• Price: $19.99 USD (currently on sale for $17.99 until September 27th; DEMO AVAILABLE)
• Developer: So Romantic
• Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
• Release Date: September 20, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Vicarious PR on behalf of So Romantic and HypeTrain Digital. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Jack Move is a cyberpunk-themed turn-based JRPG where you play as a vigilante hacker named Noa. She works with her partner Ryder to commit corporate espionage through hacking to help pay the bills. (And messing up the plans of huge corporations like Monomind in the process certainly doesn’t hurt.)

The setting is rather dystopian in nature. The year is 2120, and apparently, in 1997, there was a huge solar storm that “wiped out all electricity and reset modern society completely…that’s why [they] call it The Dark.” The governments around the world were unable to fix things, and so corporations like Monomind have taken over. Now, Noa’s estranged father has asked for her help when Monomind has him in their sights. Noa and Ryder must work together to find out the truth and foil Monomind’s plans.

Naturally, you’ll encounter many enemies along the way. Battles (known as Cyber Clashes) occur in the real world and virtually, although the environment in which you fight always looks like virtual space. As mentioned above, the combat itself is turn-based. You can choose to “hack” your enemy, which is the game’s equivalent of a regular attack, or you can choose to “execute” software – meaning skills – to damage your opponent. Noa is the only character you use in battles, although Ryder and other characters act as her noncombatant support.

Your equipment in the game involves using a Cyber Deck. Hardware modules can be equipped to add perks such as extra RAM, higher attack, or the ability to use a single target skill on all enemies. It’s important to equip as much RAM as you can in order to install more software abilities. It didn’t really feel like I could install a lot of software at once, so I focused more on offensive and healing software than on debuffs. You can swap out software mid-battle, which I definitely appreciated – I just preferred to keep my software the same for the most part.

You don’t learn any skills when you level up, but each time you use installed software/skills in battle they gain experience afterwards. There are three kinds of damage dealing software: Cyberware, Electroware, and Wetware. Each type of software will be more or less effective towards certain enemies. At first, I was confused about how to determine an enemy’s weakness – until I installed the scanning software and later installed auto-scanning hardware.

Besides managing your hardware and software, you will also learn a new “Jack Move” at certain points in the plot. There are a total of 4 Jack Moves, and they are each strong against a different type of enemy. The Jack Move meter will need to fill up before you can use it. Normally you’ll need to press the right buttons for the Jack Move, but they added an accessibility feature in settings that makes the game do it for you.

They also added a convenient feature that allows you to modify the enemy encounter rate. Whenever you enter an area with enemies, the threat level meter displays on the top right of the screen. Once you unlock the ability to change the encounter rate, you can keep it at the normal level, increase it, decrease it, or even turn off encounters completely! (They do advise you that doing so may result in being underleveled, so it’s best not to turn off encounters completely unless you’ve been grinding enough.)

If you’re defeated, they also give you the option to continue at the cost of 25% of the experience points for your current level. Most enemies weren’t too difficult for me – considering my penchant for grinding more than necessary – but the final boss definitely provided a challenge. You really need to strategize and consider weaknesses a lot more in the final battle.

When you’re not in areas infested with enemies, you can interact with people in the different sections of the city. There are the “slums,” Bright Town, then MonoCity, which is MonoMind territory. 😬 You learn more about the world of Jack Move when you talk to people. Data pads around town will give you some historical context, and people use cute (and slightly corny) computer slang. Some people will give you side quests to complete – the objective screen will show you the primary plot related objectives, while the secondary objectives are the side quests.

Out of the characters I met, I especially loved Noa’s Uncle Guin, and there’s a hilarious “allegedly” mob-affiliated pizza place. And although he is morally bankrupt, Dr. Qadir’s alliterative speech patterns – that often rhyme – made me laugh.

They also did a great job with the details in Jack Move. There are clues in binary code towards the end of the game; I don’t know binary, so I went to a binary translation site to help me out. In any other game I would have been frustrated with not understanding the clues, but the use of binary code felt appropriate for the theme. They also added neat background details like a walkway shaped like an “M” for Monomind. The game lasts about 8-10 hours, and they really made an effort to create a detailed world with its own slang and lore. And the ending suggests the possibility of a sequel, which I would absolutely love to see.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Jack Move is an engaging turn-based RPG that does a good job of immersing players in its cyberpunk world. Its playtime does slightly limit the worldbuilding capabilities; however, I had a really good time exploring what was there. The game is very respectful of your time and your preferences in gameplay, with the many (optional) convenient features. While I wanted to have more software installed at the same time without swapping them out, I liked the Cyber Deck customization overall. I thought the art style and soundtrack worked well together, and I appreciated the characters and writing style as well. 8.5/10