Visual Novel

Review: Amnesia: Memories – Remembering Life as it Were

/ Dustin Murphy / 4 Comments

 Amnesia_US_Logo

Pros:
+Characters are quite amusing, especially Orion who serves as the “Narrator”.
+Well scripted conversations as well as storytelling.
+Visuals are quite easy on the eyes and well done only to be followed admirably by the music

Cons:
–Some character choices for the player are a bit of a let down.
–A few of the characters feel somewhat underdeveloped

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While I’d love to say I’ve played my fair share of visual novel games that are driven as a “dating simulation” I was recently introduced to my first Otome (“girl game” is what it literally translates to), I was introduced to a niche genre I’ve only heard of and now find myself enjoying. As my first one I was introduced to “Amnesia: Memories” by Idea Factory. To be honest? This is my first dating sim since I’ve decided to skimp out on the idea of trying out the world renowned “Hatoful Boyfriend” and move onto this one for this sponsored review. So you may ask me to explain this game in a single sentence and to be honest the response you’d get is as follows. “Amnesia: Memories” is a rollercoaster of a ride that plays itself upon doubt, a crime possibly committed, and a use of weirdly feminine males that are meant to capture a woman’s eyes without making them feel overwhelmed, which to some this game may do in an explicative manner. For me? I was left scratching my head due to how many ways my character “Rose” had lost her memory due to the person she had spoken with or relations with for that matter.

Much like any dating sim game I’ve ever read about, “Amnesia: Memories” follows the practice quite well as your character is introduced to a decent selection of people – in this case it’s men – to choose from. Each of these potential partners has a set of likes, dislikes, and even dialogue choices to choose from in order to show your characters true passions as you lock in on one of the suitors that seem best fit for your character. Like many titles, this game comes with a ‘tried-and-true’ formula where your characters end results with one person may sometime suffer due to the choices made. Something I’ve yet seen in any of the titles I’ve watched played or even streamed by other gamers.

Our story starts off with our character awakening in their mind only to be introduced to the games narrator Orion. Orion is a rather quirky spirit who has somehow managed to enter my character “Roses” consciousness where he had caused her to lose all of her memories. As someone who would have surely had a platinum trophy if there were trophies for this game, I managed to spend a lot of time finding that Orion would spend quite a bit of time as the character who would give me a lot of my preliminary dialogue choices. These choices included which guy my character would like to start with in order to start rebuilding her memories. This included going through the game backwards at times in order to discover who she is, who her suitor is, and why they fell in love to begin with. The first time around for myself as a guy was a bit awkward, I felt myself scratching my head a few times before going along with the game only to remember it was once more a visual novel and my rapidly pressing of “X” would “turn the pages” faster and faster as I read through the game before the rather well done dialogue could finish. With the creativity behind each of the suitors, the game offers a rather creative premise based upon who your starting bachelor is. Depending on you choose, as stated, also involves the resolution of how your character became an amnesiac. Well for me it would’ve been nice to have to have had the choice of no one and just had Orion be some clumsy ass sprite who just managed to ram into my character’s consciousness by some weird chance. Unfortunately the game did not offer that and would lead me on towards a possible crime that had been committed, if it had been committed to begin with.

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For myself much of my story took place with a gentleman by the name of Ikki who looks just short of being a man in drag due to his effeminate features. As my story progressed with Ikki I quickly took notice between several things based upon each of the “realms” that could be played. There was little variation between each of the stories aside from a few nuances that would make you scratch your head when it comes to the design choices. Outside of this the game tends to try and stay bright, energetic, and even offering a few warmingly tender moments that will attempt to melt your heart during the dating scenes. The downside? I’m the one that’s twistedly dark and would’ve loved to have seen the option to wreck a date or three only to see the alternate ending if there had been one that ended with “Rose” walking off with a smile on her face and her head held high; granted I didn’t see a connection with her or any of the suitors even though you end up with either one in the end no matter how many times you’ve played the game through.

While the game tends to hit a rather cheerful note each time through, it’ll be hard to say that it does much else outside of that. With such a colourful cast of characters it was quite dumbfounding to see that there weren’t deeper backstories behind each character, yourself, and even more fleshed-out personalities that would drive the game more-so than they did before. While “Amnesia: Memories” does just what is expected of an Otome, it’s hard to see that I was overall impressed outside of the art, the dialogue, and the music. The music for-one is what kept me coming back as I loved the little episodic queues between days or even occurrences within that day. Had they made a physical release with a soundtrack bundle? I’d promise you I’d have bought it just for the soundtrack with extended cuts of each of the mini-segment songs. The biggest problem with this games launch is not the fact it’s a bad game at all, but for those that don’t have some idea of Japanese or at least experience with it? Will find the game a bit text-heavy and unfortunately that will yank you away from the title, but don’t let it be deceptive, the game to some will be quite enjoyable for what it is.

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Now I know many of you are wondering just how bad the bad endings can be. This is where the weirdo in me comes out and finds the bad-endings rather hilarious since it seems to be the most commonly used one in reviews and the best for the example shows a serial killer coming out and stabbing my dearest “Rose” to death in a rather ironic love-driven rage. While this was interesting it was odd that this character was introduced very shortly before the occurrence and even shows off no reason as to rhyme or reason that drove him to the murder of “Rose”. While it was odd, it was hilarious as to why such a thing happened, and even made the weirdest part of the game one of the most dumbfounding, but even this doesn’t beat the fact that the final bachelor is just downright creepy as Hell. Even more-so than that pigeon dating sim that seems to be all the rage. While the game’s overall plot is weird, “Amnesia: Memories” stays on task with bringing forth both enjoyable plotlines and ones that are so bad that the title tends to fall flat on its face more than once. To some? This is a perfect example of why games should intertwine their scripts a bit better and offer more diversity in why things occur as they do.

Amnesia: Memories – Vita [Reviewed]
Developer: Idea Factory, Inc.
Publisher: Idea Factory, Inc.
Price: 29.99 USD
Released: Available Now

While I’m one that doesn’t enjoy dating sims, “Amnesia: Memories” is a game with a beautifully light tone, warm moments, and amazingly well done artistic uses in the eye candy area. While its visually appealing, the game is also a bit goofy in a mindless sense that kept me coming back for a bit more, which is something Idea Factory Inc. seems to be quite good at. While I would love to have seen more about the cast behind the scenes, the games story is quite predictable and unfortunately quite unaccomplished in comparison to some of their other titles, which to some may make this game feel as if it was made by uneducated children. This is where the genius creation behind this game comes to play and makes it even more appealing for those wanting something that doesn’t want to be taken seriously. So go at it, let Orion take your consciousness away and go for a little ride with this games cast if you want to try out your first Otome.

Our review is based upon the final version that was given to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 6 out of 10

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Review: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – Where Skirts and Bullets Fly

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Ball

Pros:
–A story that fits the franchise perfectly and leads to amazing character development
–The new adventuring in third person as a shooter is a blast
–The soundtrack is amazing well done and fits the franchise beyond perfectly
–The game brings a new and striking visual setup for the franchise

Cons:
–Some mechanics in the gameplay can make the game feel clunky at random intervals
–Visual appeal can be lost at times, which causes a loss of player immersion
–Minor bugs such as sound hiccups and enemies detecting you when their back is turned

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You’d probably not be surprised when I say that I actually love this franchise, but when it comes to having an enemy I absolutely abhor? This franchise made this happen, but in an absolutely perfected way. Oddly? It’s not that awesomely disturbing character we’ve come to know as Monokuma; the villain of this games franchise as well as the most homicidal mechanical bear I’ve ever seen in my life. Instead this game features a set of villains that will make you want to rip your hair out if you ever run into a kid like these. In this title we get to see a set of kids that aren’t just crazy, they are self-absorbed, homicidal, and even just shy of being absolutely freaking crazy enough to send chills down your spine. This is something that will be a consistent theme within Ultra Despair Girls.

The game starts off by introducing us to our everyday high school girl who doesn’t seem to have much going for her, except for the fact she is completely normal, and has nothing special about her. In truth, Komaru Naegi is your average girl who likes to chill-out in her Towa City apartment. However, things go nuts when her life gets turned upside down on its head and thrown into a life gone nuts as she is taken captive by an unseen force that eventually dumps her out in Towa City once more, but it is not what she knew. Towa City has been taken over by a massive army of Monokuma’s and a group of children who become known as the Warriors of Hope who are controlling them. Their revolution has incited children to murder adults and cause the house to become a children’s paradise where adults are not present, but instead very dead.

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If you aren’t a stranger to Danganronpa, there is one theme you may keep rather familiar with, one of them being the fact that the franchise is beyond well known for its unspeakably difficult and cruel motives that every character seems to have somewhere down the road. This can include small things such as saving people or simply choosing routes that may yield painful plights for entire groups of people. For those who are unfamiliar with the titles, Danganronpa games are an emotional rollercoaster, one where players will find moments that the game will come close to their heart and other moments where the game shows a very harsh as well as cruel reality where players will find themselves going outside of their known comfort zones.  This is all charged by the game using a very dystopian feel where all hope will truly be lost in the long run.

The games story isn’t just driven by the dialogue, which is shown off in a graphic novel approach that is uncommon for games such as these. In the game where dialogue isn’t being represented, players will find themselves overcoming exploration as well as puzzles using the hacking gun, which is Komaru’s only tool for survival outside of her wits and cunning. The hacking gun features several unique features such as Blast, which kills Monokuma’s; Dance, which literally makes them dance like a bunch of weirdo’s; Knockback, which does just as it sounds like; Move, which makes things move, and even Reveal that uncovers secret locations as well as hidden messages. This is where the gun is one of the most important tools in the game as players spend time going through leveling, upgrading it, and even making it one of the most versatile utility in the game. With it players will explore puzzles that would otherwise be difficult and purely annoying due to levels of frustration.

Bomber

Between these rather carefully crafted puzzles that get more difficulty with time, there is an underlying issue that will leave many players wanting to slam their Vitas down in pure frustration such as the Monokuma’s in each puzzle that can easily catch our overly feeble Komaru who seemed to die rather easily if caught. The downside to this portion is the simple fact that Komaru doesn’t even attempt to use her hack gun to survive, but instead merely dies once one comes near her. This shows her lack of mobility, which in the long run is hard to cope with as the maps are huge, boss sequences can take a while, and even difficult when Komaru is taking off larger enemies that will swarm her. This is where her friend Toko seems like she would be rather helpful when she goes into her killer mode known as “Genocide Jack” who seems to suffer a bad case of Multiple Personality Disorder. Though there is something that is more painful than the mechanical flaws such as the timer on Genocide Jack, bullets for the Hacking Gun, and even Monokuma Balls that will chase you down during your game. This is the game deciding to crash during some of the most taxing fights, and even requiring me to reset my entire Vita before returning to the game. Some of these included my Vita going sluggishly slow, which has surprisingly not been seen as of late, but it does happen on a rare basis. Just keep in mind that when this happens, you’ll notice it, and it will become infuriating.

Unlike previous titles, Ultra Despair Girls is not something that will keep you intrigued to play when it comes to this title, but instead it is the story that is very carefully written and even crafted so that fans will remain as engaging as this one. Instead it’s the very text heavy story that will keep fans indulged thanks to how well written and engaging it is. This includes the fact that both Komaru and Toko aka Genocide Jack both seem to pull off quite a bit with their scripted chemistry that allows for a rather amusing time and well crafted senselessness that is a comical relief. Unlike its previous titles, however, the visuals and even the music both add to the experience thanks to how well coordinated they are together in existence. This follows through quite well with the games use of scenery, 3D models, and even the use of of some 2D novel like moments.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – Vita [Reviewed]
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: NIS America
Price: 39.99 USD
Released: Available Now

Much like the previous titles, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair girls has several things that follow it through and allow it to be a unique twist to the franchise. Such a unique one that the game could easily set the scene for future titles that want to follow suit as a mediocre survival-horror-shooter title that keeps itself unique with the setting, the story, and even the conversations that take place, but to those who liked the interactive novel approach? It seems that this game will be the one that ends this for the series and that is something nice to see as long as the variations keep true to what the franchise is about. Much like the franchise we’ve come to love, Ultra Despair girls is a game that sticks true to its roots thanks to visual dialogue through conversations, insanity, and overall well coordinated character development. This is a psychotic story and adventure that should be enjoyed by all whom own the Vita and love these kinds of games.

Our review is based upon a pre-release of the final version that was given to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 6 out of 10

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.