Anodyne 2 was my favorite game of 2019 and one I still think about to this day. With rich character stories exploring themes of self-identity, cooperation, anxiety, and quite literally breaking out of your shell, every setting of Anodyne 2 has been written beautifully with gameplay that reflects those feelings perfectly. Melos and Marina really knocked it out of the park with this game and I cannot recommend it enough.

Gameplay: Fun exploration and puzzles are seamlessly integrated to the story. The game is mostly split into a 3D overworld with 2D subworlds that each carry a distinct retro aesthetic - 3D with the low-poly, low-res PS1-era graphics and 2D with colorful and strange 16-bit graphics, akin to late GBC or SNES games. The 3D sections are mainly for exploration and moving from subworld to subworld. Your ability to turn into a vehicle helps traverse the beautifully barren landscapes to find a wide array of surreal characters, some who need your help to cleanse their anxieties or regrets in the 2D sections. The 2D sections are a series of top-down dungeon puzzle screens, similar to the first Anodyne, though this time you've upgraded to a vacuum to solve puzzles and defeat enemies instead of whacking them with a broom. Between the wide array of puzzle mechanics using only the vacuum and the engaging character stories, the 2D sections are some of the most fun and thought-provoking experiences you can have.

Story: Exceptional. Every single character tells some story of their struggles that you can help overcome, ranging from basic problems with sloth, gluttony, and wrath to tales of personal pride, social anxiety, prejudice, and self-discovery. Never have I had a game made me think about one-off characters so deeply as Anodyne 2. Melos and Marina have once again combined these amazing character studies seamlessly into the gameplay, reflecting these issues in the puzzle mechanics that encourage you to think just a bit more about what you're doing.

Art: Extremely subjective. If you are nostalgic for or admire the reverse engineering of retro game aesthetics, it is phenomenal. If you find the low-poly low-res overworld jarring and a bit immersion-breaking that is also completely fair. The 2D sections are more timeless as most sprite-based graphics are, especially with their colorful environments. The character designs are extremely interesting, often being a characterization of one exaggerated feature that ties into their personality, positive or not.

Sound: Phenomenal soundtrack in some places, very natural ambient music in others, some more sound effects for general gameplay would be nice. Melos has made the entire soundtrack minus a few tracks on his own, and as with most indie games, the soundtrack can widely vary from location to location. It's never jarring or out of place, and each track definitely hits the tonal mark its area perfectly. The 3D sections often feature slow sweeping ambient sounds that echo nicely to match the barren landscapes, while the 2D sections carry the same reverb but with more prominent and often upbeat melodies and percussion. The sound effects for movement and actions in the overworld and subworlds could use some more variety, but the ever-changing soundtrack helps balance that out so it's not too distracting.

Overall: 10/10, excellent game, please give this a play if you find the aesthetics and gameplay elements interesting.

P.S. This game is also a blast to speedrun, with a lot of easy to learn movement tech and clipping that one can almost call an intended mechanic based on the game actively encouraging this.