As a narrative adventure game, Mémoire 0079 is quite an interesting concept. Login in as a player into a fictional terminal to uncover reports about a distant future and exploring both sides of a war. A narrative focused in on two major players during this fictional sci-fi conflict: Vega Hawthorne of the United Earth and Raya Sokolova of the Ceresian Republic. Both held up by their respective governments as great heroic figures, through propaganda and personal ideologies. It's all a novel idea, pulling your sympathies in multiple directions on whose story you might read first. Well, but here can we get into the biggest issue with the game, the fact that it's infact nothing more than a surface level novelty.
There is no real game to speak of here, just walls of unwieldy text to click through and mountains of hyperlinks that pull your attention away from reading what seems like it could be an engaging story. Just to be stoped dead in your tracks while reading in order to look up words and events you really have no context for and there for might not even care about right away. I know that is the idea and the game's own web page describes itself as "a unique narrative adventure game about exploring a wiki-like interface", but I fell like if you want to fully engage the reader into your world, it helps to have a clearer structure to the events being told. You can still have all the gimmicks of personal logs, redacted sections in government documents and military propaganda. Maybe have some real time email traffic or chats you can respond to popping up on the side as you browse the wiki. Having you engage with the world in a tangible way, and perhaps even being able to make a choice for what side your sympathies align more. All in all, the most important aspect would be reducing the amounts of hyperlinks. Even just including a separate glossary on the side to pull up would help. In my opinion, it's better to make the broad strokes of your Universe as basic and understandable as possible and then you can bombard your audience with the more complex stuff later. The Universe is still interesting, mind you, there is potential here, but it's the dialogue between characters where the game ultimately shits the bed.
Throughout many of the personal logs and transcripts present here, these two warring factions feel less like opposing cultures and more like drunk discord mods. It's the clearest evidence of to the fact that if you want to make a distinct fictional universe, you need to put in some effort in to establishing a culture and a way of language. Especially if the main point of your story is to contrast the two factions against each other. I don't think Captain Picard encountering the Borg for the first time and trying to contact the Federation about the immediate danger would have had nearly the same impact as it did, if they're back and forth dialogue mainly consisted of “Naaaaah”, “lol”, “lmao” or “can we talk about the fact that they suck shit”. Not quite as impactful I would say.
If I had to pull up one last positive at the end, it probably be the presentation. It's all presented quit nicely through the UI of an old school computer terminal, with atmospheric background tracks. Although I would have liked to have more tracks overall, having some pages be completely silent while the next one suddenly ear blast you with a loud background track was an odd experience. Overall this was a neat project, that needed about 5 more rewrites and revisions. It's free to play in your browser anyway, so there is no harm in checking it out and having a laugh at it atleast. Maybe the next one will be better, always possible.
There is no real game to speak of here, just walls of unwieldy text to click through and mountains of hyperlinks that pull your attention away from reading what seems like it could be an engaging story. Just to be stoped dead in your tracks while reading in order to look up words and events you really have no context for and there for might not even care about right away. I know that is the idea and the game's own web page describes itself as "a unique narrative adventure game about exploring a wiki-like interface", but I fell like if you want to fully engage the reader into your world, it helps to have a clearer structure to the events being told. You can still have all the gimmicks of personal logs, redacted sections in government documents and military propaganda. Maybe have some real time email traffic or chats you can respond to popping up on the side as you browse the wiki. Having you engage with the world in a tangible way, and perhaps even being able to make a choice for what side your sympathies align more. All in all, the most important aspect would be reducing the amounts of hyperlinks. Even just including a separate glossary on the side to pull up would help. In my opinion, it's better to make the broad strokes of your Universe as basic and understandable as possible and then you can bombard your audience with the more complex stuff later. The Universe is still interesting, mind you, there is potential here, but it's the dialogue between characters where the game ultimately shits the bed.
Throughout many of the personal logs and transcripts present here, these two warring factions feel less like opposing cultures and more like drunk discord mods. It's the clearest evidence of to the fact that if you want to make a distinct fictional universe, you need to put in some effort in to establishing a culture and a way of language. Especially if the main point of your story is to contrast the two factions against each other. I don't think Captain Picard encountering the Borg for the first time and trying to contact the Federation about the immediate danger would have had nearly the same impact as it did, if they're back and forth dialogue mainly consisted of “Naaaaah”, “lol”, “lmao” or “can we talk about the fact that they suck shit”. Not quite as impactful I would say.
If I had to pull up one last positive at the end, it probably be the presentation. It's all presented quit nicely through the UI of an old school computer terminal, with atmospheric background tracks. Although I would have liked to have more tracks overall, having some pages be completely silent while the next one suddenly ear blast you with a loud background track was an odd experience. Overall this was a neat project, that needed about 5 more rewrites and revisions. It's free to play in your browser anyway, so there is no harm in checking it out and having a laugh at it atleast. Maybe the next one will be better, always possible.
passionately authentic and inventive
this is absolutely incredible.
EDIT: replayed, it's still a unique and temporarily momentous experience but there's definitely significant faultlines underneath the surface.
EDIT: replayed, it's still a unique and temporarily momentous experience but there's definitely significant faultlines underneath the surface.
'Yet the task of documentation, also a path towards truth, is humanising; it humanises the victim, who reclaims their voice and their story. It also rehumanises the executioner. Let them not become an old wretch, floating in their pure ideas; in an evil formalin; in their last lie before the great departure.'
– Rithy Panh, La paix avec les morts, Grasset, Paris, 2020, p. 167 (personal translation).
Travelling from Toronto to Belgrade, Tea Radan, the protagonist of Daša Drndić's Canzone di Guerra (2019), embarks on a profound investigation to understand the traumas of a country slowly rebuilding after the war and torn by the hypocrisies of liberal democracy. In a long recitation, she gives the names of witnesses and authors who have written about Alojzije Stepinac and Ante Pavelić, finally uncovering information that sheds – for her – new light on historical developments in Croatia: 'There was fascism, there was communism and the bugbears of communism. Now, there is, supposedly, none of that, and all the filth of those times has been swept under the carpet. It is here, it is all here, hidden, transformed into democracy, which is not that. Because, for instance, what is now sold as democracy is in fact levelling, in fact it is restriction, a great restriction that threatens a whole lot of small restrictions by the police for everyone who does not submit' [1].
History and memories of the Balkan wars beneath the sighs of The Hague
There is something incisive about Drndić's writing and Tea Radan's personality. She is not a classically trained historian, but a woman in need of answers about her own identity and with an acute desire for justice after the general failure of post-war prosecutions. In her search for the truth, Tea highlights personal affinities with her own family; the lives of individuals are inscribed in the great course of history and tragedy, constantly on the verge of being consumed by political events, wars and disasters. Drndić's approach embraces a vivid national memory, however tamely ignored in the lights of the twenty-first century: it is about discussing a past that does not pass, and finding solace in trying to know what happened. This approach is not unique to Drndić. Literature written after the Balkan conflicts is permeated by this desire for recognition, as is post-genocide literature. Rithy Panh's attempt, after years of artistic creation to assuage the terrible pain inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, is to seek a certain form of reconciliation – to make 'peace with the dead'. In this book, he tries to meet the victims, the executioners and the accomplices, to exorcise the voice of the dead: 'I can neither forget nor remember. But I can live and I want to live,' [2] he wrote.
In a way, Mémoire 0079 addresses similar themes, perhaps without the intimate sharpness that characterises the accounts of those who experienced the horrors of war at first hand. The player is invited to discover the events that shaped the conflict between the United Earth Treaty Organization and the Empire of Ceres. Contrary to what the description might suggest, the title is less a Wikipedia page than a meditation on documents of all kinds, from transcripts of conversations to official speeches, from press articles to historians' analyses, allowing the player to understand different points of view. Beyond the virulent condemnation of the war, the great strength of Mémoire 0079 is that it presents a complex set of truths, reflecting very different perspectives and ideologies. The heroism of the battles between Vega Hawthorne and the Star Phantasma contrasts sharply with the fear felt by the immediate victims of the conflict. As in the literature of genocide, Mémoire 0079 succeeds in highlighting the agency of individuals, their mentalities, their fears and their involvement in the coldly described events.
The crisis of imperial societies
This nuance is handled with great care through the constant interplay of points of view and the variety of writing styles, with Woodaba's passionate outbursts responding to Roxy's cold wistfulness. The conflict between Ceres and the UETO absorbs and mimics phenomena observed and described in many contemporary wars. The Republic – then Empire – of Ceres adopts the colours of the USSR, Ukraine, Nazi Germany and Vietnam. In a way, this chaotic approach actually works, as it underlines the imperialist continuities in modern conflicts, as well as the importance of ideological structures. As a former colony of the UETO, the breath of independence on Ceres is accompanied by neo-colonial permanence, resulting in a strong antipathy towards the former metropole. The following years mirrored the German despair of the interwar period, when the working classes experienced a slow downward spiral after the short-lived successes of the early Weimar Republic.
As in 1920s Germany, social instability in Ceres was exacerbated by the agricultural crisis. Farmers could no longer make a living from their produce, and day labourers could no longer migrate to the cities because of the lack of job prospects in industry. Mémoire 0079 compounded this situation with neo-colonial taxation, which made life unbearable and fuelled a strong hatred for the UETO and the Colonial Defence League, a conglomerate of capitalist interests. This situation led to the development of a fiery propaganda and nationalism, with its own codes, rituals, spectacle society and, slowly, a cult of the leader – combining the genesis of Nazi Germany with that of the USSR and modern Russia. The warmongering of the Empire of Ceres follows the same pattern as that of Nazi society: 'These [aggressive] programmes were not only the mad dream of the ruling clique, but also of the entire former ruling class and of that part of the population that had followed them to the end through the Burgfrieden of the previous conflict' [3]. The same resentment was nourished by parts of Ceres society, whose independence had been nothing more than a hope dashed by capitalist constants, echoing the mistrust of former colonies after the decolonisation process.
The vividness of these themes is undermined, however, by the decision to make capitalism a tangible entity rather than a fundamental principle that interferes with the basic structure of UETO and Ceres. Rather frustratingly, the two factions find themselves in the conflict almost without free will, as it is orchestrated from above. They become cowardly or martyred factions, which somewhat diminishes the magnitude of the atrocities committed during the more violent battles. At times, Mémoire 0079 falls into the trap of appearing conspiratorial, drawing too sharp a distinction between the political and economic spheres rather than showing how they are effectively intertwined. Similarly, the game's discourse is openly critical of American military and economic imperialism, but sometimes too unwieldy in the bipolarisation of its universe. The mention of the non-aligned nations of the UETO, which is too cursory to be handled with finesse, borders on confusionism and erases the complexity of current international relations.
Glasshouses, shitballs and those who remain
These approximations and missteps are perhaps due to the situated point of view of the creators, whose intention was not to present a complex picture of the causes underlying the crises of imperialist societies in the contemporary era, but perhaps simply to highlight the violent horrors of war and systems of domination. While the nuance lost in certain themes can prove problematic and would have deserved to be explored in greater depth, Mémoire 0079 shines through the tactile quality of its characters' experiences. The characters exude sincerity, even though their behaviour has been shaped by the cultural tools of the ruling classes: they are all pathetic in their own way and, when viewed from above, inspire a certain compassion. No one is perfect and no one is entirely forgivable, but there is something important in trying to understand the actions of the various actors in the conflict.
The title's meditations, while occasionally relying on convenient clichés, work by borrowing many traits from the writing of Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). The reference is useful in Vega's rivalry with Ceres' star pilot, but also metatextually to underline a certain defeat of cultural production. Like Canzone di Guerra, Memory 0079 does not rely on didactic summations, but seeks above all to describe. The characters' most intimate introspections are imbued with an anguish that transcends that of the armed conflict, even if it sometimes lapses into simplistic pathos. Nevertheless, the contrast between the propaganda of the United Earth Treaty Organisation Historical Association and the more intimate chronicle of the history of Ceres helps to overcome these shortcomings.
Memory 0079 is driven by a genuine concern for the long-term nature of trauma. It is customary to label certain contemporary periods as 'postwar', but the traces of war always linger in societies and landscapes, while certain structures of domination remain firmly in place. The end of the war merely ushers in a new cycle of crises, which take different forms but still bleed into the surviving societies. The Khmer society and diaspora are still scarred by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, which continue to be visible on the roadsides. For all her investigation, Tea cannot find definitive answers to her questions; Daša Drndić underlines this observation by ending her novel with a few highlighted words: 'Not the end' [4]. The construction of memories, the writing of history and the path to appeasement are an ongoing struggle.
__________
[1] Daša Drndić, Canzone di Guerra, Istros Books, London, 2022 [2019], p. 77 (tr. Celia Hawkesworth).
[2] Rithy Panh, La paix avec les morts, Grasset, Paris, 2020, p. 170 (personal translation).
[3] Christophe Charle, La Crise des sociétés impériales, Seuil, Paris, 2001, p. 488 (personal translation).
[4] Daša Drndić, op. cit., p. 156.
– Rithy Panh, La paix avec les morts, Grasset, Paris, 2020, p. 167 (personal translation).
Travelling from Toronto to Belgrade, Tea Radan, the protagonist of Daša Drndić's Canzone di Guerra (2019), embarks on a profound investigation to understand the traumas of a country slowly rebuilding after the war and torn by the hypocrisies of liberal democracy. In a long recitation, she gives the names of witnesses and authors who have written about Alojzije Stepinac and Ante Pavelić, finally uncovering information that sheds – for her – new light on historical developments in Croatia: 'There was fascism, there was communism and the bugbears of communism. Now, there is, supposedly, none of that, and all the filth of those times has been swept under the carpet. It is here, it is all here, hidden, transformed into democracy, which is not that. Because, for instance, what is now sold as democracy is in fact levelling, in fact it is restriction, a great restriction that threatens a whole lot of small restrictions by the police for everyone who does not submit' [1].
History and memories of the Balkan wars beneath the sighs of The Hague
There is something incisive about Drndić's writing and Tea Radan's personality. She is not a classically trained historian, but a woman in need of answers about her own identity and with an acute desire for justice after the general failure of post-war prosecutions. In her search for the truth, Tea highlights personal affinities with her own family; the lives of individuals are inscribed in the great course of history and tragedy, constantly on the verge of being consumed by political events, wars and disasters. Drndić's approach embraces a vivid national memory, however tamely ignored in the lights of the twenty-first century: it is about discussing a past that does not pass, and finding solace in trying to know what happened. This approach is not unique to Drndić. Literature written after the Balkan conflicts is permeated by this desire for recognition, as is post-genocide literature. Rithy Panh's attempt, after years of artistic creation to assuage the terrible pain inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, is to seek a certain form of reconciliation – to make 'peace with the dead'. In this book, he tries to meet the victims, the executioners and the accomplices, to exorcise the voice of the dead: 'I can neither forget nor remember. But I can live and I want to live,' [2] he wrote.
In a way, Mémoire 0079 addresses similar themes, perhaps without the intimate sharpness that characterises the accounts of those who experienced the horrors of war at first hand. The player is invited to discover the events that shaped the conflict between the United Earth Treaty Organization and the Empire of Ceres. Contrary to what the description might suggest, the title is less a Wikipedia page than a meditation on documents of all kinds, from transcripts of conversations to official speeches, from press articles to historians' analyses, allowing the player to understand different points of view. Beyond the virulent condemnation of the war, the great strength of Mémoire 0079 is that it presents a complex set of truths, reflecting very different perspectives and ideologies. The heroism of the battles between Vega Hawthorne and the Star Phantasma contrasts sharply with the fear felt by the immediate victims of the conflict. As in the literature of genocide, Mémoire 0079 succeeds in highlighting the agency of individuals, their mentalities, their fears and their involvement in the coldly described events.
The crisis of imperial societies
This nuance is handled with great care through the constant interplay of points of view and the variety of writing styles, with Woodaba's passionate outbursts responding to Roxy's cold wistfulness. The conflict between Ceres and the UETO absorbs and mimics phenomena observed and described in many contemporary wars. The Republic – then Empire – of Ceres adopts the colours of the USSR, Ukraine, Nazi Germany and Vietnam. In a way, this chaotic approach actually works, as it underlines the imperialist continuities in modern conflicts, as well as the importance of ideological structures. As a former colony of the UETO, the breath of independence on Ceres is accompanied by neo-colonial permanence, resulting in a strong antipathy towards the former metropole. The following years mirrored the German despair of the interwar period, when the working classes experienced a slow downward spiral after the short-lived successes of the early Weimar Republic.
As in 1920s Germany, social instability in Ceres was exacerbated by the agricultural crisis. Farmers could no longer make a living from their produce, and day labourers could no longer migrate to the cities because of the lack of job prospects in industry. Mémoire 0079 compounded this situation with neo-colonial taxation, which made life unbearable and fuelled a strong hatred for the UETO and the Colonial Defence League, a conglomerate of capitalist interests. This situation led to the development of a fiery propaganda and nationalism, with its own codes, rituals, spectacle society and, slowly, a cult of the leader – combining the genesis of Nazi Germany with that of the USSR and modern Russia. The warmongering of the Empire of Ceres follows the same pattern as that of Nazi society: 'These [aggressive] programmes were not only the mad dream of the ruling clique, but also of the entire former ruling class and of that part of the population that had followed them to the end through the Burgfrieden of the previous conflict' [3]. The same resentment was nourished by parts of Ceres society, whose independence had been nothing more than a hope dashed by capitalist constants, echoing the mistrust of former colonies after the decolonisation process.
The vividness of these themes is undermined, however, by the decision to make capitalism a tangible entity rather than a fundamental principle that interferes with the basic structure of UETO and Ceres. Rather frustratingly, the two factions find themselves in the conflict almost without free will, as it is orchestrated from above. They become cowardly or martyred factions, which somewhat diminishes the magnitude of the atrocities committed during the more violent battles. At times, Mémoire 0079 falls into the trap of appearing conspiratorial, drawing too sharp a distinction between the political and economic spheres rather than showing how they are effectively intertwined. Similarly, the game's discourse is openly critical of American military and economic imperialism, but sometimes too unwieldy in the bipolarisation of its universe. The mention of the non-aligned nations of the UETO, which is too cursory to be handled with finesse, borders on confusionism and erases the complexity of current international relations.
Glasshouses, shitballs and those who remain
These approximations and missteps are perhaps due to the situated point of view of the creators, whose intention was not to present a complex picture of the causes underlying the crises of imperialist societies in the contemporary era, but perhaps simply to highlight the violent horrors of war and systems of domination. While the nuance lost in certain themes can prove problematic and would have deserved to be explored in greater depth, Mémoire 0079 shines through the tactile quality of its characters' experiences. The characters exude sincerity, even though their behaviour has been shaped by the cultural tools of the ruling classes: they are all pathetic in their own way and, when viewed from above, inspire a certain compassion. No one is perfect and no one is entirely forgivable, but there is something important in trying to understand the actions of the various actors in the conflict.
The title's meditations, while occasionally relying on convenient clichés, work by borrowing many traits from the writing of Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). The reference is useful in Vega's rivalry with Ceres' star pilot, but also metatextually to underline a certain defeat of cultural production. Like Canzone di Guerra, Memory 0079 does not rely on didactic summations, but seeks above all to describe. The characters' most intimate introspections are imbued with an anguish that transcends that of the armed conflict, even if it sometimes lapses into simplistic pathos. Nevertheless, the contrast between the propaganda of the United Earth Treaty Organisation Historical Association and the more intimate chronicle of the history of Ceres helps to overcome these shortcomings.
Memory 0079 is driven by a genuine concern for the long-term nature of trauma. It is customary to label certain contemporary periods as 'postwar', but the traces of war always linger in societies and landscapes, while certain structures of domination remain firmly in place. The end of the war merely ushers in a new cycle of crises, which take different forms but still bleed into the surviving societies. The Khmer society and diaspora are still scarred by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, which continue to be visible on the roadsides. For all her investigation, Tea cannot find definitive answers to her questions; Daša Drndić underlines this observation by ending her novel with a few highlighted words: 'Not the end' [4]. The construction of memories, the writing of history and the path to appeasement are an ongoing struggle.
__________
[1] Daša Drndić, Canzone di Guerra, Istros Books, London, 2022 [2019], p. 77 (tr. Celia Hawkesworth).
[2] Rithy Panh, La paix avec les morts, Grasset, Paris, 2020, p. 170 (personal translation).
[3] Christophe Charle, La Crise des sociétés impériales, Seuil, Paris, 2001, p. 488 (personal translation).
[4] Daša Drndić, op. cit., p. 156.
Among the games I got to play this year I may have developed a strong and somewhat obsessive attraction to to hypertextual and nonlinear interactive adventures like Serial Experiments Iain and One Shot in the Dark, Now I'm Dead, but I simply find that projects like this are really brilliant to begin with and open up some really incredible expressive possibilities in terms of narrative scope.
Mémoire 0079 offers a series of documents among which to navigate that recount the terrible conflicts and sombre political dynamics of a near future in a highly detailed and vividly verisimilar manner, choosing to range between journalistic excerpts, extracts from official communications, interviews, and diaries in a very intriguing way.
Even if it is the outstanding writing that really makes it a remarkable game, everything else contributes equally to the presentation of the experience in an impressive way: from the design of the browsing interface to the visuals that enrich certain events in the story and the audio tracks that occasionally come through in a quite cohesive manner.
Mémoire 0079 offers a series of documents among which to navigate that recount the terrible conflicts and sombre political dynamics of a near future in a highly detailed and vividly verisimilar manner, choosing to range between journalistic excerpts, extracts from official communications, interviews, and diaries in a very intriguing way.
Even if it is the outstanding writing that really makes it a remarkable game, everything else contributes equally to the presentation of the experience in an impressive way: from the design of the browsing interface to the visuals that enrich certain events in the story and the audio tracks that occasionally come through in a quite cohesive manner.
Creative effort conducted by fellow backloggers Squigglydot, Woodaba, ConeCvltist and MagneticBurn result in a very pleasant read involving mechs, different viewpoints, and humanity eating shit. Gonna be real, I legit got some feels going at a few points, and was impressed by the amount of construction that went into the setting. Very well done by every party involved....the writing was engrossing in a variety of emotions, the art was vibrant and eye catching, and the music was powerful in it's entrance and ability to set the mood. Was very excited to continue reading this upon my return home tonight.....
Am I biased for enjoying this as much as I did? Who's to say? When a bunch of your friends come together to make something cool, it's kinda nice...don't you think?
;-;
Am I biased for enjoying this as much as I did? Who's to say? When a bunch of your friends come together to make something cool, it's kinda nice...don't you think?
;-;
I have limited experience with text-based games in general, and more than a touch of ADHD, so anything I say about Mémoire 0079 needs to be viewed through that lens. Now I’ll show you how inexperienced I am by attempting to describe this game (no spoilers, I hope):
So, first off it’s a Mech story. Off to a good start. The game plays essentially like a more interactive wikipedia article, with hot-links, music, visual aids, and excerpts from (fictional) interviews, tv, and so on. The general form puts it outside my normal gaming wheelhouse, but I’m open to new experiences, and the retro-computer aesthetic certainly helped ease me in. The game is thankfully also color-coded and generally easy to follow for dumb dumbs like myself who have mashed A to blow through the dialogue in Street Fighter 6’s world tour mode.
So I fought myself a little bit to pay attention and had to shake off the idea that there might be an exam at the end, but don’t let that fool you: I do know how to read and have sometimes even read books. I bery smart. In some ways this is better than a book because not only does it have pictures but music and moments of mandatory pacing. It was worth it.
The story itself is a pretty solid attempt at fictitious events grounded by emotional reality, with plenty of (quite surprisingly) in-depth background information. There was a moment as I entered- I guess you’d call it the game’s second half(?) where you get to learn about the central events from a different angle. This made me audibly go “oooh”. I guess it’s presented up-front but I’d been reading long enough that I had forgotten about the initial menu. There’s also a few moments of levity I didn’t see coming but very much appreciated. The thumbs up/down Siskel & Ebert deal was pretty good, as was a humorous but unfortunately realistic quote by some kind of ‘Director of Marketing.’
Oh, and a quick shoutout to the music, particularly the track that emulated a kitschy television program. It’s high quality and used in just the right quantity. The digital art on display was expectedly helpful for visualization, but was in a style I thought was unique and a bit unorthodox considering the story material. I liked it. Good job everyone.
Anyway this game took more of my time than I guess I’d anticipated, but not in a bad way. Great work! Well, for a game made by backloggders. Needed a grappling hook. 0/10
So, first off it’s a Mech story. Off to a good start. The game plays essentially like a more interactive wikipedia article, with hot-links, music, visual aids, and excerpts from (fictional) interviews, tv, and so on. The general form puts it outside my normal gaming wheelhouse, but I’m open to new experiences, and the retro-computer aesthetic certainly helped ease me in. The game is thankfully also color-coded and generally easy to follow for dumb dumbs like myself who have mashed A to blow through the dialogue in Street Fighter 6’s world tour mode.
So I fought myself a little bit to pay attention and had to shake off the idea that there might be an exam at the end, but don’t let that fool you: I do know how to read and have sometimes even read books. I bery smart. In some ways this is better than a book because not only does it have pictures but music and moments of mandatory pacing. It was worth it.
The story itself is a pretty solid attempt at fictitious events grounded by emotional reality, with plenty of (quite surprisingly) in-depth background information. There was a moment as I entered- I guess you’d call it the game’s second half(?) where you get to learn about the central events from a different angle. This made me audibly go “oooh”. I guess it’s presented up-front but I’d been reading long enough that I had forgotten about the initial menu. There’s also a few moments of levity I didn’t see coming but very much appreciated. The thumbs up/down Siskel & Ebert deal was pretty good, as was a humorous but unfortunately realistic quote by some kind of ‘Director of Marketing.’
Oh, and a quick shoutout to the music, particularly the track that emulated a kitschy television program. It’s high quality and used in just the right quantity. The digital art on display was expectedly helpful for visualization, but was in a style I thought was unique and a bit unorthodox considering the story material. I liked it. Good job everyone.
Anyway this game took more of my time than I guess I’d anticipated, but not in a bad way. Great work! Well, for a game made by backloggders. Needed a grappling hook. 0/10
Penso che dietro la scrittura di tutto il gioco ci sia indubbiamente una enorme creatività, nonostante la creazione di questo universo che meriterebbe una possibilità di interazione più approfondita il "gioco" rimane un lungo testo che nulla è se non una bella storia ma che non supera niente nè nel medium del videogioco (nella sfera dei mecha) nè al di fuori da esso (prendi un urania qualsiasi e trovi universi più complessi). Non contiene analisi particolari, non contiene sfaccettature sui temi portati che non siano state meglio trattate e tanto meno contiene uno stile che sia particolarmente degno di nota. Non voglio comunque essere troppo disfattista e preferisco dare una insufficienza più moderata perchè premio comunque la capacità di scrivere una storia di questo tipo dando la possibilità di scendere sempre più nel dettaglio al "giocatore"
Really emotional game that has some of the best writing I've had the pleasure of experiencing... maybe I should play more visual novels, but now I'm worried I'm always going to just compare them all to Mémoire 0079's quality! The way the game is formatted too for being a visual novel worked so well with me, as it's a little similar to a Wikipedia article in that you click highlighted words to learn more about that person/event/thing specifically.
I don't want to go into too much detail about the story as it is really special to get to see for yourself, but I will say that everyone involved is clearly so talented and hardworking, it's great to see so many passionate, intelligent people come together and make something so great. Mémoire 0079 clearly has a lot of not just love, but really smart international political knowledge into why we react as people in the ways that we do, as well as how different political cultures will present a scenario to its people.
Really, really lovely game that I can't recommend enough.
4/5
I don't want to go into too much detail about the story as it is really special to get to see for yourself, but I will say that everyone involved is clearly so talented and hardworking, it's great to see so many passionate, intelligent people come together and make something so great. Mémoire 0079 clearly has a lot of not just love, but really smart international political knowledge into why we react as people in the ways that we do, as well as how different political cultures will present a scenario to its people.
Really, really lovely game that I can't recommend enough.
4/5
Hideaki Anno in a 2022 interview with Shonen Jump (translated):
" Ever since I created the mech genre in 1995 with Evangelion, most of them were pretty simple. They had a big robot, they shoot a big gun, and cool explosions happened. Mémorie 0079 changed that, because unlike other mecha shows, that one is really about the characters. "
" Ever since I created the mech genre in 1995 with Evangelion, most of them were pretty simple. They had a big robot, they shoot a big gun, and cool explosions happened. Mémorie 0079 changed that, because unlike other mecha shows, that one is really about the characters. "
Videogames and war have had a... problematic relationship, at least from an outside perspective, to say the least. The amount of self-nominated ''anti-war''' USA filmography saw a huge influx during the 70's and 80's, and while there's a strong argument to be had about if most films or even ANY film can truly distance itself from the celebration inherent to violence that comes with even justifying these horrors or showcasing why certain conflicts begin in general, it's still a huge departure from the shameless propagandistic nature of the war films of the beginning of the century. Few are the videogames that have strayed away from glorification, and I believe that it has only gotten worse as decades pass. There is a humongous problem when one of, if the biggest gaming franchise has had the on-going support and sponsorship of the official American Military and many of its storylines aren't ashamed of being openly pro-interventionism and defend the American and western imperialism, but if Call of Duty was the only problematic franchise of this nature existing, it would be heaven compared to what we truly have now.
If you enjoy Call of Duty or Battlefield or any series that shares any of that common DNA, I have absolutely zero problems, and I’m sure that a lot of the games can be great and a ton of fun especially considering the multiplayer aspect, I’m no crazy politician claiming that videogames are the root of all evil and shaming and pointing those that enjoy it (Tho you’d be pressed to find any depute on the parliament that criticizes these series in the same way I do), but what I do point out is a clear endemic problems that only glorifies institutional violence more and more: the army are the good guys protecting us from these evil foreign forces, those are the ones we point to, war is only taken at face value, as an act of shooting down faceless bad guys, another process of dehumanization of humanity, and that’s scarier than any parent that thinks that Pokémon is the devil could ever conceive. But what other thing do you even do? What could you do? Attempts at deconstructing these notions result in either poor player base perception or a series of missteps that in some cases make the game send the total opposite message, so is it even worth it? Is even conceivable to try and deconstruct war in any capacity? Is such thing as an Anti-war game even possible?
Mémoire 0079 is a text based game that initially feels like exploring like reading a wiki or a series of articles; reading the initial article is impossible to get excited at the idea of being transported to a futuristic Earth and the war waging against an Empire formed in the other colonies located beyond the orbit and the stars, at the front of it all the greatest hero of all, Vega Hawthorn who gave her life riding her mech, the Mark I, to get revenge at the Empire and the evil murderers of her mother. It’s a space epic that has it all, a hero, a villain, a setting, a motivation, it’s too good to be true!.. too good to be true…
It didn’t really feel cool anymore.
I was just scared
The rabbit hole only gets deeper and deeper as you read, and incessant number of forever unsewered questions, of dirty secretes that none were supposed to find open partially to you, and even with names lost to time and passages censored beyond reparation, the curtain opens and opens until it finally breaks down; what should be obvious is clear now, this is no epic, this is war. Mémoire 0079 is about war, and all that truly implies. A tragedy of the people forced to take part it ill. The deaths of countless with the only purpose to throw around the blame to a supposed terrible enemy. The perversion and the propaganda. The ones truly behind it all. It is a conflict grander beyond any imaginable limit, not in the way because it’s worth it or it defines justice or rights, but because so much it’s lost it is incomprehensible, and that only makes it easier for lies and narratives to spur out. It stops being a game, a story, and starts feeling more like a documentary, a peep behind the veil of this galaxy rotten by those in power and lies of nameless CEO’s, but also the turmoil of those that have to fight it.
I need you to be a person. I need to hear your voice
It’s gripping in all the best ways, it makes you livid in all of the best ways, it’s unlike anything I’ve read in a very long time, only moments are only made better by the fantastic music and visual accompaniment. It nails that particular feeling that it goes for and rebels in it, it isn’t about any real occurrence, yet some parts feel like I could have read them in a news outlet with some changes, and I think that says it all. I wish I could go even deeper, not only to know more about this world, but also being able to explore every possible theme, everything it has to say, which it is a lot, but me merely describing everything would be a disservice, it deserved to be read and experienced, it’s a step on a really bright direction, a wonderful story on its own merits, and one that it has so, so much to uncover.
Even if it’s not perfect and some parts do drag a bit and don’t end up really adding much, it deserved to be called and achievement, and if any of the team members get to read this, any compliment would fall short of describing what was accomplished, it was utterly fantastic, and now more than any time, it feels like a game that it needed to be made.
Mémoire 0079 alone isn’t gonna change the state of warlike gaming in the slightest, but it’s a showing of how there’s hope, that time to time we can get a work that proves the industry at large wrong, that there are stories that can and should be told.
Of the pain that must be endured.
Here we are, you and me
If you enjoy Call of Duty or Battlefield or any series that shares any of that common DNA, I have absolutely zero problems, and I’m sure that a lot of the games can be great and a ton of fun especially considering the multiplayer aspect, I’m no crazy politician claiming that videogames are the root of all evil and shaming and pointing those that enjoy it (Tho you’d be pressed to find any depute on the parliament that criticizes these series in the same way I do), but what I do point out is a clear endemic problems that only glorifies institutional violence more and more: the army are the good guys protecting us from these evil foreign forces, those are the ones we point to, war is only taken at face value, as an act of shooting down faceless bad guys, another process of dehumanization of humanity, and that’s scarier than any parent that thinks that Pokémon is the devil could ever conceive. But what other thing do you even do? What could you do? Attempts at deconstructing these notions result in either poor player base perception or a series of missteps that in some cases make the game send the total opposite message, so is it even worth it? Is even conceivable to try and deconstruct war in any capacity? Is such thing as an Anti-war game even possible?
Mémoire 0079 is a text based game that initially feels like exploring like reading a wiki or a series of articles; reading the initial article is impossible to get excited at the idea of being transported to a futuristic Earth and the war waging against an Empire formed in the other colonies located beyond the orbit and the stars, at the front of it all the greatest hero of all, Vega Hawthorn who gave her life riding her mech, the Mark I, to get revenge at the Empire and the evil murderers of her mother. It’s a space epic that has it all, a hero, a villain, a setting, a motivation, it’s too good to be true!.. too good to be true…
It didn’t really feel cool anymore.
I was just scared
The rabbit hole only gets deeper and deeper as you read, and incessant number of forever unsewered questions, of dirty secretes that none were supposed to find open partially to you, and even with names lost to time and passages censored beyond reparation, the curtain opens and opens until it finally breaks down; what should be obvious is clear now, this is no epic, this is war. Mémoire 0079 is about war, and all that truly implies. A tragedy of the people forced to take part it ill. The deaths of countless with the only purpose to throw around the blame to a supposed terrible enemy. The perversion and the propaganda. The ones truly behind it all. It is a conflict grander beyond any imaginable limit, not in the way because it’s worth it or it defines justice or rights, but because so much it’s lost it is incomprehensible, and that only makes it easier for lies and narratives to spur out. It stops being a game, a story, and starts feeling more like a documentary, a peep behind the veil of this galaxy rotten by those in power and lies of nameless CEO’s, but also the turmoil of those that have to fight it.
I need you to be a person. I need to hear your voice
It’s gripping in all the best ways, it makes you livid in all of the best ways, it’s unlike anything I’ve read in a very long time, only moments are only made better by the fantastic music and visual accompaniment. It nails that particular feeling that it goes for and rebels in it, it isn’t about any real occurrence, yet some parts feel like I could have read them in a news outlet with some changes, and I think that says it all. I wish I could go even deeper, not only to know more about this world, but also being able to explore every possible theme, everything it has to say, which it is a lot, but me merely describing everything would be a disservice, it deserved to be read and experienced, it’s a step on a really bright direction, a wonderful story on its own merits, and one that it has so, so much to uncover.
Even if it’s not perfect and some parts do drag a bit and don’t end up really adding much, it deserved to be called and achievement, and if any of the team members get to read this, any compliment would fall short of describing what was accomplished, it was utterly fantastic, and now more than any time, it feels like a game that it needed to be made.
Mémoire 0079 alone isn’t gonna change the state of warlike gaming in the slightest, but it’s a showing of how there’s hope, that time to time we can get a work that proves the industry at large wrong, that there are stories that can and should be told.
Of the pain that must be endured.
Here we are, you and me
The way this is presented, like sifting through a stack of documents, is very cool and got me even more into the story than I already was. And there's so much style!! Absolutely dripping in style with the art and music and even the font and presentation of the text. An absolute banger. Cannot recommend it hard enough. It's already cool when friends make a thing but then when they make a thing that is actually really great?? oh yeah baby that's that good stuff hell yeah
This review contains spoilers
Stellar work, one of those stories that you really wanna see fleshed out as a full animation or comic, yet the gameified terminal navigation is impossible to divorce from its essence. The UETO and Ceres routes, each being handled by different writers with unique styles, paints a chilling portrait of how these individual colonies controlled the perspective of their crimes - one igniting a raging sense of injustice, another coercing a false sense of security in your heart. One who binds through your virtues, another through your fears.
Latest game by me. A collaborative effort between Woodaba and I on writing, as well as ConeClvtist on music, and Vis and a mutual friend of Cone's and I on art.
I'm leaving this one pretty happy, all things considered; It really stands as something where I could feel everyone firing on all cylinders, and at around 22k words, it definitely breaks a bit of the mold of my last two games. With that said, it's really showing the limits of twine, as an engine. I love it, I will continue to use it, but for anything beyond a one-or-two person affair, creating with Twine proves to be... less than ideal.
In any case, still very glad to have done thing, and really, REALLY impressed by the work my fellows devs put into it.
And yeah I'm giving it a 5 anyway, i am shameless lol
I'm leaving this one pretty happy, all things considered; It really stands as something where I could feel everyone firing on all cylinders, and at around 22k words, it definitely breaks a bit of the mold of my last two games. With that said, it's really showing the limits of twine, as an engine. I love it, I will continue to use it, but for anything beyond a one-or-two person affair, creating with Twine proves to be... less than ideal.
In any case, still very glad to have done thing, and really, REALLY impressed by the work my fellows devs put into it.
And yeah I'm giving it a 5 anyway, i am shameless lol