After initially starting out as a Kickstarter, developers Anima Project asked for and received enough funds to get Anima: Gate of Memories a release on PC, with the future hope of making it to the next generation of consoles. Now it’s arrived on the latest consoles at a time when another Kickstarter video game has disappointed the masses. Can Anima: Gate of Memories, a role-playing action game based on the Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG books, show gamers that there’s still hope in funding developers and their projects?
Set in the world of Gaia, Anima follows two members of an ancient society known as Nathanial whom, whether they like it or not, are bound by a pact. Ergo and The Bearer are sent on a mission to recover an artefact called the Byblos which was stolen by a traitor from within. After tracking down the guilty party, everything goes a bit crazy with a ‘Nameless’ being getting involved before the whole environment they are in becomes swallowed by light. Waking up in a strange tower, they soon figure out that they’re not alone and they’ll play an integral part in a dark war.
The main gameplay of Anima will see you traversing through corridors, rooms and open areas, taking on all manner of creatures that pop up. As if by magic the enemies appear from nowhere, thus keeping you on your toes, ready to strike at any moment. When in the spookier Mansion of Puppets, a few different types of puppets can come to life; it’s incredibly creepy but with a spot of dodging and attacking they can be beaten easily.
It’s not always that simple though due to the sheer variety of enemy types to adapt to and some which require special attention from a specific character. For example, there are a few dark looking creatures which can only be damaged by Ergo, whereas the light ones take damage from The Bearer. This takes advantage of the easy switch in and switch out system employed by the developers for the two main characters at all times. Aside from for those exact times, I rarely felt the need to switch and instead stuck with Ergo mostly. It’s a decent idea though.
Experiencing the entire tower and the strange worlds surrounding it won’t be plain sailing as there will be other obstacles in the way which cannot be overcome with brute force. On occasion, you will need your brain power to put two and two together to work out how certain doors are opened and whether the pieces of lore found could hold the answers. It’s pretty clever and did have me baffled an awful lot. I preferred the platforming areas which were much more to my expertise.
Although not fond of the unfixed camera when I was trying to jump from moving rock to moving rock, during what felt like a boss battle, it was extremely satisfying navigating my way up to the only damageable segments of this heavily guarded rotating mound. And just when you thought it was over it would add laser beams to avoid whilst platforming your way back up again. It was a decent challenge and different to another boss battle I had done not long before.
As Anima is an RPG at heart, I should talk about the levelling up and acquiring skills of the main characters, both of whom gain XP and skill points in unison. Each character has basically the same skills to unlock, which was a slight disappointment; however the odd moves here and there that offer a bit of distinction are very cool to perform. It’s a good touch that the skills can be mapped to whichever buttons you desire from those available and can be swapped in and out depending on what you’d prefer to use in the current situation. Weapons and artefacts can also be assigned to each of them to give a little attribute boost too.
Speaking of The Bearer and Ergo, they both have intriguing back stories with The Bearer not knowing her life previous to making a pact with Ergo. Ergo is absolutely oozing with confidence and is a pretty bad ass demon that’s under the control of The Bearer. Both are voice acted well but Ergo’s dialogue can be cringe inducing when he’s acting like a bit of a chauvinist to The Bearer and calling her ‘baby’ all too often.
Visually I’d have loved it to live up to the next-gen standards in regards to defined locations and character models. In truth it looks like last-gen and I guess it’s testament to the rest of the game that after a short while I hardly noticed its visual deficiencies.
Anima: Gate of Memories is a rather impressive third-person action RPG which overcomes its visual flaws due to the design of the world, interesting lore and the diverse gameplay. Although at times I was confused as to the next steps to take towards progression, I enjoyed the fact that behind each doorway was a new area filled with additional paths to take and fresh things to discover. I’m not sure the dual character combat is a big enough draw on its own however, factoring in some decent platforming moments and sections to wrack your brain over makes Anima a well-rounded game within its genre.
For the price it offers a very good experience that’ll give you a multitude of challenges to overcome both in combat and exploration as well as plenty of replayability to achieve each of the many endings. Give Anima: Gate of Memories a go; don’t judge it on appearances.
