Review - EN

[thetargos]

First off, it is amazing the effort put behind this game. It shows it kind of renders homage (and a darn good one) to the action-aventure-slice-'em-up RPG genre, usually found in high profile franchises such as classic titles, initially exclusive of consoles, like some platformes of yesteryears such as Castlevania (and the poem it is Symphony of the Night), Ninja Gaiden, and others that evolved the genre like Devil May Cry, Dark Souls, God of War itself, Bayoneta or Dante's Inferno, amongst many, many others.

To those adepts to this genre, usually inequivocally tied to consoles (Sony's house being the most famos, but the genre first appeared in the venerable NES/Famicom), Anima: Gate of Memories is a refreshing game on the PC (even though other classic titles are now available, such as DMC4), and even more merit because it is an independent title, that in some aspects even suprases franchises with multimillion budgets.

The good:

• The script. We could say that other than venerable excepstions (CSoN), this aspect of the genre is not its forte. Even titles such as God of War, where the script in the first missions does not answer quite many questions about the hero Kratos and what is he doing, to then convolute and turn around almost 360° towards the end, where it shows how the script evolved during productioin. In Anima, though, from the begining it shows there was a plan and the degree of complexity of complexity of the story is unraveled and twisted as the player discoers the memory fragments of the Mesengers and the conversations with other characters. In this regard the games does show consistency and coherency.
  
• Visually the game is rather consistent and coherent and each "world" or region has its own asthetic style, well defined and consistent (something even games from well known sutdios can fail). Despite the use of Unity as its engine (which has more than a couple of issues on its own), the develpers present a polished product, consistent, well balanced and even though I had no access to previous versions (I bought it only three weeks ago, and already have logged 50+ hours on it), I do believe the team did tame the beast that is Unity and in that regard the game has excellent performance on the two systems I have played it on, both with nVidia graphics: My laptop (ASUS RoG GL552J) and my desktop, one with an MSI GTX 760 OC 4 GiB and the ASUS GTX 950m 4 GiB, that are a far cry from high end by today's standards. The "cartoony" style (CellShading) goes very well with the general aesthetics and particularily in scenes of characters close ups.
  
• Music and sound effects. Without taking into account the voice acting... The music and the sound effects of the different aural elements fit perfectly and are rather "imperceptible", in other words, when you notice that something does not fit, it shows, adn in this regard, everything fits with the rest for a very pleasant experience. If at all, in my very particular point of view the only place where it fails is beyond the Autum portal... From the sound effects of the attacks, of the moving elements (doors, foot steps, traps, monsters, etc), it all fits quite well. The music requires its own mention, to my liking is quite good and fits very well the different areas and environmnents (with the noted exception)...
  
• Controls. Despite my frist impressions, the control scheme is escellent, and I finished the game using three types of controllers: Xbox 360 (both wired and wireless), Dual Shock 4 and a Steam Controller. With them all the controls are snappy to your input, it certain takes time to achieve the tempo required to chain attacks in combos and deal more damage. The more exotic combinations of mixed attacks of the Bearer with Ergo are quite difficult, with one sole exceptions, the controls are really good in my opinion and deffinitely you get the most out of the game with a controller. The Dual Shock 4 is a blast in this game.
  
• Game Mechanics. To me it is well polished, on par with titles such as DMC or Bayonett, and way more complex than God of War, where you could practically finish the entire game using but a single "combo". The more elaborate combinations of elements require you to know how the attacks link between characters to yield the best results. Those real fans fo the genere would have no issues with that, I suppose. Evasion and the "stamina" system to fight, run and jump, adds a bit of strategic elements not foreign to the genre. The sections with fixed perspective (the all too well known and hated by many top-down view), personally I felt comfortable with and felt just like games with fixed perspective like Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark series (I to III) and even some sections of DMCs. In the levels of Nightmare City I really liked the 2.5D (besides the level design).
  
• Level design. They're good in general, the only set of levels that felt a bit tedious was the puppet mansion, not because the level design was bad as such, but due to the "need" to run up and down the mansion entering several times the same rooms over and over in order to get all memory fragments, but I guess that was the purpose. The puzzle elements in this section were very good, and if anything I regert they were not used in other sections. However, I reckon, that gives this sections a certain air of uniqueness. Having into account the origins of the genre, I do believe that they rendered a true homage very well achieved to the old platformer games, particularily Castlevania. Alas, I've sen this aspect severly criticized, but personally, I liked it. A lot. Maybe I'm a stubborn masochist without a life, I tried some levels more times than some of the hardest battles.
  
• Enemies. As you would expect, each environment has its own set of enemies, that vary from the "grunts" to mini-bosses and some special monsters, that not bein unique (like the Nexus) are harder to beat and usually require a bit more strategy and combos to finish 'em faster. The variety of monsters is good, nothing extraodinaire, however, it delivers and forces (inspires9 the player to be creative at gameplay.
  
• Ability tree. To me is a point that separates this games from others in the genre and brings it closer to Symphony of the Night. The RPG element is quite strong. For each experience level, you get two ability points that you can use to unlock or strenghthen abilities, which, could also work as linked abilities between the Bearer and Ergo to make even more efficient joint combat.

Sadly not everything is good news and merry melodies, as it might seem by the lines above. There are some negative points , none, in my opinion of major consequences, or that forced me to drop the game.

The bad:

• Unity, as much as I praise that the team had submitted the bast, it is equally bad... Personally I had the good luck of not having any major issue with Unity in my game throughs. However, the fact that there are multimple reports of bad performance (in systems more than capable of running the game), inexplicable freezes or sudden crashes is not good, not good at all. It breakes the game experience.
  
• Poor quality control over the texts Particularily obvious in the memory fragments and some conversations with other characters, this fact leaves manifest that attention to these details failed, and kind of breakes the spell the immense achievement Anima is in itself. In particular I'm talking about the fact that what you hear is not what is written.
  
• Voice Acting. Although my personal opinion, that as there is a visual asthetic style, there is an aural aesthetic style, and it seems to me that the acting "fits" the general mood and theme, it certainly feels a bit flat, "plain". I insist, in my personal opinion it fits like in games such as DMC, and in a way, I feel it as yet another way to render homage...
  
• Control map. Before I mentioned that the controls are quite good, except a notable mention, which at first was cause of irrtation from my part: The Y "axis" on the D-pad is reversed. Nothing critcal, but again, the Devil is in the details and there are details like these in a title with such merit as this... You'd truly wish that everything was exceptional.
  
• My only grupe about the asthetics and design in the game I have to give it to the Autum portal... Is the only level in which nothing fits... The music has an oriental tune to it, the ambiance is apparently hindi, but with blatant mesoamerican precolombian elements... It caused me a cultural short-cut, but I'm Mexican and these things jump on sight (particularily the Aztec Sun in the floor and the pilars in shape of skulls).

In every review as in life, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I loved the game, it seems incredible to me what a dedicated team of only THREE guys can come up with in terms of what makes a game such as this and when we see that usually titles such as these require literally legions of people, I think it is commendable. Not only have you managed to present a fun to play game, which poses a challenge, with solid foundation and it shows that was made by true frans and lovers of the genre. I still have to unlock the other endings, however I had the ending from episode VI and I'm on pause from my masochist chore in the battle Vs Nameless, third part (counting as first the ending of the tutorial).

[thetargos]

PS: Steam review system chops the posts due to excessive character count

[AnimaProjectStudio]

Thanks for your words. For real. The 3 of us are really glad to know that you enjoyed the game and this is your opinion. ^_^
Oh, please, since it is so long, post a link in the review section of Steam. It would be great to be able to read it from there somehow.

[yarow12]

Wait, there were only three developers? o.O
Impressive.

[AnimaProjectStudio]

Yes, we are 3 people; one programmer, a graphic artist and a writer / game / level designer.