Oh to be young again. Time seems to move much more slowly, the world is huge and just waiting to be explored. Adventure beckons around every corner and you don’t need to worry about the woes of the world, and all the adult problems. SANYA is a game which aims to recapture these early years, and evokes an awful lot of nostalgia from what many would argue, perhaps through rose tinted glasses, were simpler times.
This little adventure game is beautifully presented in a hand drawn style, almost as if a children’s storybook has sprung into life. Playing out on a 2D plane, for the most part, SANYA feels as if you are flicking through the pages of a tale from when you were younger. There’s a wonderfully warm and fuzzy feeling SANYA gives off as you play this adventure, one where the little things matter. But to a young person, the stakes seem that they couldn’t be higher.
This young man’s journey takes place in a post-soviet setting during the 90s, just after he and his family have moved into a new flat. After being given his own key, Sanya decides to head out and explore his new neighbourhood and before long, starts chatting to the other local kids.
The themes explored here are innocent enough, as you would expect from the opening couple of paragraphs of this review. Sadly, the translation is a little iffy at times, to the point where on one occasion there is a him, then a her, then a him again. Before you say it, this is in no way a commentary on sex or gender, instead just sloppy conversion from one language to another.
The first friend Sanya makes isn’t actually another person, but instead an adorable stray puppy. It doesn’t take long for this relationship to blossom, and before long his canine companion is fetching interesting items, following distinct scents and even performing tricks. And yes, you can pet the dog in SANYA.
Most of your time in SANYA will be spent chatting to your new neighbours and setting off on various quests. Sanya can sprint and jump, although this serves no practical purpose. This adventure is point and click, often seeing you running errands in the form of tracking down items in order to complete each quest. Bubbles will pop up when you can interact with something and keep you on track.
What I do like is the different way in which these are tracked. In SANYA, quests are represented as “thoughts”, and each step of progress is represented by small bubbles. As well as practically keeping track of what you need to do, it also weaves together to tell a story of its own that evolves naturally as you play.
It’s here you can also view your inventory as you collect various items during your travels around the neighbourhood. Most of these serve a purpose, however I found a few which seemingly didn’t. Now, at various points during the game you can earn achievements by doing certain things that could quite easily be missed, and not affect your progression as you play. So that may well explain it.
In terms of challenge, well, there is very little. SANYA is a gentle, dewy-eyed window into the past which plods along at a steady pace. There are some brief flirtations with puzzle elements, most notably a segment where the young lad decides to sort out his toybox to avoid the wrath of his mother. A four by four grid of 16 colour-coded toys must be arranged in a certain order, and according to a few extra rules. It’s a shame there aren’t more puzzle elements such as this for it would break up the game rather nicely and get the old grey matter working a bit harder.
However, things are mixed up a little as you play hide and seek, hopscotch and even compete in a brief bike race. At one point the action will also switch to a 2D platformer too, evidence that there are some good ideas in play here.
There’s no getting away from it though, SANYA is a very short game. You’ll most likely beat it in under two hours, but it is an enchanting little affair whilst it lasts. Sadly, I did come across a few performance issues.
There is a part where your furry friend picks up the scent of some cheese and bolts off to try and find it. This sequence played out each time I entered a certain area, and then one of the other characters started to whizz past very quickly in the background, in a moment which was humorous but also a tad sinister. On another occasion the same character got stuck in dialogue with me which then stacked on top of another conversion (quite literally in terms of the speech bubbles) so I had to reboot the game. Gladly nothing was so serious that it spoiled my enjoyment.
When you consider that SANYA will set you back £12.49, it feels a little steep for what you get here. However, if you were intrigued by the description at the top of this piece, you’ll most likely feel like it’s money well spent.
SANYA is an endearing, small-scale adventure which connects players with memories, thoughts and feelings of their childhood.
SANYA: A Nostalgic Journey Back to Childhood on Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/sanya-a-nostalgic-journey-back-to-childhood-on-xbox/
Buy SANYA on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/sanya/9PLSGCZKT0QF
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- Source: https://www.thexboxhub.com/sanya-review/
