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Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E


Release date::siren:Game is live everywhere!:siren:
Demo: Demo is live everywhere!



Trailers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFc4qyY6Jig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uDlwqCxNnM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cBAv9DxogA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAClzNSWQ5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRbQ86r8rE8

What is Soul Sacrifice?

Soul Sacrifice (hereafter shortened to SS) is an action role playing game from the creative mind of Keiji Inafune (creator of such games as Megaman, Onimusha, Dead Rising, and Lost Planet) that is much in the style of Monster Hunter but with a great deal of atmosphere, high quality presentation, and extremely fun gameplay. It’s also exclusive to the Playstation Vita.

The game is based around the concept of a magic that requires sacrifice for power. If you offer something small like plants or metal, you get a small bit of power in return. But if you offer something of great value, such as a human life or part of your own body, then the reward is greatly increased. What are you willing to sacrifice for power?



What’s the story?

You’re a prisoner. You’ve been kidnapped by monsters and are held captive by an incredibly powerful sorcerer who seems to be sacrificing humans daily for sinister reasons. There’s no hope, you can only await your inevitable death. But as they come to take away the man in the next cell over he retaliates with magic of his own, but is still easily overpowered by the sorcerer. After things quiet down, a strange book calls out to you.

Librom, a monster taking the form of a book, holds all recorded knowledge in the world and offers you a hope of escape. By exploring the memories of other sorcerers that are recorded in the book you can gain the power of magic, just as the other prisoner did. You must study the tome and its secrets in order become powerful enough to escape.



What’s the gameplay like?

It’s pretty fair to compare this game to Monster Hunter or any of the other multiplayer boss hunter genre of games that are growing in popularity in the wake of MH. The difference is where MH and its offspring have always tried to play very close to the source material without any big changes, SS seeks to take the gameplay to new and interesting places. Rather than luck based drops, each mission has a set of rewards that you will always get if you play well. Rather than picking a weapon or class that defines your character, you have a large library of diverse and powerful spells to mix and match at your leisure.

Much is still the same though, there’s a 4 player online (or ad-hoc) mode that will probably form the basis of the game. Bosses are big and crazy with a ton of attacks, weak points, break offs, and look amazing. There’s still a good amount of grinding but with the removal of random drops, the grinding is much more focused and is considerably shorted with skilled play or cooperation with teammates.



------------------------------------------------

Soul Sacrifice Delta

More recently released is Delta, an expansion/revision/rerelease of the base game with a ton of new content. It includes the entirety of the original game so don't feel like you have to play the original before picking up Delta.

What's Changed?

More spells for old types: As an example Blood used to have 4 spells, now it has 22.
Rising Magic is now Stone Fist and a new Rising magic exists.
More variety for each type of magic: Every elemental magic is now rounded out with the elements it was missing and most types now have a few spells that don't function at all like you're used to. As an example there are now throwing magics that don't lock on but spray projectiles in a semi random area for high damage.
Balance changes/New Functionality: No longer do Throwing and Explosive rule the school (of magics). A big highlight here is being able to charge up Stone Fist magic to unleash a wave of punch fists.
Sigil Balancing: The alignment of a lot of sigils has moved around allowing for other arm types to have cool spells.
Allies: Affinity can now be raised by giving your allies offerings. Allies are now not completely stupid and can actually win fights. Allies start with all 6 of their spells.
poo poo on the ground: Those blue things on the ground you stopped picking up a couple hours into SS are now no longer so predictable. Now is there not only a whole new set of poo poo to pick up but you can also randomly find player/npc LE/SE without having to actually grind out sacrificing your friends.
Ghosts: Ghosts can now do a little bit more. As a ghost you can now pull spells from the offering points located around a level and keep fighting from beyond the grave. Also in some levels there are a limited number of spirit fragments that allow players to be revived after total death.
Outfits: Players can now customize their outfit by top, bottom, and accessories rather than just one outfit with the hood on/off.
Cursed Points: There is now a new type of cursed point called the Ill-Cursed point that shows up purple in minds eye. Ill-Cursed and Cursed have different break off rewards (yes this means they doubled the amount of boss spells).
New rank for spells: A new black colored rank exists for all spells that represents the new highest level of power a spell can be.

What's New?

New spell types: Spear, Other, Parasitic, Faction, and Rising.
More spells for old types: As an example Blood used to have 4 spells, now it has 22.
Factions: Now instead of being forced into a sorcerer of Avalon the player can alter their factional alignment to join Sanctuarium (focusing on saving monsters) or Grim (focusing on neutrality). Different factions have strengths in different magics and give out rewards differently.
Sacrifice/Save/Fate: A new option for how to deal with a fallen ally/foe is available where you stay neutral and let fate decide, either killing or saving them at random. This gives you the Luck of the ally/monster which transforms into an LE/SE at random after the mission (with a chance to be much rarer than you could normally get). It also evenly gives you the experience in Magic and Life.
New Black Rites: A new trio of black rites are available in Sylphid, Lucifer, and Caduceus. All three take away your ability to dodge and reduce your run speed but allow you to temporary grow wings and lock a monster in place, giving it a different status effect based on the black rite.
New Sacrificial Rites: Now based on your arm (or faction?) there are different effects of what happens when an ally sacrifices you. Dark Arms will still turn into Gungnir and do high damage to all enemies. Neutral arms with transform into Yggrdrasil which does less damage but restores the offerings of all allies. Divine Arms will transform into Angelus which will do damage as well as healing allies.
Combos: Certain spell types can now be comboed together. Weapon magics can now be used with evasion to create teleporting slashes or rising attacks. Some combos require two or more players to pull off like using the Arm magic to punch a Morphed ally into the enemy.
Bazaar Ledger: This is something like a shop you can visit allowing interaction with some NPCs. You can purchase new outfits, fight in an arena, get their palm read, and buying rumors
Rumors: Rumors are temporary modifiers to quest you can expend. These include increasing the amount of experience earned, chance of rare monsters, and making the fight easier. Rumors are either purchased or earned from the Whisperer or Reader respectively, located in the Bazaar Ledger. There are also promotional rumors you can obtain by checking Local Rumors with the Whisper.
Blank Pages: Either by sacrificing some offerings or purchasing them with real life money, you can create a randomized quest line with a big reward for finishing them all. There also exists promotional blank pages that can be obtained by checking Psychic Link from the blank page menu.
Alice's Eternal Maze: Take on an endless series of increasingly difficult and randomized fights. See it's own section for more info.
More Story stuff: The number of side stories has increased dramatically and by completing them you can unlock a new ending for the original game.
New Monsters: A whole host of Fairy Tale inspired bosses have integrated themselves into the game.
Rite of Transmutation: After reaching level 100 you can drop back down to level 2 in exchange for carving a sigil on your heart. Each time you do this the sigil gets stronger.
Hand Sigil: A new mostly cosmetic sigil slot that allows you to customize the look of your arm. There's an arm for every npc and boss in the game with some others thrown in as well.

Alice's Eternal Maze

In combination with Blank Pages the Maze offers a new form of randomized (and therefore, endless) content to have fun trying to complete. At it's core, the Maze is a boss rush against random bosses of increasing difficulty on randomized stages. But there's a lot of details beyond that:

There are no normal monsters on stages and sacrificing doesn't replenish offerings.
There only way to replenish offerings is by using Mushrooms of which a number pop up between floors. Unused mushrooms are carried over between floors, up to the cap of 8.
Rare Gnomes can sometimes be found on stages. After killing them you can use their body to either repair broken spells or repair a broken Black Rite. These don't follow you between stages so make sure you use them.
Exits appear after every third floor. If you die without exiting you forfeit all rewards and start at the beginning. Exiting ends the run, rewards you based on your progress and the next run begins at floor 1.
Every third floor is a special fight that you must win to get to the exit. The next floor after this is always a huge spike in difficulty so think carefully about if you should exit or not.
The game lags like crazy when moving between floors.

Belzac fucked around with this message at 23:35 on May 15, 2014

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Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E


Librom, aka the book with a face that talks down to you, is your only real source of interaction in this game. He has all the missions, all the story, all of your character customization, tons of lore about the world, and all the tutorials. It’s through him that you experience the game and so it helps to get to know your companion.



Missions are given out in a standard MH fashion. You pick the target you want to kill and then are teleported to an area with that monster (usually just past a few weaker monsters). Story missions usually involve you being accompanied by an NPC companion but multiplayer missions can either be tackled with real players or your army of NPC followers you can acquire. Each mission has 3 set drops making it easy to know which mission(s) you should do to.



There is an incredible amount of spells in the game (the demo has 50 spells from 20 types of magic). Much of the fun comes from picking your 6 spells to bring into battle. Spells are not infinite and will be used up as you repeatedly cast them so careful consideration must be used when picking. Spells can also be used to craft other spells or merged to form higher ranks of the same spell. Picking spells that synergize well with each other or with your teammates is the key to doing well. Freezing an opening and then shattering them with lighting will do a ton of damage or do you risk stopping time at the cost of your own health for a chance for your allies to do some serious damage.



Sigils offer increased customization over spells. You’re allowed to equip 5 overall Sigils: 2 to the upper arm, 2 to the lower arm, and 1 to the hand. Sigils offer direct stat increases or increased power to certain types of spells. Most Sigils are broken up into Dark, Divine, Neutral, and Colorless. By tipping your level in certain ways you can get increased benefit from your Sigils and further specialize; creating a build that is uniquely you.



Sorry for mentioning levels without explaining. Like a lot of RPGs there is level ups in this game but they are handled in quite a unique way. Each character has both a Life and Magic level (represented by blue and red). Every time an enemy is killed you can choose to either Save or Sacrifice them. Besides doing a whole host of other things I’ll get into in just a second, this is also your primary way of leveling. Saving your foe will increase your Life Level which increases your defense. Conversely Sacrificing will increase your Magic Level and your offense. Additionally favoring one type of level or balancing the two can cause your arm to transform. Currently in the demo your arm can be Holy IV-I, Balanced, and Devil I-IV. This ties into the Sigils which will activate a bonus effect if you meet the arm requirement. You can level down either side at any time, allowing you to finely tune how much attack or defense you want.



Let’s talk a bit more about Saving/Sacrificing . When a normal, non-boss, monster dies, sacrificing it will replenish a few spell casts, levels up your Magic side, and acquires the enemy’s spirit. Saving a monster heals a bit of your health, levels up your Devil side, and acquires the aura of that monster. Spirits/Auras are used to craft new Seals (this happens automatically as soon as your reach the requirements). For boss monsters everything is pretty much the same except that if you save them you also recruit the human that was used to make the monster. Saving the same NPC multiple times seems to level up their abilities. If another player falls in combat you can also save or sacrifice them but it works very differently than an enemy or boss. Saving a friend gives them a portion of your health so that they can get back into the fight. Sacrificing them casts the spell Gungnir, turning all the bones of your ally into giant spears which erupt from their body and hit enemies for a huge amount of damage. Of course, your comrade dies from this…they die horribly.



But don’t worry, death isn’t the end. Players who are sacrificed or die for other reasons will continue to exist in Ghost Mode. Ghosts act like spectators for the rest of the mission. They can see health bars and damage numbers, information that is hidden from living players. In this way ghosts can relay important information back to the other players. In addition they can subtly help out their friendly by either touching them or the enemy which will either boost power or lower defense respectively. Ghosts’ power isn’t unlimited though and they’ll have to recharge frequently in between casts.



Let’s talk about drops and scoring. Unlike other MH type games, SS focuses heavily on style and rewards you for completing missions based on your score. Score is increased by a whole host of things such as making good use of counter attacks, hitting and breaking off boss weak points, exploiting elemental weaknesses, and following up on attacks. In addition you are rewarded for being sacrificed, so even though you died you can still get a good score. There is a set of 3 predefined drops for every mission. As your score increases you’ll earn 2 of the first drop, then 2 of the second drop, and eventually 1 of the last drop. In addition to these set drops there is also a random drop you get for either being sacrificed or using your Black Rite.



Black Rites is the type of magic where you sacrifice your own well-being in order to get off an extremely powerful spell. These can be considered something like limit breaks as in order to cast one you’ll have to take a large amount of damage. So far two forbidden magics have been revealed (and only the first one is usable in the demo): Infernus and Excalibur. Infernus ignites your entire body in flames, causing a huge area of effect attack that does a high amount of damage. The trade-off is that after you’re done exploding your body is severely burned, causing you to take extra damage from enemy attacks. Excalibur is a little more extreme. The sorcerer pulls out their own spine and internal organs and forges them into a sword. After the attack ends, the sorcerer dies.



The final thing I wanted to talk about here is Mind’s Eye. During missions you can activate this mode which allows you to see things in a different light. Magical things are highlighted allowing you to find spell recharges, aura/spirit fragments, and temporary spells in the environment. You can also use this to see break off points on the bosses.

Belzac fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Apr 25, 2013

Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E


The world of SS is an alternate version of our own. Taking some time during an anachronistic Roman reign of most of Europe the Roman Empire has been renamed Romalus and oppresses the previous rulers of Europe, the Druid. Druids are the magic users in this world and though they were defeated by Romalus they still make up a sizable portion of the population and magical side effects of the battles of the war can still be felt.



Faced with monster attacks and rogue sorcerers the Romalus government has formed a group of clandestine magicians called Avalon. Being the only official way to outwardly practice magic and live a better life than would other wised be allowed to a Druid, many have flocked to join this organization. As such the entrance exam has been rumored to be extremely difficult.



The player takes assassination contracts from Avalon through Librom and is sent to various magical fields, relics of the war. It’s in these places that monsters and corrupted people tend to gather. I feel this is a good time to mention how crazy and amazing the art style for this game is. One of the tag lines for the game is “True Fantasy” which describes the teams’ decision to take common fantasy tropes (such as the Gungnir and Excalibur already mentioned) and re-envision what those things would manifest as in this world. More examples of this can be seen in the monster and level design which is named after well-known concepts but is displayed in a fresh new perspective.



The music for this game is composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, composer of such games as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and Xenoblade Chronicles. He's kind of a legend as far as video game composers go. He's being assisted by a man named Wataru Hokoyama who is handling the orchestral arrangements.

Belzac fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Mar 3, 2014

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

Holy crap that's a nice OP. I didn't even know this much info about the game was available yet. I'd download the demo, but I don't have another Vita memory card.

That's a lot of great artwork too. Totally picking it up when it eventually hits us.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

I'm pretty sure I'm going to just immediately Spinesword every boss.

nerdz
Oct 12, 2004


Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.
Grimey Drawer

Aphrodite posted:

I'm pretty sure I'm going to just immediately Spinesword every boss.

I wish this could be a viable tactic. 3 excaliburs and a salamander right of the bat, win or lose in the next few seconds.

SalsaguyX
Mar 31, 2012


Beware of doofy orcs.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

nerdz posted:

I wish this could be a viable tactic. 3 excaliburs and a salamander right of the bat, win or lose in the next few seconds.

I wonder if you can still be Gungnired after using Excalibur, or if the game recognizes you have no bones left.

Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E

Aphrodite posted:

I wonder if you can still be Gungnired after using Excalibur, or if the game recognizes you have no bones left.

I think this is the case. It's possible to die for good in other ways than being sacrificed. If an Orc eats your corpse while you wait for a friend to get to you then you're in ghost mode. I'm thinking there might be certain boss attacks that might kill you for good too.

Pandar
Oct 23, 2008
Very nice OP, game wasn't on my radar but I knew it was on a lot of peoples but after reading your OP my interest has been piqued.

death cob for cutie
Dec 30, 2006

dwarves won't delve no more
too much splatting down on Zot:4
How's the aesthetic customization in this game? I liked collecting different armors in Monster Hunter, even if I ended up not using them. Even if there's none I will probably leap all over this poo poo when it comes out because turning your own spine into a sword is pretty much the most metal thing.

Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E

Epsilon Plus posted:

How's the aesthetic customization in this game? I liked collecting different armors in Monster Hunter, even if I ended up not using them. Even if there's none I will probably leap all over this poo poo when it comes out because turning your own spine into a sword is pretty much the most metal thing.

A cool aspect of this game is that you can freely edit your character's name, sex, outfit, voice, and physical appearance at any time (for a cost of some tears, which are the game's currency).


There is what looks like to be a ton of outfits available in the full game (there's only 3 in the demo). I'm not sure on the unlocking mechanic but if I had to guess I'd say it might be tied into saving NPCs after boss fights. These characters are dressed in outfits that look like players can acquire.

Speedball
Apr 15, 2008

Wait, the currency is tears?

That's way more hardcore than souls.

Emalde
May 3, 2007

Just a cage of bones, there's nothing inside.

Belzac posted:

I think this is the case.

"This is the case" being that you -can- or -can't- be Gungir'd after? This is a very important detail as my decision to ever use Excalibur hinges entirely upon it.

McDragon
Sep 11, 2007

This game is looking pretty good. Can't really be bothered to go through all the rigmarole of switching accounts to get at the demo, so I'll just wait until it gets a proper release I guess.

Is it one of those games where outfits are just cosmetic, or are there stats involved with them?

Crappy Jack
Nov 21, 2005

We got some serious shit to discuss.

Man, I wish my only mild feelings toward MH style games didn't always lose out to my absolute love of character customization.

Zelder
Jan 4, 2012

The fact that you can explode downed allies into a whirlwind of bones and spears is going to open up a whole new category of griefing, the likes of which the internet has never seen.

Lekon
Nov 6, 2012
Has there been any firm date given on a US release? I keep seeing March, but that's the same time that the JP release is scheduled. Lack of an English demo is making me wary.

That said, this game actually makes me want to get a Vita. Freakish Monster hunter with party explosions and tears as currencies. What's not to love? Are there any pictures yet of what the different arms (Devil 1/2, or Holy 1/2) look like in the demo? I'm curious just how much being a jerk or hero alters your look.

Schubalts
Nov 26, 2007

People say bigger is better.

But for the first time in my life, I think I've gone too far.
That picture showing off the Forbidden Spells is incredibly gruesome. The developers must have been on some serious drugs and a death metal binge to come up with this.

Captain Walker
Apr 7, 2009

Mother knows best
Listen to your mother
It's a scary world out there
God drat you, now I need a PSV.

Who's publishing? Square Enix I hope, if only because of the possibility of trying to use Excalibur and getting a fake rubber spine instead.

Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E
Thanks for all the compliments guys. I made this cause I know Sony of America is gonna drop the ball on promoting this and I've never had so much fun with a demo in my life.

Speedball posted:

Wait, the currency is tears?

That's way more hardcore than souls.

You even keep them in a cool little vial. You gain tears by beating missions and then going back to talk to Librom. This will cause your character to wipe some tears out of his eye. The amount you wipe away increases every time you complete a mission so you don't constantly need to go back and talk to him, only make a stop when you need some. Currently tears are used to repair spells that you've destroyed through overuse, repair your forbidden magic after you've used it once, and character customization.

Emalde posted:

"This is the case" being that you -can- or -can't- be Gungir'd after? This is a very important detail as my decision to ever use Excalibur hinges entirely upon it.

I'm assuming you can't get Gungnired. I have no proof of this but that's just my guess.

McDragon posted:

Is it one of those games where outfits are just cosmetic, or are there stats involved with them?

Purely cosmetic.

Zelder posted:

The fact that you can explode downed allies into a whirlwind of bones and spears is going to open up a whole new category of griefing, the likes of which the internet has never seen.

Actually there is many benefits to being sacrificed. You get 100 free points, you do a ton of damage to the boss which means you're likely to kill him faster which nets you more points, and you get a randomized drop for taking one for the team. They've gone out of their way to make the experience a net positive one rather than a negative.

Lekon posted:

Has there been any firm date given on a US release? I keep seeing March, but that's the same time that the JP release is scheduled. Lack of an English demo is making me wary.

That said, this game actually makes me want to get a Vita. Freakish Monster hunter with party explosions and tears as currencies. What's not to love? Are there any pictures yet of what the different arms (Devil 1/2, or Holy 1/2) look like in the demo? I'm curious just how much being a jerk or hero alters your look.

There are some March dates floating around (13th and 31st) but I am highly skeptical. The English site hasn't been updated in 5 months and there's been absolutely no word for Sony or Comcept on the progress. If Sony doesn't go all out marketing this then they're fools. I'll see about taking some pictures of my arm at various levels.

Captain Walker posted:

Who's publishing?

All signs point to Sony themselves publishing the game. It's made in partnership between Sony of Japan studio, Marvelous AQL, and Comcept.

Lekon
Nov 6, 2012
It might not be as hopeless as we thought. Just saw a few videos from CES2013, that had Soul Sacrifice, fully playable in English. Maybe it will make the March date, though I don't want to get my hopes up.

SalsaguyX
Mar 31, 2012

Lekon posted:

Are there any pictures yet of what the different arms (Devil 1/2, or Holy 1/2) look like in the demo? I'm curious just how much being a jerk or hero alters your look.



This is a picture I just took of my character's arm that has 5 Holy and 15 Devil levels. You can see a rather normal looking balance arm in the OP. I don't have any shots of the holy arms. Also when you enter a zone your character has a magical aura. Mine is dark red and black, where most others I see are white.

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice
I'm playing through the demo right now and just saying, if you have two memory cards you absolutely should do the account-swapping thing because this game is fantasic. The few spells I've seen so far are cool as poo poo, but more importantly the combat feels fantastic. My big problem with Ragnarok Odyssey was that the combat just felt too light and airy, and even though my sword was anime-huge it just didn't feel any fun to swing around. This is much closer to Monster Hunter-style animation; the little attacks are fairly quick combos but the big ones have huge wind-up times that mean you really have to pick your moment, and when they connect they look and sound like they hurt a shitton.

Aerox
Jan 8, 2012
God drat, this game looks incredible. I had heard the name mentioned at some point last year, but I had no idea what it actually was or that it was this awesome.

REALLY hoping for a March release.

SnakesRevenge
Dec 29, 2008

Remember the basics of CQC, Snake!
I have mixed feelings on the March release. Though this game couldn't come out soon enough, having it come out right around the same time as finally getting a proper Monster Hunter release is going to leave me conflicted in a lot of ways.

I am crazy hyped for this game though. It looks absolutely metal as poo poo, and the multiplayer looks crazy fun and I can't wait to start sacrificing my friends to kill my enemies :black101:

I might have to track down the card that came with my Vita and give that demo a try. Hopefully it won't make the wait too much more unbearable.

Thievery
Jul 15, 2008

What happens in 3rd Street stays in 3rd Street.

This might be one of the best OP's i've ever seen. The one piece of concept art with the guy ripping his spine and guts out of his mouth and the other guy pulling out his own eye to cast a spell, loving hell.

loving hell.

Sold.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

How does the body part sacrificing gimmick work anyway? Do you get your parts back after that particular mission is done, or what?

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

How does the body part sacrificing gimmick work anyway? Do you get your parts back after that particular mission is done, or what?

No, once you pull out your own spine to use as a sword it is permanently gone and you have to start a new character from the very beginning.

Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E

Aphrodite posted:

How does the body part sacrificing gimmick work anyway? Do you get your parts back after that particular mission is done, or what?

As much as I would like the post above this to be correct it instead works a little weirder. Assuming it doesn't kill you like Excalibur then the downside of the Forbidden Magic will continue to take effect forever until you repair the magic with tears. Forbidden Magics cost a lot to repair (comparatively) so if you constantly use them you might find yourself without an eye and severely burned for a while.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Can you do that mid-mission, or is that an in between thing?



What I'm really asking is, if I have enough money, can I fire a thousand fingers at people?

Thievery
Jul 15, 2008

What happens in 3rd Street stays in 3rd Street.

Equally important question - Can I say gently caress it and just fire my allies fingers at people against their will?

"Hey, James?"

"Yeah wha- OH GOD MY HANDS"

Ibram Gaunt
Jul 22, 2009

Dumb question regarding getting the demo: I know you need a seperate memory card to format or whatever to use the japanese vita shop, but can you download it via PS3 and just download it to your memory card that way or do you have to do this memory card format dance to run it

Revitalized
Sep 13, 2007

A free custom title is a free custom title

Lipstick Apathy
This is the most metal game in the world. I cannot wait for the NA release.

Majuju
Dec 30, 2006

I had a beer with Stephen Miller once and now I like him.

Belzac posted:

As much as I would like the post above this to be correct it instead works a little weirder. Assuming it doesn't kill you like Excalibur then the downside of the Forbidden Magic will continue to take effect forever until you repair the magic with tears. Forbidden Magics cost a lot to repair (comparatively) so if you constantly use them you might find yourself without an eye and severely burned for a while.

Well, so in the Excalibur case, then, doesn't this mean a game over, unless you've got the tears to fix yourself back up?

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice

Ibram Gaunt posted:

Dumb question regarding getting the demo: I know you need a seperate memory card to format or whatever to use the japanese vita shop, but can you download it via PS3 and just download it to your memory card that way or do you have to do this memory card format dance to run it
Pretty sure you need to do the dance, since if I understand it right games/demos are tied to accounts, and accounts are tied to memory cards. It's really worth doing though.

Majuju posted:

Well, so in the Excalibur case, then, doesn't this mean a game over, unless you've got the tears to fix yourself back up?
There's no permanent effect. It's just a spell you can use once and then have to replenish between levels with tears or you can't use it again.

Pierson fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Jan 22, 2013

free hubcaps
Oct 12, 2009

Great OP. This game looks so god drat amazing. The aesthetics are absolutely incredible, the spells look diverse and fun and the mechanics seem really unique. The only thing that worries me is that I seem to recall someone in the general Vita thread mentioning that the only way to get rewards from the boss fights is to beat them in a very specific and technical way, which would seem to limit your options somewhat. Anyone with the demo able to refute this?

Belzac
Mar 20, 2008

The third fracture I would do away with...I can't, sorry.

F R A C T U R E
SalaguyX is working on a content post right now showing the arm transforming. Should look pretty good.

Aphrodite posted:

Can you do that mid-mission, or is that an in between thing?

Unfortunately at least with Salamander you can't use it more than once per mission. I breaks on use and you can only repair in between missions. Though it is possible that there are Forbidden Magics that might be able to be cast multiple times before breaking.

Thievery posted:

Equally important question - Can I say gently caress it and just fire my allies fingers at people against their will?


There is a strange version of friendly fire in this game. You can't do damage to your allies but power spells will knock them around. In particular if someone is using the Discarded Solder's Fire Rock they will roll all over you but not do any damage.

Ibram Gaunt posted:

Dumb question regarding getting the demo: I know you need a separate memory card to format or whatever to use the Japanese vita shop, but can you download it via PS3 and just download it to your memory card that way or do you have to do this memory card format dance to run it

Unfortunately Sony has done every in their power to make region swapping as tedious and unfun as possible. Apps are given a license per user and can not be transferred with the Content Manager App (CMA) to a memory card that is registered to a different user. Even a demo.

Anthrovore posted:

Great OP. This game looks so god drat amazing. The aesthetics are absolutely incredible, the spells look diverse and fun and the mechanics seem really unique. The only thing that worries me is that I seem to recall someone in the general Vita thread mentioning that the only way to get rewards from the boss fights is to beat them in a very specific and technical way, which would seem to limit your options somewhat. Anyone with the demo able to refute this?

This is only half true. The score system can seem restrictive at times but is pretty easy to navigate once you learn it. More than anything, playing quickly and without getting hit is your easy ticket to tons of points (100 points each). Other big point items are using your Forbidden Magic, Getting Sacrificed, and Sacrificing an Ally (100 points each). For all of these it really doesn't matter what you use as only the fast speed requirement is somewhat reliant on keeping you spells well leveled and making good use of counters. If anything the score system might encourage you to use spells you're not used to using but does in no way force you. Plus the highest point rewards can be acquired in other ways.

Belzac fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Jan 22, 2013

Reive
May 21, 2009

Kinda fell off following this for awhile, mainly because I don't have a Vita, if anything is going to make me get one it's this.
Looking fantastic.

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Moochewmoo
May 13, 2009
Hey so here's a 45 minute video by someone on youtube doing a review/break down of the game. It seems pretty comprehensive and he goes into some pretty good detail. Might be worth adding to the OP if you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHz5vUn6Itw

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