Amnesia: Memories is a widely-known game in the otome community… but I have to confess, I’ve never played it.

At least, I hadn’t – until Idea Factory International very kindly sent me a copy of their upcoming Switch port for the beloved classic.

Now, I’m ready to dive in to the game that brought a lot of veteran fans into the genre in the first place, and finally see what all the fuss is about…

So… What’s New?

The upcoming release of the Amnesia Switch Series on 20th September, 2022, is what’s considered a ‘port’ – essentially, an existing game made available on another platform. In this case, Amnesia: Memories was originally released for the PS Vita – and later Steam, Android, and iOS – and has now been published on the Nintendo Switch.

If you’ve already played Amnesia: Memories in the past on a different platform, then there may not be anything in this new release that makes it worth buying again. There’s no new Switch-exclusive content, so the only benefit to re-purchasing the game now would be to either own it on Switch, if you desperately want it on that platform, or to get the merchandise released in the Limited Edition version of the game.

In terms of improvements, I’m not sure if this was a deliberate re-mastering or just due to the performance capabilites of the Switch vs the Vita, but the visuals do look a little more high-definition than the ones I’ve seen in earlier screenshots. However, even if this is a deliberate improvement, I don’t think it’s enough to warrant purchasing the game all over again.

That being said, there will be many otome fans like myself who have never played the game before. I personally never owned a PS Vita, so there’s a whole archive of otome games that are currently out of my reach. For me, Amnesia: Memories being brought to the Nintendo Switch means I can finally jump into this otome classic and experience it for myself.

This ‘First Impressions’ post is based on my existing knowledge of the game, as well as my playthrough of the common route. I’ll be streaming my first playthrough on Twitch after the game is released, starting with Shin’s route and working my way through each “world” in IFI’s recommended play order. Once I’ve completed each route, I’ll post a ‘Character Review’ on this site, so be sure to keep an eye out for more Amnesia content in the weeks to come…

Trailer

☆ Game Name: Amnesia: Memories
☆ Developer: Idea Factory / Design Factory / Otomate
☆ Publisher: Idea Factory International
☆ Platform: Nintendo Switch, Steam, iOS, Android.
☆ Age Rating: Teen (ESRB)
☆ More information: here!

First Impressions

First things first, I should note that the common route is incredibly short. It took me about 20 minutes to play, but if you actually let Orion finish speaking instead of skipping his line (oops!) then I’d suggest around 30 minutes of estimated gameplay, at most.

Still, even if it’s short, it successfully set the scene and captured my interest in continuing the game. It did feel slightly repetitive in its explanation, but since it’s an expository scene and still fairly brief, I didn’t really mind. Besides, Orion is pretty darn cute, so that made all the scene-setting more enjoyable.

Premise

If you’re not familiar with the premise of the game, I’ll provide a quick summary. Essentially, Orion – a spirit of some kind – bumped into you while travelling across alternate worlds. This caused you to be booted out of your original world and into the space between worlds, which is where the game starts.

Here, Orion explains that he’s stuck in the place in your mind where your memories should be, which is why you’ve lost them all… your memories, that is (hence, Amnesia). He suggests returning to your world and regaining your memories in order to push him out of your mind, so he can be on his merry way and you can return to whatever it was you were doing before he collided with you.

There’s only one problem with this… It turns out there are several alternate worlds that you can potentially “return” to. Orion then asks you to pick which world you want to go to, and this is how you choose which route to play. Basically, each world correlates to a love interest and his route, and since each one is an alternate reality, the story and characterisations of the cast can be completely different from one world to the next.

I actually really like this idea of alternate worlds, as it means that any knowledge you gain in one playthrough may not be applicable in the next. For example, you may learn something about one of the love interests, but in another world they’re different, so this “clue” you picked up doesn’t apply – giving a fresh experience of the characters in each playthrough and preventing the story from becoming too repetitive.

All in all, while the common route doesn’t give much to go on, I’m curious to see how this idea of retrieving memories plays out in the story. Orion specifically warns you against telling anyone about your amnesia, as being confined to a hospital bed won’t allow you to interact with the world and people you used to know – which is exactly what you need to do to regain your memories.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of alternate worlds, so I’m looking forward to seeing how each route is different from the next. While I’ve heard a bit about Amnesia: Memories from fans across the otome community, I’ve largely managed to avoid spoilers (except for a certain twist regarding Toma’s character… but I can say with certainty that this only makes me more interested in him), so I’m excited to finally dive into the game and see it for myself…

Gameplay & Controls

If you’ve played an IFI otome game before, then you’ll already be familiar with the types of controls and settings to be found in Amnesia: Memories. It’s a visual novel game, with all the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect, including auto-play and skip features.

There are also minigames in Amnesia: Memories – namely, “Hit ‘N’ Guard Rock-Paper-Scissors” and “Air Hockey”. I haven’t played these yet, but it seems you can play them to unlock exclusive CGs. You can also press the ‘X’ button while hovering over each minigame to be shown instructions on how to play.

Characters

Developers’ recommended play order:
Shin (Heart World) ➜ Ikki (Spade World) / Kent (Clover World) ➜ Toma (Diamond World) ➜ Ukyo (Joker – Unlocked after clearing ‘Good Ends’ of other routes)

Rather than playing a shared common route with choices that determine whose route you end up on, Amnesia: Memories prompts the player to choose a ‘World’ to return to, each corresponding with a love interest and a suit of cards.

Initially, you’ll have the choice between four worlds: Heart, Spade, Clover, and Diamond. The fifth route (Joker), will unlock once you clear the good endings for each of the other four ‘worlds’.

The recommended play order follows the order in which the worlds are presented when making your choice. In other words, if you don’t know which world to select next, you can simply pick the next one in the list!

Who’s Best Boy?

Since none of the love interests appear in the common route and I haven’t played the game before, I don’t have a lot to go on in terms of first impressions. From the screenshots I’ve seen, I can say that I love the visual kei aesthetic, although I definitely would have been more into it 10-15 years ago when I was an angsty emo teen.

From what I’ve heard about the cast, I get the impression that Ikki and Toma will be my favourites, since I love the playboy archetype and the more ‘shocking’ characters. However, I also saw that Shin and Ukyo are quite popular, so I may be surprised by their routes.

Unfortunately – and I know this is bound to be an unpopular opinion – I’m just not that interested in the megane-kuudere archetype, so Kent is unlikely to be my new best boy. However, while this may not be my preferred archetype, I don’t hate it either, so while Kent may not end up as my favourite, I still don’t see any reason to dislike him. Besides, he may be the one to finally convert me to Team Megane!

What’s Next?

Once the embargo lifts and I’m free to stream, I plan to play Shin’s route on Twitch. I’ll then play each route in the recommended play order, and as I clear each route, I’ll write a review to post here.

I’m pretty excited for this, as it’s not only my first playthrough of Amnesia: Memories, but also my debut on Twitch! I’ve been planning to start streaming for a few months now, and Amnesia: Memories turned out to be the perfect motivation to get going.

If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, feel free to send an email to sweetnspicyreviews@gmail.com or send a message via Discord, Twitter, or Patreon, if you’re a subscriber. In the meantime, I’ll be patient and put the game on pause until I can share my first experience of Amnesia: Memories with you all on Twitch!

☆ Game Name: Amnesia: Memories
☆ Developer: Idea Factory / Design Factory / Otomate
☆ Publisher: Idea Factory International
☆ Platform: Nintendo Switch, Steam, iOS, Android.
☆ Age Rating: Teen (ESRB)
☆ More information: here!

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