The 2D soulslike platformer Salt and Sanctuary made waves upon release for its interesting twist on the genre and its absolutely gorgeous visuals. The title is criminally underrated, but a truly brilliant experience. It takes a lot of inspiration from From Software's challenging formula for gameplay, brilliantly transitioned to a new perspective.
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It's a very replayable title, but even the best games can get a little tiring after a while. For gamers who enjoy this uniquely difficult dark fantasy, though, there's a ton of similar games out there to try. Here are a couple choices.
10 Eldest Souls
Eldest Souls is a brutally difficult top-down slasher. It features eye-catching pixel-art aesthetics, on top of what essentially boils down to boss rush progression. Players only get moments of pause between fights with the game's multitude of challenging foes.
It's worth picking up as a Salt and Sanctuary fan for its similar narrative tone and gameplay. However, bear in mind that it features a lot less adventuring and many more lengthy fights.
9 Blasphemous
Blasphemous is unique for its offputting visuals and heavily Catholic-inspired mythology and aesthetic. It's a 2D slasher platformer just like Salt and Sanctuary; however, while Salt and Sanctuary has few truly disturbing moments, Blasphemous puts the horror front and center.
Similar to Eldest Souls, Blasphemous features pixel-art visuals. But where Eldest Souls is eye-catching and gorgeous, Blasphemous is gory, brutal, and imposing.
8 Ori and the Blind Forest (And Its Sequel)
Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps have become legendary indie titles in their own right. Gorgeous aesthetics aside, the game has some of the best controls of modern 2D platformers, as well as a story that asks more questions than it answers.
It's a visual upgrade from Salt and Sanctuary, but it's not nearly as difficult, all things considered. It has its hard moments, but it's one to pick up for players enjoy the controls and gameplay of Salt and Sanctuary rather than the difficulty.
7 Hollow Knight
Soulslike fans consider Hollow Knight as a pinnacle of the genre. While many games inspired by the Dark Souls series have a hard time coming up with a completely original world, Hollow Knight doesn't fall into this trap. Its world is instantly engaging and wholly unique.
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It's not an easy game, despite its Flash-like graphical style. Rather, it requires just as much precision and consideration as Salt and Sanctuary does. Some have described it as being closer to the original Metroidvania genre rather than a soulslike, but regardless, it's a classic every gamer should try.
6 Furi
Boss fights in Salt and Sanctuary tend to be the most anxiety-inducing and skill-dependent events in a playthrough. It's not like the rest of the game is easy, but bosses are on a wholly other level. What if there was a game that was, quite literally, nothing but boss fights?
Enter Furi, a game where the player's goal is to escape through a series of lengthy boss fights. The game's dodge mechanics (as well as other abilities gained through progression) will feel familiar to Salt and Sanctuary fans.
5 Dead Cells
Dead Cells is more of a roguelike than a soulslike; however, it does take some inspiration and gameplay elements from the genre. It puts its focus on replayability and getting as far as one can, rather than progression through a world.
Its control scheme is very similar to Salt and Sanctuary, and its world is similarly foreboding – despite being much more vibrant. While an adventure through Salt and Sanctuary will eventually end, Dead Cells is designed to be played over and over again.
4 Dust: An Elysian Tail
Another 2D platformer, Dust: An Elysian Tail was praised for its incredibly complex combat systems and surprisingly engaging storyline. The character designs have been derided a bit, but there's an amazing game underneath – plus, it was all developed by one person.
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While Salt and Sanctuary has little in the way of combos or rapid combat, Dust: An Elysian Tail has it in spades. The 2D gameplay will feel familiar, and while it's a bit more forgiving than Salt and Sanctuary, it's just as satisfying.
3 Any Classic Metroid or Castlevania Game
Before the term soulslike became popular, another term was used to describe games of a similar ilk: Metroidvania. The Metroid and Castlevania series are known for world design that ties together the entire game with shortcuts and backtracking — a major inspiration behind world design in the first Dark Souls game.
Though the classic Metroid and Castlevania games are relatively dated, the games surprisingly hold up. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night still looks gorgeous to this day, and no-one can deny the sense of mystery and adventure featured in Super Metroid.
2 The Dark Souls Trilogy
The term soulslike, of course, comes from the infamous Dark Souls series. The term has become something of a buzzword in the industry, but nevertheless, each of the games in the Dark Souls trilogy should be a must-play for any serious gamer.
The tone, narrative structure, gameplay mechanics, and even world design are a near-perfect match for Salt and Sanctuary fans. It's a 3D game, though, and might take some time to get used to each game's unique control schemes and differences.
1 Bloodborne, Demon's Souls, & Sekiro
When gamers think of From Software, they immediately think Dark Souls. The renowned trilogy is far from their only work, though. Before Dark Souls was Demon's Souls, recently remastered for the PlayStation 5, as well as a spiritual successor in Bloodborne and familiar gameplay in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Dark Soulsand Demon's Souls take place in a dark high fantasy setting; meanwhile Bloodborne is more inspired by Lovecraftian horror and Sekiro is based in Samurai-era Japan. Though they're all different experiences, all of these From Software games are great for Salt and Sanctuary fans.
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