If you’ve listened to the Geekscape Games podcast, (the number one gaming podcast on the Geekscape Network,) over the last few weeks, you know that the Vita has no shortage of games that involve a combination of dating, waifu bait, and/or uncomfortably rubbing the characters while strangers judge you on public transit. Amnesia: Memories from Idea Factory, is an Otome title, (which literally translates to “girl game”,) that has all of these features, but reverses the roles. As a woman who has lost her memories due to mysterious circumstances, she must piece together her past by building relationships with the five men who were closest to her, but with an interesting twist that will surely help Amnesia stand out amongst the sea of visual novels and Japanese inspired games on the Vita.
Guided by Orion, a strange spirit that helps you on your quest, each scenario starts with selecting which boy you want to pursue. Treated as a type of separate dimension or universe from the other choices, the world is flipped around depending on what you choose. For example, if you decide to chase after one boy in their scenario, one of the other characters might become a co worker as opposed to someone you date.
As the story unfolds, you’re tasked with balancing out three different meters that measure your relationships. By keeping affection and trust at a stable level, it will almost ensure that your hidden past will come to light through your interactions. However, if your responses to the text veer too far out of character, your husbando will grow suspicious, which can lead to them figuring out that you lost your memories. While most logical people would use that as an opportunity to fill the person in right then and there, this apparently throws off your guy to the point where he’ll stop helping you, leading to a bad ending. Why this happens will vary from scenario to scenario, but if I was her, I would want to get amnesia too if it meant forgetting my poor choice in men.
All joking aside, the concept of bringing a multiverse into the dating sim genre is one that’s new to me. Then again, my experience in the genre is limited to what came to the West, and while I can woo a pigeon for days, men are something I have yet to conquer. Regardless, the concept of piecing together your past and learning alongside this character by combining the experiences of each scenario is one that I find very intriguing, especially when you consider that Amnesia promises more than 20 endings. I hope you grow attached, because at an estimated 3 hours per scenario, there will be lots of game to uncover here.
If all that text starts to wear you out, Amnesia also has a set of touch screen mini games to play with your beaus, the two of which featured were air hockey and rock paper scissors. Air hockey accurately recreates the real date experience, where either the boy lets the girl win, or he’s too drunk to have anything that resembles coordination. The CPU constantly scored on themselves when reacting to a well placed shot, but their defense is usually on point before you manage to get the puck passed them. Rock Paper Scissors on the other hand, manages to be slightly less straightforward in its approach by adding an attack and defend mechanic. If you win or lose the initial throw down, the first person to tap either attack or defend depending on the result gets rewarded. If successful, the attacker gets their point while the defender blocks their score and lives to fight another day. It’s an adorable distraction, but if you want to get down to business, you can just go into the viewer and rub each guy’s shirtless body while he tells you about it! This feature wasn’t available to try, but I was promised that it would be more romantic and less lewd than something you’d find in other titles of this nature. Not sure if the businessmen on the train will notice the difference though.
All in all, I’m always excited for when a developer can bring some new concepts to genres that remain relatively stagnant, so the multiverse mechanic of Amnesia leaves me wanting more. How did the girl lose her memories? Where does Orion come from? Why do the guys refuse to help her if they learn of her memory loss? There are so many questions and not enough answers, which is why I can’t wait to see how it unfolds when August rolls around. Who knows? Maybe this year’s top waifu won’t be a woman at all!