The JRPG developed by Arrowiz was unveiled last week at the Japan Expo convention. Responsible for editing Mato Anomalies on the French market, Koch Media organized a gameplay presentation there for specialized media. Thus, we were able to discover the title controller in hand for about thirty minutes.
A successful dystopian atmosphere
As stated in the announcement, Mato Anomalies takes place in a dystopian Shanghai. The city is a tangle of subway lines, streets and footbridges inspired by the best references of the genre. There is blade runner in some settings, Judge Dredd in others, and even some corners that recall the recent Cyberpunk 2077.
Movement was limited during our session, as the game is of course far from over. But the underground transportation map suggests a city that’s vast and ripe for exploration. The environments play enough on verticality, without this seeming to influence the gameplay for the moment.
The Bug in the Matrix
Arrowiz clearly aims to offer maximum immersion in the streets of the city. NPCs move around in it and bring it to life realistically. Some even offer short exchanges and allow you to discover “slices of life”. A veteran here, an old lady looking for her son bar pillar there, we get into the mood very easily.
Sometimes NPCs “slide” instead of walking, while cats teleport a few meters away when approached. The bug is obviously reminiscent of the duplicate cat in the movie Matrix and especially ready to smile. But that’s really nothing to be alarmed about, because again, Mato Anomalies is still under development.
Narrative at the heart of quests
The game will lead you to follow the story through successive quests. Additional tasks could therefore also be part of the party. During the demonstration, the mission presented important phases of dialogue. The characters were numerous and none seemed really superfluous. The excerpts observed will most likely fit into a large and detailed universe. The writing therefore seems to have benefited from careful work.
Turn-by-turn combat, sometimes classic…
During an incursion into the parallel dimension of neo-Shanghai, a confrontation pitted the two heroes Doe and Gram against vaguely insectoid creatures.
Nothing new to report here. The fight is organized with a system of turns, and responds to the usual codes of the genre, in the vein of what the Final Fantasy. This is to define the action order of the characters, their weapons and their skills. The range of possibilities was reduced for the demonstration, but should significantly expand by the game’s release.
The animations sometimes lacked fluidity, but this aspect is difficult to judge on a version of the title that is not finished. On the other hand, colors and play of light were rather pleasant and in line with the rest of the visuals.
…and sometimes more innovative
Mato Anomalies will, however, offer another type of confrontation. These will take the form of a mini-game of cards, representing a hack to pull off. In our session, the objective was to eliminate the defenses of the subconscious of a person in order to prevent him from lying. A welcome tip when it comes to conducting the investigation.
The card game itself has fairly standard rules and flow. Here too, the turn-by-turn governs the whole. The downside lies in the readability of the information: the interface is not intuitive enough. It took us long minutes to understand the meaning of several figures on the cards, despite the presence of a tutorial at the start of the fight.
Beyond this pitfall, the initiative of this type of gameplay is refreshing. The association of the card game with a hacking action is innovative, when other games would have been “content” to offer these phases a more conventional approach.
Mato Anomalies digs into heterogeneous but welcome references, both in terms of the artistic direction and the activities offered. The potential for a large and engaging JRPG is there. The title is however still very perfectible. Hopefully, the feedback from this Early Access will allow Arrowiz to make some sensible improvements as the finish progresses. The game is expected for 2023 on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, as well as on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
In the meantime, you can discover or rewatch the first trailer below:
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