Salt and Sacrifice is the newest release from Devoured Studios and brings the “Soulslike” genre to 2D in a metroidvania style adventure. But the aesthetic and bosses aren’t the only sources of inspiration for Ska Studios and the PvP system of Soulslike games has its own magic.
In a recent blogpost from Sony, the devs had the chance to discuss Salt and Sacrifice and also praise the games and mechanics that inspired their new title. Despite being 2D, PvP is a planned feature for the game on its launch.
In Dark Souls, players adopt a faction and use specific items related to that faction in order to invade the worlds of other players. This seamlessly introduces PvP in a way that’s lore friendly and accessible. It’s this faction system that has inspired Salt and Sacrifice with the game featuring its own PvP factions.
James Silva, the co-owner of Devoured Studios discussed his impressions of PvP in Salt and Sacrifice after a recent network test. This test allowed them to observe and play against the unique builds and strategies a diverse PvP community brings.
“Shane and I are obviously both long-time Soulslike fans, and knew that particular brand of magic–the hasty alliances with strangers, the odd gestures, the dedication to fashion over function, the new weapon combos and strategies resulting from hours of investment towards different build paths–wasn’t something we’d likely find in the midst of development. Even with hundreds of hours of internal testing, we were still only playing with the same handful of people each time. So this network test, while also a fantastic source of information on balance, flow, matchmaking, and technical issues, was also the very first time we could legitimately engage in online antics with random folks. In other words: finally experience that Soulslike magic we’d been building up to since we started work on the game. “
James Silva
