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Inspired by ‘Dark Souls’, ‘Salt and Sanctuary’ Hits The Nintendo Switch August 2nd
Certain people talk about Dark Souls-like games as if they’ve never heard of Ska Studios’ Salt and Sanctuary, which showed up on the PlayStation 4 and PC back in 2016. If anything, the 2D action-RPG, with its punishing difficulty and furious combat, epitomizes what it means to be “Dark Souls-like”. And now it’s coming to the Nintendo Switch.
Salt and Sanctuary will drop on the Nintendo eShop on August 2nd for $17.99. A later release, Salt and Sanctuary: Drowned Tome Edition, will ship this holiday season. The game has recorded more than 800,000 downloads since its release. According to Michelle and James Silva, co-creators at Ska Studios, when it came to inspiration, Dark Souls was the obvious source.
“The two of us wanted to create a Souls-like game that we wanted to play, and finding that so many others wanted it too warmed our dark little hearts. Bringing Salt and Sanctuary to the Nintendo Switch means more people who like dismal, satisfying games can play our very dismal, satisfying game.”
Like Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary allows players to choose from several character builds, such as a swordsman, a spellcaster and so on. As players progress through the game, they’ll encounter varying enemy types and bosses, with multiple endings. There are also other game modes once you’ve completed the game, furthering the game’s replayability.
The story for the game has you sailing across a stormy sea to transport a princess and strike a truce between rival kingdoms. While doing so, an encounter with a sinister abomination wrecks your ship. Upon drifting onto the shore, the journey to broker peace dissolves into a struggle for survival on a treacherous island rife with undead.
The best part about engaging with collaborative genre fiction on the internet is that anyone can get in on the action, with worldwide accessibility often resulting in absurd story beats that wouldn’t be possible if any single person was responsible for the entire narrative. And while Kane Parsons’ Backrooms film is definitely the young filmmaker’s own unique take on the infamous creepypasta, it’s fun to see other creators join the Backrooms sandbox now that the big screen adaptation is getting ready for a record-shattering opening weekend.
As if cleverly timed releases like Puppet Combo’s The Backrooms game weren’t enough (not to mention that Scary Movie poster poking fun at Parsons’ flick), McDonald’s official social media accounts have now released an analog horror video of their own celebrating the liminal terrors of the McRooms – complete with a familiar purple surprise at the end of the footage.
While it’s funny enough to see the world’s most recognizable Fast Food giant engage with internet-borne Found Footage thrills seemingly out of the blue, the video is actually referencing a long-running gag among the Backrooms fandom where creators jokingly talk about there being a fully functional McDonald’s restaurant hidden somewhere in level 0 of the infamous liminal labyrinth.
Now, would it be too much to hope for a moist-carpet-flavored McShake to tie in with the film?
Backrooms is now playing only in theaters from A24.
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