Soul Sacrifice is many things at the same time: a pile of gore and bones one moment, a verdant pasture the next. A stone crypt after that, and a windswept desert after that. Your prison looks like it was built from the ribcage of a giant beast, the floor looks like viscera, and skulls constitute the general scope of the furnishings. You will not leave this place until the end, but the power of an ancient tome will take you to an assortment of strange locales, where the subject of the story comes into contact with a host of disgusting horrors. In Soul Sacrifice, flesh is an aesthetic sensibility; exposed muscle, bone, and sickly-yellowish connective tissue gives each of these beasts a nauseating appearance. The action looks fantastic; every time you earn a new offering, you'll be eager to try it out just to see how awesome it looks. Connecting with enemies has an incredible sense of impact, and the visuals associated with saving and sacrificing enemies are colorful and wild. As far as the storytelling goes, it's very easy to appreciate the storybook narration as well as the visual text that pops up when monsters are near death.
Most handheld games can't deliver sound in the same way that a good computer or console can. Soul Sacrifice sounds great, particularly if you're using headphones. Creepy piano licks accompany your time in prison, while the soundtrack ramps up to something more sweeping once you slip into the sorcerer's past. Offering attacks sound as brutal as they look, and monsters howl with rage. The voice acting is good enough to hold up the story, which isn't great. Librom is a particularly endearing companion, and not just because the circumstances of your partnership are so bizarre.
