Jusant is, much like many games released in the past few years, a game about climbing a mountain. The thing that makes Jusant stand out from the crowd is the way in which you climb the mountain. The mountain in Jusant features a series of grabbable holds, and its controls use the left analog stick to grab the next rock and the left and right triggers to grab with the left and right hands respectively. Many games claim to be better on controller, but few are completely transformed by the control scheme like Jusant is. Jusant's Controller binds create a really satifying tactile feel to every ledge grabbed and every jump landed. Much of the writing about this game focuses on this aspect, and for good reason. The controls make you and your playable character feel intertwined by creating a strong correlation between the physical movements you do on your controller and the resulting movements your character does. The controls, mixed with excellently dialed in controller rumble, allow the game to feel incredibly immersive and engaging. The only downside of the controller scheme is that it is quite taxing on the hands especially if you decide to play for longer play sessions. By the end of the game my hands were pretty worn out. Another strong point of Jusant is its graphics, which fully utilize Unreal Engine's detailed shadows along with stylized texture work. The textures themselves are fairly low in terms of detail, but they're done in such a way that your eyes are able to fill in the gaps without it feeling distracting or cheaply done. Although none of the unique mechanics from each chapter wowed me, there's still enough variety there to keep each chapter feeling distinct. The music is solid, and sufficiently sets the mood on each stage of climbing up the mountain. The story is in a similar camp: not mindblowing, but it does what it needs to to make the game come together nicely. One aspect of storytelling I particularly liked was the seashells, where you get to hear what the place you're standing in used to sound like. They give you just enough information to be able to put the pieces together on what used to exist here, and I found it to be a really effective way of worldbuilding. My biggest complaint with the game is that there is a decent level of jank that shows up every now and then. There were quite a few places where my character got stuck in the floor for a second, and I had to jump out to continue moving forward. I also had one annoying softlock(?) where I got stuck in a pit that was so dark I couldn't escape it and had to reset. Another janky mechanic is the jump, which I found to be very inconsistent and frustrating. Despite these gripes, I still very much enjoyed Jusant. Overall, if you're looking for a game with Journey-like vibes and some fantastic feeling climbing mechanics, you can't go too wrong with Jusant (9/10)

Jusant is, much like many games released in the past few years, a game about climbing a mountain. The thing that makes Jusant stand out from the crowd is the way in which you climb the mountain. The mountain in Jusant features a series of grabbable holds, and its controls use the left analog stick to grab the next rock and the left and right triggers to grab with the left and right hands respectively. Many games claim to be better on controller, but few are completely transformed by the control scheme like Jusant is. Jusant's Controller binds create a really satifying tactile feel to every ledge grabbed and every jump landed. Much of the writing about this game focuses on this aspect, and for good reason. The controls make you and your playable character feel intertwined by creating a strong correlation between the physical movements you do on your controller and the resulting movements your character does. The controls, mixed with excellently dialed in controller rumble, allow the game to feel incredibly immersive and engaging. The only downside of the controller scheme is that it is quite taxing on the hands especially if you decide to play for longer play sessions. By the end of the game my hands were pretty worn out. Another strong point of Jusant is its graphics, which fully utilize Unreal Engine's detailed shadows along with stylized texture work. The textures themselves are fairly low in terms of detail, but they're done in such a way that your eyes are able to fill in the gaps without it feeling distracting or cheaply done. Although none of the unique mechanics from each chapter wowed me, there's still enough variety there to keep each chapter feeling distinct. The music is solid, and sufficiently sets the mood on each stage of climbing up the mountain. The story is in a similar camp: not mindblowing, but it does what it needs to to make the game come together nicely. One aspect of storytelling I particularly liked was the seashells, where you get to hear what the place you're standing in used to sound like. They give you just enough information to be able to put the pieces together on what used to exist here, and I found it to be a really effective way of worldbuilding. My biggest complaint with the game is that there is a decent level of jank that shows up every now and then. There were quite a few places where my character got stuck in the floor for a second, and I had to jump out to continue moving forward. I also had one annoying softlock(?) where I got stuck in a pit that was so dark I couldn't escape it and had to reset. Another janky mechanic is the jump, which I found to be very inconsistent and frustrating. Despite these gripes, I still very much enjoyed Jusant. Overall, if you're looking for a game with Journey-like vibes and some fantastic feeling climbing mechanics, you can't go too wrong with Jusant (9/10)