Whereas most games begin by getting you into the action as quickly as possible, Saltsea Chronicles opens with a quick note about its save system. It's a small, but important detail in this story-driven adventure game, as throughout its nine-to-ten-hour run time, you'll be faced with various decisions about where your crew of post-apocalyptic drifters will explore next, as they set sail in search of their missing captain Maja. By choosing one island at the end of every chapter, you'll naturally miss out on visiting another - and with 14 locales to explore in total in the Saltsea archipelago (and only 12 chapters to do it in), each playthrough has the potential to end up being quite different from the last.
But up front it tells you "There are no wrong choices, only your choices" in Saltsea Chronicles, and that ultimately this is a tale about "tracing different pathways" using its clever branching save system. While you can, of course, play it through from start to finish in a single swoop, you also have the option to purloin its additional save slots to take those roads less travelled (presented here as delightful, wiggling seaweed tendrils), and all without overwriting your existing adventure. Immediately, that sense of FOMO is dispelled, and instead of worrying about 'seeing everything' or making sure you get a 'good' playthrough, you can simply enjoy its enthralling tale of high seas soap opera, curious exploration, and the knotty drama that comes with trying to forge connections in an increasingly fragmented world. It's a journey well worth taking, even if what lies at the end of it didn't quite come together in the way I'd hoped.