Spy x Family is one of the most important franchises in the world of manga and anime, being that thousands of people found in this work the beautiful story of a “fake” family which is united to achieve their own benefits, but they will realize that the affection between them has really begun to flourish. In this plot we meet the Forger family, composed in this case by Loid, Yor and the cute Anya, and she has become one of the most popular characters of all, that’s why she usually stars in all kinds of Spy x Family content.
And in order to continue increasing its popularity and reach, a few days ago a new video game was released for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows that focuses on the series, but especially on the sweet girl, called SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, which sought to recreate the best of the work. With this release, fans expected to meet their favorite characters and above all to know how such a comic work could be adapted to the world of video games, now, will the game have managed to approach what everyone expected?
The story of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories
One of the main questions that fans had with SPYxANYA: Operation Memories was what kind of story would be told in the title: if they would follow the same line of the anime where Loid must infiltrate the house of a high command to obtain information, creating a fake family in the process to get closer to the politician or if they would seek to give it another look with SPYxANYA: Operation Memories. And it is that in this case they leaned towards the second point, since in this case, the game is about, as the name suggests, Anya, the young telepath and her day to day life.
The player will control most of the time the girl, who in the best style of other games, as it could remotely be Persona, must live their day to day, going to school, returning home and dining, being that one of the biggest attractions is the interaction. In SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, the girl will not only be able to live with several of the characters seen in the series, such as Loid himself, the beautiful Yor or even her classmates, but one of the strongest points is to live “special” moments, which at the end of the day she writes in her diary as part of a school project.
Although in the day to day there will be places or people with whom to live these moments, the key areas, known in this case as “walks” or in Anya’s terminology “peseos”, will be the most striking, since with these we will not only visit the most recurrent areas of the anime as the same house or school, but they go beyond. It is here, where every few days, to break the routine, the Forger family will visit emblematic places, such as the fountain square, the city or the aquarium, with a world of possibilities for the girl to continue increasing her diary, the main objective of the game.
The gameplay of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories
With these emblematic areas, walks and more is where one of the most important playable aspects of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories is found, this being the capture of images, and every time we visit some of these areas special icons will appear in specific parts, where “special” moments will happen. Now, the camera will change to a photo camera and we will see Anya interacting in a striking way with characters, her dolls that you can buy in the game store or with the same environment, but it will not be just that.
The main playable aspect of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories is present, since it will be the user himself who will have to perform three key actions for the photo to be obtained to be as perfect as possible: first you must focus the camera to make it look sharp, secondly the correct position will be sought so that you can see the scene as best as possible and the last would be to capture the exact moment when the “interesting” happens. Although it could be somewhat complicated to achieve, especially to find the moment where something happens, the game itself with different colored squares warns when the conditions are right.
Being this the main game mode in SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, it can also become the most resisted of the game, because although it is exciting to relive scenes seen in the play or even cute moments between Anya and several characters, many of these happen without much apparent reason, they just happen without sense. With this, there is no narrative thread that can give you the reason why you reached a key moment, you can only visit an area with your family, take some pictures and then go back home, where you can find a little more variety.
The mini-games of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories
As we mentioned, it is upon returning home where you can get to get much more out of the gameplay of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, since it leaves aside the theme of the photographs to focus on a variety of mini-games, which stand out for how different each one of them are. Among the main and most striking are the ones called “Life at home”, “Life at school”, “Daddy’s work” and “Mommy’s work”, each of them alluding to its own name, with minigames focused on each one.
In the first one, “Life at home“, we will control the beautiful Yor Forger, who, together with Anya, is getting ready to cook dinner, so they will have to prepare the vegetables so that everything goes as well as possible. Here the player must cut the vegetables that fall from the screen, with a small blue line on each of them, although following the story of the game, Yor thanks to his ability to use weapons can slow down time so that the cuts are more accurate.
“School Life”, as its name suggests, is presented as a mini-game based on the Eden school where Anya attends, and many anime lovers will appreciate this game mode, as it is based on one of the most popular chapters of the work. Here we will have to play a classic “dodgeball” game controlling a team composed of Anya, Becky and Damian against Bill Watkins the muscle boy and his teammates with several references to the story, such as the fact that Anya can automatically dodge the balls with her telepathy, although a limited number of times.
On the other hand, “Daddy’s Job” focuses on Loid and his double life as a secret agent, in which, in the spy style that characterizes him, he must use all his skills to carry out a stealth mission where the enemies will be attentive at all times. In this case, in the same skin of the head of the family, the player will have to exchange some works of art from a museum in the most stealthy way possible, although if things get complicated he can use his fast combat techniques to escape, and to this we must add one more point to the difficulty: the game mode is against the clock, so you will have to be fast, but stealthy.
Finally, one of the best modes in this series of mini-games in SPYxANYA: Operation Memories is “Mommy’s Job“, where we are again in the role of Yor, but in this case represented as Thorn Princess, her assassin name, and where she must face different waves of enemies, eliminating them with her combat skills. Among the repertoire of attacks we have the classic punches and kicks, as well as some a little more advanced as perfect dodges or counterattacks, all this added to a final blow, which generates massive damage to opponents.
The variety of mini-games is one of the strongest points of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, being that besides being able to play them as many times as you want, there are different levels between each of them that will be unlocked the more you play them. Although the simplicity of several of these games can also be tiring for many, especially if we take into account that you will have to play a lot to get different rewards, since the game has quite a lot of them.
Graphics and sound in SPYxANYA: Operation Memories
In terms of graphics, SPYxANYA: Operation Memories is more than satisfactory if we take into account that this review was made on a last generation console such as PlayStation 4, these are what a fan would expect from an anime style game that never focused on giving scenes full of effects and adrenaline moments. The modeling of the characters at all times, although they give the clear feeling of being 3D bodies, do not come to disturb the experience and in many cases do not let themselves be seen as such, even the faces and expressions are nailed to what was seen in the different adaptations of the work.
The sound is one of the strongest points of SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, being that the voices are in Japanese, but with the same seiyuus who worked in the anime and movies, so that each interaction, which all have sound, will have the dialogues performed by the voices that everyone knows. In addition, the soundtrack is as expected from such a casual and quiet game, with melodies that manage to accompany each of the moments where the characters are on screen or with the most exciting situations of all.
Conclusion
SPYxANYA: Operation Memories was a game long awaited by fans of the work and which will not disappoint, as it has the best that has Spy x Family, adapted to a gameplay system that really manages to capture Anya, Loid, Yor and even Bond, with a lot of interactions. Also, the title will be long enough to make you want to play it to the end, being that there is a large amount of costumes to customize our protagonists with, so you will want to get them all to really feel the full essence within SPYxANYA: Operation Memories.
But for those who are looking for a game experience beyond the series is where more “problems” will arise and is that you notice how this title is designed for those who know the work more, this thanks to several winks or appearances that the less knowledgeable will lose. And if we add to this the fact that the game system becomes repetitive in a short time it could become a negative point for many, but still SPYxANYA: Operation Memories is a title that should be given a chance to perhaps fall in love with Spy x Family.
SPYxANYA: Operation Memories is available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows as of June 28. We thank Bandai Namco for providing this key for review.