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October 16, 2020

Zain

Let’s Join the Mystical War in Code Atma!

October 16, 2020 | Zain

What comes to mind when you hear about fireflies? Are they flying bugs? Are they attractive? Or do you instantly start humming a few lines from Owl City’s Fireflies? When you see their glowing lights, do you see a shining light of hope? Nothing of this is wrong, but in Code Atma, if you see fireflies around you, prepare for a mystical battle!

Babi Ngepet is one of my favourite Atma. Based from an Indonesian ritual “Babi Ngepet”.

Code Atma is a free-to-play mobile Idle RPG made by Agate Games from Bandung, Indonesia. This mobile game lets you collect mystical creatures called ‘Atma’ and train them to defeat your enemies. In this world, Atma is the primary source of life, every person has Atma inside them, but not everyone will realize it.  You were chosen as a “Seeker”. Seekers are a selected group of people who can get access to join the ‘Atma Code’. Being a “Seeker” means you will be able to notice and feel the fireflies from all around you and will be granted access to an application named “Code Atma” which makes seekers be able to see and communicate with the Atma. Some seekers control their Atmas for good purposes, there are also seekers who use their Atmas for bad purposes. Thus, “The Mystical War” has begun.

Currently, the game’s campaign consists of 6 playable chapters. Surprisingly, each chapter is about 23–24 episodes long (there are 3 types of episodes, cutscene dialogues only, battles only, or cutscene dialogues with battles).

The current version holds 107 Atmas that you can collect. When you summon an Atma, you’ll see that they are ranked, from 1 – 5 stars. Each rank has different maximum levels. Every Atma has different roles and elements. There are 6 elements of Atma which consist of earth, wind, fire, water, moon, and sun. Also, there are 5 roles of Atma: rogue, ranger, healer, tank, or wizard. In the tutorial, you will start with a third-rank Atma called “Tumang”, it is a tank moon type (Tumang is a character from an Indonesian Folklore named Sangkuriang).

You can summon more Atmas as the game progresses and there are few different ways to do this. Sometimes you can get new Atmas from rewards when playing the campaign, or you can summon Atmas by purchasing them with diamonds or use summon tickets. There are micro-transactions in-game. You may use real funds for purchasing diamonds, equipment, Atma XP, and so on. Sometimes there are various limited deals and bundles from Agate Games. If you’re lucky, you can summon a fifth-rank Atma which is the strongest one (I was particularly lucky as I found two fifth-rank Atmas already). Don’t worry, the rewards you will get from finishing each episode’s campaign or quests are generous, there are several daily quests and events you can complete as well, and last but not least, Code Atma has a feature called “Offline Income”. When you’re not playing the game, there is an income that you can collect when logging back in (you can get golds, Atma XPs, equipment items, summon tickets, even diamonds, etc.). I don’t think you should use real funds much in-game as the rewards from playing and offline income are worth it already.

Choose your Atma before the battle begins.
This is the menu for upgrading levels and equip items.

When you’re fighting with stray Atmas or Seekers, whether in the campaign or against real players, the battle gameplay mechanics in Code Atma are turn-based. Who moves first is depending on which Atma has the highest speed skill but you won’t be able to choose specific targets as the Atma attacks automatically. When in battle, the Atma’s energies will be filled by attacking or being attacked each turn and when the energy bar is full, you can use it to release special abilities. Each Atma has elemental advantages and disadvantages, so you have to choose and utilize them wisely to make their attacks and defenses more effective. You can upgrade levels and equip items for each Atma before battle by collecting Atma XPs and souls. You can set the battle animations to 2x faster and auto-use abilities for your preferences (This might also help with low-spec phones to reduce game lag).

Code Atma draws heavily on Indonesian traditional mythology because the Atmas’ designs and names are inspired by Indonesian folklores like Sangkuriang, Legenda Buaya Putih, or Srikandi.

You will encounter references to Indonesian ghosts like Kuntilanak, Pocong, Jenglot, Genderuwo, Kuyang, and rituals like Babi Ngepet. The background music from the cutscenes can make you fired up when in battle and there is a sad vibe tune in some scenes as well. Unfortunately, the current version is only available in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), although there are few English sentences. For those who don’t understand Indonesian but want to play the game, I’m afraid you will have to wait until other language options are being added. Since there is a “language” button in the settings, I believe Agate Games will add more languages for Code Atma soon. Furthermore, the game is still an early version and not all features have been unlocked yet (like friends & languages). You can play a Player vs Player (PvP) mode in the Fight Club feature, although it’s not directly playing with each other in real-time as it is some sort of ghost battle in which you can increase your ranks. But don’t worry, you won’t lose anything if you’re defeated.

The Fight Club: Where you can battle with other players online.

Overall, I think Code Atma has huge potential with a larger worldwide audience and if the game gets translated into other languages, people from multiple countries will be able to have fun with it. In my opinion, what makes the game memorable is that the Atma concepts are based on Indonesian references. The game launched in June 2020 and is still an early version but the developers announced more updates and features to be added in the future. I really hope for the best!

Code Atma is available on mobile devices for Android. A version for iOS was announced to follow soon.

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Zain

Zain is a guy who got into games since he was introduced to Playstation 2 and Gameboy Color in his childhood days. As time went by, he got interested in PC online games, starting from Defense of the Ancients, Heroes of Newerth, and now DOTA 2. His favorite drink, coffee, has just gotten him introduced to an Indonesian indie game named Coffee Talk, which made him go on a journey to explore indie games. Now he is pleased to join Virtual SEA as a writer to explore more games from Southeast Asia.

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