Gaming on a Budget: Anodyne

I am always going to prefer old school games to modern ones.  I would never say never, but its unlikely that will ever change.  Gaming always had an “indy-ness” to it, even with big budget titles.  With that came a certain sense of creativity that has since been lost.

However, modern gaming offers a bevy of conveniences that absolutely improve the player experience.  One of the biggest is easy access to cheap games.  I have talked about PS Plus/Games with Gold at length, but even beyond those services there are massive libraries of budget titles, including this week’s entry Anodyne.  How budget was it?  I spend $0.99 on this game.  Ninety Nine cents.  That’s the cost of a doughnut at Dunkin Donuts.  I don’t know if I have ever bought a game for less (although through a strange BoGo promotion in the early 00s, GameStop did once give me, not charge me, give me, $1.50 to take a game.)  

But at that price point, you are going to get what you pay for.  This was an indie game designed primarily by two people. I mean, there’s absolutely no way this isn’t a buggy mess at best and a complete piece of trash at worst, right?  Wrong.  Anodyne is old school, thought provoking, interesting and just downright awesome.

Anodyne’s gameplay mimics that of NES and SNES era Zelda games.  You control the main character, simply named Young, from an overhead perspective as you move about  Map made up of several different sections.  The screen scrolls each time you move to a new area and you navigate via a simple map.  There are field areas as well as dungeons, each filled with unique enemies.  You  can progress further by finding keys to unlock doors and character cards to open special gates.  For some reason, you attack with a broom, which is mapped to a single button.  Unlike in Zelda, there are no special items, but you can jump.  

The dungeons are all very well designed, each with its own theme and puzzles.  They aren’t as deep or involved as you would find in a Zelda title, but they still have plenty to do.  There is a good variety of enemies in each dungeon, with some more generic baddies to go along with more on theme ones.  They all have unique patterns and the rooms do a good job of maximizing their threat level through placement.  That said, the difficulty is fair and all of the puzzle elements are logical.  I did find it a little disappointing that there aren’t many unique items, as the cards are what you are really after, but that’s not a major gripe.

Besides, the biggest selling point here is the atmosphere.  It’s extremely difficult to describe, but unlike anything else I have ever experienced in a game.  It vacillates between calming, terrifying, confusing, bizarre, charming, unsettling and funny throughout the 6 hour quest.  It’s almost a little bit too much.  You will be in a strange, unsettling dungeon only to come out on the other side to a breathtaking, beautiful mountain peak with few enemies.  From there, you will travel to a creepy, black and white town where demons stalk you and talking to any towns person causes you to kill them.  Then you move on to the next dungeon... in an apartment building?  It really keeps the environments fresh, with more standard caves, fields and mountains coexisting with hotels, labyrinths with random 8-bit graphics and the aforementioned apartment building.

It was difficult to find any major issues that weren’t preference based.  The biggest one I found was with the jumping.  It wasn’t really consistent, I never felt like I got the same amount of height or distance every time.  It was also difficult to make your mark, as the isometric viewpoint made it very difficult to determine where you were going to land.  While this was frustrating, the designers did a good job of  mitigating it.  Unlike in Zelda or other similar games, you don’t take damage when you fall down pits, you just have to start the room over.  This means you can fail as many times as you want without dying.

In general, some of the layouts are bizarre.  You can’t always tell where you are supposed to go or what you can and can’t jump over.  This threw me off the trail of where I was supposed to go a time or two.  There are also quite a few dead end screens, which is generally not the best design choice for a game like this.  My final gripe would have to be the length, as I was able to beat the game in about 6 hours.  I think an adventure game like this should be about double that length, though I can’t complain too much because it was an indie game I paid a buck for.

Besides, there is far more good than bad.  The storyline is somewhat nonsensical, but its done in a way that feels intentional.  It really makes you stop and think what the heck its supposed to be about.  It could be super deep, or it could be about nothing, it could be something in between, but either way it gets the mind going.  The graphics are excellent, with nice and varied pixel art.  It’s color palate is very diverse and its graphical style mimics a number of different games, though if I had to pick one it probably looks more like Earthbound than anything.  The sound is absolutely beautiful and features a number of memorable tracks.  Each of them do a great job of setting the mood.

While it can be a little disjointed at times, I found Anodyne to be a great playthrough. I found it stimulating, yet relaxing.  I would recommend it, even if the price has since gone up.  It kind of fits the same mold as Cosmic Star Heroine, its a modern version of a style of game they just don’t make anymore.  I would highly recommend this to any old school gamer, or old school gamer at heart.

9/10

So....

Was it worth it at the price point? - Absolutely.  An absolutely incredible game for the price of a cup of coffee?  I would never turn that down.  I would pay $10, $20 and probably more for something like this.

Would I pay $60 for it? - Probably not, but only because of its short length.  I would absolutely pay full price for a longer, more in depth version of a game like this.

Play this if:

You are a huge fan of old school Zelda

You are looking for a good middle ground for the whole “games as art” vs. “pure gameplay” bit.

You are looking for a great gaming experience for not a lot of money.

Avoid if:

Some of the more disturbing bits aren’t your thing.

You like the atmosphere of your games a little more consistent