things on my end seemed to have slowed down, so outside of practicing traditional drawing stuff and the frequent twitter activity, not a whole lot's been going on lately. and since i'd rather not sit here and do nothing while waiting for stuff like my birthday on July 8, Steam's summer sale, and Starbound's soon-ish 1.0 release, let's get things trucking on here again.
after mulling out how might probably roll with it, i'll be starting the Soul Nomad playthrough fairly soon. mostly will be doing it as a post-play commentary writeup since writing my thoughts on here while i play would end up being a bit cumbersome. i will be taking photos and even livetweeting bits on my twitter, but the more wordy thoughts will be reserved for after play sessions.
as for the playthrough itself, i'll be going in semi-blind. i have seen Soul Nomad's cutscenes a few times in the past, so i'm aware what goes on in the story. as far as gameplay goes, i only have a vague idea of how it works from reading the manual and bits of the strategy guide, and it's a radical change from Disgaea's gameplay. so yeah, settling into SN's gameplay will take some time.
also, don't expect entries to pop up too frequently on here. pretty sure you guys have come to expect it, but it takes a while for me to type this stuff out on here. though, for the impatient folks, you can check out my twitter for my less-than-140-characters-commentary and lowres screencaps while i play the game. amongst other things.
so yeah, pretty much how things will be going for the playthrough, but of course i can't end it off here. so what the heck is this game all about, and why'd i choose to play it?
Soul Nomad (Soul Cradle in Japan) is a strategy RPG developed by Nippon Ichi Software, the devilish team behind the Disgaea series. released in 2007, it was one of NIS's last games before they moved onto the PS3, with Disgaea 3 following in 2008. surprisingly, it is also one of the only NIS titles to not see a rerelease/port on any other console (unless you live in Japan, in which case it's downloadable off the PS3 PSN).
without going into heavy detail, Soul Nomad's story centers around a hero tasked with slaying three mighty monsters known as the World Eaters. Layna, mentor of the hero, gives them a sword with the soul of the evil reaper-esque being Gig trapped in it, causing the hero and Gig to become impromptu soul-roommates. so with that, the hero (canonically named Revya, but you can change their gender and name at the beginning of the game) sets off to destroy the beasts Gig once led, all while the foulmouthed reaper himself insults you like a Kazooie expy voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. yes, that is Gig's voice actor.
honestly, there's a lot more depth to the story than i can really describe in short. Soul Nomad is a bit of an underdog in terms of NIS's non-Disgaea titles, but it's gotten a bit of notoriety for having an alternate "Demon Path" story that puts you in a more villainous role. of course, the main story is fantastic as well, with some surprising plot twists and tension and drama going on. the cast is enjoyable too, Gig especially since he's downright hilarious.
the worldbuilding and art design should also get a shoutout. Soul Nomad's setting of Prodesto is rather different compared to the typical JRPG setting. there's the general fantasy stuff like gods, knights, cultists, and a medley of non-human races, but SN still feels different in its presentation of all those and more. maybe it's because of the way the world itself and its lore is presented and how the characters and creatures are designed, i dunno.
speaking of designs, the art is pretty dang rad. toi8 handled a lot of the character designs and artwork for the game, and his painterly style really lends to giving Soul Nomad's world a more unique feel. you can see a couple of the game's art here and here.
with those mentions out of the way, why exactly do i want to play this game for the site? despite the lack of any other content lately, i've been meaning to do a playthrough thinger here for a while, hopefully as footing for more writing stuff on here. not only that, but with how underrated Soul Nomad seems to be, i figure i should at least give a glimpse of the game through the eyes of someone who's passionate about the game's story and cast. maybe there's a chance someone might be interested in the game or my thoughts on it. i dunno.
NIS has been branching more and more into PC rereleases of their games, so maybe somewhat soon we'll finally see Soul Nomad readily available for westerners who don't have a PS2. i'm still rather surprised a Phantom Brave PC port got announced fairly quickly with how long Disgaea PC's been out.
still holding out more hope for Makai Kingdom PC at some point, though.
anyhow, till next time, folks! as always, stay rad. super hype to do this. <3
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