Anima: Gate of Memories Review (PS4)

First a Kickstarter game, and now on Steam and PlayStation 4, Anima: Gate of Memories, is an intriguing title, which brings about concepts rarely seen in games today.

 

 

Anima: Gate of Memories sprawled from a quite successful Spanish tabletop role-playing game called Anima: Beyond Fantasy. It was greatly inspired by JRPGs and anime with some aspects of the western fantasy thrown in for good measure. After the original’s success more games came – Anima Tactics, a miniature game, and Anima: The Card game, Anima’s own TCG. Anima even got a video game in a form of WiiWare title, but it was mostly overlooked.

 

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In 2013, things started to shape up for Anima as the original creator of the series, Carlos B. García Aparicio, started a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign was a success and after three years of development we finally have the opportunity to experience this title. Anima: Gate of Memories came out this June on both Steam and PlayStation 4. Its atmosphere and story elements are very reminiscent of Nier, and not just for having a talking book in its characters’ lineup. Not to mention the excellent soundtrack which is very enjoyable to listen to while exploring the vast environments.

 

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You are simultaneously in a role of The Bearer, a girl that lost her past and her name when she signed a contract with an ancient monster, Ergo. He is sealed in a book that The Bearer wears tightly around her waist. Nathaniel, the organization that sealed Ergo was keeping him in the dark for a period of time, but they have decided to use his strength for their own gain. That is where you, The Bearer, comes in and basically have to listen to Ergo’s constant banter and his over the top, out of place sexual jokes. On the bright side, the story is interesting enough to keep you engaged and along the way there are side stories about each boss which really do remind of all the little stories in Nier.

 

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Anima: Gate of Memories is a huge game to explore, with many beautiful set pieces and locations. It is even more impressive given that the whole game was developed by just three people. The only downside to exploring are fairly frequent platforming bits that can get a bit frustrating because of the controls and the camera angles. It is quite reminiscent of earlier 3d games where developers still haven’t figured out how to position the camera so that it won’t get in the way.

 

The cutscenes and character’s chit-chat is fully voiced, with the voicing talents on par with classic titles such as House of the Dead 2 and the original Resident Evil. Some people might find it amusing, as it has a bit of a nostalgic appeal. The only character that is voiced decently enough is Ergo, but he kind of ruins it with using too much “baby” in referring to The Bearer and with his very bad jokes. Their chemistry kind of works, but it would have been better if they have toned it down a bit.

 

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Even the enemies are similar to those in Nier, as you battle huge blobs of energy, that can take different shapes. Playing as The Bearer and Ergo is very similar as they both have the same moves with very slight differences. Ergo can take a bit more hits and he is slightly slower. They both have similar grids for leveling up and spending experience points, with almost the same skill sets, which kind of ruins the point of having two playable characters. A cool feature is that you can switch between them during a combo and also that Ergo can be used as an additional life, as they have separate health bars. When you don’t use the other character their life bar replenishes, albeit very slowly.

 

To break up the platforming and combat there are some decent puzzle sections. These aren’t too hard to solve but work nicely with the rest of the game. At times the game felt too easy on normal, but some of the bosses were a bit tricky, especially paired with the platforming. Yet there were moments with steep difficulty spikes, with enemies spamming magic attacks left and right. Enemies can be immune to either one character’s attacks or the other, which can get frustrating in the heat of battle. They could have easily amended this with replacing immunity with just reduced amount of damage you could deal to them with the other character.

 

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Anima: Gate of Memories is a decent game and at a price of half the amount for other games can be fun at times, yet some of the aspects like Ergo’s banter overstay their welcome. While it can’t replace Nier until Nier: Automata comes out, with more polish and reworking on some elements, the game could have been great. Either way if you don’t have other games to play this could be a fun romp for a weekend.

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