"A person will experiences two deaths. The first is when a soul leaves their body. And the second is when the memories of that person fade from everyone's hearts."
- Sayoko Robbins
"Because you remember her, my mom lives on. And thanks to that, I got to see her."
- Ashley Robbins
Been thinking a lot about remakes. What is the value of a remake? What is lost in returning to an older work to "fix" things? All these meta-commentaries and adaptations are interesting in theory, but why is it so hard to simply release the old games?
Another Code is a messy example in that so much of its foundation is built on hardware that no longer exists. Cing used every aspect of the DS and the Wii to build its narratives and these clever methods of interaction are a crucial beating heart. Losing a majority of that puzzle interaction in the Recollection's format does... hurt. But there's still so much love here that its a compromise I understand.
The game undeniably provides two key features: ease and access. The game is easier to navigate, dialogue easier to skip through, backtracking and surplus content is snipped off for a more pleasant experience. Running around the mansion in Two Memories is really fun! The sensation of interacting with a tiny video game map to unravel, rather than an exhausting open world, feels like something that's been lost in a lot of modern game design. It felt amazing to return to it and even more amazing that its so easy to acquire this game. People can play and experience these games in one complete package. It'd certainly wish people to at least seek out emulators, but I'm choosing to be happy for the people experiencing this narrative for the first time.
But I think what really won me over on this game was the director's cut feel of it. Head Writer Rika Suzuki and Director Taisuke Kanasaki returned for Recollection and you can feel that sense of time permeate their approach to this game, especially in the Journey Into Lost Memories section. One character in the Wii game was a character I often found frustrating and boring to engage with. Recollection completely changes the final climax of the story and alters his journey into something full of tragedy, misunderstanding, and existentialism. It ties up loose ends and closes the book on a series that never continued. It says goodbye, but with peace and joy rather than misery.
In 2022, Rika Suzuki became an honorary member of the Game Preservation Society. Her interview after Cing's closure can be found here. Cing's closure was the first time I understood as a child that a company closing meant something could be lost that wouldn't be filled. That something would change. And from there, an understanding that when an uncaring company fires its workers, its throwing away the talents and efforts of so many dedicated people. That lesson influences how I think about... a lot of things into the present.
Games are built through the hard-work and care of many different individuals we will never know. Their names passing us by on a credits screen symbolizes days and weeks and months of work. I can feel the love pouring from the screen. I can feel the passion for creativity and joy. If you don't feel it for this game, and I would never demand that you have to, feel that passion in your own favorite games. Find a favorite moment or scene or piece of art and look up who was in charge of art design or script or lighting or any piece of visual scenery that you adored. Someone made that. Remember them, if just for a little while. And if you don't want to do that for games, do that for your fridge, your coat, your wallet. Someone made that. We're all connected by work we'll never see. Remember them.
Another Code helped teach me that a decade ago and its still reminding me that now.
- Sayoko Robbins
"Because you remember her, my mom lives on. And thanks to that, I got to see her."
- Ashley Robbins
Been thinking a lot about remakes. What is the value of a remake? What is lost in returning to an older work to "fix" things? All these meta-commentaries and adaptations are interesting in theory, but why is it so hard to simply release the old games?
Another Code is a messy example in that so much of its foundation is built on hardware that no longer exists. Cing used every aspect of the DS and the Wii to build its narratives and these clever methods of interaction are a crucial beating heart. Losing a majority of that puzzle interaction in the Recollection's format does... hurt. But there's still so much love here that its a compromise I understand.
The game undeniably provides two key features: ease and access. The game is easier to navigate, dialogue easier to skip through, backtracking and surplus content is snipped off for a more pleasant experience. Running around the mansion in Two Memories is really fun! The sensation of interacting with a tiny video game map to unravel, rather than an exhausting open world, feels like something that's been lost in a lot of modern game design. It felt amazing to return to it and even more amazing that its so easy to acquire this game. People can play and experience these games in one complete package. It'd certainly wish people to at least seek out emulators, but I'm choosing to be happy for the people experiencing this narrative for the first time.
But I think what really won me over on this game was the director's cut feel of it. Head Writer Rika Suzuki and Director Taisuke Kanasaki returned for Recollection and you can feel that sense of time permeate their approach to this game, especially in the Journey Into Lost Memories section. One character in the Wii game was a character I often found frustrating and boring to engage with. Recollection completely changes the final climax of the story and alters his journey into something full of tragedy, misunderstanding, and existentialism. It ties up loose ends and closes the book on a series that never continued. It says goodbye, but with peace and joy rather than misery.
In 2022, Rika Suzuki became an honorary member of the Game Preservation Society. Her interview after Cing's closure can be found here. Cing's closure was the first time I understood as a child that a company closing meant something could be lost that wouldn't be filled. That something would change. And from there, an understanding that when an uncaring company fires its workers, its throwing away the talents and efforts of so many dedicated people. That lesson influences how I think about... a lot of things into the present.
Games are built through the hard-work and care of many different individuals we will never know. Their names passing us by on a credits screen symbolizes days and weeks and months of work. I can feel the love pouring from the screen. I can feel the passion for creativity and joy. If you don't feel it for this game, and I would never demand that you have to, feel that passion in your own favorite games. Find a favorite moment or scene or piece of art and look up who was in charge of art design or script or lighting or any piece of visual scenery that you adored. Someone made that. Remember them, if just for a little while. And if you don't want to do that for games, do that for your fridge, your coat, your wallet. Someone made that. We're all connected by work we'll never see. Remember them.
Another Code helped teach me that a decade ago and its still reminding me that now.
When this was announced during the September Nintendo Direct, I was incredibly excited. The Switch being such a success seemed to give spotlight to many of their more underappreciated franchises less likely to be seen on the behind the competition consoles like the Wii U and Nintendo 64. This was a full ground up remake uniting the style of two obscure games by underappreciated developer Cing (RIP), one of which was built on the touch screen and the other one heavily using motion controls that never released in America. It sounded like a dream come true, especially because later that year I played through Cing’s effort made in between those two games, Hotel Dusk, and thought it was great. It was packed with cozy noir vibes, an ensemble bursting with secrets of a wider picture, and puzzles taking advantage of the DS in unique ways. Seeing Cing’s stomping ground returned to after being bankrupted for 13 years had me excited to see how those concepts were translated into a modern form.
The Another Code duology stars Ashley, a curious and anxious teenage girl on a journey to find the dad who had been missing from most of her life, to eventually unraveling the aims of his scientific research of memories and the self. Both games give her a companion to bounce off of, areas to explore for objects, people to talk to and discoveries to unravel.
In Two Memories, it follows a triangular structure that meshes puzzle, point and click and visual novel-esque adventure fairly seamlessly. Ashley and ghost companion D explore a mysterious mansion room by room, solving light puzzles and balancing discoveries about the work Ashley’s father had been doing about his memory technology with stories about D’s past to move on from his own personal demons. With little distance between the rooms, it helps to make sure that one of those three game modes is always happening. Gameplay/puzzle stuff is constantly affecting your understanding of the story and it makes everything feel breezy but still of heavier importance than the DS original.
Despite the focus on puzzles not trying to be particularly hard with the main goal being the intermingling stories of Ashley and D, I do feel like there was far more to do with them, in both games. The original Another Code was a DS title and the DS had a lot to work with: two screens, a microphone to blow in, a pen to draw and the ability to close the thing. The Switch’s console gimmicks outside of gyro have largely been put on the backburner outside of just, the general console to handheld gimmick. A lot of puzzles can seem very binary without that console stuff. They work fine, but it might’ve been interesting to (optionally) reincorporate tech demo aspects of the console seen in a game like 1-2 Switch into here to make a puzzle or two more memorable.
Presentation is a mixed bag; figuring out how to bring a game from the underpowered two screen handheld to an underpowered TV handheld console I can imagine had a lot to figure out, but I believe most of their choices were sensible. The characters were redesigned as more fully animated people, with a white sheen reflecting with the almost watercolor lighting of the island, and while stiff in the short dialogue moments, the more dedicated cutscene animation was nice to see when it happened. When examining objects, cute little heads of Ashley and D pop up to show emotions they feel when first examining an object, many of these having voice clips. The game has an appreciable quality of life toggle for both exploration and puzzles if you get lost. Possibly my favorite touch of the presentation here is the journal-like design of the map. Ashley will constantly make notes around different rooms and locations reflecting her goals and personal thoughts in a way that feels distinct to who she is, so keep checking whenever something new happens in the stories! It’s a nice touch of soul. See here: https://i.imgur.com/W2Jav71.jpeg
On the downside, there’s the voice acting, which for being such story-driven games it’s disappointing they chose largely unknown Canadian actors (except Asuna SAO Abridged, she was a pleasant surprise in her brief parts). This was possibly done to save money on such a niche game but a majority of the English cast turns in dry and stiff performances with overly fast line reads and somewhat muffled emotional oomph. Despite not having seen any of this cast performing for video games or even anime, Ashley’s voice still manages to shine as an increasingly believable teenage girl balancing enough interests and cute quirks with the right amount of sarcasm and tears. I just wish that extended to anyone else in the cast, particularly her father. You can switch to Japanese for more consistent performances across the board from everyone, but imo it also makes Ashley herself stand out less from the others so make your choice if you wish.
What’s a bit harder to get around is the camera while walking around. This is more an issue in the first game than the second one given how claustrophobic the mansion’s hallways and turning staircases can be but it’s unfortunate even after adjusting the camera speed how much space Ashley talks up on the screen while running around at times being hard to see beyond her transparent shape when climbing stairs or the camera closing in too close while examining items in rooms. This can make it a bit disorienting walking around in small rooms.
Despite those quirks in presentation and simplistic puzzles, I thought the overall story of the first game felt tight in tying exclamations for mysteries with your exploration as a narrative hook, with a very sweet ending and protagonist easy to root for in her desires. The one major gripe I have is with a certain character. I’m not gonna say who but you’ll know when you see him. They do very little to hide themselves as incredibly impersonal, (this goes beyond voice acting, with even the camera pointing the tell out right in the center of the screen) and it makes Ashley seem like she can’t catch a hint. This game is rated T and is far too niche for most of the Switch’s kid audience, but come on, there were many ways they could’ve made the reveal land far more effectively. While the ability to use the DS was regrettably lost on the developers, I enjoyed my time learning about Ashley and D while exploring the mansion bit by bit in this first game.
The second game, Another Code R, was never officially released in America, and with Wii games being region locked and difficult to map emulation controls for, I was excited to get into Trace Memory’s followup that never made it stateside for the first time officially. Imagine my surprise when I was told that it majorly cut down the game and even changed the endgame flat out. This game has Ashley exploring a much more open area in the forest with houses, a restaurant and a boating lodge with some isolated houses here and there filled with puzzle objects. It’s a far larger affair befitting its initial transition to a home console. Although it was initially jarring going from the end of the first game to this one where Ashley’s relationship with her dad is a lot rockier, I ended up liking Ashley a LOT more as a protagonist in the second game. Her emotional range is more thorough from being more excited to being snarkier and more sardonic when the story tests her patience without losing the vulnerability. More characters for her to bounce off made many of her character interactions more dynamic, and this game gives her a more special interest in music which leads to some pretty cute scenes.
Sadly, the second game, being so much bigger, means that it loses a lot of momentum and focus that the first game had in favor of being almost exclusively conversation to a greater ensemble of characters. And of these new characters, there are only about 3 of them with any real intrigue about them. It's not like the cast of Hotel Dusk where it feels like almost everyone has something interesting to add; the cast here are more flavor for the general vibes of the campsite/town area. In the first game, you were exploring a mansion bit by bit, constantly learning more info about Ashley’s dad’s research and D’s past while solving puzzles at a constant rate. In the second game, almost any puzzle is reduced to a scant series of button pushes and stick turns to open doors for nearly the whole game, with only about three clock puzzles over halfway through the title even approaching the already basic puzzles of the first game. The “combining items” idea is used even less here than it was in the previous game and the camera overlay introduced in 1 is never used, once, throughout the whole thing here. All we get is wonky controller/console turning, not wanting to use any special JoyCon features in a game like this that practically ASKS for it with how much the original version made you tilt the Wii Remote! In addition, this second game has a much harder time balancing out your primary companion’s story with Ashley’s own mystery. The resolution to his subplot is earned and compelling, but the way it takes so many hours to pan out means a lot more time will be spent running back and forth around the overworld to various dialogue prompts with mostly uninteresting new side characters and the pop-in of foliage becoming increasingly distracting.
The upside of the longer runtime is that everything comes together well in the final third of the game to greater dramatic effect than its predecessor. The last two chapters really bring home the whole journey across this duology, tying well into the implications the first game ended with while also saying even more about who Ashley choses to be. A Kingdom Hearts-esque plot beat around this part ties well through the adventure game choice selection stuff. Discovering a big twist about one of the scant interesting new players was surprising yet believably foreshadowed to find out and while maybe the exclamations went on for a little too long it left the plot off on a far heavier emotional tone than I expected, complemented by the moody dark lighting of the sky and some fairly somber music. At the end of the day, even with the more glaring pacing and scope issues in the second game, the heart of Cing’s storytelling and protagonist writing carries through and makes Ashley’s journey across these two games feel affectionate and meaningful, topped with nice end credit presentation.
Regardless of any gripes regarding translating these two games to a more standardized console, I’m very happy this exists. They did a good job with this collection, I’m happy to have finally experienced Ashley’s story across these two games and I’m happy Nintendo was willing to let Cing refugees from Arc System Works dig into the IP bucket to reintroduce Another Code to the world. I dread the idea of trying to transplant Hotel Dusk’s far more distinct style into these graphics, but I’ll respect those at Nintendo using their currently massive success to find hidden gems from their back catalog for new fans to uncover.
……………………….Custom Robo next please?
The Another Code duology stars Ashley, a curious and anxious teenage girl on a journey to find the dad who had been missing from most of her life, to eventually unraveling the aims of his scientific research of memories and the self. Both games give her a companion to bounce off of, areas to explore for objects, people to talk to and discoveries to unravel.
In Two Memories, it follows a triangular structure that meshes puzzle, point and click and visual novel-esque adventure fairly seamlessly. Ashley and ghost companion D explore a mysterious mansion room by room, solving light puzzles and balancing discoveries about the work Ashley’s father had been doing about his memory technology with stories about D’s past to move on from his own personal demons. With little distance between the rooms, it helps to make sure that one of those three game modes is always happening. Gameplay/puzzle stuff is constantly affecting your understanding of the story and it makes everything feel breezy but still of heavier importance than the DS original.
Despite the focus on puzzles not trying to be particularly hard with the main goal being the intermingling stories of Ashley and D, I do feel like there was far more to do with them, in both games. The original Another Code was a DS title and the DS had a lot to work with: two screens, a microphone to blow in, a pen to draw and the ability to close the thing. The Switch’s console gimmicks outside of gyro have largely been put on the backburner outside of just, the general console to handheld gimmick. A lot of puzzles can seem very binary without that console stuff. They work fine, but it might’ve been interesting to (optionally) reincorporate tech demo aspects of the console seen in a game like 1-2 Switch into here to make a puzzle or two more memorable.
Presentation is a mixed bag; figuring out how to bring a game from the underpowered two screen handheld to an underpowered TV handheld console I can imagine had a lot to figure out, but I believe most of their choices were sensible. The characters were redesigned as more fully animated people, with a white sheen reflecting with the almost watercolor lighting of the island, and while stiff in the short dialogue moments, the more dedicated cutscene animation was nice to see when it happened. When examining objects, cute little heads of Ashley and D pop up to show emotions they feel when first examining an object, many of these having voice clips. The game has an appreciable quality of life toggle for both exploration and puzzles if you get lost. Possibly my favorite touch of the presentation here is the journal-like design of the map. Ashley will constantly make notes around different rooms and locations reflecting her goals and personal thoughts in a way that feels distinct to who she is, so keep checking whenever something new happens in the stories! It’s a nice touch of soul. See here: https://i.imgur.com/W2Jav71.jpeg
On the downside, there’s the voice acting, which for being such story-driven games it’s disappointing they chose largely unknown Canadian actors (except Asuna SAO Abridged, she was a pleasant surprise in her brief parts). This was possibly done to save money on such a niche game but a majority of the English cast turns in dry and stiff performances with overly fast line reads and somewhat muffled emotional oomph. Despite not having seen any of this cast performing for video games or even anime, Ashley’s voice still manages to shine as an increasingly believable teenage girl balancing enough interests and cute quirks with the right amount of sarcasm and tears. I just wish that extended to anyone else in the cast, particularly her father. You can switch to Japanese for more consistent performances across the board from everyone, but imo it also makes Ashley herself stand out less from the others so make your choice if you wish.
What’s a bit harder to get around is the camera while walking around. This is more an issue in the first game than the second one given how claustrophobic the mansion’s hallways and turning staircases can be but it’s unfortunate even after adjusting the camera speed how much space Ashley talks up on the screen while running around at times being hard to see beyond her transparent shape when climbing stairs or the camera closing in too close while examining items in rooms. This can make it a bit disorienting walking around in small rooms.
Despite those quirks in presentation and simplistic puzzles, I thought the overall story of the first game felt tight in tying exclamations for mysteries with your exploration as a narrative hook, with a very sweet ending and protagonist easy to root for in her desires. The one major gripe I have is with a certain character. I’m not gonna say who but you’ll know when you see him. They do very little to hide themselves as incredibly impersonal, (this goes beyond voice acting, with even the camera pointing the tell out right in the center of the screen) and it makes Ashley seem like she can’t catch a hint. This game is rated T and is far too niche for most of the Switch’s kid audience, but come on, there were many ways they could’ve made the reveal land far more effectively. While the ability to use the DS was regrettably lost on the developers, I enjoyed my time learning about Ashley and D while exploring the mansion bit by bit in this first game.
The second game, Another Code R, was never officially released in America, and with Wii games being region locked and difficult to map emulation controls for, I was excited to get into Trace Memory’s followup that never made it stateside for the first time officially. Imagine my surprise when I was told that it majorly cut down the game and even changed the endgame flat out. This game has Ashley exploring a much more open area in the forest with houses, a restaurant and a boating lodge with some isolated houses here and there filled with puzzle objects. It’s a far larger affair befitting its initial transition to a home console. Although it was initially jarring going from the end of the first game to this one where Ashley’s relationship with her dad is a lot rockier, I ended up liking Ashley a LOT more as a protagonist in the second game. Her emotional range is more thorough from being more excited to being snarkier and more sardonic when the story tests her patience without losing the vulnerability. More characters for her to bounce off made many of her character interactions more dynamic, and this game gives her a more special interest in music which leads to some pretty cute scenes.
Sadly, the second game, being so much bigger, means that it loses a lot of momentum and focus that the first game had in favor of being almost exclusively conversation to a greater ensemble of characters. And of these new characters, there are only about 3 of them with any real intrigue about them. It's not like the cast of Hotel Dusk where it feels like almost everyone has something interesting to add; the cast here are more flavor for the general vibes of the campsite/town area. In the first game, you were exploring a mansion bit by bit, constantly learning more info about Ashley’s dad’s research and D’s past while solving puzzles at a constant rate. In the second game, almost any puzzle is reduced to a scant series of button pushes and stick turns to open doors for nearly the whole game, with only about three clock puzzles over halfway through the title even approaching the already basic puzzles of the first game. The “combining items” idea is used even less here than it was in the previous game and the camera overlay introduced in 1 is never used, once, throughout the whole thing here. All we get is wonky controller/console turning, not wanting to use any special JoyCon features in a game like this that practically ASKS for it with how much the original version made you tilt the Wii Remote! In addition, this second game has a much harder time balancing out your primary companion’s story with Ashley’s own mystery. The resolution to his subplot is earned and compelling, but the way it takes so many hours to pan out means a lot more time will be spent running back and forth around the overworld to various dialogue prompts with mostly uninteresting new side characters and the pop-in of foliage becoming increasingly distracting.
The upside of the longer runtime is that everything comes together well in the final third of the game to greater dramatic effect than its predecessor. The last two chapters really bring home the whole journey across this duology, tying well into the implications the first game ended with while also saying even more about who Ashley choses to be. A Kingdom Hearts-esque plot beat around this part ties well through the adventure game choice selection stuff. Discovering a big twist about one of the scant interesting new players was surprising yet believably foreshadowed to find out and while maybe the exclamations went on for a little too long it left the plot off on a far heavier emotional tone than I expected, complemented by the moody dark lighting of the sky and some fairly somber music. At the end of the day, even with the more glaring pacing and scope issues in the second game, the heart of Cing’s storytelling and protagonist writing carries through and makes Ashley’s journey across these two games feel affectionate and meaningful, topped with nice end credit presentation.
Regardless of any gripes regarding translating these two games to a more standardized console, I’m very happy this exists. They did a good job with this collection, I’m happy to have finally experienced Ashley’s story across these two games and I’m happy Nintendo was willing to let Cing refugees from Arc System Works dig into the IP bucket to reintroduce Another Code to the world. I dread the idea of trying to transplant Hotel Dusk’s far more distinct style into these graphics, but I’ll respect those at Nintendo using their currently massive success to find hidden gems from their back catalog for new fans to uncover.
……………………….Custom Robo next please?
I really enjoyed revisiting these two somewhat forgotten classics in the remastered Switch version. I particularly enjoyed the first part. The atmosphere in the old manor house came across very well and I found the two parallel stories about Ashley and D very exciting and well written. There were some very heartfelt moments that really got to me. I also liked the second part. It had a completely different vibe, a summer camp by the lake instead of a gloomy villa. Of course, I was a little skeptical at first. The story also took a while to get going but then it got really interesting. By the end, I really realized that I had grown fond of the characters and especially Ashley. The credits made me really emotional. What beautiful games. Yes, they're not the most perfect and interesting games of all time in terms of storytelling and game mechanics, but I had a really good time with them and I'm glad to have caught up with them. Reminded me a bit of Life is Strange :)
Note: I have not played the original titles and I do plan on playing them in the future.
I don't think this game will land for everyone, especially on the gameplay department. But what really got me to absolutely love this game was the art style, atmosphere, story, and especially its characters. This is such a tightly knit story about memories and being able to connect with others, with a lot of sincerity behind it. The game also just has such a cozy feel to it, where a lot of I would just walk around and take in the music as I was playing because of how much I was taken in by the music.
I loved this game a lot and I especially got teary eyed by the end. Maybe this review will change once I play the originals, but at this time I will remember this game fondly.
I don't think this game will land for everyone, especially on the gameplay department. But what really got me to absolutely love this game was the art style, atmosphere, story, and especially its characters. This is such a tightly knit story about memories and being able to connect with others, with a lot of sincerity behind it. The game also just has such a cozy feel to it, where a lot of I would just walk around and take in the music as I was playing because of how much I was taken in by the music.
I loved this game a lot and I especially got teary eyed by the end. Maybe this review will change once I play the originals, but at this time I will remember this game fondly.
Marking as shelved as I plan to pick up Another Code R's remake later.
Christ, whoever said this was a faithful remake I think is lying to you. They've changed so much. I'm a diehard fan of this series and especially the original game and I feel like this is a major letdown compared to what I think of the original. I feel the original was a perfectly fine game and I'm confused as to why so many things are different. Ashley seems like a very different person, missing the attitude and strong emotions she had in the original game (which made sense for her age). Some character's stories are so different (I can't get into who without spoiling, but the villain) that I feel like it just messes stuff up. The pacing felt really strange, it either felt like it was moving at super speed or extremely slow and events from the original game were shifted around. It's not that big of a deal, but ended up bothering me.
Major issue of mine is the fact I felt like I couldn't connect to any of these characters in the same way I did for the original, which I think is one of the major things that makes CiNG works so good, and what made this a huge letdown. I feel like you're going to be inevitably missing stuff from the story with this having a shift from 2d to 3d- its sense of scale is much larger and I found myself not at all invested in the story of the Edwards, which is something I very much enjoyed in the original. I did look and notice that they got new scriptwriters for these remakes, which might explain some of my dissatisfaction... but why change up the script of a perfectly fine game and not just focus on adapting it straight to 3D, no need to remake a soundtrack you can find high quality versions of elsewhere (speaking in Another Code R's case), and especially no need to change the script.
I do like the art direction and music here, they're both good. This just isn't my Ashley and sure isn't the Another Code I remember. This is definitely Another Code for a newer generation, but it won't live up to the originals. I can't confidently reccomend this to anyone who actually cares a lot about the original games.
Christ, whoever said this was a faithful remake I think is lying to you. They've changed so much. I'm a diehard fan of this series and especially the original game and I feel like this is a major letdown compared to what I think of the original. I feel the original was a perfectly fine game and I'm confused as to why so many things are different. Ashley seems like a very different person, missing the attitude and strong emotions she had in the original game (which made sense for her age). Some character's stories are so different (I can't get into who without spoiling, but the villain) that I feel like it just messes stuff up. The pacing felt really strange, it either felt like it was moving at super speed or extremely slow and events from the original game were shifted around. It's not that big of a deal, but ended up bothering me.
Major issue of mine is the fact I felt like I couldn't connect to any of these characters in the same way I did for the original, which I think is one of the major things that makes CiNG works so good, and what made this a huge letdown. I feel like you're going to be inevitably missing stuff from the story with this having a shift from 2d to 3d- its sense of scale is much larger and I found myself not at all invested in the story of the Edwards, which is something I very much enjoyed in the original. I did look and notice that they got new scriptwriters for these remakes, which might explain some of my dissatisfaction... but why change up the script of a perfectly fine game and not just focus on adapting it straight to 3D, no need to remake a soundtrack you can find high quality versions of elsewhere (speaking in Another Code R's case), and especially no need to change the script.
I do like the art direction and music here, they're both good. This just isn't my Ashley and sure isn't the Another Code I remember. This is definitely Another Code for a newer generation, but it won't live up to the originals. I can't confidently reccomend this to anyone who actually cares a lot about the original games.
This review contains spoilers
“Even though facing the truth can be hard, in the end, it’s always for the best.”
Oh god, finally here writing about this game. There might be a lot to say, lots of moments, lots of feelings, and many things that I just have to say. I really don’t know how to start this review off well, I’m feeling so many different emotions about this game, shaking and just feeling worried I’ll express things poorly. My mind is already thinking this could go so poorly but let’s begin the review of Another Code Recollection.
Part 1: My past experiences are non-existent
Another Code Recollection is a remake of two games which were Another Code: Two Memories for the DS and Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories for the Wii. The first game actually did come out here under the name Trace Memory but the sequel would only get localized in Europe. Both were developed by Cing, a company I’m not even aware of and don’t think even exist anymore though some staff from it did work on this remake. From the small bit of research I did, it seems like critics at the time were usually mixed about both games but it does seem they both gained followings among fans, especially the Wii game.
So, what are my experiences with the original releases? Well, none. Yeah, I’ve never played them ever in my life. I thought about playing Trace Memory back last year but ran into battery issues with my 3DS and still haven’t fixed it. The Wii game I haven’t even once thought of playing, mostly because I can’t even remember the last time I’ve played a Wii game. I wanted to say this because I basically went in blind not knowing if I would even enjoy it and this also fits in with the next thing.
Part 2: The reveal and my doubts
Surprisingly the game was leaked first by a Twitter user though wasn’t said outfront and once the next Nintendo Direct was streamed, the game was revealed there. I was really happy for this announcement as I was always curious about that first game, it was easily the best reveal especially compared to how boring it was to see Nintendo constantly unveil Mario games the past two directs. It was a game I was looking to buy day 1 but then, tragedies struck.
Sonic Superstars was one of the worst experiences I had with a modern game. It made me worry about buying more games for $60 even with Super Mario Bros. Wonder casting my doubts a little with how good it was. It didn’t help that I was and still am very poor (cause I’m lazy and dumb but don’t worry I’m fine). I was lucky to get a bit of money before January to get this game. Though my doubts were still there and I would in December play the demo and really enjoy it and was excited to get the game. Though my mind works in the worst ways and well, I wasn’t going to get it.
The game was about to come out and the Metacritic score was a 72. Normally I don’t care about dumb metacritic scores but this kind of upset me because I was excited for the game and was basically told in my mind “you overhyped it Arle…” and told my oomfs I wasn’t gonna get it now. After some conversations, they convinced me to go get the game and thought I’d really like it and then I said “FINE! I’ll go buy it right now” Then it should be here soon…right?
Part 3: Amazon sucks
So I ordered the game on the 18th, the day before the game came out. Expected to wait about three days but instead was treated to one of the worst waits ever. It went from having not shipped, to coming out Feb 5th, coming out in March, and then to Feb 15th. I was pissed and was about to buy it digitally though my Mom ended up yelling at me for issues I had with the order and she ended up buying it somewhere else for me and I would get the game on the 27th. The game was finally in my hands and now I can finally talk about the game.
WARNING!!! The rest of this review will contain major spoilers for both games! If you have not experienced the story yet and are interested in doing so then do not read this review any further!! I don’t even care if this review could have 0 likes if it meant saving people from being spoiled. You have been warned, enjoy the rest of the review if you continue.
Part 4: Two Memories
We start a little ahead of the beginning that gives you a good overview of the mechanics you’ll be doing in Another Code. You move around places examining the area and eventually moving into a mansion to explore just that place. You don’t start in the mansion as you go back a little into the story to learn more about Ashley and why she’s here. She’s getting ready to see her Dad named Richard who she hasn’t seen since she was very young and was raised by her Aunt. She now is told he isn’t dead. It’s a very intriguing start and kind of daunting feeling knowing that the island we’re on is called Blood Edward Island. Later your Aunt named Jessica gets lost and it’s up to Ashley to figure out what’s going on and where Dad is.
I gotta say it upfront but I love Ashley so much as a character. If there were like a top 10 Nintendo characters, I’d argue she’d be in there for me personally. I’ll go into it more as I write my thoughts but she gives a very good impression. Once you’re trying to get to the mansion you’ll find stuff like puzzles to do and they’re fun to figure out and get the solutions to. They aren’t too impossible but the game does have a hint system to help you if you get stuck. During the part of fixing graves and unlocking a door, you’ll meet your companion. He’s a ghost with a lost memory with the name D. Ashley is the only one who can see this person.
Thanks to this companion is where the really cool aspect of the game comes from. You see, you’re not just trying to learn more about Ashley, you also need to learn more about D and the people who lived in this mansion. That’s the main thing going on in the game is going into rooms, inspecting stuff, solving puzzles and learning more. I really like learning about Ashley and D. It really feels like the two really evolve as characters and their relationship as friends as the story moves along. Ashley at first doesn’t really feel fully up to it, wanting to at least help but also worries for Jessica and finding Dad. I will say I was surprised realizing these games involve stuff like death or at least very important characters being dead. Yeah sure you have stuff like D being a ghost but seeing the intro just show Ashley’s family being “dead” gave me a bit of a shock even if Richard didn’t actually die. Uncovering more about the mansion and the family (named the Edward family.) gets surprisingly dark at times for me. There was a war that happened that involved two of the characters named Henry and Thomas and one of them even loses an arm. It’s just wow, deep stuff. Seeing so much loss from the characters is intriguing to me and wanting to see how it all concludes and what even did happen to D.
Some of the puzzles you’ll do in here are also pretty cool. There’s one where you have to play a song on the piano but some of the notes are on a framed picture of a bird so you need to take a picture of the music sheet and picture to combine both and see the full song to play it. I also liked the one where you have to put three coins into slots above the fireplace but you’ll never learn the order without key thinking and putting the note over the flame as one of the instructions is in invisible ink. There’s even some fun backstory you can learn of Richard using the DAS to scan these origami birds and these are fun to read and can even clue you in more on things yet to have been shown in cutscenes. The game will even let you know what room they’re in so you’re never lost. Oh right there’s a map and omg I love how Ashley writes little notes in them about important events and even does little doodles!!
Huh, haven’t brought up the DAS yet actually. So when you start the game, you see it came with the letter Ashley got from Dad. It’s a device that only works for her and looks like a Switch. I assume it looked like a DS in the original considering the name. It can take pictures, look at those logs I mentioned before and eventually you’ll be collecting keys for this device Ashley’s Dad was working on. This is because a little into the game, you actually find him and you have to help him with a project that Ashley doesn’t really understand. At first it seemed simple, look for keys while he looks for Jessica. Sounds easy.
I liked this first person room where you have to involve candle lighting and just finding your way around in the dark. It basically controls how you move with the camera. It can be a little scary since Ashley is afraid of the dark so I was hoping no scares but thankfully none! Man, I have to say all the small grunts and stuff Ashley says for pressing A on some objects are engraved in my mind just thinking about some of this stuff. Same goes for those cutscenes which are done in this neat stylized panel look with the models. Yeah they do have a preset animations that repeat a lot but fuck I can’t help but copy some of them IRL now. Also when doing some of the investigation, I was kind of caught off guard some things I’d say out loud is something Ashley would also say, it was like “ahhh she said the same thing as me so cute!” Whoa, I got distracted, let’s speed through this.
So you help learn more about D, learn some others things about the family that’s pretty interesting. I think the one I was the most fascinated with was the girl named Frannie. She’s a friend of D’s when he was still alive and remembers more and more about her as you go on. I really like the part where you have to go into this room and set these three dolls to represent the family and the Dad is actually missing an arm intentionally so you need to place them in the correct order so they’ll all be holding hands. It’s just so damn cute of a puzzle man. I won’t really say anything about it but there’s an interesting thing about her by the end of the game too.
Getting all of the keys and meeting up with Dad brings a scene of confusion to me. He was angry, not caring about Ashley and Jessica. This obviously brings down a moment where Ashley basically gives up and wants to leave and gives the keys to him to finish ANOTHER. One interesting thing is about Ashley’s mother named Sayoko. You learned she’s been shot and you even later on find an article that talked about her death while also writing down that Dad was a suspect. It made me wonder who it was but I was imagining it being whoever this Bill guy was since I couldn’t imagine it being anyone else. Though we can’t think about it for too long as D went into a room you can’t get in and with a fun puzzle involving the fountain, you eventually get in the room to find where his dad died all those years ago. Man…this is such a sad scene, I almost cried a little ngl just realizing who did it and such. Though after some talk to talk, you eventually find Jessica who is still handcuffed to a pole and Jessica tells Ashley to believe in Dad. It’s all up to Ashley now and figure out what’s going on for good. Also I really love how for the scribble in this room, Ashley puts a cute face of her and Jessica together showing how she was found in this room. God it’s so damn cute aaaaaaa!!
Well you eventually get into this lab by doing some things like combining keys and then you finally get into the lab and then some guy wants help out of a locked room. I was like “Oh no! Ashley, watch out, it's a trap!!” I was scared out of my life thinking something could happen but I did it anyway. Also screw this puzzle to unlock the door, IDK if I’m stupid but I could not figure it out without the in-game help and the worst part was I was actually really close to beating it without help, ugh. Though when I helped the guy out, I realized. Omg that wasn’t Richard before, THAT WAS BILL! THE MAN FOOLED ME!! God It was probably so obvious too and I didn’t realize. Though you and Ashley’s Dad go to fix the problem and learn of Bill’s true intentions and even tries to mess with memories to frame the death of Sayoko but we know for sure by the end it’s Bill. God, like Ashley’s DAS description of him, can’t stand the man either. Oh right that’s another thing I never brought out. At specific points or the beginning of chapters, you can see small descriptions of each character and a picture of them to get caught up with the plot if you need it or just read some of the nice flavor text Ashley has. It’s neat and fun.
Still many points are shown like how D died and even his real actual name but the ending climax of Bill threatening Richard and Ashley was scary. I was scared for my damn like, I wasn’t sure if the game had some bad ending or something but I was begging not to see Ashley get shot. Thankfully for us, D stops Bill but unfortunately dies in the process and couldn’t be saved, even with Richard’s help. The data he was also sending also got sent to some mysterious person, I was wondering what that was about but I wouldn’t get the answer for now. God there’s a lot of unpack here and stuff I didn’t bring up but man tying up the pieces like why was there only one shoe in that one suitcase with things related to D, it was because only one left remained when he died. I really love how things always seem to add up when you have questions, even if it can be sad answers…
Once you’re done there, it’s time for you to leave with Jessica and Dad. D also says his goodbyes here and while it’s sad to see him go, it makes me happy to see him happy and help him uncover the truth. It was time for the Family to celebrate Ashley’s birthday with a necklace related to Sayoko that will always help Ashley keep her in thoughts. That’s the end of the game and we see Ashley with a cute stuffed bear that you could find in one of the rooms earlier so that was a nice sneak peek at that. This story tells a lot of things and while it can be repetitive at times with constant flashbacks, it still kept me engaged and I was thinking just how great it was. The writing can have some nice moments too but happy and sad. I was thinking I wouldn’t get much out of it but I did. Even the mansion’s design is well made with easy shortcuts all around. The whole game was just a joy to go through and took me around 7 hours to finish the adventure. I even got all of the logs! Not that it’s hard to do but I was happy to do so. Well it’s time to move on to the next game!
Part 5: A Journey into Lost Memories
Hmm interesting, instead of being in a building, it’s all about Ashley going on a camping trip with her Dad. This game time skips a bit past the ending of the first game. We now have a 16 year old Ashley and-hold on can I just say OMG HER OUTFIT IN THIS GAME IS SO GODDAMN CUTE!!! God It’s hard to even imagine her from the first game already when I’ve seen this look, this was made for the remake too along with the first game’s and it’s amazing just how good it looks. Well unfortunately for her, her bag gets stolen by a kid we know nothing about leaving us with a miserable Ashley. Poor girl. Also I find out that she now can play the guitar, wish I got to see her play a song ngl. Also I wonder if her knowing how to play piano helped with her interest in a band.
The game itself is a lot of the same in terms of mechanics but now you explore a camp with many locations to visit and many cool characters to meet. It’s not just about learning of a single family and one other character, this means the character section in the DAS is a lot more in depth and interesting to look at. There’s a group of teens who are in a band similar to Ashley who get into a problem with a blonde girl named Elizabeth who hates her singing voice and is having issues with Dad especially involving the new girl he’s seeing named Sofia. Oh yeah you also get to see some of the workers Ashley’s Dad works with though Ashley doesn’t seem willing to chat with them at first, I know those feelings Ashley…
Well the big push to the plot is just finding more about that kid and just why would he steal your bag. You’ll also meet a couple of other singularity characters like John Smith, a secret agent who doesn’t seem to make full sense in Ashley’s mind to the point she doesn’t even believe the name which I won’t lie is funny. There’s also Dan the forest ranger who is always looking for that kid and Ashley’s bag though I swear the plot forgets about him halfway through the game. Finally there’s the guy named Bob who owns a restaurant, trust me once you go through that, you’ll never forget about the Salmon Rice Burger, my god I sure don’t. Is that even a good irl?
The last interesting character has to be a mysterious guy named Ryan who seems to show up when Ashley is noticed in the security cameras. He’s pretty interesting with some relations to knowing Sayoko. A lot of this game in fact is learning more about Sayoko with Ashley remembering being here at Lake Juliet when Ashley was only three years old. Just why was she here? Well her dad wants to find out too and around this time, you get a device made from Sayoko called the RAS. Ashley can’t get it off but it’s used to open locks on doors by inputting what the game wants from you, they get harder over the course of the game. Also I really love how the RAS shows up on the little thinking Ashley when it’s loading up a puzzle, such a cute detail!!
You’ll eventually meet up more with that random kid and find out his name is Matthew. After helping him out with another combining items situation, you get to learn his Dad is gone with an albeit rather farfetch’d reason that Ashley doesn’t believe. Also this is one of the few cutscenes with a choice you can give and they’re sadly not many but it’s interesting they even did this. I love the one earlier on where Ashley is arguing with Elizabeth and you can tell her your age is 18, though I don’t like being a liar so I didn’t say it. But anyway, despite some troubled issues with agreements with Matthew, Ashley and him work together to uncover both of their mysteries and also get Ashley’s bag along the way. In some ways it’s a lot like Ashley being with D but I’d argue I like these two as a friendly pair more and lead to a lot of good moments.
You need to figure out what’s with the rumors of Matthew’s Dad getting blamed for polluting the waters when it probably wasn’t him. You’ll go to many places and also have many many detours with the residents of the town. I kind of wanna get more into the story but to be honest, I kind of don’t wanna spoil too much as I feel the story is way better than last time. Yes, as much as I loved the story in the first, this is even better. The conflicts here are even more interesting as we learn more and more about the people. I really like the story with the Old Lady named Charlotte and when you help her ring that bell tower that was closed for years due to a story she tells, it makes me glad to see her happy to hear it ring one more time. The story starting with chapter 7 gets very intense and has a whole new revelation to itself about the mysteries and omg I was getting so scared at times and the many tense moments lead to a really good climax!
If I can sideturn for a second, let me talk about some miscellaneous things. Man Idk how I haven’t brought it up yet but I love looking at objects for Ashley to say something about. I did every single one I could do. Give me the 60th bookshelf and I will gladly hear Ashley give a slightly different sentence about how she reacts to said bookshelf. I’m being dead serious. Though if I do have to say anything negative about the game, it has to be the gyro controls. In both games you’ll use them for like two puzzles and god they are awful, I swear it’s not my controller. I’ve had no problems using it in games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land so what gives? Thankfully it’s not used much though but I hate how it feels to use. It’s crazy to think this is the most negative thing I have to say about the games gameplay wise.
God I really just want to say that I was just so engaged when playing all of these chapters in both games and by the end I was just really curious about all of the mysteries and just the memories Ashley had. There’s many shocking moments, though I do wish the stuff involving Ryan wasn’t so obvious that even an idiot like me could figure it out. Also tip from me, MAKE SURE YOU FIND THE ORIGAMI IN ELIZABETH’S HOUSE BEFORE YOU LEAVE! I had to reload an old save a little after I realized it was in there and you can’t ever go back in there. God I feel like I’m all over the place cause I didn’t even mention how I love how you can look at every item, I love looking at them just to see how it was modeled and see it from angles you can’t normally see. I also love all the connections to the past game, there’s so many nice callbacks that caught me by surprise and it really amazes me just how I was constantly thinking of that past and going “Wow it was from that moment!” By the end though, you get to say goodbye to everyone and Ashley leaves the place satisfied helping everyone out and finding more appreciation in what Dad does, what a lovely end to a set of two games. If you beat the game, you’ll also get to be able to replay the game in Ashley’s outfits from the original DS and Wii game. Also is anyone else sad we never got to see the band contest thing??
Part 6: Presentation quarrels
Sigh, alright here’s the part where I’ll be negative outside of gameplay. I’m sorry but this game is not the best looking especially compared to Nintendo’s other first party games. It’s not as bad as something like Wayforward’s Advance Wars remake but it seems to have a lot of poor texturing and pop in at times. It can take me out of the moment and it especially feels more apparent in the second game. I will say the models look good but that also doesn’t help when the framerate isn’t consistent. It seems to struggle a tiny bit at times. It’s nothing major but it’s enough for me to notice and I don’t really get the issues. I’m not one to be a huge graphics nut but I think even for Switch it could be better and maybe Arc System Works isn’t that good with the hardware? I wouldn’t know since I don’t play a lot of their games. The music on the other hand is pretty damn good. It’s not something I’d listen to a lot outside of the game but it works for the game itself. Though major shoutouts to the credits song “The place I call home” a really nice vocal song. Also I can’t get that Lake Julilet theme out of my head, damnit. The voice acting is also alright for a dub but I felt some characters like Bill and Dan could have used a little better voice direction. I’ve definitely heard worse though. Overall it has some negatives but at least it’s not all bad.
Part 7: I’ll never forget you Ashley
I’m sorry if this review is a mess. I’m not one to review games like this with exceptions. I knew going into this I would forget things and just not sure what I should do or not. I just needed to express my feelings about the game. Just so much of the game made me so happy. Like I was so obsessed. I couldn’t stop playing it. I played for almost 17 hours total in 5 days. I cried at times and by the end I was so happy seeing those beautiful credits. It’s games like these that really keep my head up high in the dark depressing days of my life. I’m going to say it, this is my favorite 1st party Switch game. It gave me a ton of enjoyment, a lot to think about, and a character that probably won’t be out of my mind for a while. I know I said not to read this if you haven’t played it yourself but god I hope more people buy the game if interested. I’m overrating the game but it’s just sooooooooo amazing in my mind. It’s an amazing experience from beginning to end and I can’t believe I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it when I saw those review scores. I’ll probably replay this game one day just because I wanna see Ashley again and relive those fun stories. The things I forget and the things I remember. Another Code Recollection is a great experience and all I can do is…smile. Goodbye Ashley, thank you for the wonderful times. Thank you also to the developers for making this game for me to experience. Most of all, thank you for reading this probably awful review if you somehow got this far. Going to see if maybe I can cosplay as Ashley one day, especially that 2nd game’s outfit…ANYWAY BYE! (god I ramble too much -.-)
THE END
Oh god, finally here writing about this game. There might be a lot to say, lots of moments, lots of feelings, and many things that I just have to say. I really don’t know how to start this review off well, I’m feeling so many different emotions about this game, shaking and just feeling worried I’ll express things poorly. My mind is already thinking this could go so poorly but let’s begin the review of Another Code Recollection.
Part 1: My past experiences are non-existent
Another Code Recollection is a remake of two games which were Another Code: Two Memories for the DS and Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories for the Wii. The first game actually did come out here under the name Trace Memory but the sequel would only get localized in Europe. Both were developed by Cing, a company I’m not even aware of and don’t think even exist anymore though some staff from it did work on this remake. From the small bit of research I did, it seems like critics at the time were usually mixed about both games but it does seem they both gained followings among fans, especially the Wii game.
So, what are my experiences with the original releases? Well, none. Yeah, I’ve never played them ever in my life. I thought about playing Trace Memory back last year but ran into battery issues with my 3DS and still haven’t fixed it. The Wii game I haven’t even once thought of playing, mostly because I can’t even remember the last time I’ve played a Wii game. I wanted to say this because I basically went in blind not knowing if I would even enjoy it and this also fits in with the next thing.
Part 2: The reveal and my doubts
Surprisingly the game was leaked first by a Twitter user though wasn’t said outfront and once the next Nintendo Direct was streamed, the game was revealed there. I was really happy for this announcement as I was always curious about that first game, it was easily the best reveal especially compared to how boring it was to see Nintendo constantly unveil Mario games the past two directs. It was a game I was looking to buy day 1 but then, tragedies struck.
Sonic Superstars was one of the worst experiences I had with a modern game. It made me worry about buying more games for $60 even with Super Mario Bros. Wonder casting my doubts a little with how good it was. It didn’t help that I was and still am very poor (cause I’m lazy and dumb but don’t worry I’m fine). I was lucky to get a bit of money before January to get this game. Though my doubts were still there and I would in December play the demo and really enjoy it and was excited to get the game. Though my mind works in the worst ways and well, I wasn’t going to get it.
The game was about to come out and the Metacritic score was a 72. Normally I don’t care about dumb metacritic scores but this kind of upset me because I was excited for the game and was basically told in my mind “you overhyped it Arle…” and told my oomfs I wasn’t gonna get it now. After some conversations, they convinced me to go get the game and thought I’d really like it and then I said “FINE! I’ll go buy it right now” Then it should be here soon…right?
Part 3: Amazon sucks
So I ordered the game on the 18th, the day before the game came out. Expected to wait about three days but instead was treated to one of the worst waits ever. It went from having not shipped, to coming out Feb 5th, coming out in March, and then to Feb 15th. I was pissed and was about to buy it digitally though my Mom ended up yelling at me for issues I had with the order and she ended up buying it somewhere else for me and I would get the game on the 27th. The game was finally in my hands and now I can finally talk about the game.
WARNING!!! The rest of this review will contain major spoilers for both games! If you have not experienced the story yet and are interested in doing so then do not read this review any further!! I don’t even care if this review could have 0 likes if it meant saving people from being spoiled. You have been warned, enjoy the rest of the review if you continue.
Part 4: Two Memories
We start a little ahead of the beginning that gives you a good overview of the mechanics you’ll be doing in Another Code. You move around places examining the area and eventually moving into a mansion to explore just that place. You don’t start in the mansion as you go back a little into the story to learn more about Ashley and why she’s here. She’s getting ready to see her Dad named Richard who she hasn’t seen since she was very young and was raised by her Aunt. She now is told he isn’t dead. It’s a very intriguing start and kind of daunting feeling knowing that the island we’re on is called Blood Edward Island. Later your Aunt named Jessica gets lost and it’s up to Ashley to figure out what’s going on and where Dad is.
I gotta say it upfront but I love Ashley so much as a character. If there were like a top 10 Nintendo characters, I’d argue she’d be in there for me personally. I’ll go into it more as I write my thoughts but she gives a very good impression. Once you’re trying to get to the mansion you’ll find stuff like puzzles to do and they’re fun to figure out and get the solutions to. They aren’t too impossible but the game does have a hint system to help you if you get stuck. During the part of fixing graves and unlocking a door, you’ll meet your companion. He’s a ghost with a lost memory with the name D. Ashley is the only one who can see this person.
Thanks to this companion is where the really cool aspect of the game comes from. You see, you’re not just trying to learn more about Ashley, you also need to learn more about D and the people who lived in this mansion. That’s the main thing going on in the game is going into rooms, inspecting stuff, solving puzzles and learning more. I really like learning about Ashley and D. It really feels like the two really evolve as characters and their relationship as friends as the story moves along. Ashley at first doesn’t really feel fully up to it, wanting to at least help but also worries for Jessica and finding Dad. I will say I was surprised realizing these games involve stuff like death or at least very important characters being dead. Yeah sure you have stuff like D being a ghost but seeing the intro just show Ashley’s family being “dead” gave me a bit of a shock even if Richard didn’t actually die. Uncovering more about the mansion and the family (named the Edward family.) gets surprisingly dark at times for me. There was a war that happened that involved two of the characters named Henry and Thomas and one of them even loses an arm. It’s just wow, deep stuff. Seeing so much loss from the characters is intriguing to me and wanting to see how it all concludes and what even did happen to D.
Some of the puzzles you’ll do in here are also pretty cool. There’s one where you have to play a song on the piano but some of the notes are on a framed picture of a bird so you need to take a picture of the music sheet and picture to combine both and see the full song to play it. I also liked the one where you have to put three coins into slots above the fireplace but you’ll never learn the order without key thinking and putting the note over the flame as one of the instructions is in invisible ink. There’s even some fun backstory you can learn of Richard using the DAS to scan these origami birds and these are fun to read and can even clue you in more on things yet to have been shown in cutscenes. The game will even let you know what room they’re in so you’re never lost. Oh right there’s a map and omg I love how Ashley writes little notes in them about important events and even does little doodles!!
Huh, haven’t brought up the DAS yet actually. So when you start the game, you see it came with the letter Ashley got from Dad. It’s a device that only works for her and looks like a Switch. I assume it looked like a DS in the original considering the name. It can take pictures, look at those logs I mentioned before and eventually you’ll be collecting keys for this device Ashley’s Dad was working on. This is because a little into the game, you actually find him and you have to help him with a project that Ashley doesn’t really understand. At first it seemed simple, look for keys while he looks for Jessica. Sounds easy.
I liked this first person room where you have to involve candle lighting and just finding your way around in the dark. It basically controls how you move with the camera. It can be a little scary since Ashley is afraid of the dark so I was hoping no scares but thankfully none! Man, I have to say all the small grunts and stuff Ashley says for pressing A on some objects are engraved in my mind just thinking about some of this stuff. Same goes for those cutscenes which are done in this neat stylized panel look with the models. Yeah they do have a preset animations that repeat a lot but fuck I can’t help but copy some of them IRL now. Also when doing some of the investigation, I was kind of caught off guard some things I’d say out loud is something Ashley would also say, it was like “ahhh she said the same thing as me so cute!” Whoa, I got distracted, let’s speed through this.
So you help learn more about D, learn some others things about the family that’s pretty interesting. I think the one I was the most fascinated with was the girl named Frannie. She’s a friend of D’s when he was still alive and remembers more and more about her as you go on. I really like the part where you have to go into this room and set these three dolls to represent the family and the Dad is actually missing an arm intentionally so you need to place them in the correct order so they’ll all be holding hands. It’s just so damn cute of a puzzle man. I won’t really say anything about it but there’s an interesting thing about her by the end of the game too.
Getting all of the keys and meeting up with Dad brings a scene of confusion to me. He was angry, not caring about Ashley and Jessica. This obviously brings down a moment where Ashley basically gives up and wants to leave and gives the keys to him to finish ANOTHER. One interesting thing is about Ashley’s mother named Sayoko. You learned she’s been shot and you even later on find an article that talked about her death while also writing down that Dad was a suspect. It made me wonder who it was but I was imagining it being whoever this Bill guy was since I couldn’t imagine it being anyone else. Though we can’t think about it for too long as D went into a room you can’t get in and with a fun puzzle involving the fountain, you eventually get in the room to find where his dad died all those years ago. Man…this is such a sad scene, I almost cried a little ngl just realizing who did it and such. Though after some talk to talk, you eventually find Jessica who is still handcuffed to a pole and Jessica tells Ashley to believe in Dad. It’s all up to Ashley now and figure out what’s going on for good. Also I really love how for the scribble in this room, Ashley puts a cute face of her and Jessica together showing how she was found in this room. God it’s so damn cute aaaaaaa!!
Well you eventually get into this lab by doing some things like combining keys and then you finally get into the lab and then some guy wants help out of a locked room. I was like “Oh no! Ashley, watch out, it's a trap!!” I was scared out of my life thinking something could happen but I did it anyway. Also screw this puzzle to unlock the door, IDK if I’m stupid but I could not figure it out without the in-game help and the worst part was I was actually really close to beating it without help, ugh. Though when I helped the guy out, I realized. Omg that wasn’t Richard before, THAT WAS BILL! THE MAN FOOLED ME!! God It was probably so obvious too and I didn’t realize. Though you and Ashley’s Dad go to fix the problem and learn of Bill’s true intentions and even tries to mess with memories to frame the death of Sayoko but we know for sure by the end it’s Bill. God, like Ashley’s DAS description of him, can’t stand the man either. Oh right that’s another thing I never brought out. At specific points or the beginning of chapters, you can see small descriptions of each character and a picture of them to get caught up with the plot if you need it or just read some of the nice flavor text Ashley has. It’s neat and fun.
Still many points are shown like how D died and even his real actual name but the ending climax of Bill threatening Richard and Ashley was scary. I was scared for my damn like, I wasn’t sure if the game had some bad ending or something but I was begging not to see Ashley get shot. Thankfully for us, D stops Bill but unfortunately dies in the process and couldn’t be saved, even with Richard’s help. The data he was also sending also got sent to some mysterious person, I was wondering what that was about but I wouldn’t get the answer for now. God there’s a lot of unpack here and stuff I didn’t bring up but man tying up the pieces like why was there only one shoe in that one suitcase with things related to D, it was because only one left remained when he died. I really love how things always seem to add up when you have questions, even if it can be sad answers…
Once you’re done there, it’s time for you to leave with Jessica and Dad. D also says his goodbyes here and while it’s sad to see him go, it makes me happy to see him happy and help him uncover the truth. It was time for the Family to celebrate Ashley’s birthday with a necklace related to Sayoko that will always help Ashley keep her in thoughts. That’s the end of the game and we see Ashley with a cute stuffed bear that you could find in one of the rooms earlier so that was a nice sneak peek at that. This story tells a lot of things and while it can be repetitive at times with constant flashbacks, it still kept me engaged and I was thinking just how great it was. The writing can have some nice moments too but happy and sad. I was thinking I wouldn’t get much out of it but I did. Even the mansion’s design is well made with easy shortcuts all around. The whole game was just a joy to go through and took me around 7 hours to finish the adventure. I even got all of the logs! Not that it’s hard to do but I was happy to do so. Well it’s time to move on to the next game!
Part 5: A Journey into Lost Memories
Hmm interesting, instead of being in a building, it’s all about Ashley going on a camping trip with her Dad. This game time skips a bit past the ending of the first game. We now have a 16 year old Ashley and-hold on can I just say OMG HER OUTFIT IN THIS GAME IS SO GODDAMN CUTE!!! God It’s hard to even imagine her from the first game already when I’ve seen this look, this was made for the remake too along with the first game’s and it’s amazing just how good it looks. Well unfortunately for her, her bag gets stolen by a kid we know nothing about leaving us with a miserable Ashley. Poor girl. Also I find out that she now can play the guitar, wish I got to see her play a song ngl. Also I wonder if her knowing how to play piano helped with her interest in a band.
The game itself is a lot of the same in terms of mechanics but now you explore a camp with many locations to visit and many cool characters to meet. It’s not just about learning of a single family and one other character, this means the character section in the DAS is a lot more in depth and interesting to look at. There’s a group of teens who are in a band similar to Ashley who get into a problem with a blonde girl named Elizabeth who hates her singing voice and is having issues with Dad especially involving the new girl he’s seeing named Sofia. Oh yeah you also get to see some of the workers Ashley’s Dad works with though Ashley doesn’t seem willing to chat with them at first, I know those feelings Ashley…
Well the big push to the plot is just finding more about that kid and just why would he steal your bag. You’ll also meet a couple of other singularity characters like John Smith, a secret agent who doesn’t seem to make full sense in Ashley’s mind to the point she doesn’t even believe the name which I won’t lie is funny. There’s also Dan the forest ranger who is always looking for that kid and Ashley’s bag though I swear the plot forgets about him halfway through the game. Finally there’s the guy named Bob who owns a restaurant, trust me once you go through that, you’ll never forget about the Salmon Rice Burger, my god I sure don’t. Is that even a good irl?
The last interesting character has to be a mysterious guy named Ryan who seems to show up when Ashley is noticed in the security cameras. He’s pretty interesting with some relations to knowing Sayoko. A lot of this game in fact is learning more about Sayoko with Ashley remembering being here at Lake Juliet when Ashley was only three years old. Just why was she here? Well her dad wants to find out too and around this time, you get a device made from Sayoko called the RAS. Ashley can’t get it off but it’s used to open locks on doors by inputting what the game wants from you, they get harder over the course of the game. Also I really love how the RAS shows up on the little thinking Ashley when it’s loading up a puzzle, such a cute detail!!
You’ll eventually meet up more with that random kid and find out his name is Matthew. After helping him out with another combining items situation, you get to learn his Dad is gone with an albeit rather farfetch’d reason that Ashley doesn’t believe. Also this is one of the few cutscenes with a choice you can give and they’re sadly not many but it’s interesting they even did this. I love the one earlier on where Ashley is arguing with Elizabeth and you can tell her your age is 18, though I don’t like being a liar so I didn’t say it. But anyway, despite some troubled issues with agreements with Matthew, Ashley and him work together to uncover both of their mysteries and also get Ashley’s bag along the way. In some ways it’s a lot like Ashley being with D but I’d argue I like these two as a friendly pair more and lead to a lot of good moments.
You need to figure out what’s with the rumors of Matthew’s Dad getting blamed for polluting the waters when it probably wasn’t him. You’ll go to many places and also have many many detours with the residents of the town. I kind of wanna get more into the story but to be honest, I kind of don’t wanna spoil too much as I feel the story is way better than last time. Yes, as much as I loved the story in the first, this is even better. The conflicts here are even more interesting as we learn more and more about the people. I really like the story with the Old Lady named Charlotte and when you help her ring that bell tower that was closed for years due to a story she tells, it makes me glad to see her happy to hear it ring one more time. The story starting with chapter 7 gets very intense and has a whole new revelation to itself about the mysteries and omg I was getting so scared at times and the many tense moments lead to a really good climax!
If I can sideturn for a second, let me talk about some miscellaneous things. Man Idk how I haven’t brought it up yet but I love looking at objects for Ashley to say something about. I did every single one I could do. Give me the 60th bookshelf and I will gladly hear Ashley give a slightly different sentence about how she reacts to said bookshelf. I’m being dead serious. Though if I do have to say anything negative about the game, it has to be the gyro controls. In both games you’ll use them for like two puzzles and god they are awful, I swear it’s not my controller. I’ve had no problems using it in games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land so what gives? Thankfully it’s not used much though but I hate how it feels to use. It’s crazy to think this is the most negative thing I have to say about the games gameplay wise.
God I really just want to say that I was just so engaged when playing all of these chapters in both games and by the end I was just really curious about all of the mysteries and just the memories Ashley had. There’s many shocking moments, though I do wish the stuff involving Ryan wasn’t so obvious that even an idiot like me could figure it out. Also tip from me, MAKE SURE YOU FIND THE ORIGAMI IN ELIZABETH’S HOUSE BEFORE YOU LEAVE! I had to reload an old save a little after I realized it was in there and you can’t ever go back in there. God I feel like I’m all over the place cause I didn’t even mention how I love how you can look at every item, I love looking at them just to see how it was modeled and see it from angles you can’t normally see. I also love all the connections to the past game, there’s so many nice callbacks that caught me by surprise and it really amazes me just how I was constantly thinking of that past and going “Wow it was from that moment!” By the end though, you get to say goodbye to everyone and Ashley leaves the place satisfied helping everyone out and finding more appreciation in what Dad does, what a lovely end to a set of two games. If you beat the game, you’ll also get to be able to replay the game in Ashley’s outfits from the original DS and Wii game. Also is anyone else sad we never got to see the band contest thing??
Part 6: Presentation quarrels
Sigh, alright here’s the part where I’ll be negative outside of gameplay. I’m sorry but this game is not the best looking especially compared to Nintendo’s other first party games. It’s not as bad as something like Wayforward’s Advance Wars remake but it seems to have a lot of poor texturing and pop in at times. It can take me out of the moment and it especially feels more apparent in the second game. I will say the models look good but that also doesn’t help when the framerate isn’t consistent. It seems to struggle a tiny bit at times. It’s nothing major but it’s enough for me to notice and I don’t really get the issues. I’m not one to be a huge graphics nut but I think even for Switch it could be better and maybe Arc System Works isn’t that good with the hardware? I wouldn’t know since I don’t play a lot of their games. The music on the other hand is pretty damn good. It’s not something I’d listen to a lot outside of the game but it works for the game itself. Though major shoutouts to the credits song “The place I call home” a really nice vocal song. Also I can’t get that Lake Julilet theme out of my head, damnit. The voice acting is also alright for a dub but I felt some characters like Bill and Dan could have used a little better voice direction. I’ve definitely heard worse though. Overall it has some negatives but at least it’s not all bad.
Part 7: I’ll never forget you Ashley
I’m sorry if this review is a mess. I’m not one to review games like this with exceptions. I knew going into this I would forget things and just not sure what I should do or not. I just needed to express my feelings about the game. Just so much of the game made me so happy. Like I was so obsessed. I couldn’t stop playing it. I played for almost 17 hours total in 5 days. I cried at times and by the end I was so happy seeing those beautiful credits. It’s games like these that really keep my head up high in the dark depressing days of my life. I’m going to say it, this is my favorite 1st party Switch game. It gave me a ton of enjoyment, a lot to think about, and a character that probably won’t be out of my mind for a while. I know I said not to read this if you haven’t played it yourself but god I hope more people buy the game if interested. I’m overrating the game but it’s just sooooooooo amazing in my mind. It’s an amazing experience from beginning to end and I can’t believe I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it when I saw those review scores. I’ll probably replay this game one day just because I wanna see Ashley again and relive those fun stories. The things I forget and the things I remember. Another Code Recollection is a great experience and all I can do is…smile. Goodbye Ashley, thank you for the wonderful times. Thank you also to the developers for making this game for me to experience. Most of all, thank you for reading this probably awful review if you somehow got this far. Going to see if maybe I can cosplay as Ashley one day, especially that 2nd game’s outfit…ANYWAY BYE! (god I ramble too much -.-)
THE END
didn’t have me opening the switch home menu at any point to solve a puzzle so it’s soulless (i still liked it but would recommend the original games too)
Recentemente, joguei e concluí Another Code: Recollection, um jogo que nunca havia experimentado antes. Decidi testá-lo após o trailer chamar muito minha atenção.
Another Code: Recollection é, essencialmente, um "remaster", uma atualização de dois clássicos para o Nintendo Switch: um jogo do DS, Another Code: Two Memories, e sua sequência no Wii, Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories.
Another Code é um jogo intrigante, pois combina elementos de clássicos títulos de aventura com uma abordagem novel e elementos de puzzle. Você assume o papel de Ashley Mizuki Robbins, uma jovem que recebe um pacote de seu pai em seu 14º aniversário, juntamente com um convite para encontrá-lo na Ilha Blood Edward. Há apenas um problema: o pai de Ashley morreu quando ela tinha três anos.
Não muito tempo depois de chegar à ilha, Ashley encontra um garoto conhecido como D, e juntos, eles partem para ajudar Ashley a encontrar seu pai, restaurar a memória de D e desvendar os mistérios da ilha abandonada.
Como a trama do jogo é o grande foco e parte da diversão, eu não quero estragar, mas, sem dúvida, você vai querer continuar e seguir cada reviravolta na jornada de Ashley e D. Da mesma forma, os inúmeros quebra-cabeças do jogo são muito bons e sempre mantêm um equilíbrio... nunca são fáceis, mas também nunca são difíceis demais, o que acredito ser principalmente devido a esta nova versão, que inclui um sistema de dicas e sinalizações graças a notas que agora aparecem no mapa do jogo, além de uma bússola que você pode ativar com um toque no stick, apontando para o seu próximo objetivo.
Como não joguei as versões originais, não sei com exatidão até onde vão as mudanças, mas em minhas pesquisas, vi que grande parte da mudança se deve aos gráficos de ambiente, que estão totalmente em 3D, e à dublagem completa em inglês ou japonês. Isso realmente ajuda a dar vida ao mundo de Another Code de uma maneira que sua encarnação anterior, especialmente no DS, nem sequer poderia sonhar.
Another Code: Recollection, na minha opinião, foi muito bem feito e caprichado nesse trabalho. Os desenvolvedores simplesmente pegaram dois títulos sobre os quais sinceramente nunca vi ninguém falar e realizaram um trabalho incrível, tudo feito com muito cuidado e modernizando cada aspecto do jogo, mantendo o que de fato ele tinha de melhor em seu passado. É também um jogo muito divertido e que certamente recomendo muito.
Pontos positivos:
- História
- Acessibilidade
- Personagens interessantes
- Quebra-cabeças divertidos
Pontos negativos:
- NA
Versão utilizada para análise: Nintendo Switch
Another Code: Recollection é, essencialmente, um "remaster", uma atualização de dois clássicos para o Nintendo Switch: um jogo do DS, Another Code: Two Memories, e sua sequência no Wii, Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories.
Another Code é um jogo intrigante, pois combina elementos de clássicos títulos de aventura com uma abordagem novel e elementos de puzzle. Você assume o papel de Ashley Mizuki Robbins, uma jovem que recebe um pacote de seu pai em seu 14º aniversário, juntamente com um convite para encontrá-lo na Ilha Blood Edward. Há apenas um problema: o pai de Ashley morreu quando ela tinha três anos.
Não muito tempo depois de chegar à ilha, Ashley encontra um garoto conhecido como D, e juntos, eles partem para ajudar Ashley a encontrar seu pai, restaurar a memória de D e desvendar os mistérios da ilha abandonada.
Como a trama do jogo é o grande foco e parte da diversão, eu não quero estragar, mas, sem dúvida, você vai querer continuar e seguir cada reviravolta na jornada de Ashley e D. Da mesma forma, os inúmeros quebra-cabeças do jogo são muito bons e sempre mantêm um equilíbrio... nunca são fáceis, mas também nunca são difíceis demais, o que acredito ser principalmente devido a esta nova versão, que inclui um sistema de dicas e sinalizações graças a notas que agora aparecem no mapa do jogo, além de uma bússola que você pode ativar com um toque no stick, apontando para o seu próximo objetivo.
Como não joguei as versões originais, não sei com exatidão até onde vão as mudanças, mas em minhas pesquisas, vi que grande parte da mudança se deve aos gráficos de ambiente, que estão totalmente em 3D, e à dublagem completa em inglês ou japonês. Isso realmente ajuda a dar vida ao mundo de Another Code de uma maneira que sua encarnação anterior, especialmente no DS, nem sequer poderia sonhar.
Another Code: Recollection, na minha opinião, foi muito bem feito e caprichado nesse trabalho. Os desenvolvedores simplesmente pegaram dois títulos sobre os quais sinceramente nunca vi ninguém falar e realizaram um trabalho incrível, tudo feito com muito cuidado e modernizando cada aspecto do jogo, mantendo o que de fato ele tinha de melhor em seu passado. É também um jogo muito divertido e que certamente recomendo muito.
Pontos positivos:
- História
- Acessibilidade
- Personagens interessantes
- Quebra-cabeças divertidos
Pontos negativos:
- NA
Versão utilizada para análise: Nintendo Switch
PNW IN A NINTENDO GAME????!!!!
This review contains spoilers
- La razón por la que hace años que no ves a tu padre porque trabaja tanto que está en coma.
- [phone rings]
- Crees en los milagros chico? Tu padre ya no está en coma.
- [phone rings]
- Crees en los milagros chico? Tu padre ya no está en coma.
If this game ends up going under the radar that will be the biggest crime of the 21st century.
Removed puzzles, changed characters, ruined the artstyle. Better off emulating the originals.
This is regarding Two Memories. I have not finished the 2nd game yet, but I have a few comments on it. I played it with my partner, since I had already played it back in the day so she could have the full experience, now, did she?
- Pros: the game looks really nice. I don't mind some lower textures here and there, it looks pretty in some spots, especially some of the rooms, and it highlights some of the game's emotional scenes.
- Cons: they butchered some really important details about the Edward family. There's no way around it, they are important since their conflict is half of the game and this iteration removes information about them. The core conflict isn't clear or nuanced enough for a first time player and it downplays some of its emotional moments like the Thomas-Henry fight, finding D's shoes or the ending itself.
Couple this with a few dissapointing puzzles and no, you don't get the same experience of playing the original. A similar one, yeah, but not the same.
- Pros: the game looks really nice. I don't mind some lower textures here and there, it looks pretty in some spots, especially some of the rooms, and it highlights some of the game's emotional scenes.
- Cons: they butchered some really important details about the Edward family. There's no way around it, they are important since their conflict is half of the game and this iteration removes information about them. The core conflict isn't clear or nuanced enough for a first time player and it downplays some of its emotional moments like the Thomas-Henry fight, finding D's shoes or the ending itself.
Couple this with a few dissapointing puzzles and no, you don't get the same experience of playing the original. A similar one, yeah, but not the same.
A pretty good time with some heartfelt moments and a lovely HD-Wii aesthetic. A lot does feel pretty low budget but for the most part (other than some really noticeable lack of proper sound effects/mixing in cutscenes) I found the presentation charming. The pacing sometimes struggles especially in Another Code R however, and I can't help but feel that the stories being told here didn't fully connect with me. A story that leaned much more heavily into the messiness of family memories, idealization of parents, etc. I think would have been a home run but this pulls its punches a bit too often for my liking. Still I watched those credits with a big smile on my face so this did manage to end up endearing me to most of its characters by the end.
Edit: Upon looking up more about the original games, I think this remake actually needed way MORE hardware gimmicks. I liked any time the remakes forced some gyro controls for puzzles, but other than that things are pretty straightforward, and it really seems like one of the original selling points of the first Another Code was in just how many creative ways it used the DS. I'd almost have liked it if they just forced you to only play in handheld mode and used the touchscreen for more puzzles like the DS game, or hell the IR sensor on the right joy-con as well.
Edit: Upon looking up more about the original games, I think this remake actually needed way MORE hardware gimmicks. I liked any time the remakes forced some gyro controls for puzzles, but other than that things are pretty straightforward, and it really seems like one of the original selling points of the first Another Code was in just how many creative ways it used the DS. I'd almost have liked it if they just forced you to only play in handheld mode and used the touchscreen for more puzzles like the DS game, or hell the IR sensor on the right joy-con as well.
In a game about memories, the one thing that shall forever be etched into the back of my goblin skull is that goddam, jingle for Oooh Lake Juliet, doo dooby doo
Words cannot emphasize how happy I am to see one of my all top favorite video games get a remake. I was fairly certain this game would never get a remake or remaster, and if it did, not as soon as it did!
Another Code is a must have for your Nintendo game library. Not just so a Cing title can get huge support to release more remasters/remakes from the now defunct developer Cing, but also because the story and art style of this game is absolutely wonderful. The near water paint aesthetic of the world combined with the modest 6th gen looking graphics reminds me of a simpler time; which is funny because the original game reminded me a lot of 5th gen graphics like the PS1 but smoother.
The story itself still has the same short but satisfactory pacing and original plot. No unnecessary modifications to the story which Im glad to see; also the game is treated to cinematic cutscenes that are voiced out and very well blocked out! I'd like to note that the voice actor for Ashley does an incredible job voicing her. You get the bits of angst and existentialism from a teenager from her voice acting. Im just really happy to see Ashley come to life as I think she's an excellent example of good writing for a teenage girl. Multifaceted and honest.
I will admit however, as with any remake, this game is not 1:1. As this is a remake of a DS game, some gameplay mechanics do not translate all that well to the switch, but the story and design is still genuine and authentic to the game. It's just disappointing how uninspired some of the puzzles are. The whole appeal of the original game was the intuitive and literal outside of the box thinking the game required out of the player, so to not see much of that with the switch was a bummer. Still though, I'll take a near perfect remake of a perfect video game than a perfect video game fading to obscurity.
I cannot thank Nintendo and Arc System Works for giving this title life again. Its truly a great privilege seeing some form of preservation made to an important game like Another Code.
Another Code is a must have for your Nintendo game library. Not just so a Cing title can get huge support to release more remasters/remakes from the now defunct developer Cing, but also because the story and art style of this game is absolutely wonderful. The near water paint aesthetic of the world combined with the modest 6th gen looking graphics reminds me of a simpler time; which is funny because the original game reminded me a lot of 5th gen graphics like the PS1 but smoother.
The story itself still has the same short but satisfactory pacing and original plot. No unnecessary modifications to the story which Im glad to see; also the game is treated to cinematic cutscenes that are voiced out and very well blocked out! I'd like to note that the voice actor for Ashley does an incredible job voicing her. You get the bits of angst and existentialism from a teenager from her voice acting. Im just really happy to see Ashley come to life as I think she's an excellent example of good writing for a teenage girl. Multifaceted and honest.
I will admit however, as with any remake, this game is not 1:1. As this is a remake of a DS game, some gameplay mechanics do not translate all that well to the switch, but the story and design is still genuine and authentic to the game. It's just disappointing how uninspired some of the puzzles are. The whole appeal of the original game was the intuitive and literal outside of the box thinking the game required out of the player, so to not see much of that with the switch was a bummer. Still though, I'll take a near perfect remake of a perfect video game than a perfect video game fading to obscurity.
I cannot thank Nintendo and Arc System Works for giving this title life again. Its truly a great privilege seeing some form of preservation made to an important game like Another Code.
Treating the 2 parts of Another Code: Recollection as one game, it is an absolutely incredible story to experience and a decently fun game to play. the gameplay is pretty simple and is mainly just running around solving puzzle after puzzle, but the story is what really makes this game shine. While near the ends of both parts there can be some high stakes and exciting moments, for the most part its very calm, slow, and mundane, but in the best way possible. The game takes a lot of time to really make you understand Ashley's point of view on her situation, and what is going on in her life. It is very interesting to watch the subtle differences in how she acts over the course of the 2 years the story takes place over. Watching such a young kid go through such hard situations was really heartbreaking to watch at times, and it made progressing through and solving the mysteries in Ashley's life so much more satisfying. Ashley is not the only character in this game however, the game has plenty of fully realized and charming characters, many of which you'll never forget by the end of your play-through. The calm nature of the game really helps to bring out the personalities of each character, and makes them much easier to relate to. Every character feels like a human, rather than a plot device. The game is also not afraid to touch on difficult subjects, though it never makes them its entire focus. Despite some occasionally awkward voice acting and lower budget (but stylized) graphics, this is one of the few games I've played that has successfully made me tear up, and every bit of occasionally dull gameplay was fully worth playing through to get to the end. If your a fan of storytelling in video games, id definitely recommend giving this game a try.
In 2005, we got a Nintendo DS. Shortly after we picked up a game called Another Code: Two Memories because we like puzzling adventure titles and needed something to play while going on the bus or train. It became our favourite Nintendo DS game of all time and Ashley Mizuki Robins became one of our favourite video game leads ever.
Four years later we picked up Another Code: R - A Journey Into Lost Memories on Wii, and while it didn't impress us as much as the first game, we left it happy to have played it. We could never have imagined that Arc System Works would end up developing a remake of both games from the ground up for Switch, but here we are in 2024 with Another Code: Recollection.
The best Another Code game to date.
Retelling both of the previous two games, Recollection makes the interesting creative choice of mostly keeping the first game narratively intact while greatly changing up the sequel. This could have easily harmed the game, but ends up strengthening its writing immensely in the end as it ties the two stories together as one in a way that feels so perfectly cohesive that it took us a considerable amount of time to realize how much had actually been changed.
The plot has a nice blend of expected developments and clever twists and despite the often absurd fantastical aspects of the story it pulls through thanks to sheer sincerity about its subject matter. It's so easy to be immersed in Ashley and her co-stars' story of coping with loss and PTSD through a deeply emotional scenario focused on rewriting memories, especially thanks to the excellent voice acting at hand.
The the DS and Wii games made heavy use of unique hardware gimmicks for its puzzle design, resulting in the Switch requiring to change things up quite a lot. But the puzzles created for the game are fun and feel like classic adventure game material. If there's anything we felt was lacking, it's that the first game, Two Memories, felt somewhat rushed compared to its sequel. But by the time we reached the credits it didn't matter at all.
This is a game tailor made for us, and we loved every moment of it.
Four years later we picked up Another Code: R - A Journey Into Lost Memories on Wii, and while it didn't impress us as much as the first game, we left it happy to have played it. We could never have imagined that Arc System Works would end up developing a remake of both games from the ground up for Switch, but here we are in 2024 with Another Code: Recollection.
The best Another Code game to date.
Retelling both of the previous two games, Recollection makes the interesting creative choice of mostly keeping the first game narratively intact while greatly changing up the sequel. This could have easily harmed the game, but ends up strengthening its writing immensely in the end as it ties the two stories together as one in a way that feels so perfectly cohesive that it took us a considerable amount of time to realize how much had actually been changed.
The plot has a nice blend of expected developments and clever twists and despite the often absurd fantastical aspects of the story it pulls through thanks to sheer sincerity about its subject matter. It's so easy to be immersed in Ashley and her co-stars' story of coping with loss and PTSD through a deeply emotional scenario focused on rewriting memories, especially thanks to the excellent voice acting at hand.
The the DS and Wii games made heavy use of unique hardware gimmicks for its puzzle design, resulting in the Switch requiring to change things up quite a lot. But the puzzles created for the game are fun and feel like classic adventure game material. If there's anything we felt was lacking, it's that the first game, Two Memories, felt somewhat rushed compared to its sequel. But by the time we reached the credits it didn't matter at all.
This is a game tailor made for us, and we loved every moment of it.
I got one more in me
really impressive presentation with voice acting, graphics, music etc and intermittently touching and gripping storytelling, but imo held back by rather boring puzzle gameplay and a lot of runtime feeling rather insubstantial.
when the game is good it's really cool and when it isn't particularly good it's still nice to just look at and listen to and move around in. but ya could've done with less screentime focused on water pollution and band drama lol
when the game is good it's really cool and when it isn't particularly good it's still nice to just look at and listen to and move around in. but ya could've done with less screentime focused on water pollution and band drama lol
What happens when you remake a middling game? A really wonderful second chance at a story.
Although they're not all apparent until the final act of Journey Into Lost Memories, the parallels between the characters and stories in both halves of this pair of stories are fascinating, and I encourage people to play this game just to get these characters and their experiences into their heads.
While the actual gameplay in this collection is just serviceable, the writing can feel awkward at times, and the voice acting wavers in quality, I loved my time with these games. To borrow common parlance, the vibes were on-point. I loved all of the character descriptions and their gradual updates throughout each story, I enjoyed the newly-developed puzzles, and I liked most of the character redesigns (although I kind of wish Ashley's dad hadn't received such a drastic change). Really just a great experience with plenty of likable characters and decent production value (at least outside of grassy fields). I pray for Hotel Dusk and Last Window to get similar treatment, and I also hope they'll do a great job of preserving those games' rotoscoped art style.
Although they're not all apparent until the final act of Journey Into Lost Memories, the parallels between the characters and stories in both halves of this pair of stories are fascinating, and I encourage people to play this game just to get these characters and their experiences into their heads.
While the actual gameplay in this collection is just serviceable, the writing can feel awkward at times, and the voice acting wavers in quality, I loved my time with these games. To borrow common parlance, the vibes were on-point. I loved all of the character descriptions and their gradual updates throughout each story, I enjoyed the newly-developed puzzles, and I liked most of the character redesigns (although I kind of wish Ashley's dad hadn't received such a drastic change). Really just a great experience with plenty of likable characters and decent production value (at least outside of grassy fields). I pray for Hotel Dusk and Last Window to get similar treatment, and I also hope they'll do a great job of preserving those games' rotoscoped art style.
There's a good essay to be written on how remakes don't always necessarily preserve the original games they're based on with 100% accuracy, but it's not mine to write. I'd heard of "Trace Memory" and its sequel a billion years ago, but never got around to them. I hear the differences between "Journey into Lost Memories" on Switch and "Another Code R" on Wii are actually pretty substantial.
After playing this collection, I kind of want to experience the original games. Another Code: Recollection tells a good story that's maybe worth the "full" price for fans of the genre, especially if you can buy it with a Nintendo Switch Online Voucher or something.
But honestly—the way Another Code: Recollection's Hint System works is super great. I think more "puzzle games" should follow its lead. It stops just short of literally solving the puzzles for you, if you want it to. The only real problem I had is that some of the instructions were a bit obtuse sometimes—like figuring out exactly what the game wanted me to do to unlock an analog combination lock, even though I knew what the combination was.
After playing this collection, I kind of want to experience the original games. Another Code: Recollection tells a good story that's maybe worth the "full" price for fans of the genre, especially if you can buy it with a Nintendo Switch Online Voucher or something.
But honestly—the way Another Code: Recollection's Hint System works is super great. I think more "puzzle games" should follow its lead. It stops just short of literally solving the puzzles for you, if you want it to. The only real problem I had is that some of the instructions were a bit obtuse sometimes—like figuring out exactly what the game wanted me to do to unlock an analog combination lock, even though I knew what the combination was.
The Another Code/Trace Memory games tell the tales of Ashley as she discovers the truth of her parents across two games, alongside a young boy in each of them who also needs to find the truth about something, with themes of the importance of memories, loss, facing some hard truths and acceptance wrapped around the turmoils and drama of a teenager. Both of the original games are pretty dear to my heart and the first one a pretty formative one during my early teenage years.
In terms of the story, the first game is "mostly" untouched, and the touches and flourishes in certain aspects also come with drawbacks, but they always feel unnecesary considering the clean execution of the original story, at best the change in the order of events maintain the overall tone of the original at worst it gets rid of some of the mystery and hampers the flow. The second game is heavily changed with elements regarding the main antagonist, cutting some incidental characters and considering another element I'll mention later, it cuts the Wii game by around 40% or so. I can sum up what the major changes make to this story as leaving them way less surprising in terms of their mystery elements, which obviously doesn't affect me as much as I played the original titles, but I do think about how less interesting some elements are going to be presented to a new player in this remake.
The mystery element is pretty neutered but the themes of the story are mostly left untouched, I find the engame of R a bit more on the ridiculous side compared to the original but they still hit the key moments well enough, lack of subtlety in some moments aside, leaving the narrative as the most positive aspect of the game.
Presentation then is a mixed bag for me. The soundtracks were pretty distinct in the originals when it came to the instrumentation and their intent because of the contrasting tones of each title, the first one with a more sad, lonely melancholic atmosphere, while the second having a more of a summer vacation vibe with an adequate use of the more mysterious and melancholic tunes when that was necessary, and a smart use of arrangements of tunes from the first game also when needed, something that is lost in this remake, R no longer saves Emotions until the endgame and is now the standard puzzle theme across both games, and the arrangement given to that track is really lacking considering how unique the track originally is. The arrangements of the first game feel more bouncy and their lack of simplicity and different instrumentation by comparison make a track like the Edward Mansion lose its vibe. R's soundtrack survives the atmosphere part but there are tracks that feel like they were cut in my memory doesn't fail, plus what I already mentioned of the lack of the original game's music more so towards the end that funnily enough was something that tied both games together really well and is missing in this collection that ties the games even more with how it recontextualized some of the story beats.
The artstyle is something that would work better if Nintendo dared to give the same amount of love to every remake they produced, the models look clean but the enviroments have a lot of low res quality to them that I can't even be charitable about it and attempt to call it watercolor, it looks pretty plain and honestly in some ways worse than the originals, those games didn't seem to have much budget behind them on that front but they did a lot more to look timeless than Recollection does, with good use of the pre rendered backgrounds and character portraits on the DS, and the side scrolling movement mixed with more detailed 3D areas when exploration was necessary on the Wii.
So the story retains the themes for the most part at least, despite the change in order, the background of certain narrative beats and the lack of mystery in certain areas, and the presentation is mostly fine if mostly inferior to the original games, if those were my only issues with it, I would still easily recommend experiencing these unique stories with the atmosphere that they bring, but that is only half of what I valued from these games. Gameplay is the other half, and that has been pretty much butchered on most fronts.
The Another Code games were not only great titles for their interesting stories and characters, they were adventure games heavily elevated by the inventive puzzle design where they used every possible feature one could think of from the DS hardware and the Wii remote, and no effort has been made to translate a fraction of that magic in Recollection. There aren't any clever uses of the Joy-Cons or the hardware itself anymore, it boils down to a lot of simple puzzles based on observation. Each game has one gyroscope based puzzle, the controls of it being really janky which is weird in a Nintendo game at this point, but it goes along well with how terribly janky the camera gets in this game, something that really helped my immersion.
In the original game Ashley would have a quiz at the end of each chapter, a very easy one mind you but one that went along well with the themes of the game, that is gone, a quirk of Ashley that I always liked was her moments of being absent minded, she will get lost in her thoughts before a character would call out her name, that is gone.
My heart sank when the water pollution test was pretty much reduced to aiming the camera at a location in R. My cynical take on cutting a good percentage the second game is that it wasn't about improving the pacing or something like that but rather an easy way to not have to put any effort in making more puzzles to replace everything from the original.
The first game had 2 endings, to get the good one a decent amount of extra effort had to be put in the exploration and puzzle solving to uncover the whole story behind the Edwards, I'm not sure if that is still a thing in the remake but I got the good ending right away and I don't think I did anything special to get there beyond just exploring normally.
Been pretty harsh with this, but it comes from a place of love for this series, I can't in good conscience recommend these as the first way to experience Another Code, but something to be played only after that and this remake isn't what I would call essential to get even after that.
As an aside I'm really worried about how a Kyle Hyde collection will turn out now and honestly I would just rather have a new IP instead of having to critique how that is going to fare against the masterpieces that are the originals.
Also the captain doesn't give me candy anymore, that is where I really started to get worried about the changes.
In terms of the story, the first game is "mostly" untouched, and the touches and flourishes in certain aspects also come with drawbacks, but they always feel unnecesary considering the clean execution of the original story, at best the change in the order of events maintain the overall tone of the original at worst it gets rid of some of the mystery and hampers the flow. The second game is heavily changed with elements regarding the main antagonist, cutting some incidental characters and considering another element I'll mention later, it cuts the Wii game by around 40% or so. I can sum up what the major changes make to this story as leaving them way less surprising in terms of their mystery elements, which obviously doesn't affect me as much as I played the original titles, but I do think about how less interesting some elements are going to be presented to a new player in this remake.
The mystery element is pretty neutered but the themes of the story are mostly left untouched, I find the engame of R a bit more on the ridiculous side compared to the original but they still hit the key moments well enough, lack of subtlety in some moments aside, leaving the narrative as the most positive aspect of the game.
Presentation then is a mixed bag for me. The soundtracks were pretty distinct in the originals when it came to the instrumentation and their intent because of the contrasting tones of each title, the first one with a more sad, lonely melancholic atmosphere, while the second having a more of a summer vacation vibe with an adequate use of the more mysterious and melancholic tunes when that was necessary, and a smart use of arrangements of tunes from the first game also when needed, something that is lost in this remake, R no longer saves Emotions until the endgame and is now the standard puzzle theme across both games, and the arrangement given to that track is really lacking considering how unique the track originally is. The arrangements of the first game feel more bouncy and their lack of simplicity and different instrumentation by comparison make a track like the Edward Mansion lose its vibe. R's soundtrack survives the atmosphere part but there are tracks that feel like they were cut in my memory doesn't fail, plus what I already mentioned of the lack of the original game's music more so towards the end that funnily enough was something that tied both games together really well and is missing in this collection that ties the games even more with how it recontextualized some of the story beats.
The artstyle is something that would work better if Nintendo dared to give the same amount of love to every remake they produced, the models look clean but the enviroments have a lot of low res quality to them that I can't even be charitable about it and attempt to call it watercolor, it looks pretty plain and honestly in some ways worse than the originals, those games didn't seem to have much budget behind them on that front but they did a lot more to look timeless than Recollection does, with good use of the pre rendered backgrounds and character portraits on the DS, and the side scrolling movement mixed with more detailed 3D areas when exploration was necessary on the Wii.
So the story retains the themes for the most part at least, despite the change in order, the background of certain narrative beats and the lack of mystery in certain areas, and the presentation is mostly fine if mostly inferior to the original games, if those were my only issues with it, I would still easily recommend experiencing these unique stories with the atmosphere that they bring, but that is only half of what I valued from these games. Gameplay is the other half, and that has been pretty much butchered on most fronts.
The Another Code games were not only great titles for their interesting stories and characters, they were adventure games heavily elevated by the inventive puzzle design where they used every possible feature one could think of from the DS hardware and the Wii remote, and no effort has been made to translate a fraction of that magic in Recollection. There aren't any clever uses of the Joy-Cons or the hardware itself anymore, it boils down to a lot of simple puzzles based on observation. Each game has one gyroscope based puzzle, the controls of it being really janky which is weird in a Nintendo game at this point, but it goes along well with how terribly janky the camera gets in this game, something that really helped my immersion.
In the original game Ashley would have a quiz at the end of each chapter, a very easy one mind you but one that went along well with the themes of the game, that is gone, a quirk of Ashley that I always liked was her moments of being absent minded, she will get lost in her thoughts before a character would call out her name, that is gone.
My heart sank when the water pollution test was pretty much reduced to aiming the camera at a location in R. My cynical take on cutting a good percentage the second game is that it wasn't about improving the pacing or something like that but rather an easy way to not have to put any effort in making more puzzles to replace everything from the original.
The first game had 2 endings, to get the good one a decent amount of extra effort had to be put in the exploration and puzzle solving to uncover the whole story behind the Edwards, I'm not sure if that is still a thing in the remake but I got the good ending right away and I don't think I did anything special to get there beyond just exploring normally.
Been pretty harsh with this, but it comes from a place of love for this series, I can't in good conscience recommend these as the first way to experience Another Code, but something to be played only after that and this remake isn't what I would call essential to get even after that.
As an aside I'm really worried about how a Kyle Hyde collection will turn out now and honestly I would just rather have a new IP instead of having to critique how that is going to fare against the masterpieces that are the originals.
Also the captain doesn't give me candy anymore, that is where I really started to get worried about the changes.
Como remake Recollection tem altos e baixos. A atuação de voz, atualização gráfica e adaptação dos originais são feitas de forma bem executada, de altíssimo nível e com supervisão da escritora original.
Entretanto, na parte mecânica eu sinto que se perdeu não só as particularidades inerentes aos hardwares originais, o que era algo indissociável de suas experiências.
É algo inevitável, mas não menos lastimável, que é agravado pela higienização e pasteurização da direção de arte em uma só, mantendo uma coesão visual, porém descartando as particularidades das originais.
Pra azedar um tiquinho mais, uma característica de design marcante dos jogos da CiNG, suas tradicionais recapitulações ao fim de cada parte da história, foi completamente removida.
Isso não impede dos remakes exibirem alto nível de polimento, respeito e fidelidade ao trazer para a modernidade a saga de Ashley Mizuki Robins em sua jornada para recuperar suas memórias e resgatar os segredos que envolvem sua família.
Com todo o seu caráter de ritmo lento típico de muitos Visual Novels e adventures japoneses, elenco variado e com arcos próprios, e a escrita primorosa de ficção científica humanamente realista de Rika Suzuki, Another Code: Recollection é uma carta de amor à CiNG, à grandiosa autora de adventures, e também a todo o legado cultural do gênero em sua vertente japonesa.
O que pesa na experiência é a estrutura marcada por constantes interrupções do controle direto da personagem, o que torna parte do tempo a locomoção truncada e até desnecessária.
Um avanço de cena em cena teria evitado esse breve deslocamento que diversas vezes serve só para ligar uma cena à outra, sem oferecer nada de interessante no caminho.
No fim, o roteiro, os quebra-cabeças criativos, os diálogos e o desenvolvimento de personagens e dos temas brilham de forma a sustentar o produto final, resultando em um produto ligeiramente inferior à soma das experiências originais, mas que tem seu valor próprio.
Ah, esse jogo talvez seja o melhor título já lançado na atualidade pra estudar japonês em nível N4/N3. Tanto em vocabulário quanto em escrita fácil. Fica a dica pra estudantes da língua.
Entretanto, na parte mecânica eu sinto que se perdeu não só as particularidades inerentes aos hardwares originais, o que era algo indissociável de suas experiências.
É algo inevitável, mas não menos lastimável, que é agravado pela higienização e pasteurização da direção de arte em uma só, mantendo uma coesão visual, porém descartando as particularidades das originais.
Pra azedar um tiquinho mais, uma característica de design marcante dos jogos da CiNG, suas tradicionais recapitulações ao fim de cada parte da história, foi completamente removida.
Isso não impede dos remakes exibirem alto nível de polimento, respeito e fidelidade ao trazer para a modernidade a saga de Ashley Mizuki Robins em sua jornada para recuperar suas memórias e resgatar os segredos que envolvem sua família.
Com todo o seu caráter de ritmo lento típico de muitos Visual Novels e adventures japoneses, elenco variado e com arcos próprios, e a escrita primorosa de ficção científica humanamente realista de Rika Suzuki, Another Code: Recollection é uma carta de amor à CiNG, à grandiosa autora de adventures, e também a todo o legado cultural do gênero em sua vertente japonesa.
O que pesa na experiência é a estrutura marcada por constantes interrupções do controle direto da personagem, o que torna parte do tempo a locomoção truncada e até desnecessária.
Um avanço de cena em cena teria evitado esse breve deslocamento que diversas vezes serve só para ligar uma cena à outra, sem oferecer nada de interessante no caminho.
No fim, o roteiro, os quebra-cabeças criativos, os diálogos e o desenvolvimento de personagens e dos temas brilham de forma a sustentar o produto final, resultando em um produto ligeiramente inferior à soma das experiências originais, mas que tem seu valor próprio.
Ah, esse jogo talvez seja o melhor título já lançado na atualidade pra estudar japonês em nível N4/N3. Tanto em vocabulário quanto em escrita fácil. Fica a dica pra estudantes da língua.
Another Code: Recollection brings back the Another Code games from DS and Wii and remakes the experiences into one new package on Switch. Another Code: Two Memories (known as Trace Memory in the North American market) originally released on Nintendo DS in 2005 and Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories (which was never released in North America but we Europeans did get a localised release) originally released on Wii in 2009 are the two games that have been redone here on Nintendo Switch. The series is a relatively unknown Nintendo ip, originally developed by Cing who unfortunately went bankrupt in 2010 and for many of us, we thought that was the end of the Another Code games as well as their other Nintendo ip, the Kyle Hyde games (Hotel Dusk and Last Window on DS) but thankfully, a group of ex-Cing developers have found their way to Arc System Works and have worked with Nintendo on bringing Recollection to life, making sure the memory of Cing lives on which is very fitting for the Another Code series.
So what is Another Code exactly? Well the games were originally point and click puzzle adventure games that made excellent use of the unique DS and Wii hardware for some pretty memorable puzzles (like there's one puzzle in the DS game where you have to reflect the bottom screen image onto the top screen to find an answer by slightly closing your DS) and this was the core charm of the games. The games follow a teenage girl called Ashley Mizuki Robins as she attempts to uncover mysteries surrounding her family and a top secret project they worked on that can alter people's memories (hence both subtitles referring to memories).
Bringing the games to Switch has meant a lot of that unique hardware puzzle charm has been lost. Puzzles are now a bit more simpler and traditional in style, more focusing on you having to pick up on subtle hints to figure out how the game wants you to progress rather than play with something clever. There are a couple of motion controlled puzzles, one early one sees you turn a chair to try and guide a key through a maze to obtain it, which can be a bit finicky, but otherwise most puzzles are long the lines of you figuring out a number combination or turning a dial to the right position. There's a couple where what's expected of you is a little bit obtuse compared to what you would be thinking and while a hint system has been added to this remake, I found that it told me what I already knew rather than point me in the direction I needed. The puzzles otherwise get their job done, help break up the heavy story segments but like many other DS games brought to newer hardware, like Zero Escape or The Word Ends With You, a little bit of the charm has been lost with the difficulty of adapting a unique dual screen experience.
The other main gameplay addition to this remake is a navigation assist option. By turning this on, an arrow will appear around Ashley’s waist to point you in the right direction. I never had much use for it during Two Memories but I pulled it out in the more open Lost Memories where it did what I needed.
Graphically the game is passable but it's clearly been a very budgeted release for a niche ip. The model work all looked great, I loved the character models and the art style fit them well but the texture work did not look great at all and the animations at times was very robotic like and you can tell how limited they were in areas. It's understandable because we're lucky to even get a release like this these days, let alone one with a physical release and full of voice acting so it's more of a minor point of contention for me.
Rather than let you choose which game you want to play from the off on the menu, Recollection has instead combined the two games into one cohesive narrative with a timeskip. The option to play whichever game you wanted would've been nice but I can see why the chose to do it this way, especially when some of the late game reveals in Lost Memories call back to stuff in Two Memories. And it's not like it's a long game either, with the whole package being beatable with 20 hours and Two Memories clocking in between 6 and 7 hours, I think it makes sense to make sure players experience the whole story in one narrative.
Two Memories takes place in 2005 where the day before Ashley's 14th birthday, she receives a package from her father whom she believed was dead, containing a mysterious device called a DAS (Dual Another System, which in the original looked more like a DS, updated here to look like a Switch) and an invitation to meet him on Blood Edward Island where apparently he's been conducting research on something all alone since Ashley's mother died when she was 3. Arriving on the island with her Aunt Jessica who quickly goes missing, Ashley meets a ghost called D who has almost no memories of his life and together the two must solve the mysteries of Blood Edward Island while also figuring out just what Ashley's father has been up to for all these years. The bulk of this game sees you exploring and solving puzzles in the old Edward mansion and it's a very lonely atmosphere as you uncover more and more about the Edward family and some of the more sinister going ons behind the scenes. Ashley and D’s two plotlines work well together and the bond they form throughout is very heartwarming. Two Memories is very well paced, full of impactful moments and while my knowledge of the story from playing the DS game did lessen the impact of some of the twists, it's nonetheless still a really lovely story to experience.
Journey into Lost Memories (the R and A dropped from the title in this release) picks things up two years later with a now 16 year old Ashley who has since struggled to connect with her father who has once again prioritised his work over his daughter and the pair haven't seen each other for months. In an attempt to reconnect, Ashley's father invites her on a camping trip to Lake Julliet where his work is based. Immediately upon arriving there Ashley has her bag stolen and begins experiencing flashbacks to lost memories of her mother from when they visited together when she was 3, and with that you have the perfect storm for an emotionally charged teenage girl who is in a place where she doesn't want to be. The supporting cast is much bigger in this game, with research workers and campsite workers as well as other teenagers for Ashley to bounce off, giving the game a much more cosy vibe to contrast the lonely vibe of Two Memories. Ashley ends up meeting a young boy called Matthew who is looking for his dad after he disappeared a few years back and the two team up to uncover the mysteries of Lake Julliet, including how the lake's contamination came about. Ashley and Matthew develop a similar relationship to how things panned out with D, with their stories intertwining throughout the game. Unlike D however, Matthew's story wraps up a couple of chapters before the end of the game and he disappears for the rest of it, leaving a very weird feeling while you go through the climax of the game. The climax itself is pretty wild and intense, a far cry from the cosy camp vibes the game initially gives off but it's fantastic nonetheless.
My familiarity with the original Wii version of Lost Memories isn't the best, I never finished that version of the game, only getting about two or three chapters in. From what I've read with people more familiar with that game, this version streamlines things a bit and it makes for a much better paced adventure which is good. The door hacking puzzles seem to have been reduced to mere button pressing sequences which is a shame, I'm assuming they wanted a cohesiveness between both Two Memories and Lost Memories so they didn't go full in on replicating the Wii remote puzzles which the Switch would've been capable of, instead going for something simpler that could be enjoyed on a handheld without too much motion stuff involved.
I have a preference towards Two Memories and it's focused feel on the mansion and D, where it nails the loneliness vibe very well. Aside from losing the DS specific puzzles, I think this version still has an enjoyable charm to it. Lost Memories doesn't quite hit the same heights and I feel like they push Matthew aside a bit too early in the story, however it's still a great experience and a lovely follow up and conclusion to the Another Code story. Ashley is the core of the experience and I think in her they made a very relatable character whose shoes are easy to place yourself in.
I'm grateful to Arc System Works and Nintendo for bringing these games back and allowing a new audience to experience the story of Ashley Mizuki Robins. While a little bit of the charm has been lost transitioning the games from DS and Wii hardware to Switch hardware, there's still a wonderful and heartwarming tale to experience with Recollection that carries a powerful message that sums up this release perfectly: As long as someone carries your memories, you will never truly die. Here's to the memory of Cing living on in this release.
So what is Another Code exactly? Well the games were originally point and click puzzle adventure games that made excellent use of the unique DS and Wii hardware for some pretty memorable puzzles (like there's one puzzle in the DS game where you have to reflect the bottom screen image onto the top screen to find an answer by slightly closing your DS) and this was the core charm of the games. The games follow a teenage girl called Ashley Mizuki Robins as she attempts to uncover mysteries surrounding her family and a top secret project they worked on that can alter people's memories (hence both subtitles referring to memories).
Bringing the games to Switch has meant a lot of that unique hardware puzzle charm has been lost. Puzzles are now a bit more simpler and traditional in style, more focusing on you having to pick up on subtle hints to figure out how the game wants you to progress rather than play with something clever. There are a couple of motion controlled puzzles, one early one sees you turn a chair to try and guide a key through a maze to obtain it, which can be a bit finicky, but otherwise most puzzles are long the lines of you figuring out a number combination or turning a dial to the right position. There's a couple where what's expected of you is a little bit obtuse compared to what you would be thinking and while a hint system has been added to this remake, I found that it told me what I already knew rather than point me in the direction I needed. The puzzles otherwise get their job done, help break up the heavy story segments but like many other DS games brought to newer hardware, like Zero Escape or The Word Ends With You, a little bit of the charm has been lost with the difficulty of adapting a unique dual screen experience.
The other main gameplay addition to this remake is a navigation assist option. By turning this on, an arrow will appear around Ashley’s waist to point you in the right direction. I never had much use for it during Two Memories but I pulled it out in the more open Lost Memories where it did what I needed.
Graphically the game is passable but it's clearly been a very budgeted release for a niche ip. The model work all looked great, I loved the character models and the art style fit them well but the texture work did not look great at all and the animations at times was very robotic like and you can tell how limited they were in areas. It's understandable because we're lucky to even get a release like this these days, let alone one with a physical release and full of voice acting so it's more of a minor point of contention for me.
Rather than let you choose which game you want to play from the off on the menu, Recollection has instead combined the two games into one cohesive narrative with a timeskip. The option to play whichever game you wanted would've been nice but I can see why the chose to do it this way, especially when some of the late game reveals in Lost Memories call back to stuff in Two Memories. And it's not like it's a long game either, with the whole package being beatable with 20 hours and Two Memories clocking in between 6 and 7 hours, I think it makes sense to make sure players experience the whole story in one narrative.
Two Memories takes place in 2005 where the day before Ashley's 14th birthday, she receives a package from her father whom she believed was dead, containing a mysterious device called a DAS (Dual Another System, which in the original looked more like a DS, updated here to look like a Switch) and an invitation to meet him on Blood Edward Island where apparently he's been conducting research on something all alone since Ashley's mother died when she was 3. Arriving on the island with her Aunt Jessica who quickly goes missing, Ashley meets a ghost called D who has almost no memories of his life and together the two must solve the mysteries of Blood Edward Island while also figuring out just what Ashley's father has been up to for all these years. The bulk of this game sees you exploring and solving puzzles in the old Edward mansion and it's a very lonely atmosphere as you uncover more and more about the Edward family and some of the more sinister going ons behind the scenes. Ashley and D’s two plotlines work well together and the bond they form throughout is very heartwarming. Two Memories is very well paced, full of impactful moments and while my knowledge of the story from playing the DS game did lessen the impact of some of the twists, it's nonetheless still a really lovely story to experience.
Journey into Lost Memories (the R and A dropped from the title in this release) picks things up two years later with a now 16 year old Ashley who has since struggled to connect with her father who has once again prioritised his work over his daughter and the pair haven't seen each other for months. In an attempt to reconnect, Ashley's father invites her on a camping trip to Lake Julliet where his work is based. Immediately upon arriving there Ashley has her bag stolen and begins experiencing flashbacks to lost memories of her mother from when they visited together when she was 3, and with that you have the perfect storm for an emotionally charged teenage girl who is in a place where she doesn't want to be. The supporting cast is much bigger in this game, with research workers and campsite workers as well as other teenagers for Ashley to bounce off, giving the game a much more cosy vibe to contrast the lonely vibe of Two Memories. Ashley ends up meeting a young boy called Matthew who is looking for his dad after he disappeared a few years back and the two team up to uncover the mysteries of Lake Julliet, including how the lake's contamination came about. Ashley and Matthew develop a similar relationship to how things panned out with D, with their stories intertwining throughout the game. Unlike D however, Matthew's story wraps up a couple of chapters before the end of the game and he disappears for the rest of it, leaving a very weird feeling while you go through the climax of the game. The climax itself is pretty wild and intense, a far cry from the cosy camp vibes the game initially gives off but it's fantastic nonetheless.
My familiarity with the original Wii version of Lost Memories isn't the best, I never finished that version of the game, only getting about two or three chapters in. From what I've read with people more familiar with that game, this version streamlines things a bit and it makes for a much better paced adventure which is good. The door hacking puzzles seem to have been reduced to mere button pressing sequences which is a shame, I'm assuming they wanted a cohesiveness between both Two Memories and Lost Memories so they didn't go full in on replicating the Wii remote puzzles which the Switch would've been capable of, instead going for something simpler that could be enjoyed on a handheld without too much motion stuff involved.
I have a preference towards Two Memories and it's focused feel on the mansion and D, where it nails the loneliness vibe very well. Aside from losing the DS specific puzzles, I think this version still has an enjoyable charm to it. Lost Memories doesn't quite hit the same heights and I feel like they push Matthew aside a bit too early in the story, however it's still a great experience and a lovely follow up and conclusion to the Another Code story. Ashley is the core of the experience and I think in her they made a very relatable character whose shoes are easy to place yourself in.
I'm grateful to Arc System Works and Nintendo for bringing these games back and allowing a new audience to experience the story of Ashley Mizuki Robins. While a little bit of the charm has been lost transitioning the games from DS and Wii hardware to Switch hardware, there's still a wonderful and heartwarming tale to experience with Recollection that carries a powerful message that sums up this release perfectly: As long as someone carries your memories, you will never truly die. Here's to the memory of Cing living on in this release.
I had never heard of Another Code, or its sequel until Recollection was announced only a couple of months ago. The trailer alone though completely sold me, I’m a massive fun of puzzle games, and I was really intrigued by this one. While I could’ve played the original versions of the two games, I chose to wait for this to release, just cause. And honestly, I really loved playing this game. While it is a collection of two games, it feels like it neatly connects the two together, into one complete whole. As well, it’s just really nice, filled with charm and this inexplicable cozy feeling.
When it comes to the actual puzzles of Another Code Recollection, I find them super charming. Most of them, if not a large majority of them are really simple, but I still get that little bit of satisfaction from solving puzzles, even if they’re extremely simple. As well, when the puzzles become even the slightest more complex, they’re really fun. This is definitely seen more in the second half of the game, though it still has the issue of a lot of them being rather simple. There are some mechanics, especially with the DAS that I wish was used at least a little more often, sometimes only being used once in the entire game. The only puzzle mechanic that seems to repeat over time are motion-control puzzles which are really fun, but I am a bit glad they still used it quite minimally. I feel like I would’ve been a bit tired if they were way more apparent. But still, while I do wish the game had more puzzles, the puzzles in the game are still really fun.
The story of Another Code Recollection is interesting. I’ve heard that the first half of the game is basically a faithful adaptation of the DS game, while the second half notably diverges from the Wii game. It bears repeating again that I’ve never played the original titles, I mention it again so it’s known I can’t really compare the two together. I really love the story though, especially the second half’s. Another Code’s story is all about memory, and what it means to remember, forget, to learn, and to be remembered. It’s all about the nature of memories and how it all connects to life, and the human experience. And it’s also the story about growing up in a family that’s far from perfect. The lack of a parental figure, having a complicated relationship with your family, but also learning to love even the imperfections of your family. The story of Another Code is very heartfelt, and while it never goes too complex, it’s still able to really pull at the heartstrings.
And how it’s able to do that is through the characters of the game. Ashley is an amazing protagonist throughout both halves of the game. The dynamic between her and her father is excellent, I rarely see the dynamic between them in other media. And so many side characters are amazing. The entire interconnected story of the Edwards Family, and every single person you meet at Lake Juliet. The characters are all nice and really charming, and each interaction is just really fun.
And yet again, there’s something about the game that I just find really cozy. It may just be the vibes I get, the Another Code games were released around the time I started playing games, so it has that same general feel that those games have. I was particularly reminded of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, but that’s also mainly because that’s another DS Puzzle game. But I think one aspect of why this game is as cozy to me are the environments. One thing I do know that’s a difference between the recollection and the original games is that you couldn’t physically walk around in the environments. And I think that’s what really makes it cozy for me. The game areas are large, and even when running it takes a while to get from place to place. Because of that you’re really able to take in the sights and sort of be immersed in some regard. A beautiful forest, an old mansion, a lake resort, the environments, even the ones that are meant to be unsettling, are really cozy.
For me at least, it’s hard to get a full grasp on how to review this game in particular. It’s a remake, and to review a remake properly, you should at least have some information on the original titles. In this case, I simply don’t, which is my fault for sure. Even then, I still really loved this game, the characters, the story, and how cozy this game was was really nice. I’m not sure if this is the version I’d recommend, mainly because I haven’t compared it to the original versions, but this still is an amazing game that I’m glad was able to release. I won’t forget this game, I’m glad I was able to play it.
When it comes to the actual puzzles of Another Code Recollection, I find them super charming. Most of them, if not a large majority of them are really simple, but I still get that little bit of satisfaction from solving puzzles, even if they’re extremely simple. As well, when the puzzles become even the slightest more complex, they’re really fun. This is definitely seen more in the second half of the game, though it still has the issue of a lot of them being rather simple. There are some mechanics, especially with the DAS that I wish was used at least a little more often, sometimes only being used once in the entire game. The only puzzle mechanic that seems to repeat over time are motion-control puzzles which are really fun, but I am a bit glad they still used it quite minimally. I feel like I would’ve been a bit tired if they were way more apparent. But still, while I do wish the game had more puzzles, the puzzles in the game are still really fun.
The story of Another Code Recollection is interesting. I’ve heard that the first half of the game is basically a faithful adaptation of the DS game, while the second half notably diverges from the Wii game. It bears repeating again that I’ve never played the original titles, I mention it again so it’s known I can’t really compare the two together. I really love the story though, especially the second half’s. Another Code’s story is all about memory, and what it means to remember, forget, to learn, and to be remembered. It’s all about the nature of memories and how it all connects to life, and the human experience. And it’s also the story about growing up in a family that’s far from perfect. The lack of a parental figure, having a complicated relationship with your family, but also learning to love even the imperfections of your family. The story of Another Code is very heartfelt, and while it never goes too complex, it’s still able to really pull at the heartstrings.
And how it’s able to do that is through the characters of the game. Ashley is an amazing protagonist throughout both halves of the game. The dynamic between her and her father is excellent, I rarely see the dynamic between them in other media. And so many side characters are amazing. The entire interconnected story of the Edwards Family, and every single person you meet at Lake Juliet. The characters are all nice and really charming, and each interaction is just really fun.
And yet again, there’s something about the game that I just find really cozy. It may just be the vibes I get, the Another Code games were released around the time I started playing games, so it has that same general feel that those games have. I was particularly reminded of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, but that’s also mainly because that’s another DS Puzzle game. But I think one aspect of why this game is as cozy to me are the environments. One thing I do know that’s a difference between the recollection and the original games is that you couldn’t physically walk around in the environments. And I think that’s what really makes it cozy for me. The game areas are large, and even when running it takes a while to get from place to place. Because of that you’re really able to take in the sights and sort of be immersed in some regard. A beautiful forest, an old mansion, a lake resort, the environments, even the ones that are meant to be unsettling, are really cozy.
For me at least, it’s hard to get a full grasp on how to review this game in particular. It’s a remake, and to review a remake properly, you should at least have some information on the original titles. In this case, I simply don’t, which is my fault for sure. Even then, I still really loved this game, the characters, the story, and how cozy this game was was really nice. I’m not sure if this is the version I’d recommend, mainly because I haven’t compared it to the original versions, but this still is an amazing game that I’m glad was able to release. I won’t forget this game, I’m glad I was able to play it.
in the end none of the following will actually matter when my real review is "miracles do happen. cing is back. holy shit"
have to disclose that i'm significantly more familiar with the ds game, as sadly a few hours into playing R, my wii died and i never really had the chance to go back to it
the best way i can describe this as a remake, and i apologize in advance for the pretentiousness, is as a really good movie adaptation of a favorite book. everything is gorgeously realized, with taisuke kanasaki's art in particular stealing the show. but on the other hand, there's an element of intimacy lost in the process. personally speaking, that intimacy is a huge part of the appeal of cing's catalog, and having the characters fully emoting and speaking on screen, as amazing as it is, does take something away from it
of course, the original DS game is quite slim, and as personally meaningful as it is to me, i would hesitate to call it an all-timer in its genre. R definitely goes more interesting places with its story, but it can also certainly feel a bit meandering, even in the remake version, and intermingling with a cast of characters and teen drama might not necessarily be a welcome replacement to the more introspective and exploratory tone of the first game for everyone
so in essence, these are great, but personally speaking not definitive, remakes of pretty good, but personally very meaningful, games. even getting a taste of a future where cing continued on is a truly priceless thing for me, though. and i hope that through a similar miracle that brought about this remake in the first place, we can get more stories for ashley in the future (and kyle hyde (sorry i know everyone says this but i can't help it))
have to disclose that i'm significantly more familiar with the ds game, as sadly a few hours into playing R, my wii died and i never really had the chance to go back to it
the best way i can describe this as a remake, and i apologize in advance for the pretentiousness, is as a really good movie adaptation of a favorite book. everything is gorgeously realized, with taisuke kanasaki's art in particular stealing the show. but on the other hand, there's an element of intimacy lost in the process. personally speaking, that intimacy is a huge part of the appeal of cing's catalog, and having the characters fully emoting and speaking on screen, as amazing as it is, does take something away from it
of course, the original DS game is quite slim, and as personally meaningful as it is to me, i would hesitate to call it an all-timer in its genre. R definitely goes more interesting places with its story, but it can also certainly feel a bit meandering, even in the remake version, and intermingling with a cast of characters and teen drama might not necessarily be a welcome replacement to the more introspective and exploratory tone of the first game for everyone
so in essence, these are great, but personally speaking not definitive, remakes of pretty good, but personally very meaningful, games. even getting a taste of a future where cing continued on is a truly priceless thing for me, though. and i hope that through a similar miracle that brought about this remake in the first place, we can get more stories for ashley in the future (and kyle hyde (sorry i know everyone says this but i can't help it))
Another Code: Recollection is an acceptable game in its own right, if an unexciting one for the majority of its playtime. However, it serves as an excellent case study for the video game remake phenomenon at large and the purpose it serves, reminding the industry of the importance of memory.
Yeah unfortunately I think this is a baby game. I played the hour long demo (which shoutouts to them for making it so long) but I don’t think I’m gonna pay $60 for this. At least not right now. Doesn’t seem to be for me. Really happy that Nintendo is publishing these kinda things. Oh and the camera is horrible. The main character takes up more space than Batman in the Arkham games.
Excelent game with an awesome and interesting story, and with an impecable art direction. The characters are very fun and cool to talk to. The investigation and puzzle-solving might be easier to a few, but to the general public, including me, it's spot-on. Definely underrated Nintendo franchise.
However, some parts such as the beginning may be really boring, so try giving it a chance a bit further (the initial parts of the game are specially odd and not that interesting in my opinion, and it took me some time to really get the passion for it). The movement of the protagonist may be a bit wonky. If you get lost, there are many accessibility options that can help you out, no need to search for a youtube tutorial if you can't solve a puzzle.
It's a really well-done remake of the original games for Nintendo DS and Wii, so it's worth a shot. However, as you can see, the game is not very long, lasting around 13 hours on a casual play and around 15 to 16 hours if you want to search and scan all the "origami memories".
However, some parts such as the beginning may be really boring, so try giving it a chance a bit further (the initial parts of the game are specially odd and not that interesting in my opinion, and it took me some time to really get the passion for it). The movement of the protagonist may be a bit wonky. If you get lost, there are many accessibility options that can help you out, no need to search for a youtube tutorial if you can't solve a puzzle.
It's a really well-done remake of the original games for Nintendo DS and Wii, so it's worth a shot. However, as you can see, the game is not very long, lasting around 13 hours on a casual play and around 15 to 16 hours if you want to search and scan all the "origami memories".