Jessika

While I honestly enjoyed the concept, Jessika is quite a difficult one to recommend without many caveats. There are many ways the game is totally innovative, but also it has some issues with accessibility, especially if you’re playing it on the Nintendo Switch. The biggest issue Jessika has is that the content is not for everybody, especially if you’re the type of player who’s easily disturbed as they don’t pull any punches with how the character delivers some of her speech.

Running with the concept of the "found phone" puzzle sub-genre, Jessika changes some of the more typical details and adds some decently-acted media to the mix, but still adheres to the same general idea...

Jessika cannot be recommended lightly, as although the premise for the plot is promising, the factors of suicide and problematic elements of Jessika's characters could have been handled and portrayed better. In the end, the plot seems to rely on the shock factor of the subject matter and does not put enough focus on its delivery, leaving those in control with a sense of wanting more from a title that demanded so much of them.

If you like games in which you need to manually investigate to find the answers, Jessika is for you. Nothing is handed to you on a plate or shoved into your face, you have to listen to every video, read every chat message, and examine every image you find and receive in order to uncover the hidden files that lead to the truth behind Jessika’s suicide. There’s no alternative ending or branching story, so you’ll find yourself only playing through the game once or twice in order to get everything out of it, but the experience you have is one which will stick with you for a while. Although trial and error are going to play a major part, using your own deductions and figuring out keywords without guessing is very satisfying and makes you feel like a real cyber sleuth!

Jessika and I have been in a long relationship and I'm enjoying every second of it. Very often, the game made me angry - but just because of the great story that depicts reality.

Can I recommend Jessika, then? Well, no, probably not. It’s a tough game to sit through – and not just in a “it deals with challenging subject matter” sort of way. It’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re having someone’s gross beliefs about their twisted ideology shoved down your throat. Its initial premise had me hooked at first, but the bait-and-switch of subject matter does not make for a pleasant experience.