Review: ANTHEM#9 Has the Vibe, But Lacks the Staying Power
ANTHEM#9 is a game of "buts." It is the debut title from self-taught solo developer koeda, but it feels surprisingly polished in its presentation. It has some serious style and seriously catchy music, but a gameplay loop that makes me feel like it’s missing that certain something. It features a clever gem-matching combat system that feels great when it works, but the world around it feels empty.
It is also, unfortunately, a victim of terrible timing. Releasing a roguelike deckbuilder just days before the juggernaut that is Mewgenics feels like a death sentence for a small indie, and it’s not entirely fair that koeda’s game has to compete in that shadow. But even without the comparison, ANTHEM#9 struggles to keep its head above water on its own merits.
Let’s get the good stuff out of the way first: ANTHEM#9 is stylish as hell.
From the moment you boot it up, the game oozes a jagged, spy-thriller anime aesthetic that feels incredibly confident for a first-time developer. The UI pops, the character designs are distinct, and the soundtrack is a banger (I have “dance like you don’t give a damn what the people think” on loop in my head. If you played it, you know). But the soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting to keep the energy up, especially when the mechanics start to drag. If you were judging this game by the first few minutes you play it, it would be a masterpiece. Even the tutorial took what seemed like a complicated concept and made it seem easy.
The core gameplay hook is a "gem-match roguelite" system. Instead of standard mana to cast spells or perform abilities, you deal with a random assortment of Red, Green, and Blue gems each turn. Your skills activate based on specific "recipes"—like Red-Red-Blue or Green-Blue-Green.
At first, the gem matching didn’t land for me. But the UI actually helped me figure out that you can chain some abilities along with others, and the whole thing started to click. Once those weird mechanics made sense, I was able to create some crazy combos. The goal is to chain the right sequence of gems to trigger a massive attack that cancels the enemy’s turn entirely.
But outside of these moments of tactical brilliance, the experience falls flat. This hollowness extends to the roguelite elements. In a genre defined by risk-reward choices and interesting events, ANTHEM#9 feels static. Events are incredibly rare—maybe one per floor—which turns the game into a linear slog of fight after fight.
You can exchange or level up skills, but without interesting decisions to make between battles, the "run" feels less like an adventure and more like a spreadsheet. This is compounded by the fact that your character is never in a location, or never face-to-face with an enemy. Everything is implied through character portraits.
The game features three playable characters: Rubit (the starter), and the unlockable Phannie and Beni. Rubit’s starting arsenal feels basic—poison and daggers—which doesn't help the early game monotony. Unlocking Phannie and Beni brings some much-needed variety to the playstyles, with Phannie offering a high-risk, high-reward gambling mechanic that finally makes the deckbuilding interesting.
There are four base "missions" per character, each with a different boss, followed by "Extra" missions that get progressively harder. I’m sure there is an end to it, but I didn’t find it. And honestly, the game didn’t give me enough of a reason to keep looking.
ANTHEM#9 is a case of style over substance. As a debut from a solo developer, it is an impressive technical and artistic achievement. But as a game you have to actually play for hours, it falls short.
Even with a potentially impressive endgame, some sort of overarching progression would have helped. If you are a die-hard genre enthusiast looking for something to look at while you listen to a podcast, it might be worth a spin. For everyone else, the wait for a deeper experience continues.
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