Announced last month via an advertisement spread in Famitsu (translated by Andriasang), a new teaser trailer (above) up at the game’s official Japanese site has many wondering if Soul Sacrifice could be related to another fantasy RPG of note. Aside from it’s title bearing the word “Soul”, the game seems to play out with the same third-person hack and slash combat and gruesome fantasy aesthetic that was made famously formidable in From Software’s RPG Demon’s Souls.
The trailer itself boasts a very similar font to the promotional materials for Demon’s Souls, and the site plays a brief montage of concept art after the trailer that highlights buzz-phrases like “it’s not cooperation…it’s about fighting shoulder to shoulder”. Both call to mind a multiplayer system very much in line with the complex goals of Demon’s Souls.
Later updates over at Andriasang have confirmed that Keiji Inafune (Mega Man) will helm the project alongside developer Marvelous AQL (Harvest Moon: Land of Origin on 3DS, Fate/Extra CCC on PSP), with music by Yasunori Mitsuda (Inazuma Eleven) and Wataru Hokoyama (Afrika). Further details point to a magic system were spells demand grotesque sacrifices, like a Gorgon spell that requires the protagonist to remove his eyeballs in order to shoot magic beams from them.
Said protagonist was reportedly beholden to a cruel sorcerer and about to be sacrificed himself before a demon appears before him in book form. The hellish tome contains records of the sorcerer’s previous battles, and brings the main character inside its pages to experience them first hand. Players will be able to play in (sacrifice-able) parties of up to four, against other magic users that abused their powers only to lose their human form. Something that could allegedly happen to the main character under certain circumstances.
You know, maybe the game isn’t related to Demon’s Souls after all…We’ll know for sure after Sony’s official reveal of the game, which is scheduled for a May 10th press conference.
