Jack Move

Links

Steam

The plot in a paragraph

Noa Solares is a hacker whose father has gone missing. Her search pulls her into a web of kidnapping and shady research, all tied to the powerful Monomind corporation, in a retro cyberpunk city full of high-tech and low-life.

Gameplay

Jack Move is a turn-based JRPG in which you control a single character for the whole game. Combat revolves around a rock-paper-scissors triangle between hack types: Cyberware beats Electroware, Electroware beats Wetware, and Wetware beats Cyberware.

On top of that there are the JACK MOVES, the game’s limit breaks. To pull one off you press a very simple sequence of buttons in time with a metronome, and every correct input makes the attack stronger. It is a very forgiving mechanic.

Character building is split in two. Hardware grants status bonuses, while software gives you the hacks you use in battle. Software needs RAM to be installed, and you can buy RAM upgrades at the store. You can swap software in the middle of a fight, but not hardware. Both hacks and JACK MOVES level up the more you use them.

Levelling up is very fast. The weakness triangle keeps you on your toes at the start, but with a bit of grinding it becomes second nature and battles stop being punishing. I finished the game in around 10 hours, grinding included.

What I liked

I love the cyberpunk theme, and this game nails the vibe. The premise is good and the story is intriguing, and although it is well conducted, it does end up being short. The music is not a masterpiece soundtrack, but it is chill and captivating, and fits the atmosphere perfectly.

By now you just know I love pixel art, so you can guess what I think of the visuals and animations:

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The scenarios are incredible. The environment exploration is not very deep, but I enjoyed every area I walked through.

I also like the idea behind the loadout system. With so many possible combinations of hardware and software, you can adapt the game to your own playstyle. And a small thing that I appreciated was the ability to adjust the encounter rate on the fly.

What I did not like

The loadout system is where the game could be improved. On my first visit to the shop I bought the maximum amount of RAM you can have installed, and I never touched the “Install” command again. After a certain point my loadout barely changed, and I never used half of the software and hardware available.

Grinding is made extremely easy, so you can breeze through the whole game without much effort. I hit the level cap before the Junkyard section, and by then I had enough currency to buy an endgame setup, which made every battle trivial from that point on. Maybe I should have held back in the first areas, but the game never gave me a reason to.

Also, all of the shops sell the same items, so there is no incentive to visit a new one when it appears.

Finally, the story is really short. I would have liked to spend more time in this world.

Do I recommend playing it?

It depends on what you are looking for.

Hardcore JRPG fans might not get much out of it. As an RPG it is not challenging and it is easily exploitable, and the lack of a real challenge makes it feel a bit more like a visual novel. I like visual novels very much, but I was expecting an RPG.

On the other hand, more casual players can enjoy it. The aesthetic is incredible, and if you enjoy the cyberpunk genre I think it is worth playing. It is a solid and very atmospheric piece of work, with a lot of love and care put into it. I hope I get to experience the full potential of Edd Parris (check So Romantic) in a future title.

For me, the fun started fading after the first couple of hours. It took me a full year to pick it up again and finish the last hour of gameplay. I played it on the Steam Deck, and it ran perfectly well both in handheld mode and docked.

I do not plan to play it again, since I got everything I needed from a single playthrough. I will, however, be listening to the soundtrack from time to time for sure.