Saltsea Chronicles review – beguiling marine mystery is a delightful adventure
Saltsea Chronicles is a Choose Your Own Adventure story blown up to epic proportions. The primary mystery unfolds like this: the ragtag crew of a ship are seeking their kidnapped captain. A vessel with indigo sails has been spiriting people away, and perhaps their beloved leader is among them. The player explores the world through investigating still vignettes – illustrations of the islands, of the boat, of rooms – by leading the cursor through different nodes. There is a colourful menu system to help keep players aware where each character is at, both literally and in what they want and need. Conversations and scenes play out, the rich mystery tipping open little by little.
Though Saltsea initially seems to be a visual novel, it rejects a lot of the storytelling principles that novels rely on. There is no singular hero here: this is a story about the experiences of an entire crew and, in time, a community. It rolls out in tiny scenes, branching carefully through the mystery. This makes the choice aspect of the gameplay different than other story-led games: you get a real sense of the relationships the cast have with each other, rather than one singular character’s solo perspective. A thoughtful feature within the save system allows players to branch out and try other options, if they want to play through the rest of the cast’s narratives.
The cast is hearteningly diverse: there is a new mother with an adorable baby, and a non-binary young person, as well as a much older character at the heart of things. The society we are exploring is something resembling a solarpunk environment: it is clear that we are playing after the end of the world as we know it, and this new society has a utopian perspective, valuing people of all ages and genders equally. Though initially I found the dense new terminology a little unwieldy – there are helpful footnotes-of-sorts to explain creature names, object names, dialects and phrases, which pop up rather often – I quickly grew to find the linguistic quirks charming. This worldbuilding is very certain and thorough: this will be appealing to regular players of tabletop campaigns, both in tone and in style.
Visually, the game has a very contemporary picture-book style, and character design that leans a little on the Corporate Memphis approach, not unlike how characters appear in Aggro Crab’s Going Under. This is clearly used to broaden a sense of diversity in the cast: I found myself particularly drawn to Stew, an older woman, with her face drawn out with wrinkles. Her persistent quirk of referring to other characters as “kitten” is shortly revealed to be a product of a life on El Gato, an island full of cats, which I found a delightful reveal.
The game is full of moments like this: though the player is thrown head first into another world complete with social codes and dialects, the context is always rewarding. Like many recent indie triumphs such as Cult of the Lamb and Sea of Stars, there is also an in-game game. Spoils is a fantastic little card game that left me wondering if I could learn to play it with a traditional deck in real life. Though again, the rules are up front, regular players of tabletop won’t be put off. I am usually a little resistant when I am tasked with learning more rules, but I was very glad I did in this case.
Saltsea Chronicles will doubtlessly win over players of cozy indie games and tabletop RPGs this autumn. The story is involving, challenging and builds out the tale of a missing leader – and partner, and friend – with elegance. The sunken, oceanic world runs on radios and astral plane sailing for technology and prayer - the characters simply do not always get on, despite their shared quest. This is a sophisticated adventure, taking the medium of the narrative game to new horizons.
• Saltsea Chronicles is out now on PC, PS5 and Switch