Masters of Anima is an excellent RPG/RTS hybid. A lot of companies have tried to pull of what Anima does very well and to be honest it's done it excellently, to the point where I can find no faults with the gameplay. The story is excellent and the whole game is voiced, something that AAA titles are missing with all their cash floating around during development.

I highly recommend this game if you like RTS gameplay and RPG gameplay. The battles are glorious and the unit selection is quite good as well. I'm playing on Normal atm and it always feels like I'm kept on my toes.

Edit: Just finished the game, found most secrets. Getting more Anima orbs as a mechanic as well as additional health really assisted but the end of the game was doable definitely without getting any of those. Mighta been a bit harder with less anima orbs though. 10/10 RTS/RPG from me and I wish there were more games like this out there, cause this was FANTASTIC. Will definitely be going back through level select to find the other secrets.

If you're not into exploration, you're probably not going to enjoy this game. The levels are large , checkpoints are far & inbetween, and playtime is long, depending on how thorough you want to be looking for the collectable upgrades.

The game has no quick-save option, mini-map, or controllable camera. It's a minor annoyance, but I've played adventure games that lack the same features like this, and that didn't stop me from enjoying the game.

As far as the bad stuff goes, that's about the worst of it. However, in addition to what's mentioned above, units will sometimes get stuck on objects within the environment, and their pathfinding is a bit dodgy from time to time. Furthermore, the range on your staff is detrimentally short and should definitely be extended to make issuing orders less of a chore.

Beside the issues previously stated, the game is great and very fun. As clunky as the combat is, the battles are challenging and enjoyable. A lot of the exploration is mixed with environmental puzzle solving; some of which are pretty creative. The story is cheesy, but everything else the game has going for it more than makes up for its shortcomings.

I definitely recommend picking this one up on sale rather than full price.

What is Masters of Anima ?

Ever heard of games like Overlord or Pikmin ? Masters of anima is like those games, here you play as a mage that can control up to 4 different types of units which you can create an army from, the game has a nice artstyle, its voice acted and theres an interesting story playing in the background, for a cheap indie game its polished with good production values, the gameplay overall if you watched the preview videos are self explanatory, for most part its well-done and the game manages to stay interesting in the first half to grab your attention and entertain you with different and well-balanced enemy encounters, collectibles to find and puzzles to solve.

Thats until the second half, what I didnt address in the first paragraph was how crappy the controls were, especially on controller which is what I was using, its not that better on keyboard either because its how the game was designed in how you command the units that serve you in combat, another problem are the puzzles, they become annoying to deal with, having to stay behind walls so you dont die to some environmental hazard or stay in a specific place to clean an obstacle with a magical aura is just boring, the enemy encounters became much more unbalanced, they overstay their welcome and most of them are full of bullet sponge enemies which was fine to deal with initially but the controls were already an annoyance and then as you find new and harder enemies and you try to position the units strategically through the map the problems of the controls become more noticeable and it becomes an obstacle of its own, its a huge shame because I was having a good time with this game but the more I played the “fun” I was having faded away, I lost interest and just dropped the game with no desire to continue, the quality just fell pretty hard and because of that I can’t recommend it, the game doesn't deserve a recommendation at all.

A competent, Enjoyable and well built adventure game ... but its bland story and setting detract from an otherwise enjoyable experience.


Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qEYLf-NnEY

Text:
Let start with the good, because a lot of this game is good - its game design, while linear provides a steady progression with decent challenge as you go through the various levels, mobs, "puzzles" and obstacles, increasing in difficulty as you go forward.

Also unlocking and learning the usage of your different summons is interesting and the range of summons and their various uses, as well as buffs and skills allow you to customize your experience a fair bit yo your preferred gameplay style. This is all pretty decent overall, with smooth flow across levels and allows you to play - up to an extent - in your preferred way.

This also translates to smooth visuals, that while not amazing or stunning do feel unique enough in terms of enemies, animations and diversity on display.

Further, the sound and voice acting is pretty decent and it runs overall like a dream at 60+ fps at all times.

....that said, i'm bored to bits by the setting and story. This is my biggest gripe with the title overall.

This game gives me a feeling of overlord, or other games where you summon minions and command them - and while from a mechanics standpoints, that is VERY true - from the world and story it all feels bland and flat. You're running around with your automatons fighting other automatons controlled by the generic evil overlord while your protagonist is a bumbling baboon that wins the day.

Its devoid of energy, originality or depth... which is a Damn shame as the game is pretty damn good overal.

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Just a quick summary as I'm only nearly 2 hours in.

Pros:
- Really nice art style.
- The game runs great (130+ fps @ 1440p).
- Gameplay is fun.
- Rewards exploration.
- Voice acting is pretty good.
- Neat skill progression tree.
- Story is intriguing, although not mind blowing.

Cons (but to a lesser extent):
- Controls take some getting used to (though I am playing with a controller as recommended).
- Puzzles are a little too easy.

I definitly intend to stick around for the rest of it.

Also reminds me a lot of two games, if those two games were actually on STEROIDS, they would be Masters of Anima. Remember Locke's Quest? Or even better, Heroes of Mana for the DS? They are both games where you play as a summoner, in the first you conjure all manners of scrap golems to do your bidding, and the whole game revolves around that mechanic, in Heroes of Mana, well... it's the same concept except a little less interesting. In my opinion, Masters of Anima is the best actual game that gets it completely and utterly PERFECT.

You play as Otto, a shaper; individual with great power that can use his staff to conjure "Guardians", nether creatures bound to the staff and 'shaped' (rightly so) to do Otto's bidding. As another shaper, Zahr, conjures his own Golems to take over the world, he sundered Anna's soul (Otto's fiancée, and also one of the best shapers around), turning her into fragments of her former self. Otto is then sent on a quest to return Anna to her former self, as well as foil Zahr's plan... Otto's got quite the special gift, the gift of Shaping.

The gameplay, although looking like a piece of cake at first, becomes more and more difficult as you advance through the story! There are ten stages, each with a special mechanic related to them... I loved every single bit of every single level. In the desert, you're tasked to collect pearls for Hakim, the flying merchant... In the forest, you can straight up take control of another character, the Nymph Maya etc... It's all never-ending fun. Otto, while moving at a snail's pace outside of combat, can summon up to five kinds of golems; Guardians, which are the melee, very easy paper-cut units that die in one shot but are great cover for ranged golems, Archers (no need to explain), Keepers that can drain the enemy golem's of their Anima, Commandoes who encourage your other golems to do more damage and finally Summoners, which basically are the most broken and they can summon their own "moppets" that explode upon contact. In combat, the Micro kicks in and sometimes it gets too overwhelming trying to commandeer all your shaped troops into doing specific things! At first, you'll get a lot of B ranks in combat, but worry not, after you repeat certain levels for a certain amount of times, you'll figure it out and you'll be getting S ranks in no time. The trick here is to use your keybindings to micro units in combat. Also, depending on how well you did, Otto gains experience in each level and there is a skilltree to upgrade, skills to unlock for both Otto and his units. I swear, this game concept doesn't get any better than this.

The voice-acting is also quite nice, with some very over-the-top moments that will definitely make you at least giggle... Let's just say Otto is not the smarest guy in the bunch! He's like that wannabe hero from Orcs Must Die lol Also graphics are to die for, and the sounds Otto's units make while affected by Otto's battlecry are also so satisfying (especially the BOW CHAOS sound after you motivate like... 30 archers to do the exploding arrow attack all at once, PRICELESS)

I guess you already know what score this game should be... a 10/10 experience and as I'm reaching the end with all my levels on S rank in the highest difficult... I can't help but wonder... Will this ever have a sequel?? I'd buy it so fast, like... A nyan cat on crack

🔵 Decent action RTS game
🔵 Very good artstyle
🔵 Full controller support for being an RTS game
🔵 Flexible level up system. You can reset and allocate how many times you want
🔵 Story is decent with good VO

🔴 Newly summoned units don't automatically attack nearest enemy
🔴 Controls are super cluncky when trying to control multiple guardians
🔴 Puzzles are easy but there's too many of them which can be unfun

It's okay but suffers from the main part of the game being clunky.

Pros:
- Looks good
- The voice acting is good enough although it can get very repetative in places
- The music is good
- It's an interesting concept

Cons:
- Fairly short game
- Limited replay value
- The puzzles are very basic
- The combat is very clunky even with a controller

While the combat is so clunky I can't recommend this as it is a frustrating experience at times and given that it is at least 50% of the game it should be fun.

Really refreshing game design with good challenges. Art style and voice-overs are excellent, definitely a game done with love. Well done, Passtech Games. Thanks for this gem.

For the full review you can click HERE[wp.me]
Masters of Anima, developed by Passtech Games and produced by Focus Home Interactive, is likely one of the few Pikmin style games on PC that I’m aware of. I’ve read comparisons to Overlord and Diablo, but in my eyes it is a fantasy battle game using the Pikmin RTS style of gameplay as its core battle setup.It is not like Overlord because it isn’t as puzzly, the main character is not as involved in direct combat, its significantly less quirky, there are far fewer environmental obstacles, and it has substantially less heavy graphics involved. The comparison to Diablo is also not applicable because nothing about the gameplay plays like Diablo other than the isometric viewpoint and clicking on things. I’m quite surprised how it manages to pull off the fantasy combat with Pikmin mechanics. For those either used to Pikmin or complete newcomers to the genre, it’s going to take a bit of practice regardless. Perhaps RTS veterans will breeze through this game, but it has a slightly higher learning curve than I expected. That said, the challenge is always doable. I personally was discouraged several times when playing, but once I figured out a method of strategy, I’d knock down several bosses in a row. That said, I’m still pretty bad at it with only a handful of S or A ranked battles. Masters of Anima is not overly complex and definitely has a slimmed down RTS feel to it compared to say a Warhammer game. RTS fans may think it’s too simple in it’s setup, but it very much holds true to that Pikmin game style while being surprisingly harder to beat than you may think it is.The secret that Masters of Anima hides is that it does a deviously clever job of looking inconspicuous, but once you start fighting you find an utter maelstrom of RTS management at a fairly rapid pace. I loved it and kept kicking myself when I failed because it was always my own fault, not the game’s fault. If you like games where you micromanage your fighters against bosses while keeping an eye on resources from depleting in real time, this is a game worth checking out.

The main focus of Masters of Anima is on the quick paced RTS combat. While traversing the game world, you won’t encounter any actual enemies other than environmental hazards. Instead, once you find an enemy you’ll be locked into a battle arena with nothing but your Guardian soldiers to fight with and a fairly useless magical staff. Every combat situation is a boss, whether it be a mini-boss or a main one. You obtain soldiers by creating them with the Anima orbs you collect. Once they exist, they’ll follow you like a little herd of lost puppies. The creation of your fighters is done in real time on the field of battle as well as when you are walking in the game world, so it’s best to have an army of soliders pre-made and ready to go before walking into strange areas. You can select them as a group, or pick out small sections to perform individual tasks both on and off the battlefield. You are a micro-manager trying to win the day and strategically have free reign to figure out options, it’s sweet as hell.

There are five classes of Guardian soldiers unlocked through the course of the game, with the last one being around the halfway mark. Protectors are your primary infantry soldier and keep bosses busy with melee attacks. There are also Sentinels that work as archers for your main offense, Keepers who drain the Anima from bosses and provide some health, Commanders which are larger infantry that work as a battle-cry area extender, and Summoners that create their own little infantry soldiers. It’s up to you to micro-manage how many of each unit to make, their position, and when to place them in an area. All this happens with seconds ticking on the clock because if you don’t begin to damage your boss quickly, you will be attacked by incoming lava and lightning strikes on top of the boss attacks.

It sounds simple, right? It is not at all simple. In the few RTS games I’ve played, I’ve got some time to maneuver and watch how a battle unfolds to make some momentary decisions.This is not the case with Masters of Anima, it’s substantially faster where your Guardians are under a constant barrage of damage within seconds of the battle. You must make your flanks and get into position right away, then plan to move them every five seconds in order to dodge an incoming attack. Selecting them is what gets tricky because you often have to select one group at a time and it becomes a dance of moving the right ones at the right time while your hands communicate with your brain in a giant multi-tasking combat frenzy.

Move your archers here, then oh-no they are about to all be destroyed and I have to move them, but I selected the wrong ones and now I moved my healers and all my archers are dead. Sigh, and now I have half the Anima I had before and dammit now all my healers are dead too. Often I’d attack with my Protectors first and figure out a flanking method, moving my priority Guardians as quickly as possible to avoid getting them squished by the much larger Golem bosses. Sometimes, it’s a simple attack rotation. Other bosses break up into smaller bosses so that you have to work in micro-groups of Guardians, or the boss attacks so fast you have to change out your Guardians to trap the boss while you figure out a strategy on the fly with a buffer of expendable Guardians. You can attack with Otto as well, which works okay a bit early on but eventually Otto takes too much damage when doing this and the amount of damage he actually makes against a boss is pretty dismal. I use Otto to attack as a last resort for the most part.

The AI is adequate and not overly complex. It’s the design of the boss attacks and the pace of the gameplay that keep it tense because you look at it and realize it’s totally doable, just that moving the right guy at the right time can be a tough challenge. You earn every battle in this game. The combat durations are quite short, but can potentially take an hour because either you can do it or you can’t. Thankfully, you don’t lose anything when you die or it would be rage quit city. As far as I can tell, there is no level of difficulty to select, it’s just a bit hard and there is nothing you can do about it. If you don’t enjoy RTS games, this game is fairly easy to maneuver in and get the hang of in a sort of a beginner RTS manner, just that it is not easy to win every battle and you have to keep a cool temperament if possible.

This is the hardest Pikmin game I’ve ever played, seriously. Masters of Anima is a fast paced RTS that is not a casual experience, yet is perfectly beatable and balanced well enough that some potentially curious newcomers will be able to pick it up. The difficulty might be a drawback, and I say that as nicely as I can. Casual players will get frustrated with the controls and methodology while strategic gameplay lovers will feel right at home, even if the mechanics are not as complex as most RTS games. It’s the beauty of the Pikmin style of selecting your group of little soldiers on the fly and quickly adjusting to battle circumstances that make this game stand out. While it is not Overlord, and some folks may be disappointed that it is not as similar as they expected, it is very comfortable in the hands of Pikmin vets, making it a wonderfully entertaining fantasy battle game using those very same mechanics. I enjoyed it, even if it kicked my butt, and give it a Save at it’s current price. You could definitely wait for a sale if you don’t know anything about Pikmin, but if you have a middling interest in RTS then add it to your wish-list at the very least.

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