Don’t you get tired from AAA or AAAA-games that feature half-baked plot, a mix of PS2-like graphics with DLSS and other bells and whistles, gameplay that requires generous microtransactions to cut especially sharp corners, and so on? That is when the hot/recommended selections on Steam can save your sanity for a little while. During one such hunt for some indie entertainment, I stumbled on an interesting game, Sanabi. No, not like that, SANABI. Because while searching for gold I found a diamond.
Seeing it in my Recommended list made me think “Have they really released a DLC for Katana Zero?”, because if you simply try to sum up both of these games, you will get something strangely similar: A platformer set in a cyberpunk setting with a 2.5D pixel artstyle, where the protagonist is a stern man with a military background that destroys enemies with a single blow while having the ability to slow down time. At the same time, our hero shows his softer side to a little girl that periodically appears in the plot and motivates him.
From an outside perspective, the two look quite similar… but that’s where nuances start.
The game starts from the dialogue of the protagonist – who remains nameless, so from this point on I will refer to him as General – and his daughter in an empty, dark void. The child says that it doesn’t matter who wins, it’s not like that, and the General wakes up under a sakura tree.
After speaking with the daughter, we start the mission of saving raspberries from vicious dinosaurs, the inflatable kind. This is how the tutorial kicks off, with the General heroically saving berries from the dinos, climbing through mountains, avoiding the dangerous lava… Except the kid didn’t have the time to make lava, so let’s just pretend it’s there.
The tutorial is presented in a concise and simple style, with the game pointing out what to press, where to direct the hero, and what will happen in the end. It’s not skippable, but trust me, you will not have time to get tired of it.
The tutorial introduces players to the basics of gameplay, the main feature of which is the grappling hook. Sanabi’s version of this device is presented as a prosthetic arm called the Chain Claw. It allows you to cling to various surfaces which in turn lets you maneuver between them, rushing like a hurricane through the levels, or catapulting into enemies to sweep them out of the way.
As you progress through the game, the Claw will receive additional mechanics, thanks to which the gameplay doesn’t seem neither boring nor too overloaded, with the new abilities being required to to progress through the level or to defeat the boss.
Every segment of the game is filled with adrenaline and a certain anxiety coming from the death factor, since every time you get a new ability, the levels are becoming more complex to compensate, weaving in the need to use the new techniques. After all, if you relax or avoid the new techniques, most likely you will either fall or receive damage from enemies, which will lead to the loss of HP.
On the medium difficulty, there are only 4 points of HP, which is already a challenge. On the hard difficulty there is only 1 HP. One HP to separate you from restarting from checkpoint, even in boss battles.
Having finished the game on normal, I decided to try my hand at Hard, and it was a great experience. The challenge was successfully completed, I enjoyed Sanabi to its fullest and finished it 2 times back to back (to unlock the 2nd ending, more on that later), with a single HP point throughout the entire game.
This is an indescribable experience and pleasure from every moment spent in the game. The challenge made me fondly remember Katana Zero. However, the more you play Sanabi, the more favorable differences between the two games you will see.
Sanabi features a forgiving checkpoint system and doesn’t strain the player too much. You won’t have to run through a dozen screens or stages before the next checkpoint, but the game will ensure you’ve grasped the new mechanics before you proceed. Still, Sanabi gave me a feeling of speed and freedom, encouraging me to binge-play like hell, rushing through obstacles, maneuvering around danger and destroying heroes with a desire for revenge.
After the heroic rescue of raspberry, the General decided to take a nap while the Daughter decided to play with walkie-talkies. Alas, she had only taken one, leaving the second at home. Having run away to get the missing walkie-talkie, the girl contacts her father and reports that she sees some kind of strange big clock at home, with an inscription that reads… sa…nabi. The general jumps up and shouts for his daughter to leave the house immediately, but she thinks this is just a part of the game. Our hero runs as fast as he can to the house, but an explosion beats his arrival.
The game’s demo will let you play through this part as well as the first level of the Mago City, and you will see what happens next to the General. He left to take revenge, and now death will walk hand-in-hand with everyone involved with Sanabi.
The plot is quite intricate and extremely enjoyable, having completed the game through both endings, I can say that it is a masterpiece. A laconic storyline, seemingly simple and even shallow at a glance, unfolds into something beautiful and layered.
The first level of Mago City tells us about a terrorist attack that led to the disappearance of every single person involved. There is only one survivor, an engineer named Mary, the single person left out of almost 3 million people. While searching for Mary, players will pass through the lower city where the security systems were turned on and now treat the General as an invader.
As you get closer to the engineer, you will notice an orange drone following the protagonist. Capturing it and chatting for a bit leads players to Mary, frozen in the state of hysteria and horror. Having learned that the hero defeated all robots and turrets, Mary becomes even more terrified as the destruction of the defenses means awakening of the Recycling system in the form of the Huge Garbage Collector. And now you have to escape from it as the hulk can easily turn our hero into a compost heap with a single bite.
Just this escape stage alone already sets the pace and rhythm of the game. Dynamic, gorgeous music, amazing level design, storming through the levels and seemingly simple graphics, all of that makes one fall in love with the game.
Despite the action and speed, the picture doesn’t mix into an incomprehensible mess, objects are clearly separated and stand out. You immediately understand where the background is, where the walls are, and where the enemies are. You also encounter a number of memorable characters, so you don’t ask yourself “And who the hell are you?” when one of them pops back after being gone for a number of stages.
I am not going to spoil the plot, but I will say that letting go of the idea of revenge offers a completely new test. From the very beginning, you will have to climb to the very top of the Mago Corporation but… The General will turn off the limiter on his abilities, which will give already action-filled gameplay an incredible acceleration and power.
I want to separately highlight the music. Some of the tracks were written by a Kazakhstani musician that started making music in 2005. In a short chat that I managed to get, he talked a little about his hobbies, listening to music from calm ambient to killer Digital Hardcore, and experimenting on mixing the styles. In 2019, he completely went into colo composing and began to write his own music.
Having been looking for work for various studios for a long time, he constantly received the same answers along the lines of “we’ll get back to you”, and only in 2021 he started looking through Steam games in-development. That is when he ran into Sanabi. After sending them a couple of his tracks, he received an answer that they already had a composer, but later contacted him again and offered to create 4-5 tracks for the game.
Later these 4-5 tracks turned into 30+, some of which I’ve added to my personal favorite playlist. The music of the game is something indescribable, creating amazing sensations when coupled with its hurricane gameplay.
