Month: November 2018

Amnesia: Memories

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I bought a lot of visual novels back when I was trying to convince myself I enjoyed them- despite not ever really playing them (and certainly not playing any of the ones I bought). This one is especially baffling to me as a person who typically has no interest in dating boys. Thankfully the premise is actually quite interesting- a fact I did not know when I purchased it.

Protagonist-Chan unintentionally gets possessed by a wandering fairy called Orion, who accidentally knocks all the memories out of her brain and has to help her piece her life back together. To do so, she must date one of five horrendous fashion disasters and figure out where exactly in her life they fit.

The decision is made before you’ve met any of them, simply by choosing one of the suits from a deck of cards at the start of the game. By choosing Spades, I ended up with narcissistic playboy Ikki, who (in the hour I’ve spent with him) has primarily flirted with 5 other girls and told me he has magical eyes that make girls swoon for him- every girl except me, which he enjoys as a challenge.

Yeah. Bell-end.

The amnesia angle is played well, although unfortunately Orion needs to comment on every single action I or another person takes in reference to it. Hearing his theories on what exactly it means when Ikki says he walks me home from work drags. Protag-chan is silent so all of her thoughts are communicated via Orion and honestly I could happily do without him. The game would also be 80% shorter without his constant theorycrafting about my life- stuff which as the player I’m already going to be thinking about.

Fin or Bin:

Argh. I’m sort of invested by now, but I’ve looked into how long the game is and each story takes about 6-8 hours. I feel like there’s got to be a lot of hooks and stuff to come so if I’m gonna bail out I should do it now rather than later. I genuinely can’t decide if I should bin it or just finish Ikki’s story and call it done there. So I’m turning it over to you guys! Fin or Bin?

Edit:

Having slept on it, I’m now less invested than I was in the moment. midgi also had a good point about playing games I actively enjoy is a better use of my time, so I’m now feeling comfortable enough to Bin this one.

Majora’s Mask (3DS)

Pasq nominated this one for me to play over Halloween! This game has a rather spooky story behind its inclusion on my backlog- midgi found the cart abandoned in the street one day and brought it home, only to find the savefiles were all titled YOU WILL DIE. Okay, that last part’s a lie, but it was a rather haunting way for a game like this to drift into our lives.

I’ve previously tried to play the Mario Kart Bonus version of this on the Gamecube, making it some distance in before the game crashed and I lost hours of gameplay, thus ragequitting and never looking back. It’s apparently a fairly common occurence on that version in particular- something to do with the game being difficult to emulate. Regardless, I wanted to give it a second chance on 3DS where that problem was presumably fixed.

The tone sure is on-point for the spooky months, with the townsfolks’ differing reactions to the impending end of the world. Something that really struck me was the way that, rather than time-travel enabling Link to solve many problems, it actually ensured NO problems were solved- with everyone I help along my journey undoubtedly needing that same help again on my next loop. It was a surprisingly bleak futility that I’ve not felt in a Zelda game before.

(In gameplay terms, it means I have to solve the same puzzle multiple times and that’s aggravating. But that’s a minor gripe and a necessary weight to bear in order for the game to work.)

Fin or Bin:

I’m already, like, 15 hours into the game. I started playing it while I was away from home and intended to write this up when I got back, and then spent all that time playing the game instead of writing about it. Obviously a Fin, then, although having to watch that business scrub fly away every time I give him a title deed is… wearing thin.