(Review) Jivana

Searching For a New Home

Jivana is a third-person platformer that follows a small community fleeing a catastrophic storm after the loss of their home. You play as Aelis, a young water priestess who serves as a guide to her group. Believing it to be their last hope, they must journey to an ancient cathedral said to be able to shield its inhabitants from dangerous cataclysms.

You may not see them that much, but each character has a presence in the narrative. Their designs are also superb.

It may be a short experience, but it's not without its charms. For starters, the environments are beautiful to look at, with many areas reminding me of locations you'd find in Kena: Bridge of Spritis. They're lush, vibrant and highly decorated, and they're accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack. Character designs are on point, and while Aelis's gameplay animations are a bit stiff, they do the job just fine.

Stunning set pieces such as these are common place in Jivana. They really are a sight to behold.

I also really enjoyed the platforming. As a result of her magical abilities, you are able to grow branches from specific roots in any direction you choose, allowing you to climb your way across difficult areas. As you progress, the complexity of how you approach these increases, and while it's not mind-boggling, it's a decent challenge.

Later on you'll unlock more abilities, such as being able to grow plants that send you flying through the air, as well as being able to sail across water. You can also slide alongside waterfalls, as if you were running on a wall, which I thought was pretty cool. These mechanics aren't groundbreaking, but they're fun to use.

Traversing on top of water is smooth and highly satisfying, even more so once you can start bouncing off waterfalls. How fun!

My only complaint, as far as gameplay is concerned, is the general clunkiness of how it feels, especially when it comes to growing branches. I sometimes struggled to grow the branch in the direction I wanted it to, and there were moments where the climbing was hard to work with.

Overall, however, Jivana is a pleasing little game that proves to be exemplary at what it does in such a short period of time. There's a high level of attention to detail that's noticeable throughout its entirety, and since it's free to play, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't give this a go.

Pros:

-Entertaining story -Beautiful environments -High attention to detail -Fun gameplay -Brilliant soundtrack

Cons:

-Clunky mechanics

My Rating: 8.5/10 - Great

Technical Details:

My PC Specs: Operating System: Windows 10 Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Graphics Card (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Memory (RAM): 16GB Resolution: 1920x1080 Performance: Consistent 60FPS from start to finish with only occasional stutters.

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