Salt and Sanctuary
Touted as a 2D Souls game, Salt and Sanctuary is very obviously inspired by From Software’s Souls series. Instead of Souls, you have Salt. And instead of Bonfires, you have Sanctuaries. You wouldn’t expect a 2D game to have deep exploration and parry/block mechanics, but hey, Salt and Sanctuary certainly delivers.
No auto checkpoints: None. You revive at the last sanctuary you rested at each time you die.
No map: Check.
Lose ‘Souls’ upon death: Check. You also lose Gold when you die, in addition to the Salt you had on you.
Has a stamina bar, rolling, and blocking mechanics: Check.
Exploration and shortcuts: Check. In fact, Salt and Sanctuary has a pretty massive world, but is still somewhat able to connect all of its areas together.
Tough bosses that require learning of patterns: Very check.
Is it Souls-like? Hell yes.
