Salt and Sacrifice (Zero Punctuation)

This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviewed Salt and Sacrifice.
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#ZeroPunctuation

[@theescapist]

Watch this week's Zero Punctuation episode on Hardspace: Shipbreaker - www.escapistmagazine.com/hardspace-shipbreaker-zero-punctuation/ - Watch it early on KZbin and support our content for just $2/month via KZbin Memberships. kzbin.info/door/qg5FCR7NrpvlBWMXdt-5Vgjoin

[@ejs_ethan]

What time is the Post ZP stream and Breakout? I've never watched one live.

[@theescapist]

@@ejs_ethan Breakout is typically 9 AM CT on Wednesday, but we didn't have one today cause Marty was out. Post-ZP is 3PM CT.

[@ejs_ethan]

@@theescapist thanks!

[@Crazy4taxi]

I agree but I like the game even if it's the worst on the market not a good story

[@espio87]

"... with more dodgy rolls in them than an unsanitary sushi restaurant" got a good hearty chuckle out of me.

[@speefy7311]

I was just about to comment this! These videos are always full of clever writing, but for some reason that line stuck out to me as particularly genius. (Also that "p" alliteration just before was great)

[@videoaccount4323]

Spoilers!!

[@dragonsdream4236]

@@videoaccount4323 it's.. a five minute video

[@ursinecanine9657]

@@dragonsdream4236 yes but some of us have to set the tissues up and get in the mood by sampling some comment bile first.

[@dragonsdream4236]

@@ursinecanine9657 I say start cranking your hog and then read the comments, assures maximum satisfaction as you finish

[@tonygts1]

fun fact: in bavaria, when boiling sausages, we use a „sacrificial sausage“ that we intentionally overboil and let explode in order to then cook the other sausages in that tasty sausage water instead of just plain water.

[@erueka6]

I like sausage mostly hot links but sausage water just sounds disgusting and gross like using hot dog or Vienna sausage preservatives to boil noodles gross.

[@mdd4296]

can you guys just use chicken, beef or veggie stock like normal human beans?

[@Khunkurisu]

Wow you guys hating on the sausage water lmao. Some places didn’t historically have cows or chickens so their culture developed making food from what was readily available. Calling their cultural dishes “abnormal” is toeing a pretty fine line.

[@AuroraAce.]

@@Khunkurisu oh no someone said boiling sausages in exploded sausage water instead of the stock they use instead is weird. My whole culture is evaporating before my eyes!!!1!11!!!

[@JamesDavy2009]

@@erueka6 Don't you mean "Wurst"? _(gets covered in sausages)_

[@Zayl1016]

One thing that's great about Monster Hunter is when you find a new monster, you are filled with wonderment at how cool/useful the weapons will be and how the armor will look and what sort of skills it might have based on the monster's design. I feel like that wonderment is lost if you replaced all the monsters with robey dudes.

[@brenokv]

prescisely, the figth,the themes and material made for much of the charm of monster hunter custumization

[@xxXXRAPXXxx]

Mate i don't care how they look if they give me color ahegao hoodie im all in (i doubt that is a armor item in game like that but oh well).

[@Jaknife101]

I mean... If you know your prefixes you can sorta guess what each mage is about from their names alone. I understand not being able to predict what their animations will be though, obviously.

[@totalkhaos189]

The coolest ones were the more abstract and monstrous ones imo (Mechanomancer in particular is my favourite)

[@loli-knightxardej2252]

Honestly they could have been fine just throwing magical dudes at you as every boss... if they were actually varied. But they almost all fight exactly the same, can all air juggle you from 100-0 in the blink of an eye, and barely look different outside of colors. Not to mention having to chase them absolutely sucks. Chasing in Monster Hunter only works because traversal can be fun in the those games, whereas that's not the case with Sacrifice here. It's utterly impressive how much of a downgrade Sacrifice is from the original. Guess it goes to show that trying to be original and do your own thing isn't always better than just aping another game.

[@CteCrassus]

Thing is, the original Salt & Sanctuary *avoided* the whole "take the bad guy's place or let the world die" thing. Sure, one of the endings involved you taking his power and becoming the god of the island, but the other was realizing the god of the island was also its prisoner and wisely deciding to simply bugger off and escape.

[@Warcrafter4]

​@The Hittite Eh in Dark Souls 2 you get immortality and are implied to help Aldia fix the world. Also its not the alternate ending. Its the TRUE ending as Aldia's lines in that ending return as quotes as to what happened to the Dark Souls 2 protagonist in Dark Souls 3. Plus a lot of items reference actions from the Dark Souls 2 protagonist's actions that would be impossible on the "Normal" Ending. Such as keeping their word to Lucatiel which lets the Hollow Slayer(Lucatiel's sword) exist in Dark Souls 3.

[@cyansuy3062]

And the bosses were also linked to the core theme of the game. A lot of the bosses were people who coveted more power. This thirst for more power is what attracted the nameless god and why those bosses are manifested onto the island as only the nameless god answered their call for more power. From slaves, to knights, to alchemists, to kings, people who covet power that are not their own will inevitably be a prisoner of said power.

[@10jake01]

I had really hoped that the well ending to Sanctuary would roll in to their second game. It’s sad to see Sacrifice didn’t use it at all.

[@tbar67]

Well it did kind of take Bloodborne's ending though. You could literally just take Gehrman's word and leave everything behind. Or take over as the new Gehrman or Squid monster.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

I think Yahtzee had to take his kid to the doctor recently.

[@fieryrebirth]

That had to be a wake-up call since he lives in the US now.

[@danielled8665]

I had the same thought, lmao

[@anangryninja2824]

Yahtzee: I’ve been really getting into arts and crafts recently Us: *CRAFTING YAHTZ?*

[@b3rz3rk3r9]

Woah, don't shoot

[@alexsackelariou9146]

ive been getting back on minecraft to play more with my son- *CRAFTING YAHTZ??*

[@bigbruno2232]

Maybe if I go back to Alien Isolation and craft more noisy item CRAFTING YAHTZ

[@MrBanditoRazor]

I might be wrong cause he is being very sly and subtle about it .....but I THINK there is a vague criticism of our healthcare system buried deep inside of this review about a game I no longer think I'm going to buy.

[@eightywight]

Social commentary critiques on bad healthcare layered into a video game review?

[@blueninjanoname7338]

Yeah, it's not like social health care is free, it just becomes taxed and at least having to pay for health care will encourage people go get jobs, although there should be alternatives for people who really need it. HYBRID HEALTHCARE!

[@CD-Gaming]

*generic joke that glorifies the UK's NHS over that pit stain the Yanks call healthcare* What? I can't be arsed taking deep, thoughtful, clever and witty jabs EVERY time! Jeez!

[@raiyaankazi]

@@blueninjanoname7338 Yes, because once you have free healthcare, who needs a job to pay for other basic necessities like food and rent.

[@blueninjanoname7338]

@@raiyaankazi Well it doesn't work does it? Otherwise you wouldn't have the thousands of people abusing the benefit system in this country lmao. Besides, more incentive is more incentive.

[@hackcubit9663]

Games with limited health items that don't go back into your inventory when you re-try the boss fight are the kinds of games in which I deliberately do not heal myself until I've been creamed by the boss like ten times and I've finally proved I can knock them down to half health before they destroy me.

[@SullySaltlicker]

Sounds like the first demon’s souls ZP: “Truly, a game that stops you to death 10 minutes in and says you can have your health bar back once you’ve proved you don’t need it is a game that does not fuck around.”

[@br0wnb0b]

This guy gets it

[@mariuszhandzlik3368]

I had 1800 herbs in the storage by the end of the game and past the early game when flask uses per rest are so limited I never hesitated to drink potion when hurt.

[@serene-illusion]

Exactly how I felt with Lady Maria and Orphan

[@GayBearBro2]

That end credit gag though. Imagine if dodge rolling in real life had I-frames...

[@TheUltrahypnotoad]

Fritz will be expecting dodge-rolls. Double jumping is the way to go!

[@TheWickedWizardOfOz1]

"Does the rolling help?" "Oh yeah, it helps." "Then where's your gun?"

[@stewy497]

Do yours not?

[@sasaki999pro]

Imagine if real life had ANY i-frames

[@ethan2670]

Just so everyone knows the Dev has been listening to the community. One of things addressed here is that now when you stop at a check point, you always get a minimum of 5 flasks back. Also, the biggest selling point for me was that it has couch co-op like the previous game, as well as online PvE and PvP

[@joannawood7352]

also that the Epic release is being straight up treated as a beta, there are entirely finished covenants waiting to be implemented in later patches and theres straight up a debug shop near the end of the game lmao

[@turntapeover5749]

It's only half a step tbh. Full refill should be the way and crafting mats should be for on the fly. And I'm sorry but you can't patch out bad level design and questionable Mage hunt decision when 5 of them spawn in the same screen and spawning monsters everywhere. This still isn't fixed. So yeah. It's still a really abysmal sequel.

[@joannawood7352]

@@turntapeover5749 5 is a full refill for most of the game, and you can craft on the fly for most items, the only thing resting to refill healing/ammo does is respawn normal enemies, mages dont even refill their health, also 5 mages spawning on the same screen is awesome because they fight eachother and you can get insane magic bursts to wipe out their summons while they arent aggro'd to you

[@mira12825]

@@joannawood7352 Most of the game? You mean the first hour of the game since that's how many you start with and you can upgrade your carry capacity pretty early.

[@joannawood7352]

@@mira12825 wait did they already patch that lol, i started with 3 back when it was initially released on epic, all of the consumables started at 3 for me, i only ended the game with 9

[@samwill7259]

Methinks Yahtzee is starting to regret moving to the US and dealing with our healthcare system.

[@Elonyx.studios]

Wait he moved to the states?? WHYYYY??? If fucking sucks here right now!

[@davidlane1248]

​@@Elonyx.studios he moved to the US years ago. 2015 or something like that

[@drdca8263]

@@davidlane1248 how can 2015 be “years ago” when the world ended in 2012?

[@VincentWeisTheThird]

Probably should have picked Switzerland.

[@JJAB91]

@@Elonyx.studios No it doesn't.

[@ItalianGuy2357]

"Four fifths of a flake of dried fuck" is one of the best things I have heard in a while.

[@MobileTech296]

“Couldn’t give four-fifths of a flake of dried fuck”. Once again the genius who brought us “spunkgargleweewee” (which he really doesn’t use often enough anymore) has enhanced our lexicon for the better.

[@sevenseven3263]

now they all make jiminy cockthroats

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

Well to be fair, spunkgargleweewee games have gone out of fashion lately. Thank fuck.

[@Meese12]

The name "monster hunter" is very apt (beyond it being a game about hunting monsters), as about 50% of the focus is on the monsters and 50% is on the hunter. So it doesnt really work when the monsters have a largely similar skeleton, appearance, and moveset. The only reason Monster Hunter can be Monster Hunter is the massive variety in monsters.

[@Pallysilverstar]

Technically Monster Hunter could be just as apt if you were a Hunter going after only one Monster as the name does not require multiple monsters to be apt.

[@inquisitorbenediktanders3142]

@@Pallysilverstar it is monster hunter because monsters hunter sounds way worse.

[@Pallysilverstar]

@@inquisitorbenediktanders3142 obviously, still doesn't make my statement less true though.

[@10jake01]

I love Monster Hunter. But 95% of the monsters are very samey with only a few differences using similar model frames. It’s so close to “color swap” on many occasions. This monster shoots lava, this monster shoots poison. One is red. One is purple. Etc. Point is, I wouldn’t call it a “massive” variety. It’s a better variety than this. But it could certainly use improvement. Some of the best monsters (typically the final ones) have broken the standard moulds.

[@osmium3691]

You know Yahtzee, you knew about the American healthcare system before you moved here, so you really have no right to complain. You could've moved to any number of sensible countries instead

[@CinosTheHedgehog2000]

Rewatch let's drown out and you will understand why he didn't have a choice in the matter

[@osmium3691]

@@CinosTheHedgehog2000 I like that you assume I've watched all of the hours and hours of lets play that Yahtzee made. No, I don't have time to do that. Also, I was being sardonic. It wasn't serious lol

[@MF-fd2ug]

i think yahtzee might have recently been in contact with the american hospital system

[@acespider7781]

Yahtzee, what are you opinions on the Jonny Depp and amber heard trial?

[@manavsridharan3811]

"I have several opinions on the Johnny Depp trial" LMAO Yahtzee never fails to score

[@britishnerd3919]

And today, when this went live for us poor plebs viewers, it was a very topical joke

[@johnwrath3612]

US healthcare really does suck. I have had a cyst for 10 years and haven’t had it removed because I can’t afford the surgery. It’s not infected or abscessed so insurance doesn’t think removal is necessary. The only medicine that works really well on my psoriasis isn’t covered by insurance. Costs like 1500$ a month. Steroid creams are way cheaper.

[@StrikeWarlock]

Same. Busted rotator cuff after being mugged by a homeless person 7 years ago and even if I can afford the operation, I can't afford to be out of commission for 3 months since that's the recovery time for such operation. It's financial suicide.

[@johnwrath3612]

@@StrikeWarlock yep, that too. Even if you can afford the medical procedure itself, most people can’t afford to take time off work. The cost of living is so absurd in LA, if I had to go without a paycheck for 3 months I would be homeless. I feel for you, brother.

[@Erick-tv8oq]

Never thought I would say this, but if you guys lived in Brazil you wouldn't have it half as bad. We might be the butt of everyone's jokes, but we have a pretty damn good public healthcare system. It kinda has to be good, otherwise there would be no population for the politicians to steal from.

[@johnwrath3612]

@@StrikeWarlock LOL I just remembered this comment because yesterday at the gym, I injured my fucking rotator cuff on my left shoulder. Great. Can’t lift my arm more than 1/3 of the way without jolting pain. I sure fucking hope this goes away because I can’t afford this shit.

[@meowistforlife]

@@johnwrath3612 National Strike for health care when

[@Manicies]

Someday, I want the final boss to be the guy in charge of keeping the world together, but the entire premise is that he STOPPED doing that, and that's why everything's going to shit

[@jijas9780]

Wait, isn't that exactly what happened in Elden ring with Radagon shattering said ring and MC tasked to take his/her place to fix everything?

[@liamzakhaev]

@@jijas9780 marika shattered the ring, radagon tried to repair it when he got in control

[@jijas9780]

@@liamzakhaev oh, right, still wonder why tf she did that

[@camf269]

@@jijas9780 The surface-level hints seem to be that she did it after the true/half-death of her beloved son Godwyn - whether out of grief, re-evaluating her status as a pawn of The Greater Will, or some other longer game plan, not sure.

[@sams7068]

Yeah other commenters are right to mention Elden Ring. Crazy how the people who created the souls formula are still the best at innovating it (though they did bring in GRRM to freshen things up on the 5th Demons Souls remake). Marika shattering the ring is a lot more interesting than Gwyn still holding onto the age of fire in a severely weakened state (which is basically Radagon’s role in the Age of the Erdtree).

[@reizak8966]

At least we can all agree that Outlast 2 was a disappointment.

[@lorddarki9936]

I instantly cringed when I heard the ending, holy shit there really is a condition called "too much dark souls"

[@MusicoftheDamned]

If only the American healthcare system were (far) better, then the devs could get such a condition treated before it developed into full blown "Plagiaritis". Alas, something something _Dark Souls_ communism.

[@loli-knightxardej2252]

Agreed. Though, the hilarious thing is that Sacrifice is actually infinitely less Dark Souls'y than the original. But whereas the original tried to do its own neat things with the DS formula (successfully, mind you), Sacrifice basically drops the ball with every aspect of itself (terrible story, terrible enemies, terrible bosses, terrible boss mechanics, terrible world design, etc). It's essentially a downgrade from the original in every single way... except for the co-op. At least they got SOMETHING right. They're indies so I try not to rip into the devs too hard, but it's legitimately impressive how much of a downgrade Sacrifice is.

[@MusicoftheDamned]

@@loli-knightxardej2252 Since you seem to have played the game, I am curious about your opinion: what do you think this sequel screwed up the hardest of non-ending-related things (especially compared to the original)?

[@marcosdheleno]

@@loli-knightxardej2252 i think the problem is, with the first they tried to make dark souls, but with this one, they went with demon's souls instead. i will be honest, i did not like the first S&S. i found the exploration bad, the combat as well, the fact you were expected to jump around all over the place, and it was filled with bottomless pits and fall damage just made the experience insulferable for me, worst of all was how many locations looked like many others, and i was expected to memorize them all because "dark souls dont have maps, so we wont make them either". i was able to complete both lords of the fallen and the surge, i did not have even an ounce of fun in s&s, and gave up after the second boss, every time i tried to play it.

[@nevitt2236]

What makes having opinions on the Jonny Depp trial a men's rights activist?

[@Vedrlaufnir]

When I heard about the ending I was expecting something like Dragon's Dogma... *SPOILERS FOR DRAGON'S DOGMA* In the end you fight the Seneschal (basically god) who's tired of sustaining the world and he explains to you that the Dragon's Dogma was meant to find a worthy successor; if you lose the fight he turns you into the next Dragon that will look for another Arisen to go through the dogma, and if you win you take his place as Seneschal and sustain the world with your will alone... until it's time for another Arisen to take your place... or you can kill yourself and leave the world without a Seneschal.

[@AccidentalNinja]

I sense Yahtze might be regretting moving to a country which considers basic necessities to be commodities.

[@Aelesis]

Yahtz actually lives in Australia, which isn't quite socialist paradise, but it DOES have government-funded public healthcare

[@Arbiter1414]

@@Aelesis he used to he moved to usa recently

[@Lyoko1309]

@@GreyWolfLeaderTW That's interesting, I didn't know you were forced to be a doctor when you grew up, here I thought it was a job you chose to do. I also didn't know governments with socialized medicine enslaved their staff, I was under the impression they got paid to do it and could choose to open private practices if they wanted. The more you know

[@Aelesis]

@@Arbiter1414 Is that right? My b, I guess that would explain the compulsion to criticse then 😅

[@AccidentalNinja]

@@Aelesis I'd heard he'd moved to the United States. Maybe I remember wrong.

[@ClockFink]

The refusal to automap is a thing I really hate as an apparent trend in these games. I think there’s some notion that it makes it “immersive”, but really it makes no sense. Creating a map is the sort of thing a person living that sort of situation would likely really want to consider. There’s nothing to stop us, the player, from just drawing one on our own. Thus forcing us to make ourselves (or go without) this thing that logically our character should already be making if they had half a brain is just a horrid QoL fail. I don’t have to (or want to) manually make him use the outhouse either, so why should I have to manually draw his map for him? Please have him map on his own, just as he breathes and blinks on his own, we only need to be involved in the parts of controlling him that are engaging. Otherwise that’s not realism, it’s tedium.

[@10jake01]

Even more egregious are games where exploration is a big key but there’s zero map of any kind. Subnautica is a big one.

[@YayapLives]

... okay, now I want a game where you are that guy strapped to the machine keeping the world running. Your drained to the point of almost nothing but finally you have enough, stand up, and start fighting your way out. Everybody fighting you is trying to get you to go back onto the machine. And as you progress in the game the world slowly falls apart.

[@TriforceWisdom64]

Furi is similar to that.

[@Vher_]

Furi

[@ajlukan6959]

Fury

[@NotHPotter]

The American healthcare system really is just the global punchline, huh?

[@cathallynch8269]

Or mass shootings

[@corvusvocatio]

as it should be

[@femsplainer]

@@cathallynch8269 If you honestly believe that the US leads in mass shootings, you might want to look at the places that don't even bother trying to track them because they're so common...

[@femsplainer]

Except that medical tourism is a thing. It's easy to laugh at the US healthcare costs when we basically subsidize the entire world's medical R&D. The US has been producing more medical research and innovation than the rest of the world combined and we were responsible for the COVID vaccine being produced in less than a year, an accomplishment that was initially laughed at by everyone as being a medical impossibility, and yet here we are.

[@15oClock]

"For your crime for [DRUNKENNESS], you are hereby drafted into the Inquisition!" I know what my next Skyrim character's crime now.

[@JamesDavy2009]

At least he gets to watch a musical number with Mel Brooks as Torquemada.

[@MrLego3160]

Illegally crossing the border, same as every other time?

[@carlosmiguelteixeiraott3643]

"Pointy into the Place Proctologists Professionally Prefer to Probe" Points for the alliteration.

[@JF-bg5hv]

Absolutely amazing and astounding application of alliteration.

[@Oblivion9873]

Some of the jokes this episode felt personal, like something really got to yahtz recently. IDK could be wrong

[@DarkTooniverse]

I'm finding myself disagreeing with these reviews more and more. I hardly agree with a single point here.

[@samlipton7872]

Mmm that extended joke about the Mages was good stuff, especially including them pissing off to a men’s rights activist board for their final stand

[@Evanz111]

Surprised he didn’t tear into the lack of a checkpoint system, that’s my biggest gripe with the game. The portable sanctuaries in the first game was a great system, as could design each one your own way with specific NPCs and vendors. It devolved from that into one checkpoint per level.

[@ThreshtheWeebWarden]

Yea they REALLLYY wanted to extend play time

[@loli-knightxardej2252]

I feel like he was intentionally holding himself back. There's so much about Sacrifice that's borderline objectively inferior to the original that he'd need a much longer video to mention half of it, and it'd be so negative that the comedy would be pointless.

[@MrLego3160]

There are multiple oblisks in each map. and what do you mean by "portable sanctuaries" they were fixed locations.

[@ThreshtheWeebWarden]

@@MrLego3160you can turn any sanctuary as a fast travel as long as you had the guide offering, which was more flexible compared to sacrifice. every vendor stays at homebase and the inability to choose which obelisk you can teleport to doesn't help.

[@aerialdarkguy]

John Oliver was right, the american national anthem at sport stadiums should be replaced with everyone yelling about their health insurance for a minute.

[@hongquiao]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who hates the non renewable healing items in Bloodborne. For the upcoming remaster, may I suggest an "Estus mode"? Hell, why not extend it to the bullets? Because tying a core mechanic to a limited non renewable ressource in a game where, by design, you die a lot is either bad design or cruelty. I love From Software games but there's always a couple of things that twist my nipples the wrong way.

[@idiotsplayinggames4752]

It's meant to test your skill, those who understand how to use the rally mechanic and manage their stamina properly don't need to use as many blood vials.

[@hongquiao]

@@idiotsplayinggames4752 Everyone understands the rally/stamina mechanics EVENTUALLY. It's just a question of time. But, to phrase it like Yahtzee did "I love banging my head against the wall until it ends up breaking" but the limited blood vials/bullets makes it so you have to STOP banging your head against the wall to go grocery shopping before you can resume the wall/head banging... and that's the wrong kind of frustration.

[@00blaat00]

Hey, besides all the Dark Souls games, that's also the ending to Beneath a Steel Sky. I'd warmly recommend that game to anyone that hasn't played it yet - one of the best point-and-click adventures I have played.

[@Connorthecatsdad]

That was a shockingly accurate depiction of American healthcare

[@tonycampbell1424]

"Dur hur but muh freedum" "Dur hur slave doctors" "Dur hur cuntry too big" "Dur hur socialized medicine only works in nations that are ethnically homogenous" There, I've covered all the arguments morons make against universal Healthcare: the pointless one, the stupid one, the even more stupid one, and the racist one.

[@TheTaintedWisdom]

1:34 - Regardless of what the rest of the review contains, I had to stop and like the video immediately because that was just too perfect.

[@SolaScientia]

Yeah, our healthcare system sucks so much. I've been putting off a few things because nothing is too critical and I just can't afford it right now. :( That said, I do slightly prefer Bloodborne's blood vials and rally mechanic over the estus flasks. The healing animation feels quicker than the drinking estus animation. The rally mechanic just serves to encourage my already aggressive playstyle and it just feels better to me. I'll admit that having to go farm echoes to buy up vials does sometimes suck, but I usually don't mind the little break of going to a familiar location to farm echoes and taking the time to think about better approaches to whatever wall I've hit. I get tripped up more when I'm switching from Bloodborne to Dark Souls 3, and I'll get killed for being an idiot and being too aggressive handling enemies. That's on me though for having more muscle memory tied to Bloodborne than the Souls games. It's less of an issue with Elden Ring, but I do get in trouble some when I'm being too aggressive. Also, do people rag on the grass usage in Demon's Souls as much as they rag on the blood vial usage in Bloodborne? I like the use of the graphic of the red herbs from Resident Evil, lol.

[@legateelizabeth]

Social healthcare that works? Yahtz truly has gone native, everyone outside of the US calls that ‘all of them’.

[@hazukichanx408]

Though judging by the number of related jokes and jabs in this video, I'm tempted to suspect that the man has recently had a brush with the Proud Murican Gun-Eagle(tm) Medical System and concluded, as most non-billionaires do, that it is not worth the pants it wears upon its miserable head.

[@Oblivion9873]

I wouldn't call the NHS "working"... even if it is better than whatever the fuck is going on in the US the rest tho yeah

[@mattkennedy9308]

Yahtgzee has also spent enough time in U.K. and Australia to know socialised medicine and universal Medicare is better than the U.S. but with flaws and not perfect.

[@VincentWeisTheThird]

Yes, tell me you've never looked at a rank ordered list of healthcare systems and seen Switzerland at the top, without telling me

[@Naygen]

THIS PLEASES CHOLESTERON

[@runningcommentary2125]

I honestly don't get why so many UK citizens move to America. No offence, but if I had to relocate abroad America is one of the last places I would pick.

[@Stroggoii]

It's not like Perfidious Albion is openly welcome elsewhere.

[@rahcollier7006]

No offense, Yahtz, but I was kind of wondering why you moved here. I mean the health care and mass shootings alone..! If I wasn't rooted down by the fact I like my family, I'd be doing more than blowing smoke about moving.

[@LeonardoWilhelm]

He works in gaming and media - kind of a necessity.

[@rahcollier7006]

@@LeonardoWilhelm I'm... not seeing the connection.

[@cereal_chick2515]

Hope you feel better soon, Yahtz

[@ThatMatt85]

Sounds like the creators wanted the game to be 40 hours instead of 10 hours so they copy pasted the meat of the game till it became samey and grinding. This is a problem so many games have that take it from being what seems like a good game going in, turn into not a good game looking back after beating it. Well for me it's usually that it intrigued me when I started and for a while and by the time it's become samey and grinding I've invested enough time to punish myself to see the ending. I've gone on a bit of a personal tangent, but my point stands.

[@joannawood7352]

no there are actual non-mage bosses about as frequent as the mandatory Mages, and the Mages themselves are completely unique between them, outside of the first area's 3 mages which are essentially the tutorials on the 5 main dark souls attack concepts (and even then the only similar move all 3 share is having a melee attack, the fire one has a greatsword slash, the ice one has a rapier combo they can use the 3 swings of in any order, and the water one has a rolling shockwave slam), and importantly a good half the mages arent nerds, Heavy Armor mages are jocks and Ultralight armor mages have goofy designs more heavily based on their element than the others

[@loli-knightxardej2252]

@@joannawood7352 Objectively false. Just look at the total boss list. The regular bosses (aka the only good ones, and even then most of them are lame) amount to almost half of the mage list (aka the incredibly boring and samey fights). Unless you're doing some sort of no/minimal upgrade challenge run almost every single player is going to go through numerous mages before fighting more regular bosses. Look, I wanted to love the game as much as the next guy just like you, but there's a reason the game is getting absolutely SAVAGED almost universally. The only thing Sacrifice does objectively better than the original is co-op and invasions, but that's not exactly the point of the game (and if multiplayer was the point then they have a series marketing issue).

[@joannawood7352]

@@loli-knightxardej2252 total boss list is blatantly misrepresenting it lol, going by total list Dark Souls 2 would have a "recycled phantom problem" because of all the optional fights or rosters you only fight 1 or 2 of, in the area with the most required mage fights its 1 mage with a completely unique moveset, 1 area boss, second area boss (guarding a Slab equivalent), second unique mage, third area boss, third unique mage, and you pass on an optional mage after every area boss, in some areas there is literally 1 required mage (with a unique moveset) and 2 area bosses (like the desert), theres just a fuck ton of less unique optional mages for the sake of equipment variety that become unique when rematched

[@zakanyimen]

Seems like a setback from the previous game. Seems like a trend in epic exclusive sequels.

[@KeithFraser82]

*Zero Punctuation progressive metal track of the week:* *Let The World Die And Build Something New On The Ashes* by *Instant Herb Conversion*

[@lillywho]

I think America is getting to Yahtzee, don't you think? grumble grumble healthcare grumble

[@segevstormlord3713]

So, if we want to hunt down Yahtzee-the-mage-nerd, we need to corner him in the section of Redditt that has opinions on health care! :D

[@turntapeover5749]

"Annoying" is actually the right word to describe this game. It's a truly bad sequel. I'm surprised he didn't talk about all the atrocious padding present in the game. Which stretch what would be a 5-10 hour experience into a 15-20h repetitive grind fest.

[@Edagui97]

Who was the guy inside the statusquo-o-tron?

[@someguy3752]

I'm pretty sure it's Francis Rossi, lead singer of the band Status Quo.

[@Edagui97]

@@someguy3752 Thank you!

[@jacobfreeman5444]

Made a dodge roll build...think I know where Yahtzee went wrong. He embraced the evil that is the dex nerd. He got what he deserved

[@cyansuy3062]

Basically, Salty Sacrifice is not a step forward from Salty Sanctuary but rather several steps sideways and two steps back. Good to know this is an easy skip

[@loli-knightxardej2252]

100% correct. It's almost objectively inferior to the original in every way. Literally the only objective improvement is the co-op and invasion systems. They're actually well done, so credit where credit is due. Everything else though... hoo boy. It's either a chore or poorly designed.

[@liamzakhaev]

@@loli-knightxardej2252 looks like the divorce took more than just the art style

[@idiotsplayinggames4752]

Wait, Did the ska studio duo get divorced?

[@MrLego3160]

The main issue i had with sacrifice is the armour made from the first Mage kicks the stuffing out of most other armours for a good long time.

[@arnet95]

Man, that mage graphic might be my favourite ZP graphic ever.

[@broodypie2216]

That ending goes farther back than dark souls, past hexen, all the way back to DnD campaigns that went on so long they had nowhere else to escalate.

[@JustinLeeper]

That Pocky sword is hilarious! It deserves a spotlight. Please highlight it more in the future.

[@cvhannes]

"Trap them in a men's activist subreddit where it decides to make its last stand" really made me 6 a lot. Thanks Yatzee as always

[@MusicoftheDamned]

If only such magical banishment was possible in real life. It makes me wonder how much less cringeworthy just KZbin would be.

[@kingsleycy3450]

Pretty sure the healthcare system being exploitive is an actual theme in Bloodborne.

[@idiotsplayinggames4752]

Ironic considering it's in London, sorry, yharnam, which is clearly in Britain.

[@lordblack998]

no no no you misunderstood the title; Salt and Sacrifice has nothing to do with the ingame plot but Salt is the amount of salt you generate from playing this game and Sacrifice is the amount of time sacrificed playing this game instead of playing other games that are actually good or doing something productive......like gardening or something.

[@aSHTEBALA]

I think Yahtzee is trying to tell us something

[@aqj2014]

i get the sense yahtzee doesnt like ther american heathcare system..dont worry..hes not alone. we hate it here too

[@hughwalker7938]

Half dead god keeping the world alive... Wait does that make The God Emperor the final boss of Warhammer?

[@davidjb20010]

*Americans watching this video* "PREACH BROTHA PREACH!"

[@brenokv]

the whole mens rigths jab makes me wonder if yatzee is starting to feel the symptoms of the same disease that detiriorated movie bob and jim...i wonder if the sanitation of the escapist is that bad TwT

[@lukasnel4828]

It's America syndrome. The country corrupts you pretty quickly specially if you live in the special places like NY or California

[@LeonardoWilhelm]

I think living in a country where violence and poverty are rampant eats at you. Seeing the whole country take a major shift further right is scary if you're raising kids. Especially if you come from a country where you wouldn't have been exposed to this on such levels like the UK or AU.

[@LeonardoWilhelm]

@@lukasnel4828 NY and CA are the areas of the US that most look like the rest of the developed world lol

[@BinBascal]

The way that his voice blows out when talking about bloodbornes healing system nearly killed me 😂😂

[@timogul]

I'd like a Soulslike that sets up the choice between "ending the cycle and genociding everything in the hopes that something better will come along," or "become the new boss and continue things as they are, but then if you just smash through a wall in the side of the boss room you find the option to just keep things running but also fix all the problems people have been having so that they can get back to a reasonably pleasant existence. These Souls games never even give you impression of what that would even _look_ like in their worlds, it's all "gone to shit, everywhere, all the time." I guess the closest to this option was one of the Elden Ring endings, you know the one, no, probably the other one, but that didn't involve busting through a wall in the boss room, so this is different.

[@LMFAO_FAN_2004]

Haven't play the og SaS in a while. I remember it being really frustrating and unintuitive but also pretty fun.

[@anthonykarnes6804]

I had an okay time with this game, but it's predecessor was far superior.

[@omega5159]

“It’s not longer just a 2d dark souls clone it’s also a 2d monster hunter clone” You just sold me on this game

[@runecowman]

Yatz seems to really have it out for the US healthcare system. He's not wrong I'm just wondering what brought it about

[@GoogleRuinsAnythingItTouches]

He saw it was popular and is repeating it. Like a parrot.

[@anna-flora999]

He moved to the US

[@madengineerkyouma]

I love Salt and Sacrifice, but all the points in this review are extremely fair.

[@legitfella494]

Ah the American healthcare system. I wish I could afford a dentist

[@lillywho]

I think America is getting to Yahtzee, don't you think? grumble grumble healthcare grumble

[@femsplainer]

And yet people still come here from all over the world for our "expensive" healthcare despite having "free" (see taxed out the wazoo) healthcare in their own countries...funny that

[@adamdavis1737]

I don't think I have any patience for more souls like games The games I like that are most likely dark souls.... Are dark souls games Nothing else has ever stacked up. I was excited to play salt and sanctuary a few years back, but I just immediately found the art style to be terrible and bland. Everything was great, your character was gray, the enemies were gray, buildings were gray, the ground was gray, the sky was gray... It made it particularly unfun to navigate and try and differentiate between which gray object was what

[@njsmith390]

I know the chance of yahtzee seeing it is 0, but Ive got 2 games he might like Machinarium, an old school pre 2010 2d point and click adventure game I think has great personality And highfleet, FTL by way of a bullethell shooter determined to give everyone an epileptic fit

[@MiaowGaiGar]

Really disappointed there wasn't some kind of portmanteau, like "saltsac", an indication that you've either got the most over-seasoned bag of snack mix ever, or that the male stripper you're having over for your bachelorette party is in for an interesting surprise.

[@Dethmaster64]

Yahtzee managed to educate me on healthcare better than anything in grade school ever did

[@MusicoftheDamned]

Sad to admit that I don't get the joke in the very last panel for once since I don't recognize the guitarist. I laughed at the rest of this though, and I once agai. wondered when people will stop making _Dark Souls_ adjacent games that add literally nothing and thus come off as cheap knockoffs with different artstyles. I mean, the answer to that is probably "never" at this point given human nature, but one can dream of humanity being slightly less disappointing for once than it actually is like always.

[@cooldude2722]

I mean, the "Dodgy Rolls" bit flew right past me, but I have to draw attention to the "Normandy Armadillos" blurb in the end credits. The imagery alone is enough to warrant a whole skit.

[@dragoslayer1327]

This is probably my favorite episode, and is the best/only "review" I've watched on S&S2. I wanna go into the game almost entirely blind, and I can guarantee I won't get any useful info here

[@AaronCorr]

Ah yes, grinding for bloodvials. Personally I farmed echos in the lecture hall while watching sth on youtube, bought 200 blood vials, then gave Orphan of Kos or Laurence another go

[@GeneralNickles]

So who wants to take bets on what Yahtzee is dieing from? I'm gonna say.... Mesothelioma.

[@koma9sensey]

I do have a question for everybod. Dose anyone click away when Yahzze says spoiler warning... like for real.🤔

[@aleksmeetsworld6873]

How could anyone not pick drunkenness?

[@beansnrice321]

A socialized healthcare system that works.

[@flaco3462]

I'm glad Yahtzee is such an advocator for better healthcare.

[@johnmichaelbanuelos]

This is the Saw VI of Zero Punction reviews, that is, the one that is a scathing critique of the American health insurance industry

[@danyl1985]

I did hate Bloodborne's healing system, but the way you said it cracked me up

[@Fred-rv2tu]

Guess you shouldn’t have moved to the US.

[@basimaziz]

2:26 ... Alright Yahtzee, I come for the reviews anyway. I'm gonna buy it but, man... The bloodborne healing system huh? Aaaagh. Why? Just refill me at the checkpoint man.

[@gregoryw1212]

You can just buy potions from a vendor 🤣

[@NathanDGriffiths]

"More dodgy rolls than an unsanitary sushi restaurant" bravo sir, bravo

[@Reksaurian]

Good series of metaphors re health care. 😂

[@84jesterx]

I remember thinking that it was beyond preposterous how the first game wasn't available for the Switch at the time. I obviously loved Dark Souls, and I wanted something like it desperately for the new brilliant handheld-money maker on the go back then. 2D Souls-like-I mean RECURSIVE? "Brilliant! Why isn't this available for it now?" I thought. So I waited...and waited, AND WAITED and it still wasn't out for switch, so I finally bought it on PS4... literally months before it was announced for Switch. And then I ended up not really enjoying the game altogether. Basically I just wanted Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow or Metroid Dread more. Even Blasphemous didn't help. And from what it sounds like, I should also just stick to MH Rise...as well as keep replaying actual Dark Souls (sob).

[@UsmevavyPanacek]

Have you tried Hollow knight?

[@ejs_ethan]

Dodge rolling up the beaches of Normandy. Dude WTF 😂

[@Kinoksis]

Who's the guitarist inside the Status Quo-o-Tron?

[@domh4201]

New member :) loving the early access

[@theescapist]

Welcome aboard!