Fantastic story, probably one of my favorite narratives in the last couple years, and is probably the game's strongest point. It's rare for me to get so emotionally invested in characters, and the setting is on point.

Pixel art visuals are really good, the environments and backgrounds are packed with details and just look generally great. The occasional cutscenes also all look very good.

Gameplay's pretty good, feels appropriately snappy and flows pretty well. The levels can feel a bit too long, especially when you want to get on with the story.

Overall, great story on a pretty good game.

I played this game in early access in the middle of 2022. Me playing any early access game is rare enough, there are apparently 29 games in my Steam library that were once in early access, only four of which being games I purchased myself during that time, and Sanabi was not one of those. A friend gifted it to me and simply said "you need to play this" and so I did. Version 1.0.11 already had me completely hooked, and I could tell right away that this was going to be an incredible game when it was finished. So, after getting to the end of the demo, I put it down and patiently waited. Eventually I forgot about it, because when it finally came out on November 8th of 2023, I didn't realize it happened until it was almost December, and by the time I got around to playing it properly, it had already seen several more patches... including the addition of a speedrun mode. That's how you know it's really a gem.

A certain rule of thumb has existed in the back of my brain for many years now. "If the game has a grappling hook that isn't a quicktime event, it's probably an amazing game." Hasn't failed me yet. Well, not only does Sanabi have a grappling hook, the grappling hook is the core of the gameplay. A 2D platformer built entirely around swinging with a grappling hook and using enemies as single-use springboards is a game made specifically for me, but also a dangerous concept, since it relies heavily on the controls feeling consistent, predictable, and extremely good. The player needs to always simultaneously feel fully in control, and on the razor's edge of control. Not an easy balance to achieve.

But thankfully, it's fully achieved here, even managing to never become frustrating because the incredible clarity of the controls makes it impossible to blame the game for a skill issue. Not that you'd be doing that very often anyway, however, because even when you're not playing well, flying around the map like Captain Korea still always looks and feels cool. The game only loses its footing for a moment in the later stages, because one of the cool setpieces feels really clunky compared to the rest of the game and overstays its welcome, but I find that easy to overlook since it only happens once. It's even easier to look past that hiccup when considering the sheer rush of dopamine the final chapter gives you, rushing through the game at full power feeling like a god. I'd be singing this game's praises even if it was just a platformer with nothing else of note to offer.

But simply building the entire game around perfect controls wasn't enough. They had everything, and needed more.

Sanabi is a visually breathtaking game that bleeds style no matter where you look, with another level of visual beauty added through the extremely expressive and stylish character animations, all well beyond any reasonable expectations for a team of this size - only five people, and starting out as college students no less - to produce. Sound design is also wonderfully chunky and crisp, adding a lot of weight to the already weighty visuals, and even notably improved since the early access build I originally played.

The original soundtrack is beyond perfect for the game as well, fitting flawlessly into every scene and elevating the experience greatly while also being simply fantastic music on its own, to the point that I will probably be listening to this soundtrack outside of the game from time to time - as music to lose myself in, not just background sound - which is something I do so rarely with games that I didn't even have a top five until now; Jet Lancer, Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams, Doom 2016, Iridion II, and now Sanabi... and it takes position 2 in that list.

Games like this aren't expected to have much, if any, narrative either. Nobody would have complained if Sanabi didn't have a storyline, all it really needed was to say that a bad thing happened and you're going in to fix it. But of course, that wasn't enough for Wonder Potion. The story of Sanabi is more than simply present, it's compelling enough, interesting enough, and charming. It's not exactly revolutionary, but that doesn't matter, it's way better than it ever needed to be - much better than the disgraceful writing of some triple-A games that get showered with praise - and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As I played, I figured out most of the reveals before they came to pass, but from what I've seen online, a lot of people didn't, and even if you do see things coming like I did, getting to the end still makes the second playthrough feel pretty different, so I can't even say predictability is a caveat here. The only real caveat is that towards the end of the game (but not at the end, pretty much just in chapter 4), the translation quality dips, and it can be a little jarring, occasionally causing me to need to reread lines... but I can't get mad at that. Oddly, the focus on the story seems a little controversial, because The Gamers™ hate reading and cutscenes in 2D platformers, even when it's as good as this.

Fortunately for them, they only have to deal with it once, because once you see the true ending of the game - continue the game if you went downstairs - speedrun mode is unlocked. No dialogue, no cutscenes, no boss fights, no loading screens, no fades to black, just a straightforward run through each chapter with nothing to distract you from the incredibly fun flow of swinging through levels quickly. Every time you complete a chapter in speedrun mode, the game kicks back to the title screen instead of back to the speedrun menu, which is unfortunate and annoying, but livable considering how fun it is to run through each chapter nonstop. I'll call it an enforced moment of respite. My first attempt ended up at a total time of 1:11:20, which felt pretty slow to me and did a very good job of showing me just how much I still have to learn, especially since I then found out the current record on speedrun.com at that time was 25:58. I will definitely be coming back to this for a long time.

The more I like a thing, the less I usually have to say about it. I've said as much as I can think of at this point, I don't know how to dig deeper into the details about why this game is so fantastic or what makes it feel so amazing to play. So just trust me bro. I'll close with this.

Wonder Potion had everything they needed and chose to go well above and beyond for the sake of their vision. The result is something to be very proud of, and I applaud them. Sanabi is absolutely one of the best games I've played, and an all time favorite.

(from my web zone: https://kerosyn.link/when-control-is-everything-and-everything-isnt-enough/)

Sanabi is a game of very high highs and very low lows.

It has an amazing story that is badly paced and localized.

It has amazing platforming that is interrupted by horrible bossfights.

It has a strange difficulty curve and a lot of the time the difficulty options don't even do anything but the final section was basically the perfect amount of difficulty for me.

It has a great cyberpunk aesthetic and an amazing soundtrack but the cyberpunk ends up feeling a bit toothless, despite it inarguably being cyberpunk. Not quite sure how to describe it without getting into heavy spoilers.

Overall I enjoyed my time with this game a lot but there were also multiple occasions where I was really close to abandoning it.

We are Owls that never cry..

SANABI is a 2D action title developed by Wonder Potion under the NEOWIZ umbrella. You play as a retired general whose peaceful life changes forever on one fateful day. Armed with nothing but his expert skills in combat and his mechanical arm he seeks out the entity known as SANABI that hurt the one closest to him as he entangles himself in a grander and broader mystery that is looming over the horizon.

SANABI's introduction is brilliant, the game is funny when it wants to, cute when it calls for it and gritty when necessary. It gives the player ample amount of questions that pile on one another, and as the story concludes it answers all of them in a heartbreakingly satisfying way. It's not the most unpredictable story ever created, but damn is it good and well written. And the gameplay accompanying it is as good as the story. On your journey to seek SANABI you'll meet Mari who'll tag along you throughout the entire game. Mari's bubbly and seemingly carefree persona contrasts beautifully with our jaded general. She's a great character, she's bubbly and funny but not to a degree where it takes away from SANABI's darker subject matters. She, like others written for the story are layered and believable and I got heavily invested in all of their personalities during my 10 or so hours of playtime. I cried profusely when everything unfolded as the devs pulled on my heartstrings.

And what accompanies that story and characters is an equally banging and satisfying gameplay loop. SANABI is 2D action game that prioritizes movement. Your base kit is simple but hard to master; you have an ability to climb most walls, jump and your main attraction: the Grapling Arm. The arm works like most grapling hooks with an incredible weight and snappiness behind it. You graple to certain surfaces and swing, how hard could that be? Well.. decently difficult actually since Wonder Potion have done a beautiful job with SANABI's level design. Granted, some of them do get a little.. same-y but considering the game that game doesn't overstay its welcome too badly it doesn't really take away from the overall experience.

Combat is also revolving around your hookshot, and the combat encounters here are mostly just minor roadblocks that are fast to deal. They're not bad, some of them, especially the bosses are a highlight but I was wishing for something just a little bit "meatier" if that makes any sense. That being said they're mostly designed for speedrunners in mind, since the game also comes with an in-built Speedrun mode for those who seek to optimize their routes to perfection.

Music, spritework and overall presentation in SANABI are a joy as well; the game is (seemingly) based in a dystopian fictional version of Korea where a big corporation has taken over the normal, day-to-day citizen's lives. Backgrounds consist (but are not limited to) beautiful mountaintops with lushious greenery to neonlit corporate cityscapes. It's all there and it's accompanied by a great soundtrack that suits every environment beautifully. Characters are lively with so little pixels, so the devs put some extra effort into animating text boxes to bring out that extra bit of personality which goes a long way in making SANABI's world feel truly alive.

I've praised to the Moon and back.. and given it a full, five star score. But SANABI isn't perfect, no game is. So what gives? For one, the level structure can be a bit unclear where it wants you to go at times, and some of the sections feel a bit more trial and error than others (like the Overseer chase sequence). Some text boxes had weird spacing issues between sentences and some of the translations were off by just a bit. Assisted aim needs more, in-depth way to customize it and what bugged me the most was that the main characters is just.. a bit of dick at times. Look, I understand why and I understand the weight of the story but it was overbearing, just by a little bit at points.

Otherwise, SANABI is a true gem. A testement to game development and 2D indie games as a whole. It's getting a physical release soon and I cannot wait to pick it up. Please play this game because it deserves all the love that it's getting and then some. It's also priced incredibly well in my opinion.

Sanabi me surpreendeu bastante por me lembrar bastante a Katana Zero, mas tendo claro o seu próprio brilho e mecânicas, sua história, mesmo ela não sendo inovadora, ela é bem feita e bem explicada. Tenho uma paixão por jogos em píxel arte, e Sanabi acerta bastante nesse quesito. Só achei que o jogo se estende bastante, a mecânica com o braço é bem legal, mas enjoa rápido, e eu acho que ele se estendeu um pouco, a última parte eu já estava bem enjoado da gameplay, mas o que me prendeu foi essa bela historia.

This is the actual peak dad videogaming, Sony's first-party titles could never. Seemingly basic story yet with an incredible underlying concept, wonderfully written as a whole and in moment-to-moment interactions, at times it made me wish that the gameplay sections (which are admittedly great) were shorter so we could back to the story faster.
The way it paces the story and the gameplay could be a bit more balanced, but the narrative payoff is so worth it you won't even care once you make it there (and with the game being only 10 hours long at best it's not even going to take you that long!) I understand why Nasu got so owned by it.
I was in tears by the time I saw the credits roll.
Going in my forever favorites list.

Sanabi is a linear, Action Platformer with a strong focus on its Narrative. A bit of a unique and bold take in a genre that’s usually light on dialogue even in a post-TLOU world, Sanabi chooses to ask you to stop and listen to the tale it has to tell, and if you give it that respect, I think you’ll find a very well woven story that takes advantage of the fact its a video game pretty well.

You play as The General, a retired war hero who’s called back for one last mission into the massive mega city, Mago City, to chase after the elusive SANABI and to investigate the disappearance of the inhabitants of the city, a mission he’s all to eager to take as it ties into his personal mission of vengeance. Inside the city, he meets the sole survivor of the investigation team sent in to investigate the disappearances. Together, the two climb the city and solve the mystery behind the City and The Geenral hunts down Sanabi.

To climb said city, The General is equipped with a Bionic Commando type grappling hook he can use to grapple and zip around. And it feels great to grapple and swing in this game. And the simple jump and swing controls are complimented with some excellently designed stages, both in terms of layout and challenge, as well as thematically. There’s only 2(?) more additions you get from his base kit, but they’re both well timed additions and feel super fun to use, and the stages feel varied and no gimmick overstays their welcome. This game does feel like it’s designed with WASD + Mouse in mind, but I played through on a controller just fine with a bit of getting used to.

Between each stage/chapter/whatever, there’s typically a lot of dialogue, expanding on the Mystery of the City, Mari’s goals or The General’s past. If you’re good at this type of game, you might feel there’s more dialogue than game play, and that may be off putting, I’ve seen many reviews criticising the pacing or questioning the choice of the plot focus. And while I get it, I think 1 – there’s a skip option and 2 – The story sets the stage wonderfully for some of the most entertaining and cool stages and boss fights I’ve experienced in a platformer in a long time, and these moments wouldn’t have hit as hard if the story hadn’t set up these stakes so well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a 90s kid gamer, I can hold right for no other reason than Beat Wily or Kill Dracula. But I dunno man, something about Sanabi’s use of set pieces and dialogue mad moments like Justice and The Oversee stand out and I’m sure stick in my memory.

The real question you may be asking though is, if you pay attention to this Video Game Story, does it pay off? And I honestly think so, yeah. I’m a big on creators using the medium of video games to tell interesting stories, and Sanabi does just that. It’s not anything revolutionary, or is some deep dive into the human condition or anything. It’s just a touching story that takes advantage of you being the video game boy (or girl!) and does some interesting twists with it.

I hope this review sells Sanabi to you. It’s a delightful little product made with care and love for both storytelling and video games. And I want nothing but the best for Mari.

To preface: I'm not the biggest fan of mechanical prestige games, like speedrunning is cool and I admire people who get really good at a game's mechanics and prefer that kind of thing to the rest of the medium's capabilities, but it's not always for me and that's ok. I'm on a time limit, I have other things to do and I'm not gonna write 500+ words on how a game's frame timing works or whatever, so I'll slip in a few hours and enjoy my time and then move on when it looks like the reward will just be more of the same reflex challenge, but faster and with more frame-counting. This sounds like I'm about to get harsh, but I promise I enjoyed this game and I think it's worthwhile if you like anything you've heard or seen from it.

Sanabi is a decent mix of that mechanical prestige presentation and a more casual-friendly focus on story and art, providing an interesting skill-based mechanical basis and attempting to work a narrative around those mechanics. Obviously, we can make several direct lines to Katana Zero, and the devs are well aware of their place in a post-K0 world, and Sanabi does a good job being its own thing artistically and mechanically, but it does start to wane when the mechanics are buffered by cutscenes and dialogue that feel more like a half-baked excuse to get the player going from A to B than a meaningful, original story. That's fine, but I think the game would benefit a lot more from a classical arcade approach instead, providing an outline for what you're doing and why, and then letting you go wild for an entire zone before giving you a break with a short cutscene and some exposition on your brooding protagonist's connection to the game's core conspiracy. I think it would suit the piece just fine to remove some of the padding and setpiece justification, and compromise a few of its hit-or-miss anime "serious protag, energetic girl" jokes in favor of some punchy illustrations and a paragraph or two of text after a boss.

Sanabi
---------
Graphics: 4.5/5 Tirei varias print pq pqp cada cenario mais bonito que o outro

Story: 5/5 Um dos unicos jogos que me fez chorar um pouco com o final

Gameplay: 3/5 Boa no geral, mto divertido de se balançar por obstaculos soq pode ficar enjoativa

Soundtrack: 3.6/5 Mto boa, especialmente a dos creditos

Bugs(0= None ; 5= Unplayable): 0

Fun factor: 2.3/5 La para o final do jogo eu me obriguei a finalizar mesmo estando um pouco enjoado da gameplay

Characters: 4.7/5

Final thoughts: 4.8/5 (5 no backlogged) Pqp que jogo bom, curtinho da para finalizar em uma tarde porem vale mto a experiencia. Me lembrou mto katana zero pela maneira que a historia foi contada e os cenarios (especialmente do inicio)

(Apenas uma coisa a se mencionar, o jogo tem por volta de 10 horas, porem eu recomecei o jogo pois tinha começado e parado a um tempo atras)

What a strange game. The story has some obvious twists and some wilder ones. I didn't even expect much of any story.

Sadly, the writing clearly needs some editing. There's a lot of reptitive / throwaway dialogue. Also, the English localization is pretty stiff / unnatural sounding, and there's quite a few grammar mistakes.

I did tear up a bit at the ending though, so there's some merit to the story.

I wish the gameplay was a bit more engaging though. Grapple swinging is really fun, but the game feels really drawn out. Too many levels and they all go on a little too long. Boss fights are quite un-fun to me.

Personally I'd say put the game on easy so you don't have to respawn when taking too much damage. There's enough "reset to checkpoint" instant things anyway that this just makes the game a bit smoother. I turned it on for the final boss and left it on for the bit of game after that just to speed things up.

The game has some weird pacing with lots and lots of dialogue and flashbacks, as well as the padded feeling levels. I legitimately thought I was almost done with this game probably 2 or 3 times. I spent close to 15 hours when I thought this was gonna be more of a 6 hour game. And frankly I think the game would be better that way.

[EDIT] oh i forgot to mention, there's some parts that are very visually difficult to look at. many instances of flashing lights and screen fading to white. definitely eye-watering at times.

Wheeeee...STORYYYYYYY...whee...STORYYYYY...wheeee...STORYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. This describes the gameplay loop and why I was ANNOYED for the first two-thirds of the game. Then, in the last third of the game, the story-balls started landing one after the other. Plus, the gameplay went from slick-but-unchallenging to just plain slick.

Narratively, Sanabi went from feeling super wrote to having one of the best bait-and-switch landings that I've found in memory. I still think the script could be pared-down by 25%, but then I don't know that I'd edit much at all from the deeply affecting conclusion.

It never got quite as hard as I wanted, but I also ended the game in awe and tears. So I might return and clean-up the last three achievements. If you go in, expect the first two thirds of the game to be underwhelming, but to have the best time in the last act.

Dá pra resumir em duas palavras: decepcionante e ruim.

A pixel art é bela... Mas o jogo é extremamente rápido e não dá para apreciar.

A ideia é interessante... Mas os controles SÃO TERRÍVEIS, extremamente IMPRECISOS, porcamente pensados. Além do seu boneco ficar se prendendo em TODAS superfícies do jogo, fazendo sua gameplay ficar "engasgada" e mais lenta e imprecisa. Inclusive a gameplay tem pouca variabilidade. O combate além de ser repetitivo ele é muito prejudicado devido aos controles péssimos.

A história inicialmente é instigante com uns diálogos bonitinhos... Mas depois a história fica repetitiva, chata e desinteressante, com diálogos ruins, chatos e desinteressantes. Junto de cutscentes desnecessariamente longas que fazem você se sentir preso no próprio jogo.
OBS: Colocar diálogos no meio da luta é uma decisão no mínimo burra
OBS2: Na reta final, a história fica ruime até moralmente duvidoso

O level design é legalzinho (embora seja frustrativo devido a jogabilidade)... Mas em algumas ocasiões é porco, preguiçoso, repetitivo e mal feito.
As fases especiais de extrema velocidade e chefões - que deveriam ser as mais bem trabalhadas e chamativas - são terríveis e conseguem ser pior que as fases normais do jogo.

Portanto, é um fato que esse foi um grande disperdício, tem aspectos bons mas que são estragados logo depois. Espero o melhor para os criadores e que eles melhorem no futuro.

Un bon jeu d'action / plateforme qui peut être aussi beau et frénétique, que frustrant.

Pour commencer par des qualités, le jeu est magnifique, vraiment un régale de pixel art ultra peaufiné et bien animé. Certaines scènes et panoramas ont vraiment une qualité cinématographique indéniable. L'ost est elle aussi très bonnes dans l'ensemble, elle réussit bien à retranscrire les moments d'émotions et ajoute une bonne dose de dynamisme aux phases de gameplay. Le scénario est plus que solide, avec beaucoup de thèmes tournant autour de La Cybernétique, puisant dans sa philosophie pour en ressortir des questionnements sur notre condition d'humain. La narration qui accompagne ce récit est un peu classique sur les bords, mais elle fonctionne et possède son lot de moments brillants. L'écriture des personnages est top, avec des personnalités bien définis et de l'humour qui sait virer au glauque quand il faut.

Maintenant, le gameplay. Ce n'est en rien une tare du jeu, de laquelle il devrait se débarrasser. Cependant (F Dumbledore), c'est un aspect de sa conception qui ne m'a pas convaincus. Il y a de très bons moments : nerveux, avec beaucoup de flow et une emphase sur le mouvement, rapide et fluide. Puis il y a 60 à 70% du jeu, notamment entre le début et la fin. Ces moments où, à moins d'avoir une connaissance parfaite du niveau, il va falloir ralentir et prendre le temps d'analyser le niveau pour en sortir... C'est personnel certes, mais ce n'est clairement pas ce que j'attendais du jeu après une première heure et demi aussi dynamique. C'est un playstyle qui conviendra à beaucoup, j'en suis sûr, mais je l'ai vécu comme un gros remplissage permettant au jeu de faire sa narration entre quelques morceaux de gameplay. Je rajouterais qu'ici la qualité principale de l'OST, à savoir son energie devient un défaut : c'est comme entendre quelqu'un te motiver à courir, sur un terrain de mine. On a l'envie d'aller vite et de volé de niveau en niveau en moins d'une minute, mais le jeu ne nous laisse pas le faire. L'avantage, c'est que ça laisse de la place aux tryhardeurs, car les niveaux ne sont pas mauvais en soit.

C'est un jeu qui aurait pu être exceptionnel, et son gameplay aurait peut-être pu être mieux utilisé par un level design plus fluide, mais ça reste un petit bijou que je recommande vivement, ne serait-ce que pour ses thèmes et son écriture.

Katana Zero if the story was actually finished


I thoroughly fucked with this game. Everything about it is in-sync with my tastes and I gotta put that up-front.

This game is drop-dead gorgeous. Some of the cleanest and best sprite-work I personally seen in my godamn life. Mari is the cutest little button and I wanna slam her against the walls like a toy. Mago-City is a generic dystopian future city but it's rendered with such a nice palette and scale and the conspiracy surrounding it had me intrigued through-out. It's actually a shame that some of the designs and animations get used like once or twice because I find the aesthetics so appealing. Shout-outs to Major Song.

Gameplay is just how I like it with a solid satisfying core that is built upon by surrounding enemies, encounters, and levels; grapple hooks are just fun to play with even if it's only for movement and combat and little else. I think the game could have benefited from spacing out cutscenes a little bit more since you always feel like you just got a good groove going before stopping to bombard you with some expository moments that go on a bit too long but never bothered me enough to dent my experience.

The story could have used alot less "ooooooooo what could be happening" moments throughout but either than that the dynamic between the main characters and the dialogue coming from Mari are just well done enough to excuse the fact that this is just a well-executed but cliche story. It's got a very strong sequence near the end that really sold me on the whole package of the story.

Game's got alot of heart put into it but I can definitely see people who are wrong and stupid and not as smart or whimsical as me not enjoying it but fuck 'em

I really enjoyed Sanabi, but honestly I think its score is a little inflated from just how good the last 2 hours of this game are. This game has some absolutely incredible moments. The opening is very strong, a few story moments in the middle are neat, and as mentioned the lead-up to the end of the game is amazing.

But the game is just way too drawn out. Most gameplay sections could have had their length cut in half, probably dropped to 1/4 if you wanted to only leave the really good stuff. A lot of sections, especially once you get to the back half of the main plot, drag on far past the point they should have and I was begging to be done with a few segments long before I reached the end. This was generally not because of difficulty - This is not an overly challenging game outside of a few tricky platforming areas. Instead you'll just be seeing endless screen after screen of incredibly basic platforming challenges you'd already mastered twenty minutes ago.

This is especially painful because Sanabi's writing is often genuinely enjoyable, though sometimes a little clumsy, and is really the only reason I made it through to the credits. The characters are generally well written and the dialogue usually succeeds at being actually funny. I often found myself wishing dialogue scenes would stretch on a little longer just so I could spend more time with the characters, but inevitably the scenes end and you're due for another 30 minutes of silently grappling your way through repetitive platforming challenges.

Sanabi is frequently compared to Katana Zero and while I agree the vibes are similar, I think Sanabi's flaws become especially glaring when that comparison is drawn. Katana Zero's total runtime clocks in at around 3.5-4 hours, less than half the time it took me to beat Sanabi, but that game has cut all the fat that sometimes makes Sanabi such a chore. If you enjoyed Sanabi then I think Katana Zero is an easy instant recommend, providing a shorter, more focused experience.

I still think Sanabi is worth playing. The story is fun, and the characters are likable. But the endless padding really brings down a game that is otherwise so close to becoming one of the indie greats.