Why do I do this to myself? Why do I keep doing this to myself? Instead of trying literally anything new in the market or bothering to check out a different genre, my mind convinces me to come back to soulslikes. Every single time. It’s like me going to a restaurant and ordering the same option every time you visit. All the other options are pretty goode, but I keep sticking to the same sandwich I had hundreds of times already. Maybe it’s because I’m most comfortable with the meal I love the most. The one I’ve gotten used to and wouldn’t mind having it again and again. If the recipe works then there really isn’t a need to change it drastically. You can add in other ingredients, but nothing too drastic that changes what makes the sandwich taste so good.
The category of games we’re talking about are soulslike which are games heavily inspired by FromSoftware’s recent hit titles, Dark Souls, and try to replicate the design philosophies of the games in some sort of manner. Maybe add in a few unique twist ideas that make these soulslikes stand out and look more than just plain old obvious copycats. This is a genre I love not because these games hold up to the source material they are based off of, but tet developers find a way to reinvent what FromSoftware have done and sometimes even improve a couple of their design decisions. The soulslikes that I particularly really love are the 2D soulslikes, because they feel more reminiscent of other genre of video games I utterly love. That genre being the metroidvania genre, which is a combination of side-scrolling platforming and exploring a huge interconnected world. There’s also the sense of growing stronger through upgrades and being able to further progress in the world thanks to your new found abilities. I do have to admit that the metroidvania genre is almost as overflown as soulslike, especially since most independent developers seem to choose this genre along with roguelikes. However, I don’t mind the amount of titles in the metroidvania, because if I get more of something I love then that’s great for me.
One of my favorite games of all time is the most critically acclaimed metroidvania at the moment, Hollow Knight. It’s one of the first few 2D soulslikes to come out and garnish a lot of praise one year after release. This game is an absolute masterpiece and it’s one very few games where I have nothing to complain about. This is the perfect example of how you make a video game. Hollow Knight is competing with Bloodborne and Hades as my favorite game of all time. When I say competing I mean the three of them are in a bloody battle. Tearing each other's skin until one of them stands triumphant on top of the other two with a broken leg and one eye. That’s how much I love Hollow Knight and it has certainly had an impact on my life. However, it’s actually not the first 2D soulslike to come out. Before the coming of Hollow Knight there was another 2D soulslike that was garnished as the best. One of the first in the genre that showed developers that replicating FromSoftware could be done and be successful.
The game I am talking about is called Salt and Sanctuary, developed by an independent studio named Ska Studios. The game began development in 2014, and the developers already had an idea of what type of game they wanted to make. A Castelvania inspired adventure that combined several elements from the Souls series. The game then spent two and half years in the works, and the final version didn’t come out until the first quarter of 2016. This game came out a couple of weeks right before Dark Souls 3 released worldwide, so you know that this game was destined to be trampled underneath the feet of Souls fans. Some of those running towards the temple that housed Dark Souls 3 may have stumbled upon Salt and Sanctuary lying in the dust. They tried it out and to their surprise it ended up being really good. More people soon ended up trying this game out and love for this game grew. Salt and Sanctuary is referenced a lot when it comes to talking about soulslikes, and I never understood why. Recently I sat down to play it from beginning to end and man oh man I understand now. I can confirm that Salt and Sanctuary is indeed really good. It’s not one of my favorite soulslikes, but I can see why fans of this subgenre consider Salt and Sanctuary a classic. We’ll talk about why I loved Salt and Sanctuary and why it deserves your attention. Brandish thine blade and seek salt. Seek salt from the beings of thi land.
Story
We play as a sacred knight who was chosen to escort a princess across the dark raging seas. We aren’t given much context about the princess and why she is important, but what we are told is that several countries around the world are stuck in an endless war. Hundreds of lives are being taken and there is very little that can be done to calm down the ever rising conflict. The country you came from has decided to arrange a marriage between the princess of the region and a prince from the rivaling nation. Doing so may end the everlasting war and hopefully bring peace. We were of many special knights chosen, but the numbers begin to fall once the ship is attacked. We wake up in our quarters and find dead soldiers littering the hall. Some have managed to escape from the ship, but several masked thieves and monsters are making their way towards your room. You pick up your blade and begin to fight your way through the attackers. If you do so manage to survive and make it onto the main deck of the ship you then are faced with a mighty demonic beast known as a Kraekan. The Kraekan you fight resembles a cyclops and no matter if you win the fight, the ship is torn apart and shortly afterwards shipwrecked. You then awaken on a fog covered island.
There is no way to contact help and it seems there are very few individuals who are either sane or in fact alive. The main species that inhabit the island are monsters, the undead, and demons. Once our surviving knight walks up the shore they are then greeted by a hooded old man. The man gives the player a relic that can be used to call the aid of the gods at sacred sanctuaries, and explains to the player that he understands their goals. The princess has been kidnapped by the island inhabitants and taken to a place far out of their reach. He also explains that we, along with many others, are Saltborn. Those who are Saltborn have mass amounts of salt flowing through their bloodstream, and can use more salt to increase their physical capabilities.
The old man then states that a treacherous journey stands before the player and not many adventurers have found a way off this unknown island. The player, seeking answers for what is going on, journeys further into the island to find the princess they were told to escort. Why aren’t we given more context about the world? Why do only monsters inhabit this island? Why are there palaces and castles on this island when there isn’t a single soul who could have built them? What secrets lie within the island as we journey deeper and deeper into the core? Those questions will be answered with time. Farewell Saltborn. May you find the answers to this very place.
Gameplay
Salt and Sanctuary is both a metroidvania and a soulslike, and it does a pretty good job at handling both categories. The big open ended world is interconnected with some areas looping back into earlier stages like a corn maze. Yet, the way you traverse through the world is done in a linear fashion and you open up shortcuts to areas you have already been. The reasons why you want to open up these shortcuts or try to find easier means is to make backtracking less tedious. Unlike a majority of video games out there, the way soulslikes work is that when you die you are not botted back to a recent save or right before the combat scenario you wandered into. You are kicked back to your last checkpoint and all the enemies you have slain have now respawned. Some valuable items will be lost upon death and it will set a reminder of where you need to get back to. They are also a reminder of the mistake you just made and what you can do to avoid the safe exact death again. This is a design philosophy I will always love, because the developers aren’t being harsh or unfair to the player. They are simply punishing them for running in blind without a single thought put into their head. To survive the harsh world they are in, the player must master the equipment they have and understand the challenges they face. If not then they will lose their sanity to the madness that devours them. They must learn to grow and become stronger. They need to learn how to fend for themselves, survive every encounter, and get good.
Your starting class affects what type of gear and stats you start off with. If you are a Souls veteran then you know your starting equipment may not matter at times, because it’s how you form a playstyle that matters. Remember the stats I just mentioned? Those affect certain character traits and the efficiency of equipment associated with those stats. These stats include Strength which affects how much damage a melee based weapon may deal, to Endurance which affects how much Stamina you have to perform actions. Soulslike games aren’t like a majority of action games where you can spam the attack buttons over and over, and dodging from enemy attacks is extremely forgiving. Every action you perform consumes stamina. From attacking, blocking, dodge rolling, parrying, and jumping since this is a sidescroller. Once the stamina bar is depleted then you must wait for it to refill to perform more actions.
Anyways unlike Soulsborne where your stats are shown on a number sheet, Salt and Sanctuary has a sprawling skill tree. Each orb on the skill tree will increase a specific stat and at times will open up stronger weapons to wield. There is also the fact that unlike Dark Souls where you upgrade your Estus Flask capacity using shards, instead you increase the capacity using the skill tree. Your main method of healing is your Flask, or another object depending on the Covenant you decide to associate yourself with. The Flask refills whenever you visit a checkpoint, but has a limited amount of uses while exploring so be careful when traversing the field. The way Covenants work in Salt and Sanctuary is far different from Dark Souls. You stumble upon an empty room covered in darkness and there lies an altar. You can then convert the altar into a Sanctuary which becomes not only a checkpoint and place to level up with Salt, but a place to invite NPCs. You can summon NPCs using exchangeable gifts and they can bring in the tools you need to make an area easier. From a merchant to sell you items, to a blacksmith to upgrade your gear. The relic you choose to place onto the altar will determine what Covenant owns the Sanctuary. You gain Relics by associating yourself with the Covenant, and there are bonuses for ones you give the most Sanctuaries to.
Enemies come in a variety of flavors. Any weapon or spell will work, as long as you can evade their attack and strike at the right time. Finally there are the bosses which stand between you and progression. They will take numerous attempts to beat, but once you get their attack pattern down and land the final blow it is so satisfying. They will give you a high amount of Salt to level up, and sometimes an item to unlock a special piece of gear. That’s about it for Salt and Sanctuary. I could bring up the metroidvania aspect and how you meet NPCs who brand you with abilities to explore areas you couldn’t get to before, but that’s explanatory. It’s a fun game to play and it nails a lot of aspects. May as well ram in a Dark Souls reference. "Praise the sun!"
Thoughts
Salt and Sanctuary is a really good game and I can see why people praise it as one of the best soulslikes. The environments have a good amount of variety and the way you end up in some of them is baffling. The controls are tight and none of the deaths during platforming felt unfair to me. Combat was actually really good for the most part. Some people may not like the combat in the Soulsborne games, but I personally think it’s one of the best out there. It’s a nice mixture of aggressive and decisive. Aggressive because you need to know when to hit the enemy with ferocity. Decisive as you must determine what actions to expend your stamina. The combat here in Salt and Sanctuary is good and combining it with the surprising weight of each attack it becomes satisfying.. The music I thought would suck, but it also ended up being good. It's this weird flavor of rock and symphony that provides a dreadful world to venture through.
The main story is vague at first as it lacks the sense of wonderment that Dark Souls had during their openings, but as the game goes on you start to care more about the world. Learn about the history of the island and the rulers that came before them. That there are various gods of this world and those who desire to become gods. However, to become an ever worshiped god you must kill other competing gods and ascend to this king-like status. Start off as a man, become a king, and then become a god. This may sound like weird philosophy coming out of nowhere, but trust me it will be relevant once you get to the end of the game. The normal ending also tied up the game nicely, and there is this alternative ending that shows the dark twist that the island will give to those who wander too far off. It gave me the sense Bloodborne had where those who seek too much knowledge may discover a truth far beyond their comprehension and sanity. The dialogue is pretty good along with the writing, but it would have felt more fleshed out if there were voice actors to them. Especially since a majority of the soulslikes I have played had voice acting. Even some of the other 2D soulslikes like Blasphemous and Death’s Gambit have voice acting. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome and a first playthrough will lasts close to around twelve to fifteen hours depending on how good you are. For eighteen dollars you get a lot of content and the replay value is extremely high thanks to the options you have.
This game is really good like I just said, but there are problems that prevent me from calling it one of the best soulslike I have played. The artstyle isn’t bad, but it lacks charm and makes the game ugly to look at. At first I thought this was the ugliest game I have seen until Cruelty Squad came out this year. Yahtzee Croshaw had this one statement that fits the artstyle perfectly. “It looks like an edgy Newgrounds cartoon made in the early 2000s.” No offense to Newground animators and artists though. There is this one mechanic that gets annoying where the more hits you take the more of your maximum health bar you lose. Meaning you won’t have all of your health venturing around unless you rest at checkpoints. This can make certain bosses frustrating when it turns out you die in less than two hits because you didn’t have enough health. Some of the bosses later on like to shoot elemental projectiles that stack on top of each other, and they eat your health bar faster than they should.
The game is too dark lit and doesn’t do a good job at showing you what is ahead or below you. Cheap deaths may come from that alone, not because you suck at the platforming but because you had to take a leap of faith to see if you landed in a safe spot. There is fall damage which really pisses me off, because in a side scrolling platformer you are going to be falling a lot. However, in soulslikes you are suppose to play carefully and not being to see ahead makes it hard to be prepared. The skill tree is somewhat of a mess to look at, but it certainly is better than some of the other skill trees I’ve seen as what you get is useful. The final complaint is that the game doesn’t give you a map. In Dark Souls this was fine. You memorize the layout and structures of an area until they become imprinted in your head. In a metroidvania this is not fine, because some rooms may look the same and it’s really easy to get lost.
These sound like really big problems for Salt and Sanctuary, but I do want you to remember that I liked this game. A challenging experience that remained strong till the end and offered a plentiful payoff. The sequel, Salt and Sacrifice, is still in development and I hope that the devs can fix the problems the first game had. Do that and you’ll end up with a perfect sequel. I highly recommend this game to any soulslike enjoyer or those who want an amazing metroidvania with a steep difficulty curve. In the end I am going to give Salt and Sanctuary an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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