Be Excellent To Each Other

I've got 5 hours clocked on this and it is quite fab.

If you like Dark Souls and Castlevania games but more so the Dark Souls games then you FUCKING LOVE this.

It is everything 2D Dark Souls should be. It's just a shame that FROM Software didn't do it first with some actual tie in with the Souls series but, jesus, it is reet good.

I tried to buy it Wednesday, but it wouldn't allow me.

That's what happens when you try to gift a day of the week to a game.

I've been giving this a reet good blast and I'm having a reet good time.

Losing your soulssalt (salt's a stupid name for cashable EXP to level up and doesn't seem to make much sense either. Anyhoo) when you die is still an excellent mechanic that works to keep you on your toes. Here the soulssalt gets stuck in whichever enemy not quite fatally wounding you and if you fall off a ledge then your salt materialises as a baddy. It works a treat not least because temporary death actually means something. The times I've lost shit loads of salt that I actually wanted to hang onto because I wanted to get some levelling up done and find some camels icon for carrying more stuff (so I can continue my tank build) on the humongous skill tree. Literally a tree where each branch squirls off in loads of different directions for different thangs that RPG guys will probably spaff all over.

Anyway, you can do just as many builds as Dark Souls: Magic, cleric, knight, ninja, whip guy, dagger guys, spear builds and everything in between or mixed up on that fuck off big tree. I've gone for my typical tank build so I can wear the biggest and best armour, which leaves you slow with a short slow roll but when you've got a sword as big and flat as Cloud from Final Fantasy and hit as hard as Hulk on steroids and block the hardest hits from the biggest shield you kinda don't give two fucks. Or go two handed and swing like The Crankies.

So far so Dark Souls, right.

I tend to have greater trouble memorising map layouts in my head in a 2D plane and the lack of a map seems overly harsh when it plays much like a Metroidvania game. Still, I do alright recalling the general layout but I bet others won't do so well. Thankfully the maps do a good job of looping around and opening shortcuts back to earlier areas.

Oh, and there's those Dark Souls red signs on the floor which shows you the death of someone else online cept they aren't red signs they're gravestones that you insensitively smash up. They're pretty good at showing you where not to jump which is handy as you can get curious about sheer drops in a 2D space that you wouldn't in 3D as you could peer down a hole.

Plus, you can leave messages in a bottle much like the soapstone from DS, cept they don't show up with the same annoying frequency. And secrets and hidden ledges are even less recognisable or just downright invisible behind scenery so the bottles, when they do show up, are rather welcome.

So loads ripped off, then.

The bosses are quite decent but in a 2D space there are less options for tactical combat. I did have an ace number of fights against a dragon. The dragon burned me alive time and time again, so I swapped my gear for as much fire resistance as I could (almost 100% actually) but got smashed up by the physicals moves as the fire resistance gear was weak to physical attacks and this dragon hits hard. So I'd tried fire resistance and low weight loss to keep mobile during the fight and avoid the attacks. Didn't work, of course. So what about fire resistance gear and tons of arrows from a bow? Kinda worked but the dragon kept narrowing the distance between us with a big swipe and I'd fall over. Turned out, after several deaths, lost salt, multiple gear changes, loads of different weapon changes, that'd I'd struck the sweet spot. Average fire resistance gear, fire resistant shield and my biggest fuck off sword. I was able to take the fire damage and push through the flames to score my blows; avoid the tail swipe by jumping and block the other hits. Smashed his face in. It was quite the battle.

I like the aesthetics, but I like The Dishwasher and that vampire games looks. Some might not as it is very bleak with washed out browns, oranges, greys and other murky colours. The weather effects are good when they crop up and the enemies are varied and fit the aesthetic. There's little to complain about really.

The atmosphere is decent too with very little music except for the boss fights ala DS (the comparisons are almost hilarious. I'd be amazed if they don't get sued over something or other). It does have one large hiccup however as occasionally some rock guitar will start playing in the background and sounds shit. It's largely innocuous.

So there you go, Dark Souls ripped off but still offering a decent challenge (so far) for the Dark Souls/Metroidvania crowd.

Well fuck me, there's even a mimic. I was kinda wondering whether there might be one until I'd forgotten that thought and was promptly eaten.

Man alive The Third Lamb was causing me all sorts of problems. Sorted it now though. What a cunt.

Being beaten up by a sheep. How useless.

*says nothing about Vomit trolls*

It was actually a bird scorpion that spits lightning. Obv. :/

Super bunny hop reviews this and says it's good. Real good. And, y'know, he's right. It's really good.

But don't take my word for it watch moving pictures and some guy say words out your speakers.

Or you can watch me learn to play it while having half a conversation. - https://www.twitch.tv/mrdavexxviii/v/56206184

The first part is missing after twitch crashed after trying to figure out why he was telling me to party my knob.

Accidentally tried descecrating a sanctuary with 4 merchants in. Shit got real crazy real quick. Bit of a bizarre thing (hold an arcane page over the sanctuary pot and it asks you if you want to descecrate it).

Oh and R2 as you descend down ladders makes you slide down.

Just little bits of crazy stuff are crammed into this package of goodness.

21 hours pumped into this. I'm in the Crypt of the Dead Gods at the minute and it's still brilliant. The bosses vary from "HNNNNGH. Dead AGAIN" to "FIRST TIME, BITCHES" which is absolutely fine with me.

There's always plenty to see and do although I've noticed that when you get the boost jump there's a few annoying jumping sections that are just a bit cunty. Most just force you back to the start of the section but one section in particular just drops you to your death if you fuck up. And you will, because it's one of those stupid platforming challenges where the platforms disappear and reappear. No one in the history of gaming has enjoyed those.

There's a neat section off to the side of the Crypt of the Dead Gods by the way. It reminded me of Demon's Souls where you're falling down a well and can barely see where you're going to land and one wrong move and you're dead. Challenging but reasonably fair. I found another secret section similar to this earlier which has this bloke at the end who wanted something but I didn't have it so after all that it was a deadend. I still don't know what he wanted.

I suppose the biggest complaint I have is that the pickups are in the bottom left hand corner of the screen in small text so I sometimes miss what I've picked up. Case in point, I'd somehow managed to pick up a bag of dirt which some guy at the beginning wanted. I've no idea where I got it or how long ago I'd been carrying it around. Just a thought, but the text box in the middle of the screen like DS might have been alright as finding decent loot is part of the joy of the game.

Anyway, it's still brilliant and I see its reviewing extremely well. The guys who made it really have a decent understanding of what makes DS tick and have done a fab job translating this to 2D.

Bag of dirt was from just outside the ziggurat.

It certainly has a few annoyances. Invisible enemies. (There is an item you can get to make them visible, but the only way to get it beyond a starting stock is... killing them. Handy.) The move towards precarious platforms with enemies with huge knockback as the game goes on. (Gravity is by far the largest killer) Enemies that appear from thin air. Enemies that can teleport quickly around with no cooldown. Oh, and the entire tree of men boss fight.

Yeah, I'm sure they're there because of the ghosts from New London in Dark Souls. An area that I never bloody liked. It never made much sense to have a finite consumable item as the only way of tackling them. They always should have had some kind of item like the Estus which had a temporary effect and cool down. About 3 of the consumable flasks to see them in S&S can be found somewhere before the area and they can be purchased from a merchant too, so killing them isn't the only way to do it.

I never really found them a problem until I wanted to get back to the boss on a speed run. The little bastards follow you and you pretty much have to kill them every time to save your energy.



It's not that bad but there's some of this going on. You soon learn not to fight giant enemies near the edge of anything.



There's only two of these I know of and they were both easily dispatched: the ninja guys and the skeletons. The ninja are a piece of piss. Block and parry. The skeletons are a bit more annoying but if you've got a 100% shield (christ, any shield over 70% strike damage will just soak up the attacks) then just hold block until you want to attack.



What was wrong with that!? It was a piece of piss and a pretty interesting boss. Visually he's brilliant. I think I bested it on my third attempt.

2 people made this!? Two friggin people? Wow.

I've never really saw the point of Twitch but it's fun annoying Mr Dave while he's playing this and I'm having a bath.

Beat again on NG+

T'weren't all that hard the second time around.

And big stompy tutorial boss defeated. He was big. And stompy.

You've got quite obsessed by this haven't you?

Did you vary up your strength build for something different or stayed the same? I'd like to do a Bloodborne build for the lulz. Im not entirely sure whether the off-hand shooty-flint weapons work as a parry though. I'm assuming they do.

Wanted to finishify it before Dark Souls 3.

I've bought this now, so it better be good.

Stupid Sodden Knight.

Ha! I fucked him up good. Turns out it's easier with a spear than a frying pan.

Who would have expected that?

Quitters!

Says the man who abandoned the pan.

I started with sword, changed to a great sword and stuck with that for the game.

Second fucking try, Dave:

Wow that really has borrowed from Dark Souls!

That's not the half of it. It really is Dark Souls, but in 2D.

Since sneering at the Witch's crappy efforts at 13:30, I figured I'd do the rest. In a surprise to no-one, you'll notice that my tactics involve basically running straight into the bad man, planting my feet and swinging away.







I became (scarecrow spoiler) Now to watch the other endings.

This is being released on Vita on 28 March - same day as the Final Ever content for Dark Souls 3. *Blub*

Seems a bit of a strange business choice for a small team of two people to put their time especially since anyone who brought it on PS4 gets it on the Vita for free. Let's right, FREE via Cross Play. Still, I wish them well cause these people make some fabulous games and this is awesome.

Maybe Sony pay out loads of cash for cross-play games and that made it worthwhile? I have no actual information on that score it's just a thought, because otherwise you're totally right, it makes no business sense at all.

I have ordered a new power cable for my Vita in preparation.

Hello! Has anyone played the sequel, Salt and Sacrifice? Reviews are a bit mixed.

*waves*

Playing it now! Whatcha thinking?

Feels very similar to the last one but with a Demon's Souls hub but I haven’t got very far at all. Maybe played about an hour or so.

Same. I saw it only cost £8 so I took a punt. I'm chasing the second mage right now.

I'm enjoying it so far, but it feels biiiig. Maybe that'll change as i learn my way around.

I only just realised that you can put things into the three bottom slots in your.inventory to get boosts, so if you haven't done that yet you should.

Also: holy fuck, the skill tree!

And for such a bizarre spider’s web of a skill tree does it have to be in such a tiny box? Mind you, it does appear to be the usual Dark Souls stat box just laid out in an infuriating way (as far as I tell - dex, strength, blah blah).

The one thing that annoyed me was that it doesn’t appear you can level up at bonfires, like Demons Souls, so you have to go back to the hub … and then trek over to the statue thing which it never puts you right next to, unlike Demons Souls. And then you have to trek back to the warp gate which isn’t close to that either. And, as far as I could tell on my brief progress, you start right back at the beginning of the map rather than the bonfire you warped out of. Maybe more warps open up, but, come on, there’s a reason FromSoft never went back to this system. Oh hang on, Bloodborne. Well, since then. Oh hang on, Elden Ring a bit. Well look, it’s just irritating to wander around in a 2D space and don’t shove the necessary bits right next to each other and where you warp in.

You can sprint for an unlimited distance in the village, if that helps.

I found out last night that you do different combos if you hold up or down on the left stick. I am three mages and a mini-boss in, now. Hopefully going to fuck up the water mage tonight.

Done! I enjoyed that a lot, probably not as much as Salt and Santuary, but still a lot.

Full writeup soon.

Fuck me, you can increase the size of the UI AND, most importantly, the bloody menu boxes! Thank Christ for that and only after 10 fucking hours in; squinting at the screen.

Also, I do not care for the Mage Hunts AT ALL.