On one hand, I'm glad that Nintendo is diving deeper into their more niche games from their past and bringing them back in some form. However, I felt pretty done with this game after the Trace Memory part, and the direction the Journey Into Lost Memories half goes in just came off as kind of dumb to me. Lots of weird sci-fi anime bullshit that ends up as sappy and failing to grip me emotionally unlike the first half. Also could have used some editing too, because Jesus Christ do some of the later chapters go full Kojima and just shove exposition down your throat. It also has this whole band drama aspect to it that felt like filler more than anything and doesn't really pay off all that well.

With that said, I wouldn't say it isn't worth playing. The story is mostly interesting and the mysteries are fun to unravel. Puzzles are pretty basic, although I'll fully admit I did have to use the in-game hint system for one that I think was pretty stupid, but I probably could have solved it by myself if I wasn't being impatient. Apparently, a lot of the more interesting aspects of the DS and Wii versions were removed here due to not having those respective consoles' controller gimmicks, which is a shame.

I'm glad I finally got to play this pair of games in some way, especially since one of them never was localized to America. Overall though, it's just okay at best. If you want to play a good pair of story heavy adventure games on the Switch, I'd honestly recommend the Famicom Detective Club remakes over this.

Reviewed on Mar 07, 2024


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