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Soul Sacrifice (Vita x Inafune) - Conference impressions and videos added to OP

le.phat

Member
86l_4fa9fc945b60d.jpg

Since all the monster were humans at one point, I wonder what the backstory to some of these designs are. Looks like she sacrificed her legs, and unborn child 0__0
 
the normal enemies looks really varied too, I'm assuming the big one is boss character, but even the smaller enemies looks unique
PRXTN.jpg
 

duckroll

Member
Monster designs are very reminiscent of Shadow Hearts. Obviously Marvelous AQL is a far cry from the original SH team, but maybe there's an artist or two left behind.

Do you know if they all actually left? If they didn't, a large chunk of the SH team actually formed Feel Plus. Last I checked a lot of them still worked on NNN2.
 

Yjynx

Member
seeing all those character artwork it seems that the part you're sacrificing would be replaced by "something else" which is awesome since you could be playing as half monster!
 

prwxv3

Member
The character and monster models looks great. They need to work on the textures of everything else though. The game is only 50% anyway.
 

jimmypython

Member
Graphics are not outstanding..and kinda blurry....but acceptable.

but still, I would say it is a second tier PS3 level (like Nier, graphic wise)....
 
Do you know if they all actually left? If they didn't, a large chunk of the SH team actually formed Feel Plus. Last I checked a lot of them still worked on NNN2.

No idea - but feel plus has made a handful of games since forming and nothing has looked as Shadow Hearts-y as this. Granted, nothing else they've made has had a horror element since SH, but still, this is the first time I've had that Shadow Hearts feeling about them.
 

duckroll

Member
No idea - but feel plus has made a handful of games since forming and nothing has looked as Shadow Hearts-y as this. Granted, nothing else they've made has had a horror element since SH, but still, this is the first time I've had that Shadow Hearts feeling about them.

A lot of LO was pretty SH-y in terms of design and modeling. Some of the backgrounds for the towns, the boss monster designs, etc. The characters not so much.
 
Torture Porn enthusiasts!

Exactly.

I don't know. I was just expecting it to be...more appealing to the mass market, especially here in Japan. Been sub-15K a week here for months and they need something to appeal to a wide audience. It was just beaten by the Wii in Golden Week sales. That's pretty pathetic.
 

Neiteio

Member
Well this looks fucking awesome -- another reason to possibly get the Vita someday. I like the visual style, even the dotty textures, which I'm fairly certain are meant to look like the artwork, which also has a slight impressionistic look to it. The monsters are AWESOME, especially the human-faced winged goat monster everyone keeps posting. The molten treasure monster seen in the OP is inspired as well. The settings look fresh, but I think the sacrificial acts are probably what's most exciting. I know the word is overused, but it's appropriate to say they really do make the game more visceral, creating a stronger connection between you and your character. I don't know what risk/reward mechanic they'll entail, if any, but for a moment you at least imagine what the character's going through, and you buy into their situation more than if they were a distant, disconnected collection of polygons in a virtual space like most games. The game looks great.
 
Exactly.

I don't know. I was just expecting it to be...more appealing to the mass market, especially here in Japan. Been sub-15K a week here for months and they need something to appeal to a wide audience. It was just beaten by the Wii in Golden Week sales. That's pretty pathetic.

you know, the actual screenshot of games does not looks gory at all, it's just the art so far.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Exactly.

I don't know. I was just expecting it to be...more appealing to the mass market, especially here in Japan. Been sub-15K a week here for months and they need something to appeal to a wide audience. It was just beaten by the Wii in Golden Week sales. That's pretty pathetic.

Do you have Sony stock or something?
 
A lot of LO was pretty SH-y in terms of design and modeling. Some of the backgrounds for the towns, the boss monster designs, etc. The characters not so much.

I thought the same, which is why I was so excited about LO. But I was talking purely from a character/monster perspective. SH was always defined by its twisted looking monsters and this looks to be the same.

The gameplay/game style is probably nothing alike, though, and I doubt Inafune is interested in making anything like Shadow Hearts! Need the real trailer to know what exactly this is. I'd be surprised if Inafune has spent years trashing Japanese design only to make a Monster Hunter clone.
 
The artwork for the stage designs are kinda crazy

Yeah I'm hoping they're nice, big, open environments and not bottlenecked arenas to compensate for it being on a handheld (even though I think it could handle it). Still looks REALLY promising and very fresh, and disgusting. It's just what I wanted - now all we need is to see the big video unveiling to (hopefully) confirm the gameplay is solid.
 
I'm beginning to think the entire point of this is that it's Inafune's "put up or shut up", non-"Japanesey" concept.

In-game doesn't look as hardcore as the art, as I expected, but I really don't think this looks any grosser than a MK or GoW game. I couldn't get into GoW partly because of the gore, but this isn't bothering me at all. Yet anyway.
 
I mean, the monsters and stuff are weird looking, but the whole part where you have to use your body parts to do attacks sounds pretty goofy.
 

SykoTech

Member
Not interested in this game, too gory for my taste. But between this and Gravity Rush, it's great to see them making unique, ambitious handheld games. Those kinds of handheld games excite me a lot more than side entries to long running console franchises. Hope they keep this up.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
I'm beginning to think the entire point of this is that it's Inafune's "put up or shut up", non-Japanesey concept.

In-game doesn't look as hardcore as the concepts, as I expected, but I really don't think this looks any grosser than a MK or GoW game. I couldn't get into GoW partly because of the gore, but this isn't bothering me at all. Yet anyway.

I would probably wouldn't be interested if you were sadistically sacrificing other people. The idea of sacrificing parts of uourself is awesome, though.
 
Yeah I'm hoping they're nice, big, open environments and not bottlenecked arenas to compensate for it being on a handheld (even though I think it could handle it). Still looks REALLY promising and very fresh, and disgusting. It's just what I wanted - now all we need is to see the big video unveiling to (hopefully) confirm the gameplay is solid.

actually the stage seems pretty big, look at this image ,it goes all the way to the back. I think the closed arena is probably just for the boss battles
xPRZg.jpg
 

duckroll

Member
I thought the same, which is why I was so excited about LO. But I was talking purely from a character/monster perspective. SH was always defined by its twisted looking monsters and this looks to be the same.

Did you know the director/writer for Shadow Hearts apparently went back to Feel Plus after directing Arms' Heart on PSP? I was doing some research ages ago, and it turns out he wrote the scenario for NNN-2. How sad. I wonder if he's involved in this...
 

ReaperXL7

Member
I'm beginning to think the entire point of this is that it's Inafune's "put up or shut up", non-"Japanesey" concept.

In-game doesn't look as hardcore as the art, as I expected, but I really don't think this looks any grosser than a MK or GoW game. I couldn't get into GoW partly because of the gore, but this isn't bothering me at all. Yet anyway.

I agree with this, with all of his talk about Japanese game design in recent years, it would be pretty strange to see him go all out japanese in his first or second game away from Capcom.

Really looking forward to a proper gameplay video, game looks fantastic so far. Screens look very good on the Vita.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Screenshots look fucking amazing. Finally games that are making use of the Vita's power.

Also controversy surrounding this game's violence is free marketing all the way to the bank. Some smart moves here on Inafune and Sony's part.
 

Durante

Member
I' am actually disgusted by some of the things I've seen in the latest GoW trailer, but this game doesn't disturb me much. I think the difference is that the greatest brutality is directed at the character by himself, which for some reason makes it less offensive to me.
 

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
Anyone who is doing the music?

Would love creepy music to go with this, no Heavy Metal please
Demon Soul's like but very fucked in nature
 
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