On the whole, SANABI is quite a disjointed experience. It has both interesting gameplay and a somewhat captivating story. And yet, the marriage of those two elements is where this game flops for me.
The gameplay in SANABI is quite unique when it comes to 2d platformers. The grappling hook, and it's momentum, are key to the platforming in SANABI. Momentum generation, preservation and expenditure is the main way by which you progress through the game. The combat is a natural extension of the momentum based platforming and quite satisfying, once you get a hold of things.
Where things partly fall apart for me is the level design. The level design can be, quite harshly, described as "uninspired" and "repetitive". Despite the game being quite short, and the movement quite fun and unique, the moment to moment gameplay soon becomes boring. The levels, as a whole, feel quite repetitive. If you asked me to name even one screen from this game, I'd probably struggle.
Things get a bit better when talking about the vibes of this game. Taken as a whole, the eastern and cyberpunk influence here blends quite nicely and presents a strong vibe. There are some "hype" moments which feel really powerful. The graphics and audio design in general is where I'd give a lot of props to the development team. For such a small budget, they produced a high quality sensory experience.
Leaning on vibes, the story also has some emotional highs. Especially towards the end of the game I became a bit more emotional. Even though the cast isn't that vast, the two leads are both enjoyable in their own right. There were a few moments that made me chuckle, despite the game being pure text with no voice acting.
A noteworthy aspect of this game is that it is incredibly linear, almost to a fault. This game features literally no side paths, npcs, items or an inventory system, currency, a level system or any other form of distractions from the main story path. I do think this approach simplified the development, gameplay testing and the overall pacing of the game. If you aren't interested in, what can best described as, an "interactive action movie" experince, then this game is probably not for you.
Ultimately, the story drags on for far too long. The one overarching mystery is slowly dissected from a lot of angles. By the end, everything is neatly explained. But to get there, the player has to experience similar story beats repeated over and over again. By the end, the story felt so bloated, despite being relatively short and simple, that I just wanted to get it over with. What increased my frustration is the quite frequent interruption of gameplay with story moments. The gameplay is so high paced, while the story is quite slow and deliberate. The meshing of these two flows really hurts the overall player experience. Sometimes I wanted to just play the game, so the story was something I wanted to blitz through. And during other moments I wanted to take things a bit more slowly and progress the story.
SANABI is a fine game, that excels in some areas and drags in others. But in this day and age, where time is so precious, I can't honestly recommend anyone spend the 9 plus hours to finish this game.
