I didn’t know much from the outset about Saltsea Chronicles. What immediately caught my eye was the unique visual style of its world and characters. Besides, that is the track record of the developers, Die Gute Fabrik. Their last game Mutazione, which our reviewer James Jones praised for its narrative and cast in his review back in 2019. With Saltsea Chronicles Die Gute Fabrik continues to build on this foundation with an emotional narrative that is only hampered by its hiccups on the Nintendo Switch.

At its center the Saltsea Chronicles is about a world that resides on top of the remnants of our civilization. After a period of greed initiated by what are now called ‘Hoarders’ a great flood came and washed away their technology, buildings, and culture. It is a post-flood world, where now scattered communities live on secluded islands across the Saltsea. Here you find the crew of De Kelpie, a ship that brings together a group of oddballs, helmed by Maja. The crew has worked hard on getting De Kelpie back in sailing order, but on the eve of their disembarkment, Maja suddenly disappears. Molpe, her lover and mother of Ade, Murl, a scientist who’s obsessed with research, Stew, the lovable chef and caretaker of the group and Iris, the introverted radio-operator need to come together as a crew and decide which course of action to take as they pursue Maja’s captors across the Saltsea. As you visit the different islands across the sea, you not only learn about their unique cultures, but also find out about the mysterious Captain Cays and their plans that could change the world forever.

What Saltsea Chronicles does magnificently well is introduce you to its varied cast of characters. Each one of them feels like a fully formed person with their own interests, beliefs, and moral compass that guides them through the world. As you may have read above, the crew that worked on De Kelpie is already very diverse, but as you travel around the Saltsea you come across different cultures, rituals, and other possible crew members that each bring their own dynamics on board. An interesting thing of note here is that the game is fairly open ended in its approach and interactions in the world. While every chapter sees you arriving and exploring a locale, you begin and end each expedition with a crew discussion. This is where you decide who gets to come along on the expedition, which can change the interactions you have on the islands. For example, Iris is fluent in many languages and operating radio systems so you’ll have additional dialogues when they are able to join you. But there’s also Stew, who is experienced as a cook and can provide additional information on the flora as well as the cultures distinguishing the islands. During exploration you find clues as to what happened to Maya, what Captain Cays is up to, and determine your next adventure. After this the crew discusses their options and you get to decide which course of action to take. In a sense it is a choose your own adventure story, but the sheer amount of options and differentiations available almost made me compare it to a game like 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, without the puzzle-box elements.

The glue that holds this story together is the absolutely wonderful, almost prose-like, writing. At first it is daunting, because the game throws you in with almost no sense of time and who the large cast of characters are. But the growth alongside these crewmembers becomes natural as there is a clear rotation of who you’re meeting and engaging with. The interactions and dialogue always hint at how their personalities thrive and cause friction with one another. What is so impressive about this is that it feels effortless. There’s no voice acting, so the bulk of your understanding of the world is through its writing, which feels never lacking, blunt, or videogame-y for a lack of a better word. The growth, loss, and emotional distress that the characters engage in is always perfectly explained. And whenever there are backstories that influence the observations or actions they are never laid bare, but come to fruition when these characters feel like they are ready to talk about it. A great example of this was in my playthrough with Neshko, who almost forces himself upon the crew and is therefore mistrusted by someone like Molpe. But by spending time with both of them on expedition you get to see why Neshko so desperately wanted to join the crew and what he’s looking for on his journey. Which played wonderfully into later story developments.

I do think that the game, much like the aforementioned 999, suffers a bit from required secondary playthroughs. There is a clear ending that is determined by the choices you’ve made along the way, and I think that these divergent paths are communicated clearly to the player. But you are heavily encouraged to go back to cleared chapters and redo earlier expeditions with different combinations to explore new and other islands. I think that for those who really want to envelop themselves in the world of Saltsea, this is great. But perhaps it can be a bit too off putting for those looking for a clear A-Z adventure game. On Switch the experience also feels a bit hampered in places. Loading times are quite long and especially on larger islands, performance dips in framerate and even the text-scroll. For a game that primarily interacts through text, it can be jarring when text doesn’t load properly or when there’s visual glitches like interactive points not disappearing after you’ve engaged with them. Navigation through the world feels best in handheld mode when using the touchscreen, since using a controller in TV-mode just doesn’t have the precision you’d need to move between the different interaction points.

Saltsea Chronicles is a gorgeous addition to the adventure game genre. The characters feel like living people with their own hopes, dreams, and ambitions and work wonderfully alongside a story that examines our human nature within the actual forces of nature. As you sail along with the crew of De Kelpie you cannot help but be engaged in their lives and objectives. Whether it is helping Iris coming out of their own shell, helping Molpe coming to terms with Maja’s disappearance, or learning more about Stew’s background. Don’t expect much else in terms of gameplay outside following the narrative and making decisions with your crew and characters. While the Switch version stutters at times, the writing makes for a deeply satisfying story that you may want to replay several times.