Are we ready to explore the mysteries of our own existence? With Skaramazuzu, we will find ourselves exploring an ancient and archetypal surreality, with a very original style
Today, April 3, 2024, marks the release for PC, on Steam, of the new video game by Iphigames, in collaboration with Bleeding Moon Studio, titled Skaramazuzu, a fun but sometimes dark 2D experience, hand-drawn, which entertained me without particular stress, except for a few things, whose world and graphic style pleasantly enchanted me.
With Skaramazuzu, our journey will be full of shadows and symbols that will lead us to explore the deepest corners of the afterlife, in this adventure guided by multiple narrative twists.
Iphigames and the power of Hellenic culture
This is the first time that I personally come across a product created by a development team based in Greece, specifically in Athens, which was the cradle of a powerful and magnificent culture, rich in myths and enlightening structures of thought.
Inspired by their local heritage, Iphigames choose the word “ΙΦΙ“, which means strength, to symbolize this aspect. In addition to directly dealing with the development of video games, among their goals is also to promote and produce works by other developers, creating interesting and stimulating collaborations.
Among their titles, the survival horror game Abtos Covert stands out, in which we play a guard soldier in a remote outpost in the woods, who must survive night after night facing various threats, including mysterious entities targeting the outpost in question. In the meantime, we will investigate the past of this place and, above all, get to know the story of the soldiers who preceded the one we impersonate, intertwined in a dense narrative.
A bit like in Skaramazuzu, where storytelling is the heart of the game, exploiting the solid cultural foundations of their own country. After all, the concept of archetype derives precisely from ancient Greek culture, and thus we will have many references to primordial models, embodied in the characters we will meet.
Skaramazuzu is a philosophical video game, and it is precisely in ancient Greece that philosophy, in a concrete application of the principles deduced through reflection or thought, is born and takes shape.
Zuzu in search of himself
The title “Skaramazuzu” is rather peculiar, however, it remains very impressed in your mind, and we immediately discover that it is the name of our protagonist.
Initially in the form of a small pulsating light, completely devoid of memory of itself and the world, Skaramazuzu has a first interaction with another entity: the Master.
The Master tells him that from that moment on his name will be Skaramazuzu and answers some questions like: “Where am I?”, “Why am I here?”, and so on. The Master gives this lost soul some fundamental but very basic answers, such as, for example, that Zuzu – this is how our protagonist prefers as a name – is halfway between life and death and that if he is there it is because he wanted to, as he wants to understand who he is.
To understand his past identity, Zuzu must unlock a series of memories, and to do so, he must navigate through this place – or non-place? – defined as the Void, and reach the end of the path, made up of puzzles to solve in order to activate the four Orb Keys, locked behind four doors characterized by specific symbols.
Once explained what he has to do, Zuzu takes the form of a shadow, like many others found in the Void, and begins to interact with the other presences he encounters as he walks through the areas.
By carrying out tasks and requests, Zuzu will obtain information and keys to open access to his memories.
Another example of very intelligent graphic choices
As I have already said in other articles, in the indie panorama, one often finds oneself having to do a lot with little – I refer to economic possibilities -, this pushes the most skilled and intelligent developers to adopt an original and personal graphic style, recognizable and unique, as happens with works of art.
Simplicity is often the strategy to compensate for the impossibility of realizing more complex structures and superstructures. However, doing “simple” things is much more difficult, sometimes, especially when the content is substantial and there would be many things to say.
In the case of Skaramazuzu, simplicity has generously paid off, since the final realization is a real gem.
It is a hand-drawn 2D design, black and white, with few clean but absolutely expressive and intense lines. Iphigames was able to give strong and charismatic personality to the characters, thanks to a synthesis of form masterfully done, but also thanks to the dialogues, both textual and auditory.
A fun but also thought-provoking game
As mentioned above, the characters in Skaramazuzu enjoy charisma and character depth, thanks also to the dialogues.
So let’s talk first of all about the writing of Skaramazuzu, which has an ironic but also profound style.
The game itself is relatively short, but the richness of the many dialogues, necessary to proceed, makes it more complex than it seems. Thanks to the exchanges with the various characters, the character dynamics, although evident from the start, both of Zuzu and the various Dragon, Mister and Misses, Bug and so on, gradually take shape, becoming not only entertaining but also particularly amusing.
The comedic aspect is also given by the original work done by the sound department. The voices of the various characters, who speak an incomprehensible language mostly made up of sound expressions rather than real words, are funny and ridiculous. They have a musicality that makes them pleasant, even when they drag on a bit too much.
However, there are deep and almost always positive messages inside the various lines. Important concepts emerge such as friendship, loyalty, honesty, and ethics. The naive unawareness of a virgin mind like Zuzu’s, completely devoid of superstructures, sees everything as new and curious and places itself in an open and available manner to knowledge, whatever it may be.
This attitude leads Zuzu to listen to everyone and to worry about them, up to wanting to help them concretely, to remember, in some cases, or simply to feel better. For this reason, Pyro will tell him, towards the middle of his journey, that he is a good soul.
To remember, Zuzu will have to face many trials, some very difficult, such as the one in which, once he unlocks an Orb Key, Zuzu will find himself face to face with the Guardian of that key, who wants to prevent him from retrieving the lost memories, that lie in the Great Shadow.
The Guardian is forced to fill the Great Shadow if he wants to exist, without letting any memory escape, and although Zuzu desires more than anything else to recover his memories, he will feel empathy towards these eternal figures, who have always existed, together with the Great Shadow, in the darkest places of the Void. Zuzu and his new friend Pyro define it as a horrible existence.
Every time, Zuzu will have to face death at the hands of the Guardian and in the suspended time in which he loses his form again, he will be faced with a scene of what could be his past life. But it won’t be easy to rebuild everything and only by thoroughly exploring the Void, will he finally discover himself.
Conclusions
Skaramazuzu is a fun and sometimes exciting title, full of beautiful positive messages, conveyed with irony and lightness, but also with more intense and incisive moments.
It has storytelling and aesthetics as undisputed strengths and for the nature that Iphigames has decided to give to this title, the type of gameplay is perfect. It can also be played with the help of a controller which makes the gaming experience smoother and less cumbersome. Everything flows smoothly and quietly and you can enjoy a good story, without any concern about too complex action or exploration scenes. The focus points are highlighted by a nice exclamation point, and we can only interact with them, so there is no room for mistakes.
However, the timing of the dialogues is sometimes a bit too long, and since it takes time to solve the quests of the various characters, which are more than twenty, it becomes a bit tiring in the long run. The dialogues and the funny way the characters express themselves do not always make up for the eternal back and forth between the same areas, inside which sometimes there are also more than two characters to interact with.
In this suspended atmosphere, in which everyone expresses themselves with doubts and statements that are more questions than anything else – “Yes, or no. Who knows?”, “Maybe it works or maybe not” – we end up asking ourselves those ancient questions: who am I? Where am I? What is my purpose?
Useful links:
Iphigames Officiale Website
Skaramazuzu on Steam
“Skaramazuzu is a 2D graphic adventure, hand-drawn in a black and white style, simple yet expressive and impactful. Its aesthetics and storytelling are its strengths. It’s an enjoyable and at times moving title, full of beautiful positive messages conveyed with irony and lightness, but also with more intense and incisive moments. At times, it can be a bit tedious when continuously revisiting the same areas and talking to the same characters, even though the dialogues change each time. Skaramazuzu is a philosophical video game that utilizes the concept of archetypes and myth to create an original story that touches on universal themes.”
- Original and impactful graphics
- Excellent writing, with many brilliant and always different dialogues
- Character depth
- Positive messages like friendship, honesty, and generosity
- Original and amusing Voice Acting
- It can be boring at some points where you have to roam around a lot and talk to characters multiple times in order to progress
7.9/10
I’m an Italian artist who came late to the gaming world but fell in love with it right away. I’m not the best gamer, and I choose titles that appeal to my personal preferences, but I can appreciate the graphics content and artistic solutions above all, even as I learn about all the fascinating game development features.
