Jusant Reviews

Jusant’s melancholic world may be built on the absence of life but through its methodically refined climbing mechanics and richly rewarding thematic work, it carves a path that rarely ever leaves you looking down.

Jusant is an absolute gem that rewards you for slowing down, taking stock, and exploring its breathtakingly designed world.

Climbing to the peak in Jusant may sound like a boring gameplay loop, but for those looking for a meditative and genuinely enjoyable experience, it's anything but.

Jusant: “An ebb, or low tide.” The world of Jusant is a world-event apocalyptic one. With no rain and its oceans now dried out, you and your pet-like companion journey the expansive seabed, passing forgotten wreckages on your approach to a literal cliffside fishing village. Jusant is very much, for better or for worse, a walking sim in every sense of the word. Well, a climbing sim, as you stare up and your journey now goes from horizontal, to being a vertical one.

For as satisfying as Jusant’s core gameplay loop can be, its narrative and important message becomes lost in the background of a world's history which I otherwise wanted to be entranced by, beyond just its striking visuals.

I’ve always been terribly afraid of heights. Rollercoasters, cliffsides, even Ferris wheels… you’ll struggle to get me near the things, with the fear largely stemming from loss of control. Consider my surprise then when the rock climbing game Jusant, which has players hundreds of meters in the air scaling a giant mountain, has me feeling hooked, safe and capable. Sure, there’s a difference between the real world and this instance of polygons, ones and zeroes. Still, it’s impressive ...

Jusant is a gorgeous and relaxing puzzler with well-design climbing mechanics that evolve over the course of a very tight five-hour runtime.

Justant is a testament to letting environments speak for themselves instead of relying on dialogue. Don’t Nod trusts its ability as developers to create a game that relies on experience, not words and it trusts its players to understand narrative subtleties. Jusant may be simple, but its layered vision of a world is timeless.

Though wildly different in some ways, Don't Nod's Jusant shares a surprising amount of common ground with Death Stranding. Both games are set within the aftermath of their respective, titular disasters; they're each rather lonely adventures, perhaps even more so in the former's case; and their traversal systems are unusually physical. If you enjoyed the quiet excursions of Kojima Productions' strand game, odds are you'll also vibe with Jusant's similarly pensive progression — albeit much more vertical.

It will forever be notable that Don’t Nod’s best game was the one without any spoken dialogue.

From almost every perspective, Jusant is absolutely breathtaking. From the graphics to the music to the story, I found myself captivated from every angle. There's so much to see that I spent copious amounts of time running around and exploring corners just to see what was going on, and all the while being uplifted by soft, calming and peaceful music as I made my climb. The story for Jusant is entirely based around what you uncover from the world around you as you learn more and more about how people's lifestyles had to shift as a result of the "Jusant" - a receding tide.

A contemplative adventure that won’t set the world on fire, but its logical and tactile climbing mechanics are genuinely fun and present a compelling proposition to keep exploring in spite of its relatively short length.

Jusant is one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2023. The rock-climbing gameplay is simple yet extremely satisfying to play, and it's masterfully interwoven with the narrative and lore of the world. It's a surprisingly quaint, emotional story that packs a punch despite having zero spoken dialogue, which is a testament to the narrative chops of Don't Nod. I still find myself thinking about Jusant days after staring a meditative hole through its ending credits.

Not all is perfect though – the control system, when it works, which is most of the time, is great – but I had more than a few occurrences where arms seemingly wouldn’t respond, or my character would get stuck on nothing at all. Thankfully, these don’t detract too much from the main experience, which is for the most part, very smooth, running at a locked 60FPS. There are some performance dips and stuttering, but in my experience were limited to just one specific biome, which looks like it may need a little more optimisation.

Jusant asks players to do one thing: climb. As a silent mountaineer accompanied by a cute critter, the only thing standing between you and your mysterious mission is one very tall mountain. The journey to its summit is treacherous, but thanks to an ingenious climbing system, beautiful art direction, and intriguing world-building, inching toward the top is worth the effort.

But it isn’t perfect. It’s more traditional storytelling elements are weaker, it doesn’t challenge the player very much, and it runs short at about six or so hours long. These detractions end up being minor disappointments in the face of a very successful adventure game, but they’re still there all the same, and it’s a shame Jusant doesn’t eschew them to become something even more special than it already is.

Almost perfect if not for the nitty-gritty. If it’s quite there but not enough to push the boundaries, it’s still an awesome game.

Jusant is a wonderful, meditative puzzle adventure framed around climbing that effectively draws you into its mysterious world. With creative level designs that make the most of the vertical tower setting, the climbing mechanics are fun and intuitive, and the pacing keeps it from feeling repetitive.

“Jusant's creative take on climbing and a minimalistic approach to storytelling make it one of the boldest titles from Don't Nod so far.”

A gorgeous fantasy journey enlivened by some thrilling rock-climbing.

If you’ve enjoyed stylish adventures like Rime and Journey in the past, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy Jusant. What it lacks in narrative it makes up for in environmental design: this is a world teeming with imagination and signs of life. Ultimately though, your goal here is to simply keep moving upwards. As repetitive as it can get, there’s still a sweet joy to be found in ever edging closer and closer to the top, and puzzling to find the best route to get there is enjoyable enough to keep us playing.

Jusant mixes rock climbing and platforming with a calm atmosphere and an interesting story. It's an unexpected, but still welcome, surprise from DON'T NOD.

Joyful rock climbing and fascinating storytelling make this adventure, from the developer of Life is Strange, a 2023 standout.

Don't Nod's best game since Life is Strange is a narrative climbing adventure with plenty of heart.

The high point of Jusant is definitely its well-designed climbing mechanics, which are endlessly enjoyable aside from some occasional (but minor) issues. Sadly we weren't quite as taken by the game's story, but we still wanted to reach its summit regardless. It's the kind of Game Pass title we think some fans will absolutely fall in love with, while others will bounce off it pretty quickly. In any case, it's a worthy addition to Xbox's fantastic subscription service.

A beautiful world of exhilarating gameplay that wants no more than to burst out with originality and excitement, which is marred by a want to rush to empty platitudes without thinking of the ripple effect it has on everything else.

Jusant might start off as a fun climbing game that challenges you to climb a massive mountain, but it’ll end up turning into a journey. For those who live on music, prepare to feel things you never thought you would.