Salt and Sanctuary's DNA is pretty incestuous when you think about it. It's Dark Souls by way of Castlevania at it's simplest, but then Dark Souls was born from Castlevania in many senses. So it's like if the son of Mrs Castlevania got together with Mrs Castlevania, which would go some way to explaining those weird potato heads the characters in Salt and Sanctuary have going on.
Don't take that as a slight though, Salt and Sanctuary is pretty good.
It's been ages since I've played a good Castlevania inspired game. The Metroid half of Metroidvania has gotten some love recently with Axiom Verge, among others, but Castlevania fans are unfortunately burdened by the fact that Konami owns the franchise, so obviously the last Castlevania related product release was a pachinko machine boasting "Erotic Violence", and the last game to come out, while hardly terrible, had basically nothing to do with Castlevania beyond names. So along comes Salt and Sanctuary, having transposed a lot of the atmosphere and RPG elements of the "Soulsborne" series back into the series that Souls took after to begin with.
Being 2D comes with a lot of compromises when compared to the Souls series of course, most notably in the way environments are designed. There's a lot of small details to be found in the Souls series' environments, that you notice as you traverse through areas again and again between deaths, and as you slowly and cautiously push forward into the unknown. In 2D, there's less benefit to that, as the angles you can be attacked from are cut down and you can only see so far ahead of you, so you naturally play at a faster pace than you would a similar title in 3D. Salt and Sanctuary has designed itself around this, finding ways to slow players down when needed to deliver little setpeice moments, while keeping each area consistent enough that you notice details over your time there, while being able to maintain the faster pace. The world is designed in the vein of Dark Souls The First and the old Castlevania games, a huge single environment that loops back on itself in wonderful ways, revealing more about the location as you delve deeper into the island you've been washed up on.
If I told you the combat was Castlevania with light and heavy attacks then you've pretty much got exactly what it plays like in your head already. No wheel re-inventing going on here. Well, there is a roll, which you can use to get to the other side of larger enemies rather than having to jump over them or block, but again, it works exactly as you'd expect it too. Fighting is simple and satisfying, with weighty sound FX and lots of variety in weapon types to facilitate different combat styles. Unlike in Souls however, weather you can wield a weapon isn't determined by stats, but by skills on an upgrade tree. You earn Black Pearls by levelling up and finding them in the world, spent on progressing through this tree, with different paths leading to skills letting you equip different weapon types of varying skill levels. The tree is rather well structured, with lots of points in dexterity leading to being able to equip faster weapons and light armour, and vice versa. The result of this weapon restriction is that you'll likely be stuck more firmly to particular weapon types in your playthroughs than in the Souls series, so thankfully experimenting within these restrictions is encouraged, with lots of variety in each weapon type.
The game isn't entirely derivative, with a lot of it's own ideas standing out amidst the pairing of Souls and Castlevania. Chief among it's original ideas being the way it handles covenants, or "creeds" here, which I find marginally more interesting and engaging than any previous Souls or Souls-inspired game. They have a much bigger effect on how you play, and are great at making you feel like part of a larger group. See, your creed determines your healing item that is restored when you rest at sanctuaries(bonfire equivalents), and by increasing your devotion to them, you can even have weapon buffs or other healing items are replenished at them too. This means your covenant will actually affect how you play, members of one covenant may get lots of poison related things to use every time they rest, which will affect their builds, while another may get lots of healing items, or stamina regen buffs, or perhaps your standard healing item will make you drunk if you drink too much too quickly.
It extends to even the inconsequential touches, like the fact that the backdrop to your sanctuaries after they activate is different for each creed, and that standard NPCs like Blacksmiths and Merchants will be different depending on your covenant, as they are tied to sanctuaries by offerings of stone idols to draw them to you. These NPCs will give different dialogue, and flesh out the covenant's lore, give you insight into what sort of person you've become by way of what covenant you've joined. I've been in a different covenant on each of my playthroughs so far, and it was joy ever time to listen to the different NPCs talk about why they're there, and thinking about what it makes me as a fellow member. It works excellently with the sense of discovery and place games of this genre aim to evoke.
But Salt and Sanctuary isn't as obscure or obtuse as a Souls game. As I mentioned before, there are plenty of NPCs willing to tell you about what's going on, be they vendors in sanctuaries or wanderers out in the world. There's even a main story thread with twists and turns going on if you can follow the 3 major NPC questlines, which isn't as hard as it is in a Souls game. This more expository approach is refreshingly interesting after Dark Souls 3, and the story it tells is a unique and thoroughly engaging one, with a wonderful Nautical theme that pays homage to the settings of Bloodborne and Dark Souls, while still being unique in comparison to them both. And it comes with a much more forefront sense of humour as well, with NPCs telling actual jokes for once in this genre full of visual and subtle humour. They even have a running gag of potatoes seemingly referencing the odd potato-people that represent the humans of their world. While they do kind of look like they've jumped out of a Newgrounds flash game, I very quickly grew to love their little potato-y designs, and the character creator races have a few monster-themed races, which is always good.
So yeah, Salt and Sanctuary is pretty good. A Castlevania game post Dark Souls, and very open about it's inspirations. If you're looking for something between now and the DS3 DLC, and have a fondness for the best of Castlevania, this will likely be right up your alley.
Also it has in-build challenge runs, which is excellent. Wish there were rewards for finishing them, but the fact that they're there is enough for me.
Next week, could be anything. Might play a little thing called LiEat I picked up some time ago. Been interesting so far, though it did cause a hard reset of my computer, which was fun. We'll see though, you never know. Until Thursday.
Aditional: E3 soon. Better capitalise on that shite.
Don't take that as a slight though, Salt and Sanctuary is pretty good.
It's been ages since I've played a good Castlevania inspired game. The Metroid half of Metroidvania has gotten some love recently with Axiom Verge, among others, but Castlevania fans are unfortunately burdened by the fact that Konami owns the franchise, so obviously the last Castlevania related product release was a pachinko machine boasting "Erotic Violence", and the last game to come out, while hardly terrible, had basically nothing to do with Castlevania beyond names. So along comes Salt and Sanctuary, having transposed a lot of the atmosphere and RPG elements of the "Soulsborne" series back into the series that Souls took after to begin with.
Being 2D comes with a lot of compromises when compared to the Souls series of course, most notably in the way environments are designed. There's a lot of small details to be found in the Souls series' environments, that you notice as you traverse through areas again and again between deaths, and as you slowly and cautiously push forward into the unknown. In 2D, there's less benefit to that, as the angles you can be attacked from are cut down and you can only see so far ahead of you, so you naturally play at a faster pace than you would a similar title in 3D. Salt and Sanctuary has designed itself around this, finding ways to slow players down when needed to deliver little setpeice moments, while keeping each area consistent enough that you notice details over your time there, while being able to maintain the faster pace. The world is designed in the vein of Dark Souls The First and the old Castlevania games, a huge single environment that loops back on itself in wonderful ways, revealing more about the location as you delve deeper into the island you've been washed up on.
If I told you the combat was Castlevania with light and heavy attacks then you've pretty much got exactly what it plays like in your head already. No wheel re-inventing going on here. Well, there is a roll, which you can use to get to the other side of larger enemies rather than having to jump over them or block, but again, it works exactly as you'd expect it too. Fighting is simple and satisfying, with weighty sound FX and lots of variety in weapon types to facilitate different combat styles. Unlike in Souls however, weather you can wield a weapon isn't determined by stats, but by skills on an upgrade tree. You earn Black Pearls by levelling up and finding them in the world, spent on progressing through this tree, with different paths leading to skills letting you equip different weapon types of varying skill levels. The tree is rather well structured, with lots of points in dexterity leading to being able to equip faster weapons and light armour, and vice versa. The result of this weapon restriction is that you'll likely be stuck more firmly to particular weapon types in your playthroughs than in the Souls series, so thankfully experimenting within these restrictions is encouraged, with lots of variety in each weapon type.
The game isn't entirely derivative, with a lot of it's own ideas standing out amidst the pairing of Souls and Castlevania. Chief among it's original ideas being the way it handles covenants, or "creeds" here, which I find marginally more interesting and engaging than any previous Souls or Souls-inspired game. They have a much bigger effect on how you play, and are great at making you feel like part of a larger group. See, your creed determines your healing item that is restored when you rest at sanctuaries(bonfire equivalents), and by increasing your devotion to them, you can even have weapon buffs or other healing items are replenished at them too. This means your covenant will actually affect how you play, members of one covenant may get lots of poison related things to use every time they rest, which will affect their builds, while another may get lots of healing items, or stamina regen buffs, or perhaps your standard healing item will make you drunk if you drink too much too quickly.
It extends to even the inconsequential touches, like the fact that the backdrop to your sanctuaries after they activate is different for each creed, and that standard NPCs like Blacksmiths and Merchants will be different depending on your covenant, as they are tied to sanctuaries by offerings of stone idols to draw them to you. These NPCs will give different dialogue, and flesh out the covenant's lore, give you insight into what sort of person you've become by way of what covenant you've joined. I've been in a different covenant on each of my playthroughs so far, and it was joy ever time to listen to the different NPCs talk about why they're there, and thinking about what it makes me as a fellow member. It works excellently with the sense of discovery and place games of this genre aim to evoke.
But Salt and Sanctuary isn't as obscure or obtuse as a Souls game. As I mentioned before, there are plenty of NPCs willing to tell you about what's going on, be they vendors in sanctuaries or wanderers out in the world. There's even a main story thread with twists and turns going on if you can follow the 3 major NPC questlines, which isn't as hard as it is in a Souls game. This more expository approach is refreshingly interesting after Dark Souls 3, and the story it tells is a unique and thoroughly engaging one, with a wonderful Nautical theme that pays homage to the settings of Bloodborne and Dark Souls, while still being unique in comparison to them both. And it comes with a much more forefront sense of humour as well, with NPCs telling actual jokes for once in this genre full of visual and subtle humour. They even have a running gag of potatoes seemingly referencing the odd potato-people that represent the humans of their world. While they do kind of look like they've jumped out of a Newgrounds flash game, I very quickly grew to love their little potato-y designs, and the character creator races have a few monster-themed races, which is always good.
So yeah, Salt and Sanctuary is pretty good. A Castlevania game post Dark Souls, and very open about it's inspirations. If you're looking for something between now and the DS3 DLC, and have a fondness for the best of Castlevania, this will likely be right up your alley.
Also it has in-build challenge runs, which is excellent. Wish there were rewards for finishing them, but the fact that they're there is enough for me.
Next week, could be anything. Might play a little thing called LiEat I picked up some time ago. Been interesting so far, though it did cause a hard reset of my computer, which was fun. We'll see though, you never know. Until Thursday.
Aditional: E3 soon. Better capitalise on that shite.
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