Skaramazuzu (PC)
Skaramazuzu looks like it would be a dark and moody adventure game. It takes place in the Void between life and death with characters made of shadow. Its hand drawn art is rendered only in black, white, and grey, with the rare shock of red the few times blood is seen. Lifeless trees with gnarled branches that match the same protrusions that grow out of the characters’ heads like antlers work to keep building up an atmosphere for something that is eerie and unsettling. But then you start speaking with the characters, and more often then not, they’re friendly, delightful, and sometimes even a bit funny. This bleak afterlife may be the game’s setting, but Skaramazuzu can often feel quite lighthearted thanks to its cast of characters.
Skaramazuzu is the name given to the character you’re playing as when he awakes in the Void unable to remember who he is. In his new shadowy body, it’s understood that his memories are likely gone for good, but the plucky little shadow is given hope by Master who tells him of four orb keys that might help pull those memories back from the darkness. Skaramazuzu, who quickly asks to be called Zuzu for short, heads out eager to get these keys, although he’ll need to get other keys first which in turn involves making deals with other residents of the Void. These requests and errands will make up the majority of this adventure, Zuzu walking back and forth to carry items around to the characters he’s met, and this is unfortunately a rather mindless affair.
Skaramazuzu does primarily consist of what could be called trading sequences. Some adventure games feature inventory puzzles where you need to find out where certain items go or how they can be used, but Skaramazuzu rarely grants you too many items at once and their functions don’t involve much thought to figure out. If you get an item, you’ll have usually heard from a character before who asked for an item just like it or you’re about to soon talk to someone who makes no secret of what they’re asking for exactly. In one of the more egregious cases, you find someone with a fishing rod but no bait, and while you can’t really have much of anything in your inventory at this point in the adventure, the dialogue still makes sure to describe every detail of the desired bait save for saying it’s name outright, leaving little mystery in what you’re meant to be doing. You usually just need to find the first item in a chain of trades to get things moving along, and while Skaramazuzu will leave certain interactions until later in the adventure so things aren’t always solved as quickly as you encounter them, rarely does it require any thought to progress through these trading sequences.
There are a few moments that could be called puzzles, but they’re either very simple because the variables at play are limited or they’re the one that truly requires figuring out some environmental hints to solve only for it to reappear three more times without being meaningfully altered. Perhaps the saddest part about the game being so basic with its puzzles and trading sequences is the game has a very smart journal system meant to help you keep track of all the things you need to do. Early on when you get all the requests it’s nice to be able to pop the journal open and see who wants what, and the progress towards each Orb Key is visualized well so even when it leaves certain trades until late in the adventure, you can easily brush up on how you reached that point in the sequence. This journal would be an excellent tool in a game with complicated puzzles that do require thought to solve, but Skaramazuzu doesn’t really obstruct your progress with anything particularly interesting when it comes to the gameplay side.
Thankfully, the characters do pick up some of the slack, especially since the majority of your time will be spent talking with them or listening to Zuzu. Zuzu is a delightful protagonist, viewing the world with a bit of wonder despite how dark it is. When he comes across an object to pick up, he’ll politely ask if it wants to come with him, and while he’s always quick to help others, he gets a little flustered and shy when people thank or praise him. Admittedly, his quirk of talking to inanimate objects can wear thin since he doesn’t vary it up too much, but overall it’s easy to want to help Zuzu reach a happy ending where he can remember who he is, and he’s not even the only chipper soul you meet in the Void. There’s a dog called Dragon who brings the excited energy you’d expect of a puppy, and the earlier mentioned character with a fishing pole is part of a pair who are always happy to help Zuzu along. There are some pricklier characters, you can find a bickering pair called Nobody and Bug who never really stop fighting with each other, and the bird named Bird isn’t as keen as others to help you. Rarely will you encounter true hostility though and while there are some moments that hint at more mature and possibly sad stories, your focus instead keeps you engaging in friendly cooperation with others.
Zuzu’s own quest for memories does serve as a decent backbone for the story being told, but there is one tale told along the way that can better justify the tedium of glorified delivery work. Zuzu will encounter a character early on laying on the ground, this woman unable to remember much of anything and whose voice sounds like sorrowful sighs. Things look pretty hopeless for this stranger, but Zuzu makes it their mission to help them remember and recover, and the slowly growing relationship between the two starts to add something with real heart to the adventure. Rather than this being another whimsical or strange character to acquire items for, this stranger adds a focus on emotional support and her progress isn’t totally straightforward either, making for Zuzu’s reaction to her highs and lows more interesting. Without this character, Skaramazuzu might have felt like a cute but hollow experience overall, but the check-ins on someone whose tale is progressing through your actions gives you something meaningful to follow between toiling away at moving items around to get Orb Keys.
THE VERDICT: Despite its sorrowful appearance, Skaramazuzu can feel like a rather bright game thanks to its quirky characters and Zuzu’s upbeat attitude. The atmosphere doesn’t totally clash because the subject matter is still about being stuck in Limbo and the protagonist’s lost memories, and there are a few characters who have sadder tales. One character in particular contributes heavily to the game’s story having some emotional resonance, but sadly, most other characters exist to overexplain the items they need as you engage in mindless trading sequences or puzzles that you barely need to consider to solve. You can finish Skaramazuzu in a few hours so you can push through to see how the story goes, but it’s not going to be strong enough to make the empty item trading worth doing ultimately.
And so, I give Skaramazuzu for PC…
A BAD rating. The little compelling tale of that stranger Zuzu tries to nurse back to normalcy really does a lot to make this game not feel like thankless work. The hand drawn art has some satisfyingly fluid animation at times and the backgrounds would have worked well for something moodier, but it’s hard to appreciate the world when you’re constantly walking back and forth just to hand items to people. Even without the journal it’s always a bit too obvious what you need to do save for that one moment where you encounter the repeated puzzle format for the first time. Characters are far too forthcoming with hints, which is a shame because there are inventory items that wouldn’t have been so straightforward in use with more red herrings in play or possible alternatives to actually make you stop and think about what to try. The personalities of the shadows you meet do help serve as a small salve to how often the game is just about bringing items to the right people, although they’re more often lightly amusing rather than layered or particularly memorable. The cast could have worked well enough in an adventure that was asking you to pick up on clues or think outside of the box, but Skaramazuzu’s activities don’t really feel like they’re trying too hard to be enjoyed on their own merits. They’re a means of getting to the next part of Zuzu’s story mostly, and even his tale seems to be a bit slow, the presence of the stranger he helps really key to giving you something to get invested in that progresses at a more reliable rate.
Skaramazuzu ends up surprisingly dull despite the life its often friendly or unusual characters bring to the affair. It can’t hide how empty its busy work is since interactions are often quick chats and even Zuzu’s adorable observations aren’t plentiful enough to serve as a motivation to see what you’re doing next. Its easy design means it isn’t hard to just keep plugging along doing as your told, but it doesn’t quite hit the level of a glorified visual novel because of all the walking back and forth involved in interacting with people. Skaramazuzu doesn’t just need more agency and time to figure things out to be a better adventure game, it needs its story to keep your interest to motivate you to keep going, and the small successes it had in doing that still aren’t strong enough to make playing through Skaramazuzu fulfilling.