The plot of Anodyne 2 is about a young woman named Nova, who becomes a Nano Cleaner when an organization called The Center tasks her with saving the island of New Theland from a harmful substance known as Dust.

These monologues easily could have been self-aggrandizing, yet they somehow straddle the line between being small enough to not forget the person speaking them and using big ideas that should still be understandable to most people.

There's a vast spectrum of tones and genre precedents in play: one moment you're roving a vaguely solarpunk apartment complex, fetching commissions for a fashion designer, the next you're adrift on a sugar-pink purgatorial ocean redolent of both Dark Souls 2's Majula and Spirited Away."

It's an exquisite recreation of a lost period in videogame landscaping, from the aliasing on the waterfalls to the smudgy paintings of distant environments that serve as portals to other areas.

"[10] Danielle Riendeau, writing for Vice thought the contrast between the 2D and 3D worlds of Anodyne 2 gave the game an impressive scope.

There's a push and pull here that is aesthetically interesting and fairly bold, especially as the game goes on, as the world opens up and limits and boundaries start to crack and fade a bit more.