Saint Slayer: Spear Of Sacrilege Review - Just The Tip Of The Spear
Over the last eight years, Barry Johnson and his growing team at Lillymo Games have been paying homage to one of the great eras of video games. Titles released in the NES era had a purity that isn’t found in video games today. Too often, there are microtransactions, cosmetics, or expansive side-quests all designed to prolong your engagement time with a game. Personally, you may feel quite amenable to any or all of these systems, but there’s something to be said for a distraction-free experience; playing a game front to back, no fuss, no distractions, and mastering it along the way. These are the types of games that Lillymo have been developing for the better part of a decade, and having developed brick-breakers, platformers, shoot ’em up’s and more, it’s with their newest release, 2026’s Saint Slayer: Spear Of Sacrilege, that the team has engaged with a genre near and dear to my heart, and undoubtedly, many of you reading this – the 2D side-scrolling action platformer. Saint Slayer draws its inspiration from classic Castlevania titles of the NES era; it oozes this influence from every pore, and while Lillymo’s work doesn’t always capture the truest feelings of playing these classics, it comes pretty damn close.
Lead writer of Saint Slayer, Colin Moriarty, has long spoken of his love of religious depth and mystery in the video games that he plays, and so it is hardly a surprise that Spear Of Sacrilege explores a religious cult, one that is creating mystery and conflict. You play as Rudiger, an ex-soldier, who is thrust into conflict once more, taking up the ‘Spear Of Sacrilege’ to protect the Holy Roman Empire against the forces of a corrupted Catholic priest, Father Pacer. The religious pillar to the narrative unlocks the ability for Moriarty and the team to explore. There’s a lot of intrigue to be found in the plot, but what we get to explore throughout Saint Slayer’s 21 levels only scratches the surface of the world’s potential. There feels like a lot more juice to be squeezed from this orange, and so while the game ended with a clear bow on it, I also wouldn’t be at all surprised (nor would I be disappointed) if we see more from this world in the future.
As just outlined, Saint Slayer gives players 21 different levels to progress through, with a boss serving as the endcap to every level that is a multiple of three. The bosses are quite varied in their design, the attacks they use, and in terms of the techniques you need to implement to best them in combat. I was impressed by the fact that, despite the game being a brief 1.5-2 hour stay, there was a great deal of diversity to be found in the levels, which was then is best highlighted by the bosses themselves. As you progress deeper into the game, your spear becomes more powerful, more ranged, and becomes the only thing separating you from a quick death. Early through the game, when I foolishly hoped I might be able to progress through the game without hitting a game over screen, I tried to dodge and weave through collections of enemies, but their movements become more swift, and the combinations of enemies (paired with environmental hazzards as well) in an area become so considered, that it was impossible to not utilise every spear power-up I had and to not frantically swing left or right, hoping to hit anything that might be out to kill me.
For those who wish to achieve mastery in Saint Slayer, you’re going to need to die a lot first. It’s only by learning the sometimes cheap environmental ways the game is out to get you, from pathways that lead you off the golden path towards hordes of enemies, or item drops that you rush towards, only to find they’re rotten food, which makes you vomit, deducting from your health, along with the enemy patterns and level designs, that you will have any chance of getting through the game comfortably in a single run. Saint Slayer does implement a classic password system, though allowing you to skip to your current level should you fall. There is also some in-game currency that can be spent on additional lives, or a second chance should you reach the game over state, getting you a revive and a few more lives to extend your run by. For veterans, the depth is here; for the rookies, you’ve got some handholds to help you get through the experience.
As well as bottling the classic NES era through its gameplay, like all Lillymo games before it, Saint Slayer also captures the classic NES era through its visuals. Playing the game rally evokes some dormant memories of playing the classic Castlevania games on the NES, albeit Saint Slayer has a more diverse series of environments to explore than any Castlevania of the 1980’s or early 90’s. My one concern tied to the environments wasn’t necessarily about how they were realised, but how or why Rudiger was there. More could have been done to narratively connect me to the areas I visited, but the regions themselves are varied and intriguing to explore. The musical backing is, of course, inspired by the NES era as well, and while I didn’t hear anything that reaches the heights of a ‘Vampire Killer’, there are some excellent beats that will get you in the rhythm of the game before you know it.
Saint Slayer: Spear Of Sacrilege is not being marketed as the first act in a larger series, but should Lillymo choose to build upon the foundation of this title, then they’ve got a wonderful jumping-off point for a Part 2. With an intriguing world and premise, great retro gameplay, design, and presentational elements, and a whole lot of nostalgic heart, this is a franchise worth getting in on the ground floor of.
Saint Slayer: Spear Of Sacrilege was reviewed on PS5 with a code kindly provided by Lambsmith PR.
