Thank you Bisong Taiwo for providing us with a review code!

In Sainthood you find yourself shipwrecked on an island without any memories. Inside of the island’s church the prioress greets you like she’s been expecting you. She takes it upon herself to introduce you to the locals and share parables to build up your faith and memories. Your stay on the island is limited to thirty-three days before a rescue ship arrives to take you home. Will you recover your memories by then? Will you make a spiritual impact on the islanders? Do you have what it takes to become a saint? All of these questions can be answered within a couple of hours as the play-throughs are not very long. Depending on how well you utilize your most important resources (time and energy), you can see various endings.

My first couple of play-throughs had me leaving the island without making much of an impact despite having over one hundred faith points. Faith Points are earned by praying at the different locations. There’s a daily maximum that you can obtain. As you earn Faith Points, you’ll unlock saints and get to read through their biographies.

Charity Points are a bit harder to obtain/maintain. After you build a food pantry, kitchen, orphanage, school, and hospital, you can volunteer at them to win people over. During severe weather, these buildings will need time and energy to repair and if you are short on either of them, you’ll lose followers. There is a cap on how many you can win over in a day, but there doesn’t seem to be a limit on how many you can lose. I have had negative numbers carry over.

You can buy an energy drink at the store, but each step you take to move around the island takes fifteen minutes. There are light orbs on some of the spaces and they are necessary for upgrading buildings so be sure to gather them at every opportunity! In the evening there are red orbs that sometimes move around. These are evil spirits that will rob you of your gold if they come in contact with you.

At the beginning of each day the prioress will greet you and will usually share a pun or a parable. The postman will then assist you in stocking your two inventory slots and will offer up a randomized power-up. When it’s raining you should take the umbrella and in the wintertime you should equip the cloak. Other buffs will lower construction costs, increase energy, faith, and donation amounts. Some of the items have negative effects like increasing the amount of time it takes to pray in exchange for more faith points when you do so. There’s a whip-like item you can use to scourge yourself in exchange for faith points.

Other than the option to scourge yourself, there’s little to complain about morally. With the title Sainthood having references to various saints should come as no surprise. Non-Christians/Catholics may not appreciate those references though.

My only nitpick with Sainthood is that it does not have cloud save support. You can find your game save files in your user profile directory under AppData\LocalLow\BisongTaiwo\Sainthood.

The 3D visuals are charming and changing of seasons adds some color and charm to this obscure little island. I think it’s unique that the places you visit change their locations every day, but the church stays in the middle of the island.

The voice acting is minimal with an occasional "Hello!" as you're walking around. The background music and sound effects are fitting and pleasant to listen to. I enjoyed the instrumental versions of Away in a Manger and Ave Maria.

Overall, I enjoyed my time being stuck on the island despite being rescued with no fanfare whatsoever. I’ll have to perfect my strategies to keep my converts happy and faith levels maximized. In my two play-throughs I have unlocked ten out of the nineteen available Steam achievements. I look forward to more titles from Bisong Taiwo and highly recommend checking out the demo if you’re curious about Sainthood.