REVIEW: Amnesia: Memories


Title	Amnesia: Memories
Developer	Idea Factory
Publisher	Idea Factory
Release Date	August 25, 2015
Genre	Visual Novel
Platform	PlayStation Vita, PC (Steam)
Age Rating	Teen
Official Website

As a first VN for IFI, I can’t wait to see the details of the title they picked to get their feet wet with. I’ve played quite a few VN’s, and they can vary so deeply that you never know what you are going to get. I thoroughly enjoy jumping in and seeing what treasures await me.

My preference is to have a ton of choices, a lot of story, background info… and a lil something something going on! I also like to be able to pick where I am going without feeling like I am just clicking to go here, go there, get this, do that, and go home. I like for things to be mixed up a bit, and if they aren’t, then the story had better be top notch!

The premise for this title is that the main character has lost her memory but gained a spiritual being. She has no idea who she is or what is going on. She and Orion decide to keep the amnesia a secret and just live her life in the hopes that memories will be triggered as she interacts with people and the world around her. Deciding who to trust along her journey with this secret can be a bit difficult as she must do this without letting the world at large in on her secret. There is a fear of being put into the hospital if the secret gets out and then she may not figure out what happened to cause her amnesia. I’m not sure that is rational, but it is what it is.

Initial reactions… It’s so cute!!

It is a little bit weird that instead of hearing your characters innermost thoughts you have this other character, Orion, always talking to you. It is sort of like having someone answer for you all the time telling you what to do and what you should be thinking. I’m starting to wonder if my character is an invalid. There was an accident after all. Could I have been more injured than previously thought? Maybe without this otherworldly character being trapped where her memories go.. I wouldn’t be here at all.

I struggled quite a lot through this game/review at first. The problem is that I felt no connection to my character and instead am always interacting with Orion and hearing what he thinks. I know I could be looking at it that Orion is the main character but when I’m told I am the person with amnesia and everything is all about the character with amnesia I expect … I don’t know. I guess I expect to hear the inner thoughts of that person.

I wouldn’t mind Orion being present so much if we got to see how the character was dealing with it all. It is almost like I’m being told how I should feel or what I should do but not being given the chance to feel things for myself. It’s very distracting. I think once I adjust to this I’ll enjoy my time with the game a lot more.

The story here is something that left a lot to be desired on my first playthrough. I went back to the game some time later, and I’m not sure what was different, but I fell in love with it. I guess this happens sometimes with a VN if you first get a bad ending that doesn’t really get into the meat of the game. The second (or third) time through I really started to fall in love with the game. All the creepy nuances that I had somehow missed the first time started to shine through, and I really got into it. It was Toma’s storyline that really sucked me in.

Creepy!

The music in the game is quite nice. It really does its job to keep your emotions in check while you play. It doesn’t overpower you when you’re trying to hear the character voices (which are all in Japanese in the Steam version), but it keeps things interesting. There are some rather tense or scary moments that are perfectly accompanied by the music. I’d probably listen to it even outside of the game which is saying quite a lot! It could work well if you wanted to keep yourself on edge while you write or something.

The graphics really concentrate on the people and not so much the environment. The backgrounds are all sort of washed out (not in a bad way – it’s intentional) and allow the character art to really pop. This really comes into play during the intense scenes. It gives you less to focus on and allows you to really see the emotion that is conveyed so wonderfully in the characters faces.

As far as gameplay, it’s your basic standard affair found in VN’s. Click to read the text and choose an option here and there. I do wish there were a few more choices in the game, but the story progresses at such a rate that it doesn’t really take away too much. Normally I prefer a lot of choices, but in some cases, I can overlook it. There are a few mini games that help break this up and that you can unlock to play on your own later as well. I often found that I couldn’t click quickly enough to get to the next bit of text.

Have you ever had one of those games that you play through once and couldn’t possibly care less about? Then you go back and replay it some time later and it’s like you’re playing a different game? Suddenly you love it and can’t wait to learn more about the story?

That is what happened with me and this title. Maybe it was a good thing that things in my life got insane and I wasn’t able to play it as much as I needed to get the review done until now. I’m starting to wonder where the hell my head was on my first playthrough because my opinion has changed drastically since then! For the price point of $29.99 and the fact that there are so many endings to unlock, it is definitely worth putting your time and money into. I’ve played roughly 30 hours and still have endings to unlock.