Salt and Sacrifice – Review
Souls-like games are notoriously tough to master. No two developers approach the format in the same way, and even fewer do so perfectly. Salt and Sacrifice is as close to a classic Souls game as a 2D game can go, but it draws or expands on themes from other games to develop its own identity.
It’s a mix of Metroidvania, Path of Exile, Monster Hunter, and lots of dark fantasy Souls aficionados will adore. Salt & Sacrifice combines these various mechanics and ideas into a complicated but yet understandable whole.
There are a few snags, and some of the design decisions grate a little, but this is a game that makes no compromises in the sake of excellence.
You take on the role of an Inquisitor entrusted with tracking down Mages, creatures far more heinous than they’re depicted elsewhere. You’re not told why these Mages need to be hunted or what will happen if they’re killed. You just know it’s punishment for a serious crime you committed before the game started. This sin is chosen as part of the character creation process, and it affects how some NPCs interact with you.
You’re placed into Altarstone Kingdom after the introductory cutscene and character creation, and told to seek out any and all Mages, kill them, and swallow their hearts. You will not die forever because you are bound by an ancient rite, but being killed will sap part of your energy.
So you’ll set out to explore an interconnected universe over five zones, searching their depths for new ways to travel while fighting both unique enemies and the Mages you’ve been instructed to kill.
In Salt and Sacrifice, each level is designed in the Dark Souls style of overlapping and looping levels. There will always be more than one route to reach your destination, no matter which Obelisk (bonfire equivalent) you rest at. Additional pathways can be unlocked by obtaining improvements (such as a grappling hook or a cloth to catch the wind) or by opening one-way doors that are only accessible after extensive exploration.
Some shortcuts aren’t immediately obvious and require map knowledge to determine how to get there. In the desert level, for example, there is a shortcut not far from the first Obelisk. It’s only accessible from below, and the way up isn’t immediately visible on the path.
This entails using the shortcut’s position and determining how far horizontally you’ll have to walk to get there. The path is a little concealed and full with lethal foes, making it difficult and irritating at times, but it is still a comfort to have it open.
Once you leave the Pardoner’s Vale centre space, the globe merges fluidly. Without a single loading screen, doorways lead to new destinations. Even without the Metroidvania enhancements, this, combined with the interconnected level design, allows for an enjoyable traverse.
Each zone is likewise visually different, with a limited colour palette of three or four primary colours and a focus on one or two for the majority of your time there. Caves and dungeons are frequently made of grey and black stone and ornamented with the ruins of its previous residents.
As you progress through the game, you’ll come across bizarre and fascinating settings. The decaying settlement gives place to a bleak wasteland, which leads to a soggy bog, and then to more stranger, more terrifying locations. Each each site continuously astonished and delighted me. There’s just so much a 2D area can do graphically, and Salt and Sacrifice pushes every visual limit it can.
Souls-likes are recognised for tight fighting and epic boss encounters in addition to their level design. Salt and Sacrifice performs an admirable job of attempting to deliver on both, and succeeds most of the time. There are five different sorts of weapons, each with its unique set of manoeuvres, strengths, and weaknesses. There’s a lot of build customization here because to the Runic Arts, which are a type of Weapon Art or Ash of War that alters the weapon or your attacks in some way, and the craftable goods.
Making a construct is a more difficult sell. Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Endurance, and other standard stats are used in Salt and Sacrifice, although they are upgraded using a Path of Exile-style stat-and-skill grid. You’ll have a tiny percentage of the skill grid filled out depending on the class you choose, driving you toward specific builds and playstyles.
Starting as a Paladin, the grid favours heavy armour and heavy weapons, with a focus on burst damage, which is aided by Endurance and modified by Strength. Arcana and Luck, on the other hand, are an entirely different set of gear types with which you’ll never have enough points to experiment. This technique is effective, however it contrasts with character generation, which provides no indication of how stats are divided. On a first playing, this disconnect makes sense and doesn’t.
On the one hand, providing a vast skill grid to new players is just as likely to put them off as it is to draw them in. On the other hand, there’s no way to prepare a comprehensive build without knowing how stats would be distributed. You’re limited to instincts and assumptions, hoping to make the best decision possible.
The method for unlocking the ability to use gear adds to the confusion. Unlike other Souls-likes, where your stats determine what you can and can’t use, Salt and Sacrifice uses a tier system to restrict access to higher-quality stuff. If you haven’t unlocked the skill node to utilise Tier 2 heavy armour, for example, you won’t be able to put it on, even if you’re surrounded by it. With such a restriction, picking the “wrong” beginning class could result in you having to start a new game in order to acquire the weapons and gear you wanted to use right away, rather than simply spending a few more stat points and calling it a day.
One of the appeals of Souls-likes is the ability to take on any obstacle. I often felt like I was being pushed to perform one thing in a certain way or risk continual failure, thanks to the burdensome gear unlock system and several tedious boss encounters. One of Elden Ring’s worst flaws in the late game is the mandatory boss before the last dungeon, which is the most heinous.
Bosses in Salt and Sacrifice are usually basic by nature. Run up to the boss, strike 2-4 times, dodge or otherwise avoid the counterattack, and repeat until the boss is defeated. There are two issues that occur. The bosses are frequently too big for their arena, allowing only a small amount of room to move around their strikes. Because movement isn’t as accurate or tight as it could be, dodging some attacks is more of a futile exercise than a skill.
There’s also the issue of hitboxes and recovery times for boss attacks. Because Salt and Sarifice does not offer in-air invincibility for certain strikes, you can easily be juggled from one attack to the next if one hits you. This can happen as often as your health allows you to tank attacks. That isn’t a negative design decision on its own. It penalises sloppy play while rewarding perfect spacing.
However, boss attack hitboxes last as long as the boss attacks, so if you’re knocked out by the first hit, you can end up getting two or three more hits from the same hitbox. If this happens, you won’t be able to recover adequately because the boss will most likely be on top of you once the attack is done.
Unlike Eldest Souls, Salt and Sacrifice does not contain bosses that impede dodges. Still, it’s aggravating to see oneself juggled not only by an attack that appeared to juggle, but also by a single large weapon or fist that kept rushing toward me.
The lack of recovery time on some assaults adds to the frustration. A big smash by a boss, even if it fills up half the screen, should cause the boss to recover. There were a few occasions when this wasn’t the case, and instead of being given a chance to catch my breath and retaliate, I was desperately trying to avoid a second attack.
In general, however, my encounters with the key story bosses were positive. The fights are always extremely theatrical, and it was a simple issue to react appropriately after I knew what strike did what, how, and when. Even the most irritating or poorly designed parts may be dealt with if you know they’re coming. If perseverance, knowledge, and experimenting are sufficient to conquer a challenge, it is a sign of an ultimately solid Souls-like.
You can build their equip using the materials that they and their summoned mobs drop when you defeat a Mage. They spawn randomly on the map after being defeated, making them farmable for various weapons, armour, rings, and other items. Focus Hunts, which are randomly generated Mage hunts focused on target-farming certain loot, are also available. These are more of an endgame activity, but you can take part in them whenever you like.
It’s a shame that standard boss equipment can’t be crafted, because several of them have unique weapons and armour that could have been fascinating to use. Fortunately, there are a variety of Mage kinds to slaughter, and each one is mechanically diverse in a way that translates into their craftable gear.
The type of gear you can make is determined by the Mage you are. Big, ponderous brutes become heavy armour and weapons, while supple, quick-moving brutes become light armour and weaponry, and so on. There’s plenty of replayability here, despite the aggravation of the clash between starting class and skill grid. Any Souls-like save game, such as Nioh, is bound to be unoptimized and inefficient on the first run. Going in with a clear goal in mind and full knowledge of the skill grid will undoubtedly be a very different experience.
It’s a shame, though, that the music in Salt and Sacrifice is so uninteresting in comparison to some of the game’s finer designs and concepts. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the soundtrack, and while it does improve during later boss bouts, that was to be expected.
The story is also a little lacking, not because it is horrible or dull (it isn’t), but because of how often it is shoved in your face by every NPC. In Salt & Sacrifice, there’s a lot more telling than showing, with characters all across the world eager to expound on the last item you killed or the latest topic you learnt about. The environmental storyline is a little better, and the environments are always fun to explore.
