Even if I've only been PROPERLY in this fandom for this year, I had you since your release. I guess I should thank the fuck ass mishap at the vets that gave me an opportunity to come over to visit my cat for a month and hence, give me time and idea to pick the game back up.
I never thought I could be so obsessed about a game for me to constantly be thinking about it, criticise and even leaen new skills just to get things no one else cared to get. I have met new people(like, five, bUT HEY IT STILL COUNTS!!!!), got into drawing fanart, became a cult leader, pulled my other friends into it, managed to actually get my own custom merch out(for myself and friends bUT HEY) etc. It was a wild year!!!
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thank you game for existing; despite how much I hate your ending, how much I criticise it, how much my head hurts trying to stitch together random threads you left unresolved, I love you. I love the characters you gifted upon us, I love the jokes and the majority of the story.
AND OBVIOUSLY, THANK YOU FOR OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR SMOKER
Ahem anyway
I'd also like to thank the people who are now cursed to live their existence with me constantly at their dms.
@saint-end the original MATO Freak who took me under their wing when I commented under their few months old mato fanart, one day before work... Fret not, my friend, Primordial Doe shall reign supreme, with its beast Hellbat!
Geeky, who has found me - AGAINST ALL ODDS - under a Nintendo Direct post where everyone was sharing what they want to see, and found me wishing for Mato Fragments information. The one and only TRUE Canary and Player 0001 Truther.
Catbattalion, who gives us so much insight from the Japanese and Chinese translations of the games! I have learnt so much from them, and they even made a big comparison of inspirations and changes in descriptions for the Bane Tide. And they ALSO are the rare Mato fanfic writer, support them for real.
Ayaka!!! THE NEW BLOOD!!! You still haven't finished the game, hehehehe... You are not ready - but you will not know the sweet release of freedom, for once in Mato.. ALWAYS in mato :hehe:
Moonie and Cyphie, my OLDEST friends that I pulled into this cult. I still remember the time you enabled me to go all out with Gun, Sword and Wet Cat shopping... Or the inside jokes of Doe never knowing how to pronounce Tian Lai's name... Or the jokes... And Cyphie's insight on the name meanings and translations!!! Thank you both for enduring this hell with me, and I hope we'll continue this with Hermitage <333
And special thanks to Arrowiz, who created this shitshow of a game. The way you dropped the Fragments out of nowhere, when we thought we wouldn't see any more mato games... And the way you actually listened to my email that I sent. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Now, give us info on MATO Fragments, Arrowiz... We've been waiting for three months.
But that's enough of mushy thanks, eh? You seriously didn't think I wouldn't prepare soemthing for this anniversary, eh?
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Mato Anomalies prelude Mato Fragments announced for PC - Gematsu
Soft Source Publishing and developer Arrowiz have announced visual novel Mato Fragments for PC (Steam). It is a prelude to the previously released Mato Anomalies. It will launch in 2025.
Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:
About
As a prelude to the Mato series storyline, Mato Fragments introduces the origin of Neo City, a stylish metropolis, populated by different cultures, timelines and technologies. However, a plot lurks in the scheming depths of the city that threatens to overthrow the fragile peace of the city.
As a growing plot that threatens the city looms on the horizon, you have to leverage gathered intelligence carefully and timely, and create a domino effect that will lead to the salvation of Neo City.
Key Features
Social Butterfly – An expert in socializing and getting information, you can enter Detective Mode to observe characters to deduce their true intentions. Trade information wisely to impact their behavior and choices.
Ticking Clock – Or rather, not at all. Trapped in a five-day time loop, you have to tread carefully, as any wrong decision can set you back to the start of the loop. Study the diverse cast of characters as you collect information from them and help them avoid disastrous consequences.
Retro Futurism – Illustrated beautifully in a unique, stylized art style, Mato Fragments immerses players in a dark, retro-futuristic world that integrates both traditional and modern-day Asian influences in the art style, architecture, and character designs.
Content Warning: This game contains descriptions of gore, drug use, and child abuse.
Contains some thematic spoilers for the ending.Â
Footnotes are available here:Â https://www.patreon.com/posts/62402182
A strange bookstore, a manager who can’t leave, and a series of haunting mysteries taking place throughout the city. Hermitage: Strange Case Files immediately drew me in with its noir aesthetic, and horror tinged visual novel premise. But when I heard it took inspiration from Lovecraft’s work, I almost immediately ejected right there. Even putting aside Lovecraft’s politics--which is a big ask--so much cosmic horror media trafficks in the same themes and imagery, to the point where mainstream work in the genre often feels staid. Thankfully, Chinese developers Arrowiz saw fit to inject a change of setting into the genre, bringing a fresh perspective from a more interesting cultural context.Â
Hermitage initially caught me with its heavy ink artstyle and moody jazz soundtrack. It leads with all the story signatures of classic noir, which immediately evoked imagery of 40’s America. It was only when you finally get a glimpse of the world outside the bookstore that I realized it took place in modern day China, complete with modern architecture, social structures, and of course, the internet. The modern setting is put to great use too, with the bookstore manager able to access forums via what looks like an aging original iMac.Â
Hermitage’s depiction of the internet is one of my all time favorites. Not only can you find clues to investigations there, but the forums are littered with realistic posts discussing all sorts of topics, from current events to different media, and even fake videogame sites. Some of my favorites include comparisons of the Holy Roman Empire and the Qin Dynasty, a multipost rant and introduction to Lovecraft that off-handedly mentions the Nitro+ eroge novel Demonbane, frightening fake children’s anime, and the random discussions of things like PS3 games and Naruto. There’s even fake spam that reoccurs in the forum, and one night makes the entire forum unusable because of it.Â
My all time favorite use of the internet is during one case file, where the manager needs to find more information about what’s going on in school and finds the Twitter profile of one of the art club members, which is nearly blank, then correctly surmises that she might like Tumblr more because of the format.Â
The modern Chinese setting also works to unravel a lot of the Orientalist baggage tied to Lovecraft’s work. As the game progresses a mysterious proprietor will bring ancient books and texts to the store, which of course hold the secrets to unraveling the mysteries in the city. Alongside collections of Lovecraft’s work are Cthulhu board games, esoteric foreign texts, best selling biographies of rich people, anthropology studies, and Daoist philosophy. While a lot of cosmic horror presents the idea of Eastern Mysticism as an invasive, terrifying force brought into civilized society by an Other, in Hermitage these ideas are just part of everyday life. They can be equally as dangerous and helpful, as valid as other sources of knowledge.Â
A later case invokes imagery of the Kowloon Walled City, but instead of simply playing to ideas of unlawful urban sprawl, it wraps in a story of abandoned people finding refuge in an area abandoned by the government, and preyed upon by real estate developers. Oh, and there’s a cult out to resurrect an ancient evil.Â
That interplay between low level crime and incomprehensible evil gives the story a classical pulp novel feel. In classic noir fashion, these seemingly small cases lead to the cast getting in way over their head, but this time with cosmic, existential consequences. That cast is another major highlight, each brought into the bookstore by a mysterious case, before uniting to tackle a more major conspiracy in the last half of the story. Each has a distinct, likable personality, with playful dynamics that speak to a greater history with each other outside the part of the story we see.
So much of the fun in Hermitage is in simply seeing the crew interact. They bicker in playful ways, and each puts up a front that falls away when it comes to who and what they really care about. The strong contrasts between the way they talk to different characters, or their varying competence between their personal and professional lives, gives all kinds of great energy to the dialogue. I was caught off guard by how many lines had me laughing throughout, including the absolutely wild final chapter.Â
If Hermitage has one weakness, it’s in the actual detective work. Cases are split between investigations and deductions (1). Investigations involve trawling forums, reading esoteric literature and field work, such as conducting interviews (2). Investigations are sporadically interspersed with deductions, where you connect three pieces of relevant evidence in order to come to a greater understanding of your current situation.Â
These moments provide good dramatic moments that allow you to concretely piece together conclusions you’ve likely already made--at least in the first half. In the second half, deductions become bogged down in the sheer number of clues and red herrings. So many pieces of evidence are useful for understanding the greater picture, and seem to be related, but aren’t the answers that game is asking for. Late game deductions instead turn into attempts to figure out what the question is, when you already have the answer.Â
As frustrating as these moments can be, they ultimately don’t matter because Hermitage isn’t interested in being a detective game. Detective work might make up a major part of the game, but it’s not a game about exposing the truth, or making sense of the world. The final two chapters in fact take away agency, and purposefully obscure details about your characters’ actions in order to set up the finale.Â
Narratively, it gives you a smooth ride into the conclusion after doing most of the hard work. More importantly, it just makes thematic sense. For a game about cosmic, existential threats, it’d almost be cheap to have your characters find a solution through reason. Hermitage’s finale almost presents the opposite conclusion. Lovecraft’s apocalypse can’t arrive in the modern world, because his limited imagination couldn’t comprehend the horrors we deal with everyday (3).
What could have easily been a tiresome conclusion instead had me howling at the audacity of it. It’s a sentiment that runs through the whole game. Hermitage treads a lot of familiar ground, but avoids the nihilistic urges that infect so much horror writing. In Hermitage, the horror of the everyday, and the horror of what we can’t comprehend--we find strange comforts from both in the people around us.Â
Hermitage is available on the Switch, PS4 and Xbox digital shops.Â
I don't think the meme has a name so I'll call it the Rose Throw Meme! Anyway, saw it on twitter so of COURSE I had to join in with my weekly MATO Anomalies propaganda c:
Maybe I'll draw another one for Hermitage... Who knows... Hehe.
ANYWAY. Original post or whatever. Very funny, pls follow the trend cus its hILAIROUS
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Turn-based mystery RPG Mato Anomalies will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam on March 10, 2023 for $39.99 / €39,99 / £34.99 / $59.95 AUD / 4,980 yen, publisher Prime Matter and developer Arrowiz announced.
Here is an overview of the game, via Prime Matter:
About
Mato Anomalies is a turn-based RPG that takes players on a journey across Mato, a fantasized neo-futuristic version of the Old Shanghai. Take control of the Dual Protagonists Doe and Gram to investigate strange anomalies around the city, or venture into rifts to battle demonic abominations determined to bring about the city’s downfall. Team up with unlikely companions and unravel the dark secrets in this story of Duty, Hope and Justice.
Story
Mato isn’t a normal city, but it pretends to be. Who could’ve imagined the evil hiding beneath the surface?
Such difficult situations bring together unlikely people. Just like our protagonists young private detective Doe and the mysterious exorcist Gram.
Utilizing their respective skills they head out to unravel the mystery of Mato and defeat the evil force trying to bring about its downfall.
Will justice prevail? Or will our heroes fall victim to corruption?
Key Features
Anomalies – Find clues throughout Mato by talking to NPCs, taking on missions and visiting shops to pinpoint Rifts, portals to the demonic creatures attacking the city. Enter at your peril and defeat them in battle and collect abundant rewards.
Dual Worlds – Traverse across Mato, a neo-futuristic version of Old Shanghai. Beneath its surface lies another world. Discover Rifts which act as portals into a place beyond space and time, filled with powerful enemies.
Corrupt or Corrupted – Insidious factions are somehow involved in the dark fate befalling Mato. Can our heroes find out what’s going on? Or will they themselves fall victim to despair and corruption?
Band of Misfits – The enemy of your enemy is your friend. Difficult circumstances make for unlikely friendships. Find new allies during your investigations and gain their trust through conversation and shared experiences.
Smart Combat – Mato Anomalies provides a unique and challenging battle experience highlighted by shared health across all team members, gear matrix and dual-talent system. A unique combat strategy will be needed if you want to succeed!
Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
