#mint.exe

Amnesia: Memories is an unforgettable otome experience. Before I start, I need to mention, this is covering the game and not the anime. The anime is a trainwreck - mostly because it tries to cover every route in it and it becomes a mess, leaving you feeling confused and having little attachment to the characters. If you want to watch the anime, go ahead, but I personally wouldn’t recommend it. The only saving grace of the anime would be the OP, “Zoetrope” sung by Nagi Yanagi (stylised as “yanaginagi,”) which is just beautiful.

Unlike other otome games, where you would have to build up your affection with a certain character to enter their route — Amnesia starts off by selecting a “World.” The world you pick determines which route you’ll be on, only once you enter a route do you have to worry about gaining affection.. amongst other things.

STORY

It was the 1st of August. That morning, when she awoke, the heroine found herself without any memories from before August 1st. Everything, from the sort of life she lived, to the relationships she had, was a blank...... A young boy named Orion appeared in front of her, referring to himself as a "spirit." Under Orion's guidance, the heroine began the struggle to regain her memories. She searched her house for clues about her everyday life, and received a message on her phone... What was displayed on the screen was an unknown name to her. Now, she is asked to meet with him, a boyfriend whose name and face she doesn't know. In a position where who to trust is uncertain, the heroine must move in a way that her memory loss remains undetected by her partner. Because of this, the story becomes tangled in complex ways. With no memories of "him," our heroine will write a new love story starting today... — Game Description from the Official English Website

Yup. Amnesia is the name of the game (literally,) while trying to recover your memories, you deal with your love interests and have to try to play it cool, so they won’t notice that you’re missing your memories.

One of the things I found interesting when I first discovered Amnesia back in 2016 was the parameters.

You have three parameters to focus on:

Affection: The heroine’s favor toward the chosen character Trust: How strong your relationship is with him Suspicion: Suspicion elicited by the heroine’s memory loss

Actually you have four in one route but I’ll touch on that later.

Since each route takes place in a different world — the story background varies depending on which world you’re in, but for the most part things are pretty much the same.

In the prologue of the game you’re introduced to Orion, who serves somewhat as a tutorial figure and a voice of reason throughout most of the routes. His goal is to help you recover your memories and live a normal, happy life. The more you delve into your chosen route, the more you’ll see how difficult that can really be.

LOVE INTERESTS

Shin ♥ Blunt, Earnest

Shin is the main love interest of Heart World. Childhood friend turned lover, and also a tsundere.

Shin’s route feels like a murder-mystery V/N rather than a romance V/N, which is fine actually. He speaks with harsh words (as any tsundere does,) but as they say, actions speak louder than words; he is very protective of you and it’s clear, by behaviour alone, that he cares about you. Despite the romance in his route not being as focal as in the other routes — it’s still handled well. His route doesn’t really get too emotional until the end but that’s alright. During my first playthrough, it left me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who the culprit was, however the further you get into the route, the more obvious it becomes (at least to me.)

Ikki  ♠ Alluring, Fascinating

Ikki is the main love interest of Spade World. Co-worker turned current boyfriend... with a time limit?

I can say this; when I started Ikki’s route, I did not expect to like him as much as I did by the end of his route. He is the flirtatious playboy character of the love interests, incredibly popular — so popular in fact, that he’s garnered himself his own fan-club. The fan-club is so incredibly annoying to deal with, however, during his route you find out how and why he has a fan-club and why you two got together in the first place. His route feels a lot more... sexy? Than the other ones, which has to do, in part, to the incredible voice acting of Taniyama Kishō. The route starts off feeling weak, and in all honesty, annoying — but as I got further along, I found myself intrigued and enjoying it.

Kent ♣️ Cool, Logical

Kent is the main love interest of Clover World. Complete relationship-noob with a pure heart.

Kent is the shadow MVP of Amnesia, to be honest. He is blunt and speaks without a filter (he’s unaware when he’s being rude,) but he tries his hardest in this relationship of yours, and he’s just so precious and cute. His route is pretty vanilla but can get some emotions out of you when the time calls for it. Considering the other suitors of the game, his route is unexpectedly refreshing; mostly because even though he tries his best — the outcomes of his endeavours are usually awkward as all hell, which is cute in it’s own way. The only thing I have to say negatively about his route; is that he makes me do math. Not even kidding. Kent is a graduate student in mathematics, and although the questions he gives you are relatively simple, I still feel stupid every time I have to do them while replaying his route. A simple and cute route about Kent letting go of all his apprehension while learning how to fall in love.

Toma ♦️ Affectionate, Intense

Toma is the main love interest of Diamond World. Miscommunication: The Route! Also yeah, “Intense” is one word to describe him..

I’m going to be completely transparent: I like Toma. His route? Pretty meh, in my personal opinion but, as a character I like him, and apparently, so do a lot of other people considering he won 1st place in the 2011 Amnesia Popularity Poll.

Spoilers Ahoy!

I just want to get it out there real quick, that Toma is a character who fits with the yandere trope. Here are the trigger warnings for his route if you need them: drugging, isolation, imprisonment.

Oh yeah, remember how I briefly mentioned one of the routes has a fourth parameter? ...Yeah! Doubt: Measure of doubt felt by the heroine In his route, you need to actively doubt the things he does, which is just another thing to worry about on top of all the other things you’re currently worrying about.

If you can look past those things, or in fact, if you enjoy characters like this; Toma’s route will be a breeze... maybe. The thing that annoyed me the most about his route is how short it could have been and how many problems could have been avoided with proper communication. However, since the Heroine lost her memories, it’s unavoidable on her end. His route is Intense. With a capital ‘i.’ However, I found it enjoyable enough. More enjoyable, however, is his routes in the other games post-Amnesia.

Ukyo  🃏 Mysterious, Enigmatic

Ukyo is the main love interest of Joker World. If you’ve played any of the above routes, you might recognise him.

Spoilers Ahoy! This entire route has spoilers so proceed with caution.

Upon successfully finishing your fourth route, and moving on to replay the game once again, you might notice a fifth world option: Joker World. Welcome to the final frontier!

That strange green-haired guy who makes appearances in every route? This is him! Complete with all the questionable behaviour he’s shown in the past — however this time, we get backstory. Joker World is often considered the “True Route” which you’ll understand why upon finishing the good ending, however, I personally don’t believe that there’s any “True Route.” However, this route is the best one (not biased.)

You get backstory onto what really happened before you lost your memories, who you were, what your real life was like before picking a random world to continue into. If you thought Toma’s route was intense, just buckle up; this is one hell of a ride.

Even now, with over 99 hours put into the game — I still cannot blind my way through Ukyo’s route and will have to resort to the walkthrough. Why is this? Well, because if you mess up even one line of dialogue; it can ruin the entire route somehow — just, trust me, okay? The difficulty level skyrockets — if Kent’s route was 10% difficult, Ukyo’s route would be 90% difficult. So, what’s there to gain from such a difficult route? Is it worth playing through it?

Yes. (Not biased.) No matter how difficult his route is, it is always satisfying to complete it and get that good ending. Always. (Still not biased.)

There is something, however, I will briefly mention: despite his behaviour — Ukyo is not a yandere, and if I have to say that again I might implode.

Spoilers Ahoy! No going back.

Upon finishing his good ending it should be completely apparent on why he isn’t a yandere; but I’ll spell it out anyhow.

Ukyo has travelled across different worlds — either dying in horrific agony, or killing the love of his life, causing him to jump to another world to try again. Repeating this cycle over and over, the amount of trauma he inflicted upon himself, caused a new personality to be born.

The definition of yandere is as follows: A character who has an obsessive and possessive side in regards to their crush, ready to use violent and murderous means to maintain an exclusive bond.

Anyone can see clear as day, that this isn’t Ukyo. As his alter-ego is only violent and murderous towards the Heroine because if she doesn’t die, he will. It’s a fight or flight response, and his response is to fight.

OK. Rant over, let’s proceed.

SOUND & VOICE ACTING

Amnesia’s score is good, albeit often forgotten. Amnesia’s OST is composed by MANYO. Known for composing the Collar×Malice OST and also worked on the STEINS;GATE 0 OST and HIMOUTO! UMARUCHAN OST.

Both themes for Amnesia are sung by the incredibly talented Oda Kaori, both taken off from her fourth single “Reverberation.”

The voice acting is immersive! Each actor really did their best and you can tell, the quality is superb and suits each character really well!

“Orion” — Hiromi Igarashi (五十嵐裕美,) known for: Anzu Futaba (IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS,) Aoi Hyoudou (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)

“Shin” — Tetsuya Kakihara (柿原徹也,) known for: Subaru Akehoshi (Ensemble Stars!,) Azuma Yukishiro (A3!,) Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)

“Ikki” — Kishō Taniyama (谷山紀章,) known for: Shinomiya Natsuki (Uta no Prince-sama,) Chuuya Nakahara (Bungou Stray Dogs,) Jean Kirstein (Shingeki no Kyojin)

“Kent” — Akira Ishida (石田彰,) known for: Shun Kamiya (TRIBE NINE,) Byakuya Togami (Danganronpa,) Aru Akise (Mirai Nikki)

“Toma” — Satoshi Hino (日野聡,) known for: Kyoujurou Rengoku (Kimetsu no Yaiba,) Momonga (Overlord,) Noiz (DRAMAtical Murder)

“Ukyo” — Kōki Miyata (宮田幸季,) known for: Chihiro Fujisaki (Danganronpa,) Hanataro Yamada (BLEACH,) Aiichirou Nitori (Free!)

FINAL SCORE

I give it a good out of very. Go play it.

...Hey. If you enjoyed this incredibly-not-biased review, I run some twitter bots of otome characters, so follow them if you’re interested. This was less of a proper review and more the ramblings of a hyperfixated teenager, sorry about that.