Forgotton Anne

Probably the biggest mystery around this game is... is the title a spelling mistake or has it been done deliberately?

Forgotton Anne is unique in many ways but the reason I started playing it was because the achievement scores are all weird numbers like 23 or 66. I needed an achievement not divisible by 5 or 0 for a contest. So I picked it up and start playing. The result?

A pleasant surprise for the most part. Forgotton Anne follows the story of Anne who is living in The Forgotten Lands where all host of objects such as lamps and shoes, come to life. It’s an original story which is a rare thing to find in games these days.

In terms of gameplay it’s a bit hit and miss though. It’s a 2D adventure where you can explore in multiple plans by walking into the background or foreground. You can jump, run and collect a magical element to power certain objects. These parts are essentially puzzle sections where you have to use the magical elements to navigate through certain areas.

The weird part of the game play is the control scheme. It’s a case of forget everything you ever knew about standardised controls. The B button is jump, you have to use to RB button to use enhanced abilities and the way the magical elements interact with the jumping during puzzle sections make the game unnecessarily fiddly at certain points.

Sound wise it’s got an original score built to fit the world it’s created in and it’s gone for a cartoony look which fits with the nature of the game. Essentially, it’s very well-crafted game throughout.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 33 Achievements

Forgotton Anne is essentially a reward in exploration. It’s possible to get through the whole game and only get one achievement – which is for completing the game. Realistically though, you’ll get more than this and two of the others are practically given to you; for performing 100 wing jumps and for taking 1,000 stair steps. Both of these will happen through natural gameplay. You would have to play in a very strange way to not get them.

A lot of the achievements are one-offs where you have to go to x location and have a run-in with x character. Others involve having to play the game a certain way, either for small bits or all the way through. The most notable of these is the Pacifist achievement for getting to the end without killing any Forgotlings (the name given to inhabitants of the The Forgotten Lands). This essentially boils down to performing the right dialogue options throughout the game.

There are a few collectible ones too. You have to get and read all diary notes and pick up all mementos and again, this is where some effort comes in and also some strategic gameplay if trying to do everything in one run. There are two points in the game where you have to perform actions for achievements. One of these involves following a character across rooftops without missing a jump… but you have to miss a jump to get a memento. It feels a bit silly, especially considering the mementos could have been placed anywhere in the game.

There is one more cumulative achievement for sitting in all the chairs throughout the game, it’s a bit weird but again is something that if you don’t know is a goal, you won’t be doing it, which is apt as it’s a secret achievement.

While the game is good, the achievement list doesn’t lend itself to any glory. There is far too much secret rubbish that you won’t just do while playing the game. It’s always nice when an achievement list compliments a game and that’s not the case here. It’s almost like the developers didn’t want achievement hunters to enjoy the game, which might have been possible if the non-linear achievements weren’t all secret.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Forgotton Anne is a good game with an original concept. It’s just a shame that the achievement list isn’t great and pretty much requires a guide to avoid multiple runs. I followed one to make sure I got all the achievements in one run and the only positive of this is that it doesn’t ruin the story.

As mentioned, the control system is a bit weird which means, for me anyway, that it needs to be played without playing anything else in between as I would have to relearn the controls.