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Salt and Sanctuary

Developer / Publisher: Ska Studios
15 March 2016
Salt and Sanctuary - cover art
Glitchwave rating
3.33 / 5.0
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272 Ratings / 4 Reviews
#1,671 All-time
#74 for 2016
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Title
Salt and Sanctuary is what you get when you combine Dark Souls with Symphony of the Night, it literally feels like the exploration, design, and abilities of a Castlevania game combined with the gameplay and mechanics of a Souls game. Salt and Sanctuary is for the most part your typical metroidvania, you have your big interconnected map and you progress by exploring every area, defeating the boss or bosses of that area, and getting new powers so you can access new areas and explore old areas with your new abilities. I feel Salt and Sanctuary succeeds more when it tries to be like Castlevania and less like Souls. The Souls aspects of the game are more in the gameplay and mechanics, the game has many builds, most centered around melee or magic, and the skill tree in this game is so huge and customizable that you can make many different character hybrids, you get experience for killing enemies and bosses and then level up at shrines to upgrade your stats and allow you to perform more powerful spells or wield more powerful weapons. If you die you have to kill the enemy that killed you or backtrack to the area you died to get your salt and then if you die before getting it its lost forever, which is basically the same as Dark Souls.

Also shields are very important in this game and especially against bosses. The game actually is very fun to explore and get to new areas, and early in the game you often find everything extremely challenging and bosses were taking many tries. But the thing is, the game is maybe difficult for about 1/3, then about 1/3 when I focused upgrading stats to get better weapons and shields/armor, the game sort of became a cakewalk with a few exceptions. I ended up getting a pretty overpowered shield that would block all magic attacks and almost all physical damage and a sword that scaled really well with strength and most bosses were just a game of block with shield and then attack when there was an opening. I just feel a lot of challenge in the first parts were lost once I had this build.

Speaking of the bosses they are a mixed bag, half the bosses in this are kind of generic and forgettable and just generic big monsters or magic casters, there are a few interesting bosses that require strategy and have unique concepts, but I feel a lot of the bosses in this weren't as memorable as those in classic Metroidvania games or even in Hallow Knight or the Souls games. Most of the highlights in this actually came from the areas and design and how you could unlock shortcuts to previous areas, it actually reminded me a lot of Dark Souls in that sense. I was always excited to go to a new area and see what new enemies would be there and the exploration that it would offer, although near the end the areas did feel a bit bland compared to the first half, but there were still some cool parts in the second half. I just felt like once I had all the abilities and had overpowered weapons the sense of awe kind of went out the window since I could sort of just steamroll through all the new areas and could fully access everything rather than have to wait to get new abilities to explore further.

I feel like the biggest problem with Salt and Sanctuary is it doesn't really know its identity, if it wants to be a classic Metroidvania style or a Souls experience game and it sort of tries to combine the two with mixed results. I feel the Souls mechanics were interesting, but they could have been a little more polished. And there were some areas of this game I found to be poorly designed and frustrating. Like there are parts where you have to platform and if you miss a jump you will fall and have to restart an area, and there are times where an enemy can stagger and knock you off a cliff or platform and there are parts of the game where you are expected to jump on a platform that is off screen. Not to mention there are a few parts where the game overloads you with cheap enemies that can nearly one shot you or overwhelm you. I get that this game is trying to go for difficulty, but it felt a bit like Dark Souls 2 where the difficulty was from cheap enemy placement over actual challenge.

If Salt and Sanctuary had a bit more consistency with its bosses, had less cheap platforming segments and staggering mechanics, and also had a few more mechanics explained like the whole covenant system, than it could have been amazing and possibly near Hallow Knight level, but it just has a few things that could have been improved greatly. The game shines mostly in its exploration, especially in the first half and going back to old areas once you get new abilities to find secrets and shortcuts between areas, and it also has a really in depth upgrade system where you can pretty much make any class you want and you can choose if you want to be a certain kind of mage or melee build. Some bosses in this game though really can be annoying if you don't have a shield and try to focus on dodging, especially the later game bosses, so I feel the game difficulty heavily depends on your build, since I played as a melee with heavy shields and I steamrolled almost all the late game bosses, including the final boss that I beat on my third try and almost beat on my first try but I got stuck in the wall from a glitch and the boss killed me because I couldn't get out. This does offer replayability due to the different kinds of weapons you can play with and magic skills, I think there are like 5 or 6 classes of weapons you can upgrade from whips to swords to great axes, and of course the different classes of magics. I just feel some of the more frustrating design choices and lack of super strong boss design holds this back for me. This game comes close to greatness, but it just is held back by some of its odd design choices. Still I'd say I enjoyed this maybe a sliver more than I did Blasphemous and its about on par, if not maybe a slight bit below Bloodstained Ritual.
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jweber14 2021-08-10T06:17:33Z
2021-08-10T06:17:33Z
3.5
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Title
“You know that really popular game, Dark Souls? Well, what if we took Dark Souls *rubs hands emphatically in anticipation* and made it...2D?!” - the pitch for Salt and Sanctuary at Ska Studios circa mid-2010s, possibly while high.

The concept of a Soulslike game in 2D might not seem like a spark of visionary gold. Dark’s Souls’ more obvious influences stem more from 2D Metroidvania games than any 3D franchises. Dark Souls is a 3D translation of aspects that are more commonly found in 2D games. Translating Dark Souls conversely is merely an example of a Metroidvania game. At least setting a 2D game inspired by the components of Dark Souls makes sense. The franchise has garnered much more notoriety than any pure Metroidvania game over the past ten years and I suppose the new wave of Soulslike games could interpret the unique elements of Dark Souls into a 2D Metroidvania game organically. In the case of indie developer Ska Studios' 2016 game Salt and Sanctuary, this is not just an example of using the core properties of Dark Souls as a mere influence. Hollow Knight is an example of a 2D Metroidvania that borrows properties from Dark Souls. Salt and Sanctuary on the other hand is an unabashed Dark Souls clone in which the only distinctive property is that it is played on a 2D axis. The similarities here border on the uncanny. I should smite this game with venomous words lambasting its lack of originality and completely write it off as cheap imitation. However, I’m not going to do that. Dark Souls is one of my favorite games of all time and I quite like anything that reminds me of it, or at least something that competently emulates it.

Where do I start making comparisons? Salt and Sanctuary shares the medieval setting, the moody, depression-drenched atmosphere, the tough, meticulous combat, the vague narrative, the weapon/armor scaling, the dodge-rolling, the health system, the varied boss battles, etc. I’d list more that this game shares with its obvious template, but I feel as if I’ve made my point. This game shamelessly flaunts its derivative nature to the point where I’m surprised FromSoft didn’t bring down the wrath of a cracked legal team on Ska Studios. The 2D axis really makes a world of difference I suppose, but this alludes to more than just a potential lawsuit. The only difference between Salt and Sanctuary and Dark Souls is the 2D plane. Despite all of the similar properties taken right from Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary at least feel different because of the more direct Metroidvania playstyle.

Salt and Sanctuary still insists on heavily borrowing way too many features from Dark Souls that do not work on a 2D plane. Dark Souls didn’t need a map because the spatial awareness that comes organically in 3D helped the player learn the foreground and how to traverse it. The 2D Salt and Sanctuary follows suit and does not offer the player a map, even with many-leveled passages that lead to different sections. Considering how much backtracking is involved in any Metroidvania game, a map is essential for the genre. Salt and Sanctuary not including a map always made navigating the world cumbersome and going the right direction a matter of trial and error. Most if not all 2D Metroidvanias offer one, so it baffles me that Salt and Sanctuary would omit something that seems so essential to the genre. The worst instance of this comes with bastardizing a Dark Souls staple. Covenants are a familiar property from Dark Souls that Salt and Sanctuary also borrows, naming them creeds instead. Unless you are an avid PVP player, they won’t mean much to a Souls player. These creeds in Salt and Sanctuary represent much more than just an online faction. Depending on which covenant you join, you can decorate a sanctuary with the influence of your chosen faction. These sanctuaries act like bonfires in that resting at one saves your progress like a checkpoint. I changed my creed in Salt and Sanctuary thinking nothing of it. The worst I thought would happen is that maybe one NPC would be pissed off at me and I’d have to defend myself in combat. I instead found myself not being able to rest at any sanctuary, frustrated beyond belief as a result. The only way I could absolve my “sin” of changing my creed and being able to make checkpoints again was to run all the way to a far-off corner of the game. Keep in mind, there is no map, so attempting to find this specific point in the game infuriated me beyond belief. I have to say this loud and clear: A MAP IS ESSENTIAL TO ANY METROIDVANIA GAME.

One aspect of the Metroidvania genre is the heavy use of platforming. Dark Souls implements platforming on rare occasions, but these instances are never ideal due to the rigid jumping control. The platforming aspects of the 2D Salt and Sanctuary feel much more natural due to the 2D plane of movement. This is a relief considering how much platforming there is in the game. This aspect almost feels, unlike Dark Souls until one factor in the fall damage mechanic. This isn’t often a problem in most Metroidvania games because the developers are understandably merciful with jumping errors in games with a platforming-heavy emphasis. Fall damage is always factored into every awkward tumble in Dark Souls, and Salt and Sanctuary of course follow its big brother like a panting dog. Most of the deaths in Salt and Sanctuary will be a result of a mismatched jump onto a platform. To make matters even less favorable to the player, Salt and Sanctuary borrows the Metroidvania Castlevania games pension for blowback damage. This combined with the fall damage often leads to the player dying instantly, crashing through series of scaffoldings like a slapstick routine.

Salt and Sanctuary is also one of the ugliest games I’ve ever played. The tone and aesthetic here are supposed to replicate the defeated, medieval look of Dark Souls. It achieves this in theory, but it also looks like this forsaken world is suffering from water damage. It looks as if someone took Lordran and put a perpetual rain cloud over it to signify a sense of depression. Places like the Undead Burg from Dark Souls still achieve this sense of dread and emptiness even though the sun is shining. Salt and Sanctuary looks a bit overwrought with its aesthetic. The interior places are incredibly dark and their foundations look like they are covered with rusty blood. It all feels like the developers are trying much too hard to give the impression of some kind of angst. It does not help matters that this game looks like a 2005 era flash cartoon and the common background music sounds like Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”. Most of these aspects are just unappealing.

It mostly sounds as if Salt and Sanctuary aren’t worth a drop of piss from Dark Souls’s magnificent swinging dick, but there is a saving grace to all of the awkward translations that do not work well. The best aspect of Salt and Sanctuary is that it completely understands the essentials of what makes the Souls games so engrossing: the combat and the bosses. Salt and Sanctuary makes sure that it always feels satisfying to defeat a tough enemy and give the player the deserved satisfaction. This is where the uniqueness of translating Souls combat into 2D comes in place. Salt and Sanctuary oftentimes felt much more fair and fluid in combat due to the 2D plane. Parrying was so much easier and dodge-rolling always felt more in the player’s hand. These features essentially work in Dark Souls, but are much harder to execute when there is more spatial movement in 3D. Like the bosses in Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary offers many incredibly tough foes to conquer. All of these bosses are extremely varied, arguably more so than in Dark Souls and defeating them makes the player feel just as accomplished. A special mention goes to The Witch of the Lake, a boss that I’d argue is more punishing than any boss in Dark Souls. One of the reasons as to why she is so difficult also leads to an awkward point of the game’s 2D foundation; the bosses will exploit the 2D space to venture off-screen, an unfair hiccup that usually results in the player’s demise. I’d be angrier about this glitch if it didn’t help me exploit the final boss, an encounter that I was having considerable trouble with. He glitched me into a wall that rewarded me with invulnerability, hilariously giving me ample opportunity to hack away at him with ease. I’ll take this equally unfair glitch as an apology for The Witch of the Lake.

Dark Souls may be an incredibly unique and influential game, but it’s foundation had to come from somewhere. The 2D Metroidvanias that inspired Dark Souls are taking note to return the appreciation by implementing Dark Souls features into the Metroidvania genre. In the case of Salt and Sanctuary, it borrows so much from Dark Souls that it’s a borderline tribute in 2D. Did the developers purposefully want to just translate Dark Souls into 2D, sacrificing all traces of a discernable product? It seems like this is the case but fortunately, Dark Souls being an exceptional game makes Salt and Sanctuary an adequate game by proxy. Afterall, there are worse franchises to shamelessly rip off.
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Erockthestrange 2019-10-18T19:22:19Z
2019-10-18T19:22:19Z
7.0
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A decent Souls-inspired platformer. Salt and Sanctuary has many of the good aspects of the Souls franchise, most notably its twisty, interconnected map design. It also borrows a similar leveling system, the bloodstain concept, and a general philosophy toward weapon movesets. While it borrows a lot of things, I never felt the game was as successful as From Software's games. It feels very much like an indie platformer, and some techniques (such as rolling) simply don't work as well in 2D as they did in Souls.

The game has an odd difficulty level. Most of the time it's quite easy, but there are three or four areas that are excruciating to get through, especially the ones that require precision platforming. Boss combat has the same feeling; I only struggled with a few bosses, but the tough ones are very tough, one in particular feeling downright unfair.

Aesthetically, the game is very drab and gray. This works in its favor sometimes, but clashes poorly with the 2000s flash-animation looking sprites. Lighting was a major issue for me in a few areas, and while the developers might have intended it to make traversal more challenging, I merely found it annoying in the super-dark areas.

There's probably more I could say about this game, but my overall feeling is "not as good as a Souls game, but pretty good considering the price." I played through the game once and enjoyed most of my time, but probably won't revisit it.
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jsh357 2016-05-06T19:22:55Z
2016-05-06T19:22:55Z
3.0
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Catalog

C7A7A Salt and Sanctuary 2024-03-22T18:15:56Z
2024-03-22T18:15:56Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Alpoea Salt and Sanctuary 2024-03-21T16:40:34Z
2024-03-21T16:40:34Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
epic
eliottstaten Salt and Sanctuary 2024-03-14T07:40:20Z
2024-03-14T07:40:20Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
juliemishima Salt and Sanctuary 2024-03-11T16:12:12Z
2024-03-11T16:12:12Z
2.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
AristotelisPPD Salt and Sanctuary 2024-02-26T11:35:37Z
2024-02-26T11:35:37Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Nergal997 Salt and Sanctuary 2024-02-25T01:19:33Z
2024-02-25T01:19:33Z
2.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Monni_Nicola Salt and Sanctuary 2024-02-19T15:23:11Z
2024-02-19T15:23:11Z
3.5
4
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
TheAbyssalArchivist Salt and Sanctuary 2024-02-18T02:02:21Z
2024-02-18T02:02:21Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
puppies_on_acid Salt and Sanctuary 2024-02-15T06:41:33Z
Windows / Mac / Linux/Unix
2024-02-15T06:41:33Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
reyben Salt and Sanctuary 2024-01-19T14:54:52Z
2024-01-19T14:54:52Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
NagasakiOshima Salt and Sanctuary 2024-01-18T20:27:55Z
2024-01-18T20:27:55Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
SKTUD Salt and Sanctuary 2024-01-13T22:15:38Z
2024-01-13T22:15:38Z
1.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Player modes
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  • Previous comments (5) Loading...
  • Theomedes 2022-04-09 21:01:35.737625+00
    Falls off really sharply toward the end. The first half is so much better than the second.
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  • otonhm 2022-05-20 20:52:27.785886+00
    ^goes to show how much they borrow from dark souls 1
    reply
    • ThrashingFairy 2023-06-27 12:55:21.525935+00
      Except the second half of Dark Souls isn't bad.
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  • Hollweg 2022-06-28 04:40:31.099467+00
    playing this after Ender Lilies and Hollow Knight made the lack of a map even more painful

    cool game, I actually liked the second half of the game more because you get so OP you finally have time to actually breathe during the levels instead of dying all the time
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  • wargrl 2022-12-20 12:41:24.047023+00
    ehhh
    reply
    • Marmalade88 2022-12-24 05:39:53.923005+00
      yea
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  • watercolour 2023-01-15 10:07:07.353374+00
    not a bad metroidsoullikevania
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  • cai 2023-05-26 19:08:13.184166+00
    omg, I was not prepared for how hilariously awful the artwork in this game is. i literally laughed out loud when I got to the character creator. is this game set in the back of my year 8 maths book
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  • omo_ree 2023-12-13 04:01:19.530955+00
    published by ska
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