Looking for a comprehensive Jusant Review? We’ve got you covered! Set to a stylistic backdrop of the end times, not too dissimilar to Mad Max where the Water has receded, Jusant, on the surface seems like a Climbing Simulator with minimum Story. Here is our Jusant Review.
Developed & Published by Don’t Nod, this fantastical end-of-the-world type game has plenty to be excited about. Ranging from its fluid feeling climbing system to its incredible lifeforms, Jusant transports you to a magical world where on the surface everything seems lost but through exploration, Jusant holds many secrets and miracles.
STORY
Starting the game you get the feeling that the story is more of a hands-off where you are pointed in a direction and silently told to acesend to meet parameters, however, it is so much more. The story evolves like any other game while you make your way higher and higher up the tower, the lack of narrative direction and the need for the player to understand the visual cues the game gives is more of an offputting and disconcerting way for the player to learn the game, but Jusant handles this through the power of Bonds. A lot of games do this, although they are normally AAA/ AAAA productions, the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sly Cooper, and even Death Stranding rely on a kinship to another character within the world to evolve events. My personal favorite is God Of War because of the bond shared between Kratos and his Son, which drives more than just the events of the story, Jusant feels like it takes off this with the connection to the character you play as and the little creature he carries.
The relationship in the game is more symbiotic, they seem to both need each other, the Wanderer seems to want to help the creature and the creature can’t do the things the Wanderer can. This is only made more apparent once you reach Chapter 5 which is nearing the end of the game. The Creature, known by the lore of the game as a Ballast, looks to be trying to make it’s way home, which is the top of the tower.
While the story of the game and the game overall seems short it’s amazing how fast time can fly by as you spend time climbing and exploring, it could even give the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Ladder a challenge for the longest climb.
Mechanics, Graphics, & Technical things
Mechanically the game is a standard Third Person adventure game with a twist. The core of the game is the climbing and explorative systems utilising the fluid mechanics of the Traversal Systems, however, subsystems within the game lead to collections and unique interaction with items that tell stories.
The Ballast also plays a role in the mechanics by acting as a guide and even a progressive assistant. What this means is the Ballast has its own skill to use to help when trying to get through the world which is a pulse. This pulse interacts with objects, mainly plants and murals, to help the player traverse.
Although the climbing system is a masterpiece there is a problem, and although it is a feature and a small problem overall, it is a problem. While you are climbing you can press Down on your D-Pad to take a rest, which refills your stamina bar to where it’s solid and lets you rest your last used arm. While this isn’t a problem it is a problem that he doesn’t change arms to relax the tension in that one. If this was IRL you would almost certainly fall from the amount of pressure and stress in the arm you haven’t rested, since it is supporting you, keeping you attached to the climbing surface. On the other side of this, you have these things called Pitons, I would call them Anchors. These Anchors should be used to provide a point where if you fall you are saved from death, just like if you were climbing IRL. The main issue I have with how the game handles these is to do with the fact that once you anchor yourself it is never going to not stay where it is in place. If this was Real life there would always be the chance that the Anchor wouldn’t take… considering the surfaces you are clinging to, to climb on, Stone, Wood, and Metal, all have different structural integrities which would alter how you climb and how an anchor would be stable on it. Granted this is a game and it looks like it is some weird science of maglock technology where you place your anchor and it is effectively a super magnet that won’t move until you cancel the anchoring. Another flaw with this is, “Why can’t I use one of these Anchors to Rest?”. This is one of the biggest issues I see with the climbing and something that you would probably do IRL. The best way to rest your arms when climbing would be to secure yourself with a stable anchoring point or remove the climbing locomotion by finding a ledge or returning to Terra firmer. This would mean using a temporary anchor to lock yourself onto the wall and rest your upper body, which is the part doing most of the work of climbing, with your lower body providing the propulsion to move. In terms of Jusant, the only way you can do this is to find a designated point at which to switch your safety line.
Now this isn’t a problem but the one thing about Jusant that is somewhat reassuring and irritating is the Rope. This is because you can’t fall off a ledge, the Rope doesn’t seem to want you to go past the ledge to a hang or start a climb without you being secured somehow. As much as a safety net as this is it wouldn’t work IRL and can honestly be irritating in Jusant when trying to climb a little ledge or ladder and I suddenly need securing to the wall for something like a foot drop.
Graphically the game makes me think of the Synty assets which are available on the Unreal Marketplace and Unity Asset store, Low polygonal geometry with detailed textureing. It is a form of stylisation which isn’t seen in a lot of games, when we think stylisation the first thought is something like Darksiders, followed by maybe Medievil or the likes.
On the note of mechanics and graphics, there is something that should be touched on which is the animations. While they are an important part of a simulated thing, within Jusant the animations are rather on par with what it feels like to climb… to an extent. Games like Uncharted make climbing more friendly to the player making it so climbing isn’t as real as it would be, but in Jusant the blend between that fantastical way of climbing and a real way meets quite nicely. It is slow, takes time, and most importantly, does not over-exaggerate too much meaning it feels like something anyone with the stamina could achieve. The other side of this is that there is a Stamina system which is built on the premise that someone who is climbing would need to be aware of, in real life if you run out of this mythical stamina you fall, in Jusant this is the same.
CONCLUSION
Overall the game is an interesting adventure into a world without water and with strange life forms. While the idea of spending a few hours climbing a tower doesn’t seem appealing it is countered by the incredible scenery and mesmerizing lore that surrounds the game. Asking questions like:
- Where is all the Water?
- What and who is the character I am playing as?
- What is the deal with sounding the Horns?
- Isn’t there an elevator somewhere?
Somehow the game manages to capture the imagination almost from the get-go, introducing you to both familiar and unfamiliar creatures in the opening few minutes. This theme carries on throughout the game to introduce jellyfish swimming in the air or what looks like whales that sail on clouds, which is really something almost directly out of Avatar.
While the game is short and visually stunning it also has an interesting soundtrack to keep you moving in the right direction. Having a complementing soundtrack that assists in the progression of the game rather than the narrative vocals of the characters is an interesting storytelling mechanism that pushes the player to ascend to the end.
My personal favorite part of the game was Chapter 5 – Mirage, the reason for this is that you are high up on the tower by this point in the story and as you might expect climbing at higher altitudes would be different than when you are closer to the ground, Jusant makes the very apparent very fast. Not only do you have the stamina to deal with but you also have the high winds and alternating wind direction to contend with. This alone is a difficult thing for climbing IRL, in Jusant you are at least given safe zones where the wind will not affect you as well as being able to utilize the direction of the wind flow to your advantage to ascend a little faster.
As a final closing statement the name of the game is rather interesting as at first glance you would think that Jusant is the name of the hero you control on this adventure. While this might be true upon starting the game you get a nice surprise, which is a note stating:
Jusant (n.): a French nautical term for a receding tide
Jusant – 2024 – Video Game – Don’t Nod
While I don’t know French this seems to be either an interesting concept for the gamer to be forced into the mindset of, or providing some history to the lore of the world that Don’t Nod has crafted.
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