Salt and Sacrifice. Basically a 2D mix of Dark Souls and Monster Hunter, while Salt and Sanctuary was a more straightforward 2D take on Dark Souls alone. This is from the perspective of someone who ablolutely loves MH and who enjoyed Sanctuary even more than Hollow Knight.
It’s… fine. There’s basically zero use for the game’s currency, and I think chasing the Mages around the areas feels a bit more like annoying busy work without MH’s in-universe reasons for monsters to flee, especially with how quickly the Mages go down when you finally do catch up with them. Also, having so many different Mage resources dropping randomly doesn’t make as much sense when you can’t damage different parts of the Mages to influence drops like you can in MH. The Mages themselves, while effort has clearly been put in to make them feel distinct, still end up feeling samey somehow.
All in all, I think the whole thing doesn’t quite come together in the end, but I find it hard to criticize indie takes on the Monster Hunter formula when Crapcom has been enshittifying the IP so badly the past few years.
So, give it a try if you like Dark Souls and are craving more of a Monster Hunter-esque experience, but don’t expect it to fully scratch the itch. Hopefully this incentivizes more indie studios to try the MH formula - we desperately need more old-style MH-like experiences with Crapcom’s trend of empowering the players over the monsters to utterly ridiculous levels.
Interesting, the S&S games have been on my list for a while but I’ve never gotten around to them. I got Salt and Sacrifice with a Humble Bundle last year but didn’t play it because o figured I should play the first game first. Looks like I got the worse one then?
The nice thing is that Salt and Sanctuary is always dirt cheap during sales, and definitely worth picking up, but yeah, I think most people prefer the first game to the second.
If you don’t mind investing a couple more dollars, I’d definitely recommend playing Sanctuary first, and then Sacrifice if you have a hankering for more. I replay Salt and Sanctuary pretty much every year - it might be my favorite 2D metroidvania.
Then again, there are the rare reviewers who prefer Sacrifice, so shrug emoji.
Salt and Sacrifice. Basically a 2D mix of Dark Souls and Monster Hunter, while Salt and Sanctuary was a more straightforward 2D take on Dark Souls alone. This is from the perspective of someone who ablolutely loves MH and who enjoyed Sanctuary even more than Hollow Knight.
It’s… fine. There’s basically zero use for the game’s currency, and I think chasing the Mages around the areas feels a bit more like annoying busy work without MH’s in-universe reasons for monsters to flee, especially with how quickly the Mages go down when you finally do catch up with them. Also, having so many different Mage resources dropping randomly doesn’t make as much sense when you can’t damage different parts of the Mages to influence drops like you can in MH. The Mages themselves, while effort has clearly been put in to make them feel distinct, still end up feeling samey somehow.
All in all, I think the whole thing doesn’t quite come together in the end, but I find it hard to criticize indie takes on the Monster Hunter formula when Crapcom has been enshittifying the IP so badly the past few years.
So, give it a try if you like Dark Souls and are craving more of a Monster Hunter-esque experience, but don’t expect it to fully scratch the itch. Hopefully this incentivizes more indie studios to try the MH formula - we desperately need more old-style MH-like experiences with Crapcom’s trend of empowering the players over the monsters to utterly ridiculous levels.
Interesting, the S&S games have been on my list for a while but I’ve never gotten around to them. I got Salt and Sacrifice with a Humble Bundle last year but didn’t play it because o figured I should play the first game first. Looks like I got the worse one then?
The nice thing is that Salt and Sanctuary is always dirt cheap during sales, and definitely worth picking up, but yeah, I think most people prefer the first game to the second.
If you don’t mind investing a couple more dollars, I’d definitely recommend playing Sanctuary first, and then Sacrifice if you have a hankering for more. I replay Salt and Sanctuary pretty much every year - it might be my favorite 2D metroidvania.
Then again, there are the rare reviewers who prefer Sacrifice, so shrug emoji.