JackQuest: The Tale of the Sword is a game that transcends genres. It's part platformer, part 2D side scroller, part rpg, and all kinds of difficult. In this game, you play as Jack, who is in love with the vocally talented Nara. After a fateful night in the woods, the love of his life is kidnapped by the evil orc (is that a double negative?) Korg. Deciding to play the hero, Jack dives into the underworld that makes up Korg's lair, befriends a talking sword, and sets out on a quest that won't soon be forgotten . . . or will it?
After diving into a large hole in the ground to save the beautiful Nora from certain doom, I woke in an unfamiliar, yet, sort of familiar world. With my trusted bow, I set off in search of the girl, whom I was just moments earlier wooing in a forest, beneath a canvas of stars. As I run and jump across various obstacles, shooting arrows into my enemies, I eventually come upon a sword, but this isn't any ordinary sword, this is a talking sword. It would seem that, like me, he (she?) has a score to settle with the evil Korg. We decide to team up, and the sword's abilities come in the handy as we face down blobs, spiders, bees, skeletons, and all other manner of creatures who seek to do us harm and/or keep us from reaching our final confrontation with the villainous Korg. On our journey, we fight, run, jump, climb, and do our best to survive, but sometimes that's not enough.
I'll be honest, this game was crazy difficult. Yet, I also know that there are people out there who have performed speed runs on it and finished it in nearly inhuman times. That being said, I'll go ahead and admit that I'm really bad at these types of games. Yet, there was something enjoyable about JackQuest that took me a long time to put my finger on. When it comes to indie games, they all seem to resonate more or less on the same frequency. They're either a platformer, a metroidvania, or some ridiculously difficult rogue-like or rogue-lite . . . and sometimes they're all of those things mixed together. That being said, in a world where retro-style games like this one are over-saturating the growing indie market, what makes JackQuest stand out?
For me, JackQuest was a welcomed return to the games of my childhood. It's a dungeon crawler that plays with the urgency (and anxiety) of a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Its action feels like it was inspired by games like Ghouls n' Ghosts or even Golden Axe. Yet, with all of its retro characteristics, it still manages to feel new, taking qualities from post-retro games like Celeste, with its running and climbing, or Battle Princess Madelyn, with its shop system, and make them all work in unison, creating an experience that's nostalgic, fresh, and fun at the same time. As somebody who isn't a fan of these types of games, I went into it, not expecting to like it, but after investing a few hours into it, I couldn't help but keep playing.
As far as negative things go, like all games of this genre, JackQuest, at times, feels more difficult than it needs to be. In its quest to outdo the other games of this style, it goes bigger and more challenging, and while I do appreciate "more challenge," that's not always a good thing. For example, as soon as you arrive at the first boss, you catch a glimpse of this with the way the boss takes up so much of the screen, and getting anywhere near him results in a loss of health or death. This means that you really need to utilize your ability to climb and jump. The only problem with this is that the spaces you have to operate in are so small that every move requires precise calculations, and to the casual gamer, this might feel like a bit too much. Then there's the overall control scheme of the game. Throughout the entire thing, I kept feeling like there was something wrong. At first, I blamed my reaction times, because they're not anything close to what they were when I was younger, but the further I got into the game, the more I realized that the controls just felt unresponsive. It always seemed like the enemies were faster, despite me attacking them before they attacked me.
In the category of positive things, I really loved how JackQuest attempted to invest players into the game through its story. Though it's not an incredibly complex story, there was enough depth to make you care about Jack and feel invested in the game. This is more than most games in this genre (especially modern ones) can boast about. Though they feel a bit sluggish, I did love the jumping and climbing mechanics. They made you feel like Spider-Man in a game that clearly wasn't about superheroes. On top of that, I really enjoyed the use of color in this game, especially in the way the cape trailed out behind you through the entire game. It really added another dimension to the protagonist, and demonstrates that even the smallest of things can have a huge impact.
Overall, JackQuest is a great game, but at the same time, it isn't. It blends so much, and I loved that, but at the end of the day, it feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. It feels retro, but it also feels like it knocked off a lot of mechanics from games like Celeste. It feels new, but it also feels like it wants to be a game that came out thirty years ago. It has an endearing story, but it's also very formulaic. All of the things I really liked about the game can also be seen as negative qualities to people with different tastes in gaming. I will tell you that it's worth playing - and I truly believe that - but does it bring anything new to a genre that feels beaten to death? Not exactly. JackQuest is one of those games that simply exists. It's not bad, but it's not exactly good. It's just one more notch on a belt that's quickly running out of room.
Reviewed by: Josh Pederson
Played On: Nintendo Switch
Score: 7/10
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