Amnesia: Memories is a dating sim/visual novel from Idea Factory International. The game is about a girl who wakes up with no memory of what is going on. Orion then mysteriously appears as a spirit apparently trapped within the protagonist’s mind. No one can see or hear him except for the protagonist. Orion promises to help the main character regain her memories within a month but warns against telling anybody about the memory loss issue.

The amnesiac protagonist will meet five potential suitors to romance, and they are Shin from the heart world, Ikki from the spade world, Kent from the Clover world, Toma from the Diamond world and Ukyo from the Joker world. You actually know these guys but you have no memory of them, so you must hide the amnesia problem as best as you can to achieve the good or normal ending. Also, if any of the suitors finds out what is really going on, then your memories will be lost forever.

The game is all about navigating the complex relationships with the five characters while hiding the problem at hand. As you progress in the game, you will learn the backstories of Shin, Toma, Kent, Ikki and Ukyo. Said backstories are interesting, and they definitely add more depth to this visual novel.

Like a typical visual novel, you have to make choices that will affect the course of the game, and the choices you make have a value in the form of affection that shows the strength of the love towards the character, and trust that, well, shows how much trust is placed on the character, and if that is not the case then the suspicion level will increase.

Therefore, the goal of the game is to keep the affection and trust levels high and the suspicion level as low as possible to achieve the good or normal ending for each suitor. So do keep a close eye on your parameter’s menu!

Amnesia: Memories has about 20 endings across all routes and between achieving good ending and normal ending. Getting the shiny platinum trophy requires you to get all the endings on all good, normal and bad ending routes as well as seeing every ending possible. So it is going to be a loooong Platinum to get, and each playthrough is roughly 35-40 hours or so!

As well as the main campaign there are two fantastic mini-games that I had a blast with and completed. Said minigames are Air Hockey and Rock-Paper-Scissors. In Air Hockey, which is the most fun and the easiest of the two minigames, the goal is to be the first to win seven points. Getting the puck into your opponents net wins you one point and whoever failed to score serves next. Oh, and if you win three games you will unlock a Bronze trophy and if you beat all five opponents you will unlock a Silver trophy.

In Rock-Paper-Scissors, which kinda plays like whack a mole, you and your opponent must choose either rock, paper or scissors and whoever picked the strongest win’s a point. If the opponent wins you get to pick the guard card to prevent your opponent from winning a point. If you win you can hit your opponent with the mallet card to earn a point. Once the timer runs out whoever has the most points wins. And again, winning three games earns you a Bronze trophy and beating all five opponents earns you a Silver trophy.

The game’s artwork and animations are really good, and there are no framerate issues, bugs or glitches to be found in this release game. The music is pretty mellow which in my opinion fits the nature of the game perfectly.

The game has 26 trophies in total: 5 Bronze, 15 Silver, 5 Gold and a Platinum. It is not going to be very easy, and it will take quite a while to obtain all trophies, but the experience is very much worth it!

Amnesia: Memories is a brilliant game that is full of mystery and drama. If you’re a fan of Japanese visual novels, I’d definitely recommend you giving this game a go. The story is great, and the writing is very engaging.

[review pros=”Excellent presentation.
Great characters.
Lots of content” cons=”Nothing to complain” score=90]