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/)
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/)