The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) has been struggling to sell for the past year. Whether it be in Sony’s backyard of Japan or other territories, sales numbers aren’t spectacular. Even though the Vita has had good games with the likes of LittleBigPlanet, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, Gravity Rush and Uncharted: Golden Abyss, sales just haven’t picked up steam. Whether it be due to the perceived high cost of the PS Vita or due to the Nintendo 3DS being the prefered handheld, the PS Vita just hasn’t performed as expected. That may all change however in the coming weeks with a new game coming onto the market: Soul Sacrifice. Here are 5 reasons why It’ll be the Playstation Vita’s Saviour.
5) PS Vita Getting A Price Reduction
The PS Vita has gotten a price reduction in Japan this past week. With Soul Sacrifice coming out in Japan next week, the combination of the new price drop with a highly expected game might be the perfect combo for gamers to start buying the PS Vita. There will even be a special bundle for gamers looking to get a more personalized PS Vita with Soul Sacrifice goodies. While the price drop hasn’t materialised elsewhere, if the PS Vita starts selling well in Japan, it may convince Sony to drop the price worldwide soon.
4) Fantastic Demo
A good way to sell your product is to allow the customer to demo the product. With the demo available for Soul Sacrifice, you get a lot more content than you would typically get for a demo. A few missions featuring a number of bosses and also the ability to try out the online multiplayer are included. By allowing a pretty robust demo, gamers will only be encouraged to test the game out and see how good it is. And by all means, the demo is good.
3) Robust Magic System
Magic is the main way you will deal damage to enemies in Soul Sacrifice. As such, it needs to allow a lot of customization in order for gamers to enjoy variety in combat. Luckily, from the looks of the demo, this is assured. Not only does magic have tiers, you can combine magic to create even more potent spells. Players will have to be cautious though, as they will need to be mindful of the amount of spells available to cast and they will also need to remember that items can break, leading to a lost of magic potential during battle. There are also’combos’ available through use of the magic system where for example a frozen enemy can then be hit with lightning for big damage.
2) Strategic Boss Battles
With a system in place similar to the Monster Hunter games, Soul Sacrifice needs to keep pace and make sure the battles, especially boss battles, are strategic and fun. Through the demo, it does seem like Soul Sacrifice will deliver this. From the typical aspects like boss weaknesses to relying on reflex to dodge attacks, there seems to be a good amount of strategy involved in facing the bosses on offer. The other cool aspect is that players will have to juggle whether they sacrifice or revive fallen foes as both choices yield different results that are important during the heat of battle. Sacrificing foes gives you your magic points back (that you need to attack enemies) whilst reviving foes nets you some health. This will be an important decision to juggle during gameplay at essentially all times.
1) Multiplayer
All of the above points brought together in multiplayer provides a beautiful sight to behold. Whether through wifi or adhoc, you can party with up to 4 other people to battle bosses. Having competent players help you defeat the bosses is a major part of Soul Sacrifice’s strategy. Good teamwork will net you more rewards whilst a barely functional team might get the job done, but offers much less rewards. The online looks like it will work very well without much lag too (of course this will always depend on how good someone’s connection is in the first place, but at least the netcode looks good). Soul Sacrifice will be one of the few games on the PS Vita with multiplayer support, so this will be a major selling factor for gamers. Players should be able to achieve major replayability through this game.
So those are some reasons why Soul Sacrifice will be the PS Vita’s ace game come release date. The game releases in Japan next week, whilst in North America and Europe it’ll release on the 30th of April and 1st of May respectively.