Salt and Sacrifice

I don’t envy any developer releasing a Soulslike game in the same year as Elden Ring. FromSoftware’s open world masterpiece sets a pretty unattainably high bar. Salt and Sacrifice, like its predecessor Salt and Sanctuary, certainly borrows mechanics from Dark Souls. Being a 2D side scroller, however, it looks and feels quite different from anything by FromSoft. And this time around, it adds new mechanics and ramps up the challenge even more. It’s a remarkably polished and engaging game essentially made by a two-person team.

Salt and Sacrifice is a labor of love, one that will scratch any Souls veteran's itch for more mysterious worlds to explore, even if it doesn't succeed at everything.

As it stands, Salt and Sacrifice continues to nail down all of the moving parts and elements that go into creating an impressive Souls-like game. For most players --especially those just discovering the genre for the first time-- this is an easy recommendation. But for the rest of us, it's not quite enough anymore.

Salt and Sacrifice does a lot of cool things on top of the Soulsborne 2D action-platforming system created for the first game. The focus on hunting mages is a cool twist and getting their components and making new gear was the stuff that’s made Monster Hunter a blast for decades. Even then, there’s plenty to explore in each biome between the mage hunts. I’m not fond of collecting berries for my healing flask and I feel it can get unfair when mages team up on me. However, getting stronger and coming back with enough might that not even multiple mages could stop me made Salt and Sacrifice’s 2D S...

Salt and Sacrifice to Salt and Sanctuary is like Dark Souls 2 to Dark Souls 1. It diverges a lot from the original, with some ideas that work well and some that don't. All in all, it's still an excellent 2-D Souls-like Metroidvania that brilliantly infuses Monster Hunter elements with challenging combat. Despite some poor design choices and questionable difficulty spikes, it's still astonishing to think this game was created by a team of just two people.

Salt and Sacrifice has a lot going for it, but some bad design choices hold it back. I'd recommend watching some gameplay footage - especially of its bosses - before buying.

Salt and Sacrifice imbues its Souls-like formula with elements from Monster Hunter, creating a peculiar mixture that falls just short of realizing its full potential.

Salt and Sanctuary checks all the boxes for what a 2D Soulslike should have but doesn’t do much beyond that, delivering a worthy, albeit conventional addition to the sub-genre.

Salt and Sacrifice is enjoyable in short bursts. It retains certain core concepts from the original, including a fairly controversial one: the lack of a map. This is further compounded by repetitive Mage Hunts that become tedious after a while.

Overall, Salt and Sacrifice still nails the core elements that make a 2D reimagining of Dark Souls a compelling idea thanks to its fundamental understanding of how character and level progression should flow and its expansive combat system. By adding in an extra layer of Metroidvania-style exploration and a unique approach to boss encounters with its Mage Hunt mechanic, Salt and Sacrifice sees Ska Studios carve out a space for itself as more than the studio that is good at making 2D Dark Souls games.

Salt and Sacrifice is still a very worthwhile sequel to the original. While some of the elements don’t work as well as others, the game’s combat and build variety offer players a great sandbox to play around in.

Salt and Sanctuary was a hit when it was released approximately six million years ago in 2016. It distilled the gritty atmosphere and challenge of Dark Souls into a leaner 2D package. It also shared that games’ predilection for subtextual storytelling and featured a world that was on its last leg and where little was as it seemed. When I set out to review Salt and Sacrifice, I had hoped for an evolution of the original 2D Soulslike formula. Unfortunately, what we’ve got is different and altogether less satisfying.