Masters Of Anima

Masters Of Anima

Between two biggest productions, Masters Of Anima Lyons Passtech Games fell rather well; I needed something lighter, less frenzied, without having to leave my brain on the side of the road. For once, this title, which is an adventure game with a strategy that I discovered during Focus Home Interactive's What's Next, did the trick. To put it simply, from what I could read right and left, it would seem to be the lost bastard of Pikmin and Overlord, which are two games ... I have never played, which will save you to have to read foolish comparisons. However, is it fun to play so far? That's what we'll see together. Let's go !

In Masters Of Anima, we play Otto, an apprentice master of the Anima a little silly on the edges, and very dull of love for his beloved Ana, leader of the manipulators of the Anima. Indeed, he has only embarked on this path in order to marry her. But no luck, at the end of events all more annoying than each other, the soul of Ana is found cut psychically into several pieces by a bastard named Zhar. You'll understand: you'll have to find all the pieces of your girlfriend and party to psychopath service.

The latter set out to revive golems that the masters of the order had sealed in the past at the cost of intense fighting, all with the aid of the hidden powers of the Anima, those who are not supposed to be learned. For the analogy, we'll say that this is the dark side of the Anima ... In short, with all this, not enough to give a duck level of duck scenario; this poses at least a context and a narrative tone tinged with light humor. We will discover all this intro during the tutorial teaching us the basics of the gameplay of Masters Of Anima. Moreover, I could only note that the learning curve follows the inexperience of the avatar; he clearly has as much to learn as we do.

First observation, and contrary to what I read: even the keyboard / mouse controls are well thought out and we do not have to deal with his avatar and his invocations. Indeed, over the course of the adventure, our dear Otto will be able to launch invocations of different types. At first, we will be able to call on hand-to-hand warriors (the Protectors), as well as others armed with bows for distant attacks (the Sentinels). The warriors, besides entering the pile, will be able to help us to move or destroy elements of the decoration in order to solve globally simple puzzles. To invoke them, and even if we are limited in the number of invocations (at least at the beginning), we have an Anima gauge.

Each invocation has a cost in Anima, Anima that can be retrieved on elements of the environment that we stuff, on the enemies that we just had, or even on our own invocations that would have trepanned. Therefore, if we slap all Anima at once to summon the maximum, that during the fight we manage them badly and that they die, then we will not recover enough Anima to invoke it again at most. They are puppets for which there is no affect at all, but we will not be able to sacrifice them as we please. Thus, if an enemy swings a zone attack, it is better to remove all our invocations from the zone.

Clearly, we are far from passive, but one thing is certain: there is nothing excessively complex, although panic means necessarily lose. Even if a situation could seem badly engaged, keeping his cool, we manage to catch up well. Analyze the situation, define a plan of action, and apply it calmly, methodically. This is the key to the secret to advance in this game, and I must admit that succeed in applying his masterplan has something quite satisfactory. Conversely, if we do not manage his invocations and their investments, that we spam to re-invoke others in stride, then we will lose, almost inevitably.

The exploration of every corner is not to be neglected either, because this is what will allow us to recover experience through mini-bosses, and increase the health meter. To do without this aspect is more or less to sign his death sentence, since the enemies will necessarily evolve and we will put the misery well if we are not level. It will also be an opportunity to rub in globally simple puzzles; do not expect to worry about this aspect, because it is clearly not the heart of the game, which is rather focused on boss fighting with the management of our invocations. Note that these famous bosses will become simple mobs as the progression in the adventure.

By moving further into the game, we will have other creatures available: some that will be able to make us regain Anima and health (Catalysts), others that are larger units (Commanders) able to use the war cry, and finally others who can also invoke other creatures (the so-called Summoners). There is a real tactical dimension in combat because, beyond managing his invocations, we will have to manage the physical presence of our avatar, since it is also far from being inactive during a fight (... if we wish it). To have it attacked and to engage it in the scrum is risk-taking (if it dies, it's the game over), but it may be essential in certain situations.

Note that there are also different skill trees: for Otto, but also for each type of invocation, and it is at the end of each level that we can assign these skill points. Nevertheless, beyond that, the developers have also included a scoring system based on how we managed, where will be taken into account, among other things, the health and damage inflicted by Otto, as well as the invocations that have died and the amount of damage they have received. Do not expect a replay of crazy, however. The set is generally linear, and apart if one wants to improve its score, there will be little reason to return once torch, which takes more or less twenty hours.

The story may be relatively boat, the story is doing rather well, especially thanks to quality dubbing (do not ask me why, but for once, I played with sound). Nevertheless, I was not marked by music, although I have always considered a good video game music as a music that knows how to fade. If we add to that the very cartoon graphics of the game, with bright colors, we get a convincing result. Passtech Games had the good taste not to overload the different tables, which is a good choice because of the number of invocations that we can have on the screen. Anyway, the whole remains very legible while remaining fluid, which is not trivial if we consider the output status of the majority of productions.

Masters Of Anima, and even though I put "some time" before diving into it, was a pleasant surprise. Indeed, the game regularly asks us to release the skill and neurons that neophytes strategy games had hitherto well hidden in a closet. So, recommendable? It seems to me clear though! Nevertheless, strategy game fanatics might find it a bit too simple, while others will tackle a relatively well-leveled difficulty (which was my case).