Salt and Sanctuary

A Metroidvania meets Dark Souls that meets, well...

Salt and Sanctuary is a game I saw "Vegeta" play on the Team Four Star Gaming Channel years ago. If I recall, this was before I played Dark Souls, and there was something about it that drew me to it. I added it to my wishlist on Steam but never bought it. I'm poor, and there are other games I knew I'd rather play anyway. But Epic game it away for free during Christmas, so I picked it up, found time in my schedule to play it, and now I have thoughts about it.

The story:
There really isn't any. There are some vague things about a princess in a far off land that we need to find for reasons not important, but that's all the backstory we've got here. The ship is attacked by a monster, and it all goes downhill from there. We're washed up on a foggy island alone, and we have to explore the island to figure out what's going on. Along the way, we met other people on the island, each with their own backstory and reasons for being here, but we all have one thing in common: our ship sank, and we're trapped. Each of them reveals a little bit of the story, but there is nothing to really sink your teeth into to get a clear picture. It's very Dark Souls.
There is plenty of world building in the various weapons, armor, random items, and even skill bubbles that tell us about the history of this world. It's not vital and is more of the stuff I didn't like about Dark Souls. If you make up a giant backstory on your game world, make it feel important. I never read anything, but I doubt I missed anything.

There's also a somewhat heavy emphasis on religion. Depending on what you choose, or change to, your sanctuaries (bonfire) changes. This can alter your "estus" and merchants. You can change your god, but it comes at a downside... It's oddly the most detailed mechanic in the game.

Characters:
Our character may be a silent protagonist with nothing to add besides their weapon of choice, but our appearance is very customizable. Our name, hair, beard, follicle color, It's nothing world altering, but it's enough to make you feel like you can put yourself into the game world. And there are so, so many outfits to choose from that you make yourself look like various Final Fantasy jobs. I opted to look like, and play, as a red mage. Sadly, my hat isn't as cool, but it's the best you can get in this dead world. I never got around to using healing spells, but I blame the lack of helpful NPCs. While magic isn't as necessary. I did get to level seven in their creed, so I role played as the Spellblade of Devara.

Every other character is a somewhat random feeling job class with the most basic of backstory to fit the world. It works, I guess.

Gameplay:
Along with the look, your playstyle is very much more open than other games. I started as a mage but quickly brought in some sword skills. There are a few weapons that take your magic stat into account for damage, so I tried to get one as fast as I could. It took a while, but the effort was worth the reward. Each weapon class has its own attack animations, and some even have their own unique qualities. I had to work on three skills at once, but I never felt weak at any point. And when I was done with the strength stat, the game has ways to undo choices in your skill tree. You can't ever get stuck, and you can undo things you did to get to the end even if they're not mistakes or min-maxed. And if you do, try upgrading or transmuting your gear. I had so much fun running around and collecting the various crap my gear (and creed) needed.

The action is a Metroid like side scroller where you run around and attack mobs with various weapons. You have to platform your way across the world, and it usually works. When it doesn't, though, it's aggravating. Several times through the game, my character refused to grab onto a ledge. As you'd expect, this means I fell to my death more often than I should have. As I said, it usually works, but there are a few ledges that need some work. Most in the Dome of the Forgotten, for example.

To add to the Metroid mechanics, we gain a handful of special abilities, called brands, as we play. These allow us to travel in ways we couldn't before and explore old areas to find new stuff. Any reason to explore is a good thing.

It's a long game, but killing things never gets boring because the enemy variety is rich. You're against small guys a lot, but are they fast attackers or ranged? Can they jump around or fight like a player? There's also the common giant, slow guy, but sometimes they're faster than you'd think. Various mages, chargers, flyers, and even some who run away. Not enemy related, but if I get hit by another couch, so help me [insert lord's name].

And bosses are all unique. They also fit with the above, but they're all different from another and the lay mobs around them. They're all very tough, but I never felt like they were unfair. Something I hated about Dark Souls was how awful a lot of bosses felt. I often thought I got killed by something cheap, but I recognize many of my deaths were my fault. It's tough but fair!

Visuals:
The art is...uh...a thing. I'm sure it's pretty if you're into what they did, but all I saw was greys and blacks. Everything has a thick fox over it and is very earthly, to begin with. I found enemies blending into the background far too often. Various zones never really stuck out to me, either. All the caves look the same, and there's a lot of caves. The only difference is how much black there is. There's a number of forests, but they're mostly the same. One has pitfalls, and the other is a Blighttown knockoff. I sometimes felt the only difference was the backlight. Red, orange, white, or brown?

Bugs:
Salt and Sanctuary isn't perfect. I know the creeds messed up in my game. I joined a new creed, which was supposed to make rejoining my old one impossible to rejoin for a time. However, I could at will. But then I couldn't get back to level seven of devotion there. Something got mixed up.
 
I'm also considering the inability to grab a ledge a bug.

There is another glitch that I'll discuss in a moment...

I couldn't put down Salt and Sanctuary at the end of the day. I played it for five days and put 28 hours into it. I stayed up late, delayed meals because I lost track of time, and almost forgot to work out twice. Despite the intended difficulty, all I wanted to do was explore, fight, and level up. It was having so much fun; however, I'm not going to beat it. There is one major problem SaS has, and it is game breaking: The Final Boss.

Not only did it turn out my entire loadout was ineffective against him, but the game devs messed up one of his attacks. He can grab you and throw you into the wall. That's fine; it's frustrating, but it's not an uncommon attack. However, this can result in you being stuck in a wall, unable to get out. You're just stuck there. You might be able to attack, but he can definitely attack you. This happened to me three straight times. I don't know if I could have won in those three fights or any of the other three times it happened, but it shouldn't have ever taken place once. My sword and magic were weak, but his wall was super effective. I don't know who QA'ed that boss, and I hold whoever didn't bother to fix the bugs in low regard. Why did collision just stop working there? I was having so much fun, but this ruined it for me. The long walk between battles just to see me doing 100 damage per hit with a maxed out Shikinori and the game breaking bug caused me to uninstall the game. If it is like Dark Souls, I doubt the ending would be worth it anyway. I know it's beatable, but I went from loving my experience to not wanting to play the game in a matter of twenty minutes. I stopped having fun, so I just stopped playing.

It's a terrible game, and I feel like I wasted so much of my time on it.