So before playing this game, I decided to do some really quick research – I saw some screenshots a couple gameplay tidbits and everything looked great… I’m always down for lots of hack n’ slash games so this will be a treat. Dude, I was so wrong.
To start this off I’ll have to let you know that this game is kind of a spin-off/side-story to the original Anima Gate game – Now I know nothing about that game, but from playing this I can sort of tell that it is directly in relation to it and kind of tells you what’s been going on while the other protagonist in Anima Gate is on her journey.
So this game is pretty much every early 2000’s idea of cool mashed into one… So first you have your protagonist who looks like Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII, and has a really weird looking sword. His name is, of course, Nameless, just incase you just wanted to get edgier. He’s some mystical being and is ultra powerful and no one can just come in thinking they can defeat him, much like most action and shounen protagonists – Then you have a cheesy story about an ancient evil being reawakened, weird looking priest warriors and you have something that reminds me of something like Underworld or some weird latex-ridden action movie.
The story is really nothing to write home about, as I mentioned above it’s basically a tale revolving around stopping an ancient evil from reawakening, and you’re accompanied by some evil spirit who has taken over the body of one of those warrior priests. The story is weak but it only gets weaker with the horrendous dialogue; 85% of it is just boring exposition that I really didn’t care for. Now, the gameplay is something I was hoping would be at least somewhat good judging from the trailers, but no, it’s a mess. It’s kind of a hybrid of traditional hack n’ slashers and a lot of RPG elements, but it never blends in together. It feels like they wanted to focus on the RPG elements way more, but wanted to try and keep a kind of stylish combat system to bring in the Devil May Cry or Bayonetta crowd.
So, the combat is just this really clunky mess that is really slow and boring – You rely too much on what numbers your equipment brings rather than your skill, which is fine in some cases (Such as Darksiders II), but it makes the game feel really cheap. You have a stamina bar too for some reason, as if this game wasn’t bothersome enough to play. There is also a dodge button in there, but it is locked to certain angles it feels and it isn’t reliable enough to actually dodge things since I get hit while using it more often than not – More often than not you’re better off just running around attacks; also something like, oh, I don’t know, a block button would have fared much better in this game since the game is so clunky.
If you want to win every fight then just go ahead and use your jumping heavy attack. It’s crazy broken and I haven’t lost a fight once after figuring that out. You can find new weapons in combat which does the change the look of your sword and the attack values, but not anything to the overall fighting style for something new and customisable; also, in one area, in particular, I have to give major props – It’s an area pretty early into the game where it’s essentially a puzzle room where you get more pieces to further build the room; there are multiple combinations to how you can build the area and it either leads to some extra items or progression.
One of my favorite things is the fact that the sounds effects border on being stock sound effects and it’s pretty hilarious – It just makes stuff way funnier, although it’s still a negative aspect but a funny one at that. The game’s art style isn’t bad and it has some cool looking locations, but the graphics don’t really let that art style shine since it looks like an early PS3 game at best. Most environments aside from a couple good ones are really generic and boring too. Nothing really special in that department. The music, on the other hand, is pretty good. Some of the themes are really catchy and I found myself enjoying that a lot throughout the game.
Overall I didn’t really have a good time with Anima: Gate of Memories – The Nameless Chronicles. It was way too boring and easy for a game that tries to mix RPG elements with Bayonetta & Devil May Cry – The gameplay was a slog and the story was mediocre; the only things I found interesting at most were the art style for the most part and the music.
I’m giving this game a 4/10.