There have been tons of 2D Zelda-inspired adventure games over the years, but very rarely if ever have any of them truly hit the feeling that Anodyne hits. The dream-like atmosphere is phenomenal and extremely charming, frightening, and intriguing all at the same time. The writing is clever and endearing without feeling schmaltzy or overly-referential. The level design is fun and feels familiar yet fresh. Play this and Anodyne 2 as soon as possible if you want a game built on powerful emotional cores and hope.

Two qualities stand out in Anodyne: one, its designer's willingness to engage in symbolism and two, the quality of its mazes. Both can be hit-or-miss (hits: the red cave, apartments, and hotel; misses: the suburb, acrobats tent, endgame platforming), but I appreciate the use of 2D Zelda mechanics as a vehicle of authorial expression. There could be more connective tissue and context, but I enjoyed the open-ended, suggestive approach to story taken in most of the game. The mechanical complications of the final boss were fun and conveyed "final boss," but I found that it didn't do much to deepen the story. The ending was, somehow, just what I expected. I'm looking forward to what sounds like a more thoughtful and interesting game in the shape of its sequel.

Puzzle bem gostosinho e combate simples. Achei interessante a mecânica da arma, que era uma vassoura, e o que ela podia fazer para interagir com o mundo de Anodyne. O ponto negativo maior que encontrei seria que em alguns momentos, mais para o final do jogo, tanto os puzzles quanto os boss de cada área se tornaram muito frustrantes e quebrou um pouco com a experiência legal que estava sendo o jogo. Queria ter continuado para ver o final da história, mesmo não entendendo nada até aquele momento, mas acabei largando por causa dessa experiência.

i don't want to be too harsh on this as it was made by such a small team and has so much passion but i could not stand actually playing this on a moment to moment basis by the ending. Link's Awakening and similar titles are great to take inspiration from but this ends up playing as a version of those with rancid gameplay elements at times.

lots of little issues that came together to do a lot of damage to my experience with the game as time went by. invincibility frames when taking damage feel extremely brief (enough so that taking damage during some of the later encounters is never a single thing so much as a string of hits) while enemies felt like it took ages, labyrinthine map design with tons of areas that lead to nothing, miserable platforming mechanics, and so forth. the game only took me a little over three hours to finish and the fatigue i had with it felt like i had played for triple that. not a good sign tbh.

absolutely loved the art design and soundtrack at least. the strange world of the game kept me going more than anything, i think.

Anodyne 2 looks like it has potential to click with me more so here's hoping.

ehhh... i enjoyed the exploration a lot in the beginning, but the tedium of the mechanics sets in fast. some of those platforming segments are a pain in the ass because of how precise you have to be in an imprecise system, and the enemy i-frames are kinda nuts, especially for bigger ones that do a lot of damage at a time. by the time i made it to the final boss, i felt pretty soured overall (and the lack of clarity about that fight in particular didn't help).
good music. nice, well-developed atmosphere. i liked the nonlinear nature and evident yume nikki inspiration. the coolest part of the game for me was accidentally going to the blood world as my first level. but the story and dialogue (and eventually the gameplay) left much to be desired. not sure if i'm interested enough in playing the sequel anymore.

Yes, this is a game with the subgenre of "Zelda games", but I really liked it. The game as a whole is divided into two parts, the first is the game itself in which we travel through the worlds, and the second part in which we are given a tool after finishing the game, which... otherwise there is no point in spoiling, otherwise all the magic of the game is lost. A very good and non-standard project for a small indie company.

Да, это игра с поджанром "игр про зельду", но мне дико понравилось. Игра в целом поделена на две части, первая это собственно сама игра в которой мы путешествуем по мирам, а вторая часть, в которой нам дают после окончания игры инструмент, который.. в прочем спойлерить нет смысла, иначе вся магия игры пропадает. Очень хороший и нестандартный проект для маленькой инди компании.

Very neat little game. Plays like the GBC Zelda games. Most of your time is spent exploring different worlds and clearing dungeons. The main goal of the game is to finds cards that are scattered throughout the game world. You'll need to collect 36 cards in order to finish the game (though there's more than 36 cards in total). After the credits you'll be put into a post game. Here you'll be free to find the rest of the games cards. As well as some easter eggs and secret areas. You'll do this with a new mechanic. I don't want to spoil it but its one of the coolest things I've seen in years. The story itself is pretty cryptic. Theres not a lot of interactions with others characters. Theres a few recurring characters but they don't really say very much until the end. It leaves a lot to interpretation. Honestly I'm not really sure what it was about. As for problems with the game I've only really got some nit picks. The games a little buggy. At least on Playstation 4 most of the trophies seem to be broken. Only about half the trophies for beating bosses unlocked for me. I think dying to a boss repeatedly might be what bugs their trophy. Since all the trophies I did get were from bosses I beat my first try.

I remember playing this a long time ago when it first came out, but at that point I had no experience with 2D Zelda likes. This was such a calming, contained, and engaging gaming experience. I loved the atmosphere, the short little puzzles, and the exploration. Despite the story not being super easy to understand, it was still charming and I felt like there was a lot of depth and deeper meaning that could be found in talking to the world's inhabitants. I would say my favorite part of the game though, strictly from a stylistic angle is when you're sitting on top of the hotel talking to the boy that sees the lights in the cityscape as individual people that he loves. Really took me out of the action and caused me to sit back and take it all in.

There's one truly inspired moment in Anodyne. I won't spoil it here, but it has to do with a context-sensitive action surprising the player with an unexpected outcome. I play games for moments like this: that catch me off guard and enlighten my understanding of game design. Overall, I feel pretty mixed on Anodyne, so I thought it best to start with the positive. Of every game I've rated below 2.5 stars, Anodyne is the one I'm most glad to have played, purely because of its willingness to surprise.

That said, Anodyne's downfall stems from how plain its inspirations are. Anodyne is Zelda meets Yume Nikki. This isn't necessarily a problem: Zelda and Yume Nikki are among the most influential, especially for indie games. The problem is, taking so much from such landmark titles invites a comparison that is seldom favorable.

Much like Zelda, Anodyne is a top down dungeon crawler. Anodyne's main innovation is using a Broom as a weapon: it functions much like a sword, but it has the added ability to pick up and place down dust. Unlike Zelda, there are no dungeon items, and few upgrades to speak of: every dungeon is designed entirely around the Broom. There are a few interesting puzzle solving applications of the broom: you can use dust to swim across water, or to block projectiles, or to power moving platforms. This central mechanic isn't horribly shallow, but it definitely lacks enough depth to support 6 dungeons. The result is, in spite of its short length, Anodyne feels quite repetitive, and easily wears out its welcome.

Much like Yume Nikki, Anodyne is an exploration-focused game taking place in the protagonists subconscious. Though I think Anodyne is a decent Zelda-like game, I really feel like it misses the mark on this front. Yume Nikki is gripping not just because of the surreal imagery, but because said imagery communicates something about the protagonist. Yume Nikki has a section that switches to an 8-bit art style--but this makes perfect sense considering Madotsuki owns a Famicom in the real world.

Anodyne also has a sudden 8bit section. But, what does this tell us about our protagonist, Young? Not much. After the 8-bit area, Anodyne drops all pretense and shoves the player into a Circus-themed dungeon for seemingly no reason.
Overall, Anodyne's setting captures all of the weaknesses of dreamlike settings, and none of the strengths. Anodyne feels incredibly lazy: It doesn't want to put in the work to establish a consistent setting, nor does it put effort into making its surreal imagery symbolically resonant like Yume Nikki does.

Ultimately, Anodyne blindly copies from Zelda and Yume Nikki, while embodying none of the lessons those games actually taught. It's not horrible, but its a long way from greatness.

Atmospheric, dreamy and engaging. The combat really fails to be interesting though and your restrictive move-set but high health pool makes every fight a face-tank and spam situation. It feel very hard to lose most fights fairly (you have no i-frames meaning getting repeatedly hit by the same projectile is very possible) but most bosses are different enough (especially The Briar) that they are at least a little memorable. The post-game is great but the final boss-rush section bugged out for me and after trying every fix I could, I could not complete it. Enjoyable all around.

gnawing insecurity surrounding this hobby is not a phenomenon. the corners of young’s mind crumble, voices sneer and penetrate the fantasy as we retreat further:
is this medium valid?
are they right?
do i need to grow up?
am i an artist?

am i alone

you’re overthinking it, dude

[This game burrowed itself into my brain and I think about it constantly. It's beautiful, fun, haunting, and has one of the most fascinating mechanics that opens up a whole new way to explore it's creative and (often) emotionally charged levels.]

There's something dark lurking in the background of this game. You can feel it right from the start. It's not dangerous, it's not out to get you, but it's there, brooding and tonally adjacent to the pretty zones and the beautiful music you find yourself exposed to.

This feels like a very personal game. There's struggle here, as if the author or the protagonist are wrestling with themselves, yearning for the world and life and all it's beauty and happiness, but to reach out and touch it means to expose their vulnerabilities and confront all the terrible, awful things that exist alongside that which they crave. It's a sensation not unlike drowning, but something won't let you die.

While the puzzles and exploration are engaging enough to carry you through the experience, it's the atmosphere and themes on display that make it something special. Although the ending is quite moving and rounds the experience out nicely, it's the final gift it gives you, asking you to tear the game itself apart and search it's every dark corner and fractured room to see what's been hiding all this time that has been what's kept me thinking about this game for years.

Indie Zelda-like (exactly my jam)! Weird vibes, weird dialogue (affectionate), creepy/dark. Boss fights solid but a small part of the experience. All of that is good.

The level design was basically just a maze. No mechanics are more interesting than locks and keys, very few items that do anything, and rarely any puzzles. Not engaging, not innovative. Only challenging because the world is so overly vast for what little it has to offer.

I reached the final gauntlet dungeon and decided I didn't care enough about the story to bother with janky parkour.

I will certainly try Anodyne 2, however! There's good here, I look forward to seeing how they expand in the sequel.

Anodyne did it's job in satisfying a lot of the simple puzzle-solving and engaging mechanics I remember enjoying from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, while concurrently not satisfying my want for SNES-like difficulty in boss design and challenges. Although some of the dungeon designs and concepts that were attempted to be built upon did not ultimately come together to create a cohesive/consistently polished Zelda-like title, I found that Anodyne made up for that through stellar environmental and atmospheric design. The game built upon themes of isolation and disconnection quite well, even during moments where the dialogue seemed somewhat clunky. Though as far as my general perception of the writing goes, I think it's off-kilter design lends itself well to a narrative centered around escape and guilty discomfort. Overall quite an enjoyable game experience, looking forward to see what this team accomplished with it's successor.