Literally one year ago, I reviewed Soul Sacrifice, one of the Vita’s premiere exclusive titles. As Delta is a re-release / Ultimate Edition, much of the experience is the same, so I won’t spend much time re-treading ground in this article. That said, a year ago I found Soul Sacrifice to be very good overall, but with a few significant flaws. These flaws and my perpetual lack of interest in online play ended my time with it not long after the review. This was confirmed by the timestamp on my original savegame that Delta found and offered to import — I hadn’t played the original game since May 18th of last year. Thankfully, Delta allows you to import save data into one of three savegame slots. There is a list of caveats, literally a dozen or so, that Delta warns you about as you prepare to import. None of these are really critical per se, but if you happen to have over 10,000 Lacrima stored up, you’re over the limit (and you’ve probably completed the game, too). I had a few hundred, so that was a non-issue. Any story progress you made, Black Rites you’ve discovered, Sigils, Costumes, and so forth that are in your stash, all of that is good to come over.
You may be wondering why Delta allows you to import your saved data in the first place. Well, the game is largely the same as the original one. So much in fact that casual players of the original, which I would certainly consider myself, are likely to have a hard time distinguishing differences. Although, after importing my savegame, Delta marked several categories in the very layered menu (not hard to navigate, it’s just loaded with selectable paths) system within Librom as “New.” New Phantom Quests were available, levels, new enemies, including bosses, to challenge. A new faction, known as Grim, is also available. Should you select this path, Red Hood, who is inspired clearly by Red Riding Hood, is introduced and is the “face” of the faction similar to how Sympatha is to the Sanctuarium faction. While Sanctuarium believes all creatures deserve being Saved, Grim allows you to leave the creature’s soul up to Fate. This gives you both a partial Save and Sacrifice boost, performed in-game by holding both L and R instead of just one or the other.
Overall, like any ultimate edition of a game, Delta is the one to have if you’re new to Soul Sacrifice or if you really like this game. However, if you’re like me and you can respect the game for its depth, customization, story, and quality online play, yet remain uncaptivated, Delta isn’t going to change your stance.