Amnesia Memories Review
Amnesia Memories is a Visual Novel that has just launched on Steam & PlayStation Vita. Available as a digital download only, Amnesia Memories takes you on a variety of journeys where you must formulate relationships, assess friendships and avoid suspicion as you look to piece together your fragmented memory.
When the game first begins, you are greeted by a human-like character called Orion. Orion acts as your spirit guide, carefully guiding you and providing you with advice and information in a variety of situations. It is explained to you that you have lost all of your memories due to Orion becoming fused with you and he will accompany you on a mission to help you gain your memories back in a way that won’t result in him disappearing from existence.
Immediately you a filled with a pure appreciation for the artwork, each image crafted skillfully and vividly, drawing your eyes to every subtle detail in an attempt to absorb the entire image. Throughout the game the art style never wavers or becomes a chore on the eyes, a true testament to the quality of design. Every character was unique and easily distinguishable, each fitting for the Japanese art style.
The main protagonist of the game is a female character, a blank slate if you will, which you can use to project your own thoughts and feelings onto. Although you cannot customize her, you can at least name her. Once you have named your character you are faced with a number of parallel universes in which you can “return” too. Each world has a different story and although the characters within it remain largely the same, the attitudes and opinions across them can vary wildly. The variety that these different worlds offer is essential for this type of game. Diversity and decision making being key. Best of all, when selecting which world parallel universe to return to, you aren’t provided with any indication on what that world holds, so you are going into it just as blank as the main character!
The goals of the game are simple, try to retrieve all of your memories whilst conversing with the characters of the game whilst not raising too much suspicion. Keep your suspicion levels low by the end of the game and you will get the “good” ending. I personally did pretty awful at this and got what I would presume is the “bad” ending, however I won’t give you any spoilers here! To make your decisions is as simple as you would expect, with a simple point and click mechanic on the option of choice. I think in this aspect, simplicity is certainly better and I feel that is why you would be able to sit down and appreciate this game much more on PlayStation Vita. Sitting at my PC and clicking a mouse didn’t feel right for the game.
The music in this game really annoyed me at the beginning, however, once I got involved in the story and became absorbed by what it had to offer, I soon found the music to be a pleasant backdrop for the situations that I was in. It can become monotonous if you are in one area for a particularly long time, although, if you are progressing through the game steadily then this shouldn’t become an issue.
The storyline itself from the world that I initially chose was interesting and easy to follow yet sometimes it dropped off a little. I struggled to keep myself engaged at certain points as I was having issues with the character depth and development. Although they were good at a basic level, I felt in some instances the characters were just shells and I didn’t really feel like we got to know them well enough. This obviously may differ on the different worlds as more characters become more prominent than others and take a more leading role. In all four of the different worlds, you have a different bachelor to try and win the heart of whilst not scaring him away with too much knowledge of your amnesia. Once you have completed all four of the standard worlds, you unlock a fifth bonus world.
There are a couple of small mini games as little time killers that I wouldn’t imagine you would use too often, one being rock paper scissors, the other being air hockey. Mini games aside, I would predict it would take around 30-40 hours to complete all of the worlds. Considerably more if you were trying to get each and every different ending for them!
Although this game isn’t for me, the quality is still there, which allowed me to appreciate it for what it really is. It is obvious that the game is predominately aimed towards female gamers, however male gamers can certainly enjoy it too. Considering the game doesn’t provide you with any movement at all, they have done an excellent job of making you feel in control on an entirely different level.
Score a 3 out of 5