Review for Jusant

Written by
Alyssa Hatmaker — November 11, 2023

French developers DON'T NOD are known for games like Life Is Strange and Vampyr, featuring tense narratives that keep you on the edge of your seat. DON'T NOD's latest game, Jusant, is a much more understated and relaxing experience. Rock climbing might not seem like the most mellow activity, and Jusant certainly has its heart-thumping moments, but if you’re looking for an adventure that will let you unwind with captivating gameplay and some truly wonderful environmental storytelling, then I encourage you to give Jusant’s refreshing climb a try.

You play as a boy with an unknown name, who’s traversing a tower that reaches far into the sky, filled with the remnants of a society that once lived within its nooks and crannies. Your reasons for traveling upward are unclear at the outset, but you have a companion with you — a tiny, watery blue blob of a creature called a ballast — who can make intriguing things happen with its “echo” ability, including letting you know what your next objective is and pointing out the locations of collectibles. The ballast rests in a little backpack or perches on your shoulder, and you can interact with it with the push of a button, giving it a pat or lovingly brushing your cheek against it. It’s an adorable detail in a game filled to the brim with lovely details.

Jusant is divided into six chapters, each of which sees you traversing a different biome full of climbing puzzles. It’s best played with a controller, as you’ll use the right and left triggers to grasp with your right and left hands, which feels intuitive and satisfying. You can place pitons as you climb that will anchor you in place should you fall, and they can also be used to help you get to the next handhold or ledge. Each biome has a different environmental element that you must learn to work with in order to progress, making the climb increasingly interesting as you adapt to your surroundings and use everything you’ve learned to keep ascending. A cave-filled biome, for example, introduces bioluminescent creatures that can lift you higher into the air, offering an exhilarating reprieve, while a sun-scorched biome disintegrates your plant-based handholds after a certain amount of time, making it tricky to navigate.

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Jusant excels at environmental storytelling. Your character is silent throughout, and there’s no one else to meet along your way, but you’ll collect notes written by the people on the tower who came before you, allowing you to infer the details of their lives and history. Slowly, as you climb further and further, you’ll uncover the story of a world in desperate need of water due to a global receding tide known as the titular “jusant.” Your purpose becomes clearer as you climb and read, piecing together the game’s lore as well as simply taking in its environmental detail. Scattered about are the tools of others who’ve made the journey before you. Long-abandoned shops and restaurants remain as mere echoes of the lives once lived here.

There are several collectibles alongside the documents you’ll find. My favorite of these are the conch shells that, when held up to your ear, fill your speakers or headphones with the long-lost sounds of human activity, captured in fleeting moments. In addition to the notes and shells, you’ll find cairns to complete, altars to interact with, and pieces of art that the ballast can illuminate with its echo. Much to my delight, once I finished the game, I was able to choose any chapter to replay and find the collectibles I’d missed. I had spent so much time focused on climbing that I had missed quite a few, and I appreciated the opportunity to go back and discover the interesting pieces of world-building that I was lacking. Everything is so beautifully and intricately woven together that I didn’t want to miss out on anything, and the game thankfully understood that.

Gentle piano music soars in at intervals while you climb, adding to Jusant’s serene atmosphere. Each biome has a different ambience and its own music to accompany it. The game is described by DON'T NOD as a meditative experience, and I fully agree with that descriptor. I found myself in a state of flow while playing, contentedly climbing while breathing in the atmosphere and considering the mysterious and melancholy lore. I’m still thinking about Jusant days after finishing it. All of the unanswered questions linger, but mostly, I want more of that satisfying climbing. I’ll play it again, without question, and I hope you’ll consider falling into this quietly beautiful little game.