Developing a roguelite game capable of really exciting the player is certainly not easy. The repetitiveness characteristic of the genre, in fact, can be both its greatest strength and its greatest limitation, not adapting to everyone.
"Port of Jumanah" ventures into this challenge: developed by Agate and Red Dunes Games and arriving on September 7, 2026 on PC and PlayStation 5, it takes up some of the typical elements of this genre - combat, exploration and progression - standing out for its rather unusual and original setting, inspired by a coastal town in the Arabian Peninsula and traditional Arabian pearl fishing.
A port full of characters... and a sense of humor
In the game we play the role of Mansour, a young pearl fisherman who, after opening a mysterious giant shell, accidentally releases an infinite number of monsters that disturb the balance of the sea.
It will be up to him to remedy this problem by recovering all six black pearls, not without one hand: in fact, we will be accompanied in our adventure on the seabed by different and extravagant characters, such as a pirate woman, a wise old turtle and a genie of the lamp, who will join our crew to make us stronger as we continue with the game.
The dialogues between the characters, in addition to the character design of the characters, are one of the greatest strengths of the game: everything is focused on humor and absurdity, thus making a usually boring and marginal part of the roguelite genre one of the funniest in the game. Even after hours, in fact, the game manages to get a laugh out of you thanks to the eccentricity of Mansour and companions.
Instant gameplay: fight, upgrade, restart.
The game dynamics are built like any other title of this genre. Like a loop you will have to set sail from the port to one of the six available seabeds, fight sea monsters of different types, power up and finally head back to Jumanah.
The upgrades are many and can be obtained in different ways: once defeated, the monsters release materials useful for upgrading the ship to accommodate new crew members, and during the campaigns it is possible to obtain spells, which make fights easier, for example by improving the percentage of damage inflicted.
To work, these simple but repetitive mechanics must be able to keep the player glued for a very long time, through a mechanism of immediate satisfaction after each campaign. I can confirm that during the main campaign I was never bored by the cyclical nature of the title which, although it does not offer who knows what innovations from a gameplay point of view, knows how to entertain a lot.
It's also not a simple game at all: in some chapters, especially the last ones, I found the fights quite difficult and sometimes frustrating due to the amount of monsters and objects and their different attacks, which force you to keep an eye on every corner of the screen.
Come on, another 5 minutes...
The pace of the individual campaigns in "Port of Jumanah" is frenetic and, above all, respectful of the player's time.
The "dives" last about 6 minutes each if you proceed at a moderate pace and the missions are all very immediate: this gives the opportunity to play even for short sessions and is one of the greatest merits of the whole game, because it manages to prevent the repetitive structure from being heavy and, in the long run, not satisfying.
Also appreciable is the presence of side quests that reward the player with materials and that will surely delight completists.
Accessibility objective
Another point in favor of this game is its extreme clarity right from the start: the tutorials are clear and it is thanks to these that the game immediately enters "under the fingers" of the player, the objectives are always visible at the top right and it is practically impossible to get lost.
It is not possible, however, to play in Italian, even if the English used is quite clear and greatly limits the "problem", as well as being necessary sometimes to fully understand the irony of the characters.
The triumph of the backdrops... up to the loading menu
The experience is a real pleasure for the eyes.
The colors are vivid and intense and the variety of characters, monsters and settings is enormous, encouraging more and more to move forward. However, I found, mainly on PS5, jerks in the animations during dialogues and loading, which do not impact the gameplay in any way but are certainly not the best.
The sound and music sector, then, is rather sparse: it is not a title that I would play with headphones.
PS5 VS PC: same sea?
Having tried both the PC and PS5versions, I was able to make a comparison between the two platforms.
Both versions were fluid and capable of enhancing the changing colors of the game, so the choice between the two can only depend on everyone's needs, as I did not notice significant changes. However, being more or less identical, they also have the same defects, such as the first mentioned jerky animations in loading and dialogues.
The only drawback that can be pointed out concerns the PS5 version, in which I tended to find a few more bugs, including one that prevented me from continuing a campaign when I had reached the final part, thus making me start the whole mission all over again.
Conclusion
Port of Jumanah does not reinvent the roguelite genre, but it still manages to be fun thanks to immediate gameplay and an original and quality artistic direction .
The humor and the continuous progression system, as well as the short duration of the individual campaigns, help the game avoid the boredom of the loop, even if in the last chapters the difficulty can become too punishing.
A few bugs and a technical refinement that is not always essential do not allow him to take that extra step, but the experience remains pleasant both on PC and on PS5.
I recommend it to all lovers of the genre.
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