The DS and Wii consoles achieved enormous success in the mid-2000s, and not only thanks to Nintendo’s multi-year franchises, especially the first ones, a fantastic catalog that covered almost all genres and even some experimental projects, but also because they had a large Audience Attracted A significant portion of the mainstream audience relied on the so-called “Touch! Generations,” a series of games aimed at all audiences that took advantage of both systems’ more intuitive controls for a more casual experience. One of the biggest representatives of this approach was Another Code, which was published on two platforms Two memories for DS in 2005 and with Beyond Memory for Wii in 2009.
The games were developed by the now-defunct Japanese studio CiNGwhich combined two genres: Visual novelsSo Japanese, and that Point-and-click graphics adventure more traditional than what we were used to in the West. The fact that both games (again, especially the first) achieved a huge cult following among gamers and newcomers had less to do with their exciting storylines or elaborate puzzles; To be honest, they were neither one nor the other. The key to success lay in the tone, the art, the strange use of the controls and most of all Ashley Mizuki Robbins.
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With the appropriate title Another Code: Recollection, Nintendo Switch is now also appearing Compilation and remake in HD one of the two parts with which Nintendo tries to satisfy the usual fans and perhaps at the same time arouse some interest among lovers of old-school adventures, something they tried to do not so long ago with Famicom Detective Club with little success.
This means you get much finer, prettier graphics and a consistent experience for both stories, but over time you lose most of the original puzzles or see them significantly altered. This may seem like a disappointment to fans of classics, but when you understand the focus of this release it makes perfect sense. Nintendo Switch is designed to be played on a TV or as a laptop, but it does not have two screens and does not have a microphone, for example. And what about the touch functions? pointer? Well, the gyroscope sensors on set or the controls are occasionally used, but for some reason the developers didn’t want to use them The touchscreen or the ability offered by the hardware to move a cursor around the screen.
Therefore, it mainly uses the buttons and sticks, losing much of the “hardware magic” that the original exuded. And as for the presentation and exploration, those of you who have played the Wii title think it’s very similar to the third-person perspective that that game used indoors, although now everywhere and with free movement the 3D camera can be used.
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The Camera movement This is exactly where one of the main problems lies. Perhaps to make it more accessible, it was left incredibly slow by default. So much so that we recommend that you increase the speed to at least 60 right from the start of the game. And even then it feels a bit clunky… And the same goes for the slightly laggy menus or the game’s performance in general, as well as some really bad textures and geometry that clearly make it feel very small and limited.
On the contrary, the additional script (many lines of unpublished original writing) and that expanded collectiblesbecause they really contribute Tradition in an interesting and even fascinating way (fans don’t expect some twists in this material). And as much as I miss some of it the puzzles For nostalgic reasons (let’s face it, they were very basic anyway), some of the additions are refreshing or positive, and you won’t be carrying your inventory upstairs anymore unnecessary items.
In addition to the Leeenta camera, there are also a few new gamer-focused features worth mentioning: the Browser and that Hints. The first uses a cursor to tell you where to go or what object to examine next, while the second first gives you some advice and then a more obvious solution to the puzzle in question. This is great for Journalists who have already played the originals and want to go faster People who want to approach the genre in a relaxed manner, almost in “film mode”.
Otherwise, the HD graphics highlight the existing art and especially the designs Personalities by Taisuke KanasakiSo if you, as a teenager, fell in love with the pixelated Ashley at the age of 14 and 16, the same or even more can happen to today’s children, because she alone is able to recreate the entire experience since the secondary characters, including the beloved ones D., to note, despite the additional script I mentioned earlier, they lose momentum, be it superficial or not very relevant.
Ironically, this has the same effect as it did all those years ago when comparing both games: the “Two Memories” for six hours. They are much more organized and compact than the triple-length sequel. Their stories are good and ready, and they deal with the typical coming of age themes, side issues like addiction and the arc of light science fiction that surrounds the mystery.
One could see Another Code as a sort of precursor to the style Life is strange popularized a few years ago, with its slow-paced narrative, contemplative perspective, artistic touch, charming teenage protagonist and paranormal twist in the story, but after the 2000s hardware gimmick was removed, not even anymore Voice output added (in English or Japanese, unfortunately you won’t hear Ashley in Spanish) is able to make the game more appealing to today’s audience, as everything is a bit too boring, predictable, rudimentary and Low fi.
As it turns out, I would only recommend this purchase to lovers of the originals out of pure nostalgia Fan service, and even then with a warning. If you’re looking for more complex and compelling anime stories about the mind, you’ve got a great alternative with both AI: The Somnium Files on the same console. That being said, I can’t help but want the saga noir CiNG’s Kyle Hyde (Hotel Dusk and Last Window) also gets the HD treatment on Switch, just with a little more love and polish.
