Anodyne from Analgesic Productions and Nnooo is an interesting 16-bit adventure on PlayStation 4. Learn more about it in our Anodyne review!

 

The game starts in a peculiar way. A distant voice calls to you and tells you that you’re about to wake up. The voice tells you that once you do, you can move around using the direction buttons. You will then find yourself in a small area with a white floor, and all you can do is either enter the menu by pressing the Triangle button or entering a teleporter. Once you enter the teleporter, you will be taken to a new area where you’ll need to deactivate some obstacles by using the switches on both sides of the barrier by activating them with the X button.

After completing the puzzle and entering a second teleported, you will find yourself in a more somber location, and you will get to meet the person who was talking to you: a mysterious cloaked man. His name is Sage, and he’s actually the village elder. It turns out you have been summoned into this dream-like world because the Darkness has spread through The Land. And what is the Darkness’ goal? It wants to obtain The Legendary Briar in order to use its powers for evil purposes. Your task is, therefore, to reach The Legendary Briar before The Darkness does, so that you can protect it. You will jump into the active teleporter on the room to your left, beginning your quest.

The game is presented in a small window in the middle of the screen, which sort of makes sense when you consider that the game was originally released back in 2013, and as an indie release, the smaller screen real-estate is what one would get from smaller, minimalist-ish releases from small indie teams. The game, as you can probably tell from the game’s trailer and the screens in this review, is similar to the beloved The Legend of Zelda series, giving us a remarkable action-adventure to enjoy on the PlayStation 4.

 

Anodyne will give you several checkpoints which are marked by the big square with the letter C on it. You can use a checkpoint to save your progress, and you can also set it up to work as your respawn point so that you can reappear there if you die. Your first objective will be to complete a short dungeon-like area where you will find a broom that will serve as your attack weapon – think of it at Link’s sword in The Legend of Zelda, and you’ll get an idea of what you can do with this magnificent broom. With the broom in your hand, you can now start to “sweep” the enemies in the room to open the door so that you can make your way to another section of the dungeon to sweep more enemies to get a key from a treasure chest.

Your broom can also be used to sweep dust, which can then be placed elsewhere when you attack again with your broom… because that’s what brooms do? Your broom (did I mention you use a broom as your weapon) can also be upgraded if you find the corresponding items, making it extend longer and to become wider. There is also one upgrade in particular that you will find, but I won’t be spoiling that one here. As for other upgrades, you can find a pair of jump boots so that you can jump over a distance of two panels, and there are life upgrades you can collect to increase your overall health bar – six of them you get by beating bosses, while the remaining four need to be collected at four specific locations after obtaining a set number of cards.

 

The game does not include a Platinum trophy, but it does have a pretty straightforward list to complete. The one trophy in particular that could prove to be a bit troublesome is for completing the game in less than 3 hours since it also asks that you 100% the game, which means you’ll need to 37 cards or more, all health upgrades and all broom upgrades without the in-game timer going over the 3 hour mark. The timer does not stop even when you pause the game or when you go to the main menu on the PS4 system, so you better know what you’re doing before you even try it! I suggest that you play the game once so that you learn more about what you will be going up against so that you can then do a second run to aim for that 100% in 3 hours or less.

Anodyne is a fun minimalist bite-sized 16-bit infused action-adventure that pays homage to the beloved The Legend of Zelda series while doing its own thing. You can probably finish this one in a handful of hours, and you’ll be back for more if you want to get all trophies to add a new Platinum trophy to your collection. I suggest you enjoy your time with the game during your first run without resorting to any guides so that you can absorb its quirky humor, memorable locations, and fitting soundtrack before you get down to do some trophy hunting. The team is currently working on a sequel, and I look forward to seeing what they do with it!

Disclaimer
This Anodyne review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Nnooo.