Mato Anomalies is a JRPG that you should keep an eye on | Hands-on preview

When I last got to play Mato Anomalies, I was cautiously optimistic by what I experienced. The introduction to the game had all the telltale signs of a great JRPG, but when the demo ended after only three turn-based battles I have to admit I felt a bit short changed. You wouldn’t stomp three Goombas in Mario and then comment on how the platforming feels, so it didn’t feel fair to give any judgement on Mato Anomalies either. Well now I’m back having played the first two hour chapter of the game, and can report that genre fans have another game to squeeze in next year.

Slightly further on in the game, Doe and his mysterious samurai partner Gram are still busy taking on the pesky demon menace of the Bane Tide. The world of Mato Anomalies is as fascinating as ever further on in the game, with gorgeous neon environments hiding a seedy underbelly of crime and monsters.

It was a little jarring to start at a different point in the timeline of Mato Anomalies, especially with the game constantly throwing bizarre fantasy terms at you. I’m interested to actually see how the story plays out in the full release though, and the style alone has me intrigued to learn more about the world and characters.

One of the new characters this time around was Butterfly, a snarky thief who had joined the party for adventures around the monster-filled Lairs. The turn-based combat felt much more involved this time around with Gram and Butterfly joining forces, with a variety of abilities available to unleash on those unsuspecting Bane Tide.

The most interesting thing about these abilities is how they are activated. You don’t have mana or ability points to worry about in combat, just cooldowns. Each of your special moves has a number of turns you’ll have to wait before using them again, but otherwise you’re free to use your flashiest move as much as you like. It really encourages you to use all your best heals and multi targeting attacks when you need to, instead of hoarding your precious points.

Win enough scraps and (you guessed it) you’ll level up and gain a precious talent point. These are spent in skill trees on all sorts of handy buffs. Some are as simple as giving certain moves a damage boost, others might reduce the cooldown of moves. All of these have a significant effect on the combat, and feel like really meaningful upgrades.

It’s worth mentioning that the places you find the Bane Tide you slice open are a blast to explore. The Lairs I wandered through all had a bizarre money theme, and included puzzles that see you navigating coins that float up and down, as well as multiple choice questions with cash themed answers. Choosing the greedy options in these weird quizzes would lead you to valuable rewards, but also much tougher monsters to overcome.

There are plenty of side quests, shops and NPCs to talk to outside of the Lairs, with the city positively packed with story content to gorge on and people to chat with for a bit of flavour. In this early chapter I was mainly given fetch quests and missions to fight puny enemies when straying from the critical path, but I imagine there will be plenty more interesting content to see in later chapters.

There’s one part of Mato Anomalies I still don’t feel like I’ve had a chance to experience in all its glory yet, and that’s the card combat. When playing as Doe you can hack into people’s minds for the greater good, and when you do this you trigger the card game. I had two decks to choose from for the single mind meld battle I got to play in the first chapter, and I must admit I struggled to win with either of them. The basics of the card game are similar to something like Slay the Spire (with attack cards and block cards to stop incoming damage) but there were a lot of elements I couldn’t get my head round, and I wish I knew for certain how much customisation and deck building would be a part of the game later on.

Mato Anomalies is a JRPG that you should keep an eye on in 2023, and after spending more time with the combat I can’t wait to see what lies beyond the first chapter. If fighting monsters in a wonderful and seedy future sounds like your jam, then check in on Doe, Gram and the gang next year.

Mato Anomalies is coming it PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PS4, and PS5 in 2023.