Recent reviews by Tears of Cyanide

TLDR: I don't understand why this game gets so much hate, it's literally the love child of Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne- but so much more. I love it, and can't wait to keep playing🖤


My husband and I tried starting a new file in DS3, but because we both have played through it so much it's a bit boring. However, after we discovered this game on Xbox Game pass(& I got it on sale), we've been playing it nearly every day together since.

Other than being crossplay, this game takes all of the good and "bad" from both games and meshes them together in a beautiful way. Everything is harder in the best ways, and everything forces you to think about what you do and actually look instead of following a linear line.

At the same time, Lords of the Fallen is completely different, yet familiar all at once(as noted by a friend).

I think this game is a work of art, with so many details everyone looks over instead of whining that it's harder than other souls likes.

Spirit City isn't exactly a game, more like an idle tool to help you chill and relax. I like to use it when I'm updating apps on my Steam Deck, as a Screensaver of sorts.
The music selection is really good, & the pets and decor are adorable. It does pretty well at allowing you to create your own little space with whatever aesthetic you want and the vibe you want to feel at the moment.

That said, I think being able to add more details/information into the habits, to-do list, repeating tasks, would be benifiticial towards the productive side of the app. I didn't consider using my Steam Deck for Journaling, but if this area is worked on I might just end up doing that.

It also needs some work on the UI for the Steam Deck and general UI edits like making full-screen actually full-screen(hiding all UI elements), but these are all small bugs I'm sure will get fixed over time.

Can't wait to see this app updated 🖤

I played this game when it first game out and it muted my entire Xbox to the point that the only fix was a hard reset of the system. I only rented the game then and I promised to never buy it again- but years later when I saw it on sale on Steam for 9$ I decided to pick it up just to see how was coming along.

I've spent about half of my play time ignoring everything because I was so immersed in decorating my little house. There's so much freedom to the base making element, and as you unlock more and more decor/utility options you'll only want to keep finding and making more.

I have a pet bear that chills in the back room of my cabin, a lil' ray of sunshine that plays music on my front porch, a robo dog that fetches stuff for me & life is good. 🌞

That said, when I first started playing on my Steam Deck it was absolutely unplayable because there's no option to change the font size OR the color(other than for your pip boy). Most of the game is yellow tinted, but Bethesda STILL chose yellow to be the default font color. I was absolutely uninterested in all of the story because I couldn't even ******* read it.
But, I ended up downloading a simple HUD resizer & since then I haven't had an issue at all.
The story is sub-par compared to the older games, but still much better than anything that was in the base game at release.

All in all, I'm very glad I got this game and gave it a second chance. I haven't been glued to a game like this in a while & I can't wait to watch it develop further.
I love my little cabin in the woods, I love my Yogi-Bear and I love the friends I've made along the way while rebuilding Appalachia. 🖤

My family and I are fighting orcs and putting on the best equipment we claim from their corpses before proceeding to wipe out their entire bloodline.
10/10

Cattails but you immediately start as a Mayor of your own Clan instead of joining a Chosen Clan(and later making one of your own).
I had kittens with Doc in Cattails, so I was a little sad to not see him in this game. 😔 But I spent over 3 hours making my Clans home when I first began this game because there's genuinely SO MANY customization & decoration opinions.
There's multiple things to do, even if you don't want to focus on the main storyline. The game doesn't force you to do it either, so you can take your time and play the game at your own pace.
I finally beat the final boss after 25 hours(Dark Souls Boss FTW), but I'm still looking forward to many more hours in the future.
Can't wait to see any future updates. 🖤

A cute time waster that me and my kiddo enjoy playing on my Steam Deck while we wait on the school bus. It makes him happy, so it makes me happy.
We're looking forward to any and all updates. 😄❤️

The first time I played this game I absolutely hated it. Like a lot of people, I really really wanted and expected a similar experience to "Salt and Sanctuary". So going into this at first a lot of things were different/new/confusing and I ultimately didn't play it much after the release.

But after a few months I decided to play the game with fresh eyes & not compare it to their previous game- and so far I've already sunk over 10 hours simply because I love Jolly-CoOperarion. :praisesun:

Salt and Sacrifice seems to want to focus on an Dark Souls feel and overall Jolly Co-Operation and Invasion aspects of the game. If you've played anything made by FromSoftware you'd recognize a lot of things inspired from their games in S&S.

A main hub or "Firelink Shrine", a literal sunlight Covenant ("Affirm the Dawn" is such a cute reference to "Praise the Sun" 🥺), BOSS WEAPONS 🐦‍⬛📣, Solid Invasions only when you choose to summon friendly Phantoms- not to mention the naked red phantoms that can one-shot you.
I always get a chuckle out of the naked f*cks with a stick kicking my *ss, just like in the actual Dark Souls games. :praisesun:
I also always get a smile when myself and 2 others spam the block or jump button anytime we gank & kill an overpowered red.
A CAT YOU CAN PET
It's the little things in life lads.

I also really like that Salt & Sacrifice has Cross Play & an Password system so you can connect to friends easily. There's also a covenant item that makes area monsters attack red phantoms!

Overall I'm very happy with Salt & Sacrifice & I would happily recommend it to anyone who loves Souls-Like games.
BUT- If you have played Salt & Sanctuary before PLEASE don't expect Salt & Sacrifice to be similar to it. It's a completely different experience altogether but it's a happily welcomed one & I'm so happy that I gave it a second chance. 🖤

TLDR: I love the game. I wouldn't pay 80$ for it especially because it has Micro Transactions, but I have over 50 hours in this game now and I know I'm going to have more in the future. Sure there's some bad things about it(mainly Blizzard being Blizzard) but for me, it was worth the money.

Positive:
I haven't paid any attention as to why everyone is mad at this game and frankly, I don't care. I'm having a lot of fun playing it solo and I've even bought some cosmetics for my horse.
I remember hoping Diablo 3 would be like this when I first started playing that game. Somewhat online so I can give away some things, Jolly Co-Operation, etc. But it wasn't. That said, I still have over 300 hours on it on my Switch, & I played it until I was sick of it.

Diablo 4 absolutely hits all of those marks for me. I love Jolly Co-Operation. Occasionally running into someone exploring the same area with you & helping them kill enemies together for a few moments feels great. Spending blood lures to summon bosses several times over with random people is amazing, saying hello and spinning in circles with other random people while you count down the last seconds for a world boss event to start feels amazing. There's just something stupid magical about that.

It runs great on my Steam Deck, and after a few updates I've noticed that the PVP areas don't hog my RAM anymore.

Negative:
There's not too many variants of random quests and dungeons(Most popular being "Hello, is anyone there?" Ghost quests with the exact same ending & dialog but with different voices🙄) but I was never expecting too much from this game unlike other people.
Diablo 4 just came out. I'm patient enough to wait for the bugs to be fixed and for more content to come to the game. In fact, I'm very excited for it(cow level when? 🐄)

The only true issues I have is how late the horses are unlocked(which also feels like a game mechanic only added as a cash grab). It took me nearly 50 hours of exploring, doing main & mini-events & other things to finish act 3 & finally unlock my steed AND the skins I unlocked for it.

And by the way, all of the cosmetics cost about 10-25 dollars or more of in game currency. Sure, you can earn SOME currency through the battle pass, BUT WHY SHOULD ANYONE PAY FOR A BATTLE PASS?! Plus, the Platinum the battle pass gives you isn't even a lot to truly matter if you want something that's limited in the shop. Absolutely 💩 move Blizzard.

I can fix her.

It's Miku & Picross, what else could I ask for?
I always found doing puzzles really relaxing, & I absolutely love Miku, so I find this game perfect to just sit back and unwind with.
I just wish there was a way to change the song as you are filling out an puzzle.