Amnesia: Memories is a visual novel, while it is part of a series, you can safely play this game without prior knowledge of the other games. It is a visual novel so gameplay is comprised of mostly reading, with the occasional CG artwork to increase the player's perception of what is happening at crucial moments. Most of the story is told via character dialogue, which has Japanese voice over with English text. Character portraits appear when the character is speaking (and their mouth moves), while the background is usually a single color sketch background. Amnesia: Memories feels limited in this area as the game is set in a few limited places and character portraits has two to three unique poses.
The other gameplay is that at various points in the story, it presents you with various dialogue choices which will affects the events of the game. The story begins with a girl (you get to pick her name) who has lost her memories due to a spirit lodging into her head and pushing the memories out. Therefore, she must regain her memories through experiencing her own life and interaction with people she knew. As she regain her memories, this will allow the spirit trapped inside her head to be pushed out. This is the prologue, after which it allows you to pick from different worlds, apparently they are parallel worlds.
There are five different worlds, with four being able to be picked at the beginning of the game. Each world has a different story set in the month of August and has alternate endings, depending on the choices you make when interacting with the characters. Various characters appear between the different worlds. You can obtain "Good", "Bad" and "Normal" endings. The game remembers which choices you had made before and highlights it which makes getting alternate endings slightly easier. You can also skip text, whether you've already read it or not.
In the Heart World, your boyfriend is Shin, who is a childhood friend. It starts off with you in the hospital, having been pushed off a cliff by accident. As the player, you live through the month of August to find out whether it was an accident or if it was intentional and to seek the culprit. It was interesting to experience how one would feel when you lost all your memories and didn't know anyone around you. Due to the short length of the story, being approximately 1.5 hours, it doesn't go into much depth with the mystery aspect but it is still enough to engage you. To be honest, it is not very satisfying once you've reached the ending screen though.
In Spade World, your boyfriend is now Ikki, who has a special power where any girl who stares into his eyes falls in love with him, or at the very least, am fixated by him. Cue the fact that you're the only exception to this power. For some reason, you are his girlfriend but he acts cold against you in front of other people, blatantly flirting with other girls. Yet he is caring and warm towards you when alone. You cannot determine what is happening and whether he is serious towards your relationship or not. It is somewhat intriguing but becomes bland overall as not much happens and the plot doesn't get too complex. The way the power was handled was underwhelming.
In Clover World, Kent is the boyfriend. Just like in other Worlds, you two have not been a couple for very long. What makes this relationship harder is the fact that it seemed you two had just argued and Kent is a very rational man. Kent is rational to the point of seemingly lacking emotions and it is very hard to know what he is thinking. He researched mathematics at university and it seems that his mind is taken up by his job all of the time. As you slowly gain your memories back and starting to understand what is making Kent act this way, you warm up to him, and the story. This is probably the best story out of the four original worlds with a sweet ending where you genuinely smile when the last scene finishes.
In Diamond World, you love interest is now Toma, also a childhood friend and this world has the oddest story. Once again, you find yourself with no memories but you are receiving threatening messages and someone is pulling pranks by stuffing stuff into your mailbox, and posting sticky notes in front of your door. Toma acts weird and becomes controlling, this confusing behavior continues on for the whole time, until the end where Toma learns that you have feelings for him. This does not explain much of his behavior nor does it make sense, making Diamond World quite disappointing.
The first and last world is the Joker World, which only unlocks once you have completed the other four. Here, it is you and Ukyo but it isn't your standard story as there is something odd about Ukyo. You know that the plot has something to do with the multiple worlds you've been experiencing. In the end, the big revelation was kind of a letdown as it was something predictable. It is also filled with heaps of bad endings, seriously, if you do not follow a guide, some of the endings are hard to get. The best thing about this world is how all the characters in the game are in this story, and through what you have learnt in other worlds, you can glean what is happening in the background of what the characters are thinking instead of being left in the dark.
After you've finished the story mode, there are some extra things you can do which you can finish within one hour to be honest. There are two minigames, a paper scissors rock game and an air hockey game. The air hockey is fun, as you play using the touchscreen, you move your paddle to hit the puck. The physics can be slightly off but too bad there is no two-player mode. There are extra "Memories" which is just a short one day scene that is set within each of the five worlds to provide more perspective, and there are five additional short stories too. Overall, the story isn't that captivating and there is a lack of a common plot thread across the five worlds to keep you hooked. There are spelling mistakes from time to time, it's not frequent but noticeable when it does happen. Amnesia: Memories presents an intriguing concept of a girl trying to regain her memories from five potential loves, and should not be missed by visual novel fans. However, do not expect a detailed and robust story.
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