ANTHEM#9 by developer koeda and publisher SHUEISHA GAMES—PC(Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Well folks,
if I was able to tell my past self I’d be reviewing a gem matching game, I’d
certainly have a weird look on my face. Here we are though, and boy was I
pleasantly surprised, and hopefully you will be too.
ANTHEM#9 is
weird title that’s a combination of roguelike and “match 3”, except the 3 isn’t
always 3. If you think that’s kinda weird, it’s because it is. It’s a bit
awkward to describe, but I’ll do my best here for you. Basically you have a
sort of tree of “choices” you progress down to get to the end. Each “choice”
can be one of a few things, such as: a battle, skill alteration, a shop,
healing, or an event. Most of the options are battles of some kind, but each
time you progress forward to the next branching choice, you can select above,
on, or below your current row if a choice is available.
So then,
battles are up next! These uniquely styled encounters are definitely a fresh
take on combat. The basic rundown is that you will have two different lists of
skill sets, each skill with it’s own “combination”. You will get a new spread
of gems each turn and swap your currently available skill set, and you have to
select them in orders that fill out the combinations for the skills. Skills can
be used repeatedly if you have the necessary gems, and overlap is allowed. For
example, of the three gem colours you use, one skill has green, red, red, and
another is red, red. If you put green, red, red into the order, both of those
skills will activate. The game also helps you out a little and the gem on the
skill card will flash for the next one in the combo if it has been started.
This here
is where the roguelite part really kicks in. You start with some really basic
skills at the beginning. As you win battles and visit the shop or skill
altering nodes in your mission progress, you can replace your current skills
with ones you find or buy, or change the combination required to activate them.
Skills can also be upgraded twice, either with the same skill or a specialized
material specifically for upgrading. It becomes an interesting strategy when
you need to balance between powerful skills with long and annoying combos or
easy to make combos with underwhelming power or abilities.
Now, what
is a battle if your opponent can’t attack you? Well, you can actually make that
happen! At the beginning of a turn, you’re told what the enemy is going to do.
Skills that do damage also attack enemy stamina, which is what they need to use
their own skills. Since you make all your moves first, if you build up enough
stamina damage you can cancel a skill. Key note here, you can cancel one skill
per stamina gauge you empty, so if an enemy has four attacks lined up, to fully
cancel them you need to do four stamina bars worth of damage, which can be a
bit difficult.
Enemies can
use more than just basic skills, so what if a powerful or annoying skill is at
the end of a chain? Well, you actually have action points you can use during
battle. Action points serve two functions here, one being to change the order
of the enemy’s attacks, the other is to activate the player character’s unique
ability. When shuffling an enemy’s turn order you can move the whole order up
or down one spot, the turn order wrapping for the skills on the ends. This can create an
interesting strategic point where you have to weigh whether you want to spend
potentially critical action points on shifting turn order or using a character
unique skill.
The unique
mechanics behind the different player characters are all pretty interesting
too. Not only do they have their own unique ability, but they have their own
skills different from the others as well as their own unique mechanic. For
example, the first character you have access to has the ability to transform
gems from one colour to another and her skills are able to inflict poison on
enemies. Another character has gems that come in pairs and can split them and
gain buffs that increase damage. Each character feels completely separate from
each other giving a nice fresh feeling when trying out the different
characters.
Another
interesting aspect of the battling is the use of blessings. Every turn you can
select a blessing from your deck. Blessing have different effects and can be
either permanent or one time uses. After a fight you get offered a blessing,
and I didn’t catch on at first, but the blessing you choose gets added to your
deck, not used. Yes, before you ask, you can run out of blessings to pull from
during combat, and yes you can skip using one if you want to save them.
Honestly there were some times I was saved by a good blessing at the right
time, like the one that does stamina damage helping cancel a big attack.
Each
character also has their own “campaign” missions, although the term campaign is
used really loosely here. The story is basically the characters are all special
agents and you’re fighting inside people’s psyches for world peace or
something. Don’t expect much in the way of real story here, you’re coming for
the gameplay not story time.
Now I feel
obligated to tell you this looks and feels a bit like a mobile game. It kind of
feels like it could be one as well. Not in a bad sense mind you, just that it’s
very minimal in its presentation. ANTHEM#9 certainly isn’t lacking in graphics
or background music, but I could totally see this running on my phone fine, and my
phone is definitely “aged”, as it were. Despite my initial hesitation about a
gem matching title, I have to say I was happily surprised by not only the depth
of gameplay offered, but by how fun and addictive it was. Seeing a massive
combo count and completely canceling an enemy’s moves while seeing their health
bar plummet? Totally satisfying. Fair warning though, the game isn’t exactly
super easy. Sometimes this is by design, sometimes this is because you’re given
only green gems AND ONLY ONE SKILL TAKES GREEN GEMS WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY? *ahem*. On a positive note, if you get your face rubbed in the dirt, you can
actually just retry the battle, so you won’t “lose” a bunch of progress or
anything, but it certainly makes you feel bad.
Overall
ANTHEM#9 is a fun and quirky title that’s pretty addicting. With a good balance
of strategy and luck, it’s very rewarding to see your planning pay off in big
combos and big damage. The game is entertaining and rewarding and contains some
surprisingly in-depth strategizing over skill selection, blessings, and when to
use your action points to turn the battle in your favour. I do highly suggest
you check this title out.
Score: 8 / 10
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