If you compare this to Dark Souls, I will choke you! : Salt and Sanctuary (Steam PC Gameplay Review)
Channel: LIFE RPG
Date: 2018-07-13

I am very into roguelikes... And RPGs. Sometimes the two come together Salt and Sanctuary did just that. We check out the classes, roll up a first boss kill, and get smacked around hard on the second level. Salt and Sanctuary does not forgive, does not forget.

Classes in Salt & Sanctuary are largely what you'd expect. Swords and spells all over! You can also opt for something more interesting and pick up the Peasant or Chef... But today, for simplicity we rolled up a thief. Salt and Sanctuary makes a good thief!

While many might compare the game to Dark Souls, I feel like that comparison has been massively overdone. Salt and Sanctuary might have drawn some inspiration, but the gameplay is largely unique and absolutely worth checking out. Salt & Sanctuary is amazing.

Get salty and form a gaming sanctuary with Salt & Sanctuary on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/283640/Salt_and_Sanctuary/

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A doomed sailor is shipwrecked on an uncharted island. In fog-shrouded valleys, where grinning, mossy corpses cling to rusted arms, shambling figures begin to stir. Beneath crumbling, salt-worn structures, labyrinthine passageways lead to unspeakable evil, long forgotten by man.

Salt and Sanctuary seamlessly combines fast, brutal, and complex 2D combat with richly developed RPG mechanics. Discover, craft, and upgrade over 600 weapons, armor pieces, spells, and items as you explore a cursed realm of forgotten cities, blood-soaked dungeons, desecrated monuments, and the fallen lords they once celebrated.

From Ska Studios, the award-winning indie studio behind a long list of stylistic, visceral, and brutally executed action titles that includes The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, and Charlie Murder, comes Salt and Sanctuary, the studio’s most ambitious title to date.

Every so often I'll come back to this game, try picking it up for a bit, and put it back down. I just can't find any fun in it. Even though I heavily enjoy both the Dark Souls series and Rogue-Lite games, Salt and Sanctuary seems like a game that's trying too hard to be "Hard" and not enough to be fun.

I think the biggest problem that this game has is that it's almost a game that was designed for a completely different purpose and then had Souls-like elements thrown in that don't really work in this system. As a result, they don't mesh well, and feel really clunky - it seems like the developers wanted Dark Souls elements, but then left out all reasons as to why those elements work well. - Gig

The game has not only quite unique visuals ("kind-of-washed-out-drawings") but also overall a very grim and dark setting -and it is filled to the brim with ominous names, hints of past events and forgotten lore and mysterious characters - exactly what I enjoyed in terms of lore from the Souls series. Moreover, you can decide by yourself if you just want to rush through the areas, not caring about the story at all or if you prefer spending a good amount of time to unravel the secrets this mysterious island has to offer - nothing here is served to you aside from an easy death. Of course, the "solutions" are most of the times vague at best and there is probably no final answer to the questions you may have but most bosses, areas and NPCs provide some interesting lore nonetheless and create very atmospheric scenes. 

Exploring the haunted island of the game is very fun in general as there are tons of optional paths (areas/bosses), secrets and sweet, sweet loot to be found. And traps. Lots of traps. Deadly traps.

"Oh, better don’t rush too easy to this chest over there it’s possible that it-… yeah, it’s a mimic. And it has eaten me. Great. What path did I choose again earlier?"

The combat mechanics and the character movements are quite solid and trying out different weapons and builds is quite fun. There are many options how to specify your character and what path to choose - Magic, Miracles, Bows, Whips, Swords, Greataxes, Wands... there's a good amount of different styles to choose from. 
However, the balancing would have benefited a bit from more polishing in the end and it feels like most items and armours are kind of 'generic‘ and feel mostly the same aside from raw stats and some looks. Some epic/unique abilities/skills would have been interesting here. The character system also seems quite deep at first but lacks something 'unique' in the end. 
But this is criticism on a quite high level. Praise the S-…alt! \[T]/ -#NV