Game 11 of 2024 - Jack Move

Jack Move

Developer: So Romantic
Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
Platform: PC
Genre: JRPG

Difficulty: Moderate
Hours: 7.1

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8.4/10

Jack Move is slick, bite-sized JRPG that satisfies without giving you the meat sweats. My playthrough was a little over seven hours, which includes some light grinding towards the end, and I feel that was the perfect length. It was enough to get a sense of the world , the characters, and the conflict, and the shorter length really helped keep the story grounded.

You control Noa, hacker extraordinaire and resident of Bright Town. Most of the game takes place in the Bright Town's surrounding areas, which helps anchor the story and give it a sort of cozy feel. Bright Town is your standard cyberpunk neighborhood, lit with neon and a chrome veneer that just barely disguises poverty. You'll explore sewers, slums, corporate buildings, and virtual reality, and meet a crew of colorful, beautifully animated characters.

Bright Town

Jack Move's pixel art is gorgeous and colorful, and each sprite is meticulously animated, accentuated by a solid soundtrack. The story isn't particularly groundbreaking or challenging, which might be a letdown to some fans of a genre that often explores some heavier themes. That being said, it's fun, paced well, and short; it's not trying to be something it's not. It's more about the parent-child relationship than transhumanism (touches on this one though), income inequality, or drug culture.

That's not to say Jack Move doesn't have heart; the developers clearly put a lot of care into their world. Most NPCs are named and at least have the framework of a personality rather than being info dumps, graffiti decorates the walls of buildings, and the world is sprinkled with small businesses just trying to get by. It's a story with characters in a world that feels lived in.

Plus jigawatts.

Combat is the meat and potatoes of most JRPGs, and I think Jack Move (mostly) delivers here. It doesn't bog you down with overly complex systems and gambits and whatevers. Nora has different types of attacks at her disposal: hacks (physical), wetware (purple stuff), electroware (blue stuff), and cyberware (green stuff). These come in the form of software that you install in your cyberdeck. Your cyberdeck is limited by the amount of RAM it has, but you can upgrade this during the course of the game. Most enemies are weak to a specific type of attack and they are usually color-coded to give you a hint. Your cyberdeck can be upgraded with hardware as well; this gives you more RAM, boosts to attack or defense, or some other ability.

You should sit this one out, Executive Power Dresser.

Be warned: Jack Move uses random encounters. You can tweak these and even turn them off (although you shouldn't because money and xp). Despite that, combat is mostly pretty easy. There are a few enemies here and there that give you a run for your money, but you level pretty quickly and money was never an issue so I was able to hang without really grinding (until the end).

If I had to complain about something, it would be the final boss. Without spoiling anything, the final boss has a HUGE difficulty spike and the fight took me something like 45 minutes. I feel like a boss battle shouldn't be like an 8th of your game's run time.

Anyway Jack Move is decent and you should check it out.