Salt & Sanctuary - The Saltiest of Souls

Crew of sailors escorting a princess. A mission upon which rests the fate of the world. Attack, unspeakable horror...you awake at a mysterious shore, covered in mist and salt...old man shows you the way to an old sanctuary.


Welcome to Salt & Sanctuary.

When I write I always try to describe the games first without comparing them to others, because its foolish to accept that everyone have played the games that I have or have played all the famous game etc. Because of this I will start with saying that Salt&Sanctuary is a 2D platformer hard-core action RPG. In it you will try to solve the mystery of the place where you shipwrecked and at the same time learn is the princess you were escorting still alive. The game posses great skill three which will give you the ability to specialize your character, 600 unique items with which to equip your hero and many many nasty creatures to kill...most of them already dead, undead...non-living...you got the idea!
The game also will offer you well developed battle system with good variety of weapon types and distinctive fighting styles. Including at least two types of attacks usually a slash and a stab, but you can combine those two with each other or with a block or jump which will end in additional special moves....

Ok, ok I guess that's enough beating around the bush. Salt&Sanctuary is heavily inspired by Dark Souls...no that's incorrect. It is a 2D Dark Souls. The menus are the same, the classes are similar, the fights are very similar - long, with a lot of running and dodging around especially against bosses. When you die you will be revived in the nearest Sanctuary or at shrines and will have to run back to where you were. By dying you will drop all your salt (here you collect salt instead of souls) and if you die before recovering it you will lose it forever.

But while you have the same feeling as when you play Dark Souls there are also some differences. For example the game is 2D, this is big difference, changing the way you explore the world drastically. And there is a fair bit to explore trust me, although the game also has a strong metroidvania vibe and often you will have to backtrack if you want to finish your exploration. But most places and areas are interconnected and there is no shortage of shortcuts so that won't be too hard.
Another small difference is that there are two currencies - salt for level up and gold for buying items. This makes the game a little easier. Speaking about the difficulty - when I played the S&S I had the feeling that it starts easier than Dark Souls and it has slight difficulty spikes when you encounter bosses or new types of enemies. Adapting to those and learning how to counter them will usually help you to master the game and will aid you further in the game. Going the wrong way is not that punishing as you will rarely find monsters which will one hit you...there are those who will kill you in one combo but that you can easily avoid if you are careful.

And probably the most important difference for me, something which made me leave Dark Souls but helped me not give up Salt&Sanctuary is the pace of the fights. In Dark Souls when you fight multiple opponents the fight goes slowly you are very careful, dodging and rolling all the time as it is really easy to get surrounded and killed. In 2D environment is of course harder to get surrounded and the ability to jump always gives you reliable way to escape. Because of this there are quite a few enemies which can kill you with their combos so the game does not really steps down in terms of difficulty or danger for your character, but at the same time manages to keep a brisk tempo when fighting even against four, five enemies you will be striking, jumping, dodging, puling off combos and perfect parries all the time which somehow creates the feeling of faster pace, does not feel like a chore fighting all those guys again when you are going back to somewhere. You can run by them, sure but the more action packed fight make you fight them if there is not much risk as this will give you more salt which you will need in good quantities further in the game. This does not mean you should be reckless when you fight, no this will kill you before you know what is going on.

Conclusion

I as most people like to play original games, games which offer something new to the players. But when a game takes something proved to be working, tweak it a little here and there, change it a little so it offers different enough experience and do all this well I can not say that it is a bad game. This is exactly the case with Salt&Sanctuary. It draws heavily from  Dark Souls but at the same time offers different perspective, more aggressive battle system and not such steep learning curve as DS. And by doing this although it looks like not much it wins its own place in the gaming world. If you have already beaten all Dark Souls games and Bloodborne but you still crave for similar experience or wonder from where to start your filled with sadness and dying gaming - Salt & Sanctuary might be your answer, try it, its worth it!

Where to find:

Official site
Steam
Ska-Studios