Thoughts on Anonymous;Code

Ngl guys I´m lacking motivation to play videogames right now so I´m actually taking a break, but I felt motivated by the idea of reading something or maybe playing something that doesn´t require too much from me, and out of nowhere, Anonymous;Code was released. The thing with Anonymous;Code...I was really expecting it, I mean, it´s an important release to me and whenever there is an important release, I tend to give it high priority. I´m gonna be honest, this post was supposed to be a first impression post but I was pretty addicted to it, once I realized, I completed it in no time, lol.

Anonymous;Code is a visual novel which is integrated within an universe called Science Adventures, this Sience Adventure is conformed by other visual novels such as Chaos;Head Noah or Steins;Gate. I´m such a Science Adventures nerd, I won´t deny it. As a matter of fact, my favorite visual novel from the Science Adventures is Chaos;Child which is a sequel to Chaos;Head Noah, I want to play it again because at its time I felt that it was actually peak narrative experience and I´d like to now if the actual me will think the same, but let´s focus on Anonymous;Code.

Let´s begin from the begining, we play as Pollon (o_o), he´s a skilled hacker and we are actually living in 2037, where technology is at its peak. Let´s talk a little bit about Pollon, at first, he didn´t give me the best first impression, not because I disliked him, he´s actually a good guy, but I don´t know, I´m used to eccentrics characters such as Okabe Rintaro, Nishijou Takumi or Takuru, you see, my problem here is not that he isn´t eccentric, it´s just, these characters I mentioned had a lot of layers, they were complex even if you didn´t like them or not, there were a lot of things you could talk about them.

I can´t say the exact same thing about Pollon, he is way too bland. I´ve gotta be fair, the story shows more aspects about him later so is not as baad as it sounds, but still...it´s not enough. I don´t feel good saying this because trust me I love the guy but it is what it is. He´s like your classic shonen character who tries to be optimistic.

These Science Adventures visual novels usually have some kind of gimmick that let them stand out, this time is about save points. In Anonymous;Code Pollon has the power to Save and Load irl, you could see it like time traveling if you wish, before doing something, Pollon saves and if things didn´t went in the right direction, Pollon can load and try again. The fun thing is that Pollon is only able to save and load only when we let them to, we have actually a role within the game, it´s weird to explain but Pollon breaks the fourth wall a lot of times, because he talks with us actually and he refers to us as Anon or Anonymous, Pollon is aware of the existence of someone else watching him through the story, he is aware of our existence and man that´s so cool.

It´s weird because we are not playing as Pollon, I mean, we are that one entity who decides whenever he saves or loads, it feels like we are cooperating with him, the idea is to make us feel like we are some kind of God who is in an upper layer. I love this gimmick and it´s honestly the best thing about this game, it´s not the first time the Science Adventures ¨plays¨ with this concept, it´s something we can see sometimes in other games, I mean, not saving or loading irl, but the protagonists asking themselves if someone in an upper layer is watching over them.

There is a trick, it´s not as free as it sounds haha, I mean, it´s not like we can save or load whenever we want, we can only do that if Pollon agrees with it, if you try to do it by yourself, Pollon will tell you to fuck off literally, or saying things like it´s not a good moment.

I personally loves everything about Anonymous;Code, it´s art style is amazing, it´s a game that overflows style, the characters design is great and it might be my favoite character design within all the Science Adventures games, I´m not even joking, the sprites feel so vivid, moving and stuff, you can feel there is an up upgrade regarding other Science Adventure visual novels. This game is based on comics very much and I think you can see that, there are parts of the game when everything is shown to you as if it you were reading a comic, from panel to panel, I find that great, it really gives a fresh aura to the game. When speaking about lookings, this game is amazing, it´s the best looking game of the Science Adventures to be honest.

As I said before, Anonymous;Code occurs in 2037, technology is at its peak, society deppends way too much on it, artificial intelligence is more advanced than ever, pretty creepy if you think about it, this game has been in development for so many years and it´s since past year articial intelligence has become trending. Alright, I like the worldbuilding, I really do, the society of Anonymous;Code is credible and it´s basically a reflect of our society in the future, what I didn´t like was the game not deeping into these matters. Anonymous;Code doesn´t deepen on the problem of society deppending way too much on technology and that´s a shame, I understand it´s not supposed to be a dystopia but I would liked to see one or other commentary about it. I don´t know about you, but it´s a bit scary to me that someone can see your name, age and these things just by looking at you with some app.

There are actually things that the game does talk about, for example, its Earth simulation and its consequences, not even a spoiler but in Anonymous;Code there is an exact simulation of Earth which works because of a computer, said simulation is not just an hologram, it exists, their people, their countries, their culture, they are all real, it´s a scary concept if you ask me, I mean, if there was an Earth simulation in this our world, think about it, I could see whatever you are doing right now, I could just spy you, and everything that happens in the simulations happens irl, now, take that into a big scale, for example, the government and stuff, you could see their secrets, their plans, etc, you can even see into the future of this simulation, I don´t know if it´s just me but that´s way too creepy.

Anonymous;Code does a great job showing you that an Earth simulator wouldn´t be a good idea at all, it´s said that there is a race for whenever completes the best Earth Simulator first, even when there is a contract between nations that says investigating into this matter is forbidden by the law. It´s a concept I´d not like to see irl ever, think about it, if an Earth Simulator like that existed irl, what would you consider the real planet? Yeah, it´s a simulation but still, it exists, everything there is real, so what is real then? To be honest, the existence of something like that would raise many phylosophical stuff about our existence, it´s interesting but scary.

I really liked the fact that they tried to get that sinister aura which was lost in Robotic;Notes and Dash (I haven´t played them so I might be wrong) sure it´s not a Chaos game but sometimes it knows how to give you the chills, there is a chapter that is just amazing, a great chapter that has nothing to envy to other installments of the series.

Not everything is that good tho, I have a problem, big problem with this game that it lowers its ranking within the SciAdv to me, there is only one route....really, I mean, there is a good endings, a lot of bad endings and a true ending, and that´s all. I wouldn´t mind that, but when I reached the ending I couldn´t help but feeling unsatisfied, I mean, I felt like the story needed to deepen more, there is a lot of main or important characters which exist just because why not I guess, you can´t know more about their background and stuff, even the characters which are deepened are not that interesting, excepting one. I mean, that´s the problem, I think the story can go even more ahead but it doesn´t.

Think about the base Chaos;Head, it was a cool game but felt somehow uncompleted, that´s why Chaos;Head Noah exists in the first place, it´s the real deal, expanding its story even more, tying up loose ends and, expanding their characters arc. Well, something like that happens here, Anonymous;Code feels as a base Chaos;Head, it doesn´t feel as complete as it should be, I´d like to think they´ll probably make a dlc expanding the story and their characters but I doubt that, it´s a shame really, this game could be the Steins;Gate killer (?

Does it mean I hated Anonymoys;Code? Not at all, trust me, I had a great time with this game, I loved it, but I can´t help but feeling a bit frustrated, there was a huge potential here to make something even bigger but it is what it is. I don´t want to end this post in a negative way because I honestly think is a great game, it´s even fast paced which is weird to a SciAdv visual novel which usually need an eternity to get good and that´s cool, it´s something fresh, it´s not that long either, it´s around 30 hours or less I think.

All of the screenshots were taken by me