I absolutely love it when a developer is able to nail retro aesthetics properly. It’s never just about sprite resolution, or pixels on a screen. It’s about the music, chiptune is becoming a lost art, and Saint Slayer absolutely nails this on every front. The sprites are the right resolution, the UI is indicative of something straight out of the late 80’s, and the colour palette is perfect. Colours were very limited back then, and seeing Saint Slayer pull this off perfectly was a joy to see. Even the animations are great.
It probably goes without saying, given this intro, that I have been extremely impressed with Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege. It captures so much from the late 80’s, that you would be fooled into believing that this was indeed a game from that era. Lillymo Games clearly has a tight relationship with 2D pixel games, because if there was ever a love letter to retro games, this is it.
ℹ️ Reviewed on PC | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.
| Developer | Lillymo Games |
| Publisher | Lillymo Games |
Things I liked!
- Fantastic Sprite Work | Visually, Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege is a gorgeous game. Not everything needs to be high fidelity, realistic graphics, and Saint Slayer proves that even retro 2D inspired games can look great. The environments may be minimal in style, but they are well animated, and create a sense of a living, breathing world. NPC’s will roam the village in earlier stages and even run into their houses when demons show up. Colours pop against the backdrop, which really helps the characters stand out. Even the little decorations for the environment look great and are identifiable as destructible props. Presentation-wise, Saint Slayer has really dialled in the detail.
- Music & Sound | By far my favourite aspect of Saint Slayer was the music. It was fantastic. I lost count of how many times I would just sit there and listen to it. It is extremely catchy and fitting, and even though at times you would think to yourself, “how are they going to top this one”, they do. It doesn’t matter if you are a quiet village, or a creepy castle, or the library fighting ghosts, the music absolutely slaps. In fact, as I write this, I am trying to look up to see if the soundtrack is available, because now I need to listen to it again. I highly recommend checking out the behind the scenes video by composer Josh Davis, who showed his creative scenarios when working on the game here.
Apart from that, the sounds are very reminiscent of the time. Lots of simple tunes for attacking, jumping, damage, and environmental events. As I mentioned in the intro, Lillymo Games has absolutely nailed the aesthetic. - Local Co-Op | Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege also offers local co-op, meaning if you have the Steam version, you can play together via remote play. This allowed myself, and James to play without issues. It was a great experience having a team mate with you who can help you with the enemies and the bosses. An often overlooked feature, but I am glad that Lillymo Games added it.
- Large Enemy Variety | Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege has a lot of different enemies to fight against. What is better is that they are all largely confined to their respective stages. For example, the castle levels have a lot of gargoyles that come to life, and other flying enemies that aren’t present on other levels. This is good because it allows you to learn attack patterns for the ones you are currently fighting instead of throwing a large mix at you. But even so, everything felt on theme, and was extremely well done in both the art and animation department.
- Fantastic Boss Fights | At the end of each main area, there is a boss fight that allows you to get an upgrade, as well as a stone needed to enter the castle right at the end. Each boss fight is unique and feels very different to the rest. They have their own attack patterns with gorgeous animations. The first boss is rather easily dispatched, but his main gimmick here is raising the dead to bring in other enemies to help fight you. Once you have wailed on him a few times, you will defeat him.
Other bosses include, a librarian who uses books to attacks you, a chef, who throws rotten meat at you to stall you before slashing at you with his huge cleaver, a jester who spins around frantically and quite fast, and the obvious final boss, which has a classic two-phase health system with one reserved for your alter ego. It was an interesting final fight, and one I believe will leave way for additional content or a second one if there is ever a chance to do so. - Special Moves & Weapons | As you progress throughout Saint Slayer, you will be rewarded with upgraded weapons and special moves. For example, in the first main area on stage three, you beat the boss and get granted with a spear, which is a huge upgrade over your starting sword. It has much longer reach, and allows you to throw them by holding up and pressing attack. Not only does this give you range over your enemies, but you can also use the spears to stand on once they get lodged into the walls. This can be used to reach harder areas, or create platforms to get out of the reach of enemies and bosses.
The special moves are handled by your rosary beads. You start off with three and can get more as you play. Each time you use a special move, a bead is depleted. You can either replenish this by finding items throughout the world and destroying props, or by buying them in the shop. My favourite special move by the end of the game was definitely the charged attack that creates a powerful ground slam and obliterates enemies. - Multiple Lives | I do appreciate that, given how hard this game is, that there is the inclusion of multiple-lives, just like how they work in games like Super Mario. Once depleted, you can either revive and start again, or quit to the main menu. There is no traditional saving, however, in Saint Slayer and everything is handled via passwords. With this system, if you ever need to reattempt a previous area because you died, you can put in your password and retry until you manage to succeed. This also resets your lives, thankfully, so you can sometimes find yourself in a better position than when you initially started. I love it.
- In Game Shop | Throughout my time with Saint Slayer, I grew more and more appreciative of the shop. This is a pop-up tent, so to speak, that offers a wide variety of items to help you on your travels. Extra lives, healing items, and extra beads for your rosary, just to name a few. They became very helpful, especially in the later stages where platforming and fighting became very challenging. Saint Slayer is very reminiscent of games like Castlevania and Super Ghosts and Goblins, and with that, the difficulty is also similar. These items are definitely worth saving your tokens for, since you will need to stop by a lot if you wish to make it to the end.
- The Story | The story is good and features quite a few frames of animated backdrops and characters that explain everything as you progress through the game. It follows Rudiger, an ex-soldier in late-17th-century Europe battling through the land to stop the corrupt Father Pacer, who has initiated a demonic uprising using the deadly Spear of Sacrilege. It may sound a little cliché in places, but it works well within the context of the game and the enemies that inhabit the world.
Mixed & disliked!
- Very Short | Clocking in at just under two hours, a lot of the game can be experienced in just one sitting. Harder modes will add to your time, however, since you will die a lot, (another throwback to early retro games), and for achievement hunters, expect to push that to around eight hours if you plan to get everything. I personally don’t mind short games if they are fun, and have lots of replayability, but for those of you who are cautious about where to spend your money, if you are looking for something a little longer, this is something to consider.
- No Screen Effects Support | My biggest gripe with a game like this is the lack of support for CRT filters. Saint Slayer is begging for some CRT scanlines, or some other retro filters like dithering, pixilation, or beading, just to name a few. Adding these into the options screen would have been a great way to really sell the retro aesthetic, and I would have loved playing with those filters on. Perhaps we may see an update at some point? However, right now, it’s just a very clean presentation.
How long did I play the review before publishing? 2 hours
How long to beat the story? 2 hours
How long to Complete the game 100%? 8 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 17/39
You’ll love this game if you like these | Castlevania, Legacy of Kane: Ascendance
CONCLUSION
Score: 90/100
Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege proves you don’t need a million-dollar budget to make a fun, challenging, and downright gorgeous game. Its 2D sprite presentation is clean, well animated, and reminds me of the early-nineties Super NES games. Despite its short playtime, it’s fun to replay, has multiple difficulty modes, and tons of achievements to keep you replaying for hours.
Gaming is in my blood. Be it handheld games, Xbox, PC, Switch or Playstation, I am all over it.
I make my own games as part of my profession and love playing co op games with friends in my spare time. Avid dog lover and camper van enthusiast.
