Sunday, May 18, 2014

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We all have those games that we just find ourselves coming back to one way or another, whether it be playing it long after you're -done- with it, or whether you just find yourself mentally comparing it to other games when you start playing it, or however it's done.  For Chance, it's Dragon's Crown.  For plenty of others out there, I'm sure it's Persona 4: The Golden.  Or perhaps it's Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ragnarok Odyssey (perhaps the Ace version), Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention, Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars, Demon Gaze, Atelier Meruru or Totori Plus, Toukiden: The Age of Demons or any other number of games that offer long, engrossing experiences on the Vita.

For me, it's always been Soul Sacrifice.

With the introduction of Soul Sacrifice Delta to the Playstation Store (it's digital-only, it seems) and the stars aligning to deliver unto me my 64 gig memory card for my Vita far before the May 30th - June 20th window I was offered (likely because who knows with Customs), it was time.  Time to go back to the game I've said a hundred times that I'd rather be playing, or that I just -want- to be playing it.  So as I've been filling up my 64 Gig stick with games, I've turned to it and have been playing it again.

I'm not sure just what it is about the game that I love, but I'm inexorably drawn to it.  I want to conquer all that it has to offer (except the Forgotten Pacts, fuuuuuck thaaaaaaat) and then do it all over again in Delta, which, from what I've heard, greatly expands the universe and the setting of the game, which is exactly what I wanted.  It's not quite a world I can explore just yet, but it's bigger thematically and that counts for something.  I'm not going to know just by how much until I start it, and I've still got a grip of content to wrangle with on the vanilla game, but it's definitely something to look forward to.

In all honesty, though, I wish I could have people enjoy the game as I do.  I wish I could quantify just what about it makes me grin, what gets me pumped up and excited, what makes me feel like I'm bending the game over my knee without cheesing or breaking it.  I say it's dodge-rolling out of the way of a charge attack, turning around and unloading three volleys of arrows into my foe before he gets up.  I say it's sitting back and launching an egg bomb right in the cursed part of an archfiend and breaking it to expose it to some massive damage for the next five or so seconds.  I say it's throwing on armor and not even getting hit while I mercilessly slaughter a tier of monster that, at one point, was nigh-impossible for me to kill.  I say all of these things and I just get blank stares or "Well, it's good that you liked it" or something of that sort.

I wish everyone else played the same game that I did, I guess, because the lack of love for the series really, really bums me out.  Not that it's reviled, but rather that I think it's -big-, that it's a big deal game, a fantastic experience and it's something that I would suggest to anyone with a Vita.  This is not universally agreed upon like Gravity Rush or Uncharted: Golden Abyss (for the most part) or Persona 4 Golden are.  To me, it should be, because I've gotten so much fun out of this goddamn game, it's incredible.

But, well, that's just how it goes, I suppose.

also bastardizing Metal Gear Solid "You live on....THROUGH THIS ARM!" makes me giggle and okay, I'm sorry

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