{"id":7025,"date":"2020-08-07T15:12:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T12:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playlab.uta.fi\/?p=7025"},"modified":"2020-08-07T15:12:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T12:12:28","slug":"a-beautiful-mess-true-remembrance-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/a-beautiful-mess-true-remembrance-review\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beautiful Mess: True Remembrance Review\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

True remembrance<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is a Japanese visual novel originally released in 2006. In the future<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0humanity is struck b<\/span>y a p<\/span>andemic<\/span>\u00a0of sorts: The Dolor.\u00a0<\/span>It causes its victims Psych<\/span>e<\/span> Corrosion, a term that could be used to describe what we know as depression, which\u00a0<\/span>usually leads to the infected killing themselves.\u00a0<\/span>The \u201cdoctors\u201d who can treat patients\u00a0<\/span>affected by<\/span>\u00a0The Dolor<\/span>\u00a0are scarcely found individuals are known<\/span>\u00a0as\u00a0<\/span>Mnemonicides<\/span>\u00a0or memory-killers.\u00a0<\/span>As the name probably tells, treatment involves removing the painful memories causing the Psyche Corrosion.\u00a0<\/span>All treatment\u00a0<\/span>happens in a sleepy, unnamed town known only to the players as The City.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The story begins when\u00a0<\/span>Blackiris<\/span>, a talented young\u00a0<\/span>Mnemonicide<\/span>, gets a<\/span>ssigned<\/span> a new patient<\/span>, who<\/span>\u00a0in general<\/span>\u00a0are referred to as Guests in The City<\/span>. The<\/span>\u00a0patient, a<\/span>\u00a0beautiful young girl<\/span>\u00a0named<\/span>\u00a0La<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and him move into a small house at the far end of the town. <\/span>As time passes La begins opening to\u00a0<\/span>Blackiris<\/span>, and the two start to grow close.\u00a0<\/span>The player can soon realize, that La is not the only character in town with a mysterious past<\/span>\u00a0and sometimes it might\u00a0<\/span>actually not<\/span>\u00a0be better to forget.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

True remembrance<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0quite a melancholic game, which by the premise should not come as a surprise. Clocking in at about six h<\/span>ours, it\u2019s a relatively short visual novel. It\u2019s also a kinetic novel, meaning that the player doesn\u2019t make any choices during the game: you\u2019re sim<\/span>ply in it for the story. If that doesn\u2019t sound like something you would like to pay for, worry not: the game is\u00a0<\/span>free and can be\u00a0<\/span>downloaded online<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The story is truly the best part of the game. It lures the player in with its strange premise<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>captivates you to stay and see the mystery unfold. The backgrounds, which are real-life images for the most part work surprisingly well at creating a<\/span>\u00a0fascinating atmosphere of a town in which time has stopped and to which memories come to die.\u00a0<\/span>M<\/span>usic plays a crucial role in this\u00a0<\/span>too,<\/span>\u00a0but it\u00a0<\/span>sometimes\u00a0<\/span>got quite repetitive when looping for the fifth time during one scene.\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>character designs and drawing<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0were a bit bland but passable.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Surprisingly, for such a short visual novel it sometimes felt quite stretched.\u00a0<\/span>As I said before, the story was great, but it could have been more concise in my opinion. The world<\/span>–<\/span>building in the g<\/span>ame is believable enough, but I would\u2019ve loved to learn a bit more about what life was<\/span>\u00a0like outside The City. Still, I\u2019d consider\u00a0<\/span>True Remembrance<\/span><\/i>\u00a0as an excellent way to spend an evening<\/span>, when you just feel like getting buried under a ton of blankets and eating a tub of\u00a0<\/span>ice cream<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>The game is free, but you might need to buy some tissues.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Developer: Shiba Satomi<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Publisher:\u00a0<\/span>insani<\/span>\u00a0(English version)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Designer:\u00a0<\/span>Shiba<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Satomi<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Platforms<\/span>: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Release: Windows JP:\u00a0<\/span>June<\/span> 15, 2006, WW:\u00a0<\/span>February<\/span> 14, 2008, Nintendo 3DS JP:\u00a0<\/span>February<\/span>\u00a022, 2012<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Genre:\u00a0<\/span>Kinetic<\/span>\u00a0novel<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEGI: The game does not have an official rating, but it deals with mature themes such as depression and death.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The images are taken from the game’s official website or the game’s image gallery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True Remembrance\u00a0is an excellent visual novel\u00a0if you like feeling emotionally\u00a0vulnerable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":7027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[799,1122,352],"class_list":["post-7025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-japanese","tag-kinetic-novel","tag-visual-novel","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}