Maids have long been a core part of human culture. Because who doesn’t dream of having a servant who takes care of menial chores in your place and spoils you rotten? While today’s modern bourgeoisie has fitting modern servants, it’s mostly the maids of old that served the European nobility who have been recreated in the media. Today, there are many different tropes involving them that appear in fiction, such as the sexy French Maid or the cute Meido. Another trope is the Ninja Maid, who is proficient in combat, used by developer Orange Popcorn in their latest action game, Maid of Salvation.
When a soul loses their mortal form and passes away into Purgatory, it could fall into corruption, turning it into a dangerous fiend. They can then be cleansed by the titular Maids of Salvation by slaying them. Shizuka is one of those maids, tasked by the Overseer Maria, who follows the will of the Master, to collect Core Karma, which can prevent fiends from being created. This leads Shizuka on a journey through Purgatory to cleanse the land, collect the Core Karma, and find the truth of their existence.
Admittedly, this story serves to serve the gameplay. Most of the plot details are found in Echoes, lore fragments you can pick up, though they are few and far between. If you’re only following the main story, most of the plot takes place in the final stretch of the campaign. This includes the characterization of our protagonist, which was pretty lacklustre. Shizuka’s dialogue felt incredibly shallow, and tells us little about her other than her devotion to the mission.
Speaking of our protagonist, her occupation raises one problem with the game: why are they maids? Other than a basic idea of servitude under a ‘Master’ (who we never meet but only communicates through the Overseer), there is little reason in the setting that relates to these characters being maids. Considering the themes of purgatory and salvation, it would have made more sense for them to be priests, nuns, or even a more generic undead being. While these maids are not that maid-like, it does give the game a unique aesthetic, even if this aspect didn’t get the depth the title implied.
The lands of Purgatory are vast and filled with peril, reflected in the game’s genre as a fusion of a Metroidvania and a Soulslike. Starting from the hub world, the Sanctuary, you’ll set out to collect the Core Karma from one of many regions. Said hub has many non-combat maids to talk to in order to upgrade your equipment, and also has many of its own secrets to discover as your loadout grows. The Sanctuary is quite big, though, so you’ll spend a good while dashing through the halls, as you go back and forward between the shop and the weaponsmith.
Shizuka can be armed with a melee weapon, a firearm, and up to two Secret Arts. Your melee attacks are straightforward strikes, but some advanced techniques consume the stamina bar, which quickly replenishes when not in use. Your stamina permits you to dodge, parry, and unleash stronger sword strikes: the Power Crush, where you charge ahead, or the Power Slash, launching lighter enemies into the air. Landing melee strikes or performing perfect guards replenish MP, which is used for your guns and Secret Art. The former are straightforward ranged strikes; the latter are Shizuka’s strongest abilities. These Secret Arts have a variety of effects, from powerful hits to buffs to area denial.
As a Soulslike, Shizuka’s journey certainly won’t be a smooth one. As the genre implies, Maid of Salvation is pretty difficult. Throughout my 10-hour-long journey for Salvation, I saw the death card a total of 47 times, according to the end-of-run result screen. A lot of the fights definitely require you to have good reflexes and learn the attack patterns, though changing your gear does help a bit, as we’ll cover later.
Overall, the combat is easily the highlight of the game. It is snappy, satisfying, and rewarding, thanks to the many abilities at Shizuka’s disposal, and constantly keeps you on your toes. I did occasionally have issues hitting enemies on towers. Normally, you can reach them by jumping, then hitting them with either a gun or the grappling hook Secret Art, but sometimes these hits would not connect. The bosses had decent variation in their attacks, though I also fought one annoying boss that, during its second phase, constantly jumped out of the arena while leaving behind reinforcements, and it was tough getting attacks in during its brief windows of vulnerability. Apart from that battle, almost all bosses felt fair to fight.
Your weapons and Secret Arts can be afflicted with one of four elements: fire, ice, poison and dark. Each of these can apply a different status effect, but they can also be used against you by enemies. Luckily, you can also equip up to two accessories that give a varying amount of buffs, one of those being resistance to an element. Bosses can often use of resist one of these elements, requiring you to change your loadout accordingly. Apart from boss resistance, I didn’t find much reason to change my melee weapon, only when I found a new one with better stats. Aside from the solid variety of Secret Arts, there isn’t much customization in the gear system.
Every monster you slay grants you Karma, which can be used to purchase items, upgrade your equipment, and, more importantly, level up at statues. You can spend some Karma to improve either your strength, health, stamina, or max HP, but each level up becomes increasingly expensive. Every level up also gives you a wedge stone, which can be used on a skill tree to upgrade one of Shizuka’s abilities, like extra buffs on parry, giving her an attack boost after a Power Slash, etc.
Just keep in mind that this game is still a Soulslike, and as such, all your Karma is lost upon defeat. To reclaim it, destroy the Karma crystal that is left behind at the location of your demise.
When wandering through the maze-like regions of Purgatory, some of the ways forward will be blocked in true Metroidvania fashion. You can collect sigils and keys to access new areas or open doors, but other roadblocks require new skills. Some of them require specific Chain Secret Arts, like the aforementioned grappling hook, the Chain of Pursuit. It’s easily the most fun one, as it allows you to quickly zip over the map to reach new heights, giving the elements a sense of verticality. This does pose the issue that you need to have that specific Art equipped every time you encounter that obstacle, so that’s why these gimmicks are less present in later levels. It prevents you from having to constantly switch out Arts, but it means that these gimmicks can’t really work together in a single level. At least most of the time, there was one point during the final area where I was suddenly required to use the Chain of Pursuit, which I didn’t have to use for a good while and as such didn’t have it equipped. Some abilities need you to have a certain key item in your inventory, like using Warlock switches, for the sake of variety.
To beat some quests, you might need to get an item locked behind a certain puzzle. Some of them were pretty fun, like stacking bombs or defeating enemies by luring them into the water, but there were also a couple of stealth sections, where you cannot be seen or even attack the patrols, and I found these puzzles to be pretty frustrating. Though something great about the quest system is that you can instantly teleport back to the quest giver as soon as you complete the objective, without using any resources.
But even Purgatory has some safe havens. You will find some checkpoints, containing a warp circle, a statue to level up, and one to save and heal. These are reminiscent of the bonfires found in Dark Souls games, as they also refill your Purgatory Potions. Most potions are a single use, but these are infinitely refillable, and finding a new one in the world increases your maximum capacity.
Overall, the presentation of Maid of Salvation is a mixed bag. The atmosphere and lighting are excellent, and give every region a gloomy feeling that fits Purgatory perfectly. This is even further elevated by the great music, giving you a foreboding tune that keeps you on your toes. Apart from that, the visual presentation is somewhat lacking. I already mentioned how the “maid” aspect of the game is underdeveloped, and that is not helped by the lacklustre character design, as the maids just look like generic anime girls with generic maid uniforms. The area- and enemy design are nothing to write home about either, the regions are your standard biomes, and the fiends are your standard fantasy creatures, like goblins, skeletons, and demons. The UI elements are also nothing to write home about, though it is very noticeable how this game uses the same type of cut-in text upon defeat or victory as Dark Souls. Finally, this game used generative AI for some 2D assets according to the Steam page, which might turn off some players.
The path to salvation is a perilous one, but Maid of Salvation makes it entertaining. While there isn’t much variation in character builds, the core Soulslike combat is still entertaining, with many options available to you at once, and punishing yet rewarding gameplay. The exploration is also fun, but is held back by some of your exploration abilities needing to be equipped. With its central “maid” gimmick being underdeveloped, it leads to a fun but flawed journey through Purgatory.
Maid of Salvation gets a 7/10.
