Another Code: Recollection is a remake of two niche narrative puzzle games, “Another Code: Two Memories” for the Nintendo DS and “Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories” for the Nintendo Wii. It is surprising to hear that Nintendo decided to unearth its backlog and do a total remake of these games. It’s a valiant effort with enhanced visuals, full VO and superb presentation but suffers from antiquated writing and story.

Despite being released 6 years after the Another Code games, Life is Strange is an eerily similar game. It is also a narrative puzzle genre that features a teenage female protagonist. But that’s where the similarities end. Life is Strange has characters who were well realized with interesting backstories and personalities. The story gives the player agency of the main character Max and can decide on her personality, who she would befriend and eventually who she chose to love. Another Code: Recollection by comparison, is linear and hollow. There are no choices, too many cliched one-dimensional characters and no emotional highs or lows.

Another Code: Recollection has players start with “Two Memories” and follows with “A Journey into Lost Memories”. In “Two Memories”, you play as Ashley, a 13 year old orphan who receives a letter from her supposedly deceased father. In addition, she receives a tablet-like device called the DAS (Dual Another System). Ashley is invited to the forebodingly named “Blood Edward island” where she can meet her long lost father. Ashley is accompanied by her aunt Jessica and the two arrive on the island with no one to receive them. Jessica goes missing and Ashley stumbles upon a mansion where she believes Jessica may be lost or kidnapped. Ashley meets a friendly ghost named D and the two pair up to solve puzzles in the mansion, learn about its previous occupants and try to find Ashley’s aunt and dad.

“A Journey Into Lost Memories” takes place 2 years after the first game. You play as Ashley again. This time she is visiting a camp ground near Juliet Lake. Right after she arrives, her bag gets stolen and she learns that the lake was polluted by unknown causes. Ashley also gets strange flashbacks of being at Juliet Lake with her mom when she was a toddler. The game revolves around Ashley investigating the lake and the root cause of her strange flashbacks.

Both games have puzzles to break up the exposition. The puzzles range from finding keys to open locks, logic puzzles and even a few Switch gyroscope challenges. I have not played the original games, but looking at online footage, some of the puzzles have been reworked to be easier than the originals’ puzzles. The puzzles are simple, a bit too simple especially with “A Journey into Lost Memories” being light on puzzle solving and emphasizes more on QTE mini-games. Even if you get stuck on a puzzle, there is a three tiered hint system where the last hint offers the solution. I only found two noteworthy puzzles that made me think out of the box, but otherwise the story is really the main draw of the game.

“Two Memories” has a better story than “A Journey into Lost Memories”. It has a better balance of story and puzzle moments, a more intriguing mystery and features the relationship between Ashley and D. “A Journey into Lost Memories” in the meantime, is aimless. Ashley spends a good half of the game helping random people around the lake, until the actual plot starts. Both stories are serviceable, but bland. There’s no conflict, no romance and no humor. Ashley, while charmingly emotive, doesn’t grow much as a character. She barely faces any adversity and when she does, someone or some magical macguffin rescues her. Ultimately the stories are designed to be as safe and inoffensive as possible.

It’s admirable that Nintendo has gone out of its way to revive the Another Code series with this remastered collection. Unfortunately there isn’t anything that revolutionary about the games. It doesn’t help that comparable games like the aforementioned Life is Strange (and its sequels and spin-offs) completely outclass and outshine Another Code: Recollection. And the Life is Strange games are not stuck on the Nintendo Switch with the egregious pricing to boot. There are other games that Nintendo could have spent effort on remastering, making Another Code Recollection a very strange bet that did not pay off at all.

Side Note:

I am learning Japanese and bought this game to help improve my Japanese. I know VN’s are the perfect games for studying, but I wanted to try a different genre.

With that in mind, this is a killer app. It has Furigana for most in-game texts. Push to continue with dialog history. Full VO. Normal everyday Japanese, simple grammar and no cringe Chūnibyō (weeby) dialog.

There are flaws of course. The in-game notes recorded on the DAS do not have Furigana. There are complicated rare Kanji to describe scientific and technical nouns. And there are lesser side-characters with regional accents.

This is a review for the demo on the Nintendo Switch.

You are a 13 year old girl who receives a letter from her dead father (who apparently wasn't dead at all), and tells you to find him on a once habited island. Once you get there with your aunt, you split up for no reason, and you aunt disappears.

This is the premise of the game/demo. Go and find your aunt and dad. Along the way you have to solve some puzzles while finding clues on your surroundings. A friend will help you out eventually.

This is more like a point and click game where you can walk around, combined with a visual novel. The game looks pretty, the voice acting is decent, and the dialogue is...ok. But it is very boring. I fell asleep a couple of times trying to finish this demo.

For once, the plot does not appeal to me. It doesn't have enough mystery to make it interesting. It is very slow, which is made worse by the clunky movement of the character and sometimes hard to get to places. For example, you can't walk through plants... and there was something I needed to get on the other side, and I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find a path to get there. The pacing of the game was broken multiple times during the demo.

I didn't care enough for it in order to play the whole thing.