Mato Anomalies

Mato Anomalies is a game that shouldn’t work, but does work very well indeed. It isn’t massively long, and some of the side missions do feel a bit like padding to extend the run time, but the strength of the story running through it, and the fact that the characters you control are interesting in their own right, makes this a game that comes highly recommended.

A highly powerful piece of visual imagery that manages to overcome its humble origins with a DNA-proof will and sheer hard personal effort.

At the end of the day, Mato Anomalies feels like a budget title with a lot of things going for it. It has some decent mechanics and some interesting story bits if you are willing to read a lot. The RPG side of the game can have some difficulty spikes and level grinding side dungeons will be needed in some instances, but for RPG fans and visual novel fans, if you can get past the different mechanics and are willing to learn some unconventional ones, this could be a decent experience for you even with the lower budget feel.

There are several aspects of Mato Anomalies that don't work as we would have liked. As interesting and engaging as it is, the narrative scaffolding is in fact slowed down by the presence of verbose dialogues (moreover not dubbed) in the visual novel style, while the play system does not offer particularly original solutions. Nonetheless, we don't feel at all rejecting the creature of the independent studio Arrowiz, which, net of an obviously tight budget, has still been able to shape a fun, accessible JRPG supported by a good strategic component.