Follow girlish dreams in ‘Amnesia: Memories’
The appeal of the dating sim is hard to pinpoint.
I don’t mean the absurd, self-aware kind like Hatoful Boyfriend (which we talked about back in July). I mean the real kind, the ones that send women on the Internet into paroxysms of rapture.
While gameplay primarily is comprised of a ton of reading and strategic decision-making, the genre climaxes with “reward” pictures of beautiful anime men leaning seductively over the generic, placeholder protagonist, whispering sweet nothings to her — but really, they’re whispering endearments to you, because the person they love most is you and only you.
Amnesia: Memories is that kind of game.
The protagonist wakes up one morning to discover that she has amnesia and has been possessed by a cheerful spirit named Orion, who promises to help her get them back. She can then enter five parallel universes (long story) to try and regain the life she led — and win love (and avoid a disturbing amount of grisly death) along the way.
Each of her five paramours comes with a very different story: Shin is her gruff but loving childhood friend, struggling with his father’s murderous legacy; Ikki (pictured) is cursed with the gift to seduce any woman who looks into his eyes. My beloved is Kent, an awkward but kind grad student who is by far the most normal of all the romance options.
If you’re a girl who likes romance and reading, it’s a great game — one of several releasing this fall. Be on the lookout for Norn9 and Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ in the coming months.
But where are the comparable games geared towards men? Well, that’s very easy. While it’s not impossible to find them in America (they’re mostly on Steam), it’s difficult because many dating sims culminate in extremely graphic sex. Mysteriously, they’ve never quite caught on in mainstream America.
