If the term "Salt as required" is commonly used in some cases, in the gaming world it is never enough! And here's why Salt and Sanctuary, title souls-like made by Ska Studios, finally lands on console Nintendo Switch!
We got to try this port and we can't wait to give you our opinion. Will it have met our expectations? Let's find out together!
The great success of the title
Salt and Sanctuary tells the story of a mortal, our character, who begins his journey in a large boat with the aim of saving a princess and preventing her from marrying a tyrant.
What he still doesn't know is that to get to his goal he will have to overcome countless obstacles and enemies thirsty for "Salt" in a journey full of different curated environments and a disproportionate number of improvements to make our hero a warrior in all respects.
This game that so much harks back to its progenitor Dark Souls, now a cult work of the master Hidetaka Miyazaki, takes up the mechanics to customize everything with a nice designer touch.
However, it should be considered that the game, being in two-dimensional graphics, is limited in some gameplay choices that in most cases make up space for small goodies, not even present in the primary title.
The graphic style of the characters, for example, an element that divides users a lot, is really simple and approximate but very distinctive.
The meticulous care for the backgrounds and settings, on the other hand, creates a beautiful contrast that will surely please anyone looking for a work full of small details to pay attention to.
Salt and Sanctuary was hailed as the best Dark Souls-inspired title ever created, coming in some cases almost to the touch of plagiarism but never detaching from what are the new ideas for the title.
So let's talk about its mechanics and possibly how they were rendered on Nintendo consoles!
Intuitive mechanics and a Souls-style approach
The title speaks for itself, but let's analyze why together!
Everything starts from the character creation menu, very inherent to the reference series and really reduced to the bone as regards the personalization of hair and particular signs, in which we can choose between eight different classes: Knight, Mage, Paladin, Thief, Cook, Cleric, Penniless and Hunter.
Our character, as well as the future hero of a great adventure, will use currencies such as Sale e Gold to continue with his journey.
Salt is the equivalent of the Souls in the Dark Souls series, which will therefore allow us to advance in level and make use of the many skills present in the skill tree, a very interesting game addition in full long-standing JRPG style.
Gold on the other hand, as it is easy to guess, will allow us to purchase resources and pieces of equipment for our character.
The game mechanics, which faithfully reproduce the original Souls series, will allow us to move, jump, attack at two different power levels, roll, parry and interact with objects and the surrounding environment.
For console Nintendo Switch the settings are as follows:
- Left stick to move
- Right stick to tilt the camera
- B to jump
- Y to make a light attack
- X to make a heavy attack
- A to interact with people and objects
- R to use consumable items
- ZR to perform a roll
- L to change the weapon from one hand to two hands
- ZL to make a parade
- The directional arrow down to turn on a flashlight
- The left and right directional arrows to select objects
- The + button to access the inventory
The inventory will allow us to have access to all the objects collected, equipment in our possession and info on statistics and bonus / malus in our character.
It will also prove very useful to consult the bestiary, an interesting addition that will allow us to delve into the “Lore” game, specifically concerning the different creatures that we will face on our journey.
Journey that we underline, unexpectedly for such a title the duration of about 25 hours.
The new generation Nintendo console goes well with the title, being practical and comfortable for this type of command setting.
The most satisfying mode will be the table one with the two joycons, which will allow you to have freedom of movement and practicality in combat.
The resolution, as you might expect, is 1080p on a fixed TV and 720p on a portable console, giving a nice feeling both on a fixed console and on a big screen.
At the expense of some inaccuracies in the Antialiasing filter, the quality of the HUD is of good yield.
An aspect that has remained unchanged is the localization of the game, which today can be considered a cult of this title, proposing phrases that only Yoda from the Star Wars series would be able to formulate.
Overall, the porting carried out on Nintendo Switch is satisfactory and convenient to give a new cycle of use to a title with great merits, worthy of being played.
Where to buy Salt and Sanctuary
Salt and Sanctuary can be played on PC via the Steam platform and for Playstation 4 for EUR 17,99.
Su Nintendo Switch it can instead be downloaded for $ 14,99, probably to justify the poor localization.
For anyone who wants, a dedicated Official Site is available at any time, which can be used to support the game by purchasing Merchandising or the Official Soundtrack.
Are we therefore satisfied? Absolutely yes, and we can't wait to hear what Ska Studios has in store for us!
