I mentioned in a few blog posts back that I bought Amnesia Memories during the Steam Winter sale. I really had no idea what this game was about other than it was an Otome Visual Novel. I also knew that it had to do with Amnesia (duh) and that there was an overarching story. I didn't put it on my "must play" log but earlier this week I decided to earn the trading cards and got completely sucked in and managed to finish the game this past weekend in about ~20 hours. I also didn't realize there was an anime until I finished the game so I also watched that. Even though it was a much more condensed version, I'll share my thoughts on that as well.
In order of favourite -> least favourite route.
(Note: This doesn't necessarily mean their characters)
1. Kent (Clover)
2. Ikki (Spade)
3. Ukyo (Joker)
4. Toma (Diamond)
5. Shin (Heart)
Anyway, here are my general thoughts and thoughts on each route!
First of all-
Pro's and Con's
Pro's and Con's
Note: I have mainly played normal dating sims/visual novels where it's the opposite (man courting lots of women)
so I don't have too much experience with Otome's so I can't compare it to many others.
Pro's
-Very beautiful art
-Interesting Mystery story
-Each route has a completely different story.
-Not too long. Took me about 20 hours to finish.
-Orion is seriously the cutest little sidekick.
-Nice addition of side stories.
Con's
-Very passive protagonist.
(Understandable considering the situation, but her personality was lacking.)
-If you don't like Yandere, you really won't like one of the routes.
-I almost felt like it needed more CG's.
Now I'll tackle my thoughts on each route~
Maybe because it takes me awhile to adjust into a game/show/movie, I really wasn't very invested in Shin's route, even moreso since he was a Tsundere which is my least favourite type to romance in these games. His whole arc surrounds the mystery surrounding your accident/attack at the Inn. The story was interesting but it was mainly me learning the characters and being just as confused as my character. It didn't help that Shin just really wasn't appealing to me. From his initial appearance by forcefully kissing the MC in the hospital and in the Band Room, he bothered me. Also his Baka Baka Bakaaa~ That's all I could hear when he talked to me. Sure, MC may be a little slow, but you don't need to call her an idiot all the time! He mainly annoyed me and I wasn't invested in their relationship as much as I was invested in finding out who attacks you. I actually like Shin more in the other routes.
During the whole route, I was actually much more interested in Toma. His character type appealed to me the most and I thought he was very sweet and one of the cuter characters, so it only made me more excited to romance him in his route. It wasn't until the end when you find out the "twist" that Toma was the one that attacks you, that it really shocked me. It made me even more intrigued at what happens in his arc considering he tried to kill you just for mistaking him as Shin.
In the end, Shin's arc was interesting but was my least favourite overall though it did give me these wonderful scenes of the boys being total dweebs. Who knew air hockey and jankenpon could be so serious.
♠ Ikki ♠
Spade World
I didn't do any research on this game so it actually surprised me when the game began an entirely different story. I was fully expecting to wake up at the Hospital again and play the exact same story... and this one was completely different. That's when I realized that there was going to be several different stories! Great! One of my biggest pet peeves about visual novels is just playing the same story over and over just to get with a different person, so this was a welcome change.
Anyways! Back to Ikki. Since coming straight from Heart route, I didn't really get a good feeling of Ikki's character, other than him and Kent finding you at the Inn. I knew he was a Playboy type meaning I'd either really love him or be really annoyed by him. The twist about him having his ~magical women seducing~ eyes was an interesting character flaw about him and though his arc came off as fairly trope-y (with his scary league of fan club members bothering you, which happens very often in shoujo) there were still some really sweet scenes. He seemed to be the most vulnerable of the love interests and went through what I think was the most character development. Though it is easy to doubt the sincerity of his actions in this route, even in his good ending, I feel the "normal/bad" endings show that he really does love you.
The only downside about this route is that you don't interact much with the other characters. You really only interact with the Fan Club/Rika with a teensy bit of Sawa and Mine on the side. It felt very much focused on MC and Ikki which ended up with their relationship looking like one of the most solid at the end (behind Kent and MC).
so I don't have too much experience with Otome's so I can't compare it to many others.
Pro's
-Very beautiful art
-Interesting Mystery story
-Each route has a completely different story.
-Not too long. Took me about 20 hours to finish.
-Orion is seriously the cutest little sidekick.
-Nice addition of side stories.
Con's
-Very passive protagonist.
(Understandable considering the situation, but her personality was lacking.)
-If you don't like Yandere, you really won't like one of the routes.
-I almost felt like it needed more CG's.
Now I'll tackle my thoughts on each route~
♡ Shin ♡
Heart WorldMaybe because it takes me awhile to adjust into a game/show/movie, I really wasn't very invested in Shin's route, even moreso since he was a Tsundere which is my least favourite type to romance in these games. His whole arc surrounds the mystery surrounding your accident/attack at the Inn. The story was interesting but it was mainly me learning the characters and being just as confused as my character. It didn't help that Shin just really wasn't appealing to me. From his initial appearance by forcefully kissing the MC in the hospital and in the Band Room, he bothered me. Also his Baka Baka Bakaaa~ That's all I could hear when he talked to me. Sure, MC may be a little slow, but you don't need to call her an idiot all the time! He mainly annoyed me and I wasn't invested in their relationship as much as I was invested in finding out who attacks you. I actually like Shin more in the other routes.
During the whole route, I was actually much more interested in Toma. His character type appealed to me the most and I thought he was very sweet and one of the cuter characters, so it only made me more excited to romance him in his route. It wasn't until the end when you find out the "twist" that Toma was the one that attacks you, that it really shocked me. It made me even more intrigued at what happens in his arc considering he tried to kill you just for mistaking him as Shin.
In the end, Shin's arc was interesting but was my least favourite overall though it did give me these wonderful scenes of the boys being total dweebs. Who knew air hockey and jankenpon could be so serious.
♠ Ikki ♠
Spade World
I didn't do any research on this game so it actually surprised me when the game began an entirely different story. I was fully expecting to wake up at the Hospital again and play the exact same story... and this one was completely different. That's when I realized that there was going to be several different stories! Great! One of my biggest pet peeves about visual novels is just playing the same story over and over just to get with a different person, so this was a welcome change.
Anyways! Back to Ikki. Since coming straight from Heart route, I didn't really get a good feeling of Ikki's character, other than him and Kent finding you at the Inn. I knew he was a Playboy type meaning I'd either really love him or be really annoyed by him. The twist about him having his ~magical women seducing~ eyes was an interesting character flaw about him and though his arc came off as fairly trope-y (with his scary league of fan club members bothering you, which happens very often in shoujo) there were still some really sweet scenes. He seemed to be the most vulnerable of the love interests and went through what I think was the most character development. Though it is easy to doubt the sincerity of his actions in this route, even in his good ending, I feel the "normal/bad" endings show that he really does love you.
The only downside about this route is that you don't interact much with the other characters. You really only interact with the Fan Club/Rika with a teensy bit of Sawa and Mine on the side. It felt very much focused on MC and Ikki which ended up with their relationship looking like one of the most solid at the end (behind Kent and MC).
♣ Kent ♣
Clover World
Initially, I was not looking forward to Kent's route since I knew his character archetype was just going to be the socially awkward intelligent nerd but it turned out to be, surprisingly, the most lovey dovey story of them all. It turns out MC really does not like Kent and when she starts acting nicer towards him due to her amnesia, it shocks him to the point of dropping and nearly breaking his phone. Over the course of the story, he tries very hard to win her over and act like a normal boyfriend that he just ends up so sweet and I've been completely won over by belt-kun. (I mean seriously, he talks about efficiency in his actions, how is an outfit like that efficient at ALL?)
One thing I really enjoyed about his route was that it seems you interact a lot with the others. It feels like your friends are actually your friends. To the little misunderstanding with Mine about Waka-san to your sleepover to the pool party. It actually felt like this world was much more alive and did not just focus on your relationship with Kent but your relationship with other's. He is also the only love interest to directly interact with Orion which I really enjoyed.
In Kent's route, there is seriously too many cute moments. To buying you a cake for your half month anniversary, to getting flustered and jealous by Ikki patting your head, to the summer festival, meeting his parents, to him being embarrassed seeing you in a bathing suit... His route just felt so normal in a game where each route has many obstacles. Kent's only 'obstacle' was just him being afraid that you'd go back to hating him. Also, I like that there is a nice finality to this route with him basically pre-proposing to you and living in London together in the end. (and with a better outfit for Kent!)
It's funny that I actually thought Ikki and Kent were very suspicious and slightly boring from Shin's route but who knew these two dorks would be my favourite in this game.
♦ Toma ♦
Diamond World
(Just a warning, I'm going to say the most about this route)
I ended up liking the Kent's route so much that I wondered how this world would compare. In Ikki's and Kent's, you don't see Toma much so I was very intrigued where his story would go considering he straight up tries to murder you in Shin's route. After the normality and romance from Kent's route, Toma's route was like a punch to the gut. The fact that you spend the first 3 or 4 days in the Hospital with no interaction with others was already worrying enough. The maid cafe is also an important part of the other stories, but in this world Toma takes you out for the entire month, with or without your permission.
Of course, during this time, you find out that there are people trying to hurt you. Going as far as putting garbage in your mailbox, posting terrible things online, and even cutting off a piece of your hair. You eventually find out it's Ikki's crazy fan club girls. I wondered why they bully you much more harsher in this route than in Ikki's actual route but I digress.This route already started out very odd and was starting to creep me out, especially since I played it later at night.
But no, it doesn't end there! Despite being cut off from your job and your friends, Toma insists that you move in with him temporarily. Okay... not so weird? I mean Ikki was trying to get you to move in with him his entire route. But, Toma is very strict about you not going outside which makes sense because you run into dangerous situations out there but still... He's gone for many hours of the day and she's left alone.
It wasn't until I checked my parameters for the first time that I got really weirded out. I was like "Huh?? What's this?" A 'doubt' parameter pops up that didn't exist in any other play through which immediately indicated that there is more to Toma than we're seeing. The tipping point was when you find out from Orion that he's been drugging your food all the while calling you affectionate names such as "sleeping beauty".
Though while this route was very creepy, It did lead to one of the scenes in this story that legitimately made me laugh out loud which was the scene in the lingerie store with Toma being very flustered at seeing you in your underwear.
But the lighthearted-ness ends there. Yandere Toma has been triggered. So, in what ends up being one of the most memorable moments from this game, after going to your house one too many times, you get locked into a dog cage. A literal dog cage where you sleep and spend the rest of your time. He even buys you childish toys which at one point the MC asks him if she's "his doll". Of course, during this whole time he is telling the MC that he's "doing it for her own good" and "he's only trying to protect her" as if that justifies this psychotic behavior, Toma! Though the anime tries to tone it down by him letting her out of the cage sometimes, he never does so in the game. He literally handcuffs her while he serves her food so she doesn't try escape. She must wear one handcuff while she uses the bathroom/showers while he holds the leash on the other side. She is literally his prisoner.
Orion broke my heart the most in this route with his worry for the MC. You could really get a sense of his helplessness of the situation. Even Shin appears in this route and shows concern for the MC and Toma hints that he may have to get rid of him. You don't interact with any of your friends and all you have is Orion who can't physically do anything.
I'll also go into some of the creepier moments from this route. For example, when she is able to find a fault in her cage, she immediately goes for her phone on the shelf. She hides it in a puzzle box that Toma gives her and he immediately notices it is missing. Deciding to call it, Orion hurriedly rushes you to turn it off or he'll find out. Another is when you escape near the end and go to your apartment to retrieve your diary (and along with that, hopefully your memories) and you get injured. When you return to the cage, Toma comes back and notices that your shoes are out of place with a very calm tone to his voice (and his yandere face). When he pieces that you've somehow escaped, he reaches critical levels to the point of implying that he's going to rape the MC by making her strip down and say-
"Just like you don't know the pain I feel, I'm not going to notice the pain you feel either."
"If I stop screwing around and forcibly take you for myself, will you finally look at me and only me? Or would you just break? I don't mind if you break. I'm confident I can still love you if that happens."
Pardon my french but WHAT THE FUCK, TOMA? The only thing that stops him is his dumb ass knocking you into a shelf, dropping your diary, and reading it without her permission. Cue the "Oh, she liked me this whole time!" Never does he seem to show genuine remorse for his actions towards the MC but regardless, she forgives him instantly becuz tru luv and they live happily after after...?
At least the game gets a little meta, since his ending is called
"You really have bad taste in men" Very apt. :p
In the end, I did like this route more than Shin's because even if the topic of it was very yandere, it was still an intriguing story that kept me interested in how it would end even if the end was extremely disappointing. The bad ending CG is also really beautiful despite the terrible implications.
Ukyo
Joker World
I was happy to move onto the next world after the clusterfuck of Toma's world. Unsurprisingly, the hidden world was for Ukyo, the mysterious stranger that appeared in every route with seemingly two sides. Sometimes he'd just check on the heroine or just come around to issue her disturbing warnings. I don't remember this happening in the other's but I also specifically remember him dying in Kent's route. Immediately you know that he's someone that was connected to the MC and is aware of her lost memories.
Basically, skipping over all of the in between bits, this guy ends up being the reason your memories have been knocked out. Originally MC dies in an accident in the 'original' world with Ukyo and he makes a wish to a God (Nhil) and ends up merging and hopping between the worlds to find you. Unfortunately, since he did not originally belong in those worlds, he was eliminated and killed countless times. Going mad from these experiences, he began to seek out the heroine and kill her himself through indirect or direct means. Though it insured his survival, he could not handle the guilt, and kept traveling through worlds to find her once again and the cycle would continue. Ukyo's route was really tragic and gave me a lot of sad feelings throughout it. I couldn't help but want him to have his happy ending.
Though he has gone mad and even goes as far as nearly murdering (and in the bad ends, succeeding) the MC, he still seems to show much remorse for his actions, urging the MC repeatedly to stay away from him. Even looking past his murderous ways, you could really feel that he painfully loved the MC and was fighting the internal struggle to keep her safe. Honestly, this path was a little hard for me to follow at times but in the end it all came together and it felt like a lot of loose ends were tied up, with the cycle finally ending.
Diamond World
(Just a warning, I'm going to say the most about this route)
I ended up liking the Kent's route so much that I wondered how this world would compare. In Ikki's and Kent's, you don't see Toma much so I was very intrigued where his story would go considering he straight up tries to murder you in Shin's route. After the normality and romance from Kent's route, Toma's route was like a punch to the gut. The fact that you spend the first 3 or 4 days in the Hospital with no interaction with others was already worrying enough. The maid cafe is also an important part of the other stories, but in this world Toma takes you out for the entire month, with or without your permission.
Of course, during this time, you find out that there are people trying to hurt you. Going as far as putting garbage in your mailbox, posting terrible things online, and even cutting off a piece of your hair. You eventually find out it's Ikki's crazy fan club girls. I wondered why they bully you much more harsher in this route than in Ikki's actual route but I digress.This route already started out very odd and was starting to creep me out, especially since I played it later at night.
But no, it doesn't end there! Despite being cut off from your job and your friends, Toma insists that you move in with him temporarily. Okay... not so weird? I mean Ikki was trying to get you to move in with him his entire route. But, Toma is very strict about you not going outside which makes sense because you run into dangerous situations out there but still... He's gone for many hours of the day and she's left alone.
It wasn't until I checked my parameters for the first time that I got really weirded out. I was like "Huh?? What's this?" A 'doubt' parameter pops up that didn't exist in any other play through which immediately indicated that there is more to Toma than we're seeing. The tipping point was when you find out from Orion that he's been drugging your food all the while calling you affectionate names such as "sleeping beauty".
But the lighthearted-ness ends there. Yandere Toma has been triggered. So, in what ends up being one of the most memorable moments from this game, after going to your house one too many times, you get locked into a dog cage. A literal dog cage where you sleep and spend the rest of your time. He even buys you childish toys which at one point the MC asks him if she's "his doll". Of course, during this whole time he is telling the MC that he's "doing it for her own good" and "he's only trying to protect her" as if that justifies this psychotic behavior, Toma! Though the anime tries to tone it down by him letting her out of the cage sometimes, he never does so in the game. He literally handcuffs her while he serves her food so she doesn't try escape. She must wear one handcuff while she uses the bathroom/showers while he holds the leash on the other side. She is literally his prisoner.
Orion broke my heart the most in this route with his worry for the MC. You could really get a sense of his helplessness of the situation. Even Shin appears in this route and shows concern for the MC and Toma hints that he may have to get rid of him. You don't interact with any of your friends and all you have is Orion who can't physically do anything.
I'll also go into some of the creepier moments from this route. For example, when she is able to find a fault in her cage, she immediately goes for her phone on the shelf. She hides it in a puzzle box that Toma gives her and he immediately notices it is missing. Deciding to call it, Orion hurriedly rushes you to turn it off or he'll find out. Another is when you escape near the end and go to your apartment to retrieve your diary (and along with that, hopefully your memories) and you get injured. When you return to the cage, Toma comes back and notices that your shoes are out of place with a very calm tone to his voice (and his yandere face). When he pieces that you've somehow escaped, he reaches critical levels to the point of implying that he's going to rape the MC by making her strip down and say-
"Just like you don't know the pain I feel, I'm not going to notice the pain you feel either."
"If I stop screwing around and forcibly take you for myself, will you finally look at me and only me? Or would you just break? I don't mind if you break. I'm confident I can still love you if that happens."
Pardon my french but WHAT THE FUCK, TOMA? The only thing that stops him is his dumb ass knocking you into a shelf, dropping your diary, and reading it without her permission. Cue the "Oh, she liked me this whole time!" Never does he seem to show genuine remorse for his actions towards the MC but regardless, she forgives him instantly becuz tru luv and they live happily after after...?
"You really have bad taste in men" Very apt. :p
In the end, I did like this route more than Shin's because even if the topic of it was very yandere, it was still an intriguing story that kept me interested in how it would end even if the end was extremely disappointing. The bad ending CG is also really beautiful despite the terrible implications.
Ukyo
Joker World
I was happy to move onto the next world after the clusterfuck of Toma's world. Unsurprisingly, the hidden world was for Ukyo, the mysterious stranger that appeared in every route with seemingly two sides. Sometimes he'd just check on the heroine or just come around to issue her disturbing warnings. I don't remember this happening in the other's but I also specifically remember him dying in Kent's route. Immediately you know that he's someone that was connected to the MC and is aware of her lost memories.
Basically, skipping over all of the in between bits, this guy ends up being the reason your memories have been knocked out. Originally MC dies in an accident in the 'original' world with Ukyo and he makes a wish to a God (Nhil) and ends up merging and hopping between the worlds to find you. Unfortunately, since he did not originally belong in those worlds, he was eliminated and killed countless times. Going mad from these experiences, he began to seek out the heroine and kill her himself through indirect or direct means. Though it insured his survival, he could not handle the guilt, and kept traveling through worlds to find her once again and the cycle would continue. Ukyo's route was really tragic and gave me a lot of sad feelings throughout it. I couldn't help but want him to have his happy ending.
To me, Ukyo's definitely felt like the "true route". His ending also had the added bonus of Nhil and Orion becoming humans as their punishment for the interference of the humans. Though games don't really make me emotional, I admittedly felt a little teary when you meet up with their human counterparts in the end.
Though his route wasn't my favourite, it was a good conclusion to the story and it feels satisfying knowing these tragic lovers are eventually reconnected and allowed to have their happy ending.
Phew, that's it for my thoughts on the game and their routes! I haven't played their extra/side stories yet and I know there's a few extra stories like Amnesia Later, Crowd and World that I'll look into as well. The game overall turned out much better than expected and I'm glad I kept going after Shin's route when I was wondering if the game would get any better and it did! The story was interesting, the art was very nice and I feel happy with the ending.
Now, I will also add a few thoughts about the anime series.
Going into the anime, I saw that it didn't have too many glowing reviews but I decided to watch it along with my boyfriend whom I've been trying to explain the story and he wasn't really getting it. I knew he wasn't going to play a 20 hour game so I thought a 12 episode anime would be more easily digestible.
Well, we ended up watching the entire thing in one day. It was nice to see these still characters and actually watch them move around like real characters rather than images. I was also disappointed that they changed the story to her being able to hop between worlds with her memories intact when it's stressed in the game that you cannot do this. This is why Orion is perpetualy confused by Ukyo's existence. For an anime, it makes sense that that different versions of the MC doesn't work so I get the change but it still bothered me.
In the end, it was a pretty faithful adaptation though very cut down. The characters didn't interact as much as I would have liked and Orion was cut out so much that their goodbye at the end didn't have as much of an emotional impact as in the game. He's really not with her that much besides very few key points. Shin, Ikki, Kent and Toma don't interact much either. The entire mystery of the first arc is cut out, Kent only gets 1 (!!) episode and they really made Toma out to be not as bad as he was in the game. Besides those and a few other differences, it followed the plot of the game closely.
In the end, I think it was alright as a supplement for the game but of course the game is much better.
Anyways, this is the end of my long post!
(^_^)/
