Review: Salt & Sanctuary (PS4)

“While they scurry to and fro, I am.
While they cherish their pretty deities, idols, and false lords, I am.
While they fight their trivial wars, live and die for mortal kings and scoundrels, I am.
All priests of false gods kneel to Me.
All kings and empires great and small kneel to Me.
Life kneels to Me.
Death kneels to Me.”

Story (NO SPOILERS)

Salt & Sanctuaries story begins with the your character on a boat that is attacked by bandits (and a monster). You fight the bandits off only for you to be caught in a shipwreck. When you awaken, you’re on the shore of an unfamiliar island inhabited by strange creatures and monsters, as well as worn down structures among other things. Your mission is to find and rescue the Princess who was on the ship.

Although this game does have some semblance of a story, but that is not the primary focus of the game. So there is a story there for you to seek and learn more about, but on the surface level it’s hard to know what the hell is going on. But that isn’t detrimental to the game in any way, much like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, which the developers of this game were clearly inspired by.

Gameplay

This game was clearly inspired by games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls, but calling it a “Dark Souls Clone” would be a great injustice. The bread and butter of this game is its gameplay, the combat overall is fluid and fun. The combat differs depending on your choice of class. At the beginning of the game you are allowed to customize your character and choose between several classes. Some classes focus on defense while others focus on speed and magic.

Killing enemies earns you Salt. You can trade it in at the nearest sanctuary to increase your level or upgrade your armor and weapons. When you level up you earn skill points which can be used to increase your stamina, strength, magic, etc. The skill tree is incredibly vast, but allows you to branch out into other skills that are not specifically for the class you chose. After 2 full playthroughs with 2 different classes, I was only able to use up about a 3rd of the skill tree.

There are a variety of weapons like whips, swords, great swords, maces, knives, wands, staffs and shields among other things. There is a decent amount of armor, which is split into different types. The most common being heavy and light armor. I acquired many different sets of heavy armor in my first playthrough, but during the second when i decided to go with light armor I ended up using a set i found early on for the entire game. Some armor sets can only be obtained by transmuting them with help from an alchemist at a sanctuary. Transmuting requires Salts as well as specific miscellaneous items . Overall, the variety of equipment the game offers you is quite impressive.

Visuals

Being that this game is a small indie title, I wasn’t expecting to be too impressed visually. And while I was a bit surprised about the games visuals once I began playing, they weren’t really anything to brag about. The game was better graphically than I initially expected though. But all in all, there isnt too much to say about the games visuals. I’ll just say they’re serviceable at best, not bad but not great, and leave it at that.

Replay ability 

One of the best things about this game is that it can be playable multiple times without getting boring. On my first play through by the end I had about 30 hours logged. On my second I had about 15 hours. I am 1 trophy away from the platinum trophy and I plan on going back for a last play through after i get done playing a couple other games.

The massive amount of classes, weapons and armor in this game means that every player can play the game differently on their first play through and have an entirely different experience than someone else, in terms of combat. Not to mention there is a new game + mode that provides an even greater challenge for people who may find the game a bit easy when initially playing. But some may find the game very difficult at first. Being that this game was inspired by Dark Souls, its only right that this game has a wide variety of bosses. Different classes may make certain bosses easier and other bosses harder.

Conclusion 

For an $18 game, there is a great amount of content that will leave any player satisfied. Not to mention its extremely fun and a bit challenging for the players who enjoy difficulty in the games they play.
Even once I found out what was actually going on in the game story wise, I wasn’t impressed. The story is a serviceable one, at best. At worst, its completely irrelevant.

Cited Source: Salt and Sanctuary Wiki