Anachronox

Anachronox is a video game in the role-playing (rpg) genre developed by Ion Storm, L.P. and published by Eidos Interactive Limited originally released in 2001. It is currently playable on Windows.

Sly Boots is a private investigator who's in trouble - money trouble, that is. So his first priority is to make some money; when a mysterious rich man shows up unexpectedly with a tempting offer, Sly begins to think his troubles are a thing of the past. Naturally, he couldn't be more wrong, as he soon finds himself embroiled in something much, much bigger: he will discover a great mystery that may cause the destruction of the universe.

Anachronox is a science fiction role-playing game that predominantly follows the Japanese model, although it also incorporates elements of Western-style role-playing games. Although its plot is serious in nature, the game features humorous dialogue and many bizarre situations.

The combat system has many similarities to the Final Fantasy series: it is turn-based in principle, but each character has an action bar. After each action it is depleted, and when it is filled again the next action can be initiated - regardless of whether the enemy has attacked or not. Important differences are the possibility to move on the battlefield in a restricted way and the non-random battles. Another similarity is the character development, which automatically increases your stats.

However, the game is less combat-oriented than most Japanese-style RPGs. Most of the time is spent exploring the central areas, solving (side) quests and conversing with people.

At first, Sly is alone except for his electronic secretary Fatima, but over the course of the game he recruits six party members to help him, some of whom are quite eccentric. Each member of the group has a special ability, which is developed in action-based mini-games, and which is necessary to solve the missions, for example, Sly can unlock doors with a key. There are also other mini-games, partly necessary to solve the missions and partly optional. Sometimes you have to solve traditional logic puzzles.

Anachronox is available at a reduced price on the following websites and is no longer abandonware.