Stepping into ANTHEM#9 feels like diving headfirst into a kinetic storm of colour, calculation, and controlled chaos. This gem‑matching roguelite wastes no time pulling you into its secret‑agent world, where every move is a gamble and every combo is a miniature explosion of strategy. As you carve through dungeons, tweak your deck, and chase that perfect chain reaction, the game’s rhythm becomes hypnotic and an irresistible loop that begs for deeper exploration and sharper instincts. It’s a world built on momentum, and once it grabs you, it doesn’t let go.

ANTHEM#9 Review Pros

• Anime – like graphics. 
• 1.84GB Download size. 
• Steam achievements. 
• Full controller support. 
• Graphics settings – Resolution, display mode, FPS cap, and v-sync. 
• Sound sliders for – voice, SFX, bgm, and master volume slider. 
• Tutorial option in the menu, and it is replayable. 
• Presentation-wise, it’s very clean, impactful and reminds me of the later Persona games with its design and comic book style effects. 
• Fast loading times. 
• Three game difficulties – Easy, normal and Hard. It affects health, damage, and enemy skills. 
• Turn-based combat, you select gems from your pocket and use them to play cards, which are your attacks and abilities. 
• At the start of every round, you get to pick a card to have for that one round, and they are random, like having shields or doing more damage, etc. 
• Run-based game play loop, you choose your route through the map. 
• You don’t have to play all gems each round, as you can keep them for the next round, so there is strategy. 
• The presentation of moving through the game is fantastic, with your character doing these cool little run animations to the next event. 
• After winning a match, you can get rewards like coins and exp. 
• Earn EXP and level up to get new skills, which you can exchange in your deck for play. Choosing the same skill you already have will level that skill up. 
• Ace skills are a powerful ability that only kicks in when you have one assigned and successfully do an all-cancel attack. 
• The help menu populates as you play and serves as a manual for the game. 
• In between events, you can check out your deck, look at the rewards you have, and plan your route. 
• There are seven different event types on the map, all denoted by colour: treasure N battle, heal, event, shop, skill, and E/B battle. 
• The shop lets you spend coins on new abilities or allows you to carry more gems in battle. 
• Your health carries on throughout the run, and only hitting a heal map spot will get you healed. 
• Big end-of-stage boss fights and mid-level boss fights can happen. 
• You and your opponents have a health bar system. 
• The combo counter system deals damage. 
• You can exchange a gem for a random colour x amount of times per round. 
• When you die, you can have the option to restart the battle you lost. 
• The collection is where you get to see all the found and unlocked skills, blessings, charms, and enemies. 
• In the results page, you can see the time and date of your previous runs, which character you used, items used, and how you fared. 
• Gems are not just used for the ability to play cards; they are almost a game within themselves, as you can make out-of-the-box matches to create huge, almost game-breaking-looking combos. 

ANTHEM#9 Review Cons

• The tutorials are long and only cover the basics, as you continuously get pop-ups as you play. 
• It’s a game I found took a fair few runs to get into. 
• The music is just not for me; I can’t really explain it other than it’s repetitive and just doesn’t sit with me. 
• Boss fights are just huge bullet sponge events that drag on for way too long. 
• Until you get to the point where you can reliably build a good deck, the gameplay loop, combat especially, is repetitive and stale. 
• A game over and quit just takes you back to the main menu. 
• I found it all to feel a bit lifeless, yes, there’s a lot of visual going on,but in terms of the life of the characters, there isn’t any. 
• At the end of the day, I get it, I know what the game is going for, but for me, I just never gelled with it.

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ANTHEM#9

Official Website:

Developer: koeda

Publisher: SHUEISHA GAMES

Store Link:

Steam