One of the best true indie on the market
Presentation
Three people with little experience but very ambitious. This is the key to this game, indie to the core, but with potential that are lacking in many modern triple-A.
A mixture of Devil May Cry in Oriental style with a particularly inspired art department (which resembles a sort of renaissance clergy with fantasy elements), the RPG elements with a deep enough tree full of possibilities and abilities a non-linear narrative that involves the player at the right point.
This is Anima Gate of Memories, an indie I've found for pure and simple case as I tried to find something between offers and new releases of gog game to add to the long list that each player has, but that will not stop filling.
Wandering desperately looking for an indie that was not in pixel art / 2D Anima Gate of Memories has come as a ray of light but clearly is not everything that glitters is gold. But we discover that even if the surface is plated, the heart is still solid gold.
Defects
I think the save checkpoint system is not the best thing ever made, since it slow the loading screen (and there are lots of loading screen in this game). I think that a xml/json serialization would be better instead of unity3d default PlayerPrefs.
Speaking of defects is useless to hide that the visual impact of the game is not the best. It's like going back to the times of the ps2-ps3. The game still hold up thanks to an inspired artistic direction.
Dubbing (yes in this game there is also a dubbing, which in fact was not necessary due to the small team) is closer to that of Deus ex 1 rather than a well-dubbing ... but I must admit that I personally have a soft spot for this type of voiceovers (which are often hilarious).
Defects end here, but if after this you think this game is not worth to be played first read the merits.
Merits
What I expected was a simple hack & slash style game, with a third person camera, short but not too short (a 15 h game), what instead has personally given me have been so many hours of pure fun (I think 30h).
The fights are actually pure hack & slash, but you control two characters, you can customize your combo through a special menu, with weapons and useful items that can completely change the fate of a game.
But let’s start from the beginning with the choice of the difficulty in which the classic Easy and Normal levels are present, but Hard mode is not present , it is at this point that I slingshots on the Normal difficulty thinking that usually these games were too simple ... I was wrong.
Anima Gate of Memories is tremendously difficult, but it is also tremendously balanced and is never frustrating except when it must be.
It is difficult to understand what they managed to do the guys of Anima Project, that created a game that constantly breaks down the player, but at the same time takes his hand in a slow but inexorable process of learning that ends up making sufficiently strong player to continue without reducing the sense of satisfaction for defeating a very complex enemy.
Even the optional and harder boss of the whole game is not unbeatable, even he fell after a dozen attempts, even he with the right strategy and learning his pattern has been defeated.
Combining fine objects, movements and combos each opponent will have dead moments or weaknesses that can be exploited at the right moment to strike and win.
But Anima is not only fighting is also narrative, a mystery that will take you to explore the entire game to the smallest detail, overcoming intricate platforming puzzles and defeating many mini-boss in the most wacky situations. Anima got a nonlinear narrative that give to the player enormous freedom to move within the various "levels" of the game.
Soon you will have to collect pieces of memory that will tell you about life of those who then must defeat to continue and that will add to the intricate puzzle parts of the initial mystery.
Few are the constraints that are put in front, if you are strong enough you may well unlock 2 ending at the beginning of the game. If you are not careful to find clues you might end up in a worst ending. You may also decide to bend to your destiny by unlocking a bad ending. Or go all the way by unlocking the true ending.
You can move freely assuming that you have unlocked the seals necessary to continue and to face before the enemies of your choice without necessarily find yourself locked into an unstoppable force (it is actually possible to defeat many bosses even at very low levels).
As a real RPG is capable of making the player decide which way to go, both for the fighting, and for storytelling. As a true Action is able to put in front of boss imposing able to put a strain on the nerves of the player, but always rewarding those who adopt the best strategy (which varies depending on the enemy we are fighting). As a true Platform studying puzzles that can only be overcome by understanding the right path.
A hybrid which is not only the sum of its parts, supports and enhances all of its components.
conclusions
If you want a true indie (made from only 3 people with very little experience and without a name) of particularly high quality, with a balanced difficulty and with an eye for those who want quality and innovation, this is your title.
And is also a fairly inexpensive one (the base price is 20€), as well as being cross-platform (with a Windows version, Mac, PS4 and an incoming Linux).
Side note for those who hate to play with gamepad, controls are explained at the beginning of the game in the tutorial for both gamepad and keyboard after that they are only displayed as icons for gamepad, but they can be viewed and edited in the menu key assignments at any time.
Having played the entire game with mouse and keyboard I can say that play with such input is very convenient. The controls are really designed beautifully.
Besides, the frame rate of the game has a very good stability.
My final vote is a 9.5 / 10, and I absolutely recommend it, even if you do not like the genre it might be fun to try something different and particularly rare between indie and also between the recent triple A, particularly on computers (where this genre it is rarer than on console)
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