For much of the time that Science Adventure fans have known of its existence, Anonymous;Code has been more of a waiting game than, well, an actual game. First announced all the way back in 2016, this sci-fi-heavy visual novel was smacked with delay after delay until it finally saw a Japanese-exclusive release on Switch in 2022. Now, Western players have their chance to experience the game, and we’re happy to report that it was (mostly) worth the wait.
Developed by Mages — the company behind popular titles like Steins;Gate and the Famicom Detective Club remakes — Anonymous;Code is the sixth mainline entry in the developer’s loosely connected Science Adventure series. The game brings the action to the far-flung year of 2037, a hyper-futuristic era dominated by augmented reality, world simulators, and AI girlfriends. You are introduced to protagonist Pollon Takaoka, a teenage hacker with a heart of gold and a desire to help those in need. After a chance encounter with a mysterious girl named Momo Aizaki, Pollon finds himself caught in an earth-shattering conspiracy revolving around the mystery of Cicada 3301 and the prophesied end of the world.
There’s a reason why Mages’ Science Adventure games are considered some of the best VNs in the business. Like its predecessors, Anonymous;Code predicates its narrative upon a mash-up of real-world historical mysteries with some of the most thought-out, well-developed explorations of hard sci-fi mechanics out there. It’s absolutely mind-bending stuff, building upon complex ideas from previous entries while tossing in a few revolutionary bombshells of its own. The amount of long-winded scientific explanations that get tossed around may prove overwhelming to newcomers, but those more familiar with the franchise’s overarching universe will find its answers to certain longstanding conceptual questions rewarding.
Anonymous;Code explores these sci-fi ideas in the service of crafting a sprawling, emotionally resonant narrative that weaves between zippy action sequences and heavy bouts of existentialism. The ensemble cast of characters, while a tad underdeveloped and far from the most memorable SciADV group, are a likable bunch, and their characterization is bolstered by the addition of a stellar English dub option for all spoken dialogue. Pollon particularly stands out as an immediately endearing protagonist, due in part to an all-timer of a performance from his English voice actor, Max Mittelman, who players may recognize as the voice of Ryuji in Persona 5. Yes, he does belt out a “For real?!” or two.
In terms of presentation, Anonymous;Code mostly shines. The game adopts a cel-shaded art style for its character models and backgrounds, and it absolutely pops on Switch, especially in handheld mode. What’s more, the title occasionally switches to beautiful 2D stills and comic book-style panels for pivotal story moments. The latter sequences are a treat just about every time they show up and help keep the game’s visuals dynamic. The only glaring issue graphics-wise seems to be a case of well-intentioned over-ambition. Character models are semi-animated, and while we’d normally appreciate that extra flourish, the animation itself often looks gaudy and unnatural.
All of this is well and good, but there’s still a major question in need of answering: What exactly do you do in Anonymous;Code? The Science Adventure games have always strayed on the side of limiting player interactivity to a singular or small group of mechanics, and Anonymous;Code is no different. In fact, this latest entry may just be the most non-interactive VN in the series yet, as it largely eschews the branching narrative paths and plethora of alternate endings that other entries are known for. That might prove disappointing to some, but Anonymous;Code partially makes up for it by introducing what is arguably the franchise’s most creative and narratively integral mechanic thus far.
Early on in the game, Pollon stumbles upon Anonymous;Code’s save screen — the very same one that the player has been using to jump in and out of the game — and learns that he can create his own saves and load them of his own volition, all while retaining his memories. This ability effectively grants Pollon the power of time travel, allowing him to jump back to a previous save if things go south and try a different tactic. Save and Load is what facilitates the main source of player interactivity, as they can pull up the screen at crucial moments and persuade Pollon to load a previous save in order to avoid one of the game’s many gruesome fail states.
Save and Load is a delightfully meta mechanic that allows the story of Anonymous;Code to progress in some unexpected directions. However, it’s not a perfect implementation — the junctions at which Pollon can Save and Load are tightly scripted, and it can be frustrating to try and lock down the exact line of text you need to be on to convince Pollon to load. This mechanic is also iterated upon in some cool ways later on in the game, but those changes aren’t clearly telegraphed, and can occasionally leave you at a loss in terms of how to move the story forward.
Revealing the narrative significance of Pollon’s Save and Load ability would be a spoiler-y step too far, but we can confidently say that the payoff is immensely satisfying. Through this mechanic and other creative concepts, Anonymous;Code takes the idea of the meta video game to its logical conclusion. The result is a compelling thesis statement for visual novels as a genre — a story that could only be most effectively told in an interactive game format.
Conclusion
Just as the Science Adventure games posit that human perception affects reality, not every player will experience Anonymous;Code the same way. For those new to the franchise, this latest entry is an imaginative if conceptually dense sci-fi romp. For those who have played the other entries, it’s something more — a gratifying culmination of thematic and narrative strands roughly 15 years in the making. Either way, Anonymous;Code has something special to say about the universe, the soul, and video games as a medium.
Comments 26
Everything, including both joys and cons, sound like this game is tailor made for me.
you know how to get people interested
For exactly one split second, I thought the title said "fleshy" instead of "flashy".
I had a good chuckle.
Ooh I enjoy Sci;Adv games. I’ll pick this one up when I’m in the mood for a VN
How's the actual translation? Does CoZ need to step in and fix stuff? Is it consistent with previous translations as far as other concepts introduced in previous games, or does it mistranslate stuff? Any cut content that we know of, like Chaos;Head?
It's such a shame that pretty much all visual novel games seem to be anime. I really loved the House of Fata Morgana, but I found myself only getting half way through the second visual novel I picked up. I don't mind anime or manga, but I would really love to try a VN that is just a straight up Adult novel, or maybe a fantasy novel in the LOTR's mould.
One of my favourite series of VNs so definitely looking forward to playing this one. Going to need to wait a little longer though unfortunately as I want a physical copy and it's not sold here so I need to import except I'm moving house in a few weeks so it's bad timing to be ordering stuff Internationally. Hopefully it's still readily available in a few weeks.
Well, sounds and looks interesting. However, female characters' sprites in one of the screenshots looks kinda ugly, imo.
@dskatter All official English localizations of Japanese video games sucks. In one way or another. ANONYMOUS;CODE is no exception, I think.
Can't wait for this!
@Vyacheslav333 the SciAdv games are a special case, to the point that others felt the need to patch all of the English PC releases to fix inconsistencies between games. Since visual novels are pretty much all text…that matters more with something like this.
@dskatter «the SciAdv games are a special case, to the point that others felt the need to patch all of the English PC releases to fix inconsistencies between games.»
Yeah, I know about it. But, other Japanese games, including VNs, also have various inconsistencies, stupid changes, and, localizers's nonsensical bs in official localizations as well.
@Vyacheslav333 Which contradicts nothing of what I just said.
@dskatter Well, yeah.
@Vyacheslav333
To what extent ?
Do games like Zelda or P5R have issues for example ? Animes ?
You're not the first one I see saying there's some problems with English localizations of Japanese content so I'm curious
@RendoFonzarelli As someone who enjoys both mediums, I think you’re on to something. TellTale games along with the old point and click adventures filled that void, but I think there is an untapped market for a lot of “picture books” to be made. Established IPs such as the Witcher or RedWall would benefit, but original work would also be very refreshing to see.
I definitely want to pick it up at some point but it's kind of a, "Wait until later, too much stuff right now," thing.
That said I imagine this will be the most playable Science Adventure game to date just due to being dubbed. These games take a lot of focus while really kind of begging to just be letting roll while you're multitasking so that's likely going to make it much easier to get into than the others have been.
Im very curious to see where Anonymous;Code falls on the sliding scale of SciAdv titles. Will it be an amazing 10/10 like Steins;Gate or Chaos;Child, a solid 8/10 title like Chaos;Head, Robotics;Notes or Steins;Gate 0, or 5/10 trash like Robotics;Notes DaSH. I'll be picking this up on PC for ease of a potential CoZ patch.
Pollon Takaoka...? Lol. As a Spanish speaker, it would be impossible for me to take the protagonist seriously haha.
@Nechiku «To what extent ?»
Well, it varies from one game to another. Also, it may depend on company that provide the localization.
«Do games like Zelda or P5R have issues for example ? Animes ?»
Hard to say anything about Persona 5 Royal, 'cause I don't have intention to play this game. 540p30FPS in handheld mode for a JRPG anime-style game is unacceptable for me. NieR:Automata The End of YoRHa Edition works at 720p30FPS in handheld mode, and it's a ARPG game, not JRPG. And the game looks awesome, imo.
What's about Zelda games, though... They seems to be half-localized and half-transcreated. So, I can say that the Zelda series have these issues.
What's about anime, though... Well... Anime/OVA for children are usually transcreated. Pokémon, Bakugan, Inazuma Eleven... Just to name a few. The same with anime/anime-style games. But, back to the localizations. For example, 1st Danganronpa's localization is pretty average. Corpse Party (2021)'s localization is quite not bad, and, surprisingly, one of the best that I have ever seen. UNIcl-r's localization is rushed and average, BLAZBLUE games' localizations are pretty average, Phantom Breaker: Omnia's localization is... Between "poor" and "bad", probably. One of the worst localizations that I have ever seen. English localization of NieR:Automata The End of YoRHa Edition is on a little bit worse than the official Russian localization, lol.
@Vyacheslav333 I forget to ask, but exactly what are the problems with the localization ? What does it get wrong ?
@RendoFonzarelli You should try Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, a game which came out on the Switch last month and which Nintendo Life gave a (deserved) 9/10 review. It features some deck-building mechanics, but they are pretty light, and it's much more of a fantasy visual novel with some deep, adult themes.
@Nechiku They think that they can do whatever they want, during the localization process. Nonsensical and stupid bs, censorship, changing characters' personalities, removing (bonus) content... They think that they have rights to do this. BUT. Are they game developers? – No. Are they game scenario writers? – No. Are they characters' creators? – No. Are they music composers? – No. And despite all of this, localizers thinks that they can do whatever they want, and they are thinking that they have rights to do whatever they want. While in reality, they don't have these rights. Their job is just to translate/localize the games for the gamers, not for their selves.
Eliza is another great VN not presented in an anime style.
@RendoFonzarelli I guess all anime is for children..../s
Reads like my kinda thang actually. Cheers for the review.
Can someone answer a possibly stupid question for me?
Is this game connected to Master Detective Archives: Rain Code at all?? Cuz it's the same Publisher and they both end in "code."
I think they are NOT connected, but I haven't played either game yet so I'm just checking.
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
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