So far, Melos Han-Tani is 0 for 2 in terms of making an experience enjoyable to me. Between All Our Asias and this, I'm questioning if I'm missing something with their work or if it just isn't for me. Unlike All Our Asias, however, Anodyne does have some actual merit and points of quality to it. The music is sublime, varying from extremely cozy to having the ability to instill some strong discomfort. If there's one thing to take from this game, it's that you should listen to the OST. The artwork is also fantastic, with most of the areas being really pretty, some of the more thematic areas working really well visually, and the enemies being well designed on a visual sense. Past that, there really isn't anything I found enjoyable or worth caring about.
Most of the game is just spent meandering around, trying to find where to go next. An adventure game with a more free progression system isn't a bad thing, but when you need exactly one card left and the one card missing is in an area that's disconnected from the main map, it's really frustrating to deal with. On top of that, you really need to get the wide and extend upgrades for your weapons early just to make the game easier, but there's no way to know they even exist in the first place nor where they could be. Combat was frustrating, never hard but it feels terrible to fight anything and it almost always just ends up being a matter of spamming your attack until they die, taking hits in the process (which doesn't matter since save points that heal you are all over the place). In between the meandering exploration and floundering combat is one of the worst platforming I've played in a little while. I can't think of a single area where I enjoyed the platforming puzzles. I don't understand how developers can make something like this and think it's fun or rewarding.
I'm gonna try Anodyne 2. Nitro Rad sold me on this game and while it unfortunately didn't end up hitting the mark for me, I'm praying 2 will. If it doesn't, I guess that just means I should avoid Han-Tani's games from now on since they aren't for me. I would just recommend listening to the music and watching a video going over what this game's about, it's more engaging and entertaining than actually playing it.
Most of the game is just spent meandering around, trying to find where to go next. An adventure game with a more free progression system isn't a bad thing, but when you need exactly one card left and the one card missing is in an area that's disconnected from the main map, it's really frustrating to deal with. On top of that, you really need to get the wide and extend upgrades for your weapons early just to make the game easier, but there's no way to know they even exist in the first place nor where they could be. Combat was frustrating, never hard but it feels terrible to fight anything and it almost always just ends up being a matter of spamming your attack until they die, taking hits in the process (which doesn't matter since save points that heal you are all over the place). In between the meandering exploration and floundering combat is one of the worst platforming I've played in a little while. I can't think of a single area where I enjoyed the platforming puzzles. I don't understand how developers can make something like this and think it's fun or rewarding.
I'm gonna try Anodyne 2. Nitro Rad sold me on this game and while it unfortunately didn't end up hitting the mark for me, I'm praying 2 will. If it doesn't, I guess that just means I should avoid Han-Tani's games from now on since they aren't for me. I would just recommend listening to the music and watching a video going over what this game's about, it's more engaging and entertaining than actually playing it.