I mentioned this in a What Are We Playing? and the podcast last week, but I've been playing a point and click puzzle game called Twilight Oracle, which is out at the end of the month. It's cool! It reminds me a lot of Legends Of Kyrandia, in that it doesn't need to explain why stuff in the world is like it is, it just is. Big talking fish? Sure. Skull floating in space? You betcha.
This RPG collision of Pokemon and Digimon is an amazing surprise for the end of the year, and I'm already in love with my starter creature
26.12.2023 - 18:10 / gamesradar.com
I'm a bit late to the party with Anode Heart, a creature collector RPG that launched to near-perfect user reviews last month, and I'm kind of kicking myself for it. After dipping my toes in the free demo on Steam, I reckon this could be one of the most underrated Pokemon-likes of the year, in no small part because it's got a heaping helping of Digimon in its DNA.
Developer Stochastic describes Anode Heart as a semi-open-world "homage to the classic monster tamer games of the early 2000s," adding that "JRPGs and monster tamer games have defined my childhood and they've greatly inspired me to create my own stories and games." In particular, they point to the PS1's Digimon World games, which absolutely tracks.
You play as an amnesiac robot named Seek who sets out on a journey to tame Tama, once-virtual beings now manifesting in the physical world. Sound familiar? Anode Heart promises over 140 Tama with some 300 moves between them. You can preview the evolution tree for each Tama, and breed or "reboot" (reset) them to optimize stats, which leans into the min-maxing that so many creature-collectors savor.
There's quite a lot for Pokemon and Digimon diehards to latch onto, really. For example, each Tama can use a whopping seven moves at once, and since your bottom three moves cost more energy to use, organizing your loadout is important. There's a familiar rock-paper-scissors type system – and mercifully there are only a few, mostly intuitive elemental types – so you'll also want a spread of attack types on each Tama and across your party of three.
Battles are extremely fast in my experience, and enlivened through a TP system that lets you take multiple actions at once before enemies get a turn. Squeezing in some cheap attacks while budgeting TP for heals or defensive plays adds a refreshing layer of strategy to the well-worn turn-based system. You can also spend TP swapping to other Tama, enabling cross-party combos.
For my starter, I passed up a wind-type bird and fire-type dog in favor of an earth-type kobold dragon called Kobou who I've named Phira and quickly fallen in love with. The pixel art is classical and rock-solid, and all the creatures I've encountered – and seen in trailers and screenshots – look fabulous. I can't wait to see Phira's evolutions.
To get new Tama, you just beat them in combat and hope they ask to join you afterwards. You can dramatically increase the chance of this happening by gifting Tama their favorite foods and other objects. This system is a little random, but it's also a fun blend of JRPG recruitment and relationship management, and it doesn't feel nearly as arbitrary as the recruitment conversations in the likes of Shin Megami Tensei.
I see why Anode Heart popped
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
wccftech.com
12.01.2024 / 12:57
ARM CEO Believes Qualcomm’s Exclusivity Agreement With Microsoft’s ‘Windows on ARM’ Platform Will End This Year
Qualcomm was reportedly able to leverage an exclusive agreement with Microsoft where only the San Diego company’s chipsets would be used with any OEM launching a Windows notebook. However, we could be heading into a new era as, according to ARM CEO, the agreement between the two companies will expire later this year, giving other chipset makers an opportunity to penetrate this market and offer more options to customers.
gameranx.com
11.01.2024 / 15:57
Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Will Have Lots Of New Content For The Nintendo Switch
Nintendo has shared a nice little trailer for Mario Vs. Donkey Kong on the Nintendo Switch.
blog.playstation.com
11.01.2024 / 08:47
(For Southeast Asia) The Holiday Sale promotion refresh comes to PlayStation Store
A new year calls for some celebration. So good news: the Holiday Sale promotion has received a fresh influx of more digital games and DLC, all discounted for a limited time* as we kick off 2024 with one of our biggest promotions. That includes** the likes of Hogwarts Legacy Deluxe Edition PS4 & PS5 (50% off), NBA 2K24 Black Mamba Edition PS4 & PS5 (60% off) and Gran Turismo 7 Standard Edition PS4 & PS5 (43% off).
gamesradar.com
10.01.2024 / 20:35
Baldur's Gate 3 was criticized for being unlike the original RPGs and more of a 'Divinity 3,' but one Larian designer says the games are just about the same things
Amid the altogether glowing launch reception for Baldur's Gate 3, which went on to win just about every GOTY award under the sun and which we also put at the summit of the best games of 2023, there were a fair few reviews and posts from long-time CRPG fans who argued that Larian's take on the series felt more like a Divinity game than a Baldur's Gate game. That's not necessarily calling it bad – the Divinity games are beloved, after all – but perhaps it just doesn't feel like the Baldur's Gates of old. And I remember similar conversations around Baldur's Gate 3's early access launch about three years ago.
gamesradar.com
10.01.2024 / 19:37
Todd Howard said Starfield was a much harder RPG pre-release, and this early Starmap reportedly found in the game files makes that even clearer
On the heels of Starfield's launch, Bethesda boss Todd Howard explained that exploring space and dealing with planetary hazards used to be a lot more dangerous before the team "nerfed the hell out of it." A Starfield sleuth now claims to have uncovered an old version of the RPG's Starmap, and it seems to have shed some light on the more punishing game that might've been.
gamesradar.com
09.01.2024 / 18:59
Hideo Kojima names his favorite movies from 2023, which includes a David Fincher flick and the year's best crime drama
At the end of 2023, we saw best movies of the year lists from almost anyone with a Letterboxd account, but one movie lover is a little late to the game in posting their favorites. Video game creator Hideo Kojima, and his picks are a little interesting, to say the least.
thesixthaxis.com
07.01.2024 / 13:00
Something for the Weekend – 06/01/24
That first week of the year is always a funny one. Coming out of the ‘Crimbo Limbo’, I always feel there’s another few weeks before the games industry truly gets back into the swing of things. It won’t be long before it’s February, though, and we’re being bombarded with big game releases again!
gamesradar.com
06.01.2024 / 13:25
Mass Effect veteran’s new space RPG confirms multiple endings spanning "years, decades, and even centuries"
Exodus, an upcoming space RPG from genre veterans, will have multiple endings depending on your choices.
tech.hindustantimes.com
06.01.2024 / 02:35
What to stream this week: A gaggle of TV sleuths, the foul-mouthed bear 'Ted' and a Kevin Hart heist
Seth MacFarlane's filthy teddy bear character Ted and Martin Scorsese's true-crime epic “The Killers of the Flower Moon” are some of the new television, music and movies headed to a device near you.
wccftech.com
05.01.2024 / 20:57
Xbox Developer Direct Rumored for Mid-January and Fans are Hoping for Another Shadow Drop
2024 has just begun, but the video game hype train’s engines may already be heating up. It seems like Microsoft may be looking to strike first, with rumors emerging that a new Xbox Developer Direct may be coming our way in just a couple of weeks.
wccftech.com
04.01.2024 / 17:02
GeForce NOW Adds The Finals, Scorn, and Sniper Elite 5 This Week
It's the first Thursday of the year and NVIDIA wouldn't miss the opportunity to start adding new games to its GeForce NOW cloud library. This week, GFN users will be able to play Embark's debut project, the highly successful first-person shooter game The Finals, in streaming.