True Remembrance is an ordinary tale of the ordinary days spent in an ordinary town by an ordinary girl who learns that everything in this world is extraordinary - or that nothing is. For in this world, there is a young man named Blackiris; a Mnemonicide par excellence. And there is a young girl named La; sweet and warm and gentle in all the ways that count. This is their story.
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This is not my favorite visual novel, but I have to acknowledge the insane quality in both writing and localization. So much care was put into this project and every single detail matters. There comes a point where the entire story is recontextualized and it blew my mind. The VN is free. Read it.
For a more in-depth discussion on that pivotal turning point, watch this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1mSC3apSoc&
For a more in-depth discussion on that pivotal turning point, watch this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1mSC3apSoc&
In a world recoiling from the effects of the virus "the Dolor," (alt. Depression AIDS), our protagonist Blackiris must use his "mneumonicide" powers to suppress the traumatic memories of his "guest," La to cure her psyche corrosion. A masterwork of the classic Visual Novel (or general storytelling technique(?) of immersing you into the world & making you like the characters, then giving you an emotional nutpunch in a manner that's too good to spoil.
And if you did read it, my man Adze made a great video on that scene which catapults this VN from "solid and enjoyable" to "holy moly." ~ https://youtu.be/J1mSC3apSoc
And if you did read it, my man Adze made a great video on that scene which catapults this VN from "solid and enjoyable" to "holy moly." ~ https://youtu.be/J1mSC3apSoc
This review contains spoilers
What do you do with a work like this? I found it genuinely boring for hours, with little emotional highlights here and there—I'm a huge mark for any character trapped in a pattern of self-denial, so La's perspective in particular hit me like a truck—that couldn't save the overwhelming just-okayness of it all.
And then the twist comes, and I feel like that tricked me into thinking the VN's way better than it is.
But at least the twist is better than I thought it was. My first impression was that it was a cheat, abandoning everything we knew about the characters—and it's not NOT a cheat, since multiple chapters of the game are from La's perspective and she conveniently leaves details out—but mostly the revelations recontextualize, rather than alter, the characters and their relationships. There's still a continuity between who they are and who it turns out they were.
(And hey, it's a story about memory erasure, I can forgive a slightly cheap twist about memory erasure.)
Interesting choice to lead La's backstory with Blackiris' half-joking worry that Analye is a pedophile, because it really colors how the Omega storyline ends up coming across. Stating the subtext out loud, but it works somehow.
And then the twist comes, and I feel like that tricked me into thinking the VN's way better than it is.
But at least the twist is better than I thought it was. My first impression was that it was a cheat, abandoning everything we knew about the characters—and it's not NOT a cheat, since multiple chapters of the game are from La's perspective and she conveniently leaves details out—but mostly the revelations recontextualize, rather than alter, the characters and their relationships. There's still a continuity between who they are and who it turns out they were.
(And hey, it's a story about memory erasure, I can forgive a slightly cheap twist about memory erasure.)
Interesting choice to lead La's backstory with Blackiris' half-joking worry that Analye is a pedophile, because it really colors how the Omega storyline ends up coming across. Stating the subtext out loud, but it works somehow.