Author: OtomePalace
Format: Dating Sim / Visual Novel
Genre: School Romance
Rating: PG
Found at kongregate.com or deviantart.com
My Scores (Out of 5):
Writing: 4
Art: 3.8
Gameplay: 3.8
Romance: 3.5 (“Pretty good”)
Summary
In Memento Dears,
you are Melodie. You've lost your memory after a mysterious
hit-and-run, much to the consternation of your family and friends.
As you try to put the pieces back together, you get the impression
that something important happened with someone right before the
accident...but who was it?
Review
The Writing
The writing is good, save for a few
English errors here and there (such as “I too tired”). It's kind
of ironic, considering that an early line of dialog has one character
correcting another's grammar. Regardless, the story and characters
are good, and the premise itself is very interesting.
What I really like is the strength and
cohesion of the theme in this story: Bachelor #1 comes to strongly
represent owning or clinging to one's past, while Bachelor #2
represents abandoning the past and embracing the future. It raises
an interesting question: how important is the past? Granted, the
hidden third Bachelor doesn't really fit as well into this theme; his
story-arc is more about fear and bravery, and while one could argue
that “bravery is needed to face the past/future, blah blah blah...”
I just don't think it meshes all that well.
Also, the back-story does not change
based on which course you take. I like that kind of consistency. I
also like how different characters and paths contribute different
pieces of the puzzle.
The Art
The art is anime/manga style and, while
not flawless, it is rather decent. I like the quality and variety of
the background music, and it's nice how the game uses sound-effects
to let you know when something good or bad has happened.
The Gameplay
This game seems to perfectly illustrate
the saying, “Aim for the moon: if you miss, you'll still land among
the stars.” It's a very ambitious game, featuring stats, an
explorable game-world, randomly-appearing characters, etc. In some
ways, its complexity reminds me a little of Heartstring Bugs,
especially since both are centered around a school. That being said,
though, I do have a couple of major complaints.
The first and biggest flaw, in my eyes,
is the Fake Gay Option. As I've said before: I have no problem with
authors keeping it strictly dudes, but it's very infuriating to
mislead your players (purposefully or accidentally) into thinking a
NPC is obtainable when, in fact, she's not, and in a game this long,
it's even more heinous. In the Stats page (more on that later),
Suzie's relationship meter looks identical to those of the boys, even
being marked with hearts at either end. We have the same
talk/gift/invite options for her as we do for the guys, and in one
outing scenario, she even asks “Is this a date?” and we have the
option to respond “Yes”. What else is an unwary player supposed
to think? Yet it isn't until the end of this very long game that we
find out there is no ending with Suzie other than “You failed to
get a guy. Your friend tries to cheer you up, but it just isn't the
same.” At least Heartstring Bugs had a Best Friends Ending
with the two girls that, while not romantic in the slightest, still
provided a satisfying pay-off to all the time and energy invested in
those relationships.
There are at least three better ways
that this could have been
handled:
- Have a gay option
- Make it clear from the interface that there is no gay option
- Have a Platonic Best Friends ending.
Whatever
you do, though, don't make the player completely waste her
time.
My second-biggest
complaint is the difficulty in finding the Stats and Inventory pages.
I eventually found them in the Options tab, in the bottom of a locked
filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door
saying “Beware of the Leopard”. The good news is that vital
information like your energy-level and today's date are on the main
game-screen, plain as day, so you're not completely flying blind.
Finally, I'm a
little annoyed with how difficult it is to report back to the parents
after I've purchased the items they sent me to get. It's the one
instance where the “randomly-appearing characters” feature seems
more frustrating than clever. Fortunately, it doesn't actually hurt
the game in the long-run, since the amount of money involved is small
and hardly missed, and interacting with the parents isn't really
important otherwise.
Despite these
flaws, I still found this game very enjoyable to play. Please note
that it's apparently the first chapter of a series, although it
stands alone just fine. I have not yet been able to track down any
mention of the sequel, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for
it.
TL;DR
Memento Dears has
a lot going for it. The writing is good with a cohesive story and a
strong use of its theme, the art and music are nice, and while the
gameplay isn't perfect, it's still impressive in both what it does
and what it tries to do. Overall, I strongly recommend playing this,
and since the demo can be played online, you can try it yourself
right now and see what you think.
In
fact, what do you
think? Does this game have a bright future, or is it something best
left in the past? Share your thoughts and recollections in the
comments!
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