I‘ve finally decided to put my mind to Salt & Sanctuary which has been in my library for… a long time but it never grabbed me. Now I‘ve started a new character and I‘m following a guide, it feels more engaging and fun to me with more direction. The guide‘s crazy detailed and I‘m amazed someone sat down and typed all that out (screenshots incl.) for a - in my opinion - rather niche title. The only thing that bugs me is the animation update rate, the game can run at triple digit fps, it still looks and feels like 60.
Octopath Traveler
I‘ve also bought and started Octopath Traveler on Steam which I didn‘t want to at first since I a) have it on Switch already and b) like achievement hunting and boy does that game want you to turn every pebble for that. However, the music is so effing amazing (check out the title theme on YT or wherever) and the game so visually beautiful, I just needed the 60 fps and full res. I realized there‘s something very soothing for me in experiencing a jrpg story in pixelart. I regret nothing (yet).
Ooh I’m very curious to hear about Salt & Sanctuary. After just now finishing Mandragora I’ve gotten the Metroidvania/Soulslike bug and I’m on the outlook for something similar to fill the void. Right now I’m on Blasphemous but S&S is on my wishlist for the next sale along with Grime.
I think you’ll like SnS then. It‘s about 80% Soulslike and 20% Metroidvania.
It‘s a game where you can tell that they played Dark Souls and thought „We really wanna make that as well.“ Armor‘s practically useless, you‘re just looking for the most OP rings and weapon movesets - just like in Souls games (magic is supposedly OP, but I wouldn’t know I‘m not playing a mage, I‘m a 2h kinda guy).
It‘s a game with lots of love and little budget, with lots of things to find and lots of extra things to fight if you look around.
This is all just my opinion being maybe 20% into the game so far, though.
Is there a lot of platforming? I’m about 70% of the way through Blasphemous at the moment and that’s been by far the worst part. I’m not really a platformer guy (I’ve avoided Hollow Knight for a reason), and one thing I loved about Mandragora was how little platforming there was, and how easy the platforming that did exist was.
That‘s hard to gauge since I haven‘t played Blasphemous or Mandragora and there certainly is some platforming but I can‘t say if it‘s to an extent you‘d tolerate or not. I personally haven‘t broken a sweat so far, it‘s only been some jumping over gaps and the odd breaking platform (essentially platforming on a mild timer) nothing precise if that helps?
I‘d say you have to do some mild platforming somewhat frequently though, at least in the parts I‘ve been.
It’s been nothing like Hollow Knight in that regard, I can promise that much.
Sounds good, thank you! That sounds about the same as Mandragora. I think Blasphemous having clunky controls and janky detection for hitboxes and ledge grabs etc makes it a lot worse - plus some very annoying enemy placement that can lead to some very cheap feeling unfun deaths. Also there is a lot more platforming sections in it. The actual bosses haven’t been bad at all.
Salt & Sanctuary
I‘ve finally decided to put my mind to Salt & Sanctuary which has been in my library for… a long time but it never grabbed me. Now I‘ve started a new character and I‘m following a guide, it feels more engaging and fun to me with more direction. The guide‘s crazy detailed and I‘m amazed someone sat down and typed all that out (screenshots incl.) for a - in my opinion - rather niche title. The only thing that bugs me is the animation update rate, the game can run at triple digit fps, it still looks and feels like 60.
Octopath Traveler
I‘ve also bought and started Octopath Traveler on Steam which I didn‘t want to at first since I a) have it on Switch already and b) like achievement hunting and boy does that game want you to turn every pebble for that. However, the music is so effing amazing (check out the title theme on YT or wherever) and the game so visually beautiful, I just needed the 60 fps and full res. I realized there‘s something very soothing for me in experiencing a jrpg story in pixelart. I regret nothing (yet).
Ooh I’m very curious to hear about Salt & Sanctuary. After just now finishing Mandragora I’ve gotten the Metroidvania/Soulslike bug and I’m on the outlook for something similar to fill the void. Right now I’m on Blasphemous but S&S is on my wishlist for the next sale along with Grime.
I think you’ll like SnS then. It‘s about 80% Soulslike and 20% Metroidvania.
It‘s a game where you can tell that they played Dark Souls and thought „We really wanna make that as well.“ Armor‘s practically useless, you‘re just looking for the most OP rings and weapon movesets - just like in Souls games (magic is supposedly OP, but I wouldn’t know I‘m not playing a mage, I‘m a 2h kinda guy).
It‘s a game with lots of love and little budget, with lots of things to find and lots of extra things to fight if you look around.
This is all just my opinion being maybe 20% into the game so far, though.
Is there a lot of platforming? I’m about 70% of the way through Blasphemous at the moment and that’s been by far the worst part. I’m not really a platformer guy (I’ve avoided Hollow Knight for a reason), and one thing I loved about Mandragora was how little platforming there was, and how easy the platforming that did exist was.
That‘s hard to gauge since I haven‘t played Blasphemous or Mandragora and there certainly is some platforming but I can‘t say if it‘s to an extent you‘d tolerate or not. I personally haven‘t broken a sweat so far, it‘s only been some jumping over gaps and the odd breaking platform (essentially platforming on a mild timer) nothing precise if that helps?
I‘d say you have to do some mild platforming somewhat frequently though, at least in the parts I‘ve been.
It’s been nothing like Hollow Knight in that regard, I can promise that much.
Sounds good, thank you! That sounds about the same as Mandragora. I think Blasphemous having clunky controls and janky detection for hitboxes and ledge grabs etc makes it a lot worse - plus some very annoying enemy placement that can lead to some very cheap feeling unfun deaths. Also there is a lot more platforming sections in it. The actual bosses haven’t been bad at all.