I find it deeply ironic how Salt & Sanctuary takes so much inspiration from dungeon synth and black metal aesthetics because of how I treat these genres. On one hand, it looks and sounds like a world from which I came into this nonsense and now all I'm doing is desperately missing it, but on another? It's all the same messy soundscapes where I can't tell one track from another and one artist from another. All originality of your average black metal album cover, but maybe you love these covers as much as I do?
As a game, it only made me think that there can really only be one Dark Souls, and even that's more than enough -- and the novelty of 2D only downplays the best parts about it. Maybe my motor awareness is just this weak, but I could never understand how rolling past bosses works, as well as what's with these iframes and collision boxes -- it's anything but intuitive. Maybe, this is why all the bosses felt either like one trick pushovers or RNG abuse moments for me. Now, my spatial awareness is objectively better, but here, the map feels unreasonably vast and convoluted -- and, paradoxically, it being 2D makes it harder to memorise (unlike DS1 or Bloodborne where I can draw maps of almost any location from the top of my head). Most of the time shortcuts don't work as intended because you don't even understand or need those places you're brought to, since the Guides are so abundant that warping is essentially no problem here. I even wonder, why not make warping an option if you're going to put separate Guide statues lying on the ground right outside the sanctuaries anyway?
I don't want to be way too demanding with a game made essentially by two people, but the thought-out design is another core point of a soulslike -- these games need resources. The level of production is already outstanding for two people, but I couldn't see consistent calculation in what the game was trying to give me. The way too uneven bosses, the route to the final boss which unironically made me learn how to cheat in games -- these are still flaws in the game, which is already heavily compromised with taking this many inspiration from Dark Souls. (Although -- why not? S&S has enough of its own, and if Siam Lake looks just a bit too much like Ash Lake, how come then Ash Lake was already in Nausicaa? And I won't even begin with Berserk.)
What I'm trying to say is that when you arrive from the Undead Parrish to the Firelink Shrine via some unassuming elevator, it does work, but it only works once. A lot of such traditions we now consider essential parts of a soulslike don't really hold that well -- and S&S has an excuse, being one of the oldest in the genre. The tradition of random, easily missable character quests, dare I say, has already been obsolete in DS1 and had to go, but back then, at least it was a novelty. All of these tiresome devices of shredding the story into small, immemorable occasions -- seeing them the first time is novel, but everyone's going to google everything anyway. Maybe it works for keeping the community alive, and maybe it justifies the dried-out experience every story becomes when made into a soulslike, but the more of these artful, atmospheric worlds turn into a mish-mash of evil bosses and nonchalant dudes scattered throughout the map, the sadder it makes me personally.
But maybe, sparseness and wicked cosiness are much less out of place in this particular story than I imagine them to be, after all. Because in its own way, S&S is very cosy indeed -- apart from being so well-known in its mechanics and purpose right from the start, it also has one of the cosiest hub soundtracks I've heard, and besides, even The Lighthouse (2018) or The Terror (2018) or Edgar Poe's stories aren't without their comfortable moments as well. Even if the powers of nature are so vile, and men can be so cruel, it shouldn't be like this all the time. And the "sanctuary" part here is quite stressed -- you have to rely on other lost sailors to navigate, get equipped, or learn. Even if they don't share your beliefs, there are only so many of you on this island, and someone has to make a weapon to kill a god, or bake bread.
And the ethereal loneliness is another strength of the game. It's very deprived of colours or clarity, here, you can't clearly see the environment, the characters, or even their faces. It's like Ligotti's stories or the works of Alfred Kubin: the lack of data is another factor of the uncanny on its own. These Gothic visuals, eaten by the post-processing as if by salt, are very successful when you pass through narrow cave corridors, lonely shores, or rotting woods. Together with grungy background tracks, the visual design captures the liminality and otherworldliness even better than the newer Fromsoftware games, cluttered with assets and looking a bit like dollhouses at times. The game doesn't even have a certain hub, where you could feel somewhat homely for a moment.
Ironically, it also echoes the black metal subculture conceptually, apart from the clear visual references. Albeit morbid, black metal offers its own kind of brotherhood and enlightenment, an alternative answer. An inversion of what doesn't work for everyone (speaking of inversion, I could really use more upside-down sections on the levels, they look so cool and are so confusing). That's why, flawed and clearly derivative, S&S certainly has its own purpose of existence. Say, for me, the unique grotesque ghostliness of this piece is certainly dearer than the polished Hollow Knight, the vivid Blasphemous, or even the exquisite Ender Lilies. Probably, this is why I'd be so eager to have a normal story delivered about this world.
As a game, it only made me think that there can really only be one Dark Souls, and even that's more than enough -- and the novelty of 2D only downplays the best parts about it. Maybe my motor awareness is just this weak, but I could never understand how rolling past bosses works, as well as what's with these iframes and collision boxes -- it's anything but intuitive. Maybe, this is why all the bosses felt either like one trick pushovers or RNG abuse moments for me. Now, my spatial awareness is objectively better, but here, the map feels unreasonably vast and convoluted -- and, paradoxically, it being 2D makes it harder to memorise (unlike DS1 or Bloodborne where I can draw maps of almost any location from the top of my head). Most of the time shortcuts don't work as intended because you don't even understand or need those places you're brought to, since the Guides are so abundant that warping is essentially no problem here. I even wonder, why not make warping an option if you're going to put separate Guide statues lying on the ground right outside the sanctuaries anyway?
I don't want to be way too demanding with a game made essentially by two people, but the thought-out design is another core point of a soulslike -- these games need resources. The level of production is already outstanding for two people, but I couldn't see consistent calculation in what the game was trying to give me. The way too uneven bosses, the route to the final boss which unironically made me learn how to cheat in games -- these are still flaws in the game, which is already heavily compromised with taking this many inspiration from Dark Souls. (Although -- why not? S&S has enough of its own, and if Siam Lake looks just a bit too much like Ash Lake, how come then Ash Lake was already in Nausicaa? And I won't even begin with Berserk.)
What I'm trying to say is that when you arrive from the Undead Parrish to the Firelink Shrine via some unassuming elevator, it does work, but it only works once. A lot of such traditions we now consider essential parts of a soulslike don't really hold that well -- and S&S has an excuse, being one of the oldest in the genre. The tradition of random, easily missable character quests, dare I say, has already been obsolete in DS1 and had to go, but back then, at least it was a novelty. All of these tiresome devices of shredding the story into small, immemorable occasions -- seeing them the first time is novel, but everyone's going to google everything anyway. Maybe it works for keeping the community alive, and maybe it justifies the dried-out experience every story becomes when made into a soulslike, but the more of these artful, atmospheric worlds turn into a mish-mash of evil bosses and nonchalant dudes scattered throughout the map, the sadder it makes me personally.
But maybe, sparseness and wicked cosiness are much less out of place in this particular story than I imagine them to be, after all. Because in its own way, S&S is very cosy indeed -- apart from being so well-known in its mechanics and purpose right from the start, it also has one of the cosiest hub soundtracks I've heard, and besides, even The Lighthouse (2018) or The Terror (2018) or Edgar Poe's stories aren't without their comfortable moments as well. Even if the powers of nature are so vile, and men can be so cruel, it shouldn't be like this all the time. And the "sanctuary" part here is quite stressed -- you have to rely on other lost sailors to navigate, get equipped, or learn. Even if they don't share your beliefs, there are only so many of you on this island, and someone has to make a weapon to kill a god, or bake bread.
And the ethereal loneliness is another strength of the game. It's very deprived of colours or clarity, here, you can't clearly see the environment, the characters, or even their faces. It's like Ligotti's stories or the works of Alfred Kubin: the lack of data is another factor of the uncanny on its own. These Gothic visuals, eaten by the post-processing as if by salt, are very successful when you pass through narrow cave corridors, lonely shores, or rotting woods. Together with grungy background tracks, the visual design captures the liminality and otherworldliness even better than the newer Fromsoftware games, cluttered with assets and looking a bit like dollhouses at times. The game doesn't even have a certain hub, where you could feel somewhat homely for a moment.
Ironically, it also echoes the black metal subculture conceptually, apart from the clear visual references. Albeit morbid, black metal offers its own kind of brotherhood and enlightenment, an alternative answer. An inversion of what doesn't work for everyone (speaking of inversion, I could really use more upside-down sections on the levels, they look so cool and are so confusing). That's why, flawed and clearly derivative, S&S certainly has its own purpose of existence. Say, for me, the unique grotesque ghostliness of this piece is certainly dearer than the polished Hollow Knight, the vivid Blasphemous, or even the exquisite Ender Lilies. Probably, this is why I'd be so eager to have a normal story delivered about this world.