AMNESIA: MEMORIES

Orion -- a spirit-like creature -- runs into the Heroine (quite literally) and accidentally knocks all her memories out of her head. Orion is fused with the Heroine and realizes the only way for him to be released is for her to retrieve her memories. He explains that there are many different worlds -- the multi-verse before Marvel took it over -- and that things change from world to world. She has to pick one to enter and attempt to regain her memories or risk losing herself forever. The problem is that she can't let anyone realize that she's suffering from amnesia because if they put her in a hospital she'll never get her memories back, and instead waste away. Everytime the Heroine wakes up she finds out she's dating a man she doesn't remember. Can Orion and the Heroine get her memories back without alerting her friends and boyfriend to her amnesiac state?

Amnesia isn't an "OG" otome game by any means -- Angelique, which came out in 1994 would be the very first -- it is among the first handful of otoges to be released in English with an official localization; this didn't happen until its original released in 2015. It holds a very special place in a lot of people's hearts as being one of the first otoges they ever officially got their hands on that didn't require a fan translation/patch to read. I didn't own a PSVita -- and truthfully didn't get into console otoges until 2020 -- so I didn't get to try this out until the Switch port. I was excited to play it considering it's a bit notorious in the otome fandom and it's generally well-loved. I realized pretty quickly that I didn't exactly love any of the designs or characters at first glance, but I also think Hanamura Mai has an uncanny art style -- and this is putting the constant tracing allegations aside. Honestly, it took me quite literally a year to get through because I just thought it was...meh. Maybe it's a product of its time being on the older end compared to most of the localizations we're getting now, but the guys were just kind of boring until you got to Ukyo's route.

Overall I'd say I didn't necessarily dislike the game, but I didn't like it either. I can understand why a lot of people love this game and hold it in high regard, but for me, it was just a slog to get through until Ukyo's route was unlocked. Toma's route was faster-paced -- although I didn't like it at all -- so maybe I shouldn't have saved his for 4th, since it just put all the action in the backend of the game. The problem was I REALLY loved Ukyo's route, so it makes it hard to say that I hated this game. It's more that I think the game has bizarre pacing issues from route to route, and the villain(s) that continuously pop up in each route are just plain stupid. It also felt like the rest of the game didn't live up to its potential; a potential that you don't even realize exists until you reach Ukyo's route. It almost feels like it's two different games mashed together in one which was jarring at the end. It took me almost an entire year to finish the game (according to my save files I took a 10-month break between playthroughs) but I regretted taking that break because I was very close to getting to Ukyo's route, which would have saved me. The worst part of this game by far was that the Heroine didn't talk at all until the very end of each route. Orion essentially speaks for her, including her thoughts. Normally you have the MC narrating their thoughts throughout the game, or making comments on what's going on, but instead, that's Orion's job until the very last 30ish minutes of each route. I was already annoyed that I had to give the Heroine a name because she didn't have a canon one. Now I don't even get to hear her thoughts? Jesus, talk about being every self-inserters dream MC.

Anyway, Amnesia at least offers me some solace by giving me three entire women in this game!!! Wow!!! Sawa and Mine are friends of the Heroine who works at Meido no Hitsuji as her coworkers. Sawa is a little lazy but a good friend to the Heroine, she cares about her a lot and is a stalwart friend throughout all the chaos. Mine is a year younger than the Heroine and is a sometimes friend sometimes rival -- although they always make up by the end of the route. Mine is cute but also conniving, and has her eyes set on [enter guy here] which sometimes puts her in competition with the Heroine (or at least so she believes). Rika is the president of Ikki's fan club and is essentially always the Heroine's enemy barring one route. Rika dresses outlandishly -- one person comments that she appears to have walked out of the French Revolution -- and is the classic "ohohoho" ojou character. She's very full of herself and rules Ikki's fan club with an iron fist -- although to be fair, I do think the iron fist is required as these girls are insane. I think Rika is goofy as hell, but I liked her despite how much the game wants you to hate her. We don't get good ojou characters anymore.

I don't think the route order is necessary for this game. I did follow it, but like I said, it put all the action in the back end of the game. However, the reason Toma is listed as the 4th route is because it'll completely change how you view his character. If this is something that you'd like the avoid, then definitely play his route last. If you don't care and you're starting to get bored, I don't think it's wrong to stick him in the middle just to get some action going. Ukyo is locked until you get the good endings of the other 4 guys and I do think his route made the game worth it for me.

Shin

Shin is one of the Heroine's childhood friends who happens to be a year younger than her. He's a classic tsundere, although frankly, I feel like there wasn't much "dere" going on at all. He's a bit of a loud mouth and doesn't hold back the insults for anyone. He works with the Heroine at Meido no Hitsuji; he's also childhood friends with Toma, who he bickers with a lot since they consider each other brothers.

Shin's route starts strong with a kiss that the poor Heroine was not prepared for. His route is a bit of a murder mystery type thing, with the mystery being who pushed the poor Heroine off the side of a small cliff to put her in the hospital. I don't think it was a bad route by any means, but I can't say I was too overly invested in it. The Heroine is trying to get her memories back while also trying to figure out why someone would want to push her and I just didn't particularly care about either plot line. The reveal at the end was also a little lackluster, I'll be honest.

Out of all the routes, I'd say Shin's is probably the least romantic in the traditional sense. There was much more focus on the plot in this route. I think it was maybe an okay starting route, but it was a weaker one for me simply because I didn't think Shin was that great, and I thought the reason behind her being attacked was frankly goofy. Although to be honest, all the "villain's" motives in this game were goofy as hell.

Kent

Kent is a math genius who attends a different college, although he sometimes comes to the Heroine's college to do some assistant teaching/tutoring. He's currently putting together a presentation for a conference with the hopes of getting an opportunity to study abroad in England. As smart as he is, he's very stupid when it comes to people, and doesn't do well with interpersonal interactions. It's less of a tsun-type-thing and more that he just genuinely cannot tell when he's being an asshole to people most of the time. He's also not intentionally an asshole; he's just very logical and that comes off as being an ass when you want emotional support and not problem-solving.

Kent's route is very low stakes; the biggest problem is the Heroine only has a month before his conference presentation, and he's supposed to leave for England very shortly after. The Heroine is trying to get back her memories but also attempts to enjoy the time she has left with Kent before he leaves. She wants to enjoy their time together but is sad that she can't remember any of it because of her amnesia. There's also some vague mystery in his route as he seems quite surprised that you're acting differently towards him -- but not in the same way you're acting differently with the other guys. I didn't hate it, and honestly, Kent is just about the only guy I liked in this game so maybe that's my bias. I don't mind some low-stakes action, and I thought his constantly putting his foot in his mouth (and not realizing it) was endearing.

I'd say there's decently equal amounts of plot vs. romance, but you have to keep in mind that Kent is the least romantic person on the planet. He's all work and no play, especially while he working on his conference presentation. I thought it was adorable when he finally opened up to the Heroine that he does view her romantically even if it doesn't seem that way. I found it unfolded nicely, although Kent isn't a romantic at his core.

Ikki

Ikki is a college student who goes to the same college as Kent; they're good friends, although it doesn't seem to make sense. Ikki is known to be very handsome, and it seems that every girl falls for him as soon as they gaze into his eyes. He has an obnoxious fan club that follows him around led by Rika, who seems to have a general distaste for the Heroine. He's pretty laidback and seems relatively unbothered by his fan club, to the point that he dates members within it -- but only for a set duration. He's flirty with all girls but seems to have a particular interest in the Heroine.

I don't dislike Ikki, but I didn't like his route very much. The fan club was a slog to get through, and even with the random -- and stupid -- in-universe reason for all the girls to be all over Ikki, it didn't make up for how boring and obnoxious it was to constantly deal with. His fan club shows up in almost every route to some degree and they're just exhausting to deal with. Imagine kpop Twitter but in real life. That's what it was like. Ikki doesn't make any effort to make them stop harassing him until it's far too late; I just couldn't deal with it since the drama was too...stupid.

Since Ikki is a flirt, he's a bit more romantic than the previous two. I'd say his route probably has the most romance once you get to dig through all the stupid fan club stuff. I just found his whole route to be quite exhausting; the plot in it was so stupid -- and the twist (?) was random -- that I can't say I have much love for his character in this route beyond finding his banter with Kent funny.

Toma

Toma is the Heroine's older brother figure. They've known each other since they were small children and -- along with Shin -- have been best friends for years. Once the three entered high school, they slowly began spending less time together. Once Toma left for college, they stopped seeing him much at all. Toma, Shin, and the Heroine have a close relationship with one another; Shin gets annoyed by Toma's "big brother" schtick and wants him to lay off it.

Oh boy. Toma's route is THE infamous route in Amnesia. I can't say much about it without spoiling it other than there's a reason all the guides suggest saving Toma for last (before Ukyo's route unlocks). Really, to avoid spoilers you straight up can't Google Toma's name without the big plot point of his route coming up. Part of the reason it's so famous is that the "incident" seems so far off from his character's personality that it flabbergasted a lot of people when the game was originally released. It's worth playing to understand some of the most popular otome memes.

I guess Toma's route is romantic, but it sort of falls under that "what do you consider romantic" umbrella. For me? Not so much. But for a lot of people, it's probably aces. It's very much all about the yearning and wanting to protect the people closest to you. Toma's route is a bit quintessential for mid-2010 commercial otoges as far as the plot goes; the plot was goofy as all hell but that's this game in general I guess.

Ukyo

Ukyo is the enigmatic man who has shown up in every other route to some degree. He always seems kind and good-natured at first but seems to flip a switch and become aggressive and dangerous. In his route you learn that he's a photographer who's baby-famous -- he's been published in a photography magazine many times -- and that he's also well-traveled. He seems to have a special interest in the Heroine. Finally, all his cryptic comments and strange personality changes come together and make sense in this route.

I liked Ukyo's route. This was probably the only route in this game that I'd ever consider playing again; Ukyo is an interesting character, and I liked that all the vague plot points and mysteries finally came together. I pretty much immediately figured out what Ukyo's deal was with a lot of his esoteric ramblings, but I didn't figure out the whole of the plot until his route. I thought it was fairly well put together, although I'll be upfront with a mild spoiler and tell you that Ukyo is supposed to have DID -- which you'll probably have picked up on before his route anyway -- so if you're not a fan of unsympathetic portrayals of DID, this route probably isn't for you. If you think you can handle that, then I do think his route is worth finishing. If not, I'm happy to give a recap of his route, or you can probably find a synopsis of it online somewhere. It is the "conclusion" to the game, so without his route, you are missing a big chunk of what the overall plot was.

I found Ukyo's route to be quite romantic; although, unlike the other guys, she doesn't wake up dating him. It's a super plot-heavy route by nature of being the locked route, but I don't think Ukyo suffers from locked-route syndrome at all. I enjoyed the conclusion to his route also. I'm not kidding when I say it genuinely made me tear up; I was at work playing and had to put my Switch down for a few minutes. I don't think I've ever had an otome affect me like that before and it was funny because frankly up until this point I wasn't a fan of the game at all and was finishing it out of obligation. Ukyo is doing the "I'd die a thousand times to make sure you live just once" thing better than anyone else, okay!!!

Heroine

The Heroine was fused with Orion at the beginning of the game and has lost all her memories. The few constants in this game are that she lives alone, her parents work far away, she's in college, and she works at Meido no Hitsuji. She's the epitome of the self-insert made character. I respect that, it's an otome game, and a large portion of players choose to self-insert and that means building MCs that facilitate that practice. The upsetting thing was she DID have an interesting personality before Orion banged into her. All of the characters comment on her personality 180 multiple times in each route; she was very bold and talkative before the Orion incident -- occasionally she was downright mean to different characters -- and was very well-liked by (most) of her peers. So it was a little disappointing to only get a glimpse of this personality through brief memory flashbacks or characters mentioning it. Towards the very end of each route, she always begins to get her personality back again, but it's not enough!!!

I wasn't a huge fan of the Heroine. First, I don't like when MCs don't have canon names because now I have to make one up. I named her Fievel in my playthrough, which was good enough I guess. Her lack of personality just didn't do it for me, and I also hated that she blindly followed these guys. You'd have characters say "Oh I thought you were mad at so-and-so and didn't want to talk to him anymore" and she'd go "no I don't believe that" like girl what?! It was frustrating and was especially bad in Toma's route in particular. I understand that making sure no one figured out that she lost her memories, involved a lot of going with the flow, but there were times when I think she could have listened to her peers more. At the end of each route when she would lose Orion and become more like her old self I'd start to like her, but that was always short-lived as by that point the route was over.

Overall, I can't say I hated Amnesia and that's solely because of how much I loved Ukyo's route. I think that the game used up all its creativity and drama for Ukyo's route and left nothing for the other guys (except Toma). It felt like two different games tacked together for whatever reason, which was disappointing. If they had kept what they had going in Ukyo's route for the entire game, it would've been fantastic. Instead, they have probably my top 3 favorite locked route in an otherwise mid game. I can't forgive the lack of the Heroine having her voice and forcing the players to experience the game through Orion as opposed to the MC; I'm sure this was a great mechanic for lots of players, but was God-awful in my eyes. I recommend this game solely for Ukyo, I'm not even kidding. Maybe I've hyped him up too much, but he was the greatest part of this game by far.