Taking a Dive.
Developer FuRyu has had a varied history of making some pretty decent games. Reynatis, Monark, Crymachina, and Varlet, are only a small handful of their extensive catalog. These have been pretty standard JRPGs and that has normally been where the developer usually tends to keep to. However, with Anomalith, they’ve broken out of that comfort zone with a survival horror extraction shooter, one that has some good ideas, but rarely the execution to see them through.
Set in an alternate Japan, the country has been under siege by a series of anomalistic events. These areas have consumed Japan, killing millions, and as one successful dive saw the retrieval of a Doomsday clock, one ticking down to humanity's end, time just isn't on their side.
With even more anomalies taking out large sections of the country, a massive force is sent into a new anomaly, only for that force to be butchered within minutes. However, there are two survivors, our lead, Reona Minazuki, and a tough as nails, well, as she puts it anyway, Yuiga Koda, who loses a leg during their escape. Now, with Koda on comms, Reona must undergo additional dives, especially as the result of her previous dives have turned back that clock a few days.
Reona has a pretty interesting backstory that is slowly fed to us. As she was trying to survive the anomalies with her friend, Arisa Kato, the pair were separated. However, while a diving team encountered Reona on an excursion, it appeared that she had been trapped in an anomalistic container, unknowingly trapped for ten years, meaning her friend Arisa has likely been lost in time to the anomalies.
However, Reona joins this outfit to investigate the anomalies. Not out of any sense of duty, or to help mankind, but to try and track her friend down. That said, during Reona’s first dive, her entire team is wiped out, well, apart from Koda, that is. However, during the final moments of the dive, the duo are attacked by a huge monster, a denizen of this anomalistic realm, and with her suit punctured, her body exposed to this tainted realm, all signs point to Reona’s fate being sealed.
It is this moment where Reona not only survives, but discovers she has powerful abilities, efforts that alter her body to almost give off demonic monstrous gifts, allowing her to make short work of the monster, and get the pair home. While I was expecting a bit more shock, or even extensive testing from her colleagues when she returned, the crew she operates with seemed fairly cool and chill about this. It felt a bit bizarre, but maybe it's because they've seen their fair share of crazy for this to be just another Tuesday.
So, knowing she has the ability to survive the anomalies, albeit by taking mutation suppressor mediation, Reona continues her work for the Anomaly Zone Countermeasure Office. While she will take to these zones alone, she has numerous people on comms guiding her through.
While a few of the characters have their moments, none really standout. Each member of the cast fits a certain archetype and there is not any growth beyond their surface level personality. You'll get to know certain parts of their story, but rarely more than a few lines of dialogue for each of their side quests. You don't really converse with them past this. It's a shame that upon dives that you weren't finding them gifts or certain things that would spark a deeper conversation about who they are.
Reona is sort of the same way. We get a basic idea of her personality, where she is very ready to go, sometimes a bit too eager, regardless of the circumstances. It's not that she has a death wish, but more that she will stop at nothing to find her friend. The first half of the game is very one-note with her, as she will encounter enemies that she is told she is outclassed for, yet when immediately engaged with them, she has no trouble with them when pushed into a corner. This is something that repeats a few times, but it never takes over the narrative, thankfully.
While the story itself is largely around the anomalies, it does touch a lot on Reona, and how she is about to survive these environments. I will say, with only a vague hint of context, that the reasoning of this is something I did not see coming, and reminds me of a certain consequence of a common application in a very popular Sci-fi show. The way that concept is used here is extremely cool, and certainly makes you look at the story from a completely different perspective.
Anomalith sort of brings with it the DNA of a few titles. There is a bit of Resident Evil mixed with Control, with a bit of flavor of some other anime RPG's, given how conversations and the game's presentation is displayed, and how certain elements of the story are played out. This is a pretty basic third-person shooter where you are diving into these locations, killing mutated creatures, collecting loot, and extracting with it. While there is a bit more to it, that is the general sales pitch.
Collecting loot is handled through a very Resident Evil coded inventory system, one that is a tad too simplified and basic to really work well here. If you have four horizontal spaces free and the item you need to pick up is a 2x2 item, it won't reshuffle to fit the new item, and even auto-sort fails to provide any verticality to the sorting. This means you have to manually move items to make this fit. Also, extraction shooters and survival horror games usually have some tense moments of having to leave items behind, but each location will have a deposit portal that acts as your exit that you can dump everything and empty your inventory, allowing you to escape with everything the level provides. It removes all that tension and the decision-making their respective genres are known for.
While I get the concept of the portal to deposit items home and return via the same portal, the story often has these acts of convenience that just appear out of nowhere or are rectified by the time the next mission is ready. If Reona encounters a hurdle, the game simply explains a way to move forward and feels like any sort of struggle or blockage to the story is explained away in a few lines of dialogue.
Enemies vary from shambling zombie-like fodder, squid-like creatures, to mimics that take the place of regular objects. Bosses are usually more engaging than the regular threats as they are least have gimmicks or mechanics to deal with, such as shooting out the lights around them or sniping an eye that starts to glow above them. These encounters are pretty satisfying, and with lower difficulty settings, you can tailor the skill requirement to your own level.
The basic loop starts with you outfitting yourself for a mission at the workshop, crafting or upgrading your gear, and working through a skill tree that heightens Reona’s anomalized abilities. Equipping gear allows you to select your fit and keep the stats, just in case you don't like the outfit. Weapons will slowly unlock and have upgrade requirements to advance your arsenal, such as leveling up the pistol to max to earn the ability to craft the machine pistol. Certain guns can see attachments and mods attached to them, making them pretty deadly. I will say that you do tend to feel a bit overpowered at times when you really invest in a single gun, making the balancing here feel not quite well-tuned.
While some are hit or miss, I do like the outfits, and they feel very anime-coded to the likes of what we see in the genre. From games like Scarlet Nexus, to Code Vein, the artistic choices for some of your gear reminded me of games similar to those, with skin tight body suits to chunky jackets and thick boots and flashy gloves.
Combat itself is solid with a good feel to its shooting. It's nothing you haven't played before, but while most games feature similar systems, their combat can feel loose or lack weight or punch. While you do have a melee option with your powers, I rarely felt the need to rely on it, apart from the odd boss battle. Your abilities are cool, and can be effective, but to be honest, I often forgot I had these additive skills and often just relied on my guns and grenades, especially as you'll encounter other divers who are equipped with guns and you'll need to be mindful of your distance. And should you see your health depleting, Reona will start to become this demonic force when she is at low health, boosting her stats to even the odds.
Locations vary from shopping centers and hospitals, to abandoned apartment complexes and train stations. These areas defy physics in most cases, and feel like some are frozen in time during a bombardment of disaster; chunks of debris in the air. While you do get the ability to “fly”, it really is just an excuse for a loading screen to place you somewhere else. This isn't a Dead Space remake situation by any stretch of the imagination.
With several dead ends, and oddities that block your way, the overall design of these locations is fine, and serves their purpose. However, side quests, which can certainly help you access items for your progression, will see you revisiting the same areas over and over again, and this is where parts of the grind and repetitive nature of this sort of genre can affect your view of the game. I opted out of a few of these quests after being sent to the same location for the third time. I just couldn't, especially as these locations don't change for the quest.
The overall audio and visual presentation is solid. I do wish there was an English dub, but the Japanese acting is still very good, if a bit too on the nose for the genre. The game does have that look to it that most FuRyu games have, which isn't a bad thing, but the cleanliness of some locations can derail the horror aspects, with only minor appearances of dreadful things being part of the backgrounds.
Conversations have a static image in the background, with talking heads to each side. It's a shame these were not fully animated, given the few cutscenes in the game being absolutely solid and well directed. I did find it odd that you can see four or five angles of these static images shift around during the same conversation instead of just letting the conversation continue. It sort of breaks the pacing of a single discussion.
Anomalith has its issues, but few derail the experience. Its cast should be more interesting than they are, and I do wish the game leaned a bit more into actual horror elements, as opposed to a very clean and grime-free experience. Its inventory system is clunky and unintuitive, providing too much rearranging from the player for the most trivial things.
The few titles I've played of FuRyu have suffered from their ideas not being executed as well as they could be. Anomalith has this same issue, despite it being very enjoyable to play. There is certainly a good foundation here, and the concept is fantastic, especially with learning the truth about things, but the path there is massively inconsistent, and can feel a tad too repetitive, and formulaic at times, making the experience feel like it is dragging on.
About the most damning thing I can say about Anomalith is how despite combining two different genres into one experience that it doesn't succeed in conveying either one in any meaningful way. The extraction elements are watered down with the ease of dropping off items, and the lack of true horror elements makes this more action horror than survival horror. As a sum of its parts, a fairly strong narrative concept can't save this from being an all too generic experience.
Developer - FURYU CORPORATION and Winning Entertainment Group Inc.
Publisher - FURYU CORPORATION.
Released - October 28th, 2026.
Available On - Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, PC.
Rated - (T) - Language, Violence.
Platform Reviewed - PC.
Review Access - A review code for Anomalith was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.