amnesia memories preview

Visual novels aren’t a genre of games that I am very familiar with, having never truly sat down to play one. However, I recently sat down with Idea Factory International to check out their upcoming visual novel, Amnesia: Memories for the PlayStation Vita and I came away intrigued with this booming genre.

Amnesia: Memories puts players in the role of a young girl who has awoken one day without her memories from before that day. With the help of a mysterious boy named Orion, she must now meet with four different men to learn of her forgotten past. However, your girl must move to regain her memories in a way that whatever boy she is with doesn’t find out, since she has a problem trusting any of them.

The game will feature four boys to choose from, each with their own story. There’s e a fifth unlockable boy, which will open up whenever you complete the other four. I was told the game will feature over 20+ endings and around 3-5 hours per each person’s story. Amnesia is a straightforward visual novel, where most of your time is spent reading conversations between you and your boy of choice. There will be options to select during conversations that will alter how you and the boy interact with each other, but that’s essentially it.

Outside of the main stories, there’s also a “touching” gallery and two mini games to help break up the text-heavy game. The touching gallery is exactly what it sounds like. You pick a boy of your choice and touch him to your hearts content. I didn’t actually see this mode in action but I don’t think I’d lose sleep over not being able to play it.

The mini games consist of rock, paper, scissors and air hockey. In rock, paper, scissors, you and the boy select your choice, and then if you have the winning choice, you must quickly select attack before he defends. Or vice versa if the boy wins the choice. You have to attack or defend first until you score enough points to win. Air hockey is simple, as you play air hockey against the boy, with the first to seven winning. These mini games aren’t overly deep and serve only to break up the text.

Amensia: Memories is a game that has a very specific market and that’s not really a bad thing. The art style is very well done and the story sounds interesting, but it won’t be for everyone. Look for it when it releases digitally later this year on the PlayStation Vita.