Reviews from

in the past


Compared to Cing's later works in Hotel Dusk and Last Window, Trace Memory feels more like a rough tech demo for the DS... but what a charming little tech demo it is! You play as Ashley Mizuki Robbins, the daughter of two scientists who were presumed dead years ago, only for Ashley's father to send her a letter years later asking her to come to Blood Edward Island to learn the truth. Accompanying her is a device named the Dual Trace System (DTS), which very much resembles the classic DS model and can read DS game cards data cards scattered around the island of her father's logs. She eventually bumps into the ghost of a boy named "D", who also doesn't remember a thing of his past, and together, Ashley and D must navigate the abandoned island's sprawling mansion to unravel the mysteries of their respective pasts.

Puzzles are a bit of a mixed bag admittingly. A few of them are a bit rough around the edges; during multiple parts of the game, I had trouble grabbing or contacting objects on the screen with my stylus due to really imprecise or tiny hitboxes. In addition, a good chunk of the puzzles are extremely simple: some are tap and drag puzzles like breaking a bottle or rotating a crank, and a few are just inventory puzzle chains (item A will get you item B which is used to obtain item C). Nevertheless, I do have to respect the ambition for certain sequences. The DTS also comes with an in-game camera to take pictures of scenery so you don't necessarily need a pencil and paper alongside you while playing, but there's also a nice overlay feature that lets you place images on top of another image made transparent to decode hidden passwords; it's a nice little gimmick that I wish was utilized a bit more. I also have to give Trace Memory credit for utilizing practically every feature of the DS, with a couple of microphone puzzles and another DS open-shut puzzle that I think is basically Cing's speciality considering I have yet to see any other developer tinker with that idea. Outside of these interactive puzzles however, I do wish that the inventory puzzles were a bit more facilitated: key items have to be obtained from tapping around observable scenes that appear to have a lot of distinct items of interest, but upon tapping in many of these areas, most end up as red herrings that only provide a single line of flavor text. I also admit that as short as the game is (five hours, about half the length of Hotel Dusk), it was a bit easy to get lost within the mansion since I wasn't provided with a map but often had to backtrack to previously explored locations in past chapters for key items that became obtainable once I passed the right checks in future chapters.

Trace Memory's doesn't quite achieve the same feeling of presence as what I'd come to expect for Cing, with its strange mouth animations upon still-figures (as opposed to Hotel Dusk's distinct inky animated character models) or its fairly contrived puzzles that seem to make little sense in the context of its narrative (as per most tech demos), but I do think its heart is in the right place. Despite how much flavor text I had to mash through just tapping everywhere, picking up on those little details to add to D's past or stumbling upon another data card kept me engrossed in the central mysteries for tighter world-building. While I do prefer the first-person 3D environments of Hotel Dusk as opposed to the top-down exploration of Trace Memory, I have to concur with MelMellon that the ability to highlight more specific areas of interest in 2D while displaying its more vast environments in 3D grants Trace Memory a combination of detail and immersion that few games manage to achieve. Finally, even if the central narrative isn't quite as intricate or intimate as Cing's future work, the game wrapped itself up quite nicely with no plot holes (and keeps you aware of the running plotline with its end-of-chapter summary quizzes, much like Hotel Dusk would later utilize), and the final reveal of D's fate as a reward for thoroughly exploring the mansion and unlocking all his memories made the whole experience worthwhile. I came in expecting a short cozy adventure game highlighting both the potential of the DS and Cing's early ambitions, and I got just that, so all in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

-dude it’s so wild how edgy things could be in the mid 00s in a way that didn’t seem tasteless or needlessly provocative but instead was just edgy to further the plot n characters. like I think this was rated teen but there’s some v dark themes here that I wasn’t expecting for a game that looks and feels so childlike on the ds.
-love ds 3d graphics sm, chunky and blocky little polygons. flower sun and rain, style savvy and this are all very fucking cute and unmatched in terms of aesthetic. running around on this cute little beachy island that’s like totally abandoned and the dusty af mansion, the caves at the end w the blocky trees hanging over the characters. also just rlly love the designs for all these characters and rlly enjoyed seeing beautiful 2d drawings of the characters turned into blocky chibified rough caricatures.
-tbh when this comes out on switch I will probably pick it up bc I don’t know if my broke bitch laptop can play wii games well (I think it can but idk) but I also don’t know if I’ll replay this unless it’s majorly diff in terms of the story. like they rlly could’ve either cut out a lot of fat/backtracking or made this a lot longer adding in lots of characterization and motivation for the characters, but instead it’s a weird middle length for a game where by the end I was kinda idk bored??? idk I think the switch vers. looks rlly cute, love how switch games look for the most part.
-the two blonde dudes are kinda yaoi idkkkkk…
-the story is soooo cute, mostly why I wanted to play this even though I barely knew anything about the story I just always thought ashley’s design was so slay. but yeah def connected w this and w ashley and her search for family she doesn’t even rlly know if they want her around or who they are. it’s why shattered memories is one of my fave stories the more I think about, this isn’t totally comparable and not nearly as good for a variety of reasons but I still found ashley’s relationship w her dad rlly cute and sweet. also liked all the parallels between her and d and how so many adolescents feel like lost and lonely and invisible. heavy important stuff for what is basically a kids game, wish I played as a kid but tbh I was a dumb kid and would’ve gotten stuck on puzzles early on especially if played before I had iphone.

One of the themes of this year in gaming, for me, is to experience more from Cing, a defunct studio which I love almost solely on the basis of two games; Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Last Window: The Secret of Cape West.

Those two games to me are five star titles, not only are they great stories full of wonderful writing, characters and fun puzzles but they do something I’m a big fan of and that’s use the hardware they were designed for in fun and interesting ways.
I’m a “waggle defender”. I love the games of Nintendo hardware where non-first party developers bothered to use what was unique rather than something that could be easily ported to any machine.

Cing are King when it comes to this on DS and in a previous backloggd review, I showed they were pretty good at it on Wii too.

So yes, I played the games in the wrong order and yes completing Another Code R did spoil a minor bit of plot for Another Code: Two Memories but it did not ruin my enjoyment.

Much like the Wii sequel, you take on the role of Ashley who in this title is thirteen years old. She is called to Blood Edward Island to meet with her father who she has not seen in over a decade.
She’s there not only to find out why he has been gone so long, but anything she can about the death of her mother which took place a little while before dad up and left.
The hook? Ashley has been sent a machine called a DAS that looks strangely familiar to you (the player) and this device has messages for you, lets you store photos and then throughout the game aids you in solving puzzles.

I’m a sucker for reflecting the tech the player is using in the game, trying to break the walls of what’s in and outside of the story down.
This game doesn’t do that too deeply outside of aesthetics but as you search Blood Edward Island, meeting a friend, learning the island’s history and uncovering its secrets you get to use the DS in a few unique ways which don’t include simply button presses.

Cing would go on to do these things again and do them better in Hotel Dusk and really those words can be applied to almost every aspect of the game.
Art, music, characters, writing, plot - all of these factors are great in Another Code, it's just that they become excellent in the future.
In a way maybe deciding on how good a game is based on something that came out in its future is unfair but that is what we’re working with and whilst Another Code is brilliant and a worthwhile little gem it’s not a great, expansive or as nice and clever as Hotel Dusk so can’t be placed at those same heights.

Another Code is simple in a lot of ways, to some that would be a fault. The game and the story it tells is quite linear and the cast of characters is fairly small and even where it does expand with the former residents of Blood Edward Island’s history it’s less revelations and more reflections.
The game however is short and that is not an issue, in under five hours it tells a great tale and limiting its scope means that it doesn’t feel baggy or out stay its welcome.
The only case where an eye-roll of boredom ever happened would be clicking on something by accident and being stuck in a little bit of text I’d already read.

I had a great time with Another Code and it was very pleasant going back into Cing’s catalogue and seeing the steps they took to get to where they were with one of my all-timers.

Maybe it’s time to go even further back and play Glass Rose? I’m not sure if I am that dedicated.

A potentially dark story that limited itself by being written for kids. Ashley in particular has a pretty weak voice and will oscillate between what feels like her natural voice & an entirely neutral, semi-disinterested observer, which was a major disappointment. Characters also generally behave kind of strangely and the climax of the game felt a bit "just trust me bro". The captain's final conversation & D's farewell did get me right in the emotions, though, and I appreciate that.
I really enjoyed taking photos of setpieces and potential clues & being able to overlay them & rotate them in order to reveal hidden details or codes- a very cool idea that I haven't seen before.
While the game has pretty nice portraits & decent environments overall, its soundtrack & sound effects are lackluster.

Overall, Another Code is a bit greater than the sum of its parts, but it doesn't hold a candle to Hotel Dusk and Last Window.

This review contains spoilers

Really cool first attempt at a puzzle-VN style game for the DS. The game feels more like a tech demo for what would become Hotel Dusk, especially in how the narrative is very shallow compared to future Cing games and how the mansion is just a long hallway with puzzles in it. Did the Edward family had to solve 30 puzzles to go to their garden? Or maybe Bill had put them to trap Richard?

These issues can be easily ignored, especially considering how early it released. What annoys me the most is actually the writing, the amount of repetition and meaningless talking is too high, which combined with the game's short run shows how little meat this story has. It surprises me that the same writers did Hotel Dusk and Last Window, which have way more deep dialogue and inner monologues.

Another Code still hits the nostalgia for that era for me and it really tries to take advantage of the console's quirks, which I appreciated a lot. Also really good art and soundtrack.


In my early teen years, one day my mom bought me this game, thinking I'd like it. I played it a lot and liked it, then was suddenly owerwelmed by a sense of dread. It began to scare me and made me so anxious that I had my mom return it.
Years later I played it again til the end and I loved it all over again!
Right now I still love it, and it still gives me a strange sense of anxiety, like if I was really a young girl in an empty mansion where ghosts and adults with bad intentions could appear at any moment. But it's a nice thrill now.

I think the soundtrack adds to the suspance: it's very light and ghostly, so you hear very well the sounds of Ashley's footsteps.
The art style is super charming and stylish.

D's story is so sad...

I didn't play the sequel for the Wii. I'd like to, but it doesn't seem to have the same charm of the DS game. And it doesn't have D (I think)!

I really had a game that takes like, 5 hours to beat on my shelf for 2 years lol.
Anyway, Trace Memory/Another Code is the definition of cozy. The environments and music just has this unmistakable vibe to them so that even though it's such a short game, I really don't mind taking my time with the puzzles, which thankfully are never too obtuse or complicated, yet take advantage of the DS's capabilities... for better and for worse. There's definitely too much microphone related bullshit for my liking.
It's no FDC2 or anything, and it seems CiNG's own works would only get better after this, but it's definitely an enjoyable time. Here's to hoping the remake can recapture the magic

I Wish There Was More Games Like This

this game is proof that dementia is just a skill issue

D is the victorian child who learns about a happy meal for the first time.

It can be difficult to get the good ending on a first playthrough, but Trace Memory is a perfect first adventure game/VN to get you into the gaming styles. Unfortunately, you will then want to play worse adventure games/VNs, like this one's sequel.

WE'RE SO BACK 🕺🕺🕺

Fun little adventure, another good one from Cing

It's truly saddening how Cing made such amazing and inventive takes on the visual novel genre, yet are almost forgotten about since they went under. Still, I'm so excited to replay this and it's sequel on the Switch. 9/10

“The living leave traces of themselves wherever they go; and once you’re gone, it’s the traces that tell the story”

Essa frase dita por um dos personagens de Trace Memory não só descreve perfeitamente como é desbravar a mansão Edwards, local onde se passa o jogo, mas também toda a essência de jogos de mistério desse tipo, ou mais profundamente, sobre como a memória também pode ser material, como a vida continua mesmo após seu fim.

Trace Memory é curto e agridoce, assim como a vida, e te faz lembrar deste fato. Abaixo da premissa simples e pessoal há muita maturidade, com adolescentes de diferentes épocas se encontrando e se aproximando em meio à tragédias pessoais.

Contando duas histórias paralelas de forma realista e com pé no chão, esse jogo utiliza as funcionalidades do DS de forma total e com muita criatividade, e fato disso ter vindo diretamente de 2005 torna tudo mais impressionante. É único e atmosférico, com efeitos sonoros (destaque especial para os sons de passos) e músicas assombrantes, em uma ambientação simples mas muito bem realizada. Para uma experiência de uma tarde, foi bem gratificante, e mal posso esperar pelo remake.

[ps. joguei a demo do remake e… esperarei promoções]

A heartfelt adventure with the budget of five water bottles.

So this game is about the journey of finding what really happened to our dad.

While I enjoyed the adventure, story wise game felt like a lore dump rather than full on personal story for me? What I mean is majority of the story is about Edward family's past rather than the main character Ashley.

I mean dad story comes back but it's just at the end of it and ends so fast with just only a small connection to the overall plot, also villain's story feels really abruptly ended as well. So that makes me wonder if it was rushed?

Now I maybe look like not enjoyed the story but like I said I enjoyed the adventure especially because of our companion D the Ghost. Their back and forward argues was entertaining enough to make the adventure more enjoyable for me.

But still in my opinion last chapter felt like rushed to me. So because of that story is kinda meh for me. In my opinion game must had at least one more chapter to flesh out the story more.

Gameplay wise puzzles were interesting but also quite hard to figure for the not so good reasons.

One reason is game does not explain how to combine two images at once in our ds machine well. Because of this I needed to check guides for one puzzle later in the game.

Another one reason is game expects you to keep up with every clue location you find. What I mean is sometimes game wants you to do backtracking. I would be fine with it but game never reminds you which objects you need to find again so it was kind of a hassle without a guide.

But rest of the puzzles were nice enough to make me engaged. There were password puzzles, matching puzzles, tool using puzzles etc. So it was enough in my opinion. Like I said my only problems are the ones game couldn't describe itself that well (I hope they didn't do this to lengthen this 5 hour game unnaturally...)

So yeah that was trace memory... Or another code(depending on your region). It was a nice adventure with a abrupt ending and some confusing puzzles. Do I recommend it? If you find it cheap why not. But it doesn't have nowhere near amount of content hotel dusk does (because it's really that small of a game) so keep it in your mind.

now that the remake for this and the sequel is out and looks to have shifted more than i expected i decided to go back and replay this (and will play the Wii version of Another Code R) before getting around to the new ones at a later date.

this is about how i remembered it. solid art style, decent music, impressive (but simplistic) use of nearly every feature the DS has to offer. it would be more noteworthy if nearly every facet wasn't improved on massively with Cing's following work with the Kyle Hyde saga.

was less enthused with somehow ending up with the bad ending even though i had investigated and interacted with what i thought was nearly everything in the game up until then. finished that run and followed up with a quicker one today to get the good ending. this has a starred save NG+ system similar to Hotel Dusk so i'll probably be back in the near future to see what changes in a second run on one file.

A game that feels really mature in its themes and tackles them with a lot of thoughtfulness and sincerity. A lot of these puzzles are somewhat standard “use thing on other thing” affair for an adventure game like this, but a few of them use the DS in SUCH a cool and creative way (if you’ve played the game you know the ones I’m talking about), and it felt really rewarding uncovering the game’s mysteries bit by bit through figuring them out. I like how it balances character interactions with its plot, I think the stuff with discovering D’s past being optional to the ending actually adds a lot of pathos to that side of the story in the way only an interactive medium can achieve, makes it feel less like an artificial “video game-y” completion necessity and more like genuinely going out of your way to be helpful and kind to a friend.

Also it takes place on my birthday and me and Ashley share a birthday! That was a fun surprise haha

Another Code is a slower, moodier, puzzle point-and-click game on the Nintendo DS that I failed to notice upon release, being fixated on the console’s faster and brighter JRPGs at the time. I probably would not have appreciated the thought that went into the story upon release as much as I do now.

The player takes control of the young teen Ashley, as she searches the abandoned mansion of “Blood Edward Island” for her absent researcher father, and the answers to her mother’s death. The secondary story thread is the events that lead to the death of the island’s amnesiac ghost, “D”.

The game controls as expected; the touch screen is used to drag Ashley about the 3D environments, but you can also use the D-pad. The use of the dual screens of the DS come into play at points, as does the console’s ability to fold in on itself, and the use of the mic. I thought that the the puzzles that utilised the in-game ‘camera feature’ were unique and fun.

In regards to the art direction, the Japanese sensibilities are present in character portraits, and they look good. The environments are all well-rendered and atmospheric. I had no trouble navigating the game’s setting and finding the necessary items and puzzles to progress the game’s plot.

As far as narrative goes, I was more invested in uncovering the events that lead to D’s death, the Edward’s family trauma, and the subsequent abandonment of the Edward’s family home than I was invested in finding Ashley’s father. Overall, I feel that the darker themes of the narrative were overly simplified at times, perhaps to the ‘benefit’ of the intended child audience. I think the story could have avoided so much of the dace around death it commits to, without upsetting, or confusing the child audience that would actively seek out this type of mystery and puzzle-solving game in the first place.

It’s important to note that it is possible to complete the game without uncovering all clues to D’s death, and thus to end the game with a somewhat unsatisfactory feeling, lacking full closure. Though the game’s so short that you can complete it within a few hours!

As a first outing on the DS for Cing, it’s a good mystery adventure game for kids (and adults) that’s still worth playing if you enjoy a darker atmosphere and mystery elements in puzzle point-and-click games.

A very quaint and sweet game about memory and loneliness. Ashley is a very good protagonist, and her relationship with D as well as his own struggles are very nice and authentic. They really do just feel like two lonely kids finding solidarity in one another, becoming fast friends as children tend to do. The gameplay and puzzles are fun, and the atmosphere is off the charts. The ending is sort of insane in a way that I really, really appreciate, as are the two mysteries regarding each kid respectively that slowly unravel throughout the course of the story. Here’s your warning to be VERY thorough in your investigating or else you’ll miss out on the true ending and feel horrible about it.

i love this game so much. adore the characters, their motivations, and how the story unfolds. the music and visuals are hauntingly beautiful and i enjoy the DS-era gimmicks. i want to rotate this game around in my mind.

Some of the more standard adventure game stuff is kind of annoying, with a lot of instances of backtracking and having to examine specific items to trigger other events or dialogue so I ended up keeping a walkthrough open the whole time. The handful of puzzles that utilize the DS physically beyond tapping and the compelling story and characters made it more than worth experiencing though.

It's alright. Short game with pretty simple puzzles that make use of the DS to the full extent. Decent but predictable story.

Decided to try this in preparation for the remake coming out this month and was pleasantly surprised by it. The fact that it’s short and has mostly easy puzzles means it’s really accessible to play. It’s definitely a fun time capsule for the mid 2000’s. Also a Nintendo published game that takes place in the PNW????

played the pal version "Another Code: Two Memories" and it's a cute relatively short puzzle/story game I needed to play something different and this definitely hit the spot the story isn't overly deep definitely not as deep is it could be with the topics it's tackling but its wholesome the puzzles are also not too hard and have some interesting gimmicks to do with being on the ds curious to see how the remake handles these


This review contains spoilers

(replay) all the extra lore in the starred run was really neat and i didn't even realize any of it existed!!!

There isn't a lot to this game. It's an interesting precursor to the far more stylized Hotel Dusk, but on its own it's a nice story with a middling selection of puzzles and generally mundane exploration.

To give the game some credit, I did enjoy the story. While it was predictable and none of the characters stood out as ones I loved, there were some great ideas, I was generally engaged for the whole (admittedly short) playtime and, ultimately, the emotional core tugged at my heartstrings and I felt myself welling up just a tad towards the end. It's close to something excellent but falls short, being a solid effort which I can't take much fault with.

The puzzles, though, vary in quality massively. There are some unique uses of the DS's features that, disappointingly, I couldn't make the most of because I emulated this one. Notably, closing the system partially and using the reflection of the screens to find a puzzle solution is one of the most genius uses of the dual screen gimmick I've seen. Unfortunately, the actual difficulty of the puzzles was low, with solutions coming to me almost instantly. This was made worse by often not knowing HOW to input my solution. You will have to investigate certain objects multiple times, or after interacting with other things, in order to progress sometimes. It was incredibly frustrating when I knew that an object would be important yet Ashley would refuse to grab it until I'd done something else. There's one instance where you're supposed to remember a small object TWO CHAPTERS back and, after you need it, return to that location to snag it. Irritations are usually small but common and while I can't say I hated any of the game's puzzles, I scarcely enjoyed them.

And, all in all, this game is just good. The gameplay doesn't hold the story back but the story doesn't strive for too much and that's okay. I'm keen to get through the rest of CiNG's library (a shame they went defunct), especially to see how the sequel to this game shook things up.

The presentation reminds me of a Capcut shitpost with all the excessive zoom-ins.

This review contains spoilers

BILL CIPHER SUCKS IN THIS GAME