PlayStation 4 User Reviews

The best way to describe this game is this is the 2d dark Souls. The stats, equipment, spell and weapon really reminds me to dark Souls. However, the boss design is a bit lacking, but it is minor unless you have played souls like games before.

Первый мой 2д соулс. И так же как и в оригинальном соулсе, есть классы имба, а есть дно. Я начал играть в коопе, и я выбрал дно, а мой напарник имбу. Но да ладно, не туда не сюда скажите вы. Но, а что если вам скажу, что в игре надо ФАРМИТЬ одних и тех же боссов.... корейский 2д соулс, где для прокачки нужен фарм. Да он опциональный, но я например из-за это вечно чувствую незавершенность... вечную незавершённость.

The most overrated game Total trash and pne of the worst metroid games i ever played in my whole life Healing animation takes 12hours till use the heal and it take ages to fill the bar wooow what a trash idea and what a trash devs The enemies has one move and the spam it all time The game has 99999 traps ..no variety of enimes .. same enemy with different weapons Dodge and platforming in this game is just **** Combat is one of the worst i ever seen Not many bonfires/shrine And why the bloody hell there an animation of someone pulling me back to the shrine ? Its frustrating and waste of time also they take gold for it ?? Dude wtf isnt just enough i lose all salt and now u want me to lose gold too ?? 99% of my deaths is by falling cuz the platform is so stupid like the stupid devs Bosses are not fun at all and super easy i died once or twice at max against all noob bosses When u get hit and fall it take more than 7hours to get up and u can get hit while falling wooow what a bad game My tip to the developers is just stop making games ur not good at this find something better than developing or just be a normal player like the rest of us cuz ur ideas is trash

This game will stay with you for years and years. It is brutal. It is punishing, and you will love every minute of it. It is one of the best metroidvanias ever made, perhaps second only to Hollow Knight. The only criticism I had is the lack of the map.

Excelente juego, me sorprendio con su dificultad y su diseño de niveles todo muy bien conectado, transmutar las armas es muy bueno, la historia es buena, delen una oportunidad a este metroidvania no se arrepentiran.

Salt and Sanctuary is a weird experience, and it's the best I can describe it. It is all a metroadvania game should not be. It has an interesting gameplay, a bit sloppy controls, OK sound design and overall has tough as nails boss fights and a over-simplistic story. Its souls-like elements feel unfinished. All of the classes - even the Rogue - feel slow to control, this feels like a huge step-down from its competitors such as Hollow Knight. This game has too much gore, it remains a mystery as to what the developer was smoking. The game's sinister atmosphere creates unease. My verdict is 6/10: it has good character customization and an OK gameplay.

a metroidvania without a map, this makes the game wrost in it's essence, also it doesn'thelp that the combat is so parametric, you are gonna win by choosing the right build, not by fighting with skill; that being said the game is excellent in lots of things, so even if I dropped it for the flaws I listed, I recognize it's merits

Bellissimo metroidvania 2D con elementida soulslike. Artisticamente bellissimo, ottimo gameplay, location sempre varie con design ben caratterizzati, buona varietà di nemici e numerosi boss.

Not at ALL an 8/10 game, and here's why... -*-*- (I'll assume Metacritic still hasn't acquired the super high-tech magic of line breaks, so that's what mine will look like. I guess that's the price to pay in 2024 when you want to give an honest opinion, and not have some obsessed moderator go on a power trip, or some other user whine about 'trolling') -*-*- To start, the game does very little to explain any ANY the mechanics to you; even stuff as simple as weapon combos. It's just more of this artificial difficulty BS that souls-like wannabes try pulling off. "iF wE dOn'T eXpLaIn ThInGs, iT'LL bE hArDeR!!1!" -*-*- Let's talk about the enemies, and how massively annoying they are; especially the ones that seem to appear from out of NOWHERE. I understand most of these might be hidden in the background/foreground before they attack, but why make the game so zoomed out if that's the case? Again, artificial difficulty - what any crappy developer relies on when they can't make a game genuinely challenging. Also, turns out I died FAR fewer times to bosses than I did any of these exasperating normal enemies. -*-*- By far and away, the airborne enemies will be your biggest hassle in this game. Their movement patterns are enormously obnoxious; swooping in close, attacking, then immediately moving to your other side just as you swing to hit them. Then on many occasions, they will just fly away as you're fighting them - soaring completely off-screen before they meander back to irritate you some more. -*-*- When you drop your salt after dying (the currency used to level up), it sometimes takes the form of one of these winged enemies, and can be a wildly tiresome experience to defeat... again coming obnoxiously close, switching sides over and over, randomly flying away to leave the screen, and for some reason having WAAAAAY more HP than other enemies in the area. Why?... two words. Artificial difficulty. -*-*- Ground-based enemies can be equally as annoying, as they are free to chase (and attack!) you through the doorways that link different areas. You can't see what's going on in the neighboring area before you go through these doorways, but that won't stop enemies from chasing you through them. This also applies to off-screen enemies shooting projectiles - just when you think you're out of range... you're not. -*-*- There's a MYRIAD of other reasons this game's average shouldn't even come CLOSE to an 8/10, and apparently a lot of the critic reviewers were blind to them. Tsk tsk. Let's go through just a few. -*-*- I abhor enemies in games that seem to have infinite poise... so why are there spindly little arrow-shooting skeletons that can continue to pelt you with arrows while you beat the crap out of them? No physics in the world of S&S? -*-*- On many occasions did I see bosses executing moves based on my button inputs. Normally that's reserved for fighting game AI, where it's equally as annoying. -*-*- Again, enemy movement behavior is off-the-charts stupid. Some of them will run at you, then turn around and run completely off screen again before they come back? -*-*- When you drop your salt, you BETTER remember where it is! Because there is NO map. No map??... in a metriod-vania type game as challenging as this one!? That just sounds like more horrific game design to me, which means they relied on... say it with me... ARTIFICIAL DIFFICULTY. -*-*- Also, after a boss fight when you have a nice big pile of salt and you're scared to bits of losing them, there almost never seems to be a sanctuary close by. As opposed to the souls games, where there's almost always a place to level up right next to the boss you just beat. Artificial difficulty! -*-*- The button used to change weapon sets can't be used during certain animations. This sounds like a small gripe, but if you've played the game you know exactly what I'm talking about. -*-*- At one point, I encountered INVISIBLE ENEMIES. That's right; invisible unless you use a special potion or incantation to see them... multiple clusters, with multiple invisible enemies in each. Do I even need to say it?... -*-*- Putting "new game" as the first option on the title screen... I mean... come the f*** on. That's just some rookie BS right there. -*-*- There are bottles with messages that other online players can leave, and they can be quite useful!... until you're trying to stand in the exact millimeter on the screen where you can access it from. Then after you're mashing the button to finally open it, you instantly close it and the message/hint disappears. -*-*- Finally, as stated, you lose salt every time you die, but you also lose GOLD - taken by the stranger who hauls your dead body back to a sanctuary. Thankfully, I never found out what happens when you run out of gold, but what a crappy way to instill more dread and concern in an already irksome game. -*-*- There's no way in hell this game is an 8/10. No way.

I picked up Salt and Sanctuary recently on sale for $2.75 and it was an enjoyable time playing it. The game plays as a side-scrolling soulslike metroidvania. The combat in the game is smooth and fun, lots of interesting areas to progress through, lots of various enemies, and loads of boss fights as well. There is a big skill tree with lots of customization which is always welcomed, however you cannot fully respec your character, only getting a few items here and there that could reset an allocated point. This limits the ability to try different weapons and builds, I would have liked to play around with magic, or try a dex build but I couldn’t because I was too invested in strength. I think giving the player more options with respec would improve the game. Played the game for close to 35 hours before getting the ending. Even being 8 years old, it’s still an enjoyable game, certainly for fans of soulslike and or Metroidvanias. 8.5/10

I don't think I've ever been more miserable playing a game. No map in a metroidvania is a mind boggling design choice. The platforming is some of the slowest and least enjoyable I've ever seen. It feels exactly like the jumping in Dark Souls. If you want something like Hollow Knight or Blasphemous, look elsewhere.

While there is still a lot of fun in playing this game together via couch-coop with a friend, it seems obvious to me that there was a low budget and little menpower in terms of capacity when creating this game. I mean, you cannot even really properly compare the stats between the items (in a souls-like!) as the interface lacks so much information and overview. Especially the inventory-UI is a mess, having a lot of useless but lacking ton of useful information. There is a lot of chaos and inconvenience in the game in general. For singleplayer, there are better games. For local coop, it still does a good job.

The player can't remap the controls on console. For a game inspired by Dark Souls with a control scheme back assward from Dark Souls, this is mind boggling.

This game blows. I usually go into full detail, bu the entire thing is just so bad. Glad I got it in the sale for around £0.89. Would have been more angry if it was more than that. Avoid There's so many better DS clones out there.

Definitely a love letter to DarkSouls. Everyhting from boss fights to the world feels like a world built with love for the Souls series. Graphics - 4/5. Gameplay - 4.5/5. Sometimes the controls are wonky. But feels just as a souls series. Dodge wrong or not close enough and you'll pay for it. Environment/story 5/5 - Feels dark, just as a souls game would feel. Replayability 5/5 - Take your levels and experience into the game again after you beat it and find yourself a new way to complete your journey, along with 2 different endings. Overall, fantastic game and a fantastic journey. I look forward to playing Salt and Sacrifice later on.

maybe, for a single player it is an 8 but since it comes with a great co-op mode, i have to add a point! gameplay is demanding but rewarding. many different approaches, classes and equipment. Lovely game design, what more is there to say?! great game if you are into souls like games in 2D

You know what I love about souls clones? Nothing ….I love nothing about souls clones because they all **** !!!including this horribly overrated pile of poop. I did play it I did platinum it and I did get a little enjoyment out of it. I also rated it a generous 6. That said…. If you are going to make a platforming souls make sure the jump button responds every time not 75 % of the time. That end game disappearing platforms section is genius but when the game doesn’t respond to me pressing the jump button…. well it is just annoying.

For some reason Metacritic has stopped accepting my full reviews but will accept these few words.

There is no getting away from the fact that Salt and Sanctuary 'borrows' heavily from the Dark Souls series but it has enough ideas of its own and, most importantly, it is designed well enough to still make a great game in its own right. Add in a co-op partner (offline only at this point) on top and you have one of the best titles, 2d or otherwise, available on the PS4.

It amazes me to no end people still don’t understand why Dark Souls is so incredible. It is not the combination of individual mechanics like parrying, stamina management, rolling set in a difficult game but the refinement and perfectionism of each and every feature of the game to bring an experience unparalleled. Salt and Sanctuary never asked anything in the Souls translation to a 2D environment half-assing every feature that makes that series so great. Combat is boring and unidimensional as f*ck. Yes, Dark Souls is all about dodge rolling, positioning and attack but the 3D environment offers many options for you and the enemies making most encounters really engaging; this didn’t translate well enough when you can only go left or right and the fights become very limited. As a result, the “git gud” process doesn’t happen and by the third boss or so the player is already good enough to beat the game. Instead of looking to the vast catalogue of side-scrollers, the developers thought the combat was good enough since they were so hell bent in the stubborn quest for making an ipsis litteris copy of Dark Souls. The metroidvania-esque elements were right there but they chose to put the Air Dash move as the last power-up; the only obtainable mechanic that is useful in combat is received in the final portion of the game, un-freaking-believable! Dark Souls has no map so Salt and Sanctuary doesn’t have one either. However, the world is very different and each area recognizable with remarkable landmarks on the former opposed to 70% of the game composed of dark hallways and catacombs on the latter. “Oh I got this thing that let me jump on cloud surfaces, which of the 30 thousand dark corridors have one of those? I can’t remember, let me check the map…oh” this is basically the entire game. Not only the Vania progression power-ups are barebones the backtracking is impossible to remember (unless you take print screens of the whole game). The world building also ****, it relies way too much on the “this door doesn’t open from this side” to connect the areas; but it happens so much and they are so samey there is no way in h*ll you gonna remember each one. The game is also very dark (I swear half of the game need the f*cking torch lit and it’s still a pain to see) which adds to the frustration. At the end of the day you can only distinguish areas by: outside and catacomb ones. The game is extremely unbalanced. Everything is considered op, from Greatswords and Great Axes to f*cking Shields (that are basically unpunishable); stamina management is very mild and you can mash attack at will given the opportunity… imagine the methodic and precise nature of a soulslike combined with a beat-em up style; the leveling up cost difference is low (at end game it goes from 22k to 23k per level with each enemy giving you roughly 900 salt). The solution? Put some ****! Bad platforming (ledge grabbing only works when it feels like it), logs coming from the sky leading you to abyss, enemies that one shot you (unicorns in Pitchwoods one of the worst areas of the game) and the mother of cheapness: the fatigue mechanic. Each time you get hit your max HP diminishes, so by the time you are two or three heals left chances are your max HP is halved already. Game is still easy though The bosses all coble together in some sort of generic big dudes. The “hardest” ones rely on the almost ohko tactics like Disemboweled Husk shotgun and the infamous Witch of the Lake, a Megaman boss in a soulslike. If she combos the slow magic ball into the DBZ signature energy ball barrage you’re dead; it requires skill to dodge the first one but you just can’t escape the second while in mid-air; she is by far the most **** boss of the game. Salt and Sanctuary is not a 2D Dark Souls, but rather a 2D Code Vein or a 2D Lord of the Fallen or any other awful soulslike that fail to understand why From games are so magnificent.

Sadly this is not a sequel that Salt & Sacrifice deserves. There is things that I like about this game and lot of things that I would like to like. My two main issuses is 1. No map. It was one and (maybe) only issue for me on first one. Its not making game any more fun to play. Tryng to platform to some place that might have been somewhere that direction. Maybe. What works on 3D does not work on 2D when every screen looks the same. 2. Combat. Now, there is lot of good about it but man, the boss fights. It really feels like you beat the boss if game wants you to beat the boss, not if you play well. Why? Sometimes (manytimes) bosses get weird rage mode and start to attack endlessly when only choices is to roll endlessly untill your stamina goes down and then they hit you few times and only thing you can do is watch how you get up, try to roll away from impossible hit and get killed. So yeah, this game get very frustrating very quickly. Take any soul game. Dying to hard boss you always feel like "ok, I did that mistake and thats why I get downed" but on this one, it really don't feel like that. I don't say this is bad game. But most of the time it's not fun to play either. And even if it got some addicting elements, good graphics and nice atmosphere, sadly its not enoght to bring this game to even close to that goodnes what Salt & Sacrifice was.

The game is pretty good. A game that gives you the feeling of discovery to the fullest. If you can't get the Elder Ring when it's out or your computer can't handle it, get it and play. The game is too hard, I think it's harder than dark souls, so I gave it an 8. Some level 2 flat creatures are stronger than bosses. For example, there are white knights in some places, they never lower their shield and you hit their shield once, it is very difficult to cut.

Souls like Sidescroller. Difficult, fast and lots of Fun. What I like the most here is that the offline Coop Mode is Really amazing. It is brutal But the animations are Kind of cute anyway. I wish one Fax we get a way to Play the other Souls Games with sich a great offline Mode.

literally bought a random cheap account and it was on that account.this game out of nowhere became my favorite game and finished it and got all the achievements Funny thing: im not into soul games but its perfect I enjoyed every boss fight My favorite moment in my gaming history is the moment that i beat the first boss that you are supposed to die to him (unspeakable deep)

I'm really conflicted about this game. It's one of many games which translates the souls formula to 2d, and one thing the game excels in is its themes and atmosphere. It's a lot darker than many similarly inspired games, and there's a lot more blood too. However, gameplay-wise, the game is quite imbalanced and messy, and hardly a stand-out for the genre. The game isn't very hard, especially when compared to the similarly inspired Hollow Knight, but the game is so incredibly inconsistent that it becomes a lot more frustrating than the latter. Magic builds break the game, and the difficulty steadily decreases as you progress, but some enemies will still one shot you out of nowhere. Sometimes. When they feel like it. The game is VERY poorly balanced, but these are things than can be fixed in patches, so maybe this criticism will be redundant soon. The game feels great to play, but I doubt I'll be replaying it anytime soon. Overall I recommend it if you're a fan of the souls series. I commend the team of two people for their impressive work, but I didn't like it nearly as much as I wanted to.

Premier pas dans le monde des jeux 2D, l'enrobage Darksoulsien m'a fait me lancer dans l'univers de Salt&Sanctuary. Et franchement, difficile de trouver a redire. La richesse du jeu est incroyable et son gameplay génial. Merci à l'équipe de SKa!

Kudos to the developers for a decent 2D Dark Souls imitation. The art style is interesting, and combat feels solid and weighty. I enjoyed and appreciated weapon variety too. However, the Souls/Castlevania mashup has some fatal flaws. Imagine all of the difficulty and frustration of Souls. Now add in TONS of platforming. Can you make that jump? Not sure? Well go ahead and try it, and if you miss, look forward to having to kill 20 difficult enemies again as you restart from the last sanctuary. Souls can work without a map because levels are linear enough, and 3D landmarks help you find your way. But without a map in this game, I was frequently lost, and constantly wondering which of the many dark, dingy hallways I was in this time. And combat can feel very uneven, particularly when some bosses and enemies just knock you down and hit you over and over again before you can get back up.

This game has enough potential that I'd be optimistic about a sequel, but its many flaws drag it down quite a bit. It has an interesting visual style, but often makes it difficult to see. It has an extensive skill tree, but even late into the game your character feels frustratingly underdeveloped. It has a myriad of distinct areas and bosses, but little connective tissue to make them memorable. A decent 2D Souls-like if you can find it on sale, but none but the most stalwart should push through to the end.

Everybody likes to reduce this game to a "dark souls in 2d". Whether you like Dark Souls or not, this game is AMAZING. It is incredibly rewarding, the art is spetacular and the sound is truly immersive. This game has such enormous replay value, as you can quickly try new builds with new characters without the many hours of investment that you would need for a game like Dark Souls. I never found a game that could replace this one, the closest I found was Hollow Knight, and even that one was not as good as this one.

Great game! Especially for 8 €. The main problem was the lack of the map (u will lost several times and try to figure out how to get to the next point) and the grim graphics. The combat feels very good and enjoyable. A must have for the challenging players

Castlevania decidiu dar um rolê com Dark Souls. No fim da noite, eles beberam demais, fizeram o que não deviam, e dessa relação saiu Salt and Sanctuary. Este jogo consegue reproduzir perfeitamente o que ambos os jogos tem de melhor. A exploração é dinâmica e muito satisfatória, a variedade de inimigos é absurda e o combate é nada menos que incrível, sendo, nesse sentido, um dos melhores Souls-Like que se tem notícia. As boss fight, por mais que não impressionem, de forma alguma decepcionam. O universo, por mais que em muito se inspire no jogo da Fromsoftware, consegue criar uma identidade própria. No geral, afirmo sem medo que este é um dos melhores jogos que eu já tive o prazer de jogar.

Masochistic. The only side scrolling rpg you will ever want. Do yourself a favor and go to their website to support them more by buying a T-shirt and signed poster.

A Masterpiece, loved everything about this game, it is definitely a must play!

An absolute gem! Everything you love about a great Souls game channeled into one of the most fun 2D platformers I've ever played. A game with Soulslike "depth" created by a team of only two, Salt and Sanctuary scratched that subtle itch I had wanting more from the genre. Fun and responsive combat. Branching world Plenty of class choices and weapon variety Tons of replayability A must have!

Sure Salt & Sanctuary has that Dark Souls vibe, but it actually plays more like Castlevania. It's deep, pretty, intriguing and tough, but not over the top tough like Dark Souls. I'd love to see more like this one. Definitely a hidden gem that is worth a play.

I hardly give any game a 10 but this one deserves it since it is best indie's game I've ever played in my life. Salt and Sanctuary makes everything right from beginning to the end. Surely, it has huge inspiration from Dark Soul's series but I don't see it as a problem since the game was made so well. I have completed the game 2 times now with the different characters. I like level's design a lot, They are very cleverly designed and have many freedom to go. Game mechanic is perfect. Music is also great as well. I have nothing major to criticize although I think the difficulty is a bit too easy towards the end game if you build your character right. In brief, If you like challenging game, if you like dark souls, this game is a must buy. 20 dollars is very good price for what you will get. I also have heard that this game was developed by only 2 persons, I kudos them for that. It is truly masterpiece for indies game, and I hope there will more indies like this in the future.

Excellent, lightning fast, souls saga combined with some bloodborne elements. Also Metroid/Castlevania comes to mind. As with the aforementioned, you will develop a love/hate relationship with this amazing game. Almost completed the first run as a mage, and impatient to start as a rogue or heavy knight... Graphics Being a 2D side scroller the graphic department did an excellent job depicting every scenario, while there are heavily detailed environments like starry skies and fogged out villages in the background there also dimly lit caves to explore torch in hand whilst defending yourself from the lurking dangers. Character creation and details are simple, and a little rough on the aesthetics for some, but... keeping it real? you won't be admiring your character face while playing, either because you are wearing a helmet or because you are busy trying to stay alive. Music and Sound effects If you have played the dark souls saga, or bloodborne, this game will bring some nostalgic sound effects, simple yet characteristic effects to the metal clashing and magic casting effects. You will get the feeling that the background music gives it a distinct touch that outshines DS, hearing electric guitar mildly buzzing around frightening villages and water drops and echo in dark caves. Gameplay Moving around is a breeze, swift as the wind and nimble as a deer, the game lets you move how you see fit to, delivering freedom and excellent control to your character. Around 10 and more weapon types, where you can specialize in whichever you want to, fancy yourself a heavy armored knight with a huge hammer? You got it! Mind trying a full fledged mage to invoke lightning and fire (Found like 15 to 20 spells) ? Knock yourself out! Difficulty From 1 to Dark Souls, depending on your character build, decisions and playstyle this can be a hellish trip, constantly seeing the wanna be "You died" screen, or it can be just tough to crack. Dying, learning, and keep trying will be the key to success. On the final third of the game, a full specialized mage is able to finish most bosses on the second try which is kind of let down, expecting it to be harder. I would not recommend this game to: Little impatient kids (Unless that was my son, so as to build some character and persistence), persons that don't learn from their mistakes, or easily anger/stressed persons. Story The story is interesting, not fascinating nor captivating but it will accomplish the task of getting you on the tracks of the first levels and then you will treat the story as a third dish... yes, you read it right! Third dish, because the focus and fun comes from exploring, fighting, surviving, dying, learning and improving and also the huge specialization tree that you want to fulfill to be better at doing all the stuff mentioned before! Originality Obviously not the pioneer of originalty. S&S Takes good chunks of ideas out of other games, and personally I think that is great. You take the good stuff, mix it with your own and make something different. For some it will be ripoff and disappointing, and for others it will be refreshing and entertaining. Replayability -Will complete this once I have finished my run.

I absolutely loved this game. Metroidvanias are my favorite kind of games, and I also love the Souls series and Bloodborne, so this game seemed right up my alley. I was a bit worried that it would just be a souls rip-off with light Metroidvania elements, but it's not at all. It's just as satisfying as a Souls game, probably not as hard, but still a decent challenge, which is rare in Metroidvania games these days. But the real surprise is that it is also a great Metroidvania game. It follows all the rules: One big unified map, areas locked behind new abilities and locked doors, backtracking, shortcuts, all of that with the combat and leveling system find in the souls game translated beautifully to a 2D platform game. The combat has that Souls heft, and weapons really do work differently. Just like Souls, you can create your heavy armored mage, or light armored heavy hammer fighter, etc... New Game + is part of the deal as well. The main game is quite long too, especially generous considering this is a game made by a small indie studio and retails for 17.99. A bargain if you asked me, because it offers really great value for that price. I know I will be revisiting this game often and it's now part of a select group of games that are for me part of the pinnacle of the Metroidvania genre: Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid, Guacamelee!, Metroid Fusion, Order of Ecclesia, and Dawn/Aria of Sorrow.

If you are fan of Dark Souls & Metroidvania then you will enjoy this game . .

Salt and Sanctuary 2D Dark Souls Salt and Sanctuary is quite literally a 2d version of dark souls... you start out customizing your character and choosing your class... And you’re set off into a world of hurt... And it’s brilliant… There are weapons and other loot around the world that you can do combos with and certain items will slow your character down… You’re slicing through enemies to pick up salt instead of souls... Managing your stamina much like nioh… And taking that salt back to a sanctuary to level up your character and unlock slots in your skill tree… And of course each level needs more salt.. So you have to carefully balance exploration and banking in your collected salt... The game does a decent job of not making you ever feel overwhelmed That doesn’t mean this game is easy though it will test your patience... but you always feel like you could’ve made it past where you died if you try just one more time… going back, recollecting your salt.. Grinding if you choose... and making your way towards a boss… These boss battles are brutal, nearly 20 in total… And again like the combat// can feel frustrating at times… but you eventually learn them… You can roll, block, used ranged weapons... there’s such a great variety of weapons and items here to fit every type of players game style… But this game is hard… you probably won’t beat it.. But if you do manage it will take you around 15 hours to do so This is one of my favorite 2d games I’ve ever played… If you’re a glutton for punishment, and love that sense of discovery, searching for better loot as giant blobs of goo fall on your head or a wolf gnaws at your neck don’t miss out on one of the most satisfyingly challenging 2d games on the market I give Salt and Sanctuary a 9/10

Just get it. Ignore the middle of the road reviews complaining about 'game identity' and other such nonsense. Anyone who says this game is a Souls rip off clearly has their eyes closed and brain lobotomised. S+S has its own identity; which is being thest Metroidvania since Aria of Sorrow. Notice how that sentence does not mention anything about Dark Souls.

An excellent 2d platform souls like game. i like the combat as much as the platforming! The world is huge with good level design, enemy variety and bosses.... i only finished the game once as a pure mage and love every minute of it. you get a few new jumping abilities by progressing the game and you can revisit previous levels using new ability to access secret places, i like this game design.

The only worthwhile souls-like to ever come out aside from Nioh. Awesome sound and boss design, very cool music and atmosphere and a intense and satisfying combat that gave me hope of all 2D side scrollers in the future. This game even had platforming that I ACTUALLY **** I absolutely hate platformers especially 2D ones. Amazing game from a great dev, and a true triumph of the Souls-like genre.

One of the best games I've every played! It truly feels like Dark Souls in 2D. It's fun; it's difficult; and the graphics are amazing! Try it! You won't be disappointed!

It is a 99.9% Dark Souls 2D game, the 0.1% being you collect salt and not souls. If you like Dark Souls you will probably like this game. If you like difficult 2D sidescrollers then you will probably like this game. Once I figured out transmutation and developed a strategy for skill development the game opened up and became fantastic. I am subtracting one point because one very difficult boss would leave the screen and you could not hit her or figure out what she was doing. Other than that this game is fantastic!!!

Deutsche Review – Kritik Ich sah Salt and Sanctuary auf YouTube und war direkt angetan. Dark Souls in 2D mit Coop? Sowas brauch ich doch sofort! Also direkt über den PlaystationStore gekauft und gestartet. Wie meine Eindrücke nach knapp 25 Stunden sind (Spiel durchgespielt) verrate ich jetzt. Story: Ich mache es kurz. Die Story ist sogar wenn man sie versteht nicht wirklich gelungen. Um ehrlich zu sein hat sie mich auch irgendwann gar nicht mehr interessiert. Vergleiche zu Dark Souls werde ich übrigens in dieser Review in Klammern schreiben. Wer das Spiel als ohne Vergleich zu Dark Souls spielen will, der kann ab jetzt die Klammern überspringen. (In Dark Souls ist die Story trotz seiner Komplexität interessant. Salt and Sanctuary bekommt das nur bedingt hin. Hier hinterfrage ich die Bosse nicht oder ob ich der gute oder böse bin.) Die Story ist aber schwach aus anderen Gründen, die aber nur die deutschen Spieler betreffen. Dazu komme ich allerdings später. Gameplay: Das Gameplay ist super und innovativ (Das Gameplay von Dark Souls wurde super in den 2D Look kopiert). Man reist durch verschiedene Welten und trifft viele gut designte Gegner die auch richtig schwer werden (ich hatte manchmal mehr Probleme als in Dark Souls III). Am Ende der einzelnen Gebiete wartet dann auch wie immer ein Boss. Diese sind mit der richtigen Strategie machbar (einfacher als Dark Souls). Ich will nicht viel über das Gameplay, da das in seiner Form perfekt ist. Was mich aber wirklich umhaut ist die Möglichkeit Coop zu zocken. Super Idee! Technik: Das Design der Welten ist atemberaubend. Das Design spitze. Mehr brauche ich gar nicht zu erläutern. Die Performence läuft konstant und Abstürze hatte ich nicht einmal. So muss das sein. Und das bei Indie-Entwicklern. Die großen Firmen bekommen das nicht so gut hin in den meisten Fällen. Natürlich hatte ich auch Bugs im Spiel. So ist ein Boss der auf Fernkampf einfach mal aus dem Bosskampfgebiet gegangen und tötete mich ohne, dass ich mich wehren konnte. Das war aber verschmerzbar. Ich hatte keine Fehler, die es nicht möglich machten das Spiel zu beenden. Sound/ Voice: Die Musik ist zwar gut, aber wird selten gewechselt. Bei fast jedem Boss dasselbe Lied zuhören ist schon lästig. Irgendwann hab ich die Musik ausgeschaltet und meine eigene gehört. Schade. Eine Synchro hat das Spiel übrigens nicht. Es läuft alles über Text und genau da muss ich nun etwas loswerden. Der folgende Text ist von der Releaseversion. Inzwischen wurde das beseitigt. Ein Glück - Die deutschen Texte sind eine Schande!!!!! Sätze wie „Wir sind in Nacht bestiegen worden“ (Wir wurden nachts überfallen worden) oder „Egal ob Schwerter, Rüstungen, E-Mails, ich fertige alles an.“ (Keine Ahnung was er mit E-Mails meint) oder mein Favorit. „Ich muss die Erziehungsberechtigten vom Drachen töten“, musste ich lesen. Kein Wunder, dass mich die Story nicht interessiert wenn man die Texte mit dem Google Übersetzer übersetzt und ich glaube sie nutzten sogar einen noch dämlicheren Übersetzer. Sowas ist ein absolutes NoGo! Ein Glück wurde das im Nachhinein korrigiert, aber das ist selbst für Indie-Entwickler eine Frechheit! Ich musste meine Konsole auf Englisch stellen um die Texte richtig lesen zu können. Da fällt mir ein weiterer Favorit ein. (Failling die Mission) – Fazit: Salt and Sanctuary hat ein geniales Gameplay und ein cooles Design. Dieses Spiel hätte viel mehr Punkte verdient, aber da die deutschen Texte zum Releasezeitpunkt unterste Schublade waren muss ich einen großen Punktabzug geben. Kurz gesagt: Super Game – schlechter Release in Deutschland. Mein persönlicher Score: 69/100 Mein User Score 7/10

I'm not the very best at articulating my thoughts so I do apologise if you are bothered by this. TLDR: YES,YES, YES!!!!! you should buy this game. Good level design, good character customization. If you love platformers you will love this. And there is a lot of platforming in the game. This is why you should go in not expecting a souls like game. This is a 2D game not a 3D game. So think more Castlevania with stamina than dark souls. The biggest connection the game has to souls games is the die system and that's it really. The game is a good price and it's better than a lot AAA games. You certainly can't go wrong buying this game. This game is amazing and a really fun. I hope it does really well that we can have a sequel. I found it to have a rather interesting story. I love the art style if you are fan of indie art in games, anime or web art you will love this style. And when you are playing the game you can feel the time and love that the devs put into the game. It's very rare you will get that type of connection with a game. So many AAA games were thrown lots of money at and tossed out the door. So this game is refreshing. I know a lot of people would like a map for this game and It would have been nice, but I did find that the salt and sanctuary wiki one worked really well it's just a rough sketch of what it would be like but I found that to be enough. You can find it if you google as well "salt and sanctuary map". Once you get use to areas you will find your way around fairly easily. Another good point about this game is level design is amazing everywhere is connected I've only known a few games to be like this, so for an indie game to get it right. Well done Ska Studios! I look forward to see more games from this company even if it's not a sequel to this game. If you like old school Castlevania, Metroid, Dust: An Elysian Tail and other similar 2d games. You will love this game. As others have said it also gets inspiration from souls series games. It has same system in which when you die you have one chance to get the XP back, fail and it's gone forever. I really love this system and would love to see it in more games. How I see this game mechanic is similar to other game mechanics like levelling your char, save and continue, checkpoint, autosave, stamina, special attacks, etc. Well souls games were the first I believe to create that die system. We don't bash other games for copying other game mechanics like having save and continue, checkpoints, levelling and stamina in them. These are really standard things in the gaming world these days. And that's what I would like to see from this game mechanic. However I don't think anyone should bash a game just because it copied a very clever game mechanic. If someone comes up with a really amazing idea in the game industry that will help make games better then people should use it for their game. This is how innovation usually works if someone/company does something really well then other companies/people usually copy it. It The reason I bring this up is because I see a lot of people that are bashing salt and sanctuary calling it a souls clone this is not true. The game could stand on it's own with out the souls stuff. It just makes the game better. It is has some unique gameplay mechanics of it's own with the brands. Attaching the charms to the weapon something I really like. Want extra range on a weapon, or attack power just equip a charm. The only really downside to the game is the lack of music which is a shame I love game music. However music is usually extremely expensive even just to buy a licence of a already created track can be really costly. The game does have some music 3 or 4 background tracks that get repeated. On the plus side I rarely found it bothered me the repeating music. If the game had more funding it could have gotten some more music clearly the devs had to prioritise with the budget they had. Either way they did amazing job I'm not going to score points off for something that is out of their control. They did amazing job with the resources they had at hand and I'm glad they spent less on the music. They certainly made up for it in the good gameplay.

Si vosotros adoráis la saga de From Sofware igual que los desarrolladores, id a por el. Sino, creo que es un buen aperitivo antes de lanzarse al plato principal, para descubrir como funciona este estilo de juegos, apoyar a una pequeña gran empresa y hacerse con una pequeña joyita.

This game has tons of potential. Its like a Dark Souls 2D Side scroller. However it has a lot of work that needs to be done to it. Especially in regards to game mechanics Shadowflip Brand, and Dart Brand. The game, and story are pretty solid and immersive up til the Pitchwoods map, and then the Immersion just dies. The Developers at Ska Studios tried to make a challenging puzzle map using disappearing platforms that rely heavily on the use of the Shadowflip Brand and Dart Brand to navigate your way across savely. However those two mechanics don't always work as intended so the player will suffer a lot of deaths because of this, and most likely end up giving up on that part of the map. With being penalized gold for every death on top of the salt you accrue its like a double slap in the face to the player by the developers, and can cause hours of progression to be lost in a few short minutes because of this. On top of that the character animation for climbing depending on where you land actually takes longer than the platforms last causing unnecessary deaths for the player who has absolutely no control over it. The game has potential to be one of the best indi games on the market if they just patch out some of the unnecessary mechanics, and work on fixing the issues with the brands if they plan on keeping the disappearing platforms in the Pitchwood. They also might want to come up with an easier way for the player base to communicate with them as the homepage is easily mistaken as somebodies personal blog site which is really confusing when you're trying to find answers or give feed back, and using a form as the only means for players to contact them is kinda of lazy.

This is essentially a mechanic-for-mechanic copy of Dark Souls. Unfortunately, the differences were to its detriment. The map is huge and confusing even compared to a Souls game, and there is no in-game map to keep track of where you are. The items aren't nearly as diverse as in any Souls game. The bosses aren't as fun as the average Souls boss. It probably would have been better to focus on quality over quantity in the boss department.