Masters of Anima | Review
Are you itching for a wonderful story? Ever wanted to command an army of your own personal rock golems in order to save the world? If so, then Masters of Anima might be the game you’re looking for. This adventure game hails from PASSTECH games and combines an interesting adventure story with overseer/squad mechanics.
You play as a seemingly lazy protagonist named Otto who is an apprentice Shaper. That means that he uses mystic powers called “Anima” to summon different types of golems to do his bidding. You are on a quest to rescue your fiancé from an evil Shaper name Zahr. Your adversary has kidnapped her and split her essence into three parts and scattered them across the world. He plans to use her powers to unleash chaos unto your world and destroy life as you know it. You’ll be tested with a variety of puzzles and challenges as you attempt to save both your fiancé and the world.
First, let’s take a look at what you have going for you in your arsenal while playing Masters of Anima. Your character, Otto, has the ability to command different golems using his staff, which you can also attack with. You also have a limited pool of Anima, which you can draw from to summon different sets of golems. Your pool of Anima can be refilled by attacking objects on the map. Your Anima reserve and personal health pool can also be increased by discovering special runes in the wild.
Towards the beginning of the game, you can only summon the base type of golem. This is more or less just a run-of-the-mill soldier type with low damage output and health. As you progress through the game, you discover forgotten shrines that teach you to summon other types. There is an archer/ranged class which is pretty self-explanatory. You’ll also have a spell-caster type, which drains Anima from your enemies and redirects it you. The commander/brute class has higher damage and health than the base soldier type, but costs more Anima to conjure. Lastly, there’s a summoner type, which makes little minions to fight while keeping its distance.
Each one of these serves a purpose against fighting the different forms of evil golems you come across. You also have the ability to destroy any of your own fighters and regain some Anima. Doing so can be very detrimental to your progress, since you have a limited pool to work from.
The areas in Masters of Anima are fairly straightforward for the most part. The game does lack a mini-map which I found frustrating at times. Each area offers a small puzzle that requires you to use the correct golem to solve it. For instance, you might use your grunts to move a large object or destroy a pile of stones in the way. Eventually, you gain the ability to use your summoners to create large golems to destroy huge boulders or fight certain bosses. As you complete each level, you must destroy a boss to recover a part of your fiancé’s essence which is split into her Heart, Mind, and Body.
I love the boss fights in this game. They require some pretty quick thinking to discern which golem type bests suits your needs. You also have to manage your Anima appropriately to survive the fight. During the first boss encounter, I made a rookie gaming mistake and tried to Zerg rush with the cheapest units. Needless to say, I failed miserably. After some trial and error, I found the proper balance of grunts and archers to emerge victorious. It’s highly satisfying to have a mix of all golem types, commanding them to perform different functions as you fight a boss. It’s also very challenging, however. Near the end of the game, you have the ability to control up to 100 different golems.
Master of Anima isn’t without its progression system, either. After completing each area of the map, you gain skill points based on your performance in the previous area. You can spend these to make Otto stronger, or you can put them in the skill trees of the different golem types. You can re-spec your stats at any time, which provides a leg up in some areas and boss fights. Unfortunately, a few of the skills seem pretty irrelevant.
Lastly, I want to touch on the design of this game. It offers fairly simple animation. There’s nothing over the top in terms of crazy facial details. It works very well for this game, however, and doesn’t take anything away from it. It has a lot of charm without being overly complex, and I do find the game to be very aesthetically pleasing. The one major complaint I have is the lack of a quality soundtrack. The music seems to be there as simple background noise and nothing more. Conversely, the voice acting and dialogue lines are pretty entertaining. Your fiancé’s Heart essence doesn’t stop talking about how she loves you and encourages you. At the same time, her Mind essence berates you when you make a mistake. Just like marriage.
All in all, I loved Master of Anima. It reminds me a bit of the Diablo series, but more family friendly and thematically brighter. Its area puzzles are complex enough to make you think for a moment, however not so complicated that children couldn’t solve them. I always have trouble finding games that I can enjoy with my children or on my own. This is an easy recommendation for anyone with kids. So get out there, collect some Anima, summon some friends, and save the world.
This review is based off of an Xbox One review copy provided by PASSTECH games and Evolve PR for coverage purposes.
Masters of Anima
$19.99
Pros
- Charming Universe
- Fun/Frenetic Gameplay
- Easy to Play With Kids
Cons
- Soundtrack Lacking
- Simple Animations
