When Did Salt And Sanctuary Come Out

Chiliadore than a twelvemonth agone, I happened upon a Playstation indie game with a refreshing yet nostalgic premise: explore a platforming map whilst leveling and developing a character in truthful RPG fashion. I was curious, and we reached out to developers Ska Studios to find out more about the game. Over the twelvemonth, Castielle published an interview and did some alpha streams with the very approachable Ska Studios team. The game was delayed and hype mounted equally people'southward expectations for the game grew with each new reveal. I decided to non play the alpha version on PC, and waited for the PS4 version to get the truthful experience that other players would get. And at present, here it is! 17.99 on the Playstation Store, with Vita cantankerous-buy for the time to come handheld release. PC gamers will get their version in the next few months.

Genre: Indie RPG
Developed by: Ska Studios
Published by: Ska Studios
Release date: March 15th, 2016
Platforms: PS4, PC (Reviewed on PS4)
Launch Toll: 17.99 USD

Salt and Sanctuary Setting and Story

The game takes identify on a forsaken island, where beings born of the salt follow their respective quests and fight for their survival. Much like the Souls series, the game refrains from spelling out things and instead carefully threads the lore and background of each NPC, spell, item and enemy behind descriptions accessible through the menu on either your inventory or the bestiary. Characters will provide cryptic dialogue and hints to their intentions and whereabouts, but if you would like to truly empathize the Isle's condition, you will take to diligently selection upward and read many an item description. This is my preferred arroyo to storytelling, as it allows for detailed crafting of a world without subjecting the player to awkward or boring cutting-scenes or dialogue sequences.

Salt and Sanctuary Design

For those who practise not know, Ska Studios is actually just 2 people: James and Michelle Silva. I mention this because the Salt and Sanctuary experience is so impressive that this little fact seems incommunicable to believe. All of the globe'southward visuals have been lovingly and skillfully handcrafted, creating a unique but harmonious feel for each enemy, boss, location and weapon. Animations flow smoothly into one another, never seeming out of place or sacrificing blueprint for gameplay. As yous progress through the game, y'all begin to detect details in the artwork that convey that feeling of solitude and incite the desire to persevere that so many fans hold dear from Demon'due south Souls days.

The music score is equally enthralling. Although the start screen music is a bit high-pitched for my liking, the in-game audio is comprised of Ska-made tunes that perfectly match the desolate and at time intense nature of the Island. I am particularly fond of the boss themes, which fix the mood for an intense hack-and roll fight, and the endgame'southward deadening and subtle cues that mellow you into New Game Plus.

Common salt and Sanctuary Gameplay

The most important role of a game is near certainly how it plays, and hither is where Table salt and Sanctuary truly shines. You brainstorm your journey by picking a class and starting gift, which tailors your starting equipment every bit y'all face up an insurmountable claiming. When you (most likely) fail, you arrive at the Island and begin to realize there's really a lot more meets the optics. The game briefly introduces you to the concept of Sanctuaries and Creeds, but does not reveal the real complexity behind them. There are hidden and requirement-locked creeds, there are devotion levels and rewards for each different fidelity, and each creed not only gets a custom catastrophe but likewise determines the appearance and stock of your Sanctuary's vendors.

You won't know whatsoever of that to begin with, and as you foolishly move forwards with the game y'all will brainstorm to observe some weapons that look interesting, and eventually realize that they tin be upgraded, they have scaling, and feature special movesets and hidden backdrop such as faster attack speeds. This is but the tip of the iceberg, as if you are lucky enough you lot won't skip a specific vendor that transmutes weapons using boss and regular enemy remains, and creates amazing looking and incredibly powerful uniques. But what would you practise with these 100+ weapons and their movesets if you wanted them to be even more versatile? You would lucifer them up with an insanely detailed skill tree, of course! Leveling upwards is never a diameter or a waste, every bit there is a level cap of 500 and the average playthrough ends at levels 70-80 in about 20+ hours. Do you want to be a Magic-just build? Become for information technology, there'south two unabridged sections of the tree that specialize in spells and prayers, and a further one for lite armor. How virtually a Spellsword? Worry not, you are well-catered to with Forcefulness and magic scaling boss weapons. And a rogue? Oh yes, in that location are not simply bows and crossbows to match your dexterity tree, in that location are also guns! All of this closely intertwined with your leveling choices and upgrade options, assuasive players to take unique gameplay experiences with different classes. The merely thing that we found lacking was tank classes. You tin can equip heavy armor and shields and focus on fatty-rolling through the game, however rolling through boss attacks seems to be the better manner to avoid dying, making the shield-focused build less powerful than those who dual wield.

Of grade complex build mechanics are only attractive if the game provides a reason to delve into them in the form of difficulty. Worry not, Common salt and Sanctuary features a peachy variety of enemies, each with their own moveset, poise, and abilities – and they all desire to kill yous very much. The 23 bosses have specific resistances and damage types that will require you to rethink your equipment to tailor information technology for the fight, and even regular enemies can prove a deadly challenge, peculiarly if you lot are not post-obit our game progress route and go the "wrong" way every bit we did the first time…

The above alone would be enough to keep you lot playing for way longer than you lot would any other 18 dollar championship, merely at that place is more. Exploration has e'er been one of my favorite aspects of the souls series, and Salt and Sanctuary has delved into it at a whole new level thanks to a fantastically complex world map. The Island features 22 named locations, all in one unmarried interconnected and shortcut-rich world. In truthful Castlevania fashion, yous will find ways to invert gravity, perform special jumps and fifty-fifty walk on thin air. These abilities are gained through "brands" and they double-perform every bit keys to progress farther into higher levels and as ways to hide abroad items and Creeds in the most inaccessible of locations. It wasn't until we accidentally discovered a complex jump puzzle leading to a secret sanctuary that we realized that nosotros should advisedly expect up and downwards and around every wall and dead end to ensure there wasn't some amazing treasure left behind.

Common salt and Sanctuary Multiplayer

Salt and Sanctuary features offline couch co-op and pvp. In order to review this thoroughly, nosotros played through the entire game in co-op, and then we have a very good idea of how it works, and it is indeed a lot of fun. So much so that we feel the absence of online multiplayer is truly sad, but we understand that the developer could not fit it in with release date pressures mounting. Here's hoping for an expansion or future patch that adds this.

To play with your couch partner, you must first observe a Rock Sellsword and place it at your sanctuary. The other histrion must have made a graphic symbol in their business relationship to be able to join, and once in your world they can alive and die with y'all, gaining feel and loot equally you play. Trophies are automatically unlocked for both players, however game progress specifically (keys, boss flags, etc) are reserved for the host. The photographic camera besides prioritizes the host, which can lead to rather frustrated sellswords when you take gone divide ways, but the overall feel is quite smooth, and it is certainly my recommended approach (information technology's dangerous out there, don't go it alone!). However there are a few drawbacks to being in a co-op session such as bosses and enemies quickly and unexpectedly changing directions and attack patterns, the screen existence pulled in strange means and players teleported to each other at inconvenient moments, and worst of all: you get confused about which is your graphic symbol in the heat of battle. That said in that location are two significant benefits to co-op: one is that you can get into your inventory as your partner progresses and when you come out of information technology you will exist teleported right to them – this can exist used past your partner exploring platforming to avoid death. The other 1 is that during boss battles someone can revive y'all right at the boss arena, which is of course a huge plus for those wanting to consummate the game without too much backtracking.

It is likewise noteworthy that the developers have included asynchronous features via tombstones, candelabra earlier bosses and hanged players in the background. You can intermission a tombstone to see how other players day, or run into them roaming virtually equally shades in Sanctuaries, or come across their hanging corpses about the boss they were killed by.

Then is Salt and Sanctuary worth it?

RPG players: Yes. Absolutely
Claiming players: The game is challenging, and features pre-made challenges to initiate your playthrough with such every bit "no healing!"
Unsure virtually 2d or platformers: Yeah. The complexity of build and enemy design volition describe you in and make you lot forget all about 3D, and the platforming is a connector, non a driver for the game
Replayability: Absolutely. 20+ hours for the start playthrough and you're simply 1/5 of the level cap, New Game Plus is there for the taking and for obtaining the most powerful weapons every bit you continue to develop your character and fight harder and more rewarding bosses.
Pricepoint: 17.99 is a bargain of a price for the amount of content included in this title.

Online play only: Not for now
Difficulty: Easily frustrated players volition not enjoy this
Heavy shield and Fat Build lovers: Yous will probably dislike this aspect and switch to fast rolls.

Are you lot getting it? You volition certainly want to visit the New Histrion Aid page on the Official Salt and Sanctuary Wiki! Nosotros're going to exist streaming the game live on launch day with James and Michelle from Ska Studios on our YouTube Channel, so be sure to come and hang with us!

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About our Reviews

Summary: An intimate, exciting and discovery-fueled experience, rich in content and secrets, will accept players exploring and lorecrafting for months to come. The pricepoint sweetens the deal for whatsoever souls, rpg or castlevania fan looking for a new and satisfying experience.

Gameplay (9)

Visual & Sound (nine)

Multiplayer (8)

Replayability (nine)

Pricepoint (10)