Previous week’s post

We’ve made it an entire week archfolk and that means it’s time for the second post where you let us know in the comments what you’re up to. Retro? Unreleased? Board? Chime in and let us know your thoughts!

drop’s recommendation of the week:

Jusant - Steam (Demo, Fall 2023)

Your journey begins with the introduction of a nomadic climber, taking a break from the harsh desert littered with long defunct aquatic technologies. It’s unclear what happened to the waters that once housed these relics but it must have been sudden. After what feels like a slightly unnecessarily long introduction, you begin your ascent and gain control.

If you’re anything like me when I’m given autonomy in a game, the first thing I do is turn around and see if the developers decided to hide anything of value. The answer was no, but to leave it at no is a disservice. There is a staircase, assumedly the one you climbed after the intro, and all along it are relics of a previous settlement. It’s no with the caveat that you gain no knowledge but more questions. Who were these people? Who am I? Are we even the same species? Time was clearly put into making this feel once- and no longer inhabited.

At its core Jusant is a puzzle game that involves climbing, reaching the next plateau in an attempt to glean a little more knowledge on your way to reaching the next plateau. Unlike a lot of modern games, the information is not always on the beaten path and not every beaten path is the correct one. The game does a decent job of guiding you in a direction but execution is still up to you. Early on you’re given a mechanic that acts as a kind of save point during an ascent, in case you run out of energy by mismanagement or accident. It’s an interesting combination of holding your hand but giving you the freedom to make mistakes that makes you want to keep exploring, and that plus the slow nature of the game are what separates it from a lot of others.

Visually the game is both simplistic and beautiful, the landscape feels warm, dry and smoothed by years of sandstorms, sunbleached and shiny. Shadows have been meticulously placed to appear correctly from every angle, and the narrative camera is used at just the right times.

At the end of the demo I was left with many more questions than answers, but in a sea of games where speed and accuracy are key, Jusant might end up being a white whale.