That’s already more 15 years series Science Adventure delights visual novel fans with twisted plots using scientific theory and real-world conspiracy theories. You can know this series from the well-known STEINS;GATE , which at one time conquered both the visual novel market and animation thanks to the release of a very high-quality anime adaptation.
But today I invite you to talk about the latest novella in the series – ANONYMOUS;CODE – released in September last year.
Anons with a bright future
The main character of the novel is Pollon Takaoka – a sixteen-year-old hacker who dreams of becoming a hero for people, whom everyone will want to emulate.
For these purposes he creates a duet Nakano Symphonies, which includes himself Pollon, and also his friend Cross Yomikawa — an experienced hacker with skills in collecting and analyzing information. Together they perform various hacking tasks, thereby earning their living.
But everything changes when the hero meets a strangely dressed girl – Momo Aizaki – which is being hunted not by just anyone, but by an entire military structure Japan. Being a person who wants to help others in need, Pollon heroically goes to the rescue Momo. However, as a result, his attempts turn out to be failures and the girl is caught.
But, at the very last moment in his augmented reality device Pollona a mysterious program opens, offering to produce “loading». Having agreed, the hero finds himself in the past, thereby getting a new chance to save Momo.
Now Pollon can travel through time, saving data and loading it at any time. But where did such a strange application appear on his device?? And it was installed by a certain hacker who, for unknown reasons, decided to help the hero.
Who is this hacker?? And this is you, dear reader, who launched ANONYMOUS;CODE on your device.
Load, save and do it all over again
If you are familiar with the series Science Adventure, then you know that instead of standard choices during dialogue, the franchise has a special system – triggers. IN ANONYMOUS;CODE they are made in the form of those same downloads and saves.
Periodically Full will ask You open https://evolve888casino.co.uk the save menu for him so that he can go back in time. However, in addition to direct requests from the character, the player will often have to guess the moment at which it is worth offering to load.
This, of course, cannot always be done, but only in certain places designated by the developers. If you open the loading screen at the wrong time, then Pollon will close it, while simultaneously telling the player what he thinks about it.
Unlike previous short stories in the series, elections in ANONYMOUS;CODE do not affect the ending: to reach the true ending, the reader needs to perform a number of specific actions, hints of which will be scattered during the game.
Basically, in the novel you only need to open the boot menu in time in order to Pollon went back and corrected my mistakes. If at a certain moment you open the loading menu too early or, on the contrary, do not do this, then the reader will be waiting for Game Over.
Hack into God
But how is the story going with the plot?? Was she able to repeat the success of the series? CHAOS or STEINS;GATE? Yes and no.
ANONYMOUS;CODE – this is a good novel with a cheerful story that is really interesting to follow. However, it lacks the unexpected twists that were very catchy in other parts of the series.
The basic plot remains the same – the heroes, by coincidence, encounter a secret organization that wants to gain control of the world, and confront it. Also Pollon according to the covenants Science Adventure is an insecure person who struggles with his problems throughout the story.
The authors did not forget about the main feature of the series – the use of conspiracy theories from the real world. Main theme ANONYMOUS;CODE became Cicada 3301 – a mysterious organization that has been publishing on an anonymous forum for a long time 4chan various riddles.
In the novel she plays one of the key roles, and the authors came up with a good explanation of the appearance of the organization and its goals within the framework of the novel.
Also, the novella does not forget that it is part Science Adventure, which means fans can expect a lot of references to past projects. For example, in one of the backgrounds you can see Hero-Toads from CHAOS;HEAD and Upu from STEINS;GATE, and a very important character for the series will appear in the plot.
Beautiful, expensive and rich
Speaking of ANONYMOUS;CODE, it is impossible not to highlight her visual style – there is a huge amount of C.G, backgrounds (and some of them are also animated), as well as comic inserts that serve as a kind of cutscenes. All this is done very high quality and pleases the reader’s eye, which is a huge plus for a novella.
Because ANONYMOUS;CODE is tied to the theme of hacking, then, accordingly, in the novel something will constantly be hacked. This will happen through not only descriptions of actions, but also through visualization, immersing the reader in what is happening.
The only thing I can complain about is the character design. The novel uses 3D sprites, thanks to which characters can gesture during dialogues, adding dynamics to them.
Overall, they look much better than the sprites from ROBOTICS;NOTES, but there were still some problems – for some reason the characters are stylistically different from each other.
Don’t forget about the musical accompaniment ANONYMOUS;CODE, for which he was responsible Takeshi Abo – permanent composer of the series. The tracks retain the sound familiar to fans and perfectly complement the story, conveying the emotions of every moment.
In addition, one cannot fail to mention the opening of the novella, in which the vocals of the beautiful Kanako Ito, known to fans of the series from previous novels. The instrumental was written by the father of all Science Adventure — Chiemaru Shikura.
Did a miracle happen?
To sum up, I would like to say that ANONYMOUS;CODE is a wonderful short story that will please fans of the series.
A good visual style, a plot that’s fun to follow, and memorable characters make it all ANONYMOUS;CODE a short story that we can safely recommend reading.
True, before it, it’s still worth familiarizing yourself with the previous parts of the universe – fortunately, the entire main series has been translated into English.
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