Soul Sacrifice’s twist on the hunting genre is you cane sacrifice your character’s life to cast powerful spells. You can set yourself on fire to immolate a monster or rip our your character’s spine to make Excalibur. When you use a forbidden art the game doesn’t switch to a cutscene and clear the enemy. You’re still in control and have to defeat the monster before time runs out.
Then, you die.
"I think Soul Sacrifice is the only game where you can ‘win a fight’ and still ‘lose’ since you die. That’s an interesting mechanic," I said to Keiji Inafune, the CEO of Comcept and creator of Soul Sacrifice.
"I promise you that even if you die when sacrificing yourself as a last effort it will feel good. If you lose, after making that big decision, it will be disappointing," Inafune replied. "Let’s say you have a girlfriend and you want to protect her when she’s being attacked. You would go and try to save her. Even if you get killed, if she lives you fought and died for someone you love. It’s a better than watching her die."
"In most games you play to benefit yourself," Inafune added. "In this game, you play for somebody – you can die for someone. There are different emotions players will feel when your hero dies in the battle and everyone else in your party benefited from your death."
