Master of puppets.

Masters of Anima is a game that should have been a homerun for me. Take the isometric game play of Diablo and toss in a bit of Overlord with controllable minions. The end result though suffers from serious difficulty spikes, bad check points, and a questionable upgrade mechanic.

The story behind Masters of Anima is a familiar one. Players take on the role of Otto, a Shaper apprentice who is of course finalizing his craft. During these events his beloved is sundered by the big bad guy, thus forcing Otto to embark on a quest to save her. While it may be formulaic, the performances are actually pretty solid. The voice acting is well done, and the writing is not half bad. Still, the narrative plays out pretty much as expected.

MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $14.99

As mentioned the game plays like a traditional isometric action adventure with a twist. Otto is able to attack, but he is pretty much useless. His strikes do very little damage and he doesn’t even have a combat roll until I upgraded it in the skill tree. Instead, Otto will summon minions to do his fighting and puzzle solving for him. It is a familiar mechanic that is sorely underused in gaming. Sadly, it doesn’t quite come together here.

Pulling the right trigger will summon the minions. As the game progresses new types are added to fold. Otto can switch between them by tapping the bumpers. At first it is novel, and each minion type serves a different purpose. Later on though managing each one that is needed becomes a bit overwhelming. Puzzles are fine as there is usually no immediate danger, combat however is frustrating.

Summoning minions is pretty straightforward, but the difficulty in Masters of Anima ramps up quick. Taking on one to two large enemies proves taxing. Summoning new minions only to have 80% of them wiped by one massive AOE attack is infuriating. Otto can upgrade his skills as well as the skills of his minions, but only in between levels. Thankfully the skill tree can be reset so I could prepare for each new level.

These levels are long as well. Checkpoints are sparse and the difficulty ramps up quick. While I do enjoy challenging games, it can wear on players when the challenge comes from poor design. Everything about the systems in Masters of Anima feels like it is working against the player. I had to redo levels entirely at times simply because I had the wrong skill load out. The game quickly devolves into a chore.

As far as visuals are concerned Masters of Anima goes for style over technical prowess. The game has a soft look with some great color design. The worlds are interesting and well laid out. I never lost my way. As mentioned the voice acting is also great and I really did enjoy the telling of the story, even if it was overly predictable.

Masters of Anima is a frustrating game. The mechanics seem to work against the player creating more chore and less fun. With some tweaks this game could be a sleeper hit for sure. As it stands though it ends up being more of a hard pass.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.