Game: Amnesia: Memories
Genre: Adventure Game, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows), PS Vita and mobile)
Developers | Publishers: Idea Factory | Design Factory | Reef Entertainment
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US Teen
Price: UK £44.99 | EU €49,99 | US $49.99
Release Date: September 20th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to Reef Entertainment.
The Heroine and Orion
Amnesia: Memories begins with the heroine waking up in her own consciousness. There is a spirit there, telling her she has amnesia and that he is trapped inside her soul. This spirit is named Orion. Orion informs you that he is the reason you have lost your memories because he pushed himself into your mind. With Orion’s help, the heroine will start her search to regain her memories.
One thing to note is that there is no common storyline that is the same for every route. At the start of the game, you choose a world to play in and these worlds offer a completely new story, with the heroine having a different life each time. Even the other characters assume different roles in every world. You never know when someone is a villain or a good guy. The only character who remains the same is Orion.
The love interests
You have to choose early on which world you want to do to in Amnesia: Memories. The order I went with was initially top to bottom, but after playing the World of Hearts I wanted to play World of Diamonds next: World of Hearts -> World of Diamonds -> World of Clovers -> World of Spades.
Note that the following descriptions of the men might contain some light spoilers.
Shin (Heart World)
Shin is around the same age as our main character, and they even were childhood friends until they started dating. He very much has the punk rocker thing going on, as he has piercings and leather accessories. Shin acts very much like a tsundere character, which I really love, and loves to tease the main character. Which made me fall in love with him!
In his route, he says what is on his mind and can come across as rude. He can also be very strict with the heroine, but he does all of this out of love and because he wants her to strive for the best.
Ikki (Spade World)
He is the typical ladies’ man, he is a smooth talker, has the looks and makes you feel like you are the only one in the world. Ikki is very hot and cold for me personally. When he is alone with the main character, he is very caring, helpful and overly flirtatious. He also tries his hardest to make her comfortable. But he is not only romantic to the heroine, but also to his fan girls. This is something that is very normal for him.
Kent (Clover World)
It is immediately clear Kent is the nerd type who is very analytical and blunt towards people. In the beginning, he comes across as a bit arrogant, but after playing his route, you learn he just doesn’t know how to interact with people. And that is something he wants to learn. He wants to know how to say or do the right thing, to communicate better with people and the heroine. His route evolves around this very issue, by learning how to become a better boyfriend to the heroine.
Toma (World of Diamonds)
Toma acts like a very overprotective older brother of the main character. At the start of the game, he is very sweet and caring, but he can take that to an extreme. His route story is a little controversial, so I can’t say too much about it without spoiling it.
But a fun fact to note is that a few years back he was rated the No.1 favourite character in a poll by Otomate Amnesia.
Ukyo (Joker world)
This last route will only be available when you have finished playing the previous four routes. In the other routes, he seems very nice and a bit shy. But pretty early on he appears to have two personalities that he switches between, the first time that happened shocked me quite a bit. In the other routes, he does remain quite mysterious.
In this route, you will find out everything about the amnesia world and will fill in some blanks. Ukyo is known as a famous photographer and often visits the place the heroine works, to talk to her. In his route, all is not as it seems.
Visuals and Sound
What caught my eye, first of all, was the way the characters were drawn. It looks really smooth and somehow satisfying to look at. It is a similar style to Code Realize.
The character designs and the CGs (Computer Graphics) in Amnesia: Memories were really nice and detailed. And all the characters had a sort of cohesion in their outfits and the colors that were used. I am assuming that the fashion was inspired by Visual Kei fashion. A side note, I think the design for the main character is just adorable and unique.
And something obvious I should mention as well is the theming of French suits of playing cards. This influenced the entire menu and of course the characters in the game.
Overall, the sound was good, it set the laid-back mood of Amnesia: Memories. But what surprised and won me over the most was the creepy sound at some points in the game. It really creeped me out the first time and my mouth fell open in shock. This is one of the reasons I loved the game.
Overall thoughts
The game was already playable on the PS Vita, Steam and on Mobile. But I had never really heard of Amnesia: Memories before, my loss as I now know what I have been missing. From the moment I started the game, I was fully invested in the story and the characters. My favourite love interest was Shin. I love a good tsundere character with a bad boy vibe, and on top of that, he is so sweet and responsible. Definitely my kind of man.
If we are talking plots, it is not as thrilling as an Olympia Soiree or a Code Realize. But it did have good stories that are slightly more about realistic issues, just slightly. And it also had some unexpected moments that actually shocked me. The system in the game was easy to understand and work with, so no complaints there. And everything worked smoothly. One thing that was different was the mini-games you could play with the characters. There are two mini-games to choose from: Air hockey and Hit ‘N’ Guard Rock-Paper-Scissors. Personally, I won’t be using the mini-game option much, but it could be fun if you want a little more Amnesia once in a while.
A few negative points. There were a lot of black images in-between scenes if for example, ten minutes went by or when they were travelling. Even when the heroine and character had dialogue together, the scene was black with a dialogue text bubble.
Also, one route in particular I thought was messed up, this one might be disturbing playing the game. Even the Good ending was shocking to me. But that will differ for every person I am guessing.
Conclusion
Amnesia: Memories was refreshing and I enjoyed playing it. One of the reasons is that some of the characters are not the generic Otome types you normally see, they really had some depth to them. Even the side characters were well-written and enjoyable.
This would be the perfect game to get into Otome games. It is easy to follow and the plots are not difficult to understand. It is a must-play if you love Otome games in my opinion.
Final verdict: I like it a lot
