Independent developer iDreamSky recently launched their highly-anticipated anime-styled shooter, Strinova. Since the game has cute anime girls I was interested but anyone will notice its key takeaway – anime girls in both 2D and 3D. I had to try it out to see how these mad scientists did it. Before hopping into our Strinova preview – make sure to check out our interview with the iDreamSky developers!

Right from the get-go with launching Strinova you’re greeted by an exciting opening cinematic rife with anime girls, guns, and action. The character models of all the anime girls and guys are well designed and look great in both their 2D and 3D forms, though there’s more on that later.

The story in the game is set in a post-apocalyptic world in ruins, so much so that people migrated to a new multidimensional world called – you guessed it, Strinova. In this new multidimensional world, the player takes up the boots of a Navigator, each of which fighting for their own beliefs and the future of all mankind.

Strinova, like many other hero shooters, has various class types you can play as: Duelists which are good at controlling battles, Sentinels which are good at defense and disrupting attacks, Support which are good at full on support, Vanguard which are good at exposing enemy’s plans, and Controllers which are good at modifying battles.

Each type has their playstyle and they all feel unique enough, though my favorite is probably Duelist for a more traditional shooter feel. The game changes up weapons in the sense that weapons are permanent and you get upgrades and new status effects. These include ways to shoot while doing parkour and even healing your teammates while moving as well.

I haven’t even gotten to the signature feature of this game – the “stringify” mechanic that lets you seamlessly and instantly go from 3D anime waifu or husbando to their respective 2D counterparts. This feature along makes not only movement but also firefights very fun and refreshing, opening up the shooter in ways I’ve never seen before in other titles.

Instead of being limited to decades-old movement and meta gameplay, Strinova throws this all out the window by letting you climb up walls like Link from Zelda: A Link Between Two Worlds. When you get near various walls you can literally jump into the wall like a damn painting and walk up the walls, across the walls, and pop back out into 3D to surprise your enemies. 

I kept finding myself resorting to old movement and finding other players running circles around myself and other new players, only to realize they were fully utilizing the stringify movement. Once I started planning movement in full 3D space – not just in traditional hallways, the game opens up completely. Vertical movement is not only encouraged, it’s necessary in Strinova.

The stringify mechanic also applies to just walking around and getting into regular firefights – you can swap between 3D and a 2D, paper-thin version of your character in 3D space. This does two things: it looks super silly and adds to the overall silliness in the game but also lets you dodge bullets. If you go to shoot while stringified, though, your character faces forward and the 2D, Paper Mario-esque model becomes a lot easier for your enemies to hit. This is also a factor when running up walls in 2D.

Every character can double jump in Strinova and every character can also then glide after a double jump, though they glide in the silly looking 2D / paper thin form (get it, because they float better). I think a lot of anime-themed shooters that have tried to nail a legit anime aesthetic tend to miss the mark with mechanics but overall Strinova is very polished, fun, and rewarding.

As you level up you unlock more stuff in Strinova, the earliest of which is the game’s 5-on-5 bomb mode where the magic truly unfolds. Once this mode is unlocked I implore you to queue up, jump in, and watch the anime chaos be unleashed before your very eyes. It’s definitely the highlight of the entire game so far and it’s quite a lot of fun, even if you lose.

Overall gameplay in Strinova is very fun and visual fidelity has been very solid. I’ve already put many hours into the game and haven’t run into any big performance drops. Network performance also seems rock solid – I haven’t had any noticeable lag spikes and matches seem to be filled quickly. I think I had a couple matches where players didn’t select their Navigator (playable characters), but that’s on them.

It’s worth noting that like a lot of other major efforts in the shooter genre these days, Strinova is entirely free-to-play. So how is the unlocking and monetization, you ask? Full disclosure: I am not really into loot boxes in games nor am I obsessed with gacha unlocks. Leveling up in the game and getting in-game currency to unlock things in Strinova seems very fair, though. 

Strinova is a super refreshing take on the hero shooter genre with its innovative stringify mechanic alone. I went into the game expecting it to feel like most other hero shooters and I came away not only impressed but actually interested in playing consistently, and unlocking more.

iDreamSky came out of nowhere with Strinova as it’s not only a very polished hero shooter, it has excellent anime aesthetics and it even has a unique mechanic no other shooter can replicate.

Strinova is now available to play worldwide as a free-to-play game on PC (via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and direct download).