Anima: Gate of Memories arrived in 2016 as an action RPG with a pact at its center and a problem it never solves: two heroes, one fight, and a switch that decides everything.
The game was developed by Anima Project and published by BadLand Publishing. It came to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac and Linux. It is based on the Spanish tabletop role-playing game Anima: Beyond Fantasy. It is single player, third person, and it is built on a premise that sounds better on the box than it plays on the screen.
Trailer, via AnimaProjectStudio.
The Bearer and Ergo Mundus
Anima: Gate of Memories tells the story of two beings bound by an unwilling pact: an ancient monster and a girl who lost her past. The girl is The Bearer. The monster is Ergo Mundus. They are stuck with each other, and the game wants you to feel the weight of that arrangement.
Players control both. Only one of the two can fight at a time. You can switch between them freely during fights, and that switch is the whole tactical spine of the combat. It is also where the game’s best ideas live and where its worst habits hide.
Gaia Is Open, and That Is the Point
The game is open world. Players explore the world of Gaia and pick which tasks they complete. Those choices affect the game’s ending. That is a real structural promise, not a marketing line, and it gives Anima: Gate of Memories a shape distinct from the corridor-and-boss rhythm of most 2016 action RPGs.
The focus is combat and exploration. The roleplaying elements run deeper than the genre’s baseline, and the game leans on them. But an open world is only as good as the reasons it gives you to cross it, and Anima: Gate of Memories is thinner on those reasons than its ambitions suggest.
Combat, Switching, and the Cost of Both
Combat is the core. The Bearer and Ergo Mundus fight differently, and the free switch mid-fight is meant to keep you moving between two toolkits instead of settling into one. In practice the mechanic carries more weight than the encounters built around it.
The game is a third-person action RPG with both combat and exploration. That is the honest description, and it is also the limit. Anima: Gate of Memories does not push either half far enough to make the other half feel essential. You fight, you explore, you choose, and the seams show.
What the Score Says
Anima: Gate of Memories holds a published critical score of 6.7/10, an aggregate across 8 outlets. That number is fair. It is not a dismissal, and it is not a recommendation. It is the exact temperature of a game that does several interesting things and finishes none of them.
Here is the running order of how the game’s pieces stack up, as this paper reads them:
| Element | What it does | How it holds up |
|---|---|---|
| The pact premise | Binds The Bearer and Ergo Mundus | Strong hook, underused |
| Character switching | Free swap during fights | Best idea in the game |
| Open world of Gaia | Player-chosen tasks, ending impact | Real structure, thin rewards |
| Combat | Third-person action core | Functional, not deep |
| Exploration | Open-ended traversal | Broad, unfocused |
| RPG systems | Deep roleplaying elements | Present, not transformative |
| Ending variation | Choices change the outcome | Genuine, hard to feel |
| Tabletop roots | Anima: Beyond Fantasy | Visible, not fully translated |
A Pact That Never Quite Binds
The unwilling pact is the best thing Anima: Gate of Memories has. Two beings, one ancient and one amnesiac, forced into each other’s company. That is a relationship with built-in friction, and the game knows it. It just does not spend enough time making you care about either half of it.
The Bearer lost her past. Ergo Mundus is a monster of old age. Those are facts the game hands you, and they should generate mystery, dread, or at least curiosity. Instead they sit there, functional, waiting for a story that never quite arrives to use them.
An Open World With Too Few Reasons
Gaia is open. Tasks are yours to pick. The ending bends to what you do. On paper, that is a game with room to breathe, and 2016 was full of action RPGs that offered none of it.
But freedom without pull is just a map. Anima: Gate of Memories gives you the world and the choice, then asks you to supply your own momentum. Some players will. Most will drift, complete what is in front of them, and wonder why the ending they earned feels so distant from the choices they made.
Where It Sits Against 2016
Anima: Gate of Memories came out in a year that rewarded action RPGs with either sharp combat or a story worth the hours. This game has neither at full strength. It has a premise, a switch, and an open world, and it spreads those three things thin across a full campaign.
That is the shape of a 6.7. Not broken. Not forgettable. Just a game that reaches for more than it holds. The tabletop roots of Anima: Beyond Fantasy are visible in the systems, and the adaptation does them no dishonor. It simply does not do them justice either.
The Switch Is the Whole Game
If you take one thing from Anima: Gate of Memories, take the free switch between The Bearer and Ergo Mundus during combat. It is the mechanic that makes the fight yours, and it is the closest the game comes to a signature.
Everything else — Gaia, the tasks, the ending that shifts with your choices — supports that switch without matching it. The pact is the pitch. The switch is the proof. And the proof is only half convincing.
Anima: Gate of Memories is a third-person action RPG with a strong hook, a real open world, and combat that never grows into the idea it is built around. It is worth a look for players who want the switch, the pact, and the freedom to choose. It is not worth a look for anyone hoping those pieces add up to more than 6.7.
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