Written By: Patrick Orquia
Title: Anima: Gate of Memories (Arcane Edition)
Developer: Anima Project
Publisher: Badland Games
Genre: action-adventure, fighting, RPG
Number of Players: 1
Release Date: 19 June 2018
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $29.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam, XB1
Anima: Gate of Memories is an action adventure game with RPG elements that is combat-heavy but also focused in exploration. In the game, you control two characters, the Bearer of Calamities and Ergo, at the same (you can switch between them at a press of a button). In this review, I will not get too much into story elements, because the story of this game is very convoluted to begin with (but lot and lots of documents in text form can be read and can bring light to who they are), but I will talk about more about the gameplay.
The gameplay is very similar to that found in Devil May Cry games and the spiritual sequel of that franchise, Bayonetta, albeit not as polished in looks and definitely not as frenetic. Since you control two characters, male and female, you get to use two different skill sets, but not really too different from one another. In fact, thy mostly have the same fight moves and powers and movements, like just one character with two interchangeable skins. Although this is the case, the two has separate skill trees and can be equipped with different weapons and accessories and special moves. Characters level up by fighting enemies, and enemies are plenty. Some are slow-moving, melee-only enemies, but there are some that fight from a distance, shooting arrows or energy fireballs and whatnot. You can dodge these attacks or initiate contact by unleashing attack assaults from afar. Like in Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, there are instances when a certain room or area gets locked out and you won’t be able to proceed until you have defeated all of the enemies. And also, enemies drop experience points and health/MP orbs, thus encouraging you to engage them more.
Although this game doesn’t look as good as those aforementioned games, it still has a lot to offer. Because of how the story is presented, exploring areas and trying to figure out where to go next can get very tedious at times but finally figuring out something is like an achievement and makes you continue further. Along the way, you will encounter a whole lot of different mysterious NPCs with questionable allegiances. Some provide a little bit of context to the story but leave you wondering whether they are friends or foe or neutral. Others try to push you to the direction of where you have to go next but not really explaining how to get there. You may also find some artifacts called memories which tell stories about certain characters that you don’t meet but are still somehow essential to the story. And all these scenes are fully voice acted, and they sound really well-done.
Yes, if there is really something that needs the highest of praises in this game is the very extensive voice acting work. Even the stuff that you wouldn’t think must be narrated has voice acting in them. Too bad, you would just probably be skipping them, but at least, kudos to the developers for this aspect. I guess voice acting is much easier to do than animating characters in cut scenes.
There are numerous cut scenes in the game that would either make the narrative clearer or not, depending on your attention span. In these cut scenes, the characters mostly just stay static except for their clothes swaying a bit, with no emotional changes and no mouth movements, like in the RPGs of old. But again, they are fully voice acted, so somehow you’ll get the message. It may be annoying for a game such as this to lack cut scene animation but somehow, this style works in the game.
Overall, this game has grand aspirations. Although it didn’t turn out as polished as one would hope for, still, this game has lots of stuff in store. If you are a fan of action adventure games with lots of combat, you would probably like this game. Maybe not as much as Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, but still, it has its really awesome moments. Also, this Arcane Edition of the game includes a whole other campaign called The Nameless Chronicles. In this campaign, you play as the Nameless, one character that you’ll encounter early in the game and would be encountered again later on, in his own side of the grand narrative. It plays almost just the same as Gate of Memories, but it is encouraged to play that campaign first before the Nameless Chronicles, as you will definitely get spoilers. But if you just want to go ahead and kick some demon ass and don’t mind the story at all, go ahead and try them both at the same time, if you want. Either way, you will probably like it, to a varying degree from other people, but hey, it doesn’t cost too much and at only around 6 gigabytes in size but with this much content, Anima: Gate of Memories (Arcane Edition) is a good buy.
REPLAY VALUE: high
PROS
- Excellent visuals, level design, and voice acting
- The gameplay is reminiscent of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry games, albeit not as polished
- Cut scenes have full voice acting, although the characters on the screen are static. It works in the game and somehow matches the art and narrative style
- The game has an open-world map cut into sections and the characters can go back and forth between sections at any point in the game
- Has separate skill trees for each of the characters
- Awesome musical score
- Challenging boss fights
- Has a good enemy variation
- Solid and steady framerate throughout the game, with very little hiccups
- Good price point for its length and content
CONS
- Has a very convoluted story, which makes it harder to know what to do and where to go to next
- Most of the story elements, if you really want to know them, are hidden away in texts
- The movements of characters look rigid, both in ordinary exploration and in combat
- Platforming sections can become extra frustrating because of the rigid movements and awkward camera angles (the camera can moved around so this somehow alleviates this issue a bit)
- The gameplay can get a bit too repetitive after some time
- The difficulty level suddenly goes up early in the game, which could be infuriating and with the confusing narrative, could discourage players to continue playing
- The mini-map on the screen is too faint against the usually dark background and offers very little info
- There is no option to remember sections that were visited last in the menu, forcing you to press buttons several times just to check the map or any other menu elements
- Quite long loading times when going from one section to another
RATING: 3.5/4 demons and calamities
No comments:
Post a Comment