Jusant (2023)

En un mundo desértico, en el que el agua ya ha pasado a mejor vida hace mucho tiempo, un joven de nombre desconocido deberá escalar la más alta montaña para descubrir si existe una solución.

Jusant es un juego muy divertido, amén que simple. Controlamos a un joven escalador en busqueda de respuestas y para ello tendremos que ir subiendo la montaña usando nuestras manos y nuestra cuerda, a modo de plataformas y atendiendo de forma cercana a nuestro medidor de aguante, ya que si fallamos nos caeremos.

No es una escalada libre totalmente, ya que solo podemos aferrarnos a los salientes que el juego precisa, pero con los saltos, el numero de salientes que hay y la cuerda, tenemos a veces varias rutas alternativas que sin duda hacen el juego más ameno.

Sobre la historia hay poco que decir, más que nuestro protagonista conocerá a un ser que nos ayudará en la escalada y que podremos ir viendo retazos de historias que nos irán diciendo que es lo que ocurrió para que se llegase a esta situación.

En resumen, un juego corto, divertido y recomendable.

I donno man, I donno. I feel like games like this only work when they induce a flow state, and this is just not that. It feels like I'm fighting the controls with every button press, the sudden snaps to ledges, the floaty way the protagonist moves, the invisible walls on ledges.

I was really looking forward to Jusant hoping it would give me the same high games like Sable gave me, low stakes free roam exploration but with a twist, this feels more linear than all that, maybe linear isn't the right word, I donno. Damn shame, if this had worked for me it would have been a perfect podcast game. Ah well.

Wonderful little climbing adventure from French developer Don't Nod. You traverse various areas of different elements to unfold the story of the tide (Jusant). Climbing mechanics feel great and reminded me of Uncharted and the newer Tomb Raider's. Soundtrack and visuals are gorgeous even though some areas feels designed or placed by AI. Hope I'm not offending any developers, but it gives off that vibe a lot of times.

There's a lot of lore told through letters and sometimes they are way too long, and could easily have been shortened. I realise you don't have to read them, but as a writer myself, brevity is always your friend. I went for the platinum and it took 5-6 hours, and I can definitely say I enjoyed my climb.

[3.4] / [5]

The games I really get into are ones where the traversal mechanics themselves are the star of the show. Games that pick an action that you'd normally take for granted and decide to make that the game.

Jusant is a relaxing, stress-free time. Even when failing a particularly complicated climbing segment, it will give off this hopeful atmosphere that encourages you to just keep going a little bit further. This game would be so fun to learn to speedrun on a replay. But also a really fun game to just take your time with and take in all the scenery.

This isn’t normally my type of game, but I still enjoyed it.

It’s easy to get captivated by Jusant. It boasts a beautiful art style, an awesomely clean UI, awe-inspiring vistas, a contemplative atmosphere and an impressively soothing soundtrack. The premise is very simple: this is a platforming game where you climb, climb, and keep climbing, all the while absorbing letters and environmental storytelling to uncover the story imbued in this fantasy world. The game makes use of some pretty cool, somewhat intuitive mechanics where each trigger serves as a ‘hand’, meaning they take turns in propelling you upwards as you climb. It doesn’t always work flawlessly, but I do really like this concept and it would be interesting to see more devs implementing similar approaches. Even though you are essentially doing slightly different variations of the same gameplay loop, most of Jusant’s 6 levels are quite visually distinct, each with its own spin on vibe and mechanics they introduce, and the game is short enough that you never feel it outstaying its welcome. The ending is cute and heart-warming, a fitting wrap up for this audiovisually rich experience. And Ballast is such an endearing journey companion that it alone makes the trip worthwhile.

I have some minor gripes - level design feels a bit misleading at times in terms of what is worth and not worth exploring, I don’t like that it sometimes moves you along without allowing you to retrace your steps when you miss something, the game isn’t great at telegraphing, and my playthrough was slightly buggier than I wouldn’ve liked in terms of movement and FPS. But Jusant is still a great package on the whole, and its ability to stun and inspire is enough to recommend it, even if you, like me, might initially feel this isn’t your thing. 7.5/10

Jusant es uno de esos juegos que entran fácil. Es sencillo, es muy cortito (entre 2-4 horas) y sobre todo es muy bonito gracias a un apartado artístico muy trabajado y, sobretodo, una banda sonora que acompaña genial. La mecánica de escalada no es muy profunda pero se hace entretenida, a pesar de algun bug puntual que te saca un poco de la experiencia.

La historia está algo ausente salvo que te quieras parar a explorar mediante cartas... mecánica que me cansa y que no creo que deba tener el grueso del peso narrativo. Aun así, puedes entender la premisa del juego simplemente observando el paisaje y tus acciones. Aquí es donde creo que está el punto que separa a Jusant de ser un sobresaliente, podrían haber trabajado algo más su historia y haberte hecho empatizar un poquito más con sus personajes y habrán logrado que el final (que es bastante lindo) hubiera sido una experiencia más potente.

Wow, big shift in aesthetics and gameplay from Don’t Nod. They have three games released or slated for release in 2023 and this and Harmony: The Fall of Reverie seem the two most interesting to me. Jusant is quite pretty, and has some decently complex climbing mechanics. I don’t know how many challenging climbing games exist out there, so maybe this is a burgeoning sub-genre. I’d definitely play more.

I did need to load it up in Proton Experimental because the demo wouldn’t seem to launch in the latest stable release. As a result there was a bit of wonkiness but nothing too bad.