Salt and Sanctuary (PS4 soon on PC etc)

I finished Bloodborne last week so now I'm onto new games. I bought and downloaded Salt and Sanctuary for PS4 and I'd give it a pretty strong recommendation. It's basically shorter, 2d Dark Souls---so almost all the Dark Souls mechanics but set in a castlevania/metroid style side scrolling system with some reasonably demanding timing based combat. Supposedly it's much shorter than a DS game, like 20 hours typically.

I really like it. In particular, it's actually a great intro to the Dark Souls/Bloodborne formula mechanically. The 2d combat requires the timing but trades on a much more familiar and traditional skill set for the average player (mario style platforming and jumping, castlevania combat). And everything you learn in the game from a content perspective (armor, shield work, parrying, magic, upgrading weapons, dying/respawning at bonfires, skill scaling, leveling up w/souls that get dropped, etc etc) will transfer almost exactly to Dark Souls. It's an amazing distillation of the genre and, while I can't say for sure since I did Dark Souls first, I'm guessing it is an amazing primer to get into the genre if you want to. It's a pretty great game on its own so far as well, the 2d combat feels extremely tight and snappy and the weapons feel quite different.

It's like 15 bucks? Totally worth it. One thing it is not is original but it is extremely well executed and fun.

For another perspective, I completely agree with this review:
www.polygon.com/2016/3/22/11284996/salt-...sanctuary-review-ps4

Castlevania....Metroid....Those are magic words, my friend.

Definitely more Castlevania/Metroidvania than I thought now that I'm some hours into it. It has some areas unlocked by new skills that you couldn't otherwise get to. Combat is still very notchy but just right. Weapons very different. I can see how it would be amenable to dark souls high strength/endurance shield stuff at the same time as a rolling dex build, which I think is an accomplishment in 2d. I've done 0 magic or cleric stuff so I can't speak to that, I don't do it in souls either.

Gary Sax wrote: Definitely more Castlevania/Metroidvania than I thought now that I'm some hours into it. It has some areas unlocked by new skills that you couldn't otherwise get to. Combat is still very notchy but just right. Weapons very different. I can see how it would be amenable to dark souls high strength/endurance shield stuff at the same time as a rolling dex build, which I think is an accomplishment in 2d. I've done 0 magic or cleric stuff so I can't speak to that, I don't do it in souls either.

The game earned high praise over at Polygon too.

I am not sure I like the look of the characters--getting a Phil Foglio vibe here and that shit makes me crazy (cf. backing GLORY TO ROME). And I am not sure I am willing to try this at $18. I buy full price games like once a year. A MARIO title will get me. A top-down ZELDA. THE WITNESS. THE TAKEN KING, I guess? Even that I finagled $20 off. HEARTHSTONE pre-orders I suppose. Outside THE WITNESS, this is all solid IP, and that game came with cachet. Here are my concerns:

• Am I good enough to play this game well? I might not be--I haven't played DARK SOULS since the 360.
• Is this different enough from things like DRAGON'S CROWN or ODIN'S SPHERE or actual CASTLEVANIA that I won't feel like I am gilding the lily on my collection?
• Will this be a PS+ pack in in a few months--has the trappings, I gotta say?

Yeah, that is definitely the art style though it's better quality than Glory to Rome. I think it looks pretty good but it's not like some sort of artistic tour de force or anything. I'm not sure it's right for you, from what you've said.

To your points:
1) I'm finding it a bit easier than Dark Souls, but with the same game loop (e.g. lots of dying, bosses require multiple tries and learning patterns). We'll see as I get later in the game.
2) It is pretty different Dragon's Crown and Odin's Sphere in that it's much less beat em' up. It plays closer to Nintendo DS Castelvania games but the focus is much more on tighter, more lethal and difficult combat.
3) Always an issue with PS4 games, I agree.

There are a couple of very smart ideas in the game that I wish Souls games would adopt. In particular, the game includes a "transmute" function, where you can turn your current weapons into better ones. This is desperately needed in the Souls game---because unless you have something like this everyone is terrified to invest any upgrade materials into the current weapon they have. Everyone is waiting for that one weapon which will take them through the rest of the game, so they sit on their upgrade materials. This game handles all of that by letting you transmute weapons and keep all but one level on that weapon.

The game has gotten much harder. Still good, though.

I'm shouting to myself about this one, but this game is a lot of fun. It's like a manageable Dark Souls---shorter, bosses are closer to one another, and you still get those tricks and difficulty. With those fun traversal/lock elements of Castelania/Metroid. The combat is nice and tight and chunky, much more so than Castlevania.

I get that people hate the art but I also sort of appreciate that if you took Dark Souls and made it a cartoon you'd end up with this almost exactly. I just killed a giant wooden machine that was covered in hanging undead throwing molotovs while fire things in the wall spit fire at me.

Yeah, I'm going to get this. It worked, Gary! It wasn't all for naught!

Someone to talk to? Woo!

I'll be getting it on PC at some point.

Should be out on PC this year, from what I read.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but this has couch coop (?!?) rather than online cooperators.

This has me really interested as I like Castlevania...but come to find out there's no map. I suppose I understand why they wouldn't put a map in, but as I have the memory of a hamster and will get lost without one it renders it basically unplayable.

Yes, the lack of map is annoying, so you aren't underestimating it.

FYI, I cannot overemphasize the importance of grabbing some of the anti-elemental and anti-magic gear and being aware of it in your inventory as the game goes on. I just fought two bosses that would have been incredibly difficult if I didn't have an anti-fire shield that is otherwise unremarkable in my explorations. I don't remember where I found it. I'm guessing I'll need to identify the anti-magic gear at some point too for bosses.

I am on a boss that is infuriating me right now. I've gotten her down to about 1/3 (butterfly demon/woman thing) but she uses holy spells and I don't have great armor against holy. Had to put it down for a bit. I think I'm overlevelled and I'm still getting beaten. I tend to proceed through souls, bloodborne this type of thing more slowly that most people and overlevel for most things.