On Thursday morning at Gamescom, my first appointment took me to Ukiyo Studios to check out FURYU’s newest title ANOMALiTH. While FURYU is especially known for their JRPGS, ANOMALiTH departs from the genre and presents itself as a slowly paced survival and extraction shooter, with a surreal horror twist.
The narrative centers around the 17-year-old Reona Minazuki, she is a so called “Diver” and is working for the government, whos Danger Zone Cnoutermeasures Office is trying to explore the “Anomaly Zones” or “Otherworlds that suddenly appeared in the year 20XX. They are spatial distortions that defy the laws of physics, reason and nature and are full of weird objects.
Reona has a sensitivity for these places and is entering them to extract dangerous objects.
A Diver Awakens
From the get-go, the game sets a grim, but quiet tone. On her very first Dive into an Anomaly Zone, a disastrous encounter leaves countless seasoned Divers dead. During a fight against a powerful monster, Reonas protective suit gets damaged and a strange power or mutation awakens in her. She becomes half human, half monster which nets her new powers and can only be controlled through heavy medication.
But that is not enough, her friend disappears in the zones and there is also the question what the zones really are and why she suddenly got these powers? All for the players to find out.
Dive, Retrieve, Return
While the story and the setting are interesting enough to keep going, ANOMALiTH is core gameplay is a departure from FURYUs usual games and very important for the shooter. The demo is pretty early on in the game, but even in the first encounters, it shows that it’s more of a methodical survival shooter than some fast paced multiplayer shooter. I was worried, when the SMG you got from the get go felt weak and unprecise, but the moment I switched to the Pistol and started to calm down and headshot enemies, everything felt into place. Since Reona doesn’t have a proper dodge, you are in constant need of proper positioning as well to not get overwhelmed by the enemies. You also always have to keep an eye on the amount of ammo you have and the deliberate inventory management.
There is some kind of rhythm to the combat, as enemy movement feels frantic, twitchy, but you can see a rhythm in their movement. You need to find these pauses in order to deal with them.
Later on you are also able to upgrade your weapons and once that happened, the SMG finally felt good. Another weapon I found was a shotgun, which felt very satisfying, but you had to get close with enemies.
Thanks to your special abilities can stun enemies and finish them off with your monstrous melee attacks. This saves a lot of ammo and kills enemies quickly but comes with the risk of getting hit.
Survival also fundamentally hinges on what you manage to bring back alive. As you explore, you gather Anaomalous Objects, artifacts and curical data. The deeper you go, the risk of losing your hard-earned loot upon death constantly weighs against the desire to push forward to uncover the next save point or rare weapon upgrade or story moment. Especially since enemies can also just spawn out of thin air to ambush you. Thankfully once you reach a save point, you can send equipment back to base, save the game or return altogether to go and upgrade.
And the base isn’t just an empty place as well. A broad cast of characters are waiting there for you to talk to between dives and you can slowly read and unravel the mystery of the world, through the reports you find.
Fashion and Firepower
One of the most motivating aspects of ANOMALiTH is its deep customization system. Not only is there massive variety of weapons and attachments. The artifacts retrieved on your dives into the Anomaly Zones can be sued to develop and upgrade these and can add new effects and stats to them, altering your approach to combat.
There is also stat-affecting gear that make Reona more powerful over time. Nine different gear slots are there to put items into that directly impact performance and stats. Over 300 custiomizable items are there for you to find and craft and if you do not like the look of them?
ANOMALiTH comes with a proper transmog system. If you are unfamiliar with it, it means your appearance is completely detached from your stats, so you can select all designs you like and simply use them for Reona. It is up to you how you will design your Reona. From heavy military gear to some silly fashion.
Final Thoughts
My time with ANOMALiTH was surprisingly fun. I am not the biggest fan of FURYUs previous games, as they often felt lacking something unique. But the demo of ANOMALiTHand the departure from their usual JRPG settings, did good to FURYU. ANOMALiTH played a lot slower than expected and a lot more like a survival-horror game, but the methodical and slow pacing combined with the surreal atmosphere from the get-go, are very intriguing. I had a smile on my face, where the first proper mission Reona was being send on was into some weird, moody hospital Anomaly. Mostly empty and haunting, with barely any enemies on a mission to find potential survivors, the mood and atmosphere were set by degrading colorsand the further you got in, twisted and winded hallways. ANOMALiTH plays with the familiar that got morphed into something unreal.
There are not many games like ANOMALiTH out there and it could be a niche hit, when it launches globally on October 29th on PC, PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2.
