Good Old Games - Anachronox Now Available

GOG has released Tom Hall's classic, Anachronox:

Anachronox is charming, intelligent, witty, fun, and entertaining from the very first minute you start until the final lovingly-crafted moments of the engaging story. The game is not simply an RPG: it combines Japanese-style elements (like fairly linear story, cinematic direction, and turn-based non-random battles) with Western-like side quests, dialogues, and sense of humor, mixing in some puzzles and a story straight from an adventure game for good measure. Yes, the game was known to be kind of buggy at launch, but a pair of official patches and a later pair of fan-made patches have taken care of that and you can play it with virtually no issues. The most important thing is that the story flows like an entertaining novel—light-hearted, bizarre, and humorous, but at the same time the gameplay is addictive and challenging.

More information.

Always wanted to try this one out. Good news!

Finally they've added it!
One of the best RPGs ever if not one of the best games overall. Underrated, underplayed, everything under for no rational reason.

Go GOG!!!

I remember finding the characters a bit weird for my taste, but being on GOG might lead me to giving it another chance.

The game is full of bizzare characters and even more bizzare areas, but I won't be spoiling it! Grab it, it's worth every penny.

I quite liked Anachronox for the adventure and humor, but remember never finishing the game due to a ridiculously hard (at least to me) arcade bit involving meteors. I hate turret sections and such. Especially in an adventure game or RPG. Latest offender would be Dead Space, a quite good atmospheric shooter that I also never finished due to a ridiculously hard arcade bit involving meteors…

I finished the game and enjoyed it overall, but it's definitely a mixed bag. When you got to explore a non combat area and interact with people I enjoyed the game quite a bit. But the combat system was tedious, pointless random encounters were frequent, and the game features no character customization at all. So in general I loved the game when I was in town, exploring and talking to people, but I hated the game when I went into a "dungeon" and actually had to fight things.

Overall it plays out kind of like an old school JRPG, but with Western characters and influence.

I played and finished Anachronox when it was released in 2001. Great story, interesting characters and places to explore, great soundtrack. This game also has a turn-based combat borrowed from Japanese RPGs. System works well, rewarding and tactical. Also you can see the monsters and no random encounter is a plus. I also remember long and beautifully crafted special attack animations like in JRPGs. Only drawback is the graphics, which was below the standarts even back then (Quake 2 engine).

Too bad Ion Storm couldn't live long to make a sequel to this game. I think it was the Daikatana disaster to blame for this.

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
I think it was the Daikatana disaster to blame for this.

I completely forgot about that, yes, it's possible that ppl disappointed into that crap decided not to risk another IonStorm release. Too bad.

Originally Posted by fadedc
pointless random encounters were frequent

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
Also you can see the monsters and no random encounter is a plus.

Which is it? This game's on my backlog of games to get back into but I loathe random encounters.

Originally Posted by fadedc
no character customization at all

What? No character building?

No. But you assemble a team, unlock skills and… Well… There is a special way of making some more skills, I've never seen anything like it in any other game and it rocks.

You can get xp and level up, and like Joxer said, sometimes you unlock new skills. But you have no choices, no skill points or any kind of customization. Even back when the game was released, that part of it seemed really out of date. Now it's one part which will definitely not hold up well.

But the crazy characters and the humor….those will definitely still hold up. To this day it features the most creative and original party member that I have ever seen in a RPG. If you play it, you are definitely going to play it for the exploration/story/humor and not for the game mechanics.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
What? No character building?

I loved this game and still think I have the disks so no need to go to GOG but nice to have the option. Very jRPG-like but with the western sensibilities. I seem to recall that it was somewhat out of date graphically when it first came out so that probably hasn't improved.

Excellent. Haven't played this in ages. Well worth getting again, even if just for the Win 7 x64 compatibility/

Originally Posted by Thrasher
What? No character building?

The game was modeled after JRPGs, so character building would be limited. I haven't played yet, but based on what I've seen, I would assume that it would have the old-school Final Fantasy type battle system, maybe with some added twists.

I'll have to check this out now that its on GoG, I missed it the first time around, and I don't think it was Win 7 compatible until now, though I could be wrong. That's one of my favorite things about GoG - the way they make games easy to play without having to jump through a lot of OS compatibility hoops

I'll probably pick it up on sale or something. I already have an infinite backlog….

Actually most JRPGs have significantly more character building then Anachronox, even back when the game came out. Combat is a bit like FF, though more basic and tedious (which is saying a lot given that JPRG combat was often tedious to begin with). But the story is way better then any FF game (at least to me).

Originally Posted by dpc76
The game was modeled after JRPGs, so character building would be limited. I haven't played yet, but based on what I've seen, I would assume that it would have the old-school Final Fantasy type battle system, maybe with some added twists.

Originally Posted by KapitanUnterhosen
Which is it? This game's on my backlog of games to get back into but I loathe random encounters.

I remember seeing the monsters in the distance and they can be avoid if you want to. But I may remember wrong, since 11 years has passed since I last played this game.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
GOG has released Tom Hall's classic, Anachronox:
More information.

The best western shot at the JRPG genre. Funny, quirky and (except for one sequence) ultimatly very, very good.

For a strange reason a lot in KotOR:TSL reminded me of Anachronox…