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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 4 | E3 2012

Keiji Inafune on Soul Sacrifice’s Difficult Decisions

Cover Story: The next game from Japan’s most outspoken developer is more Nier than Mega Man.

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few months back, I listened at GDC as developer Keiji Inafune outlined his grievances against the Japanese games industry and its slide into stagnation. He promised to develop new ideas and do his part to keep games feeling fresh. The first fruits of his efforts showed up this week at E3: A Vita title called Soul Sacrifice.

I don’t know that Soul Sacrifice is a particularly radical video game concept — it plays out as a third-person action game with melee combat and magic spells — but the skill system powering the action definitely stands apart. In Sacrifice’s world, everyone is a sorcerer, and spells can only be cast by sacrificing objects. When a fighter runs out of objects to trade for power, their only recourse is to sacrifice their own body — blood, limbs, and more.

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