Mato Anomolies Review on Xbox

Mato Anomalies is a anime-inspired turn-based RPG that takes players on a journey across Mato, a fantasized neo-futuristic version of a bygone oriental city. All reviews (unless stated otherwise) are based on the Developer/Publisher providing myself with a review code, which i am grateful for, but does not influence my outcome.

The premise is that you control Doe, a private detective in the city of Telosma and Gram a Shaman who job is to kill demons. Together you investigate strange anomalies around the city, or venture into rifts to battle demonic abominations determined to bring about the city's downfall.

The game boasts two very distinct protagonists, a card battling mini game, a blend of 3d and 2d anime storytelling and multiple endings.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there is a number of options to help you play the game and enjoy it to its fullest. You can skip dialogue with a single button or even fast forward, it at a pace you suit. Battle speeds are customizable and subtitle sizes are also included. There is also skip options for the mini hacking game should it be too much , but unfortunately no button remapping. There are no visual options present.

Gameplay

The gameplay starts with taking control of Doe, who after a kidnapping gets a job investigating a shipment of HANDOUT, a mysterious substance that is linked to criminal activity. While investigating said shipment at the harbour, Doe accidently is sucked into another dimension (called a Lair) and is attacked by a creature known as a Bane Tide. Thankfully, Doe is rescued by a shaman named Gram, who becomes Doe’s only way to investigate the mystery behind HANDOUT from then on. 

From here the gameplay consists of three different aspects, exploring Telosma and its Lairs, combat, and Mind Hacking. This is where the duel protagonists come in to play with Doe doing the exploring of Telosma, searching for clues and performing Mind Hacking on individuals in a bid to get information out of them. While Gram explores Lairs and deals with combating the demons within. It’s a great split that makes investigating any particular mission feel more like a team effort, rather than one man band. Whilst there is a main story here, each of the seven chapters promotes an individual case for the group to solve whilst the main backstory evolves around them, making each chapter a new and unique experience.

Exploring Telosma is similar to other RPGs, where you buy items, collect a variety of side quests, and talk with other NPCs in abid to progress the story along. The Mind Hacking aspect occurs whenever Doe requires information from someone that refuses to tell them what they need, and this comes in form of a card battling game. You must pay attention to the cards in your hand, and use the combinations that can be made against what obstacles your opponent has. These mostly in the forms of demons which give the opposition buffs or counters to your attacks. What I liked here was there were several decks of cards, and the further you progressed, the more that opened up which made for different outcomes and didn’t become stale. The descriptions though did confuse me a lot and in the end I often used brute force to try and win. This did not always work, and thankfully the developers have added a feature that after 3 failed attempts you have the ability to skip an enemy entirely and still progress without penalty.

When your not being a detective in the real world, you are often forced to enter the other dimension known as lairs, to dispose of demons plaguing the residents. And its here where you take control of your second protagonist, Gram. When you enter the lairs, you’ll encounter strange-looking demonic creatures that you’ll have to fight and defeat to complete your mission. Unlike some RPG’s you cannot avoid battles, though later dungeons, they do give you alternative paths which allow you to choose to a lesser demon to fight.

Combat is turn-based and works on a sort of rock-paper-scissors system, that solely evolves around your squad attacking a group of demonic enemies with a variety of skills that have cooldowns, In abid to reduce their health down to zero. Every enemy and party member has various weaknesses and strengths, like poison, blade, pierce, crush to watch out for and this can be highlighted when in battle. Certain allies specialise in these certain weaknesses and will have skills specific to those attributes. They can change their primary weapon type which hold those skills, prior to a battle if a switch it up is needed. Unique to Mato, everyone shares the same health bar, which prevents characters from being KOed and thus being one person or two group members down in a awkward of time.

For those who don’t enjoy the battle system all the time, you can automate the entire fight which is sometimes a godsend when it get slightly repetitive with smaller minions. Whilst the automation can do a very good job of winning the turn, picking the right combinations etc, you will still need to ensure other aspects, such as weapons, gears and skills are tailored correctly to get the best out of them. The turn-based system is simplistic to start with, but as more characters enter the group, can evolve into a more complex and thrilling experience. Again trying the automated option helps here, as it sometimes give you a better understanding of what attack combinations work best with a particular enemy.

To ensure you do get the very best out of your team, each person gets a variety of unique Weapons, Skills and Gears which you can upgrade to suit your own playstyle, and work like buffs to each character and the group as a whole. Weapons provide the characters their skills alongside having their own stats, and each person has 2 weapons to choose from, either close range or long range. As you progress you will find the same weapons with higher stats, but also an extra group buff or even a new skill for use in battles.

Each character has three skill trees (yin, yang, and ultimate) for you to invest points into, with the ability to create builds that best suit your own playstyle. The focus of these is mostly to buff a particular skills or reduce a cooldown so you can use it quicker. You can also unlock new skills, if you add enough points into a particular tree. Also anytime you feel you need to respec your characters, you can, should a particular boss start giving you hell.

Gears on the other hand are more like group buffs, and can be found throughout levels or side quests. The Gear themselves have a variety of traits like more HP or increased crit, with later level ones getting bonus traits such as group defence buff etc. And if you use multiple gears of the same token but with a different level you also get a hidden Set buff. In the end there is so much here to explore and tweak it can be overwhelming. Again thankfully the developer has added a button to auto equip the best ones should it be too much for you.

There are some ease of life aspects I would like introduced into the game. Such as being able to compare gears when slotted, making it easier to work out which one to switch with. Or being able to sell all your old weapons and items with just once click. However overall the game itself is a great rpg with its own unique take, that does get better the more you play.

Graphics

The games blend of 3d and 2d anime storytelling comes In the form of comic panels, cinematics, and a text box with the character’s portraits on either side. Comic and cinematics are reserved for main plot points with your character portraits being the main bulk of interactions. All the main characters have a hand drawn design that look detailed and unique, with Gram being my favourite and looking like some undead yakuza.

The games overall levels however are in 3d and look visually stunning, especially in South 2nd Road with its giant hologram of Madame Rose watching you pass by. But they are a little sparce for my liking, with only a small amount being actually explorable, with others more 2d static backgrounds for dialogue engagements. 

Stark contrast to the levels that are explorable, are the citizens of Mato, who all have clean-looking character models without eyes in abid to sell you that NPC visual. I would say though the models are overly used, and it would have been nice to have a few more variations to really sell that post-apocalyptic world. But it does also help when exploring the world, as the ones with eyes stand out, and help ensure they are the characters worth noting.

Lairs designs take the theme of whatever the chapter is, like Misty episode centred around a theatre of silhouettes, or Rich’s one showing chunks of money laying about, signifying greed. Design of the Lairs range from simply corridors to averagely complex mazes, that can add in a specific puzzle or alternative routes, to keep things interesting. Combine this with a pretty decent amount of demon variety design, and battles being a visual treat, I never found them boring or frustrating.

In terms of frame rate, to my eye it was very fluid and stable, but I did see pop-in here and there in the more crammed areas of the explorable world. I would also point out that loading screens are well used here with tips or lore whilst the a specific character portrait is filled as the games load, which is a lovely touch.

Sound

The game is partially voiced and the cast has some great voice actors for the characters. There is a variety of different language options so you should be able to find something to suit your needs. I will say there is the odd Lip-syncing issue, with it being a few seconds off, but something I suspect that can be patched.

In terms of music, during the dialogue between characters, it is pretty decent and sets the noir tone well. Lair music has several tunes from different musical genres, and uses a wide range of instruments ranging from harmonicas to classic guitars to ensure the themes it wants to envisage are showcased. Battle sounds are done well and attacks are impactful and weighty dependent on the skill used and ultimate’s are by far the best sounding, though I did get the odd issue with it losing sounds sometimes.

My recommendation here would be a good quality headset to really enjoy the complete experience of battling demons in a different realm.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Mato Anomalies is a "Great Purchase.

This game is unique and places its own take on the RPG genre. This would be a perfect game for you to start with if you want to experience turn-based rpgs, and for the more experienced it still has enough to even keep you happy. I would say it’s a persona 3 like experience for those that have played it and you can see its influence well. And just like them it is heavy on the dialogue and story, so if that’s not your thing do take this into account.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £34.99 or approx. $40 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 50+ hours worth of gameplay. However with multiple endings, side quests and unique gears to find, you can add another 10.

Overall this is a great game for those starting out and maybe those looking for something to fill the void whilst waiting for their favourite to appear. The developers have placed their own take on the genre and for me at least, has become a franchise I want to invest more time in.