{"id":588261,"date":"2026-03-18T07:08:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/salt-and-sacrifice-review-in-progress\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T07:08:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:08:33","slug":"salt-and-sacrifice-review-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/salt-and-sacrifice-review-in-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt And Sacrifice \u2013 Review In Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Ska Studios is on the cusp of launching\u00a0a successor to its own 2016 platforming action game Salt and Sanctuary, this time called Salt and Sacrifice. While it officially releases tomorrow, I’ve only had the game for\u00a0the past weekend and have plenty more to explore. In lieu of a full review before the game launches, I present my initial impressions of Salt and Sacrifice, which are decidedly mixed after a dozen hours of hunting Mages.<\/p>\n

Following its predecessor’s footsteps, Salt and Sacrifice hits a similar\u00a02D Soulslike feel.\u00a0After perishing in the opening moments, your character becomes Spellmarked, an entity that treads\u00a0the line between life and death by the power of magic. Your other title is that of an Inquisitor tasked with hunting and devouring the hearts of dangerous Mages,\u00a0the giant monster bosses you’ll fight throughout the game. It’s all very boilerplate for the genre but does its job\u00a0to get you into the world and track down Mages, though the plight of the Inquisitors hasn’t gripped me beyond the setup.<\/p>\n

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I’ve enjoyed running through Ashbourne Village and Bol Gerahn, the first two locations I was sent to on my mission to kill various Mages. The former is a decimated settlement with dreary green hills and forests surrounding it, while the latter has me exploring sand-drenched ruins in the desert. I like the diversity in the settings, and there are some fun platforming challenges to be had.\u00a0These levels are large and have all kinds of paths and\u00a0shortcuts to find while fighting through the native enemies for each place. Hidden around the world are the key spots to progress\u00a0in Salt and Sacrifice,\u00a0hazy points of interest\u00a0that start up the main trials in the game:\u00a0hunting down\u00a0a Named Mage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mages are humans who have taken monstrous forms embodying various elements such as ice, fire, water, poison, light, and many more. Marked Inquisitors track Mages\u00a0around a level and clash with them in shot encounters with summoned enemy minions. Mages will hide again after a short time, and the process repeats itself until the boss settles in one place, and the true fight begins.\u00a0These bosses are half fun, half a pain to slog through. My favorite fights thus far have been those that\u00a0rewarded recognition of\u00a0the Mage’s attack patterns, resulting in a satisfying kill after a handful of tries. Unfortunately, the further I get in the game, the more their attacks become one-hit cheap shots. I’ve only found\u00a0success in recent fights if I got lucky rather than resulting from learning anything useful from the encounter.<\/p>\n

Salt and Sacrifice reminds me of Monster Hunter\u00a0in its crafting and gear system; however,\u00a0I’m not sold on its implementation yet. Defeated Mages and their minions will drop crafting ingredients used to build armor and weapons styled after those creatures and the elements they represent. I really like that\u00a0Mage fights aren’t a one-and-done situation and\u00a0can be found and defeated outside of their Named Mage hunts to grind for more\u00a0materials. What holds the system back severely for me is the necessity to unlock\u00a0certain armor and weapon tiers in the Tree of Skill.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Because the ability to use just about every craftable item is locked behind skill points, there’s limited flexibility for trying different weapon types or using armor that will make a fight against a specific Mage easier. For example, I went deep into the Highblade (katana)\u00a0Dexterity build\u00a0in the skill tree\u00a0early on,\u00a0thinking the use of\u00a0gear would be tied solely to stats. Because of that, I’m now limited in what I can wear and use in battle because all light and heavy armor skill nodes are on other sections of the tree. I feel hindered by the lack of experimentation of trying different weapons, and the same goes for preparing for battles I have the proper gear for but can’t effectively wear.\u00a0It has\u00a0been frustrating having to go back and figure out which skills to refund \u2013 with a limited number of reagents to do so \u2013 and reallocate these precious skill points elsewhere to unlock the ability to\u00a0wear some different armor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While my most recent hours in Salt and Sacrifice have been, for lack of a better term,\u00a0salty, I think there’s a lot to like here\u00a0for Souls fans and even Monster Hunter buffs. They’re two series that share a lot of DNA with prioritized attack animations and a focus on learning boss patterns to be victorious. Playing one helped me out in the other, so marrying the hunting and crafting aspects into a Souls-like is a brilliant idea on paper. However, Ska Studios hasn’t adopted the best ideas from each to make the perfect amalgamation. I’m cautiously optimistic that the rest of Salt and Sacrifice will redeem itself in the end, but from what I’ve played so far, it’s flawed in ways that make hours of grinding boss fights feel fruitless in the lack of rewards I can realistically use. I don’t think I have a grasp of everything Salt and Sacrifice has to offer yet, but\u00a0I’ll share\u00a0my\u00a0final thoughts in a full review when I do.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ska Studios is on the cusp of launching\u00a0a successor to its own 2016 platforming action game Salt and Sanctuary, this time called Salt and Sacrifice. While it officially releases tomorrow, I’ve only had the game for\u00a0the past weekend and have plenty more to explore. In lieu of a full review before the game launches, I present my initial impressions of Salt and Sacrifice, which are decidedly mixed after a dozen hours of hunting Mages. Following its predecessor’s footsteps, Salt and Sacrifice hits a similar\u00a02D Soulslike feel.\u00a0After perishing in the opening moments, your character becomes Spellmarked, an entity that treads\u00a0the line between life and death by the power of magic. Your other title is that of an Inquisitor tasked with hunting and devouring the hearts of…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":588262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-informer"],"yoast_head":"\nSalt And Sacrifice \u2013 Review In Progress | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ska Studios is on the cusp of launching\u00a0a successor to its own 2016 platforming action game Salt and Sanctuary, this time called Salt and Sacrifice. 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