SPY × ANYA: Operation Memories (PC)

Geoffrey Wright | July 5, 2024 | Review | No Comments

Spy x Family has seen quite a bit of success since the anime released, so it should come as little surprise there’s now a game to be played. Surprisingly instead of building on the series story or going for a more orientated play, Operation Memories focuses on the exploits of Anya and the power of photography. What kind of photo diary will you help Anya create? Lets find out

It’s time for a a new assignment from Eden College for Anya Forger: creating a diary. For Anya it can’t just be any old thing written on its pages, it has to be a super-duper awesome dairy! After a brief family meeting Anya realises the best way to do that is to feel it with memorable moments and pictures. What that means is school on weekdays, while going on all sorts of ootings to places like the beach or an art museum on days off, in search of subjects to photograph for Anya’s awesome dairy.

You may be disappointed if expecting a continuation of the anime, but instead we have something that feels more like a light-hearted OVA instead. Almost all the actors return to take on their roles, so with the visuals generally matching up it really does feel like an extra mini-series as the writing stays fun throughput – you’ll get to speak to a lot of characters, even those with a smaller role in the series. There’s tonnes to unlock as you play too, costumes and styles in particular, with plenty of locations from the show and items to get through to fill the photobook. It can turn out to be a deceptively long adventure if you want to see everything on offer.

To go with the tone of the story, things take a bright and punchy style reminiscent of the show that should please fans the most. As you would expect of this style, there isn’t really layers and layers of detail packed in everywhere – instead it looks to match the anime series. In this sense it succeeds. Locations are almost a match and the characters animation etc do a decent job – Anya’s meme worthy expressions are all included.

As noted previously, the voice work is top-notch as there’s plenty of voiced dialogue with everyone seeming to have reprised their roles. A lot of the audio is also reminiscent of the anime series, so it goes hand in hand with the visuals. Performance is another to not get in the way of an ooting given what seems a Switch port. On my PC (R7 5800X3D/32GB/RTX 3090) the game ran at 4K/120 without breaking a sweat, literally barely ever passed 30% usage on the GPU, so you should be able to get great performance on almost any piece of hardware.

Filling out the dairy will require plenty of ootings and photographs to fill its pages, and that’s where you’ll be spending most time with the game as you look to unlock more and progress. After a family meeting to decide where to go next (each area will need several visits to 100%) its then a few days at school, with more picture possibilities, before its time to head out with the family. Once at the location there’s usually a few key areas to snap a pic, you’ll have to get the angles and moment perfect for the best score. If you mange to buy additional items or new costumes there’s a chance of more picture moments and bonuses to rewards.

When photography isn’t involved, Anya will be penning the days adventures into her dairy to make up the other half of the assignment. This leads to the mini-games on offer that can actually vary more than expected, with the eureka points acquired being the cost – with your score here giving you points towards purchasing new items and costumes. Its all a circle I guess. These activities can range from stealth missions as Loid, to a wave style beat-em-up as Yor, and even dodge-ball at school and cooking at home, you’ll find plenty ripped straight from the show to go along with some unique situations worked in for this game. There’s over a dozen so plenty of variety to keep you going as each new location visited should bring with it a new activity for the evening.

Operation Memories isn’t quite what one would expect of an anime/manga game these days, it certainly looks & sounds the part tho, as it carves its own path with a new approach that, on the one hand may not be what you would expect, but then also perfectly suitable at the same time. Instead of an action-adventure with Loid or Yor, focusing on Anya gives the game a different vibe that’s perfect in short bursts for a deceptively long playthrough if you want to see everything. The relaxing and light-hearted approach should really please fans and also offer something to anyone looking to take a break from just about everything else