It is a story about cats.
However first, it’s best to know the fundamentals of Saltsea Chronicles, the brand new recreation from Die Gute Fabrik coming later this yr on Change, PS5, and PC. We’ve adopted the studio for over 10 years, from the experimental PlayStation Transfer recreation Johann Sebastian Joust in 2012 to Mutazione, one in all 2019’s best-written video games. The studio, which extra carefully resembles a inventive collective, tends to mix compassionate and human tales with vibrant colours and playfulness.
Saltsea Chronicles isn’t solely about cats, however I promise we’re getting there. The studio’s work form of defies elevator pitches, however let’s give it a go anyway: Star Trek by means of Kentucky Route Zero with the saturation turned to max.
As in Star Trek, you oversee a crew of unlikely allies on their journeys to numerous islands. Every locale has a singular inhabitants, together with an ethical, philosophical, or dramatic dilemma to be untangled. You select the place the crew does and doesn’t journey, who steps ashore, what they are saying, and what findings they convey again to these ready on the ship — then head off on the subsequent journey. However the temper skews towards Kentucky Route Zero, Die Gute Fabrik’s personal Mutazione, and their contemporaries that blur the strains between video games, theater, and literature.
Now in principle, all of this heady stuff must be probably the most fascinating factor in regards to the recreation, and I ought to dive deeper into its many mechanics. However in apply, toxoplasmosis. Like a tabby on catnip in a room filled with scratching posts, I obtained distracted halfway by my demo by one explicit island and its furry inhabitants.
Picture: Die Gute Fabrik
The island of Los Gatos is replete with people and cats. Tons and plenty of cats. The sport’s lovely artwork path borrows from papercutting and vector graphics, so the cats aren’t represented by particular breeds a lot as prong-eared, squiggly-tailed blobs. They’re cute.
Cats nap on the seaside, collect on the doorways, perch on railways, and snuggle in windowsills. The world itself has been formed of their picture, like a mountain with a feline silhouette and a housing district stacked like a cat tree. Inside one construction, people and kitties hold heat close to an enormous range formed like a yawning cat head. And the whole lot is roofed in tender, plushy material.
The preliminary enchantment of Saltsea Chronicles, like so many cozy video games, is the vibe. Die Gute Fabrik has put an excessive amount of effort into the methods the cats swat at butterflies and coyly curl their tails. Goals (little dots hovering over sure individuals and locations) will information you to the narratively vital bits, however they’re simply one in all many issues to do. You’ll be able to attempt to remedy native issues, although some are unsolvable. Or you’ll be able to simply acquire stickers to your almanac. Both approach, individuals relaxation round Los Gatos, ready to talk, although who you spark up dialog with is solely as much as you.
![A colorful view of Los Gatos in Saltsea Chronicles. There’s an orange cat-shaped mountain and a structure that resembles a cat tree, all rendered in a bright art style with blobs of color and no outlines.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VehTYsqRsMt0NxtaEM07CQA1kHk=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24707134/LosGatos_Location.jpg)
Picture: Die Gute Fabrik
A go to to Los Gatos isn’t mission-critical. Relying on decisions all through your quest, you could by no means even come throughout its coast. That is intentional — the creators have stuffed the sport with a lot story that, they hope, gamers will need to take the journey many occasions over.
Not solely will you see completely different islands, however you might also take completely different characters aboard based mostly on the completely different lenses by which you see them. You would possibly select the angle of a puckish baby or a brand new caretaker balancing journey with rearing a baby. A group of creative and writing collaborators has performed a vital half in giving every of those characters’ lives and their journeys which means.
It is a theme that repeated all through our hour with recreation: We acquire a fuller image of the universe by incorporating extra factors of view. For instance, many islands characteristic an identical card recreation albeit with completely different home guidelines reflecting the views of the neighborhood. In a single variant, you lose in case you recover from 100 factors — a nod to the locals’ post-hoarding mindset.
Sure, it’s clear within the opening moments how Saltsea Chronicles’ construction will replicate the everyday Star Trek episode, and the way the sport will mirror a basic season. (It’s telling that the sport itself can have an choice that encourages breaks from the display between islands, just like the breaks between a present’s episodes.) However by Los Gatos, the creators’ comparability to Star Trek goes additional.
Whereas I hiked from room to room of the cat-stuffed island, I realized the much less apparent operate of its communal properties: Los Gatos additionally serves as a sanctuary for victims of home violence. It’s a heavy layer that rests upon the in any other case cozy sequence, and my enamel clench, worrying the 2 tones will conflict. However as an alternative, the other occurs. The group at Die Gute Fabrik makes use of this fantastical world to ease you into tougher conversations.
That is the fruit of collaboration with so many gifted writers, and the sport’s personal inner leisurely tempo: Subtlety is feasible.
And so Saltsea Chronicles, for a second, seems to be the cuddliest recreation of the yr. Till it turns into rather more. I look ahead to visiting its many different islands when the sport is launched later this yr, not simply to see their magnificence, however to listen to what their residents should say.
Picture: Die Gute Fabrik