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Soul Sacrifice (Vita) Demo impressions
- Thread starter Carl
- Start date
AgentOtaku
Member
I'm still buying this day one, but don't know how I feel about the narrative anymore.
As I said before, maybe it get's across better in Japanese, but the english localization and VA is ass. It just tries soooo hard to be DARK and FOREBODING, but in the end just comes off as cheesy and laughably heavyhanded. Both the Book and Narrator phone-in their performances. The former isn't funny or cute, but rather just annoying and the latter sounds completely uninterested.
I can't think of a game in recent memory where it's localization put me off so much.
Also, what's with the framerate being complete ass during mulitplayer?
As I said before, maybe it get's across better in Japanese, but the english localization and VA is ass. It just tries soooo hard to be DARK and FOREBODING, but in the end just comes off as cheesy and laughably heavyhanded. Both the Book and Narrator phone-in their performances. The former isn't funny or cute, but rather just annoying and the latter sounds completely uninterested.
I can't think of a game in recent memory where it's localization put me off so much.
Also, what's with the framerate being complete ass during mulitplayer?
michaelius
Banned
What builds are people using against Harpy ?
I actually like the text, but the voices put me off. Sortiara is OK, but obviously she has a limited role.I'm still buying this day one, but don't know how I feel about the narrative anymore.
As I said before, maybe it get's across better in Japanese, but the english localization and VA is ass. It just tries soooo hard to be DARK and FOREBODING, but in the end just comes off as cheesy and laughably heavyhanded. Both the Book and Narrator phone-in their performances. The former isn't funny or cute, but rather just annoying and the latter sounds completely uninterested.
I can't think of a game in recent memory where it's localization put me off so much.
Also, what's with the framerate being complete ass during mulitplayer?
Keeping my pre-order to check out the Japanese voices. Would love it if the Japanese version kept the original mythos intact but that seems unlikely.
I'm still buying this day one, but don't know how I feel about the narrative anymore.
As I said before, maybe it get's across better in Japanese, but the english localization and VA is ass. It just tries soooo hard to be DARK and FOREBODING, but in the end just comes off as cheesy and laughably heavyhanded. Both the Book and Narrator phone-in their performances. The former isn't funny or cute, but rather just annoying and the latter sounds completely uninterested.
I can't think of a game in recent memory where it's localization put me off so much.
Also, what's with the framerate being complete ass during mulitplayer?
hmm the framerate is awesome for me during multiplayer...
maybe it's a connection problem?
AgentOtaku
Member
Maybe, but we all had 3 bars. It was in the country-side map (Harpy). Probably sat at 20fps the majority of the fight.
Agent White
Member
Thanks man.
One general question: what constitutes a counter? There's no parry/riposte mechanism, so is it just dodging an attack and retaliating within a set period of time?
for example when i see the goblin raise his arm up or he leaps at me, I like to use any of the root powers once and it'll send him flying/kill him in one hit. no dodging involved. the cat also does a quick leap as he runs at you.
you can also use the shield. have it up and when they attack/leap at it press the shield attack.
the counter is really useful for minimizing the amount of offerings you use on the little guys since it's one use and dead if used correctly.
Damn man, that's a bad-ass strategy right there!
Agent White
Member
thanks although I'm wondering how much of a difference the vimblossom makes because I never tried it without. I just wanted to use it since I never had, and I remembered someone online give them out before a Cerberus fight.
Harpy is the only one I still don't feel comfortable fighting without a health item. She's got way to many moves. The only thing that really scares me about Cerberus are his unpredictable swipes. You know he's being cocky when he's doing 360 spins in the middle of the battlefield.
Infinite Justice
Member
Thanks man.
One general question: what constitutes a counter? There's no parry/riposte mechanism, so is it just dodging an attack and retaliating within a set period of time?
You attack them while they are in their attack animation, if the attack hits they lose a ton of life and usually die (fly away), if they live you stop their attack.
The rats and cats lunge attack is a great one to do it on due to the wind up time and they are defenseless while airborne.
And damn Agent white at that strategy, Cerberus is looking worfed already LOL
Now you won't get to carry your progress (and the items that importing a save gives) to the full game.
Now you won't get to carry your progress (and the items that importing a save gives) to the full game.
I did know about the save carrying over but decided to start from scratch but what is it about the items? You mean the ones I already collected?
super-famicom
Member
When you start the game it will detect if you have a demo save or not. If you have a demo save, you get a free bonus offering, as well as retaining your levels and progress. (pretty sure)
Yeah, all progress is carried over including items but you also get an exclusive spell for importing a demo save.
Ah, ok, I can live with that
Edit: @pahamrick exclusive as in not obtainable otherwhise?
Edit2: just read up on it online, "only way to get this golem", why are you doing this to me?
Agent White
Member
well saying i don't feel comfortable fighting the harpy without a health item just made me want to go try it.
used ice shield counters on all goblins, sacrificed all, took my health down for black rite, ate vimblossom, set golem by one of the winged mounds by the harpy, triggered harpy, ran back between mound and golem(behind), harpy can't fit through middle, use all my fireroot tri, use black rite, summon another golem, and use lightning to finish her.
when i tried replicating it and the only thing i messed up on was the speed.
used ice shield counters on all goblins, sacrificed all, took my health down for black rite, ate vimblossom, set golem by one of the winged mounds by the harpy, triggered harpy, ran back between mound and golem(behind), harpy can't fit through middle, use all my fireroot tri, use black rite, summon another golem, and use lightning to finish her.
when i tried replicating it and the only thing i messed up on was the speed.
Damn. Do I ever feel inadequate right now.
It is all about the encounters and dealing with difficult bosses in this game I am afraid.
Agent White
Member
you shouldn't. what i'm doing is mostly useless as only parts of these can even be applied to multiplayer, if any.
but at least it was fun trying to figure out a way to get a high score really fast while solo/no allies. my psn id is in my profile if anyone wants to add me.
Raonak
Banned
Well.... this game was on my radar, but it was one of thoes "ill get eventually" games.
but god damn. what an impressive demo. convinced me that i need this day one.
I've tried to get into monster hunter countless times, but it never really grabbed me, and although the combat was balanced, it felt tedious, which made combat feel like a chore to me.
I'm one who's grown up on DMC3's super tight, super responsive combat systems, so MH's slow tatical approach never really jived with me.
I just love how damn fluid this game plays. everything feels nice and responsive.
the art design, I didn't like until i actually played the game, i think it's very unique and works well.
The game gets high marks for presentation, especially in comparison to MH which lacks anything in that department alltogether.
The story... it's shockingly interesting. Granted i've only finished the first character. I've read all the backstory avaliable, it seems like quite a unique and developed world.
I love the unique mechanics thats present everywhere. save/sacrifice the enemies and allies is really neat. Foregoing weapons for the magic system was an execellent move in my eyes.
Donno what else to say. this was one hell of a demo. Excited for the full game.
Hope this does good and becomes a series.
but god damn. what an impressive demo. convinced me that i need this day one.
I've tried to get into monster hunter countless times, but it never really grabbed me, and although the combat was balanced, it felt tedious, which made combat feel like a chore to me.
I'm one who's grown up on DMC3's super tight, super responsive combat systems, so MH's slow tatical approach never really jived with me.
I just love how damn fluid this game plays. everything feels nice and responsive.
the art design, I didn't like until i actually played the game, i think it's very unique and works well.
The game gets high marks for presentation, especially in comparison to MH which lacks anything in that department alltogether.
The story... it's shockingly interesting. Granted i've only finished the first character. I've read all the backstory avaliable, it seems like quite a unique and developed world.
I love the unique mechanics thats present everywhere. save/sacrifice the enemies and allies is really neat. Foregoing weapons for the magic system was an execellent move in my eyes.
Donno what else to say. this was one hell of a demo. Excited for the full game.
Hope this does good and becomes a series.
the androgyne
Member
Going back and forth on this, my preorder's paid so that's done, but i'm hoping with some more levelling and items i'll find it more manageable cause me and mate are having the hardest time!
Lantern was pretty fun and rewarding, he's easy enough to read and you can actually get out of the way of his attacks, and punish him when he's vulnerable.
Harpy is very frustrating, like there's no vulnerability at all. Her vacuum for the most part is avoidable with running away, but sometimes that's not enough (or you have a shield up and it's bye-bye), so you have to rely on the buildings which aren't always in a good spot for that. Is there a way to knock a partner out of her mouth when they're sucked in cause it seems unfair that i can bowl her over during it and she doesn't get knocked down at all! Then her dive from across the entire field where rolling seems very inconsistent to evade it. Finally her damn stomp, where if she gets on the wrong side of you you're stuck spinning the camera trying to find the bitch only to have her walk back and forward over you repeatedly! My favourite was when she was weak, fell over towards the end of the battle taking a good 50% of my health in the process We beat her but it didn't feel like we deserved it.
Cerberus, well that fight lasted all of about 2 minutes, my mate got almost insta-killed. Can't revive him cause it gives Cerberus too much time to jump or dash all over me, can't regain health for the same reason! How are you guys beating them cause they just seems too damn hard and not fun at all.
I appreciate the managing of resources but it seems like it'd be a lot fairer and more fun if there wasn't such a long time to recharge offerings, or more fodder than there is as well. Some fodder barely recharges offerings at all too...
Lantern was pretty fun and rewarding, he's easy enough to read and you can actually get out of the way of his attacks, and punish him when he's vulnerable.
Harpy is very frustrating, like there's no vulnerability at all. Her vacuum for the most part is avoidable with running away, but sometimes that's not enough (or you have a shield up and it's bye-bye), so you have to rely on the buildings which aren't always in a good spot for that. Is there a way to knock a partner out of her mouth when they're sucked in cause it seems unfair that i can bowl her over during it and she doesn't get knocked down at all! Then her dive from across the entire field where rolling seems very inconsistent to evade it. Finally her damn stomp, where if she gets on the wrong side of you you're stuck spinning the camera trying to find the bitch only to have her walk back and forward over you repeatedly! My favourite was when she was weak, fell over towards the end of the battle taking a good 50% of my health in the process
We beat her but it didn't feel like we deserved it.Cerberus, well that fight lasted all of about 2 minutes, my mate got almost insta-killed. Can't revive him cause it gives Cerberus too much time to jump or dash all over me, can't regain health for the same reason! How are you guys beating them cause they just seems too damn hard and not fun at all.
I appreciate the managing of resources but it seems like it'd be a lot fairer and more fun if there wasn't such a long time to recharge offerings, or more fodder than there is as well. Some fodder barely recharges offerings at all too...
nailbombxx
Member
Yeah I had this experience as well. While it wasn't as pretty as it would be playing in ad hoc mode it was still completely playable.
I've played some games in Ragnarok Odyssey where the framerate and lag made the game unplayable.
EDIT: To put it in perspective it was like Dragon's Dogma framerate.
Here's some tips for the Harpy. If you can't yet recognize the Harpy's moveset yet, sit back away from her and hit her with ranged attacks. Eventually you will recognize every startup animation for each of her moves, and you will know how to act accordingly. The instant magic dash makes you able to get away from her suction attack with ease (but don't try casting it when she is about to do it).Whenever you don't know where she is, hold the left button to find her, ESPECIALLY when she is in the air. The lock-on makes her dive attacks much more easy to dodge. She is vulnerable to fire, so use as many fire weapons as you can. If one of your teammates gets sucked into her mouth then thats a good time to do a charge attack.Going back and forth on this, my preorder's paid so that's done, but i'm hoping with some more levelling and items i'll find it more manageable cause me and mate are having the hardest time!
Lantern was pretty fun and rewarding, he's easy enough to read and you can actually get out of the way of his attacks, and punish him when he's vulnerable.
Harpy is very frustrating, like there's no vulnerability at all. Her vacuum for the most part is avoidable with running away, but sometimes that's not enough (or you have a shield up and it's bye-bye), so you have to rely on the buildings which aren't always in a good spot for that. Is there a way to knock a partner out of her mouth when they're sucked in cause it seems unfair that i can bowl her over during it and she doesn't get knocked down at all! Then her dive from across the entire field where rolling seems very inconsistent to evade it. Finally her damn stomp, where if she gets on the wrong side of you you're stuck spinning the camera trying to find the bitch only to have her walk back and forward over you repeatedly! My favourite was when she was weak, fell over towards the end of the battle taking a good 50% of my health in the process
Cerberus, well that fight lasted all of about 2 minutes, my mate got almost insta-killed. Can't revive him cause it gives Cerberus too much time to jump or dash all over me, can't regain health for the same reason! How are you guys beating them cause they just seems too damn hard and not fun at all.
I appreciate the managing of resources but it seems like it'd be a lot fairer and more fun if there wasn't such a long time to recharge offerings, or more fodder than there is as well. Some fodder barely recharges offerings at all too...
If you are having trouble with running out of offerings to cast, you probably haven't boosted them yet. Boosting the offerings increases the amount of casts you have at the beginning and how much they get refilled by sacrificing/using environment items.
Going back and forth on this, my preorder's paid so that's done, but i'm hoping with some more levelling and items i'll find it more manageable cause me and mate are having the hardest time!
Lantern was pretty fun and rewarding, he's easy enough to read and you can actually get out of the way of his attacks, and punish him when he's vulnerable.
Harpy is very frustrating, like there's no vulnerability at all. Her vacuum for the most part is avoidable with running away, but sometimes that's not enough (or you have a shield up and it's bye-bye), so you have to rely on the buildings which aren't always in a good spot for that. Is there a way to knock a partner out of her mouth when they're sucked in cause it seems unfair that i can bowl her over during it and she doesn't get knocked down at all! Then her dive from across the entire field where rolling seems very inconsistent to evade it. Finally her damn stomp, where if she gets on the wrong side of you you're stuck spinning the camera trying to find the bitch only to have her walk back and forward over you repeatedly! My favourite was when she was weak, fell over towards the end of the battle taking a good 50% of my health in the process
Cerberus, well that fight lasted all of about 2 minutes, my mate got almost insta-killed. Can't revive him cause it gives Cerberus too much time to jump or dash all over me, can't regain health for the same reason! How are you guys beating them cause they just seems too damn hard and not fun at all.
I appreciate the managing of resources but it seems like it'd be a lot fairer and more fun if there wasn't such a long time to recharge offerings, or more fodder than there is as well. Some fodder barely recharges offerings at all too...
Harpy's vacuum attack can be avoided with the AOE heal as it plants you to the ground for as long as you hold down the button. There are similar tactics for Cerberus (like having him run into your shield which knocks him down) so the fun and rewarding part is finding those strategies that work well for each of the bosses and then being able to execute them.
Do note that bringing partners in the single player ups the amount of health that the bosses have and that in some cases they do more harm than good. Most of the fast clear times for these bosses involve a solo fight because of this.
Multiplayer is a whole new ballgame of course. Same tactics apply but teamwork also comes in with items like the Sands of Time which must be channeled by a player but stops time for the boss lettings team members attack with impunity at the cost of health for the Sands caster.
nailbombxx
Member
If at first you don't "get it", just keep playing.
Keep your hate to yourself. Post impressions and carry on, in case you don't like the game.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
Finally unlocked multiplayer, looking forward to giving this a try later tonight. Should probably also go back and divine all the story missions. did pretty bad on a few of them the first time around, mainly failing to dodge/counter.
Only gripe is I don't like how the games menus are laid out, takes too long to get to just the screen I want. Having a lot of fun with it though.
Only gripe is I don't like how the games menus are laid out, takes too long to get to just the screen I want. Having a lot of fun with it though.
One thing that I found but isn't obvious - when you go into the chapter you want to start, if you hit R it'll take you to the last page of the intro so that you can get straight into the fight.
Select also takes you back to the contents, but that's a prompt on screen so I'm sure you know that.
nailbombxx
Member
One more week. So hyped.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
Yeah, figured that out pretty quickly. Still, being able to easily do stuff like alter my character's setup without having to select a mission first would be nice.
You can change your setup straight from the Portraiture section of the main menu.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
I could have swan I tried clicking that and it jumped to something else. will give it another shot.
Infinite Justice
Member
Been reading the Lore of the archfiends and some do tell you their weakness though in a more subtle way (Only Cerberus is not as easy and you have to jump through hoops).
My Ai partners are making my scores worse. Got it!
I feel like I can solo every boss except for Cerberus anyway.
Yes it does.
While I'm not certain of it, the story (thus far) is narrated as the person you're playing in the shoes of. Chapters 1-6 are not /you/, they're a person in the past. You've merely changed their appearance and name to fit yourself while you play. But the story about them is the same.
After spending 5ish hours with the demo I'd say I'm ready to write some impressions.
Last week I downloaded the demo as most of the western Vita owners did and jumped straight in. As a veteran Monster Hunter player I was little bit disappointed as Soul Sacrifice felt really odd and I couldn't wrap my head around the combat and the so and so voice acting didn't help much. I played couple first missions of the demo and thought: Man, this is kinda disappointing. Put the demo down for few days and decided to dive in a second time, hoping for the magical *click*.
Well, the click did happen in the most magical way. I took my cup of tea grabbed headphones of my choice and decided to give the demo another go and bam! I was in. I started reading the book and the soundtrack just takes me to a another dimension, to this strange strange world. I played the rest of the story missions with headphones on and the battle bgm's really make the games battles exciting. It might also help that I started to wrap my head around the combat. The combat bares minimum resemblance to MH, in my opinion. The combat is really fast and it really rewards aggressive play and it's really fun to take risks just to get that all frozen status going. Also, I started to appreciate the offering system and the possibility to make pre-sets.
After grinding my lv's to 10/10 and having upgraded couple offerings to 3 stars I decided to jump to the network play. It works really well! Well, when it does work. I had some network errors, but those seem to have vanished as I started hosting games myself. There really isn't any lag to be seen or weird teleportation around the map.
One thing though, the really strange pre-game chat always gets me... I suppose it goes without saying that the twisted game world attracts quite twisted chatters as well. Almost like in PSO.
Online play is really fun! Smashing the 3 demo bosses with 3 other players who know what they are doing is really really fun and the quick play option is quite nifty indeed.
In the end Soul Sacrifice really got me hooked and we're talking just about the demo here. Sure, the overall texture quality can be kind of fuzzy and the English voice acting might not be quite there and the player appearance customization options seem to be rather limited but the game's atmosphere, tight controls, amazing soundtrack, excellent online play and overall style makes the whole package a blast to play.
May 1st can't come soon enough.
Oh and if anyone wondered whole game is around 1.7 gigs with the pre-order Japanese voice-over weighting around 550 megs.
Last week I downloaded the demo as most of the western Vita owners did and jumped straight in. As a veteran Monster Hunter player I was little bit disappointed as Soul Sacrifice felt really odd and I couldn't wrap my head around the combat and the so and so voice acting didn't help much. I played couple first missions of the demo and thought: Man, this is kinda disappointing. Put the demo down for few days and decided to dive in a second time, hoping for the magical *click*.
Well, the click did happen in the most magical way. I took my cup of tea grabbed headphones of my choice and decided to give the demo another go and bam! I was in. I started reading the book and the soundtrack just takes me to a another dimension, to this strange strange world. I played the rest of the story missions with headphones on and the battle bgm's really make the games battles exciting. It might also help that I started to wrap my head around the combat. The combat bares minimum resemblance to MH, in my opinion. The combat is really fast and it really rewards aggressive play and it's really fun to take risks just to get that all frozen status going. Also, I started to appreciate the offering system and the possibility to make pre-sets.
After grinding my lv's to 10/10 and having upgraded couple offerings to 3 stars I decided to jump to the network play. It works really well! Well, when it does work. I had some network errors, but those seem to have vanished as I started hosting games myself. There really isn't any lag to be seen or weird teleportation around the map.
One thing though, the really strange pre-game chat always gets me... I suppose it goes without saying that the twisted game world attracts quite twisted chatters as well. Almost like in PSO.
Online play is really fun! Smashing the 3 demo bosses with 3 other players who know what they are doing is really really fun and the quick play option is quite nifty indeed.
In the end Soul Sacrifice really got me hooked and we're talking just about the demo here. Sure, the overall texture quality can be kind of fuzzy and the English voice acting might not be quite there and the player appearance customization options seem to be rather limited but the game's atmosphere, tight controls, amazing soundtrack, excellent online play and overall style makes the whole package a blast to play.
May 1st can't come soon enough.
Oh and if anyone wondered whole game is around 1.7 gigs with the pre-order Japanese voice-over weighting around 550 megs.
Agent White
Member
hey did any of you guys unlocks any new raiment(clothes) colors in the demo?
i don't know what I did exactly but i went to fix an offering i had broken while fighting harpy and a message pops up saying i unlocked "noble color H". anyone have any idea what triggers this?
it's basically just black but it makes the red on the arm and outfit really pop.
i don't know what I did exactly but i went to fix an offering i had broken while fighting harpy and a message pops up saying i unlocked "noble color H". anyone have any idea what triggers this?
it's basically just black but it makes the red on the arm and outfit really pop.
noonespecial
Member
Damn Agent White. Just. DAMN. You're a boss at this game...
And I thought I was doing pretty good getting Jack killed off in just a few minutes solo without any AI allies and getting a Divine score - but even at my best I've never gotten past a 640 score. 700 on Harpy AND Cerebrus? Wow.
Thanks for the Harpy and Cerebrus tips - will have to try them out.
And I thought I was doing pretty good getting Jack killed off in just a few minutes solo without any AI allies and getting a Divine score - but even at my best I've never gotten past a 640 score. 700 on Harpy AND Cerebrus? Wow.
Thanks for the Harpy and Cerebrus tips - will have to try them out.
nailbombxx
Member
I need this game inside me.
Played my first network game. Took down Cerberus - I think I did OK in the beginning, although towards the end I died more than I should have done. My first time against him so still learning his signals - destroyed most of my offerings because all of the replenishments were taken quite early and couldn't get to a kill (even those I made) quick enough to sacrifice.
Great fun though. I also got Timesands, which was nice.
Great fun though. I also got Timesands, which was nice.
Infinite_Daremo
Member
AgentOtaku
Member
Pretty much the exact experience I had with it as well being also a Monster Hunter veteran. As I said earlier, the only thing putting me off is the super lame voice acting. So dry, so uninvolved. REALLY hoping switching it over to Japanese mitagates this. Hell, maybe there was a reason Sony decided to include the option after all.
Agent White
Member
no problem. think about it, in a week we'll have such powerful offerings that those scores will become the norm.
me too man, me too
it's gotta be something like that. it was so wierd seeing something pop up after a while of nothing. same thing happened a few days ago with a sigil. i unlocked it but had no idea what i did.
Thanks for your comments. I don't own a Vita yet, but I plan to get one for this game. Looking forward to playing with gaffers. Game sounds like exactly what I want.