Anthem#9 Review

Anthem#9 is a gem-matching, deck-building rouge-lite that puts you in the role of a secret agent assigned with taking out the figures behind shadowy organizations. Calling it a ‘role’ is a stretch, though. There’s nothing to the game’s story beyond what you just read. The game is all about making short runs up to a boss fight with a focus on gameplay and there’s really not much more to it than that.

You’ll have your choice of one of three characters for your runs, each with their own unique attacks that form their decks and a special gem-manipulation skill. Each run consists of seven stages. You have a little control over your path through these stages, with the first six consisting mostly of battles, with a smattering of other nodes like shops or healing opportunities, and the seventh always leading to the boss battle no matter which path you took.

Each character carries two customized decks on a run that you’ll alternate between as you move from one battle to the next, but they aren’t decks in the traditional sense. They are a set collection of four attack moves that can also carry secondary effects when played. All are available on each round in a battle rather than being drawn at random. The random factor comes into play with the gems needed to trigger the attacks which are randomly generated and dealt to you at the start of each round.

The gems come in three different colors, and each of your cards requires a set number of gems in a specific order for you to trigger them. For example, one card may be triggered by a blue gem followed by a red one, while another may require two green gems. You will need to order the gems that you’ve been dealt in order to trigger your various cards, and the complete line of gems will be triggered from left to right during an attack.

The tactical/puzzle element comes into play with the way that cards can share gems in a sequence. For example, if you have a card that requires green followed by red and another that requires red followed by blue, a sequence of green-red-blue will activate both – you get four gems worth of attacks from three gems. Lining up attacks in this way lets you build large combos to unleash on your enemy, not just in terms of damage but also in the way that combos that reach a certain length can trigger other effects such as canceling your opponent’s actions during their turn. This is especially critical during boss fights because the game gives them a ridiculous number of hit points compared to yours.

The attack mechanics are novel and interesting, but it’s all hampered by a strange design decision. There is a timer on your turn, and once it expires your turn is executed whether you’re ready or not. The timer is generous enough that it didn’t often expire on me during regular battles, but it does become an issue during boss battles. The hit point differential is so large, that you really should be given the time to plan how to maximize your attacks without worrying about a timer. It is a puzzle game and not an action game, after all.

As you make your runs, you’ll be able to collect new skill cards to swap into your deck or upgrade the ones that you already have. Blessings can be used to give you special moves such as switching out the gems that you were dealt or allowing you to instantly switch decks, or to provide longer term effects and bonuses. There is definitely room to experiment with builds here, and even more so given that each character has their own decks and skills. Still, the runs do play out in the same manner each time, so eventually a feeling of repetition can set in if you don’t stick to bite-sized game sessions.

The game’s presentation is interesting – it’s brightly colored with an art style that’s part manga and part Western comic book. The interface for the gems and attacks takes up a good two-thirds of the screen, though, which is a bit of a shame since the enemies are quite imaginative and have interesting animations despite being crammed into the right ten percent of the screen. The screen has more of a look of a mobile game, even though it is a Steam exclusive – makes it play great on Steam Deck, though.

If you’re looking for something a little different in the gem-matching battle realm of gaming, Anthem#9 certainly fits the bill. You can certainly have some fun with it, but there just isn’t enough to it to keep your interest for the long-term. Still, the game is only $14.99 at the time of this writing, so it’s worth taking a chance on for variety’s sake. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for a sequel; it would be interesting if the devs built a more complete game around the interesting mechanics they developed in Anthem#9.