Salt and Sacrifice, the tried of the first zone of the game
Salt and Sacrifice
More than five years have passed since Salt and Sanctuary arrived on the market, a title that at the time was probably the best derivative souls on the market. By combining metroidvania and soulslike, the two spouses of Ska Studios had succeeded in the difficult mission of creating an ambitious title, artistically delightful, long-lived and difficult, sometimes even too much. A lot of water has passed under the bridges since that distant 2016 and it is now time to go back to collecting salt and losing it an instant later, dying again and again.Salt and Sacrifice will arrive in the next year on the market, but in the meantime we were lucky enough to try a fairly advanced build, which put us in front of all the great first game area, as well as some of the its particular mechanics.
Let's find out about this interesting project in our Salt and Sanctuary trial.
Dying is the salt of life
Salt and Sacrifice: the hub central is filled with NPCs Salt and Sacrifice takes up the basics of its predecessor. Although it is not a direct sequel, the new work of Ska Studios does not differ much from its past, at least in the initial premises. We have, in fact, a way to pass for an editor through which to choose one of the many classes available, as well as a certain type of specialization and initial equipment. It is impossible now to give you details on each special object chosen initially - also in classic Dark Souls style - but we are sure that each of them will be able to have some interesting implications in the lore or mechanics in the game.After facing a first devastating boss and dying very badly as happens in 99% of the souls of the last fifteen years, we woke up inside a tent, near a small camp that seems to act as a hub central. Wandering around the settlement we met several non-player characters, all sufficiently reluctant to dialogue or mysterious, but managing to get an idea of how the progression will work in broad terms. In town, you will be able to talk to the blacksmith who can upgrade and modify your weapons and armor, as well as find an altar for level and skill upgrades.
Exactly like in Salt and Sanctuary, by spending salt and increasing your level you will earn skill points to be assigned then on an elaborate system that still recalls the progenitor and which resumes its bases from the never forgotten spherography of Final Fantasy X . Some of these abilities will then be upgradeable several times, thus managing to develop one's alter ego in the direction that is considered most correct.
A well-established system, in short, which does not invent anything, but which refines what has already been applied. from Salt and Sanctuary. Obviously it is too early to say if the progression will really go in the right direction, especially in terms of balance. We ended our portion of the game around level 10, spending points on strength and vitality. On the other hand we have chosen a classic knight with sword and shield for this test, a class that the writer hardly ever plays, but also the simplest to get an idea of the close combat system.
Always bad, but ...
Salt and Sacrifice: the "mages" are our main prey Anyone who has played Salt and Sanctuary knows how the first work of Ska Studios was successful from almost every point of view , but left something to be desired on mere balancing and above all on path finding. On the other hand, the choice to hybridize metroidvania and souls had pushed the developers to the almost automatic desire to eliminate any map in the game. Probably a reckless mistake, but which made life difficult for many and which allowed even the most skeptical to realize the majesty of the level design of Miyazaki and From Software.Salt and Sanctuary, also thanks to the choice of creating the two-dimensional work of course, often made it too difficult to find the right path, the objectives left aside, the doors still closed and all those elements that in a metroidvania must strictly be within the player's reach. In addition, even the rapid travel did not help to simplify things.
So for the occasion Salt and Sacrifice tries to adjust the shot, not softening the brutality of a combat system, which always makes us the lamb among the lions, but giving the player a series of useful elements to waste as little time as possible. Inside the central hub there is, in fact, a portal, which can be activated through a combination of runes, all available immediately. As if it were a sort of old code to be activated in any GTA, finding the right combinations in documents or through NPCs around the maps, allows you to unlock new areas or to hunt down specific objectives.
Yes because in Salt and Sacrifice to be in the list of bad guys are great wizards, for now quite similar to each other in features, but each linked to different elements, which act as main or secondary objectives of our adventure. Through the portal it is therefore possible to enter both the coordinates of an area - we had the opportunity to try only one, completing it almost completely in a couple of hours - and those of the "hunting". Doing this allows us to follow a sort of trail, as if it were a smell emanating from the boss, which always leads us in the right direction.
To avoid making everything too simple, Ska Studios has nevertheless decided to always move our goal, with the particularity that, once found, the boss fight does not necessarily start immediately. It has happened more than once to fight with a target until it disappears, only to find it in another area and so on, until it is forced into its arena.
Salt and Sacrifice: the knight and the his steed This system allows the game to avoid making life too easy for those who already know the location of the arenas, but at the same time to make navigation of the maps less frustrating, which at least in the case of the first, is also generous with sanctuaries where you can recover your resources and teleport back to the village.
As a further homage to the From Software series, there is also a mechanics substantially identical to that of "humanity". Once dead, you will therefore permanently lose a portion of your health, which can only be recovered by spending a consumable that recalls that of Dark Souls, even in the form of the relative icon.
As if that were not enough, it is There is also a mechanic that in certain situations will make an alternative version of the classic mobs appear on the map, more resistant, but also more profitable as well as aggressive towards all other classic enemies. This last element, although interesting, made us understand how something is still missing in terms of positioning and delimitation of the zones. In fact, we happened to activate a second "mage" that wandered around the map and to take it to the arena of one of the bosses. The result, as hilarious as it was, was that the two big men clashed with each other, leaving us in the background and grabbing a quick victory against both now exhausted and weakened by the previous battle. Interesting, but perhaps to be reviewed in the balance of clashes and forces at play.
Style to sell
Salt and Sacrifice: mobs can be really bad Just like the first chapter, Salt and Sacrifice brings back to the screen a dark, dirty world, full of despair and death, characterized by dark colors and gloomy atmospheres. The visual has significantly approached our character, showing even more a really high and satisfying quality of the environments and all living elements. The style of Ska Studios is now recognizable and full of character, and we hope that the different areas of the game will also be sufficiently varied.We tested the title on PC, where it already performed very well at technical level, with a discreet cleanliness and with reactive and well-calibrated controls. Obviously there will be a need to judge also on the basis of a huge game world compared to what we have been able to see in this short test, but if a good morning starts in the morning, we can only hope for the best.
Salt and Sacrifice picks up exactly where the previous Ska Studios title left off. Learning the strengths and weaknesses of the progenitor it seems that this new work can be even better balanced, especially in the management of an exploration that five years ago had left more than a few doubts. Too early to make judgments, we have not yet seen anything of the eventual interconnection between the zones (assuming that the mechanics of the portal and the runes are really considered), as well as any reference to metroidvania abilities as it could have been the inversion of the gravity in Salt and Sanctuary. For now, expectations are still very high, aware of the work to be done and of a release date that will take several months and a lot of content to be cleaned up and made better.
