At first glance this game might look silly or brainless, but Sakuna punches way above its weight. It's a strange, fascinating, easy-going experience, but peppered with pleasant challenge. It somehow scratches the itch for a comfy and intimate colony farming sim, while also operating as a satisfying platforming beat-em-up.
The farming consists of seasonal minigames, each with their own rituals for optimization. New systems get introduced with each harvest that keep the cycle feeling fresh. There's always just enough to remember and monitor that I never found myself doing everything perfectly - letting the water out soon enough, waiting for the right temperature to hull, bringing the ducks back inside when it sprouts. It feels great to see your character get buff when you do it all correctly.
The combat centers around this grapple hook that doubles as a generous dodge. You constantly sling back and forth throughout fights, set up combos in the air, and blast enemies into each other for big aoe damage. The tutorials aren't great and it might take a while to make sense of its quirks - some core mechanics don't get any explanation until 20 hours in. But it's worth the trouble - the loop is satisfying and reminiscent of Dragon's Crown or Odin Sphere.
There ends up being quite a bit of platforming in the level design, again centered on this grapple-dodge. It feels good to zip around the environments, but this is probably the jankiest mechanic of the game; there's too much guesswork involved in figuring out where you can latch on. Still, I was surprised at how much fun I was having even though I would often struggle to accurately attach onto ledges.
There's a million other tiny quirks and unpolished elements, but what's really holding this game back most is its size. Sakuna is begging for more than a 4-hut village and an archipelago of isolated combat zones. I want to survey the vast rice fields at the end of the game and watch my allies till the fields. As is, it just feels a little bit too small, too claustrophobic. My runner-up complaint is its resource variety and distribution; there's too much inventory noise for little meaningful impact.
I was surprised to realize I actually learned something about rice. Ten hours in I was getting excited for each new tutorial about the phases of growth, when to flood the fields, what type of fertilizer to use. It got me thinking about how important rice is - so many lives have been spent studying this one crop, thinking up new ways to cook and prepare it. There's so much cultural depth behind this one little grain. This game cares about rice, and it wants you to care, too.
The farming consists of seasonal minigames, each with their own rituals for optimization. New systems get introduced with each harvest that keep the cycle feeling fresh. There's always just enough to remember and monitor that I never found myself doing everything perfectly - letting the water out soon enough, waiting for the right temperature to hull, bringing the ducks back inside when it sprouts. It feels great to see your character get buff when you do it all correctly.
The combat centers around this grapple hook that doubles as a generous dodge. You constantly sling back and forth throughout fights, set up combos in the air, and blast enemies into each other for big aoe damage. The tutorials aren't great and it might take a while to make sense of its quirks - some core mechanics don't get any explanation until 20 hours in. But it's worth the trouble - the loop is satisfying and reminiscent of Dragon's Crown or Odin Sphere.
There ends up being quite a bit of platforming in the level design, again centered on this grapple-dodge. It feels good to zip around the environments, but this is probably the jankiest mechanic of the game; there's too much guesswork involved in figuring out where you can latch on. Still, I was surprised at how much fun I was having even though I would often struggle to accurately attach onto ledges.
There's a million other tiny quirks and unpolished elements, but what's really holding this game back most is its size. Sakuna is begging for more than a 4-hut village and an archipelago of isolated combat zones. I want to survey the vast rice fields at the end of the game and watch my allies till the fields. As is, it just feels a little bit too small, too claustrophobic. My runner-up complaint is its resource variety and distribution; there's too much inventory noise for little meaningful impact.
I was surprised to realize I actually learned something about rice. Ten hours in I was getting excited for each new tutorial about the phases of growth, when to flood the fields, what type of fertilizer to use. It got me thinking about how important rice is - so many lives have been spent studying this one crop, thinking up new ways to cook and prepare it. There's so much cultural depth behind this one little grain. This game cares about rice, and it wants you to care, too.