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Vita PSN Game & Service Thread | April 2013 | Sacrifice your Independent Soul

Dunno about Toto's, but the skin I'm using has a matte finish, so there are no fingerprints when I use it.

What does it look like and how much did it cost?

Top of page (for us 50 posts-per-page Vitabros) recommendation: Download the Soul Sacrifice demo. Give it a shot even if you aren't really into monster hunting games. I didn't really have much interest in it but I loved the demo and will now be buying the game.
 
What does it look like and how much did it cost?
It's not glossy. It's sort of "dull" in that it doesn't shine or reflect light, but there upside is that fingerprints don't smudge it. The matte and glossy skins should cost the same (they were for the skin I got anyway), and I paid $14.99 for mine, plus shipping.

edit: :o Toto's skin was much cheaper than mine. Or maybe I just didn't get a good deal, oh well :lol
 
Branny : it sounds to me like you haven't played online much and wiped to a boss multiple times.
I don't know where you're getting that when the main point of my post was about the structure of the game being at odds with the design of the spells, but okay.

Overall I think the problem is that I want interaction between the AI and how I fight them to the main thing here. If it's not, why bother having so many different kinds of attacks (slow, fast, long-range etc.) -- I won't say SS is a rubbish game, because I'm asking for it to give me something other's don't look for, but it does have an interesting setting. However, the game was marketed to me as having good combat, and it simply does not.
There's a different kind of nuance at play with Soul Sacrifice, but I definitely agree that there are certain things some players are looking for that SS simply doesn't provide. It's absolutely the reason why a few Vitabros enjoy the SS demo but hate MH/similar games and vice versa.

It's easy for me to point out where I feel this game is compromised but hard to explain to others why beyond personal preference. Like, to me, it's stupid that you don't have instant access to three of your spells at once; you have to exit from your active spell. That alone makes things like reactive blocking with a shield spell or quickly switching between certain attacks a lot less fluid. It really just feels like there's too much management/upkeep and resource scavenging, and not enough focus on deliberate, overt technique beyond roll and spell spamming. Some will enjoy this, while others will be disappointed.
 
Give it a shot even if you aren't really into monster hunting games.

This is what I got told so often. I find it hard to believe any MonHan fan says the two are similar.

I think it's just how non MonHan players view it (collecting spoils etc.) -- there are those who don't really care about spoils aspect and love it purely on gameplay.

Regardless, this game really isn't as polarising as I make it sound, give it a go.
 
... not enough focus on deliberate, overt technique beyond roll and spell spamming.

Put simply, we enjoy MonHan because we overcome our characters limitations. Even if we dodge, we are vulnerable, so we have to time everything right.

SS really is has 1-dimensional defense... Dodge left or right.
 
Really do not care for basically anything in the soul sacrifice demo from art to controls to story setup etc. glad people are into it but I wouldn't play the full retail game even if I got it for free.
 
Been playing SS today.

It's pretty good -

Combat is fun and pretty deep in the demo, the monster designs are fantastic.

The graphics are a mix of great and GOW psp quality :/
 
Put simply, we enjoy MonHan because we overcome our characters limitations. Even if we dodge, we are vulnerable, so we have to time everything right.

SS really is has 2-dimensional defense... Dodge left or right.

I don't agree with this at all. If there is anything about these 2 games that IS similar its the roll/run to avoid charges and various move patterns. Maybe because I don't really play any MH weapons that have a block but to me they are quite similar. In SS your mage is faster than your hunter in MH, but the monsters in SS are way faster than most MH beasts. I will note again that I love both of these games so don't think I am doo dooing on MH.
 
Really do not care for basically anything in the soul sacrifice demo from art to controls to story setup etc. glad people are into it but I wouldn't play the full retail game even if I got it for free.
The combat just isn't fun. I wish it had weapons and at least an option for more traditional melee fighting.

Even so, there's no sense of impact when you hit something. It reminds me a lot of an old MMORPG like Everquest in that regard (sans the automated combat).

Glad there was a demo for this - would've gotten burned otherwise.
 
yeah i bought that overpriced skin.

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the vinyl feel made less slippery,and touchpad is working well with the back skin on it.

not sure why they have a skin part for the freaking screen tho.

Those look so sexy. How much? I might jump on that because I want something to protect the back of my Vita too. Also cross posting from the SS demo thread:

So I'm loving SS, so far. I actually really enjoy the voices, music and such. If it wasn't pointed out by other people I probably would never have known the names were changed and stuff - at first it was a big deal for me but now I don't really care so much, the main thing is the game is awesome and fun. I really can't wait to delve more into the game

... also still mulling over what to spend my $10 credit on. I really want to wait until I can afford EDF, but there are so many other goodies out there that I'm soooo torn!
 
The combat just isn't fun. I wish it had weapons and at least an option for more traditional melee fighting.

Even so, there's no sense of impact when you hit something. It reminds me a lot of an old MMORPG like Everquest in that regard (sans the automated combat).

Glad there was a demo for this - would've gotten burned otherwise.

Did you use any of the melee weapon summon spells? They sure feel like weighty stuff to me. At least as much as anything else in the same genre. As far as comparing it to other action/action RPGs I get ya though. Its more about getting lots of hits in till you stagger them with a status effect or by hitting their stagger limit. Till you do that it can feel futile.
 
The combat just isn't fun. I wish it had weapons and at least an option for more traditional melee fighting.

Even so, there's no sense of impact when you hit something. It reminds me a lot of an old MMORPG like Everquest in that regard (sans the automated combat).

Glad there was a demo for this - would've gotten burned otherwise.

I disagree completely. You have magic which substitutes melee attacks, magic that gives you a giant fist, swords, axes, hammers, etc.

There is more impact when you use the slower, heavier magic attacks/weapons, especially when you charge them up.

Try to understand the game before you dismiss it at least.
 
Or you know, you could summon a shield made of ice or stone.

You really are nitpicking this game to the bone.

Yeah I'm sorry, this discussion has no use unless we were tasked with improving it or something (or making it more like the things we like) -- but no, summoning a shield is not an answer to this issue.

In SS you can dodge out of your attack at any time. You don't have to commit anything on the melee side. You mash and wait to dodge. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have bad combat, but the enemies' attacks are completely negated by the dodge, and there's no spacial awareness thing going on when you don't want to roll into an enemy.

I think giving this game a Castlevania dodge (no Invincibility frames) would have been a better idea.
 
This is what I got told so often. I find it hard to believe any MonHan fan says the two are similar.

I think it's just how non MonHan players view it (collecting spoils etc.) -- there are those who don't really care about spoils aspect and love it purely on gameplay.

Regardless, this game really isn't as polarising as I make it sound, give it a go.

Yeah they are both boss hunting games. Soul Sacrifice is just much better IMO. I think if you like Monster Hunter you may not like this game, but if you don't really like Monster Hunter you'll find this game really good. That's at least what I've seen by multiple people. Obviously there are exceptions to that as there is everything, but I've seen that by many people, myself included.
 
Yeah they are both boss hunting games. Soul Sacrifice is just much better IMO. I think if you like Monster Hunter you may not like this game, but if you don't really like Monster Hunter you'll find this game really good. That's at least what I've seen by multiple people. Obviously there are exceptions to that as there is everything, but I've seen that by many people, myself included.

True that. I hate how slow and clunky Monster Hunter feels, but love the speed and finesse of Soul Sacrifice.
 
Yeah I'm sorry, this discussion has no use unless we were tasked with improving it or something (or making it more like the things we like) -- but no, summoning a shield is not an answer to this issue.

In SS you can dodge out of your attack at any time. You don't have to commit anything on the melee side. You mash and wait to dodge. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have bad combat, but the enemies' attacks are completely negated by the dodge, and there's no spacial awareness thing going on when you don't want to roll into an enemy.

I think giving this game a Castlevania dodge (no Invincibility frames) would have been a better idea.

In MH you can dodge out of some recovery frames as well. It functions in almost the exact same way. To use the melee attacks to their full capacity you have to do the big charge attacks, which if you can dodge out of you still lose the cast. Really fast attacks can be rolled out of in both games. You do cast a heal spell faster than a non-spec hunter heals, but the healing in this game without a good group is much weaker to make up for how fast you can spam it.
 
I disagree completely. You have magic which substitutes melee attacks, magic that gives you a giant fist, swords, axes, hammers, etc.

There is more impact when you use the slower, heavier magic attacks/weapons, especially when you charge them up.

Try to understand the game before you dismiss it at least.
Yes, I know that. But the combat doesn't feel fluid enough with the melee weapons. I was only comfortable with the ranged attacks using lock-on.

I don't like the charge mechanic either (though the animation for the sword was nice).

It's not a fault of the game, I guess, just like the "weight" of MH's combat isn't necessarily a negative. I was a Force in PSO, so I lurve my magic, but it's not clicking with me in terms of the way attacks connect.
 
In MH you can dodge out of some recovery frames as well. It functions in almost the exact same way. To use the melee attacks to their full capacity you have to do the big charge attacks, which if you can dodge out of you still lose the cast. Really fast attacks can be rolled out of in both games. You do cast a heal spell faster than a non-spec hunter heals, but the healing in this game without a good group is much weaker to make up for how fast you can spam it.

My argument is that the objective of the combat in both are different.

In MonHan, dodging for the most part meant avoiding a single attack and losing the opportunity or creating the opportunity to attack. In MonHan, the recovery frames on the dodge leave vulnerable, this is basically non-existent in SS.

Anyway, SS doesn't care about melee as much. The game is mostly focused on trying out new spells and it's visual feedback. MonHan doesn't care about having flashy attacks because it's unimportant... At least up until Portable 3rd.

I don't want to ever state MonHan > SS. I just feel a bit confused when people compare them. Gameplay wise, they're so different, and not just in terms of fast and slow moment.
 
My argument is that the objective of the combat in both are different.



I don't want to ever state MonHan > SS. I just feel a bit confused when people compare them. Gameplay wise, they're so different, and not just in terms of fast and slow moment.

I agree with this. I love SS, but I would still love for Capcom to put MH on the Vita. Hell I bought a 3DS just for MH3U. Its the only game I own for it and prolly the only one I will just cause I play my Vita more.
 
Yeah I'm sorry, this discussion has no use unless we were tasked with improving it or something (or making it more like the things we like) -- but no, summoning a shield is not an answer to this issue.

In SS you can dodge out of your attack at any time. You don't have to commit anything on the melee side. You mash and wait to dodge. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have bad combat, but the enemies' attacks are completely negated by the dodge, and there's no spacial awareness thing going on when you don't want to roll into an enemy.

I think giving this game a Castlevania dodge (no Invincibility frames) would have been a better idea.

So the dodge isn't vulnerable enough? At this point it seems that your only complaints about the combat is that isn't enough like Monster Hunter. Some people may think that the improved mobility is a good thing. Also this:

In MH you can dodge out of some recovery frames as well. It functions in almost the exact same way. To use the melee attacks to their full capacity you have to do the big charge attacks, which if you can dodge out of you still lose the cast. Really fast attacks can be rolled out of in both games. You do cast a heal spell faster than a non-spec hunter heals, but the healing in this game without a good group is much weaker to make up for how fast you can spam it.

The quickness of the standard attacks is balanced with how weak they are.
 
God damn, my Vita has frozen up six times since the new firmware. Anyone else having this issue?

I actually had this happen quite a bit and contacted Sony. They had me remove my game card and memory card then start in recovery and then Restore the system from the recovery menu. No lock-ups since and that was about a month ago, it had been locking up at least 3 times a day before that.
 
Man you guys really have boners for games with the same combat as other franchises :P I personally love how the game plays ... maybe I'm just too easy to please? :(
 
maaan... now supposedly it'll be next week by the time i get the 10$ voucher. this is getting out of hand.... apparently they ran out of vouchers?? didn't know that was possible. but whatever. atleast a supervisor has been keeping in touch with me and watching over the situation.
 
I agree with this. I love SS, but I would still love for Capcom to put MH on the Vita. Hell I bought a 3DS just for MH3U. Its the only game I own for it and prolly the only one I will just cause I play my Vita more.

I might buy this as a companion to my Wii U game once the 3DS XL circle pad pro comes out (ships the 19th)
 
So the dodge isn't vulnerable enough? At this point it seems that your only complaints about the combat is that isn't enough like Monster Hunter. Some people may think that the improved mobility is a good thing. Also this:



The quickness of the standard attacks is balanced with how weak they are.

In order to make SS like Monster Hunter you'd have to fet rid of all the charm it's trying its best to have. I don't want a MonHan looking like SS -- that wasn't what I was trying to accomplish with my posts. However, to say combat in SS is better than MonHan, I disagree. And by combat we're implying melee attacks, right? Either way as a game the whole purpose of interaction between the enemy and myself should be a challenge.

MonHan switches stuff up by having x boss with y enemies, then having the same boss with z enemies. It changes how you must approach the fight because you don't have a universal get-off-me move that let's you pick of enemies one-by-one. This is more down to the enemy AI, and if that's too difficult, make it so that the character has a limitation there-by forcing the player to care about what they're fighting.

Alas, I want to get away from this whole MonHan vs. SS thing because that's really not the major issue here. They both get compared as sorted as this:

- MonHan has slow, deliberate and limiting combat
- SS is fast, exciting, and full of variation of ways to attack

The problem is that I keep seeing on GAF and other sites as making this sound like SS is simply better than MonHan. It's not that I like feeling slow or limited, or that I want SS to suddenly become harder (because I'm sure it does).

Due to playing too many games from childhood to where I am now, as I'm sure many here have, I've realised that the whole point of games such as these should be how it challenges the player. What exactly is being challenged when you play SS? How much time you grinded for good spells? Execution? That you've learnt the enemies attack patterns and can react to them? Not any of that -- that's what MonHan challenges you on (minus execution of course).

SS challenges the player with a mechanic that while MonHan has, it can exist without. Exploiting enemy weaknesses is the whole reason why we have so many different spells. Ice, Fire etc. MonHan has this too but it's layered ontop of a rewarding combat system that can exist without them. They're focusing on two different things and I'm baffled by the comparison. If collecting items was the main deciding factor of the game's genre then nothing should matter, and we would play as many of these games as possible to collect items.

Man you guys really have boners for games with the same combat as other franchises :P I personally love how the game plays ... maybe I'm just too easy to please? :(

I wouldn't say that. If you enjoy a game that's great -- you get it and it does something for you. It'd be like comparing fetishes... I mean taste for food... If all food had the same nutritional values...

*ahem* anyway I have 12 hours to hand in a year project I've failed to even begin, a day before I have to greet wifey back to the country. I'd love to continue this discussion in another thread but it's not the best course of action for me.

Oh and for what it's worth, PSPo2 was barren with limitations, and I enjoyed the crap out of it. I'm not an action purist or anything.

Izunadono, we get it. You don't like SS as much as MH. I enjoy SS's combat much more than MH's combat, and I'm sure there are others here who think the same. You have your opinion, and I respect that, but there's no need to keep shoving it into our faces repeatedly.

I deeply apologise. I attempted to stop myself. Just don't want to have people comparing the two. MonHan was mostly used as an example for deliberate combat rather than saying SS should be more like it.
 
When is the SS OT going to be up?
Standard procedure is that the OT of a game will go up a week before its released. Expect to see it next Tuesday. :)

Izunadono, we get it. You don't like SS as much as MH. I enjoy SS's combat much more than MH's combat, and I'm sure there are others here who think the same. You have your opinion, and I respect that, but there's no need to keep shoving it into our faces repeatedly.
 
Mine has been freezing anytime I go into the store to download something either from a purchase or my download list. It'll stay stuck at the downloading screen until I do a hard reset. I don't think the problem lies in the firmware but with whatever they've been doing on the server side.
 
I wouldn't say that. If you enjoy a game that's great -- you get it and it does something for you. It'd be like comparing fetishes... I mean taste for food... If all food had the same nutritional values...

*ahem* anyway I have 12 hours to hand in a year project I've failed to even begin, a day before I have to greet wifey back to the country. I'd love to continue this discussion in another thread but it's not the best course of action for me.

Oh and for what it's worth, PSPo2 was barren with limitations, and I enjoyed the crap out of it. I'm not an action purist or anything.

Being a foodie is great, although you have to keep active otherwise you'll become one of those neckbeards that becomes house ridden. Go work on your project and then prepare a warm welcome for the wife! Also PSPo2 - Phantasy Star Portable? or the Online 2 game that we'll never get on Vita in the West?
 
Anyone else having an issue with content manager? Like when I put new songs into my music folder, for example, content manager doesn't notice them until I manually rebuild the database. I never had this issue before, it would just refresh my stuff automatically.
 
Being a foodie is great, although you have to keep active otherwise you'll become one of those neckbeards that becomes house ridden. Go work on your project and then prepare a warm welcome for the wife! Also PSPo2 - Phantasy Star Portable? or the Online 2 game that we'll never get on Vita in the West?

Portable 2 (I actually have PSO2 shipping to me actually).

wifey is UK slang for girlfriend, sorry :) One day I'll put a ring on it. Thanks.
 
Anyone else having an issue with content manager? Like when I put new songs into my music folder, for example, content manager doesn't notice them until I manually rebuild the database. I never had this issue before, it would just refresh my stuff automatically.

mine kinda did the same thing... I blame the update.
 
are there any good 3d platformers on the vita?
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is part 3D platformer and part first person shooter, and quite good. Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, which will hopefully be out soon, also has a lot of (good) 3D platforming, even if there's also tower defense and much shooting.
 
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