Masters of Anima: Xbox One Review

<p>Disclaimer&colon; A copy of this game was provided the publisher for review&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Masters of Anima is a whimsical combat RTS by Passtech Games&period; In it&comma; you learn of Shapers who keep the world protected from something like a magical volcano&period; This volcano is Mount Spark&period; Using Anima they summoner warriors and give them specialized tasks&period; The protagonist Otto&comma; becomes one such shifter and immediately after Mount Spark erupts&period; Players find this is the work of the villain Zahr who has also sundered your bride to be&period; Now her soul is scattered across the land in shards&period; She was the Master Shifter and without her&comma; the world appears to be doomed&period; Now you need to piece her back together&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But by the time you gather all those shards&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll probably be the stronger of the two of you&period; If Ana wasn&&num;8217&semi;t such a damsel in distress none of this would be happening&period; With the way she patronizes you&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;d probably be better off without her&period; But instead&comma; you chase after her like a lost puppy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>The Gameplay In Masters Of Anima<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Since you&&num;8217&semi;ve mastered the basics of summoning guardians with Anima&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re just as qualified to help during this catastrophe&period; There are a few environmental hazards and simple puzzles but the challenges come from bosses and mini-bosses&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll micromanage the five kinds of guardians that you unlock to widdle away at their health&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-138332" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;15125708&sol;Fight&lowbar;final&period;gif" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"220" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;The guardians are protectors &lpar;frontline&rpar;&comma; sentinels &lpar;archers&rpar;&comma; commanders &lpar;which extend battle cries&rpar;&comma; keepers &lpar;resource managers and health providers&rpar;&comma; and summoners which manage small minions of their own&period; Managing these mobs with an Xbox One controller was difficult but doable&period; However&comma; I got the impression that the game would run better with a keyboard and mouse&period; Managing mobs of up to 100 gets to be a struggle&period; And the difficulty of the bosses struck me as unusual&period; It seemed a challenge for someone new to RTS and to simple for those familiar with the genre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; as of the 15th&comma; they have made some changes regarding this&comma; at least to the PC version&period; This update is still in Beta though&period; Three new difficulties settings are now available there&period; They are Apprentice&comma; Shaper&comma; and Master&period; Apprentice halves the health of enemies making this what could be an alright starting game for players new to the genre&period; They also give back their full Anima when they die&period; This can keep new players from feeling resource starved during battle&period; Shaper provides a slight decrease in difficulty and Master is the current difficulty&period; Though the original setting as the most difficult may not give RTS vets the challenges they are looking for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Other Problems and Strengths<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The main story takes between eight and ten hours to complete making it fairly short&period; And many have compared the game to Overlord and Pikmin&period; Leveling centers around a skill tree and you gain skill by gaining XP&period; However&comma; there are lots of hidden areas and this leads to a lot of backtracking in an attempt to avoid being under-leveled&period; These areas often feel boring and take away some of the game&&num;8217&semi;s enjoyment&comma; most of which is found in the game&&num;8217&semi;s graphics&period; With more polished controls Master of Anima could have been a more enjoyable game&period; But as it stands it was underwhelming and did not meet expectations&period; <img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-138344" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;15140654&sol;Explo&lowbar;final&lowbar;V2&period;gif" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"616" height&equals;"220" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;