Anima: Gate of Memories

Anima: Gate of Memories
N/A
Metacritic
68
Steam
64.479
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$4.99
Release date
2 June 2016
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
68 (523 votes)

A third-person action RPG that brings to life the world of Gaia from the Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG table-top books. Explore a deep and multifaceted story where your choices and actions directly impact the journey and decide the fate of the characters.

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Anima: Gate of Memories system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP
  • Processor: Dual Core processor
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Compatible with DirectX9 with 512 MB RAM or better (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850 )
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 6 GB available space
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Marcus Awesome
Marcus Awesome

With decent: voice acting, despite sometimes with the voices being over the top, great game play, story, skill system, and graphics, this is a very cool game that has its own beauty in many ways.

Sordos
Sordos

Nice setting & characters, too bad the platforming parts can AND will ruin the game.

Overclocked
Overclocked

Control's are horrible and the monster's seem to have you locked on at all time's. Too many projectile's for my liking, Although for an indie game I do have to give it some credit, graphic's are good and gameplay is fairly decent. If you want to test your bullet dodging survival skill's, by all mean's.

rinks361
rinks361

The camera is spinning nonstop so the game is unplayable.

Whaat
Whaat

decent JRPG. Plays like a devil may cry, but feels more like a TALES game. Only problem with is is the lighting. Some parts are just so dark, you can't see them if you keep your monitor in front of a window (like most people do).

dwxsy
dwxsy

Great soundtrack!
The combat is hard but the experience is rewarding, and it's interesting to experiment the combinations of skills.
There are also many well-hidden elements, and several different endings, making the replay worthwhile.
I totally enjoy this game.

Translucently Opaque
Translucently Opaque

It's not that this game is absolutely horrible. It's just that it's merely okay in almost all aspects. The graphics are alright, but not amazing. The story is pretty basic, and the characters just aren't interesting or developed. The mechanics aren't ground-breaking. You have your typical twitchy action combat, a few special abilities, and your skill tree where you learn new techniques and gain passives. Very standard.

The voice acting, however, is pretty poor quality. The actors simply don't have much emotion or character. Additionally, I didn't personally appreciate the costume design. I'm all for motifs, such as making the manipulative evil female character very sexualized to symbolize her devious nature. That type of fan service is almost unavoidable. However, when every female is some hyper-sexualized figure, it just feels cheap. The game should be selling a great plot, or great mechanics, not sex.

The tooltips did not update keyboard commands, and the camera was wonky. If you aren't using a controller, you might as well not bother. The translation to PC was very poor.

Overall, a mediocre game with nothing new to keep me interested past a few hours. I likely won't be finishing it, and I'm not convinced it was worth the money.

Ish1da
Ish1da

The story and the overall setting was very nice. Sadly, I could not get over the obnoxious combat system. It just didn't feel balanced at all. The last boss fights really showcased the lackluster gameplay in combat.

Despite my issues with the combat system, I sure hope they make another game with an improved combat system.

Ash
Ash

This game isn't horrible (at least so far as I played) but it wasn't very good either.
It started promising enough, and when the bad voice acting kicked in it seemed like the type of "so bad its funny". I was on board with that.
The character felt a little clunky but was still decent, animations were nice. The skill tree looked pretty in depth, and the two avatars you could choose between was a fun twist.

But for me the biggest problem to me was the enemy design. I didn't play for all that long, but in the time I did the vast majority of fight design was just projectile spamming.
Some of it would happen from off screen and far away, and the tell for closer enemies firing was very poorly done.
I suffered through this for a while before giving up, it just wasn't fun to get shot at from range all the time instead of close combat that would have been fun. I didn't want a bullet hell, I wanted an indie Devil May Cry.

bullbountampa
bullbountampa

very steep learning curve that will infuriate all but the most die hard of platform jumpers and button mashers. There is very little guidance as to what you need to do and even less guidance about how to promote the story line.

Cold
Cold

I was really optmistic about this game, sadly it disappointed me. I mean i like the idea of the game, but there are many issues that make it unplayable. First problem is the camera (at least with a controller, dunno about Mouse&Keyboard). As soon as you're in a fight and try to attack enemys without auto-aim that are behind you, your camera looks either at the ground or at the sky. In a few words: You get no feeling for the camera. The second issue for me (personally) is that as soon as you are in a certain area the camera is in aerial perspective which means you cannot really tell if your dodging right, which can cause trouble. The last problem in my opinion again is not really something that is bad about the gameplay, but it just doesn't feel right: The cutscenes. You have player models with either open or closed mouth standing still. That is something why I didn't care about the story. I just can't take it seriously if there is no tension. There was some potential because of the voice actors, but come on the game was made in 2016 you can make at least a cutscene that shows someone moving and not only pictures.

All in all the worst problem still is the camera. I don't recommend this game, but i can't stop you after all so if you're still interested you can try it out yourself and form an opinion about it.

RODDYGINGER
RODDYGINGER

It's a decent game by all accounts, it's got pretty decent game mechanics with the combat system, progression system and switching characters which the game utilizes really well.

Boss fights I found got quite intense and exhilarating at most times, there was just one I found to be total nuisance

The voice acting is hilariously bad and cutscenes 99% of the time have the 3D models static, which is very weird expecially when they are talking while their mouth stays open and doesn't move :P

The objective once you reach the main hub is to basically go behind a door, find 3 of 5 memory fragments, most of the time 4 of them are very easy to find and then you crunch a boss and then go to another door. There is an order of sorts by which to go through the doors and it's on the floor infront of each door labelled one through 3 on the first floor and so on, on the second floor :P

I've only encountered one bug, I stood on a step weirdly and then launched into the air that's it really.

The story I found quite interesting and you find out how the bosses became the monsters they were through their memory fragments but it was all held back by that voice acting, music was great though imo

Easley Nightroad (アイゼン)
Easley Nightro…

It's a difficult game. It's not much like Devil May Cry or Castlevania. But it's good enough to play. It has good dark story. Well optimized. Consistently haunting soundtrack. Varied gameplay mixing different genres results in a unique, challenging experience. And also there are a few cons, but it doesn't matter. The only important thing is that game is good.

jbnath.nath86
jbnath.nath86

Graphic quality : 9/10
Art Style: 10/10
Story: 9/10
Pacing of story: 8.5/10
Character emotional development: 9/10
Customization: 9/10
Ability to modify game with ease: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Smooth transition between story and gameplay sequences: 9/10
Good Ending/Few loose ends: 9/10
Difficulty of game: 9/10
Voice Acting quality: 9/10
Music soundtrack: 8/10
Background noises: 8/10

Adiaille
Adiaille

Seemed like it could have been an interesting game. However, the first real fight showed how poor the camera was controllable. The boss will blink away and you'll have this top down view that was horrid. Made the fight much more difficult that it should have been.

timwaagh
timwaagh

this game is a bit difficult. it seems easy at first, but then you get a more difficult section where i could not get through. i do not play games just to get stuck so i cannot recommend unless you are more hardcore. the gfx are really nice though and they did a great job porting to linux.

Boop
Boop

If you have a strange fetish for guys who overly dramatically call you "Baby", then play this game.

Dacoo
Dacoo

I'd been interested in trying the game for a while, as I'm a big Devil May Cry fan.

I can now say that it really isn't much like Devil May Cry at all. It feels more like a 3D platformer, but with a significant action element. However, this works very much in it's favor.

Honestly, Anima has it's share of problems. The platforming is a little wonky (gravity and air acceleration are wierd, but you get used to it). The voice acting is not horrible, but on the bad side. The start of the game throws way too much lore at you, and really is boring (to the point that I nearly quit within the first hour).

But...this game is very much it's own great game. If you can get past hour 1, there is tons to love. I think that the way the world is arranged is truly genius. You get dropped in a large, metroidvania-like world. You have no clue where you are or what you should do. You just start exploring. You eventually discover that there are different "levels", although they interconnect, and you have to find items containing the histories of the various enemies. This introduces a strong element of exploration. The individual stories are very interesting, too. I can easily look past the many flaws in the game as I enjoy the structure of the game. I've played a lot of games, and tend to be critical. The world/map is one of the very best I've ever seen.

The strong RPG elements with many types of equipment and leveling options also add a lot to keep the game interesting. The combat is a bit tedious at the beginning, but as you get further in the game, enemies get more interesting. Beyond the normal enemies, the boss fights are a whole lot of fun and are the portion of the game that is most similar to Devil May Cry.

Anyway, I wholly recommend this game, especially when it is on sale, which happens regularly.

Дядя Богдан
Дядя Богдан

Just wanted to write something positive. Definetly worth playing, the only things i found weird:
- console optimised controls
- easy difficulcy level isn't really easy, so you can't play in "story mode"

onion
onion

What I'd expect from a game like this is fluid and varied combat.

What you get in this is a disappointingly clunky combat experience. The variety is there, with a lot of options of air and ground attacks, and evasive maneuvers eeventually unlocked from behind RPG level-ups. Regardless, the random oddly-forced stationary camera angles that appear, disjointed movements and inability to interrupt most enemy attacks once they begin their animation is an odd choice.

Essentially, the constant optimal strategy is to run away and constantly fire projectiles. Having an optimal strategy that overrules all other combat styles in a game is obviously a negative. Besides this, it feels more like a 3D platformer with a character that prefers vertical jumps while covering the least possible horizontal distance... a distancing issue which goes hand in hand with how impractically far the characters dash away during an evade, which limits your options for a counter-attack to one of two buttons, or hoping your enemy takes the passing of a season to react to anything.

The story so far is passable but it's been undisguised exposition dumps of a lot of proper nouns and the voice acting is jarring. It borders on hilarious (for the wrong reasons). Each of the zones that come after a loading screen have unique designs but internally, they're repetitive and difficult to navigate.

I've spent two and a half hours on this game so far, and I don't think I'll be coming back to it any time soon. And it seemed so promising.

y u kik me?
y u kik me?

A really good game. Dind't really expect much from it after I started but I'm glad I didn't drop this game until the end.

Graphics: Pretty great! Especially the environments. Love the designs. The whole aesthetic of the game is well made. 10/10

Boss battles: Epic! Out of everything there is for me to love in this game. It's the boss battles. The arena and the AI are very well made. The only boss that really made me rage was the optional boss though. That was an epic boss fight. 10/10

Characters: Pretty good. The best ones for me are probably Malekith and Ergo. 10/10

Voice acting: Ughhh.... This... Is a bit difficult. I'm not saying it's all bad but I'm not saying it's all good either. The voice actings were pretty much a hit or miss for me. Some were executed perfectly, some were overexaggerated, some felt like it was lacking. Especially Ergo, at times I'm scraping my ear to make sure if i heard it right, however it's not all bad. Like I said a hit and a miss. 6/10

Puzzles: Not much to say really it was pretty good. Some easy ones and some difficult ones in the mix as well. I'm not really a puzzles person though I like it doesn't mean I'm gonna get out of my way to find one. 8/10

Platform: Well this is the last thing I expected from this game honestly. It was a nice surprise to be sure and probably most of my rage came from platforming. 9/10

Plot: Kinda expected some parts of it but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Especially the lore of the bosses and history. Well done. 9/10

jefegrijander
jefegrijander

Loved the game. Story, characters (

Lupine Horror
Lupine Horror

I've had this game sitting in my library for a long time, and I've done the prologue a couple times over, but just the other day I played through it all from start to finish, ALL of it, not just through to final boss and done, and I have absolutely blooming loved it!

Okay, so there's a lot of bits of it that are quite predictable story-wise, and the gameplay has these odd difficulty spikes here and there (going from stupidly easy to how the hell do I do this!?) but overall, I am somewhat regretting never actually having played this through before!

The levels themselves, and the 'mooks' are simple to beat, and you will mow through them with ease, but the bosses and mini-bosses are where the challenge is. Some of the mini-bosses, I found, were even harder than the actual bosses! There's the occasional point where the game will throw you something a little special, like with level design, or a one-off mechanic, but mostly it's an ARPG that reminds me a smidgen of Devil May Cry... the first one.

My only true complaint with this game is that it's not longer... it's quite possible to complete this in 15 hours or so, even for someone like me who isn't some sort of gaming prodigy. I have two of the endings now (even if steam won't give me the achievements for it!) and I am actually motivated to get the other three, and beyond that this is a game I WILL 100% complete.

Sevati
Sevati

The difficulty is beyond brutal on some of the fights. I don't mind the platformer stuff, but there are some timing and AI issues, imho.

If you're a hardcore gamer, don't mind dying 20 or 30 times or more on a fight even when you know the mechanics, and not a casual then maybe this is a game for you.

Ashen One
Ashen One

I really wanted to like this game, but the dodge is the clunkiest dodge I've seen in a game and there's only one ground combo and one air combo. The jokes feel really really forced. Like the reading Ergo joke (reading rainbow reference) that was funny at first but dragged on for far too long and lost it's charm. If I'm honest the game has unique charm and character, it's just a shame the gameplay is so...clunky and wrong. I know it's not a AAA title and I fully understand that. I'm not expecting Devil May Cry. But I've played character action games with one dev that had much better flowing combat. Another issue is the bugs. My favorite being that after a couple hours of gameplay and progression my camera was stuck spinning and random buttons were being pressed. I couldn't even make it to a save point to save. So there goes all that, because no auto save system.

I do want to quickly say, I see the appeal and I can definitely see people liking this game. I just can't.

Mayaaa
Mayaaa

Definitely has problems but I'm really really enjoying it. It's pretty hard so stock the fuck out of healing items but I've enjoyed my time so far. Not very long though, as far as I know there's a tutorial dungeon then 5 dungeons then a final dungeon and I'm done with the first 4 dungeons so I'm almost done. Get it on sale and it's a great deal. Full price and it's still pretty good. The voice acting is god awful and there's typos but the music is superb so please just ignore the voices and love it for what it is but don't expect an AAA title it was made by 3 people after all

Lavatein
Lavatein

This game's ambition far exceeds its capabilities but it makes it amazing to experience.

Raptor85
Raptor85

It's functional but the combat is pretty bland, and goes between way too easy and being forced to play it safe and take absoultely forever on one fight (be prepared to have your attacks interrupted a LOT),the story is just a long chain of cliche's stolen straight from other games, and the dialog is beyond annoying (it's just a bunch of semi-rapey talk from the book mixed with terrible references and jokes all the time). It want's to be Nier badly but fails on every aspect.

soulmanco
soulmanco

super buen juego y una trama espectacular 100% recomendado prro

mhenryblack
mhenryblack

So.... Hell Yeah!

Very cool game, especially at the price being asked for the series... I just wanted to share a few quick thoughts about this title.

Everything seems done quite well... Hack and Slash combat with a very mobile character, not quite as polished as a title like Bayonetta, but playing in the same ballpark. As far as the overall "state" of the game, you could say that it would be top-notch, last Gen. The goal of the programmers is evidently not hyper-realism, instead an ethereal vibe fitting to the low-rent high fantasy was the target. A good amount of verticality and visual appeal in the linear maps, some platforming, nice scenery round out a game clearly focused on telling a story... while delivering a combat centered experience.

Character models are gorgeous, Female and Male... this is, after all, escapism, are we here to gaze upon the average? I think not.

I am going to give a lightly annotated list of games which this game shares similarites, I am not stating infuence or homage, though I am sure some exists.

DMC4 - Scenery/combat
Bayonetta - Scenery/combat
Castlevania: Lords of shadow series - Scenery/combat

There are others, but please allow the take away to be that this game is a story based, linear, hack and slash... A genre that in my opinion should recieve more attention in general. I just cannot understand a world where 80 million people play fortnite and a game like this remains relatively obscure... I guess i am weird.

Full price is well worth it, but if you see this game on sale, and like the games* i mentioned above, grab it.

*Keep in mind that this is a title with a much smaller budget, so it does not outshine any of those games, but it does have all the same parts, it works quite well, runs great and is very enjoyable.

Mr. No_Effs_Given
Mr. No_Effs_Given

Unfortunately, i cannot recommend Anima: Gate of Memories. I played through the end to to get my money's worth, since the problems started to show up after 2 hours into it. The game starts fine but slowly turns into a drag. The rpg aspect is pretty barebones, with some weapons and artifacts that give you a boost on combat and defense, respectively. There is also a skill tree and consumables to help you. The story is ok, nothing much to write about it. On the bosses side, 90% of them consists of spellcaster spammers, which makes you want to break your controller or keyboard. The soundtrack is great though, so no complaints there. If you still interested, wait for a very good sale.

WingedKagouti
WingedKagouti

I'm certain this game is for someone, but I am not part of that group nor can I think of anyone I'd recommend it to.

While the basic part of the controls such as movement and button responsiveness works well, the platforming is bland and the combat feels very uninspired even if there is an attempt at putting some depth into it. And a big part of that is the combo system which is not well done compared to the competition (even if you only look at budget titles). The only interesting enemies are the bosses and mini-bosses, the rest are forgettable annoyances at best.

Then there's the weapons and artifacts. There's a ton of weapons and you can dual wield! Sounds awesome, right? Until you realize that weapons are merely stat boosts and don't provide new movesets. Same with the artifacts, pure stat boosts that at most also provide a minor buff like bonus xp or money.

But what truly makes me not want to complete the game is the story, characters and voice acting. There are interesting ideas there, but the execution is just poor. I can play through a mediocre game if the story is compelling and a bad game if the story is told well and the characters are interesting. But a subpar game with a badly told story? Not a chance.

Tyrone Biggums
Tyrone Biggums

this game is fairly decent story is whatever but the game play and the bosses were fun id recommend it for the price its very good

<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>
<™[-=> C…

Anima is a JRPG based on the Anima series. Originally, Anima was a card game played designed by Anima Studio and Carlos B. García Aparício. You play as Bearer, a female knight of the Order of Nathaniel, an ancient order dedicated to protecting the world in secret. You are accompanied by an ancient being called Ergo, who was sealed in the Book of the Void hundreds of years ago. A traitor to the Order of Nathaniel named the Lady in Red has stolen an artifact called the Byblos and intends to bring about the end of the world by fulfilling the prophecies written in Byblos. The objective of the game is to complete the campaign and stop the events written in Byblos.

Gameplay-wise, R for Assault, E for Beam, F for Powerup, WASD for movement, Spacebar for Jump, Shift to Dodge/Recover, LMB for melee attack, RMB to switch between Ergo and Bearer. I changed the key bindings as they were actually pretty horrible to work with.

The missions revolve around killing Messengers. In order to kill them, you have to first collect at least 3 Memories of the Messenger. Use the Memories to unlock the path to the Messenger and kill him. The more Messengers you kill, the more locations will unveil themselves to you. The Anima world is extremely incoherent. You start in a Tower and enter different worlds that don't make sense. The incoherent storytelling is horrendous.

The Kapal Messenger. Use Bearer to kill white holy enemies and Ergo to kill black dark enemies. Then do weird jumping and logic puzzles to unlock Memories.

The Nascal Messenger. Kill marionettes. Lots of them. Remember to put out their flames before melee. Solve word combination locks with clues from the Memories you collected.

The Druaga Messenger. Boss does not match the Memories story at all. Boss fight was easily understandable since I didn't skip the dialogue.

The Malekith, City of Nightmares, Messenger. Interesting concept. The boss fight was confusing but I enjoyed it. Mostly visual effects but nice.

The Nameless. interesting but most of the attacks are repeats from earlier bosses.

Conclusion, wait till I finish the game. This is definitely not a polished game but given the ultra tiny budget and team of 3, eh.

Note: Developed by Badland Indie and Cipher Studio's Kai Nesbit. The entire budget was $110,964 (2013).

PROS

1. Missiles Can Counter Other Missiles
I love how the Beams can cancel out enemy beams.

2. Nascal Memories
I liked how you had to read the lore to figure out clues to unlock the word dials.

3. Puzzle Solving
Enjoyed it

CONS

1. Lots of Reusing or Similarities with Other Japanese Games
Resident Evil Opera, Castlevania design. Either they copied Anima or Anima copied them. Some non-Japanese similarities are like the Darksiders 2 gate.

2. Hard to Navigate the Arcane
Yes, I have a map, but it's 2D. It doesn't show the overall schematic of the Arcane.

3. Graphics Are Really Bad
For a game released in 2016, you have aged models from 2000.

4. Incoherent Game Worldbuilding
It's like Smash Up, the card game. Sci-fi robots with puppets. Open plains in the middle of the tower. Mansions that appear from somewhere and are miraculously connected to the tower. It's like the game designer picked ideas from thin air and just loosely tied them to the main story. Ah, we have a mansion. Why is it here? Reasons. We enter a realm that is actually on the back of giant turtle (doesn't even look it). Why? Reasons.

5. Ergo and Bearer's Skills are Copies/Mirrors of Each Other
Like literal copies. This is boring. Both of their skill systems are the same.

6. You can't Rush up a Flight of Stairs
Tilt the floor at an angle and dashing will crash stop into the first step.

7. The Glare from the Shrine of Seasons
WTF? Who does your lighting? Sunlight sources all around. The whole screen is white.

8. Air Dodge is Dumb
You just crash downwards.

9. Falling Off
OMG... If falling off was game over, I would have game overed at least 100 times.

10. Abilities Don't Gel
Let's say you learn Light Holocaust. You can cast Light Holocaust while on the ground but the moment you jump into the air to cast it, it reverts to Energy Beam. The same issue occurs with Energy Cutter.

11. The Emptiness of Folklore Plains
Seriously. So big and you run so slow.

12. Air Attacks are not the Same as Ground Attacks
Why? Why can't you just jump and use the ability? Why do you need a jump version?

NEUTRAL

1. The Intro Looks Like the Microsoft Xbox Games Intro
The black and white ink combining.

2. Hydra Boss
Eh. Intro was exciting then the boss fight on the bridge was eh.

SUGGESTIONS

1. Separate Inventory into Weapons, Artifacts, Items
You already named them as such.

2. Ergo for Close Physical Combat, Bearer for Ranged Magic Combat
That should be the case, right?

3. Dodging Buttons
Press Shift, you do a cartwheel then you start running. Very silly. Instead use natural actions to dodge, like Left Left to dodge right and Right Right to dodge right. That way you can allow Shift to do its job and run. Don't put all the actions on 1 button.

4. Run Speed Increase 2x
Yea, you need to sell an item that increases run speed by 2x. It's way too slow in the Folklore Plains.

Kelakhai
Kelakhai

Before reading this review consider that I didn't finish the game, and probably never will.
Just beaten the first (Well I suppose it was the first) boss.

I won't go over what's good and what's less good, I've seen plenty of review talking about it.

What made me stop playing was
(1) The unbeatable boss, Kappel. And before you say it, yes I know there might be a trick (I don't know and don't want to look for it) to it but I except some hint from the games I play.
(2) The answers to the coded paintings. As I searched through and through, analyzing the 10 letters provided by each 8 letters to find out where to put "Naberius" that was all other some seals found there. I decided (with shame, because I felt like having failed to something) to look a solution on the net. And guess what ? There was no feeling of "Oh, shit, of course stupid me, I missed that !" feeling. Just a plain "WTF was that ?" of never heard or seen codes.

So, the game has some good feels. In some fightings, some dialogues and story (I still want to know the end but I won't work for it). I'm amazed to know that it was a really small team that built it up, the soundtrack is real nice and all.

I think that in that kind of action game you should use more time in, say, *action* than in just looking for the way you should go. I'm aware that I miss a great deal of the game but if it's for more unkillable bosses or unfindable clues, thanks but no thanks.

Smoldymort
Smoldymort

This game is great, so underrated. It's like the lovechild of Darksiders and Devil May Cry, the story is rich, the gameplay is fun, and each character is unique and, well.... has character!
Sure it's a little rough around the edges, it's a game that could've benefited from more funding and a larger development team, and the voice acting does sound a little off at times, but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the game!

kuzma_x
kuzma_x

Great game! Like graphics and tight controls. Like the sexy main character, and the story is top notch, battles are engaging. Obviously is not AAA game, but is excellent for what it is.

Shadowsniper232
Shadowsniper232

I just recently started play this game because of the sale and I have to say I'm very impressed with the world building and combat. I definitely will be continuing this game fully and I've already bought the prequel to play through once I am done with this game. I would highly recommend this game.

Zio Topomouse
Zio Topomouse

While this game was clearly created on a low budget, it is clear that they put a lot of effort in it.
The combat may feel a bit clunky at times, but the two characters mechanic was interesting.
But most of all, the story was very good and drove forward the whole game.

Psienix
Psienix

I had fun with this game. The production value could have been better. I enjoyed the story. The combat was pretty good to. There are a lot of games I regret buying. This isn't one of them. Even if it is a little rough around the edges in some spots. I see enough potential in this dev. I would love to see more from them.

7/10

elma
elma

I don't really like puzzle games. Same for platform. Can't say i like dark themed 2d side scrolling games either. However this game has the right dose of them, without being too boring or overwhelming (but you will probably google some things still),but enough to keep my attention. It's not brainless grind. For an indie game that was based on a tabletop game i think this was made quite nicely. Now running my second playthrough.
At some point i climbed into the sky, then fell into a hill (under the terrain), found myself outside of the map... fortunately in the end i walked into the portal from the -other- side. Would do it again.

Specter
Specter

Brilliant Game would not recommend to most people because it does get pretty challenging and part of the fun is dying a bunch until you find exploits in the enemy defense. I recommend it if you are looking for a challenge and dont mind dying a lot

Buster Highman
Buster Highman

This is a very hesitant and with asterisks down thumb I am giving this game, as it is clear the devs put a lot of effort into this and the game does have a lot of positives to it. The best TL:DR I can use to summarize it though is that it is a poor man's Devil May Cry.

- The gameplay has plenty of good ideas to it. You have the two characters that can swap on the fly, upgrade and equip separately to build them as you desire. A common valid complaint is that a good portion of their moveset is pretty much the same which hurts the uniqueness of both. The way they handle is passable, though it definitely could be tighter movement wise, especially when jumping. The game has a free exploration element to it as you explore where the majority of the game takes place and fight bosses in whichever order you choose, so it definitely doesn't hold your hand.

- Each area lets you explore and learn about the lives of the respective boss for that region and the stories behind each of them are actually quite interesting. The unfortunate caveat is that you learn about them mostly via picking up titular "memories" that just put up a bunch of lore text to read with a voiceover. As far as I can tell, you cannot access these later either through the menu so it is very possible to accidentally miss it. (this especially hurts where one of the regions' puzzles is based upon said lore)

- I appreciate the addition of voice acting in any game, the performances in this game are meh though.

- My biggest issue with this game was the CAMERA. Now in these types of games, I just roll my eyes when people exaggerate about cameras and say it's like "fighting the camera as much as the boss". Sadly this is a case where I would not be rolling my eyes at that statement. Simply put, it's not good and you will feel that it costs you damage at some point. This especially stings as the bosses are no slouch as they already are.

Final thoughts, this game has a good look and aesthetic to it with a lot of good ideas and love put into it, just falls a tad short on the execution of some of those ideas. The price is definitely a big help especially if you can get it on sale (like I did), but if you've got an itch for this type of game and money isn't an issue than another option (Ex: Devil May Cry) is the way to go.

🦜Cloud Boy🦜
🦜Cloud Boy🦜

Anima: Gate of Memories is better than many AAA games i played. Its metroidvania style level designs, and the mysterious environment (and story) is amazing. I don't know why the game is so underrated. May be the fighting elements didn't trigger with the audience.

m0uthlessbob | мазафаке
m0uthlessbob |…

bullshit
i cant play with my gamepad
tnx Anima Project faggots

khermerker
khermerker

this game is really trash ... i dont know why play it before cause now im regreting bought the second part... so for where start.. cause there are a lot of thing... well ost is fine .. if were a cd of songs could have my upvote but for a game is bad made in all parts.

It is easy make a hard game, make a fair challange is hard.. and this make a hard game not a challenging one.. starting for the camera, really why is the worst camera ever.. be for the jumps, or fights.. the boss are the typical spammers where the damage is really umbalanced that or evade just not work as it should.. a lot of times i got combo by a boss and see my hp going down a lot.... after kill each boss i feel more relieve that i will NOT fight it again and not the achivement of do a hard thing.. cause really each boss fight i only see they should stop make games....

Scott Pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim

LOVE THIS GAME SO FAR. buy if you like a challenge. ok im 10 hours in and just WOW. how did i not know about this game it is a hidden gem to say the least. i love how its challenging and everything about it is charming. This game will give you a challenge so go in knowing that. i love the character models and the visuals the most. the gameplay and mechanics are really fun. very similar to Nier and Bayonetta with a hint of dark souls. a must own for anyone who enjoys a challenge along with great story/characters

Elec-VERSE!
Elec-VERSE!

character kept clipping through the floor forcing me to restart constantly and the game froze as soon as i unlocked ergo. Really disappointed This game was up my alley. hoping to get a refund.

BurnR
BurnR

Pros:
- Decent story
Cons:
- Fighting is extrenely repetitive
- Graphical gliches (Some big black square appear randomly in the middle of "cinematics")
- Cinematics are still images with voice over

Conclusion:
- Game feals unfinished, will play some more to get a better feedback but I cannot recommend at the moment.

keirt
keirt

This is good indie Action-Adventure Hack & Slash game with freedom of Open World element for you to choose where you want to go first and which Boss you want to fight first. Although marketed as Action-RPG this game only have tiny amount of RPG, other than grinding and leveling up to gain skill points (you got 2 points each level-up for each character, and XP/level are shared for both playable character, but skill-tree are different), and multiple ending that only depends on your choice at the very end of the story, there is no branching plot or choices before that point, beside that there is no other role playing element I see in this game.

The story is good and interesting but it progress at very slow pace at the beginning, you probably have no idea what happening, what you suppose to do, what is this, what is that, until you reach about 3-5 hours of playing, and the story will starting to get interesting after about 10 hours, this game could be completed in about 15-20 hours. One interesting feature in this game is the cutscene is presented in like a Visual Novel, static 3D models of characters with moving camera and voice over in background (no lip movement). There is some a little cringey and some bad jokes in dialogues delivered by Ergo Mundus the Jerk (the male playable character) that sometimes feels out of place and The Bearer (the female playable character) that shout "Shut Up!" too much.

For gameplay, it's similar to basic hack & slash games, but you don't have much freedom to juggles or how much combo you can do, it feature stamina bar (Ki) and magic bar (Mana) that share between character, so make use of them wisely to deliver the best combo. You can switch between character anytime you want, both didn't share same health bar, but if one of them hit 0 HP then it's game over.
Speaking of game over, there is no freedom of manual save, there is only one place that you can do manual save in entire game, the autosave is triggered for each room/dungeon transition.
This game also feature some platforming and environmental puzzle, not hard but since camera can't pointed fully vertical, some of the are a bit difficult to do.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that the Bosses battle in this game is very fun and enjoyable to play (can also be translated as tricky and difficult). And the final bosses for good & bad ending is very satisfying, I really really love it.

For "How much I like this game" score, I give 4/5 (I like it) - The beginning part is not enough for good first impression, but I keep playing and found this game enjoyable.

Callipos
Callipos

It's a 3d spectacle fighter and platformer. You have two characters that you can switch on the fly and they both have skill trees that you upgrade. It has big and small levels, nothing huge. No open world busy work, just some secrets and items to collect. There are boss fights too. The story is fine although some of the writing is a bit childish in my opinion. There are several endings and NG+ too. I later learned this is a kickstarter game and it was developed by 3 people in total. Still, it is a very good game.

Hex: Pallet Eater
Hex: Pallet Eater

First off: I need an option between "yes" and "no" when recommending a game. Most games are a definite yes or no. This game is a "read the reviews to decide and buy when on sale" situation.

I don't have a lot of time in game. Bought it on sale. I will probably play this game every once in a while, but I'm not fully engaged. It's not a bad game so far but I have a few things to mention.

1) The running animation of the main character is terrible. This is a game where you run around a lot. It is very annoying.

2) Combat is pretty good. You have several moves, a couple energy bars to manage and you fight groups of enemies one, three or more at a time. You can combo these moves in a very natural way. I enjoy it.

3) So far has a fairly linear story with decent sized maps. On my last logout, I had explored the current zone without any idea how to progress to the next area. I'm sure I will *eventually* find it next time i play.... But a linear game with a map really needs *go here next* on the map.

Yuxkta
Yuxkta

TL;DR: This is a fun game with some enjoyable boss fights, good platforming and passable story. It is a bit confusing at first, but game opens up after the first stage in tower. I think it is worth its money, and I'd reccomend you to give it a try. It was developed by 3 people and I think they did great with what they had.

I can't remember how I encountered this game, but it has been sitting in my wishlist for quite a while. I decided to give it a try eventually. I was kind of scared by the mixed reviews and didn't expect much of it at first. But boy, looking back after almost 16 hours many things sure have changed. This game has a charm of a game from PS2 era, like Castlevania Lament of Innocence, Raidou Kuzuhona or Devil May Cry 1, which made me quite nostalgic.

Anima is an action/hack and slash game with platforming and some puzzles. It is quite simillar to Darksiders series, only with less puzzles and with a different kind of platroming(you jump from platforms to platforms instead of climbing walls). Player takes control of 2 characters, a girl called Bearer of Calamities and a demon called Ergo Mundus. Their combos and fighting style seem very familiar at first, but using the skill tree you can modify them and in the end you'll probably have 2 very distinct characters. If you are spoiled by Devil May Cry and Bayonetta like me, you might find the lack of combos a bit disappointing at first. But Anima is not about being stylish. Normal monsters are mostly designed well, and are fun to fight(other than mannequins but there are few of them). This game truly shines in boss fights. They all are distinct, have fun to evade attacks and overall feel amazing to fight against. Though they are not perfect, I feel like they have too many HPs for their own good.

Platforming sections were also fun. The game is divided into stages and most of them have a gimmick of its own. In one of them you'll be searching the stage for certain passwords, in another you'll use the lights to escape from darkness. None of the sections are automatic, unlike many of today's games where you just jump and your character hold on to ledges. I found it as a breath of fresh air.

The story is quite simple, and the game has some world building. You learn only specific events about the history of the world, and they are mostly relevant to the story. However, to fight a boss you first need to find 3 of his memory scrolls(each have 5). Those were the best part of the story, I loved learning about the bosses as some of them had quite interesting backgrounds.

Soundtrack of the game is decent as well, however voice acting is on a thin line between being cringy and being funny. You can enjoy some moments in a similar vein such as "What is a man" or "fill your dark soul with light" moments from others games.

Characters are quite barebones. Bearer of Calamities is quite blank, but there's kind of a story reason for that . I hated Ergo at the beginning(he was quite a douchebag) but I found his quips throughout the game enjoyable.

The thing I adore about this game is, it was made by 3 people. I can feel so much passion pouring into this game. I respect them for going 3D as an indie developer unlike every other who make 8-16bit games(I love 16 bit games don't get me wrong but I feel like we're at a stage where we're getting too many of them). There were no glitches, bugs or shutting down. I had some slowdowns though, so it might not have the best optimization. As I said, this game reminded me of some good old PS2 games I loved and I found it a breath of fresh air since it's been ages since I played a game like this. It is quite cheap as well, and goes on sale. I'd reccomend you to try it yourself. It looks like there's also a sequel, which I plan to try.

ed10k399
ed10k399

Runs well with using...
Intel i7-4770k
Asus Z87 board
NVidia GTX 1080
Asus GSync 1440p 144Hz monitor
Corsair K95 Platinum keyboard
Logitech G900 wireless mouse

Combat against non-boss are boring. Evade is not really an evade which is my main problem (there is a pause at the end of the evade animation which is not logical because it is also the command for run).

Against Kappel, there isn't a way to win without taking damage because he spams multiple, very fast projectiles without pause which the player must force into it to give damage to Kappel. Many things are wrong with this game's combat especially when the enemies can stun lock or spam the player but the player cannot stun lock or spam the enemy (the player have two small meters for magic and physical stamina which effectively forces the player to pause combat).

Even the platformer sections are difficult because it's hard to judge depth with the weird camera.

I hope the devs are proud of their work because this will be the last time they'll be proud of anything. Unless you hate yourself or someone else, don't buy this game. Less than 500 reviews and a rating of not even 70% should at least hint you that.

TheElderThing
TheElderThing

Its a middle of the road type of game. Its not bad but also not great. Game could of used a bit more polish. Controls are not as tight as I would like. Some of the environments are lackluster. Also some of the bosses are way to hard and could use a rebalance. But yet it had a bunch of charm and I had a great time with it.

This three person team did a great job on their first outing and I cant wait to try out the next one.

Zhelurix
Zhelurix

There is definitely a challenge to be had with Anima: Gate of Memories. The bosses have more than enough moves to keep you on your toes. There is no type of knockback immunity and the enemies hold no punches when chaining attacks to annihilate you. But you also have an arsenal of different moves to chain together as you level up (max 20) throughout your journey to combat the badies of Anima. Now let's center your expectations really quick, this is not DMC or GoW. A combo is going to be at best maybe 7 hits from various attacks, then you're going to dodge. Become acquainted with dodge button and I hope your good with depth perception on top of fast paced battles. This is a story heavy game with plenty of dialogue in between still cutscenes to move the plot along. Now I am a merciful idiot as well but I laughed once or twice at the handful of media and game references in the dialogue from Ergo.

However, the challenge is sometimes in getting used to the controls and the enemies zooming around with the camera. There is also a level system here that you cannot completely unlock all portions of the skill tree available to you but does allow you to pick what kind of player you're going to be with plenty of moves to experiment with. You are allotted two characters to play with at any time and you can switch between them except for a few areas. The control schemes and moves are quite similar for both characters and only a few enemies require you to use a specific character to defeat them.

The story was interesting enough to keep you going through the different areas available for exploration on your journey. Anima requires some skill to master, I've read a lot of guides and forums suggesting to just magic blast your way through everything. Now me being an aggressive impatient gamer I was rewarded on occasion with some boss fights by allowing them no purchase what so ever and slapping them around maliciously. I got this game while it was discounted, but I believe it was worth 20$. This game is exceptional for being developed by 3 people in my opinion, I look forward to playing Anima the Nameless Chronicles soon.

For you achievement hunters, I used these guides to find all the items for the ultimate collector achievement that really helped me out along with the rest of the achievements.

https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Anima-Gate-of-Memories/walkthroug…

https://www.xboxachievements.com/forum/showthread.php?t=649736

tksm0218
tksm0218

I can not say this is an "action" game. It's a shooting game that makes us dodge projectiles and shoot the targets.
Melee battle is just a pain in this game because numerous enemies which are targeting us with projectiles from our back and side where we cannot see are always scattered and popping up randomly in the battle area. So we have to get them in our sight at least. If we do melee battle, we can't handle them technically.
And it's impossible to dodge all of them because there are no ways to sense the bunch of projectiles which have no sounds, and are invisible. So it's just a remember game just like bullet hell shooting games.

Hope this developer knows the difficulty is not equal to "impossible" or " annoying" when they develop a new game next time. And hope they know games need "fun" and "comfortability" not only "annoying".
Melekith was the worst boss I've ever seen for these 2 decades.
He was just only annoying. That's not difficult because his mechanism is really simple.
Just he often teleports randomly and hides himself in the dark that we can't see him. Makes many clones and shooting bunch of projectiles from back and side. And sometimes breaks the interface of controller.
Ergo often says "pain in the ass". This word is just for him.

Punished Faust
Punished Faust

The unholy lovechild of early character action games and Castlevania Portrait of Ruin.

Worth a play if you're into both of those.

Kind of taxing on a pc. I'm running a 2700x, 64gb of ram, and a vega 64 LC, and I'm ending up with 100% utilization on the GPU running ultra and the graphics look kind of like an early PS3 game.

I do enjoy this game and it's super fun, but I've gotten caught in a loop of sorts when playing in new game plus that isn't allowing me to continue.

Whatever.

Brass tacks,
This game probably isn't for you if you didn't like Demon's Souls, Devil May Cry, or Castlevania (most notably Portrait of Ruin).
It looks like an early PS3 game and there is literally no noticeable difference between running the game at medium and running the game at ultra, so save your pc some work and run the game on medium.
You kind of end up missing background information in the story if you don't go and use the manual save feature.
Great soundtrack if you're into melancholy ambiance and the one soprano 1 vocal track.

I like this game, but there is a solid chance you, the reader, might not. Just be fair. If you read the credits, you can see that like almost everything was done by one guy.

Zanza004
Zanza004

Unsure why the average rating is mixed. Great game

aegis_xx
aegis_xx

I have seen a bunch of mediocre reviews for this game, so I hesitated to buy it even though I am a big fan of the Anima tabletop RPG. Got it on sale and I must say, it is pretty good. Combat is challenging, you have a decent amount of choice on how to build and fight with your characters, and the graphics are pretty darned good for a 4 year old game. Two thumbs up!

GravityGem
GravityGem

Anima Gate of Memories is a hack n slash that takes inspiration from games like DMC yet fails on almost every regard. First and foremost the voice acting in this game is so bad that it might even be the worst i've ever heard period. The gameplay is clunky and doesn't flow well in the slightest making chaining moves or even approaching an enemy feel like a chore. Maybe once you get more levels put into other abilities then the gameplay might become engaging or even remotely enjoyable but im gonna bank on no. another thing is that the 2 stances you swap between play extremely similar and most of the abilities you unlock for one are unlockable on the other leaving no reason to swap until your low on health. The only thing this game really has going for it is solid visuals and it might have an alright storyline if it wasn't obstructed with abhorrent voices and poorly written dialog. I don't think this game is worth your time or your money and you should look elsewhere for something to sate your DMC cravings.

loader963
loader963

Not bad, but not great. Decent combat, story, and art style. But the combat could have felt a bit more polished in my opinion.

Dreadful QB!
Dreadful QB!

Devil May Cry Writ Small (and weeb): AND THAT IS OKAY

The action could be faster-paced, yes, but it's good enough, and the skill trees make sure there's an element of strategy to several encounters. The game has several endings and New Game Plus is an option, so those with a mind for it can see all the endings.

For those that didn't know, Anima is pretty much Spain's Dungeons and Dragons... one with even worse, insanely baroque rules, and with a Bible-Thumping setting that could use some editorial direction so players get in a more explicit, inequivocal way that the pseudo Christian nazi human empire are meant to be the bad guys. Still, coming from a publishing house that are an underdog option compared to DnD, I felt morally compelled to give this game my support and patronage... and boy, I'm glad I did.

So, yes, the game is reasonably more modest than dnd, but as you get deeper in the game you can see the world-building was an aunthentic work of love (as kitschy as it may be, and even with the Word Salad names staple of the 90s). The concept design is pretty nice, and I'm not saying that just because any fantasy tabletop RPG that doesn't go for "mud middle ages" is a breath of fresh air to me. The music is good enough that I'm surprised the soundtrack is not sold separately.

Long story short: Give this game a chance. Not only it's worthy on its own merit, you're supporting indie game devs and a DnD alternative, and doing so is a good cause in and of itself.

Elveone
Elveone

This game is the closest thing to a third person Symphony of the Night I've ever experienced. The graphics are basic and the basics of the combat are simple but the game has good boss encounters, lots of secrets, a great atmosphere and a really interesting story if you dig into it.

Gamer de esquerda
Gamer de esquerda

Unfortunately, this game is just too frustrating to continue. It's insanely hard, even on easy difficulty (I guess developers don't really understand what EASY means).
But the worst thing is it's not hard because of enemies or something like that. It's hard because the mechanics, camera and controls really suck. The camera will spin around a lot, making you miss enemies, not seeing them when you're surrounded and not being able to see properly on jump puzzles. Character will often not attack to the place where you wanted it to attack. You can lock on enemies, but most of the time it will be more trouble than help. Dodging also works very poorly

The story did seem mildly interesting, but the rest of the game is just so frustrating I stopped playing after the first boss.

Guntario
Guntario

I don't recommend this. I'm a pretty casual gamer, and when I play a game on the easy setting.... Call me crazy... But I expect it to be easy. There's even posts on the steam forums about this game being too hard on easy and the devs say that it's not supposed to be easy... even on easy. Stupid.

GC
GC

Fun but could have been much better. Also, very big similarities with the original NieR game, might as well call it a rip-off. Still a nice experience.

couturiervite
couturiervite

A female-led cross between Devil May Cry and Nier with a central hub inspired by Demon's Souls sounds so perfect on paper that it makes me feel personally attacked. Too bad Anima: Gate of Memories fails to achieve even a shred of its inspirational greatness.

For such a story driven game, the writing is dire; walls of word puke exposition kind of dire. Our protagonist, The Bearer, is the most basic of amnesiacs, lacking any real character outside of the frequently in-tandem trope of incurably optimistic. Ergo—her companion, trapped in a book (original character, do not steal)—has the personality of a high school freshman trying desperately hard to prove his masculinity to every other boy in the locker room. Rape jokes, infantilization (I die a little inside every time he calls The Bearer 'baby'), and unwarranted machismo are all he has to offer, significantly at odds with Anima's more somber, gothic tone.

The voice acting is... bad. Not bad in an endearing way, but just plain bad. Honestly, if there's one trend I wish would go away, it's this self-imposed obligation that every game HAS to have voice acting. If you can't afford a reasonably talented cast, then frankly, save the money and don't bother; it'll only make your work worse, not better.

I actually don't have any problems with the difficulty or combat like other people seem to, but I do take issue with pointless itemization (why even have different types of weapons if they're only mere stat boosts?) and two characters with skill trees that more or less mirror each other, making the existence of more than one a waste of time and effort. Even worse are the overhead perspective changes—unwelcome and perpetually disorienting.

Positives? Really great aesthetics, and an even better soundtrack. Some potential trapped underneath, making me wish I could tolerate the egregious flaws. That's about it.

Rating: ★★

SotiCoto
SotiCoto

This game is about as much fun as sh!tt!ng yourself in public.

This isn't what "Easy" means, devs. Don't call it "Easy" when you mean "Sadistic".
It is like trying to play a bullet-hell, with ranged attacks all over the damned place from swarms of enemies, most of which the camera doesn't bother to register until they hit the character... and everything causes knockback. Trying to run forward will usually result in being knocked backwards twice as far. There is no blocking, and the dodge doesn't have i-frames, so that is usually useless too. You need actual precognition just to avoid being smashed around like a ragdoll. It is almost like it is trying to be like Dark Souls... except... y'know... Dark Souls is fair. This... not so much.

The non-combat sections are stupid platformers with fast-moving platforms and a whole lot of ways to get sent back to the start. See, the difference between a good platformer and a bad platformer is that a good platformer gives a sense of fluidity to correct traversal of the environment... that when done right it all flows together smooth as silk. Any platformer where you have to spend most of the time waiting for moving platforms to come within range at the right time is a BAD platformer. And frankly having to repeat ANYTHING 20 times because of some alleged failure I couldn't even see half the time because I just puffled to smoke for no reason is just deranged.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, the voice-acting is absolutely atrocious, the audio doesn't match up with text, and there is little to no plot to speak of. Just shǐtty puzzles, shǐtty platform-hopping, and cheap bullsh!t combat.

Bad game. BAD.

[Edit]: Steam, turn the fǔcking censorsh!t off already, you malignant cǔnts. I can swear all I please when a game warrants it this much.

Apparently Kid
Apparently Kid

Was pretty disappointed with this game. Its supposed to be hard, and there were some cheap bosses with auto hit attacks and such, but I went with ranged because thats what all reviews and walkthroughs said to do due to how terrible melee was. The game tries to be DMC and I guess Nioh which i never played but fails at both. The story is pretty minimal and makes little sense with random existential dialogue about nothing, i lost interest pretty fast and i dont think there was much to miss. My biggest problem is the entire game I had stuttering, frame drops, and no matter what changes i made to AA and v-sync, as well as playing on lowest graphics made no difference, and i never have had this problem even playing FPS on medium-high. This made the combat and the already terrible platforming even worse. The horrible camera didn't help.

Everything about the game is half-baked. The voice acting is meh, there are cutscenes where the people stand in place but dont move their mouths but are talking which seems dumb. There is inventory but nothing visual changes and most of the items have the same stats. The skill trees are boring and add a few moves, but I mostly spammed 1 attack the whole game because nothing else mattered. THe game gives no directions where to go or what to do and without looking things up I would have been lost because the level design with a million different small maps all intersperced with no specific reason with branching paths, with no overarching map to look at. The idea of going to different wings and fighting bosses to unlock these shards to fight the ending boss just felt like there was no cohesion and nothing was connected. Theres multiple endings but i think theyre secrets and you have to look it up because i fought the boss which made no sense and then beat him and died because of it and then it just abruptly ended which makes no sense. Especially because it wasn't like i had choices and options to make I GUess the default ending is failure for no reason. Theres sexually crude gross dialogue, etc. The combat is OK, but other than that and some interesting boss and character design the game just is a mesh of bad ideas and mediocre implementation. 5.5/10.

Chanille
Chanille

Anima: Gate of Memories is a good game, yes, but it has some caveats. It's an action-RPG combat game with two fixed characters to use. The game was developed by 3 people, which makes it kind of impressive if you think about it, and it revolves around two characters bounded by fate, The Bearer, a nameless girl with magical powers, and Ergo Mundus, a monster of huge power long sealed in a book. The story is, in itself, good, although technical capabilities and some average voice acting can leave some to be desired. Ergo is without a doubt the star of the show (though it might hurt certain sensibilities), leaving the Bearer kind of flat in comparison. Knowing about the lore of the TTRPG it is based on, Anima Beyond the Fantasy, helps a lot to understand the game and it is recommendable, but it is not required to enjoy the story.
Gameplay-wise, it is generally enjoyable, moreso when you level up some and get some nifty new powers to add variety, in a system in which you control simultaneosly the two MCs, being able to switch seamlessly between the two. It's heavily inspired in DMC, although the controls need some polishing and at times can feel somewhat rigid, it is quite well pulled off. There are some very difficult boss fights, others are quite easy and cheeseable, but none feel boring.
The music score is awesome, and I would recommend anybody not really interested in the game to listen to it, specially those who, like me, like gamemastering.
All in all, it is not the best game ever, but it is the best game it was set to be, given the financial, human and technical limitations it had. If you're looking for a AAA game, this is not it, but if you're looking for a fun experience, a good story, pleasing ambiences and a great musical score, this might be just that.

EESER
EESER

An interesting idea with poor execution.

As one can expect, the game is based on a table top RPG in the same avenue as like Dungeons and Dragons. Thus the story overall of this is interesting, well done at certain points, and keeps up the weirdness that Anima is known for.

However as to the mechanics of the game this is where the problems are. In short, it tries to take queues from the likes of Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and other such titles with over the top boss fights and hard combat. Granted nothing is wrong with this but the game does it poorly.

Camera controls are not the best giving only a very limited view of things. A lock on feature at times helps but so long as the target you are locking on to stays distant. Get up close to them and well you are kind of screwed.

The overall combat system functions on a Dynasty Warriors like set up with melee and special attacks that can be mixed to perform a variety of combos. However, it is limited to a 3 combo aspect that has no variety or imagination to it. As you progress you are able to customize some aspects of your character but these really don't amount to much. Most options are to deal more damage, quicker attacks, build special meter faster.

This also brings into light of the two main protagonist which are best defined as pew-pew girl and jpop wolverine. As their names imply the female protagonist just shoots magic lasers while the male protagonist is the melee fighter. Customizing them to do the opposite is a moot point as you are wasting resources since both are shoehorned into these roles.

Further the game requires you to switch back and forth between both of them as some enemies have immunity to their respected powers of dark and light. If anyone reading this has played such games like Ikaruga you get the idea.

Boss fights are more difficult than they need to be at first but do go in a pattern aspect. Once you figure it out, it is not much of a challenge afterwards.

Lastly in my own experience the game is not that responsive to button inputs. For something that requires split second interactions I found it to be quite laggy in this respect having to sometimes double press in order just to get it to register.

Positives of the game are the design for the areas which are nice. Everything else was pretty bland with sprite models repeating, having only minor changes to show they are something different.

NanoFighter
NanoFighter

One of the worst Action RPGs I've ever played. This game is cheap DMC and Nier clone. Gameplay is horrible. Every enemy spams projectiles at you. Even when they are standing 2 steps away from you they spam projectile. There isn't a single enemy that is fun to fight with. Bosses are annoying and they use cheap tricks to kill you. Also Easy means Sadistic and Normal means Impossible in this game. Developers, learn the definitions of these terms before making a game. Combat tries to be like DMC but it fails. You have to perform combos but you have a stamina bar, because of this stupid stamina bar you are forced stop between combos. Imagine DMC with a stamina bar. If you hate yourself play this game. If you love yourself play DMC and Nier. They are 10 times better than this garbage.

Am I as admirable as that dog?
Am I as admira…

tl;dr Western-made, anime-inspired budget Darksiders

Upfront if you cannot stand cringey anime dialogue, tropes or poor English dubs this will be a painful experience. I thought the dialogue was typical bad localisation but turns out people just watch a lot of shounen. Search "singing with ergo" and you'll get the worst of it.

In terms of gameplay it's a fairly interesting hack and slash that allows you to unlock and change how you chain moves, typical launching, air combos, missiles etc. You gain levels to unlock points for that and increase stats, you can equip accessories for defence and other bonuses so nothing insanely complex there but competent. I don't know if I just didn't read the tutorials well enough but the Link mechanic was interesting for the short time I used it. Lots of platforming but the only somewhat frustrating sections are for strong items/side quest stuff.

The bulk of the game is spent in combat either against mobs or bosses. There are a lot of gimmicks and the enemy variety is good, most are themed for either the area or the hub itself. You will be doing plenty of missile dodging which can be annoying when you're against several enemies (which is part of the reason the worst part of the game is so bad) but generally you're given the tools to get by. Apart from the missile spam some enemy attacks seem to track far too much or have very little startup and the stun mechanic is annoying the few times it appears.

The best part of the game is exploring the world and doing side quests & other completionist type things (not collect 200 feather tier nonsense, quite sensible and enjoyable stuff that gives you story information and colour). It's not a massive size but falls in that sweet self-contained spot of reasonably finding everything in a run through if you remember to revisit areas when you get new ways to open paths. For £15 or the equivalent I'd buy it full price as I got about 20 hours out of it, but if you think the appalling VA or script will turn you off I'd wait for a sale.

iamevil1974
iamevil1974

Can't get to like the controls, maze seems too convoluted and you have to repeatedly go back and forth the same places.

Almighty End
Almighty End

awsome game if you like devil may cry bayonetta type games.

Anna
Anna

This is a GREAT Start. It really is! It's also a little Shit.

Pros:
Cute/Attractive Female Protaganist. (Like I say, Not a lot out there)
Magic (I love Magic) (Magic+Girl=Greatness)
One of the Characters is a friggin Demon King.
Extensive Lore (Not a lot of games have extensive lore and explain things away with plenty of Handwaving)
Beautiful Level Design...(We'll get into it...)
Good use of Controller Layout.

CONS
Gameplay... There needs to be some SERIOUS tweaking. Enemies need Nerfing, Characters need Buffing. So y'know they don't seem to be made of tissue Paper. This isn't friggin Dark Souls, Bosses don't need eight bajillion HP at Lvl 1.
Items... If you use an item. They. Are. Fucking, Gone. Even when you die and rewind to before you refight the boss they are still gone. Now this seems to be a theme so I'm not gonna harp on it too much but that's just a Pet Peeve of Mine.
Camera... Sometimes the Camera is a Curse, Other times it's a blessing. Some of the Jumping Puzzles are unintuitive and the camera doesn't help.
The GRIND... I appriciate that the Grind is semi optional, Sadly it's not. You need to grind for EXP, For Currency,

I really want to love this game, I REALLY DO. But until it gets fixed I can't Recommend it.

jchaosmaster
jchaosmaster

i played a bit and thought it was fun.

kotor_fan
kotor_fan

Holy molly...what a strange game.

It feels ok at first, then you realize melee attacks don't stagger, only magic does. Entering melee and waiting for your attack animation to finish is basically accepting you'll be hit, with absolutely nothing you can do.

You're just sitting there, mid attack, and waiting to lose health.

In the first 3.5h of this game 90% of the enemies encountered stagger or knock you away on each hit, making it a painful experience. Not because they hit hard, they really don't, but because getting to them is annoyingly slow.

Now onto the real fun part, boss fights. First couple are...ok. Some mechanics to learn, some timings etc. The boss after which I'm uninstalling and forgetting about this game has a "fun" final phase. Basically it's a knockback fiesta. And since this game takes good old route of "whatever hits hits", you'll be chain knocked back A LOT.

I've experienced a single ray knock me back 5 times while I'm helplessly looking at my character. You only gain control once you land after a hit, so a ray hitting you multiple times after first never gives you any control.

There are hard games like Dark Souls, Sekiro etc. Then there are games like Anima, which are not fun hard. There is no mechanic to learn here. It's literally dodge into attack into dodge into attack, with unresponsive controls, horrible knockback mechanic, no stagger and bosses with 55 million health and AOE melee attack if you're stupid enough to get close to them.

Not recommended. What a waste of time.

ShiroikuSora
ShiroikuSora

Bought for waifu but refunded because I can't stand the controlsss

Amnixx
Amnixx

If there was a "maybe" I'd use that instead of "Not Recommended". The Story in itself is interesting enough to keep me hooked but the frustrations are too many to count. Combat and camera are just awful and that makes everything so much more difficult. Voice acting... what acting it's just monotonous reading mostly. Ergo has some differentiation in his voice but that's about it. So if you feel up to some frustration go for it otherwise try something a bit more developed.

wernaeh
wernaeh

While Anima seems like a mediocre game, I still did enjoy it. There are enough different environments to keep things interesting, nothing feels drawn out, and the story is well-presented - even if a bit stereotypical. Ergo's lines are hit-and-miss, immersion-breaking at times, but mostly funny.

On the downside, you spend more time fighting the camera than enemies: Projectiles from off-screen enemies regularly flurry you into stunlock, which is annoying, and the platforming sections are hard to get right from the weird camera angles. Other than that, graphics are a little dated, the English translation is just horrible, and spoken lines do not match up with subtitles at times.

--Preacher--
--Preacher--

great game, 10/10, would anima again.

BijiRam
BijiRam

Played Anima: Ark of Sinners on the wii and wanted to see more. I really enjoyed this game. filled with many beautiful enemy and map designs. Loved the soundtrack and artwork. voice acting and combat could have been tweaked a little bit, but in the end I did really enjoy Anima: Gate of Memories. I recommend :D

SapphicSpider
SapphicSpider

Imagine still making games with gross jiggle physics

Crythulm
Crythulm

This is an odd game but the combat and story make it well worth a look at. the combat is skill tree based and you are actively swapping between two players to fight in both light and dark. the Humor in the dialog is fantastic and it has a unique setting.

Hà

truly amazing, I must say I really LOVE this game, gameplay, music, combat, that was awesome, yeah Things may hard at first but If you really want to improve you must spend a lot of time to practice. that what I learn, Good game, worth my money, did not expect it so cheap
YOU GUYS DEFINITELY MUST BUY THIS GAME, ITS GOOD, I promise
THANK DEVS, The music is so good, I enjoy everything

P/S: and one more thing everyone complain about control. no they are just bad at game and dont want to learn, easily gave up, this kind of person really tick me off

Edit: Guys, finally after 37,9 HOURS in this game, I FINALLYYY BEAT IT IN NEWGAME+ MODE OMGGGGGG AWESOME SO AWESOME, SUPER HARDCORE, NOW IM TRULY SATISFIED

monorail khat
monorail khat

i tried to like this game. but

1)combat is boring. some people compared this to DMC? perhaps DMC 2. floaty and unsatisfying. you would think that the ability to use 2 different characters would be cool.. it's not when they are pretty much the same! (at least in the beginning, as i did not get far in this game)

2)story : uninteresting, bad voice acting. not compelling enough to keep me going.

3)getting hit by off screen projectiles on and on is not fun.

overall, in 2021, there are better options.

soriopro
soriopro

the story and characters are for me both funny and kinda relatable to a certain extend. even if they may sound cliché here and there. overall the good outweigh the negative in my book.

Symarian
Symarian

Got Platin on PS4 and am now Stuck with Ultimate Collector. lol.
Decent Game

spondid
spondid

Never played Nier Automata, but from what I can see from vids, gameplay is similar, and predates it. Varied gameplay from 3rd person combat, bosses with some bullet hell characteristics, puzzles(reading required), some camera changes to side scrollers in certain levels, lots of lock and key puzzles so have fun exploring. Bought it on discount, so far 12 hours in and found it to be worth more than what I paid for.

ElvisDeadly
ElvisDeadly

While it's close to being a fun action adventure RPG the overall lack of quality to every aspect eventually wore me out. Game mechanics, balance, presentation - it all feels not quite good enough, i got close to the end, lost interest and never bothered going back after achieving the 'bad' ending. It's just all a bit underwhelming.

Hikaru
Hikaru

Game released in a hurry and very unpolished

hydro
hydro

One of my favourite games, I really liked it, any suggestions? hard to find similar games like this, with the art and game play I am really looking for something similar. Hopefully we hear about song from the abyss soon.