“Bitsummit” held on July 14, 2023 became an annual game exhibition in the ancient capital of Kyoto. The writers of this magazine will pick up and deliver works that caught your attention from “BitSummit Let’s Go!!”, which was held over three business days and open days.
In this article, we will introduce ANTHEM#9, which was on display at the Shueisha Games booth.
The moment when the combo is decided is the best feeling!Addictive attack phase
“ANTHEM#9” won the grand prize of “Shueisha GAMEBBQ vol.2” held by Shueisha Games. In the demo that was exhibited this time, there was no story or character introduction because it was just a flow to experience the flow of the game. Therefore, this time I will focus on the gameplay, but the foundation of this work is a deck-building rogue-like work that builds on the flow of “Slay the Spire”. However, there are some differences…
Rather than directly using the attack methods of your deck, you can combine the colors of the gems distributed each turn to attack with the corresponding color. Depending on the combination of gems, you can increase the number of moves more and more, and if you combine them well, you can set up an exhilarating attack that can make a 10-combo.
After the battle is over, you can acquire additional skills, but even attacks with the same name will have different combinations of gems, so you will have to make choices while considering the deck you have. There is also a debuff against the opponent, and it seems that the variation of fighting methods will be very rich in the product version, which is something I’m looking forward to.
As the map moves, animations such as battles transition like a comic strip. Combined with the design that is close to the homage of “Persona 5”, it is very stylish.
You can also change the gems of your skills in the skill mass, and by changing the starting point and middle of the combo, it is possible to increase the ease of cooperation. It can be said that it is a very interesting attempt in a deck construction type work.
You can also change the color of the distributed gems during the turn, and you can try a very strategic battle, but the demo has a time limit from the boss battle, so it’s very frustrating. When I was looking for an effective combination, I ran out of time and my attacks were half-baked… I thought this was a good balance adjustment.
However, when the combo is fixed to some extent, the feeling of “I did it” and the feeling of hitting the hit are top class among the games I tried this year, and there was an exhilarating feeling that I became addicted to. The goodness of the animation and progress tempo meshes well.
On the other hand, the enemy’s attack is also fierce, and the debuff received from the enemy is also fierce. By setting the opponent’s ST to 0, it is possible to crush some of the opponent’s attacks, but when I think about effective combinations for that purpose… 30 seconds is not enough time. This area is also very well thought out.
This exhibition has the atmosphere of a concept demo, but it has the potential to become a gem among the many follow-up works to “Slay the Spire”. I’m really looking forward to thinking that stories and productions will be added from here.
This work is currently under development and is scheduled to be released on PC (Steam) in 2024.
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