Anima: Gate of Memories is an action RPG created by Anima project, an indie studio formed by just three people and published by BadlandIndie. Available for PS4, Xbox one and PC. It is a great example of how a simple yet good idea can be brought to life in a deep interesting game.
The game starts of pretty abruptly with you playing as a girl known simply as the bearer who is sent to recover a stolen artefact that was taken from the order of Nathanial. Stolen by her mentor called the red lady events suddenly take a turn for the worse when you are sent to some strange tower that does not exist in any definite reality. In this tower she is told in order to stop cataclysmic events a series of creatures called messengers must be destroyed. But, she is not alone as she has her trusty talking book. Well, when I say book, I mean a sealed being of immense power known as Ergo Mundus. Not much is known about either characters as the bearer has forgotten her name due to her binding contract with Ergo. Ergo may be the malevolent fusing of a thousand souls, some kind of higher demon from a different plane of existence or just a god but what he clearly is, is a bastard of the highest calibre. Ergo Mundus no more no less. If this basic premise sounds interesting enough to you already then you will be enthralled as the story continues to unfold giving more depth to the characters and hitting you with plenty of twists that will make your head hurt. How the story is delivered is fairly effective too with the game only giving the information to you in a direct manner when you need it and not slowing the progress your making in the game. Also with the reports and how the memories gathered in each area are used to give you a lot more information about everything in the game it allows you to continue at your own pace and not miss anything enhancing to the experience. But It does slow the pace occasionally as the dialogue does not auto continue meaning that you have to constantly click a button otherwise the conversation stops. This I could understand if it was just text however with all the lines being delivered via voice acting it seems very un-necessary.
Being an RPG the basic level progression can be expected with an arbitrary increase in stats however the choice comes with each level more in the skill tree with each character. When levelling you are assigned two points to spend to work your way along a skill tree unlocking skills and passive abilities. These can then be mapped to your character’s basic attack control layout and can also be mapped in a way that changes them when a combo is active which makes it easier to create really fantastic sets of moves to obliterate enemies in your way. Not only this but you have control of two characters which can be switched in and out fairly instantaneously during a battle allowing you to create even deadlier combos. I honestly did not find a lot of the more powerful moves any more effective than just using the basic move sets. But, on the lucky occasion I did use one of these higher level moves – boy did the enemies around feel like flimsy bits of paper. Also, if you are still struggling there are a variety of weapons and accessories that can be found to boost your character’s stats and consumable items to temporally give yourself an edge. Very handy for those boss fights you may struggle against. The game also does a brilliant job of keeping the gameplay exciting as you will also encounter numerous puzzles that you will have to solve in order to progress or get extra goodies. These are ranging from basic platform based tasks to picking information given through-out the game in order to open other areas. The bosses for each area are incredibly well done as besides for having their own interesting story and individual attack style they also feel like the end of the level due to how incorporated they are. This gives a real feeling of completeness to each area you visit
The voice acting is done tremendously well with ergo mundus’s character being truly fleshed out with his arrogant boastful voice and the nameless one’s cold mocking tones. Which is not the only brilliant sound, as the soundtracks match the varying landscapes that you will see through-out your adventure. The visual look also matches its style with its rough animated aesthetic lending both well to the darker un-friendlier areas and the beautiful brighter levels.
Overall the game is great, probably one of the best indie games I have played in a while to me personally, with its great look which is not perfect by any means which may actually add to its rough around the edges aesthetic charm. This coupled with its unique, interesting and deep story which also combines fun and interesting gameplay with its open ended narrative makes it definitely one of those gaming experiences I personally will not forget. If you are a fan of action RPG’s whose focus is more on the story and interesting gameplay then the grind for the levelling then this is a game definitely for you, just got to go find me a talking book.
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