Let's imagine an Odyssey in which each of the companions of the hero Ulysses is recognizable, carefully outlined, and their motivations and character delved into. Imagine the adventure not of a single hero in command, but of a living group, with a common mission at its center and many individual reasons to enrich and develop it. Imagine a trip between splendid islands that know how to navigate with irony and elegance in a sea that has overcome human violence and stupidity, real characters, each one different, all in communication, just like the communities that inhabit them. Imagine that all this has already been imagined and that you can enter this luminous fabric of stories and unexpected encounters by making decisions and giving direction to the Kelpie ship and her entire crew: here you will have Salt Sea Chronicles, the latest work created and self-published by the Danish team Die Gute Fabrik.
Already authors of the extraordinary Mutazione, defined by the team as "a mutant soap opera in which gossip meets the supernatural", Die Gute Fabrik He speaks again of community and the possibility of thinking about new value systems, in the name of cooperation and dialogue, outside the schemes dictated by "casino capitalism" (the expression comes from the economist John Maynard Keynes) that threatens the survival of many. living beings on our planet. It does so with a graphic adventure of great value, especially in the written aspect, and with a minigame - Spoils, literally "loot" - that becomes the perfect metaphor for a new thought, revolutionary for our times: whoever accumulates, loses .
Let's learn more about the Kelpie crew's adventure in search of Captain Maja in ours. Saltsea Chronicles Review.
The world after
In the media - not only in the gaming sector - we are used to seeing nightmare dystopian scenarios, where the apocalypse leaves room for the most unpleasant impulses of a humanity pushed to the brink of the abyss. This is the case of The Last of Us, in which the fungal disease transmitted by Cordyceps leads uninfected humans to look at each other with distrust and kill their neighbor at the slightest hint of suspicion, depending on the opportunity, but also online multiplayer. video games like DayZ, where the fight against zombies is also accompanied by that against other survivors, carriers of resources and therefore potentially useful loot to live another day.
Even in Saltsea Chronicles we find ourselves in a world where the apocalypse has already occurred. Here, however, in a sense it has already happened: after theFlood, a dramatic event that occurred a few generations before the events described by Die Gute Fabrik, the remaining humans have adapted to life on the islands that dot the great salt sea that gives the game its title. They are the chronicles of a world that has not given up and whose inhabitants have known how to open themselves to hybridizations with other living beings -algae, birds, fish, mushrooms- acquiring new skills and expanding their space of life possibilities.
It is a world that has treasured the Flood, of which there remains a distant memory, vague but precise, of the reasons for the disaster: the unlimited greed of men has led them to a unprecedented climate disaster, with the result of provoking an authentic revolt of the sea and the sun, seen almost as forces with a life of their own. And then the survivors and their descendants understood that they had only one possibility: to review their priorities and their value system. In a radical way, but at the same time kind.
group odyssey
The power of the video game lies in its ability to transmit messages (and values) through its mechanics and interaction with the game world. Die Gute Fabrik's intentions in developing Saltsea Chronicles, a graphic adventure without a protagonist, are very clear. In fact, the entire crew of the De Kelpie ship takes center stage - with additions throughout the game, which lasts about ten hours - without anyone prevailing over the other.
The axis of the story and the triggering event of the group's long sea voyage is the disappearance of captain maja, a character about whom we initially know very little, but who will become more and more defined as the adventure progresses. In line with the excellent writing skills of the team, Maja is outlined with delicate, occasional and seemingly random brushstrokes: interactions with the different elements of the game world and the characters we will encounter can trigger a memory, a reflection and perhaps lead The De Kelpie's team is closer to solving the riddle of his disappearance. Maja is a distant painting that becomes increasingly closer, in the awareness that the mystery of each human being - and, therefore, his own - can never be fully revealed.
Untangling the threads also involves the use of skill of each individual crew member. For example, Iris is an ace at radio communications, while Stew is unbeatable at diving. For each outing to the different islands, we will have to select who we want to send ahead of us: depending on the choices we make, we will have different interactions - even between the characters in our group - and we will make different discoveries, even if the story, as a whole, , will maintain a single general direction.
All this gives a strong personal value for the trip, and the team wanted to help players avoid the fear of irretrievably missing something beautiful and important with a particular management of the save system, so as not to force them to start from scratch to experience all possible interactions. It is understood that doing so is really complex - the variables are numerous - and that when the credits roll we will realize the profound truth that lies behind the advice given by the team before the start of the Saltsea Chronicles adventure: There are no bad decisions, there are only choices..
Discover, do not accumulate
Saltsea Chronicles is an experience based predominantly on reading text and binary dialogue options. There vibrant writing quality It manages to keep the player involved in the narrated events and the construction of the world, also through the revelation of its past, occurs in a completely natural way, never forced. The importance of dialogue can also be seen in problem solving, which can be arguments or problems that arise within the crew.
For example, Iris will realize, at some point, that she has feelings for another member of the colorful group aboard the De Kelpie. All this comes together Interrogatory For Iris: how should you relate to this awareness that is arising in your heart? Depending on the choices made - for example, we could have Iris visit an island together with the person she is interested in, thus allowing the two to interact, compare and deepen their knowledge - we may be able to unravel the Question in a different way. , "solving it" by clicking on the symbol of a loose sailor's knot that will appear on the De Kelpie's mainmast and unlocking a dedicated scene.
It is also essentialisland exploration, all wonderfully different and masterfully characterized: for many the splendid Los Gatos will be special, inhabited by cats and people who need a safe place to solve their existential problems. Both within De Kelpie and on the islands it is possible to interact with the inhabitants or reflect on the elements present in the scenario by clicking on white indicators, slightly different where they lead to the evolution of the adventure. But shipwreck is very sweet in the salt sea of Saltsea Chronicles, and it is a pleasure to get lost in the meanders of its islands, discovering their secrets, without resource collection mechanics that contradict the spirit of the experience and diminish the power of its message.
He who accumulates loses
To perfectly symbolize the philosophy of Saltsea Chronicles there are Botín (translatable as "loot"), a card game that, on the one hand, responds to the need felt by the developers to break the possible monotony of reading texts, and on the other hand incorporates the values of the communities that survived the Flood.
In Spoils, in fact, Whoever accumulates too many points loses, demonstrating how much the collectivist societies that inhabit the sea of Saltsea Chronicles condemn greed, the main cause of the apocalypse generated by the Flood. Each card has a score associated with it and you must carefully manage your hand to achieve victory. It is also essential to take into account the group dynamics that are created, since you play alongside a partner (controlled by the game's AI) and against two opponents who, in turn, play in tandem. Once its basic philosophy is understood, Spoils surprises with its ability to subvert the traditional rules of card games - think of Asso Piglia Tutto, very popular here in Italy - and give new life to a type of entertainment that has been around for centuries and centuries. history. Behind us.
The magic of the archipelago
The graphic style chosen by Die Gute Fabrik helps make the islands alive and their inhabitants unforgettable. The team positioned itself in close continuity with what was done in Mutazione, drawing inspiration from risographic printing techniques and fixing the work in color in an expressionist way, giving the places the impression of the soul of their own inhabitants: hope, pain, mourning and generosity are sculpted on the faces of the islands of Saltsea Chronicles with an elegance that It is never banal. , never obvious.
The sound work done by Eli Rainsberry is also exceptional., capable of showing the diversity and points of contact of the island communities, with their unique cultures. The music manages to support the stories told without ever taking over the silent voices of the characters, not dubbed, but expressed intensely in the textual dialogues. In this sense, we would like to point out that Saltsea Chronicles does not come with a Spanish translation, so we played it in English.
All this wealth is transfused into theAlmanac: A bit like what is seen in the compilation of diary testimonies from Season: A Letter to the Future, the Kelpie team saves their memories in the form of stickers to stick in a folder. Also accessible through the menu, it will constitute a tangible testimony of a path not based on accumulation, but on listening, empathy and observation. On the technical side, a slightly excessive length of loading times when switching from open to closed spaces and some occasional glitches in our test on Nintendo Switch failed to undermine an eye-opening and memorable experience.
Conclusions
Tested version Nintendo Switch digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 24.99 € Holygamerz.com 9.0 Readers (10) 7.6 your voteSaltsea Chronicles is a necessary work in the Anthropocene, capable of pointing out different directions and showing, through the power of interaction, a world and value systems different from those dominant today. Its story speaks to the power of kindness as a revolutionary act: objects are not collected, but rather received as gifts, or obtained through fair exchanges between equals. Without forgetting the power and particularities of individuals, Saltsea Chronicles is defined above all as an adventure capable of putting the group and the good of the community at the center as everything capable of protecting its most vulnerable members. On the island of Los Gatos, the workaholic Sanni, used to working as a tour guide on a shipwreck and now a member of the colorful crew of the De Kelpie, feels uncomfortable in front of a cat who does nothing but sleep all day . The wise Stew points out that on the island everyone contributes their own contribution, even the lazy cats, who with the beauty of their naps are an integral part of the lives of the humans who live next to them. It is one of the most intense moments of a work with subversive force, which questions the models of oppression that dominate our society. Pointing to a different, perhaps better future, sailing with sublime dignity on the waters of the salt sea.
PRO
- Intense story, masterfully told.
- Unforgettable characters characterized with great care.
- Beautiful to see and hear.
- Never redundant or contradictory when expressing your message.
- Capable of unleashing true revelations in the player
AGAINST
- Some small technical problems in the Nintendo Switch version
