I was drawn to this one chiefly because of its artstyle and, in that way, it did not disappoint~ liked the character designs quite a bit and the in-game models were pretty good too. The music is also quite good and atmospheric.
I have more mixed feelings in regards to the story and gameplay. The Two Memories story of the first game was frankly disappointing. Maybe I've played too many of these types of games, but the "mysteries" were blatantly obvious to me and Ashley's naivete throughout was irksome. Granted she is just a teenage girl and not a lawyer or detective or anything, but I was like "c'mon girl, no way you're this dumb" ^^""" lol. I finished this part of the story in less than 6 hours and was left feeling pretty "meh" by the end. Had it not automatically transitioned into Journey Into Lost Memories, I probably would have dropped it right there. But I persisted and luckily, the second game is an improvement in basically all the ways. It has a larger cast, bigger setting to explore and I think the writing was significantly stronger too. Some things were still obvious, but there were bigger and more enticing surprises. It also had more emotional payoff though admittedly I was very annoyed by the plot point of Ashley's father being a deadbeat ^^""
Gameplay-wise... the puzzles were not challenging at all even if they didn't give you hints that basically told you the answers to them, lol. But then, I didn't necessarily mind that - progression was laid back and chill throughout. Implementing motion controls into the puzzles was... not the best decision they could have made. It felt rather janky and frustrating, but thankfully there weren't too many motion-based puzzles to ruin the vibes.
Overall, I'd say I liked this one mostly thanks to the second game of the duology. It was a nice game to curl up and relax with even if there's nothing particularly mindblowing about it.
I have more mixed feelings in regards to the story and gameplay. The Two Memories story of the first game was frankly disappointing. Maybe I've played too many of these types of games, but the "mysteries" were blatantly obvious to me and Ashley's naivete throughout was irksome. Granted she is just a teenage girl and not a lawyer or detective or anything, but I was like "c'mon girl, no way you're this dumb" ^^""" lol. I finished this part of the story in less than 6 hours and was left feeling pretty "meh" by the end. Had it not automatically transitioned into Journey Into Lost Memories, I probably would have dropped it right there. But I persisted and luckily, the second game is an improvement in basically all the ways. It has a larger cast, bigger setting to explore and I think the writing was significantly stronger too. Some things were still obvious, but there were bigger and more enticing surprises. It also had more emotional payoff though admittedly I was very annoyed by the plot point of Ashley's father being a deadbeat ^^""
Gameplay-wise... the puzzles were not challenging at all even if they didn't give you hints that basically told you the answers to them, lol. But then, I didn't necessarily mind that - progression was laid back and chill throughout. Implementing motion controls into the puzzles was... not the best decision they could have made. It felt rather janky and frustrating, but thankfully there weren't too many motion-based puzzles to ruin the vibes.
Overall, I'd say I liked this one mostly thanks to the second game of the duology. It was a nice game to curl up and relax with even if there's nothing particularly mindblowing about it.