Imagine sitting down to dinner, tune in to the news and learn about an interstellar mission to an unknown planet in which, in addition to the classic astronauts, a religious guide will also take part. It would seem inadmissible, right? Such news would cause an unparalleled fuss in the modern international community.
But try to imagine also a world in which one day, to the collective amazement, academics were able to identify the scientific evidence of the existence of the divine, proving unequivocally and more concretely than ever the veracity of the contents of any religious writing. Well, at that point the “impossible dialogue” between science and religion would no longer be impossible, and would indeed become an absolute necessity capable of upsetting any social system.
This is the world in which Mei, the protagonist of JETT: The Far Shore, an anchorite whose life has been entirely devoted to the spiritual sphere. The doctrine is that of Tsosi, a venerable prophet who in the past wrote in a collection of Sagas his visions relating to the Master Wave, a divine entity that would lead humanity to the promised land, a “leafy sanctuary on the far shore. of the stars”.
So far nothing strange, were it not for the fact that the scientific community has subsequently identified the radio signal emitted by the Master Wave intent on wandering in the universe, and then locate a planet perfectly corresponding to the descriptions present in the Sagas. This is an event that has inextricably intertwined the world of science with the spiritual sphere, pushing the whole of humanity to work towards a single common purpose: to empirically fulfill the prophecies that emerged from the sacred scriptures.
Leaving behind family, ties, dreams of a normal life, the anchorite Mei and the other selected Scouts, each with a different background, are forced to abandon a heavily post-industrialized homeworld that is now held in check. from a mysterious apocalyptic event, taking the prayers and hopes of the entire species aboard a spaceship.
These are the foundations from which JETT takes off: The Far Shore, a sci-fi lyric that thrives on the mixture of mysticism and science, two parallel lines that intertwine along the majestic backdrop of deep space. A work strong in the images, devastating to say the least in the sounds, deep in some messages, but equally deeply marked by a feeling that hurts to find in the orbit of video game development: fear.
Why JETT: The Far Shore tries in every way, tries with all its strength to be a “normal” video game, but it is more than ever evident that that is not its real nature. This is an identity crisis that leads the parable to become descendant, condemning a great story to slowly fade out under the stars of an unknown sky.
Mei and the Scouts take off honored by a crowd in religious silence. From that fateful moment a thousand years pass during which, thanks to a sort of cryogenic stasis, the crew leads the mother ship into the orbit of the Far Shore, or the planet that hosts the mysterious signal of the Master Wave. With the rest of the species now extinct, the group of explorers board three JETT spacecraft to throw themselves among the tsunamis of the ocean surface in search of Tor, the mythological mountain that should house the “divinity”.
It is then that the video game by Superbrothers and Pine Scented Software raises the curtain on its dual nature gameplay: on the one hand you have to navigate, fight and survive aboard the small JETT shuttle, living a second life on the wings of the wind, confronting a structure hostile atmospheric and morphological, with the ruthless food chain of the place and above all with the mysteries of the new star system.
On the other hand, however, it is necessary to interact with every single member of the expedition and resist to the limit to carry out the four directives of Jao, the superintendent of the project that orbits the planet while keeping the next generations of human beings safe. In a nutshell, this means fulfilling all of Tsosi’s prophecies, turning the distant shore into a promised land that can finally be called home.
Most of the time on the Far Shore is spent aboard the JETT assigned to Mei, which becomes like a second skin being the main tool of interaction with the unknown world. The crossings form the backbone of the experience, and one soon learns to enjoy each flight in the midst of the surf of the stormy ocean, mastering the twists, leaps, “drifts” and all the maneuvers that a professional Scout should. make it their own as soon as possible.
After that there is a whole undergrowth of mechanics that govern each interaction with the game world, and which, relying on the scanner and the grappling hook integrated in the JETT, try to sketch out a shy system of action and combat. That’s where the problems begin, because JETT’s systems are as good when it comes to travel as they are shaky when trying to do anything else, such as knocking out an alien creature or simply clearing an obstructed path.
And this is how the identity crisis we talked about earlier enters the scene: JETT: The Far Shore smells, presents itself and behaves like a strongly contemplative work, devoted to communicating with great respect what must be the pure interstellar exploration – not surprisingly it is very reminiscent of the Interstellar movie – then it happens that you get lost in an attempt to stage a traditional video game made of puzzles, fights and interactions that absolutely fail to keep up with the extraordinary artistic inspiration.
Because JETT: The Far Shore stems from a brilliant subject to say the least, it can count on superlative concept art, not to mention the anthology soundtrack, elements that unfortunately end up overshadowing everything else. Not even the narrative is completely saved from the eclipse, because the thousand and more questions that emerge during the adventure have to collide with a final so intimate, but one that fails to express the project’s charge of meanings in the best possible way.
Divided into four acts which, overall, reach a duration of about ten hours, JETT: The Far Shore is therefore split in half between components of discovery and traversing well characterized and strongly enhanced by the artistic and sound sectors – so much so that it could initially look like a new Death Stranding – and an omnipresent action side that is much less self-confident that leads to battle Griefer, Koloss and other extraterrestrial creatures via an interactive system reduced to a minimum.
The great strengths of the experience reside elsewhere: on the artistic front, for example, with a department that from the very beginning is able to leave you speechless in the rendering of retro-futuristic technologies, in the staging of the almost “Soviet” planet from which Mei comes from, as well as in the illustrations of the Sagas, in the symbols and customs derived from the doctrine, which marry science fiction with a fascinating mystical taste.
We have already talked about the original soundtrack of Scntfc: it is she who is enough in itself to give the entire project the aura of the great space odyssey, loading every moment from the first take-off with tension and epicity, and perhaps even overloading them with moment that would have been easily worthy of a blockbuster.
In short, JETT: The Far Shore is the perfect example of the title that pushes to express a critical opinion regardless of the results, because from the first moments it is clear as the sun that it has all the credentials to aim high, to elevate once again the design philosophy that emerged from the independent market, then there comes a time when one inevitably comes to terms with the fact that it is a normal, very traditional video game made up of dissonant systems that struggle to put themselves at the service of the essence of ‘Opera.
This, of course, also means that the project is loaded with a series of intrinsic values that cannot be ignored, values that easily risk becoming dazzling to the point of obscuring their dissonances.
In the end that of Mei turns out to be a story of “worker” survival that lends itself to different readings, but instead of dwelling on what it was, it happens that you end up thinking what it could have been.
Because it is clear that the boys and girls of Superbrothers and Pine Scented Software don’t have much to improve: they are already more than ready to do much, much more.
6
/ 10