Assessment: Saltsea Chronicles (PS5) – A Seaworthy, Alternative-Pushed Journey

Saltsea Chronicles is one other narrative-driven journey from the makers of Mutazione, solely this time, you are enjoying a complete forged of characters, not only one. With their captain lacking, a bunch of buddies set sail throughout the Saltsea archipelago to seek out her, just for the thriller to steadily develop a lot bigger.

This visible novel emphasises alternative and consequence. Every chapter has you decide somebody to accompany a lead character, and every individual has their very own views, abilities, and pursuits — all of which have an effect on conversations and occasions. The areas you discover are various and attention-grabbing, and as you’re employed in direction of goals, you may discover plenty of optionally available chats, educating you a little bit extra in regards to the world and its individuals. It is a well-written sport (albeit with rare textual content errors) with likeable characters, telling grounded tales inside uncommon circumstances.

Each dialog offers you frequent selections to make, which affect the path of the dialogue and even character relationships. The Points mechanic is one thing to keep in mind; your crew can develop grievances with each other, or shared considerations. In the event you play your playing cards proper, you possibly can resolve excellent Points, however should you do not, they’re going to be scuppered and may change the dynamic. It is a intelligent system that makes your dialog decisions matter. All of the choice-driven gameplay means the sport is kind of replayable — you possibly can restart every chapter in a unique save to see how various selections have an effect on issues.

It is all delivered with model, too — the music is atmospheric and enjoyable, and the artwork is all clear traces and vivid colors. The one distraction from that is display tearing as scenes transition, but it surely’s in any other case a properly offered sport.

We did wrestle a little bit with the quantity of dialogue. The tempo strikes fairly slowly consequently, and whereas most interactions are optionally available, you’d miss out on a lot context that it feels essential to hunt them out. The story is intriguing and the characters undergo attention-grabbing arcs (relying in your decisions) but it surely nonetheless solely held our consideration briefly bursts.

There’s loads to love about Saltsea Chronicles. It has a intelligent construction, low-pressure gameplay, and even a neat minigame to play in every location. Add on high an eye catching model and significant decision-making, and you’ve got a nice, ship-shape journey.