History VideoGame / SoulSacrifice

** The way that some monsters and Archfiends are created.

* KnightTemplar: The sorcerers of Avalon must follow one rule: All monsters must be slain. They're willing to turn a blind eye to the occasional saved target. But for those who consistently save monsters, well, see NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished below...

* YourSoulIsMine: When you sacrifice monsters, this is essentially what you do.

* [[spoiler:AfterTheEnd: "Several Years Later" reveals that the world suffered a disastrous cataclysm 13 days after the Sorcerer you play is in the Phantom Quests became Magusar's partner, and the now-insane Magusar came to rule what remains of the world.]]

''VideoGame/SoulSacrifice'' is played in the third-person perspective. The player character is the slave that serves a powerful and cruel sorcerer. Just before the protagonist is going to be sacrificed, a demon in the form of a book appears before him. The book is a collection of stories that describe past fights between monsters and the powerful sorcerer. The player character is able to enter the book's world and experience the fights, thereby gaining experience and power. The core mechanic of the game is the ability to sacrifice parts of the character's body or items to create devastating attacks. These sacrifices will be permanently marked on the player character's body, meaning that they are not an infinite resource that can be tapped into.

** From a gameplay perspective, being good (saving more than sacrificing) makes you tougher and harder to kill, but your attack power will suffer and fights will take longer and longer to finish.

* DubNameChange: The Japanese version makes whole references to the Arthurian mythos, while the US/EU English versions have the references veiled due to some areas of Europe still treating the mythos as SeriousBusiness. Hence the changing of Nimue's name to Sortiara and Merlin's to Magusar in the English version.

** Literature/TheBible: The city of Babylon, Noah's Desert, the fallen kingdom and Archfiend know as Leviathan.

* ArtifactOfDoom: [[spoiler:The grail, which also doubles as a JerkassGenie.]]

** NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: ...adaptation versions of Nimue, Merlin, Morgan le Fay, Lancelot, Percival, and Gawain.

** ClassicalMythology: The war that tore apart the world was called the Olympian War, one of the locations is named after Andromeda, a pasture is named Icarus, the tribe of humans born without magic are called the Romalus, there is a village named Tartarus which has Cerberus inhabiting it. Gorgon and Vulcan are Black Rites.
** Literature/TheBible: One of the locations is named Babylon and another is Noah's Desert.
** NorseMythology: There is the Valhalla Abbey and Gleipnir is a Black Rite.

* SevenDeadlySins: Most boss monsters are categorized this way based on what sins they most indulged in before turning into monsters.

* SwissArmyTears: The game's currency.

* BloodMagic / BloodyMurder: One of the possible offensive magics. While these are powerful, they are CastFromHitpoints, meaning you have to watch out for your health.

** KingArthur: A number of characters from the Arthurian mythos, Avalon, and the HolyGrail appear.
** ClassicalMythology: The war that tore apart the world was called the Olympian War, one of the locations is named after Andromeda, a pasture is named Icarus, the tribe of humans born without magic are called the Romalus, there is a village named Tartarus which has Cerberus inhabiting it.

** NorseMythology: There is the Valhalla Abbey.

* RedRightHand: A sorcerer's right arm become corrupted by "the blight" due to the magic they wield.

*** "Saved" boss monsters can be used as AI-controlled [=NPC=] comrades for the single-player version of the campaign.

** With a little bit of "VideoGame/PhantomDust" thrown in.

* BreakableWeapons: A strange example. Since the only things that can be equipped are spells, it's possible to "break" your spells. Though it must be noted that story-wise the objects that break are not the spells themselves but the offerings that lets the sorcery wield them.

* BreakableWeapons: A strange example. Since the only things that can be equipped are spells, it's possible to "break" your spells.

* Greed: Arguably one of the main reasons why the world has become so dark. Orcs and other monsters turn to devouring sorcerers just to further increase their power, a human will make a DealWithTheDevil and end up an Archfiend... it also plays an important part in the legend of how the world was formed.

** Actually this trope could be ''inverted'' since the game constantly punishes moral choices, while giving easier outcomes and rewards to those who choose selfishly. In one boss battle, choosing to save your enemy will not only drag the battle, but ''drain half of your current health on the spot, giving it to your enemy.''
*** Multiplayer isn't much better, if you save a team-mate, half of your health goes away to heal him. If you choose to sacrifice him instead? Your spells get a nice recharge, and a very powerful attack erupts from the sacrificed, instakilling all normal enemies and harming quite a bit the bosses. If you have a lot of life levels, even the reward for saving enemies will be much less interesting than sacrificing them. A bit of healing? At that point your healing skills will do a ''lot'' more in one go.

** Actually this trope could be ''inverted'' since the game constantly punishes moral choices, while giving easier outcomes and rewards to those who choose selfishly. In one boss battle, choosing to save your enemy will not only drag the battle, but ''drain half of your current health on the spot, giving it to your enemy''