Soul Survivor
Soul Nomad proves that being evil can be very, very rewarding.
Published: November 4, 2007
It's a pretty safe bet that most people probably wouldn't list "possession by the Master of Death" as one of their top 10 ways to have a good time. And yet, after being forced to serve as host for the foul-mouthed, rather dickish Gig for weeks on end, my near-mute main character in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters could probably say it was some of the best fun he's ever had. Gig, in a very real sense, is the asshole inner voice that everyone gets -- if not in real life, then certainly in video games, particularly ones featuring cutesy characters with overly-upbeat attitudes about saving the world. He's a jerk, yeah, but the things he says and does perfectly fit the archetype of a guy who wants the destroy the world and doesn't mind treating people like cattle. Even the cow-girls that actually are at least part cattle.
Soul Nomad clearly was a lot of fun for the team at Nippon Ichi Software that helped make Disgaea one of the best strategy RPG franchises ever created. At nearly every turn, they poked fun at their own games' truisms and at times completely shatter the rules of what you can and can't do in a game. Wanna beat the final boss without ever really seeing the world? Notta prob, just offer up your soul to the guy using your body as a meat puppet and you'll have impossible strength. Want an item from a vendor but don't have enough cash? Beat it out of 'em and they'll actually reward you with better stuff if you win. Hell, want to pick a fight with that random dude that says the same friggin' thing every time you talk to him? Easy as opening up a menu and throwing an item at 'em.
See, being possessed by what amounts to a god has its perks. And you don't have to give up all of your soul to gain some of that power. Why not add 1000 levels to a character on a whim? Why not forcibly recruit townspeople to fight for you? Why not absorb characters into your body to make you stronger? When stripped of their personalities, all of the little pawns you can move around on your chessboard are really just tools for your eventual triumph, and what's a little piece of your soul if it means becoming that much more powerful?
This is the kind of fun that Soul Nomad presents and it does it constantly. There are literally dozens of opportunities to just forget trying to save the world if you want to see what it's like to be bad. See, originally you were part of a hidden village headed by a mythical savior in days past, but instead of becoming a normal guardian of the village, you were instead handed the very sword that Gig was held in, thus making you his new host, and now you have to use Gig to stop the massive World Eaters that have been ravaging the land. Why Gig? Hundreds of years ago, when the very same village elder that gave you the sword trapped Gig in there, he was the only one that could control the World Eaters, so despite him being utterly evil, he's the only one that can stop them.
But you don't have to stop them. At fairly regular intervals you'll be given the clearly marked option to see one of the game's alternate endings by just giving in and letting Gig kick some ass. Usually this means you completely trounce any battle you walk into and get a few short lines from the guy, and often there's a bit of chatter beforehand, but really it's just a way to play what-if... especially since you can save the game right beforehand.
So Soul Nomad tends to like breaking the rules, which is a good thing. It also moves away from a lot of the conventions that previous Nippon Ichi games have held, namely that you fight battles more or less one-on-one. Instead, you'll assemble squads to do your fighting. Squads are organized into 3x3 rooms with pre-set (and randomly generated) layouts and stat bonuses which can be leveled up by diving into the rooms with Gig Inspections (a la the Item Worlds in Disgaea). The layouts are important not only because they determine how many characters you can have in a particular room (and thus serve as a squad during battle), but their placement in the front, middle and back rows of the room also determines their type of attack.
Soul Nomad clearly was a lot of fun for the team at Nippon Ichi Software that helped make Disgaea one of the best strategy RPG franchises ever created. At nearly every turn, they poked fun at their own games' truisms and at times completely shatter the rules of what you can and can't do in a game. Wanna beat the final boss without ever really seeing the world? Notta prob, just offer up your soul to the guy using your body as a meat puppet and you'll have impossible strength. Want an item from a vendor but don't have enough cash? Beat it out of 'em and they'll actually reward you with better stuff if you win. Hell, want to pick a fight with that random dude that says the same friggin' thing every time you talk to him? Easy as opening up a menu and throwing an item at 'em.
See, being possessed by what amounts to a god has its perks. And you don't have to give up all of your soul to gain some of that power. Why not add 1000 levels to a character on a whim? Why not forcibly recruit townspeople to fight for you? Why not absorb characters into your body to make you stronger? When stripped of their personalities, all of the little pawns you can move around on your chessboard are really just tools for your eventual triumph, and what's a little piece of your soul if it means becoming that much more powerful?
This is the kind of fun that Soul Nomad presents and it does it constantly. There are literally dozens of opportunities to just forget trying to save the world if you want to see what it's like to be bad. See, originally you were part of a hidden village headed by a mythical savior in days past, but instead of becoming a normal guardian of the village, you were instead handed the very sword that Gig was held in, thus making you his new host, and now you have to use Gig to stop the massive World Eaters that have been ravaging the land. Why Gig? Hundreds of years ago, when the very same village elder that gave you the sword trapped Gig in there, he was the only one that could control the World Eaters, so despite him being utterly evil, he's the only one that can stop them.
But you don't have to stop them. At fairly regular intervals you'll be given the clearly marked option to see one of the game's alternate endings by just giving in and letting Gig kick some ass. Usually this means you completely trounce any battle you walk into and get a few short lines from the guy, and often there's a bit of chatter beforehand, but really it's just a way to play what-if... especially since you can save the game right beforehand.
So Soul Nomad tends to like breaking the rules, which is a good thing. It also moves away from a lot of the conventions that previous Nippon Ichi games have held, namely that you fight battles more or less one-on-one. Instead, you'll assemble squads to do your fighting. Squads are organized into 3x3 rooms with pre-set (and randomly generated) layouts and stat bonuses which can be leveled up by diving into the rooms with Gig Inspections (a la the Item Worlds in Disgaea). The layouts are important not only because they determine how many characters you can have in a particular room (and thus serve as a squad during battle), but their placement in the front, middle and back rows of the room also determines their type of attack.