Thursday, March 9, 2017

Game Thoughts: Never Forget Me

Recently I found that a game I had played by WinterWolf Studios, received a sequel. Always Remember Me was a sweet stat building visual novel where the main character Amy and her bae get into a motorcycle accident. This should have ended in death but instead ends up with Amy having light injuries and the bf with amnesia. Yes...I know...but how it plays out you decided to either stay with your man in hopes he remembers or take advantage of this lapse in memory to start anew. (I make it sound terrible.)

So I'm talking quite a bit on the original game, so what about this sequel thing? WELL...

Never Forget Me is the epilogue in a way dealing with Amy's life with her chosen man AFTER the events of the first game. (The good endings). So it actually deals with married life.

Yes...you read right. A VN about married life! Whaaaaa?

In the beginning you choose which epilogue you want to play through and experience the various endings it could have.

Features
The game is a stat building game, but the stat building is optional. (Required to get some endings).
Similiar to the last game it gives you a series of 2 choices in a scene for you to play out.

Virtues
Does not over romanticize relationships
Deals with marriage AND KIDS
Handles mature topics gracefully

Vices
Uses the same character art from the first game but has way cool art for the title page.
The stat building feels like fluff
Doesn't make sense unless you've played the first game (Not a super negative but it's there)

Final Thoughts
The game is mature in that it deals with infidelity, child abuse, abuse, divorce, and taxes. That is to say that it does go through story points that go through some of the lows of relationships. But many things are good. It may not mean as much to a player if they haven't played the first game.
However, I can recommend it so long as you are aware of what you might be getting yourself into. (Honestly one of the storylines hits it a bit close to home for me and makes me uncomfortable.)

The game is available on the Winter Wolves website.