this was such a wild ride. kokoro's route had such an intense pace that kept me on the edge of my seat for all of it. despite being a visual novel, it felt like I was interacting with the narrative constantly due to it essentially being a mystery novel. I made a whole lot of theories and it was fun seeing them confirmed or denied. satoru's route was a bit dry in the beginning since the tension of the first route was no longer relevant. the ending, yes, doesn't quite feel like an ending. if you play this game, you will seek out more information, and the truth that The WordPress Site reveals is both super interesting and a bit discomnected from what the narrative is concerned with most of the time. overall, I think remember11 is a great mystery that can get pretty damn freaky at times!

On one hand, this game is an interesting thriller with mysteries layering beautifully on top of one another. On the other, a good amount of them end up being not directly resolved within the main text itself, and require looking at the TIPS to even get all the required information to understand large parts of the story (entire characters exclusively exist in them) (and with some information even being excluded in some releases). Even with all this information, you probably won't even understand it all -- you'll be referred to "the blogpost," as it's called. Even after reading this, I remain unsatisfied.

The story isn't set up for the player to understand the answers to its mysteries. Don't get me wrong, I love mystery stories that don't directly reveal all its solutions; the issue arises when key pieces of information are included in menus that most players won't check, or drafting the correct conclusion requires an offhand understanding of the exact pseudo-scientific concept that the game hints at maybe sometimes. Even the blogpost itself admits at points that they're theory-crafting with incomplete information due to how vague and seemingly contradictory some scenes are.

Many solutions don't even make any sense. Some mysteries don't even have answers. I won't go over any here for obvious spoiler reasons, but if you've played the game you probably know which ones I'm talking about.

I've been told this game is incomplete, which explains much of this. Regardless of how unsatisfied I was finishing this game, I still had fun with some twists and overall enjoyed my time playing.

Remember 11 is a fantastic visual novel with a fascinating premise, excellent pacing, likeable characters and enough twists and turns to keep you thinking throughout it's entire run (and after it!). All without feeling derivative of other works in the Infinity or Zero Escape series, making for a relatively fresh experience, which was very appreciated!

It's not a masterpiece, though. The main point of contention for me is how convenient it all feels, or in more understandable terms; just how much it can stretch your suspension of disbelief. From the decision system; which will conveniently restrict you from not advancing the story exactly how the story wants, to how these characters behave and how some of these twists are executed it's hard not to think some twists comes out of nowhere or that they straight up doesn't make sense, diminishing the overall effect of what are some utterly fascinating concepts. Basically, it feels like a story written in service of it's plot twists, rather than the opposite. Which leads me right to the controversial ending.

Personally, it's nowhere near as bad or as incomplete as I was dreading. I was expecting a barely comprehensible mess with no resolution in sight, and it is nothing like that. The relevant mysteries get an explanation, most character arcs feel as complete as they needed to be, and while it is an open ended ending, it's clearly inviting the reader to think about it, leaving a long lasting impression. The thing is that there are various teases connecting to many of the game's misteries that hinted to some absolutely wild ideas that were never fully explored in the game, mainly because the development of Remember11 was a mess. Without getting into spoilers, let's just say the fact these plot points are never realized kind of contribute to their supposed meaning in the open ending and the overall narrative, which is the reason why you are left with such a polarizing story. Personally, I was more fascinated by this potential than sad by it's exclusion, and I was very much satisfied by the end, so I am pretty happy. Happy enough to reccomend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in it. Into the infinity loop!

I still have quite a bit of thinking to do about this game before I can give I can give it a proper rating. Frankly, my ratings mean little since I usually just drop games that don't interest me, so you can assume I think anything I finish is a "good game/VN."

[Edit: I'm still kinda thinking but if I ask myself, "How glad am I that I played this game?" And I think that puts it at like a 4.5 or whatever equivalent I'm using.]

It's the eve of Fire Emblem Engage's launch, however, so I need to at least get my current thoughts written down so I have them there for me when I come to a more complete opinion.

Compared to the previous entry in the Infinity series of visual novels, Ever17, this one leans much harder into the mystery aspect much sooner. Unlike later Uchikoshi works, however, it's still more character driven and more intimate in scope. The characters and plot still also keep out of the zanier elements that 999 and on revel in, for better or worse depending on your tastes.

I think one thing I can already say for certain is that if I had to choose between the No Escape series, Somnium Files, and this, I would pick Remember11 with little regret.

There's a pretty frequent feeling I get at the end of these Uchikoshi stories — with Ever17 as the one exception — and that's a distinct lack of satisfaction. Everytime I finish one, I feel like something important hasn't been resolved. Or if it's VLR, many important things haven't been resolved.

As mystery stories with a lean towards tragedy and based on what I've heard, that's likely a very intentional feeling. The pieces are there for you to think about and chew on, it's just a question of how satisfied you will be by coming to your own conclusions.

As a software engineer, I think that openendedness can sometimes trigger some flashbacks to some systems I had to work with that had very... "open ended" documentation. I certainly see the appeal of that in a story, I'm just at a stage of life where I feel like I have enough unresolved mysteries breathing down my back. 😅

That aside, much like Ever17 there were plenty of other elements to the story that I could sink my teeth into and which were satisfying in their own ways.

Throughout the events of Remember11, there's an ever present contention between compassion and suspicion and each member of the cast spends their time in both lights. This is a theme explored often in popular fiction, such as the Danganronpa series, Game of Thrones, or your pick of apocolypse tale, but I think this story gets to that dichotomy in a way few of those stories do.

Often the conflict and uncertainty in a survival or mystery thriller plot is fanned by external forces — factional allegiances, higher authorities, or other sources of coercion — but here the emphasis is almost entirely on the individuals. The most imporant questions are "who am I" and "who are you" not "who's side are you on"... If that makes sense.

The story shows many aspects of the characters: demonstrated truths, hearsay, and uncertain claims. Then it gives you reason to wonder which parts are fundamental traits and which are masks the characters put on reactively, whether out of fear, anxiety, or pleasure.

I quite liked most of the designs and portrait art as well, so I can say with some certainty that I'll remember this cast quite fondly in the years to come.

The setting was also a big draw for me. I'm have to admit some bias in that I'm naturally drawn to mountains and all things winter, even to the point of finding a grim fascination with the deadlier side of both. So of course, the slightly claustrophobic "trapped in a cabin" setup here hooked me immediately. The narrative takes place primarily in two locations that are similar on the surface but mirror each other's threats and comforts, lending another layer of tangibility to the themes of the story.

The plot here is signficantly more tense, involved, and immediate than in Ever17. Yet it still leaves a good amount of space for character building and atmosphere. Save for some nitpicks near the end, I'd say this one felt much more polished and focused. It's difficult to speak about it any less generally than that, considering that it's a very spoilable plot. But I will at least say that if you liked any of Uchikoshi's other works, this will feel both a bit familiar and yet different enough that you'll want to check it out.

I can easily imagine this being a story that creates more split opinions than Ever17 or 999, but however you feel by the end I think it's worth taking the journey.

(On a fun little side note, I happened to finish this game on the same day that it ends in the story, which also happens to be my birthday. So there's another bit of bias of affinity. 😂)

this is one of the best visual novels you can pick up right now. i highly recommend searching around for the "gestalt edition" translation patch just to improve your experience. anyway, if you're tired of VNs' tendency to meander about with meaningless filler, frustrating dating sim tropes, and enormous time sinks, this is the game for you. if you're willing to read between the lines and work towards the truth on your own terms, you're greeted with one of the most interesting narratives in the medium.

This rating is for Kokoro's route, which is by far one of the best routes I have ever read, perfect balance of intrigue and quite literally it's better to call it "Cliffhanger-The Route", I was on the edge of my seat quickly running through every single dialogue because it just doesn't stop, you're telling me a body switching scenario but it's between two people stuck in two completely different situations where one of them is being chased by an unknown serial killer while another of them is awaiting their death in a snow cabin? And that's a massive generalization, there's so many layers of mystery that I got completely lost in it

Nakazawa and Uchikoshi always do this particular thing where they patronizingly explain their pseudoscience and take away the charm of their own story and R11's tail end suffers from this, the explanation is bad, and if you took a respectable physics lecture you'd even take offense to the levels of reaching that the writers can achieve, but more offense I took is towards the explanation that is supposedly "canon" but never made it into the game,

Yup you've heard that right, this enigma of a game doesn't have a "true route" that explains everything, I don't know the fine details of the issue with development, but we have a title that really ends with perhaps one of the most shocking cliffhangers I've ever seen.

R11 does not exist without flaws, sometimes the twists are twisting for the sake of it, but sometimes the game fakes you out with a twist so dumb that it makes you really sit and think how good the author got you (I'm looking at you...the MAO inhibitor cheese explanation)

All in all from what I know about the actual explanation, I REALLY do not like it, it's bad and I need Nakazawa and Uchikoshi to stop basing their games on some off-hand random science trivia fact they find in some magazine, and I need them to stop explaining to me more than they need to because I know for a fact there's no scientific basis for their cooky sci-fi mystery VN

With one of the best first routes I've played, a solid title
I'm willing to ignore everything else even though it contributes to my obsession with this title. Also I like the OST sue me.