Salt and Sanctuary Catch-All

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Platform: PS4, Vita, PC
Release Date: PS4 - March 15th, Vita/PC - TBA
Price: $17.99

Salt and Sanctuary is a 2D action/RPG in the style of Castlevania that has been unabashedly influenced by the Dark Souls series.

Early reviews seem positive, and based on the short amount of time I was able to put in last night, I'm very excited to play more this evening. This game seems pretty good, guys and gals. Anyone else playing yet?

I like the idea and it would tide me over till Dark Souls 3 but I'm not sold on the aesthetics. The player characters and animations don't thrill me.

I expect to get a little bit of time with this one tonight. Looking forward to it.

I'll check it out at some point, but probably not until after DS3.

I like it in concept I'm just not sure a 2D souls like game works.. the limited dimension might end up making combat a pixel like precision timing affair that frankly just isn't that much fun.

TheGameguru wrote:

I like it in concept I'm just not sure a 2D souls like game works.

I would says the Souls influences are more apparent in the systems surrounding the combat than in the actual combat. Yes, there are many elements that appear similar in the combat model (managing stamina, i-frames on dodging, equip burden, animation priority), but it is definitely more of faster action game in practice.

I haven't seen anything that requires pixel-like precision, ala fighting games. The timing for dodging is more akin to dodging through attacks in Bloodborne. It requires precision, but not to a pixel-perfect degree.

Good to know.. the pile is massive so this one will probably end up as something that I miss especially with Dark Souls 3 looming less than a month away.

I continue to be tempted. I'm a little bummed there is no online multiplayer yet, but $18 isn't too much of an ask.

I'm definitely giving this one a heavy consider... Though like GameGuru says, DSIII is only... What? 9 days away?

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Though like GameGuru says, DSIII is only... What? 9 days away?

In Japan. It's April 12 everywhere else.

YOU JUST SOLD A COPY OF SALT & SANCTUARY.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Though like GameGuru says, DSIII is only... What? 9 days away?

I wish...

There are 9 days in a month right? That's why they are commonly called "Weeks with a side salad" by old-timers.

Right?

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

YOU JUST SOLD A COPY OF SALT & SANCTUARY.

:P

Well that was easy

I just accidentally made a double catch all post when my forum search didn't return this thread.

Anywho..This game is amazing. Probably one of the biggest surprises I have had in a long time.

Here is the giant bomb quick look which both informed me of the game as well as led me to running to buy it!

Bought it today, haven't cracked into it yet (March Madness owns me).

Will hit it this weekend and report back!

This game is amazing. It feels like the next evolution of the 2d "Metroidvania" style game and is probably the best 2d sidescrolling action game I've ever played (and that's my favorite genre)

Cobble wrote:

Yeah, I watched this at the gym today.

REALLY sold me on a Steam copy whenever that comes out.

Yay, I'm not the only one playing this I'm now level 38 at about 7 hours played. I've unlocked some new traversal abilities that have really started to open the map up, and I'm finally comfortable with the controls. I still wish I could remap them in game, but they work well enough now that I'm used to them.

I'm running a giant 2h wielding paladin-style character. I get hit hard, but I hit harder and have miracles to back me up. I think I've downed 6 or 7 bosses at this point. Here's my dude and skill tree:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cd8OkzbVAAAT0jG.jpg)

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cd8OlE0UMAAmPSJ.jpg)

I'm absolutely enthralled with this game. I had been looking forward to it since seeing the Giant Bomb Quicklook EX on it a couple of years ago, but I did not anticipate that it would turn out this well. I can easily see myself playing through it multiple times to try out different classes and the challenge mode options.

How would the controls translate to remote play? Need both triggers and analog stick clicks?

Blind_Evil wrote:

How would the controls translate to remote play? Need both triggers and analog stick clicks?

It depends on how they map them. You need triggers, but not stick clicks, so R1 (use items) and L1 (swap load outs) on the touch screen would probably work fine if they went that route.

I'm assuming they've given this some thought since a Vita version is in development.

Another +1 on this game. Dyni I think we're at about the same place judging by your trophies in my friends activity feed. I'm going spear/polearm/scythe with light armor/dex build. I'm really enjoying it. All of the hidden areas and nods to the Souls games are great. It's taken me a while to get used to the fact that there's no buffered input at all, but I'm adjusting.

My only big gripe is the lack of an in-game map. There are so many areas and short-cuts that when I start back-tracking it's hard to tell where I am and determine the right path for where I want to go.

The music is great too.

I picked it up. I actually like it more than I expected. I'm not very far so not a lot to say about it, but I will say a couple things about remote play.

I know everyone around here claims remote play is flawless in terms of connection, but that's never been the case for me. My first death came when the connection broke and I jumped off a cliff during the lag.

Whether or not the controls in remote play work for you is pretty subjective. I suspect it'll depend on your playstyle. They don't re-assign anything, so you're using touchpads for rolling and blocking. Early on you don't really need to do either much on regular enemies, but I suspect on harder enemies and bosses you'll need both quite a bit. So remote play may be best saved for resource grinding, of which there will probably be plenty.

The game has a striking visual design, and that's somewhat wasted on the small Vita screen. I would hope the Vita version might be zoomed in a bit to help with that.

I like it so far, but I did notice one odd thing. It seemed to let me re-buy +1 stat upgrades on the tree, which I wasn't expecting. I think I wasted 2-3 pearls on upgrades of willpower I wasn't originally planning to spend. Probably doesn't mean anything major long term, but expansion will be tougher since levels get more expensive as you progress. I do like the skilltree approach. Makes leveling feel a bit more useful (since it unlocks abilities, estus red flask uses, and armor/weapon use. Farming feels EXACTLY like Dark Souls did. Run a route, reset at a bonfire shrine, repeat.

I like the apparent lack of weapon durability, the inclusion of secret doors, etc. It does real feels like a 2D souls-style game, as has been mentioned in just about every review ever. The color palette is a bit washed out in the early keep areas (though that might just be my TVs settings). Playing on a 52" set from about 12" away makes the text a bit small. Still, the aesthetic is well designed and plays into the overbearing sense of foreboding and despair that clearly pervades the game setting.

I am not far in (3-4 hrs? maybe?), but I'm already starting to get to the "Oops, I died because I wasn't paying attention," deaths. Good times.

Tyrian wrote:

I like it so far, but I did notice one odd thing. It seemed to let me re-buy +1 stat upgrades on the tree, which I wasn't expecting. I think I wasted 2-3 pearls on upgrades of willpower I wasn't originally planning to spend. Probably doesn't mean anything major long term, but expansion will be tougher since levels get more expensive as you progress.

Apparently, the maximum level is 999, so it's probably to provide enough stat points to accommodate the insane people that will go further than the full tree.

If you haven't already, you will find grey pearls that you can use to respec single points, so you can pull the extra points you wasted out of those slots.

My gaming budget is basically exhausted for the year already (only Dark Souls III left in my list, with all the other pre-orders hanging by a thread), so while I'm interested in this, it'll have to wait.

I'm disappointed in the skill tree. It filled me with glee when I first saw it, but when I actually looked at everything, it's mostly just +1's to stats and +weapon proficiency (equip better weapons) every few rungs. It looks great, but would have made better functional sense just being a number based menu rather than a tantalizingly misleading tree.

I dunno, maybe my expectations shouldn't be so inflexible. But when you call something a Tree of Skill, I kind of expect skills to be in it. Not just stats.

Apparently there is a crash issue, but the dev's are on it.

I'm hoping to pick this up this week - I had intended to last week but real life got in the way.

In the meantime, I need to think about what kind of character I want to play. Having never Dark Soul'd and only Bloodborne'd, I'm inclined to see what a shield is like, which suggests Knight or Paladin... But 2H weapons do look fun...

Blind_Evil wrote:

I'm disappointed in the skill tree. It filled me with glee when I first saw it, but when I actually looked at everything, it's mostly just +1's to stats and +weapon proficiency (equip better weapons) every few rungs. It looks great, but would have made better functional sense just being a number based menu rather than a tantalizingly misleading tree.

I dunno, maybe my expectations shouldn't be so inflexible. But when you call something a Tree of Skill, I kind of expect skills to be in it. Not just stats.

You're not entirely alone here. I was thinking I'd eventually unlock new attacks / combos, longer / higher jumps (double?), etc.

Tyrian wrote:

You're not entirely alone here. I was thinking I'd eventually unlock new attacks / combos, longer / higher jumps (double?), etc.

Not sure how far you are but that's... a different thing.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Apparently there is a crash issue, but the dev's are on it.

I'm hoping to pick this up this week - I had intended to last week but real life got in the way.

In the meantime, I need to think about what kind of character I want to play. Having never Dark Soul'd and only Bloodborne'd, I'm inclined to see what a shield is like, which suggests Knight or Paladin... But 2H weapons do look fun...

I did crash once, but thank heavens my character was not corrupted. Maybe I'll back up to memory stick!
The blocking in this game does not feel as robust as it does in Dark Souls. As similar as the games are the 2D combat experience doesn't really equate, so I wouldn't really draw any conclusions about how Dark Souls 3 might feel with a shield.

imbiginjapan wrote:
TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Apparently there is a crash issue, but the dev's are on it.

I'm hoping to pick this up this week - I had intended to last week but real life got in the way.

In the meantime, I need to think about what kind of character I want to play. Having never Dark Soul'd and only Bloodborne'd, I'm inclined to see what a shield is like, which suggests Knight or Paladin... But 2H weapons do look fun...

I did crash once, but thank heavens my character was not corrupted. Maybe I'll back up to memory stick!
The blocking in this game does not feel as robust as it does in Dark Souls. As similar as the games are the 2D combat experience doesn't really equate, so I wouldn't really draw any conclusions about how Dark Souls 3 might feel with a shield.

I've crashed once as well, but didn't lose my char.

Stuck on the alchemist boss at the moment. He just doesn't seem to take much dmg from my attacks, and his magic and poison are just a major pain! Feel like I've missed an obvious mechanic.

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