For context, the only other Science Adventure VN I've completed is Chaos Child. I've played about 9 hours of Robotic Notes and am familiar with Steins Gate and Chaos Head.
Anonymous Code was overall a fun read with an interesting plot and characters. The pacing is surprisingly pretty fast so it was consistently engaging throughout. The main story beats involve multiple cyberterrorism events which were all intense.
There is a ton of sci-fi terms and themes in the story which reflected the near futuristic setting. It can get crazy at times, but compared to Kotaro Uchikoshi's stuff (999, Virtue's Last Reward, A.I. Somnium, etc...), it feels more convincing and easy to digest here.
From what I noticed, there's some references and cameos from Steins Gate and a minor reference to Robotics Notes. Prior knowledge of those games aren't need to understand Anonymous Code.
I liked the general writing of the game especially when it comes to monologues. Some games like Chaos Child can spend an unnecessarily excessive amount of time discussing one scene. Anonymous Code fortunately avoids this most of the time so that scenes don't really get dragged out.
There are a few relaxed scenes in-between that does provide good moments for a breather. I did wished there were more overall for a better balance.
The game does feel rushed towards the end though which is around the 2/3 mark of the game. The True End itself is surprisingly short and doesn't leave a stronger impact than I'd expected. A bit lacking during these parts, but I still enjoyed them regardless.
The characters, particularly the good guys are likable. The main duo leads are solid and receive a decent amount of character development. However, the same couldn't be said of the supporting side characters. Other than some background reveals, most of them don't reveal much in terms of character development.
The antagonists for the most part, lack any real character development.
The art direction was pretty great. The backgrounds are colorful and the character models are 3D, but made it appeared to look 2D so I found it much more appealing than Robotics Notes' use of the 3D portraits.
The CGs are numerous and great to look. The manga panels that serve as several cutscenes are pretty dynamic, but the obvious change in character design during these moments really take me out at times.
The budget for this game is among the highest I've experienced. The presentation and graphics were great. Dialogue is fully voiced except for monologues.
The story is somewhat linear on a single story path, but there are small branches throughout that lead to Bad Ends. The triggers to avoid these can be pretty difficult to figure out so a guide is really recommended.
The game is on the shorter side of things. There's no in-game timer, but my PS5 says 11 hours. I'd figured it be closer to 15 hours in reality to complete everything.
Overall, a fun read, but feels pretty rushed towards the end and most of the characters sadly don't get enough proper development.
Anonymous Code was overall a fun read with an interesting plot and characters. The pacing is surprisingly pretty fast so it was consistently engaging throughout. The main story beats involve multiple cyberterrorism events which were all intense.
There is a ton of sci-fi terms and themes in the story which reflected the near futuristic setting. It can get crazy at times, but compared to Kotaro Uchikoshi's stuff (999, Virtue's Last Reward, A.I. Somnium, etc...), it feels more convincing and easy to digest here.
From what I noticed, there's some references and cameos from Steins Gate and a minor reference to Robotics Notes. Prior knowledge of those games aren't need to understand Anonymous Code.
I liked the general writing of the game especially when it comes to monologues. Some games like Chaos Child can spend an unnecessarily excessive amount of time discussing one scene. Anonymous Code fortunately avoids this most of the time so that scenes don't really get dragged out.
There are a few relaxed scenes in-between that does provide good moments for a breather. I did wished there were more overall for a better balance.
The game does feel rushed towards the end though which is around the 2/3 mark of the game. The True End itself is surprisingly short and doesn't leave a stronger impact than I'd expected. A bit lacking during these parts, but I still enjoyed them regardless.
The characters, particularly the good guys are likable. The main duo leads are solid and receive a decent amount of character development. However, the same couldn't be said of the supporting side characters. Other than some background reveals, most of them don't reveal much in terms of character development.
The antagonists for the most part, lack any real character development.
The art direction was pretty great. The backgrounds are colorful and the character models are 3D, but made it appeared to look 2D so I found it much more appealing than Robotics Notes' use of the 3D portraits.
The CGs are numerous and great to look. The manga panels that serve as several cutscenes are pretty dynamic, but the obvious change in character design during these moments really take me out at times.
The budget for this game is among the highest I've experienced. The presentation and graphics were great. Dialogue is fully voiced except for monologues.
The story is somewhat linear on a single story path, but there are small branches throughout that lead to Bad Ends. The triggers to avoid these can be pretty difficult to figure out so a guide is really recommended.
The game is on the shorter side of things. There's no in-game timer, but my PS5 says 11 hours. I'd figured it be closer to 15 hours in reality to complete everything.
Overall, a fun read, but feels pretty rushed towards the end and most of the characters sadly don't get enough proper development.