Saltsea Chronicles is one other narrative-driven journey from the makers of Mutazione, solely this time, you are taking part in a complete solid of characters, not only one. With their captain lacking, a bunch of pals 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 places you discover are numerous and attention-grabbing, and as you’re employed in the direction of targets, you will discover numerous optionally available chats, educating you slightly extra in regards to the world and its folks. It is a well-written recreation (albeit with rare textual content errors) with likeable characters, telling grounded tales inside uncommon circumstances.
Each dialog offers you frequent choices to make, which impression the path of the dialogue and even character relationships. The Points mechanic is one thing to remember; your crew can develop grievances with each other, or shared considerations. In case you play your playing cards proper, you may resolve excellent Points, however for those who do not, they will be scuppered and might change the dynamic. It is a intelligent system that makes your dialog decisions matter. All of the choice-driven gameplay means the sport is sort of replayable — you may restart every chapter in a unique save to see how different choices have an effect on issues.
It is all delivered with fashion, too — the music is atmospheric and stress-free, and the artwork is all clear strains and vivid colors. The one distraction from that is display screen tearing as scenes transition, however it’s in any other case a properly offered recreation.
We did battle slightly with the quantity of dialogue. The tempo strikes fairly slowly in consequence, and whereas most interactions are optionally available, you’d miss out on a lot context that it feels vital to hunt them out. The story is intriguing and the characters undergo attention-grabbing arcs (relying in your decisions) however it nonetheless solely held our consideration in brief bursts.
There’s so much 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 attention grabbing fashion and significant decision-making, and you’ve got a nice, ship-shape journey.