A Memoir Blue is a relaxing and simple game, like a visual novel, but without the text. There’s a minimum amount of interactions, as most of the enjoyment is provided by the music, and its type of visual storytelling. It follows a swimming athlete, Miriam. The game starts out with her sitting in her apartment, and after hearing a song, she is reminded of her childhood.
We can immediately tell that her childhood memories are painful ones, and it’s quite easy to see what happened. She and her mother were on great terms, but as she grew up, we can see that they were drifting apart, until one day, they were apart. Despite no dialogue or text at all, the story it tells is easily understandable. Most of the game is presented in 3D, while the childhood memories are in 2D.
While the game can be played with a mouse or controller, the former is definitely the superior option. The game’s interactive moments, since they cannot be called puzzles at all, basically has you clicking around until you find the interactable object that would progress the story. There’s no difficulty or thinking required, and while there were moments where it may not be obvious what you need to do, it’ll only take less than a minute until you stumble across it.
The game is extremely short, you can easily finish it within an hour and there’s nothing to do afterwards. The way the story is told can be weird at times, given that it takes on a fantastical view of Miriam swimming through a sea, recalling her memories. While it has a unique tone, and it does the mother daughter relationship well, it can be too abstract to be coherent, or to keep your attention.
Overall, A Memoir Blue is a nice short experience if you wanted something relaxing as a breather before starting a more involved game. The visuals are easy on the eyes, and progression is close enough to automatic that there won’t be any troubles or issues at all. The story it tells has potential, but its execution is flawed.
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