I want to be clear, there are things about the Souls games I like in concept, it's just that when I tried to play one (the DS2 rerelease, specifically) I remember bashing my head against it for about six hours, feeling miserable all the way.

I should mention, the things that really push me away from Souls games are things like:

• Non-boss enemies that are a slog to take down (specifically those stone giants in the first area of DS2 I hate those fuckers so much)
• Walking around a corner only to get killed by a falling axe/rock/etc that I could not see
• Feeling like I need to be constantly reading a walkthrough in order to make progress

Probably not, it sounds like you mostly have an issue with patience and deliberation in these types of games, which is fine. But this game I don't think does anything to change that for the most part. Plus it involves platforming in a way that Souls games mostly don't do, and that can be frustrating at times.

Yeah, the game is awesome.

It differs a lot from the fighting system in Dark Souls as it uses a lot of "arcadification" as you see with a lot of modern action games. It even has the Devil May Cry/Platinum game thing where gravity stops with your character as you attack.

The enemies are all great in this game, there are some asshole-types of enemies that follow you arround, kinda like the floating heads in the old Doom games but you can jump very high and do all sorts of crazy tricks, theres even a on-the-fly weapon switching, so like in DMC you can throw an enemy in the air with a certain sword combo and then switch to bow and arrow to beat the crap out of the guy. Its impractible but fun to do.

I think its best to consider Salt and Sanctuary as a "Arcade Dark Souls". There are traps, but they don't instalkill and are easily spotable. The 2d environment is easy to the eyes, once you stepped on one trap by accident, you will know forever how these things look like. Its really not like Dark Souls but then again it has the coat and paint of one, a lot of things are different.

There are also secret accidential things the developers didn't intent to put in which are so crazy when someone found out about that the devs didn't even want to remove it, I can't tell you about them (maybe counts as spoilers?) but the game really is sort of like an Anime Dark Souls. I know a few people that didn't like the game because it didn't have the tight control scheme and the slow and moody gameplay of a Dark Souls game.

@matatat:

Bad platforming sections in non-platforming games are another sore point of mine so apparently this game is ESPECIALLY not my thing. Thanks for the reply.

Eh the platforming is rarely if ever THAT bad in S&S. They don't pull what Hollow Knight does where there's one section that goes 90% of the way to meat boy while the rest of the game is more combat focused.

I love Souls games, and have beaten three of them, but I don't always feel like playing them. One night, I loaded up S&S for the first time, hoping to get an hour or two out of something fresh, and immediately ran into the sort of things in Souls games that I am not always in the mood for: regular-ass enemies that take a lot of effort and time to take down, and extremely easy deaths. This game is a Dark Souls game through and through. If you don't like DS games, you won't like S&S, and that's pretty clearly the creator's intent. Try something else.

@westernwizard: Its great actually. There is one part that may be difficult but thats it.

I often did mistakes solely because I was trying crazy stuff and the controls are tight. Played it with mouse and keyboard and didn't had any problems.

I liked it a lot, got swept up by DS 3 and never made it back. But I will again, from the beginning.

But it is Dark Souls like. Personally I do like the art, it has a look of it's own that sits well.

I liked the game, but got really annoyed with the platforming. Half of my deaths were from falling, which may be my fault in part, but it was very frustrating at times.

I love the Soulsborne series, I have the platinum trophy for every game except Demon's Souls, and I hated DS2 when I first started it. That game is slow and clunky to a degree that's unmatched in the rest of the series. It's a horrible starting point for anyone new to the way a Souls game plays.

I haven't played Salt and Sanctuary, so my post isn't answering the question you asked; I clicked on this page because I'm interested in hearing more about the game as well. But I wanted to implore you not to judge the Souls franchise by its weakest link. It'd be like saying you hate Indiana Jones, when the only movie you've watched is Temple of Doom. I'm not trying to be one of those obnoxious Souls fans who insists you have to like what I like. I'll just say that if you have the opportunity to try I or III, I think either would be more likely to click with you off the bat than would II.

Salt and Sanctuary, is a 2D Dark Souls game in every conceivable way. It's meant to be played at a methodical pace, and is filled with traps in certain areas.

DS2 feels like not a nice one to start with in my opinion. It felt like a slog. I recommend maybe trying S&S for a couple of hours on Steam and get a refund if you don't like it. Don't know if you're wanting to play on console or if they have a demo available for ya. I definitely knew that I wouldn't like the game an hour or so in.

If by stone giants you mean big green guys, then that's not the first area in DS2, you went in the wrong direction. When you get there properly leveled they take like 3-4 hits to take down with a blunt weapon.

@gunflame88: I thought he was talking about the ogres. In SotFS there are a few of them in the tutorial area before you even get to Majula, and even in vanilla DS2 there's one near the fire keeper's hut. But you really shouldn't fight those guys until much, much later.

@relenus: I could never get into Souls games--I tried with both 2 and 3--but I enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary, and played it to completion. The real question for picking this up or not shouldn't be "do you like Dark Souls?," it should be "do you like metroidvania games and did you enjoy The Dishwasher or Charlie Murder?"

Personally, I really liked the game, and there's a lot of content if you enjoy the gameplay. Between S&S and his other games, I'll probably continue to buy anything James Silva develops.

Some parts probably weren't as bad had I been playing single player, but I co-oped the whole thing. And there are a handful of sections where you need to have extended wall jump sequences, the camera follows the lead character so it makes them super difficult as you have to coordinate actions. You can sort of work around this by exploiting the weird teleporting that seems to happen when you go to the menu and leave. But overall some of the platforming is annoying mostly due to the way some of the textures overlap with the platform geometry. It makes it sometimes difficult to tell where the true edge of a platform is.

I really like this game BTW, I've played and enjoyed every Ska Studios game except for the second Dishwasher Samurai. But they're usually pretty good, not amazing, but enjoyable. But yeah, I don't think it's for OP.

Its a good game, and I say that as someone who bounced hard off all the Souls game except for the first Dark Souls. The regular enemies are generally pretty easy (though you can get swarmed) and most of the bosses are beatable in one or two tries with a plate armor+two-handed weapon get up, so long as you get good at rolling. There are some easy-to-miss traps that'll one-hit kill you or greatly damage you though.

There's two bad platforming sections (one of which is optional), but the rest are pretty easy.

If you really like platforming maybe? There's definitely OP builds and things to make it simple but I think the general combat with a balanced build is a lot of fun.