Masters of Anima

 Switch
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 17
  3. Negative: 4 out of 17

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  1. AllySky
    Apr 19, 2019
    9
    Wow this was good, great voice acting, cutscenes and storytelling. Would love to see a squeal with new ideas, puppets, level designs and so on. A more fleshed out one would be appreciated.
  2. kckkryptonite
    Apr 29, 2018
    7
    Pretty fun, kept me interested 'till the end. Plays like a mini-RTS with easy puzzles, where you control Otto and summon five different types of golems and have to maneuver them around the battlefield. Kind of short, beat it in 4.5 hours, but didn't go for all the secret stuff, could get a good 6-8 if I did. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's well made for what it is.
  3. TheFlannelFox
    Apr 11, 2018
    8
    Playing as Otto, you are taking your exam to become a shaper, one who can manipulate the Anima to summon guardians. Your betrothed and Master shaper Ana, is captured by the evil Zahr. Who splits her into three pieces, heart, mind, and body. Rendering her helpless and leaving Zahr to wreak havoc on the land of Spark unless Otto can save his fiance and the world.

    Beginning the game    Playing as Otto, you are taking your exam to become a shaper, one who can manipulate the Anima to summon guardians. Your betrothed and Master shaper Ana, is captured by the evil Zahr. Who splits her into three pieces, heart, mind, and body. Rendering her helpless and leaving Zahr to wreak havoc on the land of Spark unless Otto can save his fiance and the world.

    Beginning the game with only one type of guardians, protectors, which essentially act like infantry. You give them orders of where to attack, while you can attack also, you do very little damage and the bulk of your damage will come from the guardians that you’ve summoned. Very quickly you have to learn the dance of getting your soldiers in to do damage when the have the opportunity and out as before they take to much of a beating from whichever golem they are fighting. Alerting you with pre-attack ques, gives you just enough time to recall your guardians so they don’t get pulverized. If they do go down in battle you will have to summon more, which can be a problem as you can only summon more guardians if you have collected enough Anima.

    Anima is a fuel that your guardian summoning magic runs upon and making sure that you have enough of it in battle is absolutely crucial. If you carelessly allow all of your guardians to get killed and have exhausted the surrounding area of Anima, kiss that turn goodbye; because hacking away with honorable Otto is just not going to cut it.

    As you play through the campaign you unlock different types of guardians that change the whole game, some ranged, others anima healers, some huge hulking beasts, they all inhabitat different areas. Keeping everyone out of the line of fire, while keeping enough in to keep doing damage, becomes an addictive plate spinning adventure. Recall some sentinels, summon new protectors, collect more anima, to summon even more sentinels, then strategically place them surrounding your enemy, all without taking damage. In you run in guardians blazing and without a plan, sad to say you will not prevail. Dying a number of times on earlier bosses trying to find a method in all of this madness, made me a better leader when going toe to toe with the enemy.

    As enemies go, they feel very repetitive as they all are very similar. Few here and there making you strategize differently but overall they just add more enemies to increase the challenge. That being said the combat takes so much attention and focus that it’s still very satisfying despite feeling a bit grindy.

    Spark is a mystical environment where a puzzle lies around every corner. Progressing to the next battle is a guardian involved environmental puzzle where combining all of their talents together leads you to success. Where some games do this quite poorly like Mario V Rabbids, scratching your head between fights is generally a lot of fun.

    Playing from an isometric perspective visually the art style is very reminiscent of the diablo series, but could use a bit more visual variety but the game does play quite smooth in both docked and handheld mode.

    After each level you earn skill points that you can use to level up Otto and each of his guardians and the perks really earn their keep. Varying from old favorites like doing more damage, to teleporting instantly when recalled, getting your guardians out of the danger zone immediately. Some playing into the masses of guardians summoned, you can have Otto’s attack damage grow by a percentage with every guardian summoned of a certain type, making Otto’s attacks actually do something worthwhile.

    Masters of Anima is a great action adventure strategy game that any fan of the diablo series or diablo-esque games such as Nine Parchments are sure to enjoy. Despite the enemies and the artstyle feeling a bit repetitive, I truly enjoyed my time battling through this golem ridden world.

    Be sure to watch my video review at YouTube channel TheFlannelFox    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Nintenderos
    Jul 12, 2018
    80
    If we throw into the cauldron a dynamic, fun and frantic combat with some ingenious and satisfying puzzles and we adorn it with an agile rhythm, the result is Masters of Anima, a game that, although solid, lacks touches of originality and a deeper story.
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  2. Worth Playing
    Jul 6, 2018
    70
    Masters of Anima mostly succeeds in implementing an inherently troubled concept: a strategy title on a console. It provides some frustrating and subpar moments, but it always comes up ahead with a fun, demanding, and good blend of gameplay styles to pull you through its 10-hour campaign. You'll want to see it through to the last fiercely fought battle.
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  3. Jeuxvideo.com
    Jun 3, 2018
    75
    Don't be fooled! Masters of Anima is far more technical than it appears. Combat appears like a game of chess. You'll need a solid knowledge of what your units may do in order to place them wisely and win.
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