Mega Man co-designer Keiji Inafune's fleshy new dark fantasy, Soul Sacrifice, is just too bizarre to stay in Japan. Today Sony confirmed a North American release for the PlayStation Vita game, and Inafune confirmed that he can be really confusing when talking about game concepts.
The main gameplay system of Soul Sacrifice is that the main character must 'sacrifice' parts of his body in order to wield powerful magic, for instance ripping out his spine to wield the power of Excalibur. It sounds like Mortal Combat meets Fullmetal Alchemist's law of equivalent exchange. Or, if you listen to Inafune, fantasy with a hot reality injection.
What I wanted to illustrate in this game was a "reality blended into a fantasy world." The word "fantasy" normally points to a story that is fictitious; however, with Soul Sacrifice I wanted to illustrate a "reality" within a fantasy that wasn't sugar-coated. It's not about focusing on the strange, but to flip the commonly held concept of what a fantasy theme should be with the concept of "reality."
The guy created Mega Man, he can say whatever he wants. I'm sure it'll all become clear come E3 next week.
Soul Sacrifice for PS Vita: Inafune's Next Game is Coming to North America [PlayStation Blog]