Memoranda is a point-and-click journey recreation impressed by the quick tales of Haruki Murakami. After I accomplished the sport, I regarded up the Japanese author and skim just a few flash fiction items. Perhaps I learn the mistaken tales, however by studying his work, I nonetheless didn’t perceive Memoranda in any respect, which is a part of the rationale the sport fell quick for me.
I’ve a tough time describing the story of this recreation as a result of the knowledge doesn’t make sense. You play as Ms. Mizuki, who has seemingly forgotten her first identify. Her identify tag is locked inside a secure in her condo, although she will’t bear in mind the code. She remembers all the things else, although. She wants a map to get round city, however she remembers the individuals who reside in her condo and the city and has recollections of her deceased mother and father.
But, there are many characters round which might be human, or possibly they’re not—I’m nonetheless undecided. There’s an opera-singing cat that may have been a human as soon as, a human who was once a fish, and an elephant hiding in a person’s cottage who was once within the circus. However he may need additionally been human at one level too.
Many issues occur on this recreation that don’t make sense. It doesn’t assist that there have been about three completely different plots, none of which had particular endings.
Ms. Mizuki has insomnia as a result of a sailor hides underneath her mattress and received’t let her sleep. Is he a hallucination? It’s exhausting to say. However as soon as we do away with him, that’s that, and nothing is talked about once more. There’s no clarification as to who he was or why he was hovering round our character. She additionally desires to search out the lacking elephant and assist him. However as soon as we discover him, he’s forgotten, and we transfer onto her subsequent fear—her lacking identify.
Even then, we discover the identify ultimately, but it surely’s not revealed. Ms. Mizuki is fairly happy, and that’s all effectively and good for her, however I did all of the work and obtained nothing out of it. For a mysterious puzzle recreation, I need to be happy and have “ah-ha!” moments. As a substitute, all I felt was aid when the credit began rolling.
If an anti-climactic story isn’t unhealthy sufficient, the gameplay isn’t something to cheer about both. I get pleasure from point-and-click video games. I feel the style is intelligent by exploring the areas and utilizing instruments and objects we discover round us to make it from one place to the subsequent. The issue with Memoranda’s execution was that nothing made sense.
For a brief recreation, you’re going to spend hours figuring issues out. For instance, you should seize the opera-singing cat’s voice. When he begins singing, he begins to cough. So, you give him some orange juice that you just picked up out of your condo. He sings once more, however the voice rises into the air. How do you seize it if it disappears? Properly, you combine the orange juice with some gasoline that you just picked up some other place and have him drink that, inflicting the voice to fall to the bottom so you possibly can choose it up. The precise puzzles weren’t too unhealthy, however there have been solely about 5 or so all through the sport.
Fortunately, the sport isn’t too linear. If you happen to’re in a single space, look at all the things you possibly can. In any other case, there shall be a lot forwards and backwards, and Ms. Mizuki is a gradual walker. I used to be bored for almost all of the sport. I wasn’t engaged within the story or the characters, and I used to be irritated that I couldn’t get any outcomes that I labored so exhausting for as nothing was defined.
The sport’s solely saving grace is that it’s completely stunning. The hand-drawn artwork type is wonderful, and the varied areas and backgrounds are a sight to see. Additionally, the music and sound results have been clear and full of life as effectively. The design and sound groups on this one did a wonderful job. The sport is value testing for that alone.
By way of fixing puzzles and diving deep into the story, the enjoyable received’t final lengthy.
