Anodyne

ANODYNE (2013) was an interesting fantasy adventure game. You play as the character Young, fully equipped with his quirky weapon (the broom), and delve deep into his subconscious, into a dreamlike world. It's not an overly complex game in terms of game mechanics and visual style but there are puzzles that get you thinking and lots of areas to explore as well as upgrades and cards to collect and some fun dialogue. The game is fairly dark considering the simplicity of it, as well as the Zelda-like retro vibes.

Overall, it was a quirky and fun little game with some heavy themes going on in the background. Definitely a fun play and recommended for fans of retro classics and Zelda-esque styled games, but with a definite darker twist.

STORY: 8/10 GAMEPLAY: 7/10 GRAPHICS: 7/10 ART DESIGN: 8/10 MUSIC: 8/10 OVERALL RATING: 8.0.

So I found out about this game through this great YouTuber named Nitro Rad. His stuff is really good, go check him out. But anyways, Anodyne is a Zelda-like game that almost feels like Link's Awakening + Earthbound + Yume Nikki, which I'm sure barely makes any sense, but I'll explain.

The game takes place in a large, interconnected overworld called "The Land," in which you must save "The Briar" from "The Darkness." All extremely cliche, but intentionally so, as much of the first part of the game is essentially a parody of early Zelda titles.

The writing is one of my favorite parts of Anodyne. Oftentimes, the text is either nonsensical (like Mother 3), funny (like Mother 3), or extremely depressing and existential (like Mother 3). And it's all great. I don't think there's a single bad line of dialogue in this game.

The gameplay, however is the part of the game that's most similar to the Zelda series. You basically just go around and look for cards, the game's collectable of choice, as well as very occasional items to help you on your journey. These items include jump boots (which let you jump), as well as upgrades for your main weapon, a broom. And that's one of the least weird aspects of the game.

A lot of the cards and secrets are achieved by reaching an area that looks like it should have an obvious entrance in a certain room, but the real entrance is found by taking an extremely roundabout path to the same room, where you can usually open a path to the room the entrance looks like it should've been. God that was a word salad. I'm sorry for making you read that.

Near the end of the game, you unlock a tool called Swap that leads to some really neat postgame puzzles puzzles and hidden areas, but I won't spoil those. Trust me, they're really cool.

The combat in Anodyne is very generic and, once again, akin to older Zelda titles. It's also generally pretty easy, but it's far from the focus of the game.

And that's Anodyne! I heavily recommend it to anyone who enjoys Metroidvanias or Zelda-type games. It's only like $10, so just buy it.