Anomalith is the latest title from the Shibuya-based studio, FuRyu. A smaller studio, once founded as an entertainment division for Omron (yes, the healthcare devices company) until it eventually went independent through a buyout in mid-2007. Since then, the studio has been specializing in AA titles, mostly within the RPG genre. Although FuRyu is rarely mentioned in Western discourse, its games have sometimes penetrated the Western market. Some players might recognize them through Crystar, Monark, or Caligula Effect. This makes Anomalith the first major project into another genre: a third-person horror shooter.
If I had to guess, Anomalith’s biggest inspiration is Control. These games have vastly similar aesthetic choices, but whereas the latter takes a more controlled (pun non-intended) and directed approach, the former is a full-blown apocalypse scenario where anomalies regularly invade and endanger the world at large. It’s a simple yet intriguing premise to explore. Following the story of Reona Minazuki (which I’ll refer to as “Leona” since that’s usually how the name is spoken), who was suddenly stranded in an anomalous zone, having nothing but the street smarts of her rough upbringing to help her survive.
A Game That Feels Retro.
The first and foremost aspect of this game that will grab anyone’s attention is how out of place it feels. Movement, 3D models, animation, and overall gameplay will remind anyone of a seventh-generation title. A sudden jump in visual fidelity, in which game design hadn’t quite kept up. Anomalith is oddly reminiscent of that era. The first minutes of gameplay showcase the classic loud footstep noises of PS2/PS3 titles, exaggerated gun noises for reloading, and other characteristics that should be evocative for anyone who lived through that era. The nostalgia alone might be the highest aspect of the game for some players.
For those who would look deeper, there are still some things to enjoy. The gameplay is simple but very responsive. Enemies are slow and don’t usually require sharpshooting skills to hit their weak spots. However, they have absurd defense throughout their body and hit like a truck. More than hectic fights, Anomalith is about controlling the combat in your favor. Attack at a distance, retreat often, take your time aiming your shots, and manage your resources properly. You will be put into arena fights where you can’t escape, but your victory doesn’t always require twitch reflexes as much as it does being careful.
A Classic Approach To Progression.
The game’s progression helps immensely here, allowing you to upgrade guns, unlock new skills (both offensive and defensive), and equip certain artifacts to change resource management in your favor. The one thing the game is slightly less flexible about is its skill use. While you can theoretically go through most of the game using guns only, playing like a Resident Evil title, you’re leaving a lot of effectiveness out of your game plan. Juggling your MP is yet another decision up to the player. Alternating between gunfire and skills for a safer approach, or running around with low HP to passively regenerate MP. Although you do open yourself to one-shot kills this way.
I also appreciated the overall mission structure, allowing for backtracks whenever you feel like it and giving quite a great deal of control to the player. Which guns to use, how many supplies to take along, and also giving the liberty to be greedy and go with as little as possible to make the most out of your limited inventory. Making use of the classic “suitcase inventory” that Resident Evil 4 pioneered, Anomalith really focuses on the resource management aspect of survival horrors. While the game does offer an auto-sort, it’s usually terrible, which I honestly preferred. Having to juggle those grenades to fit a 2×2 item is an underrated part of survival horror.
Sadly, Not Just The Good Things.
While I can praise a lot of the game’s “old-school” feel, there’s also a lot that wasn’t fun to experience. While exploring, you will find artifacts that Leona can equip directly or slot into her guns. These are few and far between during the first hours, but after a while you will quickly get swarmed with them. They’re not unique; they’re the standard percentage modifiers that sometimes contain a passive skill. They also have rarity curves, which means you’ll get a lot of duplicates and some that are objectively better than others.
In other words, disposing of them should’ve been a vital part of the game, and yet the mechanics available to do so are terrible. You can either sell them for currency or use them on a slot machine to roll better equipment, Borderlands-style. The problem is, the game’s menu will not show you the effects of the gears, the rarity, or even the image they display on the menu. You have ONLY the name of each piece of equipment, thrown together in a complete disarray whose sorting options are even worse than the inventory one. Oh, and items you currently have equipped also show up and will be consumed if you select them. Naturally, no indication or warning that those items are equipped exists.
It’s this kind of sloppy design that plagues the game intermittently. Anomalith boasts an extensive upgrade system for weapons and equipment, but engaging with them can be annoying more often than not. Gun attachments suffer from a similar problem that artifacts do. You can never be sure if the attachment you’re crafting can, in fact, be equipped by the gun you have in mind. I’ve tried crafting a magazine extension for my late game SMG only to find out none of them could be equipped. Some had “SMG attachment” in their description. Others were for “high caliber” weapons. Neither was compatible with my high-caliber SMG.
Anomalith Has Weird And Inconsistent Bugs.
And that’s not getting into bugs, because the game has a few that are really annoying. One recurring issue that happened to me was the backpack suddenly downsizing and dooming over half of my inventory. It was random after pressing retry, and it made the subsequent attempt that much harder because most of my ammo was now in slots that no longer existed. Sometimes the drone that accompanies Leona also vanishes. A couple of times the game outright froze. It’s not an overly buggy game, but they happened with more frequency than they should and weren’t easily reproducible. I fear Steam forums will eventually show even more bugs that I never ran into.
Individually, none of these issues are deal-breakers that will invariably ruin everyone’s experiences, but they do paint a picture of a low-quality game. It’s an impression that is even further reinforced by some weird design decisions throughout. Like, for example, having a “return” button right beside the “store items” that has no confirmation and will immediately spit you out of a mission and reset the environment. It’s not hard to see how a lot of people would immediately bounce off Anomalith because of these things.
Interesting Story And Characters.
On the other hand, players who tend to power through janky games due to narrative reasons may find some enjoyment in Anomalith. The story itself has a fairly straightforward presentation and writing, but I’ve found their characters to be really compelling. Leona herself might be one of my favorite protagonists from the latest releases I’ve played. A “street rat” child who’s grown to be overly pragmatic and almost nihilistic at times, she’s neither the shining beacon of morality nor the angst-ridden teenager many other games would have her be. Some plot beats from Anomalith aren’t exactly new to games, but Leona’s reaction to certain revelations can certainly be funny. She avoids almost all clichés by being the most linear character possible.
The overarching plot of the game is this: Anomaly Zones have been popping up throughout Showa-era Japan, areas where the normal rules of reality no longer apply, and humans get mutated or liquefied depending on their resistances. The government then recruits Divers to venture into these Zones to retrieve anomalies and objects to study. Years after this situation has been ongoing, Leona escapes from one of these zones and is then coerced into working for the government. Most voluntary forces have already been eliminated in these zones; therefore, the government turns to every single “expendable” person they can to send into these missions. A structure not unlike God Eater or Freedom Wars.
In many ways, Anomalith is rather predictable. The chain of events that lead to these Zones and the responses from people in power are tropes that have appeared in countless other stories. There are some twists and surprises for the latter half of the game, but this is mostly a character-driven story. The fiction and worldbuilding around the Zones are decent, but they never take the main stage as Control does. The biggest problem in this regard is the game’s own linear structure, sometimes offering little room for these characters to interact and develop as they should.
I’ve also enjoyed quite a bit of its horror aspects. While Anomalith isn’t exactly a scary game, it does know how to be creepy when it wants to. Not graphically, but the description of certain events that happen in the Zones paints a picture of a truly horrifying place. In one sidequest, Leona finds a family picture where the people in it start bleeding and decaying as she watches it. In another, you find a child’s toy that tries to merge with Leona’s conscience to have her reunite the two. The main story also broaches a few aspects of psychological horror, and I’ve found these aspects to be some of the most enjoyable parts of the game.
Is Anomalith Worth It?
I tried to avoid repeating this point, but I really did have fun during my playthrough of Anomalith. The (possibly unintended) nostalgia of an older design and presentation, the simple gameplay, the uneven difficulty curve, and the hands-off approach do offer a unique experience for a modern game’s standards. At the same time, I don’t think I can brush off every flaw that this game has as acceptable. Doubly so at its price point, which may be cheaper than the AAA standard, but it’s still on the high end of AA. There are too many bugs and janky gameplay elements to overlook.
The game lasts around 10 to 15 hours if you only ever do the main missions, and double that time if you do every side quest and aim to upgrade every weapon and unlock every entry in compendium files. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it does get repetitive near the end. The game’s movement isn’t slow, but the focus on repeating sections and farming items can get grating when you never unlock any ability to make traversal faster or more interesting. Trying out different builds does make for enough variety, but it’s entirely up to the players to even engage with most of these systems.
As much as I enjoyed it, I actually find Anomalith to be a hard game to recommend. Not only is it more expensive than other titles in a similar tier, you’d also need a certain level of tolerance for inconveniences like bugs and odd design choices. The bottom line is that Anomalith is a bit of an acquired taste. Which, one could say, makes for a perfect FuRyu title.
Disclaimer: FuRyu Corporation provided a Steam copy of Anomalith for review purposes.
