A unique 3d platforming, climbing game that is worth the journey if you don't mind a little janky gameplay and spacy, ambiguous story telling.
Jusant is you, as a kid, climbing a mountain for your little blue creature friend that you keep in your backpack. I won't spoil it here, mostly because I'm not entirely sure what happens at the end, but you do help your little blue friend... I think?
Regardless, the climbing is a lot of fun when it's working correctly and the mountain is really interesting as it changes biomes between chapters. There are also an absolute ton of collectibles, so if you like looking for collectibles, you have a bit more meat on the bone of this game. If you don't care about collectibles, you can breeze through this pretty quickly.
The climbing portions do get creative and puzzly with you using all your abilities (climbing, jumping, taking a breath, swinging, etc...) to figure out how to get up to the next area safely. This is SUPER satisfying and feels great when you figure out a tough area. I loved looking down and seeing where I came from and thinking "Wow, I actually climbed pretty far!"
There are some other little janky issues with maneuvering around the environment where the movement just doesn't feel as seamless as it should. I think about wall climbing in something like an Assassin's Creed or Price of Persia and how that felt pretty intuitive and easy but this game doesn't really follow those lines.
This is a blessing and a curse because I see what they were going for. They want you to control each arm with the triggers on the controller and they want that because it feels more challenging like you're actually climbing. They want you to feel like you're the one doing it. I get it.
However, there are times where the environment just works against you in a not so fun way. Like, when I'm just trying to climb down from a ledge, it feels like there are ledges that will let you and some won't and I don't get why.
There are times where grabbing at ledges can be super strange. The kids arms will some times just not grab what you're trying to grab even though he's right next to the ledge! His arms will hilariously go all over the place looking for something to grab or just keep grabbing the wrong thing! This is especially frustrating when you're trying to grab things that are moving.
Other times, you think you've grabbed a ledge only to find that you totally didn't and you will drop down. This can be frustrating when you forgot to set another hook in the wall to start from along your climb and you have to start over from the last check point below.
Overall, I enjoyed Jusant but by the end I was kind of over it. I think the game is the perfect length to not over stay its welcome and by the end, I felt satisfied with the journey. I just wish some of the little janky issues were more ironed out. Perhaps in a sequel? We'll see!
Jusant is you, as a kid, climbing a mountain for your little blue creature friend that you keep in your backpack. I won't spoil it here, mostly because I'm not entirely sure what happens at the end, but you do help your little blue friend... I think?
Regardless, the climbing is a lot of fun when it's working correctly and the mountain is really interesting as it changes biomes between chapters. There are also an absolute ton of collectibles, so if you like looking for collectibles, you have a bit more meat on the bone of this game. If you don't care about collectibles, you can breeze through this pretty quickly.
The climbing portions do get creative and puzzly with you using all your abilities (climbing, jumping, taking a breath, swinging, etc...) to figure out how to get up to the next area safely. This is SUPER satisfying and feels great when you figure out a tough area. I loved looking down and seeing where I came from and thinking "Wow, I actually climbed pretty far!"
There are some other little janky issues with maneuvering around the environment where the movement just doesn't feel as seamless as it should. I think about wall climbing in something like an Assassin's Creed or Price of Persia and how that felt pretty intuitive and easy but this game doesn't really follow those lines.
This is a blessing and a curse because I see what they were going for. They want you to control each arm with the triggers on the controller and they want that because it feels more challenging like you're actually climbing. They want you to feel like you're the one doing it. I get it.
However, there are times where the environment just works against you in a not so fun way. Like, when I'm just trying to climb down from a ledge, it feels like there are ledges that will let you and some won't and I don't get why.
There are times where grabbing at ledges can be super strange. The kids arms will some times just not grab what you're trying to grab even though he's right next to the ledge! His arms will hilariously go all over the place looking for something to grab or just keep grabbing the wrong thing! This is especially frustrating when you're trying to grab things that are moving.
Other times, you think you've grabbed a ledge only to find that you totally didn't and you will drop down. This can be frustrating when you forgot to set another hook in the wall to start from along your climb and you have to start over from the last check point below.
Overall, I enjoyed Jusant but by the end I was kind of over it. I think the game is the perfect length to not over stay its welcome and by the end, I felt satisfied with the journey. I just wish some of the little janky issues were more ironed out. Perhaps in a sequel? We'll see!