Anima: Gate of Memories – The Nameless Chronicles

It's a 3d spectacle fighter and platformer. You have two characters that you can switch on the fly and they both have skill trees that you upgrade. It has big and small levels, nothing huge. No open world busy work, just some secrets and items to collect. There are boss fights too. The story is fine although some of the writing is a bit childish in my opinion. There are several endings and NG+ too. I later learned this is a kickstarter game and it was developed by 3 people in total. Still, it is a very good game.

TL;DR: This is a fun game with some enjoyable boss fights, good platforming and passable story. It is a bit confusing at first, but game opens up after the first stage in tower. I think it is worth its money, and I'd reccomend you to give it a try. It was developed by 3 people and I think they did great with what they had.
I can't remember how I encountered this game, but it has been sitting in my wishlist for quite a while. I decided to give it a try eventually. I was kind of scared by the mixed reviews and didn't expect much of it at first. But boy, looking back after almost 16 hours many things sure have changed. This game has a charm of a game from PS2 era, like Castlevania Lament of Innocence, Raidou Kuzuhona or Devil May Cry 1, which made me quite nostalgic.
Anima is an action/hack and slash game with platforming and some puzzles. It is quite simillar to Darksiders series, only with less puzzles and with a different kind of platroming(you jump from platforms to platforms instead of climbing walls). Player takes control of 2 characters, a girl called Bearer of Calamities and a demon called Ergo Mundus. Their combos and fighting style seem very familiar at first, but using the skill tree you can modify them and in the end you'll probably have 2 very distinct characters. If you are spoiled by Devil May Cry and Bayonetta like me, you might find the lack of combos a bit disappointing at first. But Anima is not about being stylish. Normal monsters are mostly designed well, and are fun to fight(other than mannequins but there are few of them). This game truly shines in boss fights. They all are distinct, have fun to evade attacks and overall feel amazing to fight against. Though they are not perfect, I feel like they have too many HPs for their own good.
Platforming sections were also fun. The game is divided into stages and most of them have a gimmick of its own. In one of them you'll be searching the stage for certain passwords, in another you'll use the lights to escape from darkness. None of the sections are automatic, unlike many of today's games where you just jump and your character hold on to ledges. I found it as a breath of fresh air.
The story is quite simple, and the game has some world building. You learn only specific events about the history of the world, and they are mostly relevant to the story. However, to fight a boss you first need to find 3 of his memory scrolls(each have 5). Those were the best part of the story, I loved learning about the bosses as some of them had quite interesting backgrounds.
Soundtrack of the game is decent as well, however voice acting is on a thin line between being cringy and being funny. You can enjoy some moments in a similar vein such as "What is a man" or "fill your dark soul with light" moments from others games.
Characters are quite barebones. Bearer of Calamities is quite blank, but there's kind of a story reason for that . I hated Ergo at the beginning(he was quite a douchebag) but I found his quips throughout the game enjoyable.
The thing I adore about this game is, it was made by 3 people. I can feel so much passion pouring into this game. I respect them for going 3D as an indie developer unlike every other who make 8-16bit games(I love 16 bit games don't get me wrong but I feel like we're at a stage where we're getting too many of them). There were no glitches, bugs or shutting down. I had some slowdowns though, so it might not have the best optimization. As I said, this game reminded me of some good old PS2 games I loved and I found it a breath of fresh air since it's been ages since I played a game like this. It is quite cheap as well, and goes on sale. I'd reccomend you to try it yourself. It looks like there's also a sequel, which I plan to try.

Made on low budget, by only 3. Great Story.

fun but isn't perfect, could be better