How Soul Sacrifice Delta is changing by letting fate decide

An update to PlayStation Vita game Soul Sacrifice is due to hit Japan early next year, bringing it with it new monsters to battle, refined graphics, new characters and costumes and improved AI. Perhaps the most significant changes coming to the new version, named Soul Sacrifice Delta, are the introduction of a new faction, Grim, and the choice to neither save or sacrifice your fallen enemies.

Instead of making that choice themselves, players can let fate decide it for them.

Soul Sacrifice creator Keiji Inafune explained the new choice (or lack thereof) in an interview with Polygon at Tokyo Game Show this week, saying that sacrificing your foes is the selfish option used to get ahead at any cost. The saving option, he said, is meant for those who believe you must save others to save yourself. He called it "the god option."

In the third option, which he called neutral, "there is no god."

The three choices — the triangle in Delta — are tied to the game's three factions: Avalon, Sanctuary and Grim. Choosing to align yourself with one of those three factions and their respective philosophies will govern how your game ends and what items you'll be rewarded with.

Soul Sacrifice Delta will add gameplay enhancements to its magic system. Players can now pair certain spells together to enhance their effects. A player using a giant arm spell can launch a player using a boulder spell for greater damage, for example. Weapons non-elemental attributes can be infused with elemental effects, making them more powerful.

Inafune said the forthcoming changes are meant to help the Soul Sacrifice series grow and find its audience.

"I believe you have to keep evolving and adjusting," Inafune said through a translator. "Look at Monster Hunter. It's a smash hit, but it only became a hit after the sixth title [in the franchise]. Before that, people know about Monster Hunter, but people weren't talking about it [like today].

"With Soul Sacrifice, what we did was originally made a playable version, then gathered a lot of feedback and then released the first game. Now we have Delta, and basically what we're trying to do is [further] evolve the game by incorporating more feedback."

Soul Sacrifice Delta will be released in Japan next March.