Salt and Sanctuary (2016)

Well, I suspected that I would say "fuck this game" eventually. The moment came when I had to fight a flying Dragon who was on the ground maybe 20% of the time so I had barely any time to hit. I knew that even if I perfected the fight, it would be a tedious slog so I called it quits.

Honestly there's little to like about this game. The most hideous suspect is the graphics. The blury lines and brown and gray colours makes everything look like the same indistinct blob of shit and dirt. Platforming is not great; lots of leaps of faith, and deaths to falls due to the incredibly hard knockback. Combat is ok. There seemsto be a lot of available weapons, judging by the skill tree, but in my time with the game I didn't pick up anything that felt particularly good.

A second wasp in my ear is the corpse run mechanic. Corpse run are always annoying and most of the time counterproductive to gameflow, in my opinion. The positive reinforcement of losing progress when you most need it sucks and being obliged to return to where you die kills exploration. This games add the extra layer of shit of having to defeat the enemy that killed you. In normal gameplay it's just an extra prick in the already-spiky elemtns of torture that this game leverages against the player, but the system is particularly perverse when fighting a boss. Because it all but guarantees loosing all your XP unless you kill the boss in your second try. (Technically you get your xp back if you get it's health bar low enought, but still). And since boss fights are usually at the end of a section of exploration, it means that whenever you smell a boss arena coming up, your best bet is to trek all the way back to the checkpoint to level up and back.

I enjoyed a bit of the combat and boss fights but as a whole, I disliked most of my shortish time with this game.

This game is a challenging 2D action RPG that blends the punishing combat and stamina-based mechanics of Soulslikes with the exploration and interconnected world design of a Metroidvania. Despite being developed by just two people, it offers impressive depth, with a large skill tree, multiple character classes, hundreds of weapons and armor pieces, and a wide variety of enemies and bosses. The hand-drawn art style and moody, grim atmosphere give the game a distinct personality, while the Sanctuary system provides safe havens and upgrade points that mirror the bonfire concept from Soulslike titles.

The combat is precise and weighty, requiring players to manage stamina, dodge effectively, and learn enemy attack patterns, making mistakes costly but fair. Exploration is rewarding, with hidden areas, shortcuts, and platforming sections that encourage revisiting older zones once new abilities are unlocked. However, the lack of an in-game map can make navigation difficult, and some later bosses feel easier once strong gear is obtained. Particularly I played using a DEX build with the focus in Katanas, DPS and such, so nothing new to me since I play all Soulslike titles this way and this one was a very good one when it comes to this playstyle.

Overall, Salt and Sanctuary succeeds in translating the essence of a 3D Soulslike into a tight, atmospheric 2D experience. It may wear its influences openly, but its execution and attention to detail make it stand out as one of the most memorable indie games, particularly if you enjoy challenging combat and methodical exploration. This was one of the first Soulslike Metroidvanias that I've ever played and I immediately feel in love with the genre, so if you like those than this one is a very good option. Though I highly encourage againts playing the sequel, I'll talk more about this in my review regarding that one.

• Playtime: 24 minutes (died at first boss)

• Played: 2025

• Expectation: Very negative, marked as "not interested" (here but not in Epic launcher)

Review

So i played this by accident because i forgot to mark this properly. Dark Souls + Metroidvania sounds like my personal hell. And on top of that this game gives you 0 information. Oof.

And still. I didn't hate it. I loathe respawning enemies, losing progress, 2D platforming backtracking and console cancer (you can't even hold Backspace to delete your name...). But despite all that, it seemed ok. With a guide i may have enjoyed it.

But what killed it for me was the black & white graphics. They're so "greasy". It feels like looking through dirty glasses. The normal graphics aren't much better. Eh.

The story is fairly standard and like in Dark Souls games it is hidden behind NPC’s and other such items, this does seem to be a staple of most Metroidvanias though so it didn’t really bother me it just wasn’t anything exceptional. The graphics are alright, many standard looking sprites and backgrounds but it did have some interesting things. In some areas though the background matched the color of the enemies making them difficult to see, I noticed this especially in the first area of the game.

The soundtrack is okay. It plays pretty much the same song throughout the entire game except boss fights. Boss fights feature the same music for each one except for the final boss. Salt and Sanctuary is plagued by clunky controls, some poorly designed areas and bosses and some bugs that make the experience overall not very worth it.

I keep going back and forth on my love and hate with this one. I just fought The Witch of the Lake, and that shit is just unfair. I ended up beating her on my 30th try, but I was pretty frustrated. I know there was probably some special armor I could have been wearing to help shield me from her annihilating attacks that would kill me in one hit if I didn't dodge properly, but I hate figuring that kind of stuff out. I can't tell what type of damage I'm taking, and I have so many armors in my inventory at this point that I just don't want to mess with it.

I came across bosses before and after The Witch that I took down in one or two tries. The difficulty spikes on some of these bosses and different areas is infuriating and unbalanced.

I'm also having trouble figuring out where the hell I am in the world most of the time. I normally don't have that kind of trouble in a Dark Souls type game. This game just screams out for a world map like Ori in the Blind Forest, or a Metroid.

I still love the combat, as well as the build I've come up with, but there are some serious issues with this game that drive me crazy.

I've finally turned the corner completely on this game. It's a ton of fun and super deep. They don't try and hide the fact that Souls games are the inspiration for this thing, and I appreciate that. There are messages in bottles around the game as their sort of hint system, and they also leave funny notes in them like "Dark Souls?" and "Praise the salt."

The only issue I have is the difficulty uneveness. You can cruise along through the first few areas only to get walloped in the face by some of the later areas. It doesn't feel like an issue of not being good enough to get through the areas either, it just feels unfair. Specifically, there are a lot of fire enemies in a certain area, and the game doesn't really let you prepare for them very well. I don't know, maybe I'm just bad at games.

Souls fans need to get on this!

While patiently awaiting the release of Dark Souls 3 I noticed this little 2D indie game appear. Keen to quench my 'souls thirst I quickly grabbed a copy to see what the fuss was about. This game is unashamedly a 2D souls-like game, very heavily influenced by From Software's famous series and they're not afraid to show it. It's unbelievable how a tiny indie dev team managed to capture the feeling and mechanics of the souls series in this simple little game while also adding some flavour of their own.

The game starts (as games often do) as you find yourself in a mysterious land without memory or purpose. You're told to save the princess or something but those aims are quickly forgotten as you enter the brutal fray and begin to master the controls and combat. The game delivers the story to you (in souls fashion) through little bits and pieces, obscure item descriptions and dialogue allowing the player to piece together his/her own interpretation of what's really going on. The setting is dark and foreboding but very different and unique compared to the souls games. There's a definite seafaring/swashbuckling feel to the game (hence the salt) but really the environments are very diverse from crumbling castles, dark caves, old temples and even science-fiction type areas that look like a HR Giger painting.

The combat has the extreme depth and customisation that you would expect from a souls game. There's basically a limitless amount of approaches to the game. I went for a basic agile DEX build, like a ninja with a katana but there's also magic, ranged, hundreds of weapons and armour sets, spells etc. The usual mechanics exist like parrying, shield-blocking, rolling. Extra mechanics are interesting, especially the ability to jump and strike while in the air, or jumping over your enemy and striking from behind. It becomes more interesting and complex as you gain more abilities, not dissimilar to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. You eventually acquire wall-jumping and double-jumping, plus other abilities, allowing your character to reach new areas and try new approaches to enemies. Like 'souls you're faced with standard enemies and a big boss at the end of each area. In total I think there were around 20 bosses, give or take. The game took me approximately 20 hours to beat on my first run. The levelling and character building works as you would expect, there's the HP/stamina bars, and even the levels are designed like a souls game: huge sprawling environments filled with secret areas, shortcuts, maze-like complexity and checkpoints. In fact at times I found myself sketching little maps.

Some of the more interesting mechanics are the "bonfires." When you reach these checkpoint-style areas you can then summon NPCs who offer various services like a mage, a shop-keeper, blacksmith or a guide (who allows you to quick-travel). Another great feature is the on-screen multiplayer, allowing you to play through the game with a friend, on the same screen. The best description I can give of this game is it feels like a mixture between Dark Souls and Castlevania:SotN, two excellent games.

Now for some minor complaints. While the game and the environments are gorgeous the character models look out of place in the world. The big heads and giant eyes make the NPCs and your tough warrior look a bit more like Bratz dolls, which is a shame, especially because they're front-and-centre on the screen all the time. I wish the developers had chosen a style that was closer to the refined environment art. Another issue has to do with balance: while the game is fair and mostly well-balanced, I found that some of the bosses were ridiculously easy. Late game it was all up-and-down, the last boss was very difficult but the 2nd-last boss was much easier than many of the standard mob-enemies walking around the level. I was almost about to complain about the lack of a map, like you would expect in a Metroid-style game but in the end I think I like this aspect. There's no hand-holding here and that's a good thing. The player is expected to explore and learn the environments and I think that's a good thing. I got lost sometimes but mostly I think it was the right choice. The game also has a lot of replay value: I haven't even touched on most of the mechanics or the magic system so I'm keen to play it through again.

In the end: this is an incredible game, and it's not just for fans of the 'souls series, I think anyone who likes Metroid-vania style games would really enjoy this, as long as they're happy to accept a challenging experience. It borrows a lot from the souls series but the game puts in enough original ideas that it is able to stand on its own two feet: a truly unique and enjoyable experience.