Jack Move

Title screen for the game Jack Move

Jack Move is an indie turn-based RPG where you play as Noa Solares, a hacker taking on a corporation to save her estranged father. I'm happy to say that I have no regrets pulling this one out from the backlog. It appealed to me for three reasons:

  • Great cyberpunk pixel art
  • Turn based mechanics
  • It's short!

As a software developer with an infant and online classes, games offering bite-sized experiences are exactly what I want. I finished it in roughly ten hours on my Nintendo Switch 2, and (to the best of my knowledge) that includes all the side quests. The game's pace is excellent, every thirty minutes to an hour you can make meaningful progress in the story. There are a lot of things going well for Jack Move.

What Works

The world absorbs you for three key reasons - gorgeous pixel art, the right music and some of the best writing for NPCs I've ever seen. The world of Jack Move is small but it was done right.

Solving a puzzle with a binary hint

There are three towns, a few connecting places that act as dungeons and a couple of virtual worlds. It's not the most detailed world graphically, but it's always consistent.

This is tied with the perfect soundtrack that's full of synthl it always feels electronic. The battle music stays the same throughout the game, and I wondered if I'd get bored of it. Thankfully I didn't, it became something I looked forward to in every battle. Great pixel art, with an appropriate soundtrack and good use of the controller's rumble is the kind of game juice game devs should aspire to.

Something I loved but can be missed by others is the NPC dialogue. The writer gave unique conversations to every NPC, and the best part is that it changes with major story events. So I'd talk to various NPCs, do a mission and talk with them again. Some of it would be a reaction to what just happened, but most times it would be some new banter between characters.

Standing outside the pizza store in the main town Image via Mr. Dave Pizza: https://mrdavepizza.com/jack-move-is-high-energy-fun-with-cyberpunk-thrills/

The NPCs are so well written! And the constant changes encouraged me to keep talking with them, increasing the immersion. Weirdly enough, the writing is also a weak point.

What Could Have Been Better

The writing for the main storyline is... OK. The ending in particular feels very rushed and unfulfilling, the main plot doesn't stay as captivating as it does at the start. And in trying to keep with a computer theme, there's some cringey dialogue in bits and pieces where a computer term might be used for slang. It's a bit too much, but overall not bad. And the weakness of the plot is managed by the pacing, you don't need to dwell on things too long.

One of the missed opportunities was the battle system. It was fun, just a bit too easy on normal difficulty. I didn't mind moving forward and not having to grind, but I wouldn't have minded a bit more of a challenge. Some bosses required extra healing than usual and more defensive actions, and I needed to retry a battle for at least one of them. However, I didn't feel like my tactics changed too much at the end.

Conclusion

This is a good JRPG. The flaws are tolerable as it's really an indie game. It's not a big budget game like Call of Duty. Nor is it a game that calls itself indie but has movie actors as voice actors and a marketing budget in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's an AA game, or a AAA minus 1 game. This is a genuine indie game. The flaws feel somewhat charming, or rather, fitting for the scope of the team and game.

The positives are very positive. It left a great impression on me and if you're a fan of cyberpunk, JPRGs and don't need 100 hours of gameplay - this is one you should pick up!