Mato Anomalies (First Impressions)

Developer: Arrowiz

Publisher: Prime Matter

Released: 10 March, 2023

Price: $39.99 USD

In my spare time, I play a lot of popular detective games as well as some of the less well-known ones since I enjoy them. It's fun and can really pass the time.

Mato Anomalies takes the form of a detective visual novel and combines deck building with turn-based fighting and I don't really think it is working out too well.

Throughout the first two hours playing a game, I usually have an understanding of what the game is about and continue to learn more about it as I progress.

But I think the game isn't really what it purports to be outside of visual novel.

Investigating

There isn't really any

Not in the sense of comparing notes, conducting interviews, or anything like that.

The game moves along in this way. You can take on the roles of both Mr. Doe, a private investigator, and Gram, an exorcist who hunts demonic creatures after receiving information from Donna a what I would call high ranking info broker.

Because he's weak, Doe will take on side missions from townsfolk and tell Gram to enter the places that have access to these spatial rifts. Where he will fight.

Repeat this for the story and side missions 2 hours in and later on.

Mind Hacking

If you can even call it that, this deck builder feels strange.

It doesn't feel like it fits in this game, and a better system would be far more engaging and enjoyable to play. All you have to do is get the interference balls out of the way an slam damage and combo your combo cards into your subject.

Once this is done, the plot moves forward normally in the manner of a visual novel, without cutscenes or other fancy elements. It just doesn't fit.

Combat

You can simply farm in the random lairs once you have access to them.

I'm actually at a lost for words. The best way I can describe it is that the battle system in this game is so dull or lacking something. The fighting is boring so, I turned on quick combat to speed things up but even then, I'd rather not fight anything.

I also observed that an auto-battle setting may exist but has not yet been found. I am wondering when it will show or if it even exists at this point.

It currently feels like the game needs filler to lengthen it because, in all honesty, it's not enjoyable in any way I try to look at it, outside of imagining it doesn't exist.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it horrible, something is obviously missing. It's likely that it's due to the way everything is laid out in discrete linear locations. Perhaps if more monsters started to come in quantity roaming around it would be more interesting.

Voice Acting

Only in comics and cutscenes

It's a visual novel, and most of this kind don't typically have a lot of vocal narration.

While having a generally terrible main protagonist voice and everyone else having a decent voice actor, you're stuck listening to a monotonous voice actor who just doesn't seem to care about any of the situations he is in.

This is OK, however it irritates me when they choose to give particular bits of the text voice acting for just a few seconds before switching back to reading.

It really takes away from the experience and only intensifies the unpleasant feelings surrounding particular characters that are not enjoyable to listen to.

Conclusion

Up until this point, I haven't really been enjoying this game. If I ignore the combat and slog through the forced deck battles, I can tolerate the story and keep moving forward, but I haven't yet seen anything that truly distinguishes this from being a shallow visual novel with promises of other elements, notably detective work.

At the price this game is asking, you could buy other games at a similar or slightly cheaper cost and still have money left over for additional purchases.

My initial thoughts on this game come to a close with the caveat that, while others may disagree, that is what makes gamers unique. You don't have to share their interests or agree with them and are welcome to critic me on mine.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

Twitch

Twitter

Steam Curation

- Pawkt