ability/movement or defenses, but they offer relatively powerful perks.  

*I hope you enjoyed this review. Let me know what you think, leave a comment, e-mail or tweet etc.