Another Code: Recollection review

We’ve been lucky enough to get remakes or reboots of forgotten games and lost gems in recent years, such as Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and Advance Wars 1+ 2: ReBoot Camp, and carrying on the trend this year is Another Code: Recollection. The package contains two fantastic titles in Two Memories and Journey into Lost Memories, and if you never got to play either game when they were originally released, I can’t stress enough how worthy of your time they are.

Now together as one whole experience and a game in two parts, Another Code: Recollection tells the story of Ashley Mizuki Robins and the mystery surrounding her family, specifically her parents, and their involvement in the ANOTHER program. Seeing Ashley grow from a shy and unsure teenager into a strong, confident young woman is inspiring, and through both games I grew to love her. She struggles with so much, and has to go through a fair amount of sorrow to find the light, but she’s so positive and kind that it’s impossible to not to warm to her.

Two Memories is significantly shorter, but it’s still a fantastic tale which sees her exploring a mansion on Blood Edward Island where her long-lost father is said to be. While there, she meets a ghost named D, and as they become close, his story is also revealed. Journey into Lost Memories takes place two years after at a retreat known as Lake Juliet, but I’d rather not give away the reasons for her going as they are closely tied to the first part of Another Code: Recollection. When they both originally released, the style and presentation was much different, but here, they’re both remastered in the same beautiful art style.

The 3D world is is filled with vibrant pastel-like art, and while the visuals aren’t as crisp as a lot of current titles in the same kind of genre, there’s a certain rustic charm to it, harking back to the style that made the titles loved on the Nintendo DS and Wii U. While you’re free to roam about both the mansion and its grounds and Lake Juliet, there’s still a sense of linearity. That claustrophobic feel, more so in the first one, builds the tension, and while they aren’t scary in the slightest, there’s a lot of emotional drama being thrown at you. Bless poor D, whose every recollection of his life gave him instant PTSD, and not to mention every revelation Ashley has throughout the two stories. When a cutscene from the past is revealed, the hand-drawn animation is a welcome deviation from the main moments, designed so precisely and delicately.

Much of what you do in Another Code: Recollection revolves around exploring an area by investigating, and then finding specific items needed to solve a puzzle. I found the camera angles to be a little awkward when moving around smaller spaces as it zooms in and restricts the view somewhat. It could have done with being a little further out to rectify this, but also to allow you to get a better view of the pretty visuals. As for the puzzles, there are some incredible ideas thrown in, most of them layered and requiring multiple parts to solve. These puzzles are what make it so captivating because of how well structured they are.

For example, one had me looking for a picture I needed to hold up to a flame to reveal some hidden ink which would give me the right pattern (as to which a set of scales must balance) to place some coins into a contraption on the fireplace. This drawing gave me the information needed for a set of scales to which I had to balance the different coins on to know their weight distribution, and at the point the scales stabilised, the same image from the picture was highlighted at the top of the scales to show how much it sloped. From this, I then knew what coins to place into the fireplace, revealing a hidden room.

It might sound confusing, and this was one of the more challenging puzzles, however, there’s an option to reveal hints and answers for every puzzle in the two games, which is a fantastic implementation. While most aren’t this complex, sometimes items or objectives aren’t always clear to you, so reading the initial hint will set you on the right path. There’re a lot of puzzles in Another Code: Recollection, and while some range from these layered puzzles, others are as simple as turning a knob or cutting off power.

They’re cleverly designed and constantly made use of the DAS (Dual Another System), your trusty handheld contraption. With the DAS, you can take pictures and layer them on top of each other to reveal clues, find important documents scattered around the environment to reveal background to the story, and more. It’s easy to use, and while it was a useful tool to help progress through these puzzles, it was the logic of some puzzles that got a touch frustrating. I’d find an item that was obviously important to an upcoming puzzle, but I couldn’t pick it up until I had found the puzzle and initiated what was needed to be done. It feels backwards at times, but it wasn’t a consistent issue.

Another Code: Recollection is a beautiful game filled with two stories that are well-written, and the way the characters interact became one of my favourite parts. Conversations will take place either through cutscenes or a visual novel-style interaction, with opportunities to ask about certain key points. It got emotional at times, and you don’t realise how invested you are in Ashley’s story until that gut punch comes and knocks you for six. The music is also stunning, with some of the nicest piano I’ve heard in a game before. The puzzles are complex and more often than not satisfying, and despite some camera angles being awkward, I loved every minute of it.