Saltsea Chronicles

A beautiful game with a distinctive art style, incredible writing, and heartbreaking moments. I cried at least a few times late-game from some of the consequences of my choices and smiled a lot and laughed too. I do think the ending I got was a bit abrupt and odd but overall this was a really great experience!

Saltsea Chronicles is a great narrative game, each chapter a bite-sized story in its own right, building up to a moving ending. Every land had its own identity, with a central theme and lots of little details to make it come to life, building up to a world that you want to help flourish. Every member of the crew has their own goals and worries, clashing and reconciling as they pursue their common goal. The way you traverse is also very stream-lined - the game is text heavy, and everything else is in service of that, with easy (and controller-friendly) navigation, clear menus and goals that let you focus on the core narrative experience of reading and making choices, and music and graphics which add to the ambiance of the game but don't take centre stage. (I haven't tried the card game yet, so I can't speak to how it fits in) I also enjoyed exploring the game's possibility space. You can have your own personal playthrough (~5hr long) of Saltsea, and walk away satisfied with how you decided to handle matters. But if you're ready to dive back in, there are new lands to discover, potentially with different characters, and different ways to solve (or not solve) dilemmas. I always enjoy…

Saltsea Chronicles is a visual novel about heavy themes told through common experiences of love and friendships, worries and regrets. With that, it shares a lot with Mutazione, the studio previous outing. However, it feels much grander in scope, and that's all down to the change of theme. The narrative here is not on the effect of colonialism on an indigenous tribe anymore but is a tale of communities and rebuilding in a post-capitalist world. Everything follows. A full archipelago to explore, instead of a village. A crew to manage, instead of a single protagonist. Even the visual style is now zoomed out, giving the painterly art style much more room to breathe, to play with shapes and colours, free to be abstract. It's a game that stuck with me all year because of these cohesive design choices as much as for the wonderful cast of characters. It even has an in-theme trick-taking card game, what's not to love?

Okay, this is one where I had to get used to the aesthetic, but once I did get used to it, it felt natural, homey, familiar, like these multi-colored folk were my friends. Keep in mind that despite the bright colors and clear shapes, this goes dark places freely and often, but you're always making choices with your crew of fractious, complicated buddies. Lots of complex conflicts - the game always feels strangely gentle, but not straightforward. I usually love games that are essentially navigating lore, descriptions, and conversations - that's all this game is. So much text! a lot of branching! I hope to replay it and see how different it gets.

A superb narrative game where I really connected with the characters and world. I really love the art style here. There is not much in the way of "traditional" gameplay but if you are looking for an great story with compelling characters this is the perfect game to scratch that itch!

Saltsea has a much more episodic format than Mutazione. I was initially skeptical because I liked playing one character and building relationships over time, as you do in Mutazione, but Saltsea won me over. The writing is good, the characters are good, the emotional beats land. The art style is distinctive but a bit sparse. You can jump between chapters, but there's no way to automatically advance dialogue, so it's difficult to see every plot thread. (This might be as intended?) Card games aren't really my speed, and I found them an unwanted distraction when I had the chance to play during the storyline, but what I played of it was fun.