About The Game

Set in the year 1698, the story takes place in a gothic reimagining of the Holy Roman Empire. Players step into the boots of Rudiger, a retired soldier who has traded his sword for a farmer’s life in the village of Elsheim. His peace is shattered by Father Pacer, a corrupt priest who has begun violently stealing holy relics to fuel a dark plot. Rudiger must take up the titular Spear of Sacrilege to hunt down Pacer and reclaim the stolen artifacts across 21 grueling stages.

The game is a deliberate "throwback" to the 8-bit era, featuring stiff jump physics, committed mid-air momentum, and a punishing knockback system (which can be toggled off in "Easy" mode). Unlike Simon's whip or Alucard's sword, Rudiger's spear offers unique utility. It can be thrust, thrown, or even lodged into walls to act as a temporary platform for reaching higher areas. Players collect special orbs to buy health upgrades and "faith" from a traveling merchant named Lavinia. Instead of more modern checkpoints, continues are managed one of two ways, either via a direct continue which requires the player spend orbs (that is, if you've collected enough of them) or players can continue via a classic password system. Although this might feel punishing to players used to more modern games, the stages and related passwords are generously divided to now be overly punishing (unlike classic games, which could be extremely painful at times.)

History and Inspiration

The design DNA of Saint Slayer is explicitly rooted in the Nintendo Entertainment System era of the late 1980s. The developers have cited the original Castlevania trilogy (specifically Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse) as primary influences on the game's gothic atmosphere and level structure. Additionally, the "pogo" mechanic seems directly inspired by the classic NES game DuckTales.

Beyond gaming, the setting draws from late 17th-century European history, utilizing the aesthetic of the War of the Grand Alliance era. This provides a gritty, grounded contrast to the supernatural elements like flying skulls and resurrected skeletons.

Critical Discourse and Player Feedback

The early reception for Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege has been largely positive, though it remains a polarizing experience for those not accustomed to retro difficulty.

Critics have praised the game as a "love letter" to the 8-bit era, specifically highlighting the chiptune soundtrack and the mechanical depth of the spear. However, some reviewers criticized the "stinkier" dialogue and "dad jokes" scattered throughout the levels, noting that the intentional "cheese" can occasionally clash with the dark gothic visuals.

Currently on Steam, player feedback is sitting at "Very Positive", with 92% recommended across 58 ratings. Players frequently mention the satisfaction of mastering the "pixel-perfect" platforming. The most common complaint involves the high difficulty curve, specifically the bird-infested platforming sections that recall the frustration of classic Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania levels.

Feedback on the PlayStation store currently sits at a 4.82 average from 193 ratings, and has focused on the visual fidelity, with many players appreciating the "chunky" pixel art and the visceral gore effects (like organs spilling from defeated enemies) that push the 8-bit visuals to their limits.

My Playthrough Impressions

I picked up Saint Slayer for PS5 on the day of release. I had played the demo a few weeks prior on Steam, and I couldn't wait for the full thing. It didn't disappoint.

Saint Slayer looks like something between a classic NES game and the SNES generation. It's slightly too good for an NES game like Castlevania III, but not quite up to the visual fidelity of something like Super Castlevania IV; almost like it was made for the TurboGrafx-16. The music, however, is generally banging, especially the first stage track. Some of the other stages aren't quite as memorable, and overall the tunes aren't quite up to Castlevania quality, but they are more than good enough, and positively add to the overall experience.

The game play can be very challenging, although it never feels as cruel as some of the classic NES games did. While there aren't classic checkpoints, there is a password available for each stage, and none of the stages are too long. It almost feels like in a classic NES game that three or so of Saint Slayer's stages would have been a single stage, delineated by something like Stage 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3. Even boss fights constitute their own stages, which makes continuing using the passwords much less punishing than an authentic NES experience.

I played Saint Slayer on Normal difficulty. There is also Easy mode, which gives you more health, less enemies and no knockback upon getting damaged. Then there is Hard mode, which gives you less health and noticably more enemies. Then there is "Classic" mode, which might as well be called Nightmare mode. It's quite a bit harder than Hard mode, but most importantly, it doesn't have continues. (I don't see myself completing that mode.)

While most of the game plays like a "Classicvania", Rudiger's spear is much more versitile than Simon's whip. In addition to a straightforward stab, he can throw it and lodge it in walls, then jump on top of it for a boost to higher elevations. He can also stab downwards with a mechanic that perfectly recalls Scrooge McDuck's pogo ability from the NES classic DuckTales. Finally, there is a charge up mechanic that can destroy metal containers. Rudiger can also destroy pretty much anything with his spear - this includes enemy projectiles, but it also includes items (yes, don't stab the orbs or hearts that drop, otherwise you lose them), and you can (too easily) kill friendly NPCs who are trying to tell you something or sell you something. Too often I saw a person standing in my way and just annihilate them before they could even speak (oops!).

The stages in Saint Slayer offer a healthy challenge, even on Normal difficulty, but the bosses are generally a push over, which I can see might be dissapointing for some people. Now, even classic Castlevania bosses weren't always particularly difficult, but Saint Slayer's bosses border on easy. That being said, however, the journey to get to them is often not easy at all.

After playing for a few hours a day over two days, I rolled credits on Saint Slayer and got the "Vanilla" ending. While the game isn't exactly perfect, it's fun enough that I immediately jumped back in to try the game on Hard and try to get a different ending.