Deception IV: Blood Ties

Did You Know?

• During its first week in Japan, the PS3 version sold 23,254 physical retail copies and the PS Vita version sold 19,322.
• Famitsu gave both the PS3 and Vita versions a review score of 34/40.
• The Nightmare Princess has a Metacritic score of 69/100.

Gameplay

The game revisits Tecmo's 1996 PlayStation game Tecmo's Deception, focusing on strategy where the player defeats enemies by luring them into a wide variety of traps. The goal is to prevent the enemy from reaching the player, using traps exclusively. Available traps include rolling boulders, electrocution, fire, spring boards, spiked walls, human cannons, falling bathtubs, banana peels, an iron maiden, and locomotives. Proper timing is important, as the player can also fall victim to their own traps. Players set trap combinations within three methods: Brutality, Magnificence, or Humiliation, each granting different rewards from the devil's three servants. Effective use of the environment allows additional damage to foes. The PlayStation Vita version lets players select and activate traps using the touch screen. The Nightmare Princess introduces Velguirie, who can set traps and directly attack enemies by kicking, stomping on fallen foes, or kicking them into traps. Quest Mode features 100 new quests where the player plays as Velguirie to obtain new traps and abilities. Deception Studio allows players to create their own characters, enemies, and missions, with parts acquired through Quest Mode.

Plot

The game follows Laegrinna, the devil's daughter created from a fragment of his soul. Three thousand years ago, the devil was defeated by twelve warriors known as the Saints, who sealed him using the Holy Verses. After the devil's imprisonment, the Verses were divided into 12 items and given to the Saints and their descendants. In the present, Laegrinna is tasked by her father to find the Holy Verses from the descendants of the Saints so the seal imprisoning her father can be broken. Helping her are Caelea, Veruza and Lilia, daemons and servants of her father. Some characters appear as enemies at first in quest mode but become playable after completing certain quests. Velguirie is the second daughter of the devil and the protagonist of The Nightmare Princess, described as the titular Nightmare Princess that humans see in their dreams. She has lost her original powers due to a long sleep and works with her Automaton Ephemera, who taught her how to revive evil. Laegrinna, the first daughter of the devil, first appeared in Blood Ties; she has very light skin and snow white hair, does not physically hit victims but disposes of them with traps, and is described as the Dark Side Princess. Other princesses include the Branded Princess from Trapt, the Tragic Princess from Deception III: Dark Delusion, and the Clockwork Princess from Kagero: Deception II.

Development and release

Deception IV: Blood Ties was first revealed during Sony Computer Entertainment Japan’s press conference in September 2013, just ahead of the Tokyo Game Show, with plans to launch in 2014 across Japan, North America, and Europe. In North America, it became the first physical PlayStation 3 title to feature a blue top spine insert and a blue symbol surface on the disc, breaking from the standard black design. Tecmo Koei later announced Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita in a December 12, 2014 issue of Famitsu, at which point development was about 50% finished. Those who pre-ordered the Japanese version could get the Golden Toilet trap, while the treasure box edition offered three exclusive traps.