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.