Mato Anomalies Review: Much More Than a Persona-Like

The comparisons were inevitable when trailers for Mato Anomalies started dropping last year. The art style, general gameplay loops, and glimpses at the themes and tones covered all screamed Persona; not that following in the footsteps of one of the greatest JRPG franchises of all time is a bad thing. Still, the initial reveal suggested that developer Arrowiz’s latest effort may struggle to find its identity. It turns out that those concerns were misplaced, as Mato Anomalies, while drawing somewhat heavily from the Persona series in terms of its narrative, does more than enough to differentiate itself from the competition while providing a refreshingly accessible JRPG experience that has the potential to act as a gateway for those that are reluctant to dip into what can be an intimidating, complex genre.

A Familiar Tale

If there is one area where the Persona inspiration can truly be felt coursing through Mato Anomalies, it’s in its story and world-building. Set within the fictional city of Mato, you’ll follow the story of Doe, a private investigator aligned with a mysterious information broker referred to only as Nightshade. It turns out Nightshade has a hot tip on a smuggling ring that’s moving a mysterious resource called Handout through the city and wants Doe to investigate. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse when during his investigation, Doe gets sucked into a Bane Tide-infested lair, with the Bane Tide effectively being demons that feed off of human emotion, in turn manipulating their behavior and personalities in the real world.

The city soon turns into pure chaos as organized crime runs rampant, terrorism grips the city, and greedy consortiums look to capitalize on its misery by buying up cheap property and pushing citizens out. It’s clear that something isn’t quite right with the citizens of Mato, and suspecting the Bane Tide may be pulling strings somehow, Doe teams up with Gram, an exorcist who specializes in slaying Bane Tide, to try and get to the bottom of what’s going on.

It’s this dual world concept, the city plagued by forces from a world that’s just outside of our own, that most echo Persona, but Mato Anomalies’ writing and characterization helped elevate it from cheap homage into something more. The story goes to some truly wild places, but despite this, it presents a world that feels strangely relatable, filled with characters and relationships it’s impossible not to care about. Whether it’s the reluctant alliance between Doe and Gram, who start out seeing each other as a means to an end, or the bratty nature of Butterfly, who comes off as the annoying little sister that reluctantly tags along on the journey due to her own mysterious motives, there’s a real human touch to each of the main cast, which makes the seemingly doomed fate of the city feel all the more devastating. That feeling only gets greater as you progress further through the plot, and more party members get thrown into the equation, each of them wonderfully distinct and impeccably written.

A Surprising Departure

While the story set-up definitely leans into the work of Atlus, Mato Anomalies is actually surprisingly unique in terms of its core gameplay loops.

With Doe being a pretty normal person in that he doesn’t possess the capabilities needed to delve into Lairs and take out the Bane Tide, the developers have opted for a dual protagonist approach. What this means in practice is that while walking around Mato picking up leads and investigating Bane Tide-fuelled mayhem enveloping the city, you’ll assume control of Doe, whereas when exploring Lairs, you’ll take over as Gram.

While dual protagonists are hardly a revolutionary concept, it does allow Mato Anomalies to lean into new mechanics not typically seen in JRPGs. See, the citizens of Mato aren’t exactly the most forthcoming of people, so Doe, in his quest to pursue leads that Gram can follow up on, is forced to use his investigative techniques to break people down till they willingly give up the hottest gossip. In gameplay terms, these battles of wits take the form of a card battler mini-game, which sees you playing cards to deal damage to the opponent’s willpower, while having to defend your own. It isn’t the deepest card game you’ll ever come across, with early battles largely boiling down to unleashing as many damage-dealing cards as possible with each hand, but later encounters do require a more strategic approach, with better decks unlocking to assist in meeting these greater challenges.

I went into Mato Anomalies fully expecting Doe’s gameplay segments to be a complete afterthought; after all, most JRPGs live or die on the strength of their combat systems, so to see the lengths that Arrowiz has gone to in order to ensure that Doe isn’t reduced to a mere vessel used to explore the open world environments is wonderful, with the card battle system really helping Mato Anomalies carve out its own niche in a crowded genre.

The dungeon-crawling segments are somewhat more traditional, but by no means bad or without innovation. Taking control of Gram, it’s his job to trawl the Lairs popping up all across Mato along with other gifted party members that he and Doe meet throughout their journey. In terms of class diversity, there isn’t much going on that you haven’t seen before. For example, Gram specializes in straight-up damage dealing, Butterfly acts as a healer, with late joiners such as Ringless and Mist adding debuff capabilities through their ability to inflict statuses such as sleep and bleed. These debuffs become especially relevant the further you progress, with, much like Persona, there being a huge dependency on exploiting enemy weaknesses.

In terms of the actual dungeon exploration, outside of the battles, it’s an unfortunately drab affair. Lairs usually amount to running through a series of linear pathways, with the odd diversion here and there to pick up an optional chest or piece of lore. The rewards for doing so are usually worth it, with new gear and consumables frequently rewarding the curious player, but the level design itself is very uninspired. The color palette and theme of each Lair will change depending on whose Lair it is, and the trouble they’re wrapped up in, but outside of that, the pathways, layouts, and light puzzles rarely change.

Thankfully the combat system is more than capable of picking up any slack. As alluded to, there is a fairly standard set of character archetypes. Still, they are diverse and allow for the turn-based combat to take on the same fast-paced, elemental-based characteristics that make the Persona series such a breath of fresh air. In a bit of a twist, your team shares HP, with the party having one singular health bar rather than one per character. While this doesn’t appear to change the flow of battle drastically at the outset, once your party fills up, the beauty of this change becomes apparent as you realize how much more accessible Mato Anomalies is compared to your average JRPG, given you only ever have to worry about keeping one health bar topped as opposed to micromanaging four separate party members.

Refreshing Accessibility

This refreshing approach to accessibility flows throughout Mato Anomalies and for that reason, I could see this being a fantastic entry point into the genre. Character progression is simple yet effective, with each character leveling up to earn skill points that can be spent on skill trees that, while very linear, offer effective and easy-to-understand upgrades to things like healing potency, attack damage, and damage buffs to specific skills. Gear progression is also similarly breezy, with the developers opting for a party-wide gear grid where you can slot in various stat-boosting buffs that aid in combat and apply across the party.

Genre veterans might scoff at the simplified nature of Mato Anomalies systems, but personally, even as someone who loves getting stuck into JRPGs at a granular level and min-maxing, I found this approach to be a massive breath of fresh air. There’s absolutely a place for less hardcore JRPGs; despite loving the genre, I don’t always have the time and attention to give that they often require, so to be able to get my JRPG fix without having to put too much thought into my gaming sessions is incredibly refreshing.

Patches Needed

With Mato Anomalies proving to be such a solid experience, it’s unfortunate that performance drags the experience down a touch. I will caveat this by saying that there is a day one patch incoming, so our review is based on the vanilla experience, but it’s worth calling out that this patch needs to do a lot of heavy lifting to get Mato Anomalies into shape.

Exploring the streets of Mato feels like you’re sitting in front of a slide show at times; not that the frames drop to a drastically low level, but the framerate appears to be unlocked, leading to a lot of choppiness and fluctuation. This also extends to certain dungeons and boss battles as well, and it takes away massively from the stellar art design. The neon-soaked, Old Shanghai-influenced architecture and environmental design are truly fantastic and, at times, feel like the work of a much bigger studio with a big budget. All too often, though, the performance would pull me out of the experience due to how uneven it was throughout my playthrough. Here’s hoping this day-one patch sorts things out, but if you’re at all sensitive to performance issues, it’s worth noting that things, as they stand, aren’t great.

Conclusion

Despite the disappointing performance issues, Arrowiz should be extremely proud of what they’ve achieved with Mato Anomalies. They’ve taken inspiration from a beloved series while, admirably, still managing to create a JRPG that feels like nothing else out there at the moment. With its novel card battler mechanics, the snappy and accessible combat system, and the refreshingly straightforward take on character and party progression, Mato Anomalies is an easy recommendation for both fans of the genre who want something a little different, and those who are on the lookout for a more newcomer friendly entry point to the genre. Here’s hoping Mato Anomalies gets the attention it deserves because I, for one, would relish the opportunity to step back onto the streets of Mato with Doe and his crew all over again in a sequel.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available On: Switch (reviewed), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC (Steam); Publisher: Prime Matter; Developer: Arrowiz; Released: 10 March, 2022; Players: 1; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP; $39.99

Full Disclosure: A review copy was provided to HPP.