Mato Anomalies

Mato Anomalies is a role-playing game that dares to innovate in things that sometimes work well, and sometimes not. With a very interesting mix of genres that gives rise to turn-based combat and card duels, its story and setting are very interesting. However, the repetitive combat and simple dungeon design may not appeal to all players.

Mato Anomalies is Arrowiz's ambitious first major project that aims to compete with games such as Persona 5 Royal. Although the game has promising initial ideas, it falls short in some aspects by trying to incorporate too many mechanics and genres.

With a lot of great RPGs on the Switch to choose from, Mato Anomalies really shouldn’t be on anyone’s radar. That’s unfortunate, because there are a lot of promising elements here that could have added up to something neat. Execution is key, however, and that is where Mato Anomalies seems to fail in every category. Even without the significant performance issues, the underlying design flaws result in something that I really can’t recommend to anyone except those who enjoy picking apart misfires.

Mato Anomalies is an ambitious indie attempt to create a Persona-like RPG romp through neo-futuristic Shanghai. There's no shortage of good ideas in the mix here, with flashes of inspiration in the fusing of turn-based dungeon combat, mind-hacking card games and stylish visual novel elements. However, for all the ambition on display, it's let down by uninspired combat, repetitive level design, clunky exploration, frustrating card mechanics and writing that just never manages to engage. This one's not entirely without merit, but overall it's an experience that'll test your patience far more than it manages to entertain.