Anima: Gate of Memories

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)

It took a looong time to download this 5 GB monster (with plain browser - still no GOG galaxy for Linux). But in the end, it was worth the money: Linux surely has some "AAA" titles like Tomb Raider, but many of the best only with DRM (mostly Steam). So I gave my money for the DRM free version on GOG and it runs flawlessly on my pretty plain Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with a mid range RX460 graphics card (4GB) and open source AMD drivers (AMDGPU) on 3440x1440. It's fast and fluent, but this is no big surprise as the graphics are just a fraction of titles like "Near Automata" - sometimes I miss more details. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the gamma setting and there are quite some places that are so dark you can hardly see anything. And even in "easy" mode, the game is quite hard to master - nothing for casual gamers. Good game for Linux but I wished there were more details / objects / characters. Hope to see more of such games DRM free for Linux.

So... we got a mix of Devil May Cry and Dark Souls in a beautiful and colorful fantasy setting? Sign me up! This is the kind of game I've been waiting for. So I bought it, downloaded it... and was surprised but happy that it even has a Linux port! (So no WINE needed and less bugs... awesome!) After installing it I immediately noticed the first (minor) flaw: It's a straight console port and in menus/etc. it often only shows the xbox button you have to press and since the button mapping dialog at the start is really confusing to me (I never owned an xbox so I don't quite know e.g. the difference between l/r trigger and button). But after trying every key on my keyboard in each menu I've mostly figured it out. So I started the game and played some hours... and some more hours because I simply couldn't stop! If you are looking for a challenging fast-paced combat game with some actually really decent riddles, you can stop searching because you finally found it. The characters are pretty single-sided however. At least they are as far as I played which is immediately after the first boss you can choose, what brings me to a feature in the game I really like: It's very open! The terrains are big enough for you to approach enemies from different angles which is helpful for some skills. Sadly though my last critique point (which is also the reason why I've never played beyond the first boss): The game (or at least the linux version) is extremely unstable. And the cutscene after the first boss is even a point where it ALWAYS crashes. I can even reload (it saved that I've defeated him), shows me a certain sign (no spoiler) and then it crashes again. This is really sad because beside that the game is almost perfect. So final sentence: Buy it! But you will most likely enjoy it more on console.

I have been playing this game off and on for a good number of years now. There are games like Darksiders and the Nier series that are better sure, but it has it's charm. Though if the battles weren't enough of a pain, the platforming definitely is. There is a section of the game that is very dark and they added precision platforming that you have to do in order to reach the next area. Then there's a stealth section that drove me nuts. The game wants to be other games, which is a real problem. It becomes a frustrating mess that you either waste the day trying to complete, or you just end up installing it to play something that is far less of a hassle. Also, this is not the Arcane Edition which includes The Nameless Chronicles. Why that isn't up here instead, I don't have the slightest idea.