izigame.me

Anonymous;Code has an incredible presentation, a beautiful soundtrack, and the port is magnificent. A full english dub is unheard of in a visual novel and it is appreciated, I very much enjoyed that aspect. However, given the novel itself was under development since at least 2015 its quality in terms of story and characters leaves a lot to be desired. I really did want to like it, but I only partially do.
As someone very familiar with most other SciADV titles, the story seems to be a collage of many of the other games. As a result, the structure is not all that original, with some exceptions. This is however not really the core issue- The story seems to be built to maximize the encounters with scientific concepts rather than aiming to create a coherent emotionally meaningful experience. Its frankly really not intelligent enough to justify it. A good chunk of the game is spent resolving meaningless artificial problems which serve as nothing more than setup. And even then, these problems end up holding no bearing on anything. They were made by this game's Titor equivalent which is himself a ridiculously contradictory character holding life in extremely high esteem, whilst simultaneously pointlessly putting people at risk in hacking based rehashes of the NewGen madness like some kind of psychopathic serial killer.
What is meant to be the actual antagonistic force is lacking an understandable motivation. We never clearly learn how the Holy Office interprets the third secret of fátima to mean the world should come to an end, and as a result everything they do just seems like destruction for the sake of destruction. The secondary far more interesting antagonist comes far too late in the novel. He ends up being defeated by what seems to be his own lack of willingness to genuinely do anything to defend himself rather than through the protagonist and the observer's joint achievement.
The length of the game is far too short, and while this is not in itself an issue it does indicate a problem which is the under-utilization of alternate routes. Taking Chaos;Head NOAH as reference, it is a game than in my eyes was elevated and redeemed by them. Sena's route for example is exemplary, giving huge insights into both the world and the character. Its frankly more interesting than even the main route itself. A;C's lack of exploitation of the save and load mechanic to lead to fleshed out routes hurts this game's character development and world-building considerably. This leads to characters other than perhaps Asuma, Nonno, and Bambi feeling either too conventional, like caricatures, rehashes, or just underdeveloped. Just as an example, Liddie manages to be all of those at once. She's nothing more than a vessel for scientific exposition with all the depth of a Bill Nye episode without the entertainment factor. And that might actually be giving her far too much credit.
As for the ending, it feels like Pollon sacrifices very little to get what he wants. Nothing actually goes wrong for him or even anybody else, since every bad outcome is completely undone. Its clear the save and load mechanic was meant to be built up as a crutch which would later be removed, and though this does end up happening it is reversed with literally no consequences, very little effort, and no permanent irreversible damage. The true ending clearly attempts to emulate Steins;Gate forgetting that Okabe's success involved sacrificing his sanity and two visual novels worth of effort in order to be achieved. Momo and the world are saved with very little sacrifice on anybody's part which annuls all emotional impact the achievement would have had. The Gaudi Code and the Arecibo Message feel like very ridiculous pseudo-obstacles which are totally irrelevant until the last few moments of the novel.
At its most fundamental level the VN feels like a simplified truncated version of Steins;Gate with a new coat of sci-fi paint which is more style than substance. It really begs the question- How did the development of this novel take so long?
The re-contextualization of the other novels in SciADV due to the concepts confirmed in this one are frankly more interesting than those concepts explored directly in A;C which is a statement I never imagined I would ever make. This involves Chaos;Head and It just so happens that Sena's route which I mentioned before almost seems prescient after reading through it again after finishing this novel.
With all this stated, I still think the game is decent. The pacing undeniably fun and frantic. Despite that, I don't think I would recommend it to anybody other than people already invested in SciADV. It might have better luck with an anime adaptation that takes advantage of the fast pacing to at least deliver an entertaining action packed experience, akin to Occultic;Nine yet probably superior. Unfortunately, it will inevitably end up being thematically and intellectually shallow much like its source material. Better luck next time Chiyomaru.
6.5/10