REVIEW

Forgotten Anne Review

by Luke Walsh, May 23rd, 2018

Forgotten Anne is a stunning game set in a world that will remind you of the Studio Ghibli studio because of their hand-drawn characters and environments. The art direction is mainly down to the fact it looks like it would be from the same expert animator Hayao Miyazaki, who brought you the movies Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle.

The game focuses on just two humans, Anne and her protector Master Bonku who live in the Forgotten Realm a place where all the lost items end up when nobody remembers them anymore. Anne acts as the bodyguard, judge and executioner helping Bonku protect the peace from Forgotlings, creatures who are born from these objects like socks thanks to an enemy known as Anima.

From the start, the storyline follows the premise of going home, with Master Bonku looking to complete his Ether Bridge that will allow everyone to go back to the real world. Without it being just plain sailing though, a group of rebels look to intervene and thwart the plans of Anna and her mentor.

Anne is a complex character in the game being given the role of protector but also donned with the ability to erase the Forgotlings from existence. Even at the start of the game, you are faced with a choice by dealing with a Rebel by either letting him go or using your magic powers to “erase him”. Even when the rebel itself is just a floating scarf it doesn’t take away from the fact the first choice is a hard one. You are not sure who the rebels are or what they want and more so you don’t know if the rebel in question is tell the truth or not.

Choices are what make the game in Forgotten Anne and every one you make strongly changes your journey through the game. Depending on your choices there are six different endings and a wide set of routes and decisions you can make to get to each one of them. Choices thrown at you during the course of your journey aren’t always a clear-cut answer and are much more nuanced to decide the fate of the end of the game.

These choices also don’t just affect your route to the end, even as the game progresses how characters treat Anne are all based on your previous dealings with Forgotlings. You can integrate them too hard and only have negative interactions or you can build a much better relationship with them and be offered up additional information to help later on in the game.

After playing the game a couple times, it became clear how the smaller choices in the game can make a huge difference as you progress. The simple smaller decision being much more intertwined with the story and the overall outcomes than you might think. This makes you feel in more control of Anne and her journey rather than just the ending. As her interactions and conversation change, you can become more considerate of your decisions later down the line.

Forgotten Anne has forgotten about combat in the prioritisation of telling the story and the main mechanics are one of a platformer. You must control Anne usually to climb and jump to progress to the next area. This would be fine but the controls are not all that polished, the jumping feels a little bit too floaty and moving to ledges or windowsills sometimes require you to be a little too precise to make it. There is no death in the game but after getting close to your goal to only fall all the way to the start will make you wish for death.

Luckily the puzzles that you do have to complete with the platforming controls are not too difficult so it should get in the way too much for you to continue with the story. It’s just a shame that moving throughout the world can be the most tedious when the story, characters and art style is so well done.

In the end, though, Forgotten Anne stands up on its feet and if you are a fan of Studio Ghibli you’ll love this adventure which pays direct homage to these films. Unlike the Ghibli films though it is a much darker take on a supernatural and fantasy with Anne being able to be a complete master of the world around her to the point where she could be totalitarian and the harsh dictator.

Overall the story, characters and art are beautifully crafted but without much outside of moving throughout the world, the poor control scheme can really put a damper on the rest of the game. As a narrative adventure game it’s brilliant but if you are expecting a solid platforming experience then you might want to steer clear.